The Price Recap: Ingresses

Originally published August 2, 2013

So my players and I have finally begun playing The Price, a Changeling: the Lost game using rules from World of Darkness: Innocents and the new God Machine Chronicle (GMC) rules update. A full index can be found here. This has been exciting because many of the rules are new to all of us to varying degrees. Since GMC has just recently come out I decided it might be nice to show how they work out in play and to also show how I'm adapting Changeling to the new rules.

So I intend to post part of the log for each session here on the NOOP along with comments about the mechanics and how they felt in play. The comments will be indented and in blue like so:

This is a comment.

So without further ado we begin:

Ingresses

It is the last Monday before winter break in December 1995. Patches of ice cover the playground where the snow wasn't scraped off. Bands of 4th and 7th graders move about in knots and circles, trying to enjoy the bright cold air and looking longingly at the snow beyond the rusty chain link fence.

Miroslav Callaghan, Mir to his few friends, hangs out by the fence away from the other children, his black trench coat and gothic get-up dissuading most people from approaching him. But a taller kid in black however pops up next to him and asks him if he's heard about the new Hellraiser movie coming out in the spring. Mir says hi to Eric and asks the 8th grader why he is out here. Eric admits to skipping his English class because it is boring. Mir thinks English is the only class that isn't boring. This discuss the movie, wondering what might happen. Eric offers to help him get into the theater when it comes out.

Miroslav is one of our PCs. A 13-year-old Goth kid with a surprising knowledge of the supernatural, he is half Russian Romani and half Irish. Hence the name.

Across the playground, Mir's sister Nicole is chatting with her friend Maeve. Nicole, Nikki to her friends, and Maeve are planning how to deal with their final art project. Nikki alternates between talking excitedly about the art project and glancing outside the playground to see if Mr. Skittles, her dog, has followed her to school again. Maeve, meanwhile, brings up the idea of getting another classmate, Raven, to help them with the art project. Nikki agrees and the blond and red-haired girls go to find Raven. Maeve easily convinces her to help with her manipulative words.

Nikki is the PC here. A 10-year-old girl with surprisingly sticky fingers, she wants to be an artist. Maeve going to Raven first is just helping to point out that nobody considers Nikki an artist.

Elsewhere on the playground, Marco McQueen listens to his friend Chris talk about the video games he hopes to get for Christmas. His other friend Ryan occupies himself by fussing over Rocco, Marco's younger invalid brother. The blond-haired teen smile vanishes when he sees Eric and Mir talking across the playground. Chris asks Marco what he thinks those sissy's are talking about. Marco isn't sure but follows Chris over there to help harass the social outcasts.

Meanwhile his younger brother, Rocco, is left behind with Ryan. Rocco points out that his brother is about to do something stupid. Before Ryan can chase after Marco and Chris, Rocco convinces him that he better get a teacher instead. Eric has a reputation for being dangerous.

Marco and Rocco are our final two PCs. 13 and 10 years old respectively, the two have a rough home life. Their mom left them and was somewhat responsible for Rocco's injury.

Marco is a bit of bully as are his friends. But he is also an outcast in his own family. See Marco is half Irish and half Italian. And his Italian family is part of the Detroit Mob. He wants respect but is hampered by old prejudices.

Rocco on the other hand is a computer genius trapped in a wheelchair. I've used the Condition: Disabled to model his disability. He has an electric wheelchair so his movement is 3. Moving over ice is kind of hard so rather than directly intervene he manipulated Ryan (Manipulation + Persuasion) into solving the problem.

While Ryan races for the nearest teacher, Chris is already in Mir's face. He mocks the Goth's appearance. When Mir tries to back away from him, Chris gives him a shove. That is when Eric punches him in the face.

This is our first bit of bullying. The rules for this come from Innocents which is generally an extended Presence + Intimidation vs. Resolve + Composure with each roll representing a day of bullying. In this case, Mir loses out which means Chris gains a Willpower dot. He will need it.

Before Chris or anyone else can react, Eric is on top of him punching and kicking him savagely. As his friend tries to shield himself, Marco comes at Eric from the side and punches him in the face. Chris hurls himself at Eric but only feebly grabs at him. Mir looks around and finds a stout stick while the two bullies attack his friend.

So before anyone else goes Eric, who won initiative, has dealt 3 bashing to Chris. Our Initiative order is Eric, Marco, Chris, and Mir.

