Jens Povlsen is a colleague of mine with a history of GMing fairly trad games in Denmark. He recently tried a game of Dirty Secrets with me and Per Fischer. This wasn't entirely satisfying, so I thought Contenders would be wroth a try. Our group was me, Jens and Joe Prince. We'd hoped to bring a complete newbie along, but couldn't get him in time.

As this is Joe's game, I thought I'd coordinate instead to show Joe what I understood of the system and how a non-him plays and describes the game. The only rules change was that characters started with 2 extra points of traits, to differentiate them from each other a little more. I don't really know if this made much of a difference, to be honest.

As usual, we first picked a setting. I suggested 70s Vegas was underused, but left the choice to Jens. He picked a boarding school, and we settled on Yorkshire, just before the Great War. The sort of school where boys became men, and subjects tended towards the practical - like pugilism. Lots of opportunities for school bullies, Tom Brown's Schooldays, the end of the Raj and stiff-upper lip Edwardians.

As usual, a great deal evolved in play. I wasn't sure what role my PC should take, and so played through that - Gerald was rootless, with family back in India. He tried being a bully at first, then a tuck-shop liberating vigilante, but a Connection scene inspired him to try boxing to take his mind off things. Thus, my character didn't begin as a boxer.

Jen's character, Peter was a bully through-and-through. His opening Work was running a protection racket. He hired a boy to beat up a rich new kid, then stepped in and took the new kid under his wing. (I thoroughly enjoyed playing the toff). Peter knew how to use his fists from the get-go.

And JoeP's character was Porker, a fat kid mostly outside the tribal structure of the school. Inspired, perhaps, by a Connection (a girl in a nearby school), his first scene was Training (running up and down stairs). His promotion scene was an uneasy, double-entendre laden conversation with the gym teacher, Mr Eddison. Who, naturally, was a sadist.

We had two fights. The first was a boxing class with a little dirty fighting. Porker had been bribed to fight by Mr Eddison (because we needed an explanation for the purse), almost for Eddison's pleasure. Ick. Peter won, but a later scene implied Porker had at least gained the respect of others.

Trying to impress his family during a rugby game, Peter failed his draw. Two supposedly bribed kids shoved him to the ground, sneering "that was for Porker". The mechanics in Contenders are inarguable, but narration rights are still immensely powerful. And this was a cool example of a Connection scene without any conversation with the connection.

The second fight was between a newly-motivated Gerald and Porker. It started as a friendly, but Gerald took a couple of hits and resorted to street style - kicking the shins of the other kid. Porker didn't win every round, but JoeP won every narration, so instead of the usual to-and-fro, we had a single narrator.

Some other color elements were fun. Cash became Chocolate in play (and favors and cribbing homework). My characters connection took the form of letters and telegrams. We didn't spend much time describing the school or classes, but the isolation of the location was interesting. And the cliques and gangs were thoroughly unappealing.

Joe.