Sunday, August 31, 2014

To Boldly Go: Lessons of Fate


A month ago, I began my first Fate game in my setting To Boldly Go. More on that setting can be found here. Since then I've learned a lot about the system, how not to do things, and what things work well.
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Adventure Design

I've found that Fate really excels in plotting and setting up scenarios. The advice in the core book focuses building plots from the problems created by the characters' Aspects. I find pretty enjoyable brainstorming up these combinations of troubles to threaten and inconvenience the characters.

Here are some examples from my first adventure:

Because Steve Walmart is a Mid-Level Suit and Samsung is an issue, it implies that both of them may be looking to establish business relations with the same groups of people. Therefore, finding out that the oligarchs of the Hub, who Steve is negotiating a trade treaty with, are breaching their contract with Samsung would be a big problem for him.

Since Max Petrobras has What does this button do? and Rochelle Total has Come on, It’ll be Fun, it implies that the two of them might experience local technological fads together. So a bad batch of Sentient Snacks, part of the latest craze, going homicidal would probably be a big problem for them.

Since Rochelle has Well Traveled Bodyguard and Steve has “I had no idea she was your wife!" is makes sense that she has to watch out for his dalliances. So a seductive agent of Samsung hired to keep Steve out of the action for the trade talks would be a big problem for them.

This scheme of "because you have aspect X, that implies Y. Thus Z is a problem." is a surprisingly simple but effective tool for brainstorming. It nicely draws on the subplots of the players (via their Aspects) and flows naturally into connecting them into the larger narrative.

The other great idea is using questions as prompts for scenes. While not quite as useful for brainstorming to me, I did find it fairly interesting and a nice tool for working out branch points in the story as a whole.

A few sample questions from my initial session include:
  • Do Max and Rho bring samples of the Sentient Snacks back to the ship?
  • Does Steve avoid being captured by Samsung’s agent?
  • Does Steve manage to arrange a treaty between the Hub and the Federation?

Creating Obstacles

I've found creating opponents in Fate to be particularly easy. I think that since Aspects both describe the character both conceptually and in terms of their abilities, it greatly shortens the design process for me. For me, it naturally flows from coming up the character concept to building the Aspects for the character. I also like the upfront division between nameless characters (who need minimal stats and background), minor characters (who have a bit more mechanics and some background) and major characters (who are built much like the player characters.

For my initial adventure I had a few characters to make (I'll be presenting many of these in the weeks ahead):
Sentient Snacks (nameless characters): these are the main physical threat of the game, small edible enemies.
Oligarchs (minor characters): the primary role for these characters was as plotters and negotiators. So after establishing their Aspects it was simply a matter of prioritizing their social skills.
Samsung (major character): CEO of a rogue company making biological android (bioroids), Samsung is a major threat for the game and has higher skills and more Aspects than the other characters.
Ju Li (minor character): bioriod agent who poisons Steve and later tussles with Rho.

One issue I had with the opponents in play was with referencing them in game. This was due to how I keep my game notes on my notes on Obsidian Portal via my iPad. Switching tabs however takes a few seconds which is frustratingly long for the speed of play we were involved with. In future I'll be including an abbreviated version of the character in my main game notes (including important information such as the number of Consequences they can take). For example for Sentient Snacks I've found this to be a good format:

Sentient Snacks
  • Description: 8 inch high humanoids, taste like syrupy meat, tell bad jokes
  • Aspect: Tiny Edible Robots
  • Skills: Computer +2, Combat Training +1, Provoke +1
  • Stress: 0

Gameplay

The actual playing of the game has been a mixed experience. Mostly it is a matter of becoming familiar with a new system. I've been slowly learning to balance the difficulty of obstacles to the characters, starting from a low base and increasing it as I go. This has kept the characters from being swamped but hasn't encouraged to them to use Create an Advantage very much. That in turn tends to make most fights either too easy (and boring) or too hard (because the players have yet to fully grasp how they can stack Aspects to achieve high levels of success). I think I need have my non-player characters use Create an Advantage more (thus leading by example).

I've also had some difficulty remembering to target the characters' main skills. I hope to rectify this by keeping a full skill list for the player characters, focusing the challenges on the characters' best skills.

Additionally I've had some complaints that rolls can be very random, something I'm not sure quite what to do about. Part of it I think might be that the characters are not using Creating an Advantage very often, instead using Overcome repeatedly (which often for major scenes have a difficulty set around their skill level). That tends to creates a roughly 50/50 success rate which might be the source of the feeling of arbitrariness.

A definite failure on my part has been forgetting to apply Milestones at the start of a session. I also haven't done the best at calling out Aspects on non-player characters and locations. Part of it is that I use a white board for drawing maps and labeling Aspects, but most of my players are sitting opposite me. So it slows the game down to turn the board around and write the Aspect in large print (another failing of mine). I did see a nice technique of using post-it notes for temporary Aspects and Boosts. That would let me write the note quickly (facing me) and then toss it where it needs to be.

Another weakness of mine has been in defining the beginning and ends of scenes. My players tend to go off on their own tangents and it makes it difficult to determine where a scene begins or ends. One game had no real pauses and so ended up being one scene. I think I should broken it up somehow but then that would have allowed the problems they were facing to recover Stress, thus making the session more difficult.

Social combat is something the group excels at and something I'm going to need to learn to work with. Not sure yet how I will handle that. Perhaps using mental stress damage to measure success in negotiations.

Going forward, I'll be using a personalized Reference Sheet, highlighting those aspects of the game I'm weakest in. A copy can be found here.

Not Fate Related

The last item I've learned involves my use of ambient music. The first session I used drone zone but the flow of the game wasn't what I wanted. It lacked energy. The second session I used a custom playlist with variety of ambient music of varied tempos (including some nice dramatic music). The players remarked afterwards that the music really helped that game session. So something is going right.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

To Boldly Go: The Hub


GURPS Handbook of the Planets Inputs: Personal user number 119; System number 921
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The first system that the UFV Columbia visited on her maiden voyage beyond the limits of the Federation, the Hub sits at the crossroads of local space. Blessed with a unique configuration of spacial topography, it contains four jump points to other systems funneling trade though its section of space.

In one direction a route is open to the Space Gypsies who live on the edge of Federation space, trading the rebuilt riches of Earth for cutting edge technology. Opposite that jump point is access to the world of the Ascension, a technognostic civilization of cyborgs who are terraforming several planets. This they get from the bioengineers of Midnight, known as Mythweavers, for their habit of creating the mythological beasts of old earth in their gene labs. Opposite that jump point lies access to New Beijing, made up of clones of 23rd century billionaire Henry Wu.

All of this trade passes through this system and the Hub gets a cut.

Hub System

The system of the Hub is not terribly interesting itself. Dominated by five gas giants and five small rocky worlds, there isn't a lot here for miners or settlers. The main star, a large red dwarf, is too dim to make solar energy production particularly lucrative. Some small hydrocarbon oceans have attracted some prospectors but generally most action on the planets is limited to small installations: a dozen people and ten times that number of dumb robots.

Hub Station

The main action for the system, is the Hub Station. The Hub resembles a bramble of interconnected space stations, decommissioned ships, and recycled industrial materials. An intricate network of cylinders, cubes, and spheres make up most of the flimsy structure with one end dominated by an incomplete 700 meter sphere.

The sphere contains a primitive artificial gravity generator which supplies a local down for most of the station. Ships dock at the sphere where down points towards the center of the sphere. Gravity varies within the station from 0.6 G near the center of the sphere to 1/100 G at the outer most edge of the bramble.

Inside the patchwork nature of the station continues. Sections of the station use different computer interfaces, variant atmospheric compositions, and different access protocols. Sections constructed Space Gyspies, a half dozen colonies, and even some old Terran craft make up the jumble of corridors and habitats.

Meanwhile the newer, incomplete, sphere shines a pristine white. Here the leaders and administrators of the Hub live and work.

Politics

The Hub was until recently run by a trio of oligarchs who controlled trade and access to the station.

These include the elderly Taiko Reynolds, grandson of one of the first Space Gypsies to settle in this region of space. His control of the Reynolds clan gives him a wide reach and control over two of the major trading routes. The second oligarch is Casy, also known as C.A.S. or the Central Administration System. An A.I. its power over the station along guarantees its power base.

The third oligarch, Aesir, was ousted after a failed attempt to murder the Reynolds and frame Casy. Zhe was an exile from Midnight, using zher contacts there to trade valuable information on genetic manipulation and terraforming between Midnight and the Ascension.