Now this isn't a fight to the death so the Beaten Down rules apply. Since Chris has taken more levels of Bashing damage than he has Stamina, he is now Beaten Down. He will need to spend Willpower to continue to attack. He also has the option to surrender and regain a Willpower point.

Marco then attacks Eric who has 4 defense. Defense is now the lesser of Dexterity and Wits plus any dots in Athletics. In retrospect I think I made their defenses and dice pools too high. In any case I remind Marco he can go All-Out, losing his Defense in exchange for 2 more dice. He does and hits Eric for 1 Bashing.

Chris then spends a Willpower to attack rather than lose to a sissy Goth. He fails to roll any successes. Mir, who has no Brawl, gets a Weapon.

Eric knocks Chris to the ground and kicks him on the cold icy concrete. As he turns to face Marco, his nose encounters the Irish-Italian kid's fist. As Eric bounces against the chain-link fence. Mir breaks his stick across Marco’s back. As the teachers push through the rough circle of children, they find Marco and Chris on the ground with Mir holding a stump over them.

Eric strikes Chris again going All-Out to deal another Bashing. Chris is out of the fight at this point. I'm following the advice of GMC here. Chris and Eric only have 1 Willpower to spend which they both have already. Eric spent his on the first real round of combat. So Chris has to give up the fight.

Marco meanwhile goes All-Out as well which since Eric has no Defense, makes it easy to drive him into Beaten Down territory.

Then Mir swings his makeshift club. I treat it as a baton with a -1 penalty due to it being poorly balanced. Mir gets a single success on his Strength + Weaponry roll. The club's base damage of 1 Lethal is added to that. So Marco takes 2 Lethal. Ouch. Even a single Lethal would give the Beaten Down status.

All four of them are taken away. As the bullies are patched up in the nurses office, Chris fumes about getting revenge. While Eric holds a bloody tissue to his nose, Mir is chewed out by the principle. The others get the same in time. They are all suspended and their parents are called. Chris gets it the worst as his step father lights into him. Eric's father seems not to care at all. Mir has to wait a while for his mother to pick him up. She tells Mir he has to think before he acts. He will have to help her at the shop while he is suspended. Mr. McQueen shows up well after school ends and drives his sons home in a quiet fury.

That night as their mother makes dinner in their cramped two bedroom apartment, Nikki confides to Mir that Jennifer, the other Goth teen in 7th grade, said the fight looked pretty cool.

The Callaghan's apartment is filled with knickknacks and items of dubious mystical purpose. A bead curtain divides the kitchen from the living room, while several dream-catchers hang from the ceiling. The kid's room is a bit more normal with a bookshelf dividing the room. Nikki's art covers one side while the other is filled with books on the occult. Miroslav's section also has movie posters and a small glass case for his pet spider. Sometimes he threatens to feed Mr. Skittles to it. Especially if he gets dog hair on his clothes.

I had the group describe their apartments. All of them live in the same old Victorian mansion that has been converted into apartments. It should be noted that both Nikki and Mir have the Pet Merit which allows them to gain bonuses to Integrity rolls if they play with their pets. Mir's is a 1 dot pet while Nikki's is a 2 dot pet which means it also counts as a Retainer (I've reduced the cost by 1 dot to reflect the limited usefulness). Mir also has the Library merit which is why he has so many books.

The McQueen's is simpler and messier. With Mr. McQueen working most of the day, Marco has to handle cleaning up. Stray clothes and dusty hang out in the corners of the room. The brothers' room is a utilitarian reflection. A bed, a desk, and tool set on each side. The lower bed frame and patchwork computer shows which is Rocco's side.

After a couple of days after the suspension, Marco and his brother return home to find their Uncle Angelo there. The dark-haired man greets them from his chair. He switches his cigarette to his left hand and digs out an envelope. He tells them their mom says hi and she hopes to see them for Christmas. She also had something for Marco. He hands the kid an envelope with twenty dollars in it. As Rocco wheels himself over to his desk to work on his art project, Uncle Angelo asks Marco to do him a favor. He needs him to run down to the drugstore and get something from Mr. Samuelson.

Uncle Angelo is made man in the Detroit Mob. Marco is doing Mob work.

Marco runs off while Rocco works on the art project. The work is frustratingly slow. The 4th grader eventually decides to make something on his computer instead. He prints it up and works out a good argument for it to work.

The idea here was to give everyone some schoolwork. I based this on a rule from Innocents. It was an extended Wits + Expression roll. This was not Rocco's best roll. In the end I let him do a Social roll to convince the teacher. Manipulation is something he is good at.

