It was very interesting writing a game for the first time, and several excellent ideas came out of the post game discussion. I have to say that I agree that keeping the game 'character sheet light' while giving the players more guidance is an excellent aim, and adopting some of the mechanism for doing so from Blackpool feels like an excellent idea. I like a game where I get to build the character rather than being given screeds of stuff to read through, and certainly for a short game, this feels like the right way forward. If we ever develop it into a full weekend long game, obviously a great deal more characterization and a lot more background will need to be given, but in a 3-4 hour game, adding a few more players, some more tasks, and a mechanism for them to develop their own characters quickly, we could have a great deal of fun. And one of the first things I want to do in that direction is feed the rumours in one at a time rather than dish them all out in the packs, and get the letters delivered during play rather than at the start.
Tym and I have already discussed several ways of adding characters, and the three three of us writers already have a modular element in the wings that will make an 'expansion pack' easy for larger groups. We already have plans for the re-write, so anything you can add to that from the notes you took in the debrief will be very welcome, Steve.
As a player, I didn't find the lack of characterization difficult, but that may have as much to do with my personal preferences (I love the way I get to build my character for PD's Empire, for example, where I get to choose a nation, then a job, and then a specialty within that job, and then get to do things because of that job and that nation, and because of which group I join within my nation and within my speciality: I get both to write the history of the character and then build them a career path, but it does take years!) and partly from having helped to write it so I knew where we were going with it. Being allowed to have some input on my character's preferences, loyalties, history and personality is a Good Thing for me. I know it doesn't suit everyone, but that's why we develop different games with different philosophies.
And Blackpool was a blast!