Aspects:
  • Modular Hodge Podge
  • The Hub Gets a Cut
  • Under Federation Protection
System Details:
  • Hub: a M0V class star 7.1 billion years old. It is about 10% as bright as Sol.
  • Hub II: a small mining colony works on the dark side of this rock providing raw materials for the Hub's expansion.
  • Hub III: this small planet is tidally locked to its star. With a surface gravity 40% that of Earth's and a marginally warm surface, it serves as a stable base for a vast array of solar panels. These serve as a secondary energy production facility for the Hub.
  • Hub IV: the inner most gas giant, this world is orbited by The Hub, the cobbled together trading port that manages trade through this region.
Hub1 Hub2

Friday, August 29, 2014

The Price Recap: Broken Promises

The Price
This week we see the characters return home in my Changeling: the Lost Chronicle The Price. A full index of the series can be found here. The characters are now working to save Mrs. Callaghan, deal with the Detroit Mob, and counter those trying to kill the Queen of Shadows. This session became a massive info dump as old pledges became undone (or fulfilled) and monsters got free.

Our cast:
  • Marco McQueen: A Wizened Oracle who helps run McQueen Automotive with his father. Related to the Zerilli crime family, he works as an informant for the few honest cops in Detroit.
  • Miroslav "Mir" Callaghan: A Palewraith Darkling and member of the Guild of Shadows. He is intrigued by certain artifacts and puzzled by strange gaps in the Guild's occult library. He is investigating an artifact that will allow him to rewrite time.
  • Nicole "Nikki" Callaghan: The cold Flowering Fairest with the gift of artistry, she has become a world-class art thief. As a child she traded away her emotional attachments.
  • Rocco McQueen: Levinquick Elemental who seeks to push the boundaries of where he can go both physically and in cyberspace. He is also looking build a new guild, one for people like himself.
We pick up as the motley works on their long-term plans.

Broken Promises

We had some scheduling difficulties this session as February made merry havoc with our normal session times. Thus I focused on the characters' long term plans dealing with each as they joined the game.

Rocco puts out a personal ad in the circulars that service the edge of Detroit. Pitching to Ruzena's type, he hopes to catch her eye. Meanwhile he starts looking for financing for his business plans. In case his legitimate aims don't pan out, he reaches out to his contacts in the darker parts of the Internet for a buyer for a botnet. A poster known as Folk12 puts him in touch with someone with the handle GhostBox.

Rocco correctly guesses where Ruzena is hiding out (though he doesn't realize it yet). He rolls Manipulation + Empathy to pitch it so she might answer. Using his Contacts Merit he talks to hacker contacts to find a buyer for a botnet. Given his Brownie's boon and 9 dicepool for hacking, I see no reason he can't build the botnet given enough time (which he has). He rolls Manipulation + Persuasion to get in contact with someone who can handle the interactions with the end users.

Nikki meanwhile works on her project of painting Hedge gateways. From her research, she's learned that she will need some rare hedge Fruits to make the initial gateway. Moving it will require additional measures.

She rolls Intelligence + Occult + her Painting Specialty (thanks to her Interdisciplinary Specialty Merit).

She convinces Rocco to help her and the two go off into the Hedge. After a short bit of travel the pair come across a patch of iceapples. Hungry for Glamour, Nikki picks all of the fruit, giving the excess to Rocco.

Nikki rolls Wits + Survival gaining a +1 bonus from Rocco. She finds 11 iceapples and splits them 8/3. Sounds fair.

An hour passes and the path become narrow and choked with thorns. Pushing through the tangle she spots what she needs, a clump of squid ink tubers growing along a branch in a high tree. Rocco and her climb up to harvest them, getting slightly pricked by the thorns. From their vantage point they make out a clearing with an old camp fire in the center. Rocco suggests they check it out and Nikki reluctantly agrees.

After a second roll I decide they find the fruit. The climb up the tree costs them 1 Glamour from the thorns.

At the clearing, they find the fire pit full of ash. Searching around Rocco finds some bones. Turning them over, he realizes these are not from some animal but a person. Urgently he tells Nikki that they should go. Nikki comes along, pocketing an old wallet she found. The wallet only had an ID card and an old picture in it but it might be worth something.

The two roll Wits +Investigation to find clues for who or what lived here.

At this point Marco's player arrives.


Marco meanwhile has been spending his week trying to investigating the mob. What he knows thus far isn't much. He knows who the high ups are: his grandfather, the don; his underboss and consigliere; and the capos who are mostly his uncles. He also knows his local section of the operation: Joe Zerilli, his cousin and his operations. Beyond that he has only vague notions that the casinos and police are under their influence.

Marco rolls Wits + Streetwise to see how much he knows already.

To learn more he will need to go deeper. To that end, he works on being more friendly to his cousin and made man "Joe Z." He works to get the cars taken care of faster. He sizes up what Joe likes in a car and adds that extra bit of rev in their engines. The muscle-bound freak's smile as the engine roars is a clear sign it is working.

Now for some social maneuvering rolls. Marco rolls Presence + Persuasion to start off with a Good Impression, allowing him 1 roll a day to open Doors. Joe is not particularly tough-minded so 2 Doors should get him to open up about the Mob. Marco rolls Wits + Crafts to get sense of what Joe likes in a car. That turns out to be big, loud, and fast. A roll of Presence + Crafts + his Repair specialty lets Marco impress his cousin with a tune up of the latest vehicle. He opens his first Door. Another encounter and the mobster might tell him about something he doesn't know.

Marco also spends some time looking over the blueprints Chris found. The weapons and equipment detailed there are amazing but he will need more funds to build them.

In the meantime, Rocco gets replies from two women about his ad. From the sentence structure one of them seems foreign. But he can't sure it is her. He recruits Nikki and Marco to help him find out and to deliver a message. The plan they come up with is to meet her at a cafe with the brothers watching from a discreet distance. Nikki, disguised as a man will meet her and deliver a letter if it really is Ruzena.

Rocco rolls Wits + Investigation +1 for the letters they recovered to ID the people who responded as Ruzena or not. He fails.

Before the meeting Nikki finds an attractive guy and snags his sunglasses while he is distracted. Using her powers she borrows his face and body type, strengthens her Mask and heads to her rendezvous.

Nikki uses the Mirror contract, using the catch to defray Glamour costs and hides her Mein behind the Mask.

At the cafe, the Changelings spot Ruzena. The murderous fae greets and engages in some idle chit-chat with the disguised Nikki while the others watch from across the street. Then suddenly Nikki's face goes blank. She says that she has something for Ruzena and hands over a letter.

Nikki uses Manipulation + Subterfuge against Ruzena's Wits + Subterfuge to convince her that her date is mind-controlled and not a disguised Changeling. She's really good at this.

Ruzena looks around and reads it, never suspecting her companion is anything other than an ensorcelled mortal. The letter, written by Rocco, explains that the best way to get revenge on the Queen of Shadows is to work with him.

Rocco rolls Manipulation + Persuasion to open a door. Normally he would need to open 2 Doors (her Composure), but this directly addresses one of her Aspirations opening a Door automatically. But it also runs counter, as we will see, to another Aspiration adding a Door. Thus after the letter he still has one Door to open to convince her to stop her plan of revenge.

Marco succeeds on a Wits + Empathy roll even with a -2 penalty for distance.


Across the street Marco reads Ruzena's expression as a well masked mix of shock and interest. The Russian woman excuses herself from the date and hurries away.

The motley shadows Ruzena back to a motel, though it becomes clear she realizes someone is on her tail. Nikki hangs back while the brothers knock on her door. After a moment, they hear her voice calling them to come in.

Rocco rolls an opposed Wits + Stealth roll to shadow Ruzena. They tie so she knows something is up.

As they enter, they find the river fae in the kitchen sheathed in violently shifting water. She demands to know what they want. Rocco moves to the bed and calmly explains his plan to hurt the Queen of Shadows emotionally by having Ruzena ally with him. Marco meanwhile calls on Spring to look into Ruzena's heart. He sees her hatred of Rocco. This will be a difficult argument.

Using Fleeting Spring 1, Marco beats Ruzena's resistance and finds one of her Aspirations is "Revenge on Rocco."

Rocco lays it out. Either she joins them now or the brothers will kill her.

Rocco applies Hard Leverage and rolls Manipulation + Persuasion -1 for the remaining door.

Ruzena's eye flick between the brothers. Reluctantly she lets her guard drop. She tells Rocco she'll back off and move to another city. But she insists that he keep her informed and wants to know that the Queen suffers.

Rocco nods and brings up the notion of dealing with her compulsion to kill. Ruzena seems reticent about that and says she needs more time to think about any such deal.