After a ten minute walk, Marco reaches the drug store. He found the old pharmacist behind the counter and tells him he is hear from Uncle Angelo. Mr. Samuelson gives him a look he can't decipher and roughly hands him a brown bag. Marco gets home. He glances inside half way back though. The bag is full of money. Marco knows better than to steal from the Mob however.

Back at the apartments, Mir is studying for his final when Maeve comes over. She and Nikki plan to go over to Raven's. Mir however doesn't trust this smiling 10-year-old. He decides an 'adult' is needed to accompanies them to Raven's. Marco spots them as they go but decides against doing anything.

Nikki leads them through a short cut through an empty lot. They soon reach a decaying apartment building. Graffiti decorates the wall to the right of the doorway and door itself is propped own with a rock. The go inside and up to the second floor. Maeve knocks on a door and a bored looking 16-year-old African-American woman looks down at them. She calls back to her sister Raven, telling her that her weird friends are here. The teenager then walks away leaving the door open.

Raven seems happy to see them and they discuss the art project. Raven is doing watercolors and they decide to join her. Maeve soon manipulates the young artist into doing her project for her. Nikki however works on her own and rapidly creates a beautiful painting of Mr. Skittles. She interrupts Mir's studying to shows it to him. It impresses him greatly and he gains a new respect for his sister. A short while later, they decided to head home.

So Mir is studying using the rules from Innocents. This is an extended Intelligence + Study roll (Innocents has no Academics or Science) with each roll tasking 15 minutes. 5 successes are enough for a B. Mir gets 6 successes after 45 minutes (3 rolls). Nikki however gets an exceptional success on her Wits + Expression roll. She decides to impose an Impressed Condition on Mir, which we decide will work like Leveraged for requests related to crafting or art.

On the way back, Nikki asks if they can stop at the store. Mir agrees and they discuss what they are getting mom for Christmas. Mir plans to make her a Norwegian Kitchen Witch. Nikki offers to help make it which Mir reluctantly agrees to. At the store, Nikki cruises the candy aisle. She leaves with a "borrowed" bag of Skittles.

Beat time. Nikki fulfills an Aspiration: Borrow Some Skittles and gains a Beat. I was a little dubious about this but she is 10 years old and has no allowance so buying candy is hard. On the other hand she has the Sleight of Hand merit which means if she is not actively watched she gets away it. Mir also gets a Beat from resolving his Impressed Condition.

We are using group Beats so I tally them up for later averaging.

As they reach their apartment they see a homeless man. Mir recognizes him from the past few months. The gray-haired man sometimes rants at the sky and once threatened to call fire down on some kids. Mir decides to chat with him and learn his name. The man puts down a soggy newspaper when he approaches. After short disjointed conversation, the man claims Mir wants to know his name to curse him. He claims Mir knows magic and that Nikki is a thief. The man seems somewhat confused about where he is. he claims they thought he was crazy but that he did it. But suddenly he begins to doubt himself and asks if the oceans had swallowed up people in India yet. Ultimately he runs away leaving the newspaper in an icy puddle. Mir wonders if he is a time traveler. He decides to read up on it.

Ah, my crazy homeless person from the future. Mir does get to use his merit Eye of the Strange here to learn that there is something supernatural going on. Exactly what is unclear but it involves time travel.

Elsewhere, Marco tries to put his mind to studying but it seems hopeless. After 45 minutes of work, he has nothing to show for it even with Rocco's help. Then his father comes home to find Uncle Angelo there. Mr. McQueen is furious and a loud argument ensues. The children try to stay out the way until the adults move out into the hallway. A few minutes later their father returns. He storms off to his room and angrily slams the door. After dinner however Marco manages to get some studying done.

Marco has no Study which means even with a bonus from school books, he is rolling a Chance die. Using the Internet gets him two more dice but even so it isn't until 6 rolls that he gets any successes. In the end he decides to stop at 3 successes. Enough to pass so he doesn't have to cheat.

The next day Mir decides to avoid Marco and his gang. He tires to feign illness but his mother kicks him out. He starts to walk to school, risking being late. His sister calls after him but he ignores her. By the time he gets to school he is tired and cold but safe. He does well on the test getting an A while Marco manages a solid C. Rocco convinces the teacher to give him an A for his art project. Raven and Maeve also earn A's. Nikki however gets a B. Saddened she didn't get her artwork behind Mrs. Conner's desk, she becomes somewhat depressed.

