Boy meets girl, girl leaves boy, boy gains super powers

By reading Just For One Day, I've now actually finished the first tape in the Indie Megamix Mixtape. Which means that I still have two more to read :D

Of course, when I first started reading through the micro RPGs in the collection (about a year ago... really?), I knew that I was going to take my time and try not to binge on them. If I did that, I would end up getting burnt out quickly and I wouldn't be able to judge each game on its own merits.

(One thing that has happened as I've read them is that I've gotten more aware and interested on the actual songs that inspired the games. I wonder would it would be like to actually make a mixtape of the songs. And I wonder if they would be good to have around for emergency games of Ribbon Drive. Kind of defeats the purpose of that game, I know, but it's still tempting)

Just For One Day is a game for three players. Two of them play a couple (romantic or otherwise, although the structure really seems to be geared towards romantic) while the third player plays the world.

The mechanics center around seven cards that you make at the start of the game, each one having some kind of trait that either helps or should help hold the relationship together. As the game goes on, they may get reversed but every scene will be tied to them.

The game has three stages, using the deck each time. The first stage is establishing the relationship. The second is having the relationship fall apart. Then, the character who was left gains super powers and develops a neurotic Superman-Lois Lane relationship with the other player.

Okay. Which of those stages is at least a little bit surprising?

Really, by the standards of RPGs, a romantic drama getting hijacked by super powers isn't that weird. I mean, the game before this one is about undead Mesopotamian kings playing rock music. By that yardstick, Just For One Day doesn't even register.

Still, the theme of Just for One Day is the most interesting part for me. For one thing, I like superheroes. For another thing, I like that you build up to it, developing and destroying the relationship before super powers come in. Although the mechanic of returning to the same concepts in every stage has potential.

While I'd rather play Breaking The Ice, I will give Just For One Day credit for examining how a relationship falls apart.