Everyone earns a roleplaying Beat. Both Marco and Rocco had Aspirations concerned with finding and eliminating Ruzena as a threat. Both earn Beats.

Following the successful deal, Nikki gets back to work on her information gathering. She increases her ties with Maeve, agreeing to help her old friend with a scheme to steal a payment in diamonds from a drug running gang the Mafia deals with. The mysterious Crossroads gang uses odd code names but seem relatively vulnerable.

Moving past Maeve, she also makes friends with her boyfriend Joe Zerilli. For the rest of the week she works on painting a door into the Hedge.

More social maneuvers! Using Presence + Socialize, Nikki open doors with Maeve and Joe and get has one opened up on her by Maeve. She also satisfies an Aspiration with her Hedge gateway painting.

Rocco meanwhile makes a deal with GhostBox to deal with selling his services. In exchange for 25% and possible future bonuses, he will find a buyer for the botnet.

This is a straight up Cutting a Deal roll (Manipulation + Persuasion). Initial offers are 20% plus bonus for good work (Rocco) and 60% (GhostBox). Rocco handily wins.

Miroslav's player arrives, sort of. Calling in from his car as he drives home, we cover the less intense parts of his plans.


Miroslav spent the early part of the week drumming up work from an old client. The elderly Mr. Wilkens wants him to find a rare 19th century technical manual on clockwork devices. A former appliance repairman, Wilkens collects antique technical works and pays well. Miroslav happily takes the job.

Miroslav earns a Beat for his Aspiration of getting work recovering old books.

The rest of his week is taken up by a trip to Austin, Texas. Seeking out his father, Miroslav tells him about the troubles with his mother. Aiden knows a bit about it but not the full picture. When brought up to speed about the Mob loan, the former con man suggests that his wife give them the business and move down to Texas with him. The only problem Aiden sees is getting the money to pay the Mob off.

Miroslav tells him that he and his sister are looking into that. Aiden seems sure that Nikki can handle getting the cash. He also tells his son that Vadoma would need to sell the shop anyway if she moves. The father and son agree to work together on convincing Mrs. Callaghan.

Miroslav turns the conversation to a childhood story about Aiden's birth. His father laughs that Mir always loved that story and confirms the bits he has heard before. Then Mir brings up Alice Ruby. His father admits to her being a former associate though he never admits that they were both grifters. As he explains it, she helped his troupe find new venues. He describes her as a pretty blond living in New York state with a case of heterochromia iridum, a mismatched set of blue and brown eyes.

Miroslav gets a Beat for his Aspiration of learning more about Alice Ruby.

At the end of the Week, Nikki heads to the Night Market. The wallet and ID she found in the Hedge were nothing special but the picture in the wallet seems to change as one moves around, showing the landscape someplace twenty years ago. Figuring it is worth something she goes looking for a buyer.

As she is haggling she notices a hooded figure arguing with the Hob bouncer that has replaced Vincent. Finally the Hob lets the stranger pass. But as soon as the figure crosses the threshold of the Market a tiny "meow" issues from the basket on the interloper's back.

Everyone in the market, indeed everyone who has ever visited the Night Market, feels its protections fail as the pledge breaks. Nikki sees the Hob grab the 14-year old black teen, causing his basket to fall and the offending cat to spill out. The young thief tries to chase it down but loses it in the crowd. All around her the market dweller are packing up, loudly shouting or fleeing.

Nikki rolls Wits + Dexterity to follow the cat in the chaos but fails.

Instead she finds herself in front of an elderly fortune-teller staring in horror at the scattering of pennies on the rug before him. He explains the signs point to a coming darkness. The market's protection is lost. Soon mortal hunters will come.

Out in the real world, Miroslav feels the pledge break. From his research he knows that the market pledge steered mortal monster hunters from finding the Night Market. That protection is lost. He also recalls a silent third-party is somehow involved, something only the high ups of the Guild of Shadows know about.

Since Miroslav is a high-ranking (Mantle 3) member of the Guild of Shadows he can roll Intelligence + Occult to know a bit more than most.

Miroslav grabs his things and heads for the nearest doorway. Just as he is about to step through on his way to the Guild, his phone rings. Nikki breathlessly asks what happened. Miroslav quickly explains things and agrees to ultimately meet up at Charlie Cobweb's Hollow.

Nikki makes some quick calls. She catches Rocco at Starbucks and Marco and Charlie at home. Everyone is directed into the Hedge and towards the Hollow.

Miroslav meanwhile arrives at the guild-house to find the great occult library in chaos. Everyone is panicking and the Queen of Shadows is straining to bring things under control. When she spots Miroslav, she breathes a sigh of relief. She explains that the other high ups Old Billie, Feral Tom, the Abe are all missing.

Miroslav realizes, with a sinking feeling, that places him next in line for control of the guild after the queen. The queen asks Mir for the Quill of Fate, explaining they may need its power soon. She directs one of the low ranking members to retrieve it from Charlie's Hollow where Erin Cobbleflesh is guarding it.

Miroslav points out they might learn something from the Tome of Ages. Perusing its pages, they find the tales of Old Billie and the Abe. It isn't pretty. Billie was in his Hollow when he was devoured by something known as the Lord of Cats. The Abe was struck and killed by a truck. Concerned, Mir heads to the Hollow.

The rest of the motley arrives at the half sunken bus to find Erin Cobbleflesh waiting for them. The towering ogre wants to know what happened. With the caged Ulf looking on, Nikki briefs the ugly Changeling. The motley and Erin discuss the possible coming doom and who they might ask to learn more about what is happening. Erin seems eager to take the quill back to the Guild of Shadows.

Ulf helpfully suggests that crows might know something. Hoping for better treatment, he explains that they have been around for a long time, before the Guild of Shadows or the Night Market were founded.

At that point Miroslav arrives and updates them with his findings, leaving out that the Queen wants the quill. Together they decide to seek out the crows. They decide to stick together in case monster hunters or worse find them.

Rocco rolls Wits + Survival +1 (from the first level of the Dream Contract) +4 (from Charlie's Hearth blessing) to find a way to the crows via the Hedge.

With a little added luck, Rocco navigates through the Hedge to a 2nd floor window looking out across the street to the Goblin Market. Climbing out onto the slippery roof, he calls out the crows.

Fred and Barney land on the roof beside him. They say they felt something strange. When told about the market, they explain they know some of what is going on but don't recall everything. They know about the Lord of Cats and joke that they will need to avoid the local cats. They say that he didn't want to be bound to something and so made a deal to break something that could not be unbroken. Bringing a cat to market was the fulfilling of that pledge.

They also make odd references to "them" and "them" agreeing to a deal until they got bored. The crows explain the full details around hidden in the Tome of Ages.

I award a second role-playing Beat here.

Rushing back to the guild-house, they convince the Queen to take them to the Tome of Ages. With the quill in hand, Miroslav realizes more sections of the book are visible. Sections discussing strange monsters who abduct people to nightmarish realms: the True Fae. Each entry ends with them being sealed within the book. Miroslav flips to the section detailing the Slender Man, reading his horrid history and eventual entrapment. He even finds Ruzena's abduction among its pages.

One section is blank. The motley supposes it might be that of the Lord of Cats. They also realize there is no entry at all for Feral Tom. He must have been the Lord of Cats all along.

Looking for another familiar name, they find Hedge's tale. Both versions. In one timeline the mad old Changeling used the book and the quill along with a deal with the exile Alice Ruby to rewrite history, binding Arcadia and its inhabitants into the book. In the second timeline, he found himself cast back to the day of his abduction only to discover that he already exists there. With no place to go, he wanders, going mad and waiting for the day when he again will meet Alice Ruby.

A date less than 2 months from now. In the small town of Rosebriar.

As for Alice, she was once a True Fae but was cast out. She died far from her home and this somehow spared her the curse of being sealed away. How she escaped death is even less clear.

Looking over the entries for the higher up in the Guild of Shadows, it becomes clear that the founders made a pledge with Feral Tom, Lord of Cats. In exchange for the possibility to fully escape the book, this powerful True Fae would limit his power and lend protection to the Night Market. A delivery of a cat to the Night Market would be the final payment, releasing him and removing the protection.

As they read this they stumble across the Queen of Shadows's entry, which now includes the portions from her trip to the Witch-House. They reveal she did not "give up" her memories for the book. She had no choice. To save her children and escape the haunted mansion, she forgot them, hoping she one day be able to retrieve those lost memories and rewrite her history. Tearfully the Queen apologizes to Rocco. The bitter Changeling warns her not to rewrite his past. The question of whether he can forgive her remains unanswered.