Mir put in some extra work studying in the evening and managed to get 10 successes in total, enough for an A. Nikki's B is story related. She will be making a dire choice soon and needs some motivation.

School ends and Christmas comes. For the Callaghans it is less happy than it could be. Their mother likes Mir and Nikki's gift but their father is unable to come home. He calls and promises to stop by for New Year's Eve. They spend the holiday with their father's family. Mir's cousin Frank calls him a Gypsy but the Goth kid takes it calmly and corrects him.

Nikki gets a Beat however for Getting Mom a pretty Christmas gift.

The McQueen also have a subdued Christmas. Their father takes them to the their mother's family, the Zerillis. They are forced to listen to their grandmother's racist comments. Worse, their mother doesn't show up and Marco forced to sit at the kid's table. When their cousins join in on the mocking, Rocco subtly turns the insults back on them, making them think their grandmother is also insulting them.

Mr. McQueen soon takes his sons home. Frustrated, Marco notices a young black kid named Everett playing with a shiny new bicycle out front of their house. He decides to indulge in his bullying tendencies. The kid doesn't to be afraid of him initially, probably because of pounding he took in the fight the week before. Marco is sure to disabuse him of that. He shakes Everette down and takes the 10 dollars he has on him.

Our second bullying action. Marco is pretty scary especially to a 10-year-old. He easily overwhelms the kid and regains a Willpower. Too bad for Everette. I kind of wish I hadn't written such a sad back story for him.

The next few days are dark and cold as a storm blows in from the lakes. By the third day the children were all going a bit stir crazy. Then the power went out. Rocco bereft of his computer asks Marco to help him down to the basement to fix the circuit breaker. He carries the small cripple downstairs to the parlor where the Vaughn twins, Maureen and Kathleen are hanging out. He leaves his brother on a bench and goes back for his wheelchair.

Rocco gets a Beat here for Disabled. Normally Rocco gets up and down using the elevator but with the power out he needs help.

Rocco talks to the twins and learns the power is out not just in the building but for the whole neighborhood. As they discuss the situation, Nikki pokes her head out the door to listen. She suggests they all gather in the Callaghan's apartment and tell ghost stories to pass the time. The twins and Rocco agree and by the time Marco gets back they have moved into the room. Resigned Marco joins them. Mir warily sits on the other side of the candle lit room.

The next bit uses the Innocents play rules which are modeled on the Meditation rules of the normal (adult) World of Darkness. Basically you play making a Wits + Composure roll every half hour until you reach 4 successes. Once achieved it gives a +1 bonus to the next Integrity roll (or until they rest). For this case play consists of telling scary stories.

Rocco tells a terrifying tale about a pair of twins and a talking doll. Maureen and Kathleen screech in terror. Marco tells a chilling tale about a serial killer in the basement. He also enjoys seeing that everyone else seems more effected by the stories than himself and regains some lost confidence. Nikki tells a story about a brave girl and her dog facing a horrible evil. Mir on his turn tells a story about a ghost in the apartment.

Everyone succeeded in two rolls. Marco and Rocco both scored an exceptional success and are able to impose Conditions. Rocco chooses to impose the Shaken Condition on the twins. Normally I'd only allow that on one character but since the twins function like a unit I figure it works. Marco chooses to get some confidence. After some discussion we go with Steadfast. Also everyone gets a Beat.

Finally the twins tell their story alternately the tale between them:

We heard this story from Mrs. Adams before she moved away two years ago. She says she heard it from the old manager of the apartments. It is about the ghost that haunts the house. The ghost of Old Man Reichardt.

Reichardt was an old old man. He had a long white beard and could only get around with a cane. Even then not very well. That’s why he put in the elevator, so he could get up and down easy. They say he made his fortune as a captain and that he sailed all the way to the South Pacific. He used his money to build this house for his family. But his wife and child died while he was away on a long voyage. So he lived here all alone. Mrs. Adams said he would wander his big empty house all alone. Clomp, Clomp, his cane would make on the hard wood floors.

Old Man Reichardt was a very strange man. He kept a lot of strange bottles on a table in the parlor room. Each had a small piece of lead inside hanging from a string. Mrs. Adams said he would talk to these bottles, giving them names like Jack, Scar- Face, Long Tom, Spanish Joe, Peters, and Mate Ellis. She said that when he spoke to a bottle the little piece of lead would vibrate like it was answering him. He would spend his days walking from one to another. Clomp, clomp with his cane.