Miroslav earns a Beat for his Aspiration of getting access to the Tome of Ages with the Quill of Fate.

Experience time! Miroslav earned 3 Beats by satisfying Aspirations and everyone else managed 1. That averages to 2 Beats plus 2 more from role-playing and 1 for the session. Everyone earns an Experience.

Thursday, August 28, 2014

Review: DunDraCon 38


Last week I gave a quick report on DunDraCon 38. This week I want to talk about the games I played as well as the good and bad of the convention as a whole.
DunDraCon38-1024x687
Let's start with the shortest section first.

The Bad

This was probably my best DunDraCon yet. I was able to games almost every slot, there were no major problems with the games or the convention center itself, and the game masters were generally good. So what was bad?

I didn't have enough time. In an overabundance of riches, my wife and I were unable to spend as much time as we usually did. So no dinners out together and very little sleep.

A slightly more frustrating problem was not being able to get into games because I was running games at the time. Specifically there were games of Monster of the Week and Hillfolk that I would have loved to play. Unfortunately I was running two of my own games on both days which precluded me from joining.

Lesson learned? Only run one game session.

Lastly strong personalities at some of the tables took away from my enjoyment. There isn't much to do if half of the table are life long friends who enjoy derailing the game with a bunch of in character arguing. Or if you get an attention seeking otaku turning your Pacific Rim game into something that makes Power Rangers look serious.

The Meh

The hotel where DunDraCon was held continued to be clean and well maintained. The food selection at the bar was still greasy and unhealthy, which I tried to avoid as much as possible.

The boardgame area remained in a single large room, making conversation difficult but the RPGs were held in their own separate rooms which was nice.

The dealer's hall had a nice if small selection and I was able to pick up a nice collection of new books and dice there.
The Loot
The Buyer's Bazaar, which allowed convention goers to sell their own materials for a limited time, was particularly lucrative. That was where I was able to pick up some older GURPS books for a cheap price.

The Freecycle table where people could dump their unwanted gaming stuff for anyone to pick up seemed fairly unused this year. Perhaps it was just that this was the year I didn't make use of it.

I was unable to attend as many seminars as I usually did due to the amount of gaming I was involved with but the Alternate History talk was as enjoyable as always.

The Good

The best part of the weekend was probably the improvements to their online registration system which allowed me to register for my next game with my phone. This saved me a lot of hassle and made the whole weekend go smoother. I also liked how people with priority slips (like GMs) could lock in their places in a game before the con even began. This made me sure of what my final game would be without any worry about getting in.

I started the weekend playing a game called Faint Heart Never Won Fair Lady run by Jeff Yin using the Fading Suns system. It was a fun story of a noble entourage attempted to set up a marriage between a socially inept teenage prince-ling and a headstrong princess with ideas of her own. I thought the characters were well portrayed and we had a blast. The Fading Suns system doesn't seem to be too bad though I'm not sure it brings anything new to the table. The setting is interesting but not necessarily my cup of tea. Overall though it was a good way to start the con.

Friday evening, I played a game of Don't Rest Your Head where we were all children haunted by the Bad Man. I've reviewed this game in the past. I liked how we each contributed an aspect to the description of the Bad Man. Our characters were all fairly messed up children feeling guilty about one thing or the other who couldn't sleep because the Bad Man kept us up. I love the flexibility of capabilities in the game, though I thought the gamemaster tried a bit too hard to keep us together.

Saturday and Sunday mornings I ran my own Hunter: the Vigil games, focusing a monster retrieval team for the Cheiron Group. Most of the people who signed up for the game failed to show up but both times I got enough people crashing the game to make up for it.

Saturday the team was sent to a small town in Pennsylvania where people were going missing. Exploring the strange vine growth and encountering weird creatures, they eventually learned that their employers were spiking the water supply with a drug that allowed normal people to see monsters. They managed to rescue some of the town folk before the whole town was swallowed up by the Hedge. The game went well with some good roleplayers (in general).

Sunday's game was my favorite though. The team (with some new members) were sent to Cincinnati where a possible outbreak of brain spiders had been detected. Tracing back the path of someone who had been infected, they discovered an abandoned mall was the source of the parasites. they also learned there were giant spider-human things living there. Against all odds, they rescued most of the people still alive in there, killed one of the monsters, and captured another before being forced to retreat. One team member was pushed to the edge of death but survived. It was a scarring but awesome mission for the team.

Saturday afternoon I took it easy , only playing a game of the board game Golden Wilderness before heading to bed. In this game, you explore and settle California, trying to build up points from settlements and money earned. I took second place but mostly drove the real winner to extended their lead massively. The game was still fun but I really want to try the advanced game at some point.

Sunday was my day of gaming. After my final Hunter game ended at noon, I crashed a game of Nugget called Gods, Monsters, and the Homecoming Dance. The GM, Michael Siverling, made excellent use of pictures and had some great characterization for the characters, divine or otherwise, that we encountered on a trip through several different mythologies. Playing as children of the gods recruited by the Monkey King, we quested to save the world from Loki and Tiamat. It was a great deal of fun, marred only slightly by some obnoxious characters.

Right after that, I went to my favorite game of the convention, Prime Time Adventures as run by my friend Sam Smith. The game was basically the putting together a TV show pilot for a new series. We had a great batch of players to put together our pilot episode about a bunch of supervillians and their plans to take over the world. It was part documentary and part reality television with lots of hilarious asides and subplots. Entitled "You will Know Your Overlords", the show detailed the hijinks of an inept mad scientist, his super-competent traitorous lieutenant, a superman knock off, a psychic marketeer, an evil child and a relatively normal technician charged with building the mind control device. I was cast as the comically inept and evil Dr. Vulmar and loved his failures and the schemes of his "minions".
32dc14a58a956b5c940391ad03beb6f5_large
Monday I had my last game: Mecha vs. Kaiju, a Fate game currently on kickstarter. Sporting three teams of mecha pilots working to defend Tokyo, Sydney, and San Francisco, it was aimed for a more Pacific Rim feel but seems capable of supporting a wide range of mecha stories. The main things the game brings to Fate is a prebuilt set of relevant feats, rules for building mecha and kaiju (of varying complexity), and a rich and interesting setting.

One interesting aspect of the game was that each table designed the final monster for the next table over. We created a psychic horror made from leeches and wearing the armor of defeated mechas. Sadly it was defeated by the power of love by the hippie pilots of San Francisco. We faced off against a 10,000 year old tentacled horror created by ancient alchemy. We weakened it with radiation and then destroyed it piece by piece.

As I said before DunDraCon was whole lot of fun. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who lives in the Bay area.

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Apocalypse World: Love Letters


Apocalypse World has this concept of between session actions, or moves, called Love Letters. These are ways for the players and the game master (or MC) to determine what happened during stretches of downtime and set up action for current session. Here are a few examples from the space based game I co-MC'd.
Carnival_2

Hunting a Thief

During the previous session, the Maestro'D discovered that someone stole a dangerous fruit from her safe while everyone was distracted. Now they've been stuck in a ship together for a few weeks with some new people (and their pet). She's used that time to investigate who among her carnival staff was responsible:

Roll +hard. On a 10+ pick 1. On a 7-9 pick 2. On a miss all 3.
  • You know who took the fruit and someone got hurt.
  • Wayward is pissed with you for suspecting someone from the carnival of stealing.
  • The freakshow performers have been spending a lot of time in the Den and refuse to talk to the rest of the crew about it.
Oh yeah and Daily is allergic to cats. He's been miserable for the last two weeks.

This showed how the Maestro'D was losing control of her crew. I favored Hard rather than Hot because she wasn't so much convincing people to confess as strong arming them (as established the previous session).

On the Alien World

At one point we introduced a couple new characters as people retired characters or took second ones all at once. For one of them, a native of the alien world of Everette, I created a possible lead in for her:

Roll +Sharp. On a 10+ pick 1. On a 7-9 pick 2. On a miss all 3.
  • A Kikamora has been tracking your group for a week. What does this predator look like?
  • The psychic wilderness has drunk in your secrets and learned about your weakest member, Tanya Grisha. What makes her vulnerable?
  • Vikenti Aristarkh, one of your warriors is overly fond of the vices of civilized life. He is looking forward to drinking, gambling, and wenching.
I had hoped to get the player to give us some hooks for potential problems later. In the end we had another of the co-MCs write up a love letter instead.

The Breakup

Leading off the first letter, the Maestro'D learned that freakshow was worshiping a mutant goat. interestingly she herself joined the cult. Of course cults cause all sorts of strife.

Dear Switch,

It seemed like a good idea at the time. The Beast with Two Heads is bound to attract a lot of people to the Carnival. Spectacle is what you sell. Heck attendance at the gatherings has swelled in the last two weeks and you haven't reached Megaton yet. In addition to the freakshow crew, you have seen Wayward, Chic, Daff, and possibly some of Katya's tribe members there.

Unfortunately not everyone agrees with the turn the Carnival is taking. Maybe they don't understand or maybe what they see scares them. Narnia and Nestor in particular seem to dislike this "religion" as they call it. They warn the beast is unnatural and that you should stop the gatherings.

Roll +hot to keep the family together. On a 10+ pick 1. On a 7-9 pick 2. On a miss all 3.
  • Nestor loses it when he learns Night took Kittens to one of the gatherings. He beats him up pretty bad (Night takes 1-harm). Tensions are high.
  • The Beast with Two Heads informs you and the others that someone has been embezzling ticket proceeds. Choose 1: Daily, Nestor, Hopeful.
  • Chainsaw, Shatterglass, Skins, and Algor confront Nestor about his opposition to the new "show'. Things escalate and they leave him bleeding on the floor.
This ended up leading a major breakup of the carnival staff as Nestor was found embezzling and then getting nearly killed by the cult. It was enough to cause the Maestro'D to exile them.

What fun love letters have you used? Have they changed the session in interesting ways?

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

DunDraCon 38: Quick Report and the Loot

Originally published February 19, 2014

I just back from DunDraCon so I don't have time for a full length report but here are the highlights.

I was very successful at getting into games this year. I managed to play in 6 games over the 4 day period with only needing to crash a game once. Combined with the two Hunter: the Vigil games I ran, that adds up to 38 hours of gaming. That included playing Fading Suns and Prime Time Adventures for the first time as well as Don't Rest Your Head and Golden Wilderness for a second time.

I also managed to get into an epic game of Mecha vs. Kaiju, a Fate game currently on kickstarter. Three teams of mecha pilots worked to defend Tokyo, Sydney, and San Francisco. I also enjoyed a rousing game of Nugget, playing as an orphaned teen who discovers he is the child of a god.

I also managed to take in seminar by the always illuminating Ken Hite on alternate history. I'm afraid to say I was nowhere near as well read as most of the audience but it was a very enjoyable discussion.
The Loot
As you can see I also managed to pick up a bit of loot. I found someone selling off old GURPS books and managed to pick up Reign of Steel (a post apocalyptic world ruled by AIs), Atomic Horror (for all your B-movie needs), Blood Types (for more vampire ideas), and Russia (which I here is one of the best location source books) for the low price of $20. I also grabbed a hardback copy of Fate for my ongoing space game plus some more Fate dice.

I'm looking forward to giving Esoterrorists a more thorough read over. This is the second edition of the game that spawned the GUMSHOE line, updated to include all of the tweaks and improvements discovered in 6 years of play.

Overall the Con was a blast. I look forward to giving a more detailed account of the highs and lows for you next week.

Monday, August 25, 2014

Creations of Flux, Part IX

Originally published February 17, 2014

Years ago I ran a Promethean: the Created game called Pandora's Tomorrow. As one might expect from the name, I created a large number of Pandorans for the game. In this series I will be sharing some of these failed creations, their history, and some story seeds for their use.

Menagerie

Some Pandorans exist as isolated horrors. Weak and isolated, their creators might have vanished decades ago, leaving them as little more than random encounters. Here are a final pair of Pandorans for your use.

Beautiful Fear

angel
Description: During day, this once beautiful statue stands atop a church, splattered with pigeon droppings and damaged by acid rain. At night, when Azoth draws close, it animates. Its beautiful features twist in hate and hunger. It stretches its large angelic wings and takes flight.

Lineage: The Silent
Rank: 2

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 0, Wits 2, Resolve 2
Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 4, Stamina 2
Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 0, Composure 1
Skills: Athletics (throwing) 4, Brawl 2, Intimidation 3, Stealth 2

Willpower: 3 Vice: Gluttony
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 (GMC: 8)
Speed: 12 Health: 7

Pyros (Maximum (Current)/Per Turn): 12 (0)/2
Size: 5
Transmutations: Wings 4, Fever Dreams 3, Man-like Stature 1

Notes:
  • Brawl: pool 4, deals bashing. With no natural armament, Beautiful Fear must use other means to subdue her prey.
  • Throw Brick: pool 9, deals bashing (GMC: lethal). Beautiful Fear favors dropping things on Prometheans, particularly loose brick. Once disabled, she moves in for the kill.
  • Nightmare Visions: pool 6 vs. targets Composure + Azoth. To soften up opponents, she tries to drive her foes temporarily mad.

Serpent

Description: This huge snake leaves a visible trail of slime behind it. With crooked fangs dripping a caustic venom, it winds its way out of burrows in the earth to hunt the Created.

Lineage: Torch Born
Rank: 1

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 0, Wits 2, Resolve 1
Physical Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2
Social Attributes: Presence 1, Manipulation 0, Composure 3
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl (Bite, Grapple) 3, Intimidation 1, Stealth 2, Survival 2

Willpower: 4 Vice: Gluttony
Initiative: 6 Defense: 3 (GMC: 5)
Speed: 11 Health: 6

Pyros (Maximum (Current)/Per Turn): 10 (0)/1
Size: 4
Transmutations: Fangs 2, Poison 2

Notes:
  • Bite: pool 8, deals lethal and injects a Toxicity 5 poison. The serpent favors attacking its prey with a swift bite followed by a constricting attack.
  • Grapple: pool 7. Once grappled, the serpent tries to crush its opponent. If that fails it injects more venom.

Sunday, August 24, 2014

The Price Recap: Can't Go Home Again

The Price
This week we see the characters return home in my Changeling: the Lost Chronicle The Price. A full index of the series can be found here. The characters are discovering how much it has changed and who is working with whom.

Our cast:
  • Marco McQueen: A Wizened Oracle who helps run McQueen Automotive with his father. Related to the Zerilli crime family, he works as an informant for the few honest cops in Detroit.
  • Miroslav "Mir" Callaghan: A Palewraith Darkling and member of the Guild of Shadows. He is intrigued by certain artifacts and puzzled by strange gaps in the Guild's occult library. He is investigating an artifact that will allow him to rewrite time.
  • Nicole "Nikki" Callaghan: The cold Flowering Fairest with the gift of artistry, she has become a world-class art thief. As a child she traded away her emotional attachments.
  • Rocco McQueen: Levinquick Elemental who seeks to push the boundaries of where he can go both physically and in cyberspace. He is also looking build a new guild, one for people like himself.
We pick up as the motley ponders their next moves.

Can't Go Home Again

Rocco wanders around his old home, Reichardt Apartments, in his dreams. Strips of sunlight peek through the boarded up windows, illuminating peeling wallpaper and thick layers of dust on the floor.

He hears a scratching from the walls, as if something was crawling around inside them.

Creeping closer to the cracked and crumbling drywall, he calls out to Ulf, the strange brownie that used to live there. He hears a noise from the other side of the wall. Repeated thumps, a sound of something hard striking wet meat. Getting closer, he can see movement through a crack in the wall, a figure swinging something at a dark lump on the ground.

Thump. Thump. The beatings push whatever it is against the wall. The repeated pounding slowly damages the wall. Blood begins to leak out onto Rocco's side.

The Changeling rushes out of the room and through a door to the one next to it. The figure is gone but a bloodstained bat lies on the ground. So does the broken corpse of a man. A wax mask sits on the floor beside him. His face has been reduced to a gory pulp but Rocco can tell he was tall and Caucasian. The mask makes Rocco think of the Minister of Doors, Vincent Ingress.

The dream slowly fading, Rocco searches for more clues. A cat mews in the distance. He finds nothing. Then he wakes up.

Rocco rolls Wits + Empathy to see whether these are real events (as in happening right now). He fails and doesn't know. For now.

In the morning Nikki gets a hold of her old friend Maeve. The Mob associate seems surprised and excited to hear from her again. They arrange to hang out that night at Motorcity Casino. As Maeve says, she has the friend's discount.

Rocco visits Miroslav at the Hollow to discuss his dream. Miroslav seems suspicious of the cat, claiming cats are shifty. He admits he has not seen Vincent in the last day. They discuss visiting Reichardt apartments to be sure. Rocco has a feeling the dream could be prophetic.

Rocco rolls Intelligence + Occult to determine that the dream might be prophetic. I also try to point out that it isn't necessarily literal.