Mrs. Adams said Old Man Reichardt was very rich but he didn't believe in banks. He kept his money in a hidden safe in the basement. That’s why the elevator goes down there. Well a bunch of thieves decided to get Old Man Reichardt’s money. They planned to bluff their way into his house and force him to tell them how to get into the safe.

There were three thieves: Ricci, Zanak, and Silva. Mr. Zanak stayed in the car by the back of the house while the other two went to the front door. Ricci and Silva were very scary thieves. They knew how to make someone talk and keep people from screaming. Cautiously they creeped up the front path and looked in the parlor window. Old Man Reichardt was talking to his bottles. Then they put on masks and knocked at the door. As they waited they could hear the clomp, clomp of his cane as he made his way to the door.

Meanwhile Zanak was waiting a very long time. As he fidgeted in the car, he kept looking toward Old Man Reichardt’s house. It was dark and none of the street lights worked. He couldn't see the backyard because of a tall wooden fence. Occasionally he heard a scream from the house and was upset that Ricci and Silva had to hurt the old man. Even though he did want the old man’s money. He had told them to be as gentle as possible with the old man. Which is why they had him take care of the car.

He checked his watch and an hour had passed. He thought did the old man die before telling them where the money was? He really did not like waiting so long in the dark. Then he heard some noise from the walkway around the back of the house. He heard them open the rusty latch of the gate and saw the door swing inward. As he looked to see what his friends had brought he saw only Old Man Reichardt leaning quietly on his cane and smiling hideously.

The next day the police found Zanak’s empty car on the street. When they went to Old Man Reichardt’s house to ask what he knew about it, he wasn’t there. But Ricci, Zanak, and Silva’s bodies were there, beaten and sliced up like they were attacked by a wild animal. No one saw Old Man Reichardt after that or his money. They say he never died. Sometimes you can hear him walking around at night, his cane going clomp, clomp.

At that point a loud bang noise could be heard from the basement. Spooked but intrigued the children decided to investigate. So Marco carried his brother downstairs while the others followed. Mir helped by dragging down the wheelchair.

I occasionally go a bit overboard with preparations for a game. So I adapted a short story, specifically The Terrible Old Man by H.P. Lovecraft. I simplified it for a child's language and inserted bits specific to the Reichardt Apartments where the children live. The initial germ of the idea came from my great great great grandfather Rudolph Reichardt for whom I have yet to find a death certificate.

Marco takes the lead, following the knocking to a storage room. It sounds less like a cane and more like a door blowing in the wind. In fact there is a gentle breeze downstairs with the smell of dirt and flowers. The twins can't take the darkness lit only by a couple of flashlights and flee back upstairs. Nikki meanwhile remembers following a strange tall man to the storage room once. He never came out. He was muttering something to himself as he descended like he was telling himself a story.

Nikki has a habit of following people. And yes this Hedge gateway is keyed. Finally by exploring the basement she satisfies another Aspiration and gain a Beat.

Marco takes a flashlight and shines the light inside. The knocking stops and the only thing he sees is a wooden cabinet with a long mirror going almost all the way to the ground. Marco goes inside and opens the cabinet. As he expected there is nothing inside. But as he closes it Nikki points to the mirror.

In the mirror they can see a long tunnel lit by strange blue lanterns. Marco presses his hand to the glass and it passes right through. Mir does the same. Nikki decides to throw some of Skittles through the mirror. They skitter across the stone surface of the tunnel. Then Mr. Skittles bounds past Marco and Mir and into the tunnel. Nikki chases after it and the teens follow. Left on his own, Rocco manages to get over the gap and joins them.

In the Hedge.

Entering the Hedge (and possibly the gateway itself) would normally be an Integrity roll but I wanted to hold off on that. Plus it was the end of the session.

For the final experience tally we had 1 Beat for impressed Mir, 3 for Aspiration happy Nikki, and 1 for crippled Rocco. Plus 1 Beat for the session, 1 Beat for the storytelling, and a final Beat for various fun things that came up in-game that I neglected at the time. We decided to do group beats so I tally the individual Beats and average: (1+3+1+0)/4=5/4, rounded up to 2. That's 2 Beats + 3 Beats for 1 Experience.

I was a bit generous but I think it was fairly fair. As the players get more adept and we have good opportunities for Dramatic Failures I think we might even this out.