Rocco asks his brother Marco to help out. His girlfriend Charlie tags along. Then Rocco sends out a text to Nikki. He tells her they are investigating the house but neglects to mention the specifics why. Nikki agrees to come regardless.

The motley arrives at their old home. Nikki arrives in a trench coat and large sunglasses, to hide from any onlookers. Miroslav shows similarly hidden but mostly to avoid sunlight.

The neighborhood is even worse than they remember. Half the homes are gone and most of the rest are rotten and abandoned.

The siding has peeled off the building and only the wooden walls and boarded up windows repel the elements. Red gang tags stain the front of the house, while the side features a terrifying image of a ten foot high mouth of a cat. The initials in the corner read GZ.

Nikki looks over the frond door lock and windows for any security system. She points out a line of salt along the entrances to her brother. He recognizes it has mystical protection but not one specifically religious. Miroslav invokes a few spirits and draws some symbols around the edge of the door. He explains the defenses should be weakened.

Nikki rolls Wits + Larceny + her Security System specialty and discovers no mundane security. She does however find some magical form of defense. In game terms this location has the effect of a the Merit Safe Place at 2 dots.

Miroslav rolls Int + Occult + Superstition specialty to identify the effect and rolls an Exceptional Success. He learns it is not religious. For his Condition we agree he can place it on the location to temporarily negate the bonuses it would give to those inside.


Nikki quickly unlocks the door and they quietly creep in. The entrance way is darker and drearier than they remember. The old elevator is stuck partway between the first and second floor. From the relative lack of dust on the floor they can see there is regular foot traffic on this level as well as going up. A large number of beer cans and bottles are piled up near the front door. The stairs down seem less used.

Everyone rolls Dexterity + Stealth. Rocco fails and something hears them. Miroslav rolls Wits + Investigation to work out which parts of the house seem occupied.

Marco walks over to the light switch and pulls out some of his tools. He pops the case for the switch and tests the lines for current. The needle on his gauge jumps up. He warns the others this house has electricity.

Marco rolls Wits + Crafts + Appliances specialty to quickly check if the house still has electricity.

Miroslav meanwhile calls out to any ghosts. He gets no answer but notices a pair of cold iron horseshoes over the door. Whoever lives here wants to protect themselves from the Fae.

Miroslav tries to use his contract to talk to ghosts but there are none here. He does get a Beat for the Aspiration "Go to the old house and see if there are any ghosts there".

Rocco thinks back to his dream. From the way the light was coming in, the body must have been on the first floor in the Callaghan's apartment. He goes through the south door. Inside they find a pair of dirty mattresses and more alcohol containers.

Rocco has Eidetic Memory so I don't even bother asking for a roll.

Nikki at this point asks for the full details on Rocco's dream. The Elemental explains what he saw. It is clear no one was murdered here. Charlie however thinks the bloody bat is significant. Recently Detroit has had a serial killer who preys on young white men, beating them to death with a bat. They call him the Michigan slugger.

I shared this with Marco's player earlier. Only now did it seem relevant.

Nikki finds this fairly dull but does point out Vincent was white. Though much older.

I let Nikki roll Wits + Socialize to see what she knows about Vincent from prior interactions.

The motley decides to look around. Something is going on here. They find the area has been used regularly, probably by gang members. There are bullet holes in the south wall and shell casings on the floor. Then Nikki pulls out a red bandanna from under a mattress. Only the Reds wear that around here.

The group does a Teamwork investigation with each of them rolling Wits + Investigation and adding the results to Miroslav's final die roll. Marco and Rocco both roll 1 success, while Nikki rolls 2. Mir gets a final result of 3 successes. Miroslav also tries to use Eye For Strange on the situation but fails his roll.

Finally I rolled some Wits + Composure rolls for the PCs against an NPC's stealth roll. It remained unnoticed.


They check the other apartment on this level but it is also empty. They decide to head downstairs first and check out the old Hedge entrance.

From the landing they can see debris, mostly empty bottles and furniture has been tossed down the stairs to the basement. They can also make out a narrow path through the junk. Clearly someone has been visiting the basement.

The group files down and follows the relatively clear path to the old storage room. They find the same old wardrobe with the same dusty mirror. As they examine it however, a groaning noise can be heard directly above them.

Suddenly a terrific crash comes from the floor above them as something begins to smash down through the upper levels.

Nikki and her brother duck out of the room to safety while Marco manages to push his brother out of the way moments before a piano crashes through the ceiling and demolishes the wardrobe. Charlie ducks out of the room at the last moment. The two brothers are showered in falling boards and shards of mirror.

Everyone makes a Wits + Composure roll (+2 for Danger Sense for Nikki and Marco) and -2 due to the sound absorption of the walls (enhanced by the Darkness Contract). Rocco fails so I let Marco roll Wits + Athletics +Willpower to push him to safety. He and his brother do suffer some Bashing damage however.

As the dust settles. Marco and Rocco dig themselves out of the rubble. Nikki peers inside. A coil of rope sits atop the devastation, one end sheared off. Looking up through the hole in the ceiling she can see up to the second floor where a chain in the ceiling rocks back and forth.

Realizing whoever dropped this is still here, the young thief runs off. Quickly and stealthily she ascends the stairs and reaches the room to see a pair of twig-like legs disappear into a hole in the wall.

Nikki rolls Dexterity + Stealth and beats Ulf's perception roll. He doesn't know she is there.

The rest of the motley slowly follows. A step creaks under Miroslav's weight as they move to the second level. They find Nikki, her ear up against the wall, silently following the brownie's progress through the wall.

Miroslav fails his Dexterity + Stealth roll. Nikki rolls Wits + Composure at -2 to track Ulf and hear something else.

She motions to them to be silent. In addition to Ulf, now moving through the ceiling, she hears someone on the third floor. The person quickly walks across a room above, opens a door, and then vanish. There are no footfalls anymore.

Ulf meanwhile progresses to the ceiling above the second floor landing. The Fairest points up to where the villainous Hob is lurking. Further down the stairs, Marco is distracted by the growing number of squeaks he hears from below. Rats begin to pour out of the wall and from under doors.

Rocco decides to deal with the dangerous fae. Calling on the electricity in the house, he arcs it through the ceiling and into Ulf. There is a cry as the landing light illuminates and then a thump of something collapsing on the floor above. An acrid smell fills the air. The rat begin to disperse.

Rocco uses his Elemental Contract to electrocute Ulf, rolling Wyrd + Manipulation to fill the area with electricity. Ulf takes 4 bashing which knocks the small Hob out (in fact wrapping around into Lethal).

Marco and Rocco grab a chair from one of the room and tear open the ceiling with some tools. Inside they find a singed and unconscious Hob. In the last decade of so, Ulf has grown thinner and stick-like. He is still dressed in rotten hides and wearing his badge of authority, a rat skull which Nikki snatches.

They tie him up and head upstairs. The door to the northern upstairs apartment is in much better shape. Nikki easily unlocks it and starts to swing it open. At the last moment she spots a trip line. Deftly disabling it she finds the door was rigged with a military surplus grenade. She tosses it back at the others and walks into the room.

As I describe the trap, Nikki's player brings up her security system disabling Condition. I decide to let her use it here, taking out the trap and gaining a Beat.

The apartment has air conditioning and electric lighting. A thick shag carpet covers the floor and a tea set is laid out on an elegant glass table in the main room. Rocco quickly looks around while Nikki looks for the Hedge gateway whoever was here used.

Rocco fails on his Wits + Investigation roll.

She opens the closet door to the Hedge, carefully checking for any traps. She finds the sod floor of the trail spongy and suspects a pit trap. The bramble lines wooden walls of the path should be easy enough to climb past she decides. She starts to make her way over.

Nikki rolls Wits + Larceny and gets an exceptional success. We decide to impose a Condition on the person living here: Knows My Tricks, which will give them a -2 penalty to any actions involving hiding something physically from Nikki.

While the others make their way across, Miroslav sniffs around for magic. He finds a cookie jar full of shadows, some hedge fruit in the fridge, and a large magic mirror. He notes them down for later.

Once across the pit, the motley begins to hurriedly track down the mysterious person who was living there. Rocco takes the lead, taking them down twisted paths of vine-covered brick, through brambles growing out of concrete, and along paths of broken glass.

We do this as an extended chase with the quarry rolling against Rocco who has the highest Stamina + Athletics. The target has a head start of 2 successes but Miroslav blessed Rocco's first roll using the Hearth contract. The first roll brings them to 6 successes to 4 with the quarry keeping their lead. The second roll however brings them neck and neck at 7 successes.

Rocco spots black threads caught on the thorns. A moment later they spot a figure in a black cloak running ahead of them. It stumbles, dropping a bundle of letters. Miroslav grabs them and they race on.

The next roll sees lots of Willpower expenditure and ultimately the quarry escapes reaching 10 successes before Rocco.

The figure ducks behind a bush and disappears. Rocco rounds the bend and finds a door out of the Hedge. He pushes through and finds himself in the dimly lit backroom of a supermarket. Looking about he spots the cloak, discarded in front of the plastic barrier separating the backroom from the aisles. He steps into the supermarket but doesn't spot anyone suspicious. He does take note of security cameras at the entrance to the back and by the cashier.

Rocco returns to the others. With this lead lost, they decide to search the apartment and interrogate Ulf.

They easily make their way back, laying a board cross the pit, revealing the bear traps at the bottom.

Miroslav looks over the letters. They seem to have been sent to a Kristen Murray. While most of them are not signed, the handwriting for most of them appears to be from the same individual, one who starts off in Russia and ends up in the United States. They recall Ruzena is Russian. The subject matter involves a plot for revenge against someone who banished her.

Rocco decides to investigate Kristen. He rolls Intelligence + Investigation -2 for her Anonymity Merit. Marco rolls Intelligence + Streetwise to see what he knows about the Reds.

Rocco does some quick internet searching but quickly reaches the conclusion Kristen is an alias. Marco remarks that the current leader of the Reds is a woman. If she is working with Ruzena, they must be plotting against the Queen of Shadows.

Miroslav turns his attentions to the magic mirror. Just before he touches it to get a read, he sees something off in the reflection. He realizes this is a trap, a device which captures those who touch it inside the reflection.

Mir rolls Wits + Occult - 3 to detect the trap.

As he wracks his brain he can think of a few ways to build such a device: hedge spinning, an obscure Contract, and a rare power of a powerful fetch.

At this point I award a Roleplaying Beat.

Charlie tells the others that Ulf is waking up. The tiny Hob opens his eyes groggily. Miroslav steps close to him, calling on darkness to decreases his resistance to fear. Then Marco bluntly asks him who is working for and what he is up to.

Miroslav's Contract eliminates the penalties Ulf would impose for manipulating him with hard leverage. Marco rolls Presence + Intimidation and the Hob cracks.

Ulf hurriedly explains everything. He's been trapped here, unable to go back to the Under-King since he fails his mission. He agreed to work for the Queen of Shadow's fetch, Evelina McQueen. She was working on a plan with Ruzena, something to do with a trap at the Goblin Market. She was also controlling the Reds, hoping to use the mortals against the Queen.

Marco earns a Beat for his Aspiration to "find his mom's fetch" while Nikki earns one for "suffering no personal blow back from the plan to get the time traveler's blood."

As they take this in, they hear a couple of cars pull up in front of the building. Looking out a window, they can see a dozen gang members in red bandannas walking up, guns drawn.

Rocco hurriedly asks Marco for his phone. He sends a text message to his cousin Joe Zerilli about a gathering of Reds outside the house, hoping the gangster will use the opportunity to strike at them. Then they leave via the Hedge, dragging Ulf along with them.

Miroslav heads off to warn the Queen of Shadows. He finds her at the guildhall. She seems interested to see him but not for the reasons he expects. She wants to know about the Quill. He manages to push that off for the moment, alerting her to the ambush. The queen apparently was unaware she had a fetch and immediately sends her followers to search for it and Ruzena.

They discuss the disappearance of Vincent. The Queen shares his concerns and will keep an eye out for the Minister of Doors. Then she returns to the matter of the Quill. Miroslav explains he needs to study it longer. She agrees to give him time, but sends Erin Cobbleflesh to watch over it until it can be moved to the guildhall.

Rocco, meanwhile, tries to hunt down where the fetch went using the information on the supermarket security cameras. Unfortunately he discovers those are just dummies.

Later on Nikki finally gets to visit Maeve. The two share a drink at the casino and catch some shows. While they enjoy themselves, her old friend begins asking what she has been up to and seeing what she is town for.

Nikki uses lies and evasion to answer most of her questions while trying to pump Maeve for answers. By evenings end, both learn a little bit about the other. Nikki lets on about her extra-legal activities while Maeve admits to being in bed with the Mob. She also admits to wanting to get out in style.

Another round of Social Maneuvering. Both use Manipulation + Socialize to get good impressions with each other allowing a roll each day. They both also manage to open a Door that night.

Maeve suggest Nikki and her might work together. There is a gang that moves in drugs from time to time for the Mob. They get paid in odd but compact wealth: diamonds, artworks, and the like. Maeve suggests setting up a deal and Nikki could steal the payment. Then they could split the proceeds.

Nikki considers it and they go back to Maeve's boyfriend's house. It is in one of the few upscale neighborhoods, large with a nice lawn. Nikki makes friends with his dog while they hang out. Eventually Joe Zerilli shows up looking a bit irritated. Maeve cheers him up and Nikki makes his acquaintance. The two plan to meet up for lunch later in the week.

Nikki rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken, befriending the dog should she need to come back. She also earns a Beat for utilizing Maeve to learn more about Mob.

Miroslav and Rocco meanwhile spend the evening at Charlie's Hollow, an old partially submerged bus. Things are bit noisier now with Erin looking over Mir's shoulder and Ulf confined to a small cage. Charlie chooses to stay at Marco's house.

Marco meanwhile finds the Reds harassing his customers again at work. He scares them off again but the thugs make it clear they want protection money or they will come back. Marco gets the distinct impression that they might also be worried about the Mob.

Later that week, he gets a call from his friend Officer Chris Allen. The stakeout at the harbor turned up some odd weapons that criminals dumped. Seems the shipment was not what the Mob expected. He asks Marco if he can have a look. The police officer discretely picks up the Wizened at the edge of the city and takes him to the evidence room downtown.

There Marco finds a crate full of strange rusted weapons like a miniaturized Tommy gun and a pistol modified for automatic action. Along with them are a series of blueprints for these devices and more. Marco takes pictures of them on his phone to examine later.

Later that day word arrives that the another victim of the Michigan Slugger has washed ashore. It belongs to an older white man. Vincent still hasn't been seen.

Marco rolls Intelligence + Crafts + 3 for willpower to understand the devices. He gets an exceptional successes and finds himself with the Inspired Condition. He is going to need to do some crafting. He also satisfies the Aspiration "learn about high-tech weaponry."

Finally we get to experience. Before we give them out however we have a discussion about how to handle Beat for skill improvements (such as you get if you have Professional Training 4) since we are doing group beats. I decide that any Beats for raising skills will be applied the next session.

That out of the way we count Beats. Nikki resolved one Condition and two Aspirations. Marco also took care of two Aspirations. Miroslav dealt with an Aspiration as well. This averages to 2 Beats per person plus another for roleplaying and a fourth for the session. The final tally is 4 Beats.

Saturday, August 23, 2014

Apocalypse World: More Custom Moves

Originally published February 12, 2014

As I hastily prepare for DunDraCon 38, I first leave you with a second installment of custom moves from the Apocalypse World campaign, Space World, that my friends and I co-MC'ed last year.

This time I'll share a smattering of moves from one of the core Fronts of the game, the Void. The sheer emptiness of space and its toll on the human soul.

End of Hope

The Void
As societal ties collapse, hope for the future dims. The void drives further wedges between the survivors while poisons and xenophobia slowly kill the few settlements left.

This threat was a slow cooking one, as people turned on each other and space madness ate away at the edges. As co-MC I was focused on a threat my character would be unlikely to get directly involved with. As I was playing a rock star Skinner, my character was generally surrounded by people and not poking into the psychic maelstrom. Thus the Void preys on those on the edges, victimizing them and driving them insane.

Spook Bashers

One major threat were what were called Spook Bashers. "Spook" was in-game slang for anyone with a high Weird (i.e. Brainers, Savvyheads, and the like). Spook Bashers were bullies and thugs who harassed and attacked Spooks. They generally claimed that Spooks where prone to space madness to justify their xenophobia.

As we will see further down, space madness generally affects those who spend lots of time alone (like many spooks), so the Spook Bashers are not completely wrong.

Mechanically they were just people, usually armed, who formed lynch mobs given enough time and excuse.

Space Madness

A much more involved threat was Space Madness, something the group never did get to the bottom of. Part of the problem was that it is a psychic disease, one caused by time away from a living world or community. So those who stayed at a settlement were safe (though they tended to attract Reavers which I'll get to in a moment).

Space Madness is a psychological condition. It doesn't kill, it just distorts the perceptions of those afflicted. These delusions often lead those afflicted to attempt hostile or dangerous acts on others.

The custom move for this was a touch involved:

Space Madness: Whenever your character is in a scene alone roll +Cool. On a 10+ you are okay. On a 7-9, the MC can choose 1:
  • You hear something that isn't there
  • Answer a question about your prejudices
  • You see something that isn't there
On a miss, suffer all three and your delusion directly threatens you.

I also played around with a countdown clock for increasing severity of delusions but generally it was so slow acting that it got drowned out by other threats in play.

The Reavers & White

Reaver
This threat was part of my wife's front but I had a hand in developing it. And it feels like a good fit for the underlying doom of the setting.

The Reavers were former humans who had gone mad and turned into cannibal killing machines. Worse their condition was contagious. The original outbreak is what destroyed the golden age and brought about the apocalypse. For almost half the game, they were a distant threat, discussed in whispered rumors.

Then the group discovered White.

White was the leader of a hidden trade port of Megaton, built into a burnt out hulk of a massive cargo ship. White was an albino mystic who had delved deep into the Psychic Maelstrom into what lay beyond it.

There he discovered where Reavers came from.

He slowly lost control, turning into one of them. To save his community he was put into an artificial coma.

Of course the PCs were given reason to abduct him, opening the possibility that he would wake up, turn Reaver and murder everyone.

He had a few custom moves:

Foaming Rage: White deals +1 harm with whatever he has on hand.

Don't Blink: If White is unattended or unobserved, he disappears from any restraints. If you are attending him and are possibly distracted, roll +Sharp. On a 10+ he tries to escape. On 7-9, he attacks you, suffer harm. On a miss he is gone.

Shutdown: White knows the controls of Megaton and if he escapes he will rapidly destroy it. Start a countdown clock at 0:00.

At 3:00 all ships power down as White reroutes main system power. To flee the station, the connection to Megaton must be manually severed first. At 6:00, Megaton itself powers down, including the artificial gravity. Operating in zero G is like acting under fire. At 9:00, the beacons begin to broadcast Megaton's location to Reavers.

At 10:00 he has assembled a small gang of Reavers. At 11:00 he has a medium gang. 12:00 the main Reaver force arrives.

Reavers themselves shared some of White's moves, notably Foaming Rage. Gangs of Reavers also possessed:

Swarm: when rolling harm moves from a Reaver gang add +1.

The Wolves of the Psychic Maelstrom

When my Skinner switched playbooks to Solace, I brought a new threat into the game. When my Skinner retired and adopted a new character which didn't interact with them, I took over that threat. I expanded it a bit and tied it into one of the character's mental deterioration.

The Wolves were psychic predators, possibly exiles from the alien world of Everett, whose natural forms were droning beetles but who disguised themselves as people. Twisted when the Apocalypse happened, the Wolves wander lost and angry, seeking to destroy everything. They could be stopped with music which was anathema to them.

The first of these threats I brought in was Mother, a spectral being who claimed to be the ghost of one character's mother. She looked like a ghostly pale blond-haired woman. Her features easily contorted into rage and hate as she pushed her "daughter" to harm those around her. It worked all to well.

Her custom moves was simple:

Immaterial: Mother is immune to normal weapons

The other "named" wolf was called First. First appears initially as a leader among the guards of Megaton but later joined the resistance when Bluejay's forces took the station. His goal was the destruction of Megaton and the end of humanity.

One of his moves was a twist on White's (unused) move:

Don't Blink: When unobserved, First can go anywhere. If observed, roll +Sharp. On a 10+ he is still there. On 7-9, he may attack you, suffer harm. On a miss he is gone.

The other two were adaptions of the moves from a playbook expansion I can no longer find that we used for people who chose to be Wolves of the Maelstrom.

What are you?: First suffers at most 1-harm from an attack.

In sheep's clothing: When First reveals himself, chaos erupts. All violent and destructive attacks deal +1 harm. If he fully reveals himself, all NPCs must engage in a cacophony of violence and PCs must act under fire to avoid doing the same.

Well that is it for now. Hope you enjoyed them and let me know what you think.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Creations of Flux, Part VIII

Originally published February 10, 2014

Years ago I ran a Promethean: the Created game called Pandora's Tomorrow. As one might expect from the name, I created a large number of Pandorans for the game. In this series I will be sharing some of these failed creations, their history, and some story seeds for their use.

This week we will look at one of the creators of these monsters, a major antagonist of my game:

The Doctor

Concept: Disturbed Creator
doctor
Background: Created by a harsh and traditionalist Nephri in 1953, the Doctor saw the universe with a cold but analytic eye. He judged that the road to freedom from his condition was not to become human but to become more than human. He focused first on his inner nature following the refinements of Mercury and Iron. When that work failed to yield the result he sought, he journeyed to the wastes to study Copper and later to the product of the wastes, disorder and Flux.

In 1976, his creator confronted him about his downward spiral toward Flux and in the struggle the Doctor destroyed him. This caused a major realization for him. He saw that perfection must come from progeny. He would need to create his perfect being before he could become one. So he began his experiments. His is still unsure if perfection comes about by ideal in mind or body, or if it requires a perfect mixture of Pyros and Flux.

Sure that he needed to learn new methods of creation to complete the process, he sought out Dr. Frankenstein's notes. In the process he worked temporarily with Verdant Technologies, a corporation bent on breaking down the barriers between life and death. They financed two of his greatest creations, the Prometheans Patia and John Smith as well as the Pandoran known as Sibling.

In the end however he judged them failures. When the company sought to terminate his contract and his existence, he destroyed the retrieval team and then tortured their lead scientist for the information he sought.

Several years ago, his crimes caught up with him. John Smith along with another creation of his, a Wretched known as Smithfield, found his lair in Virginia and defeated him. To stop him from reviving, they sealed his remains in concrete. His whereabouts remain unknown.

Description: A middle-aged man, balding with graying heir. He wears a thick goggles or sunglasses as all times to hide his missing left eye. He typically wears thick leather gloves. While at work he wears a white lab coat though in the field he wears simple but functional clothing.

His disfigurements reveal him to be a desiccated corpse, its leather skin stretched and sewn back together. Beneath his gloves, his hands end in bony talons tipped with an oily residue.

Storyteller Notes: You are focused. Your pilgrimage is one of perfection. When you create the perfect physical being you will then be able to ascend to a more perfect state.

Lineage: Nephri Refinement: Centimani

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 3, Resolve 4
Physical Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3
Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 4, Composure 3

Mental Skills: Academics 2, Computers 2, Crafts 3, Investigation 3, Medicine (surgery) 5, Occult (Pyros, Flux) 4, Politics 2, Science (biology) 3
Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl (Claws) 3, Firearms 1, Larceny 2, Stealth 3, Survival 3, Weaponry 2
Social Skills: Expression 1, Intimidation 3, Persuasion 3, Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 3
Merits: Direction Sense 1, Holistic Awareness 3, Resources 3

Willpower: 7 Humanity: 2 (Meglomania, Fixation)
Virtue: Faith Vice: Pride
Initiative: 6 Defense: 3 (GMC: 5)
Speed: 11 Health: 8

Azoth: 4
Bestowment: Revivification
Transmutations: Corporeum: Regeneration 2; Mesmerism: Suggestion 2; Pandoran: Armor 2, Mantle of Lordship, Perfected Bezoar (sharp weapons), Claws (Poison 5); Vitality: Fist of Talos 1, Might 3; Vulcanus: Sense Flux, Sense Pyros

Story Seeds

Seeking Knowledge: Since the Doctor was one of the last to see Dr. Frankenstein's original notes as well as the insides of Verdant Technologies research materials, he would be an ideal source to learn about the creation of Prometheans. The only problem is his death. But as a Osiran, if he was released from his prison he should revive. Of course that requires finding his lair amid Pandoran infested swampland, avoiding tipping off his killers and then dealing with a possibly murderous Centimani.

The Creator Returned: Nothing lasts forever. Not even concrete. Eventually the Doctor will escape, returning to life. Perhaps the characters are among his many creations, ones he decides to use to re-acclimate and learn what his killers are up to. Alternatively perhaps they are the first to run across the new horrors he has built either for revenge or as part of a breakthrough realized in his long period of "death".

Servants Deceived: Perhaps the characters have been contracted by someone they believe to be the Doctor, serving him in gathering raw materials in exchange for the promise of the hints they need to complete their Pilgrimage. But he is a fake. Are they serving one of his creations, a Pandoran of unusual intelligence and mimicry? Or something else seeking to use the outcast as a convenient disguise?