Pitch: Mecha vs. Kaiju

Originally published August 18, 2014

Mondays are when I typically post a series on different items, characters, or something else from my games. I can't decide what to write at the moment so I am going to pitch several of the campaign ideas floating in my head over the next several weeks. Let me know if anything interests you and I'll write more about it.

Mecha vs. Kaiju

There are things you can't fight - acts of God. You see a hurricane coming, you get out of the way. But when you're in a Jaeger, you can finally fight the hurricane. You can win. ~ Pacific Rim

History shows again and again how nature points up the folly of men. ~ Blue Oyster Cult

You are members of an elite fighting force, trained in the use of Mecha, giant combat robots armed with the latest weaponry. Your mission is to defend your country and perhaps the world from the giant monsters called Kaiju that threaten to destroy it.

The specifics of this game remain to be set. What country do the player characters defend? Where are they based? What year is it and how long has the invasion been going on? Where did the monsters come from? What are the Mecha like?

Theme: Facing Your Fears. The Kaiju have always been physical representations of what we fear from radiation (Godzilla) to pollution and disease (the Host). Having Mecha means having a way to defeat those monsters. The characters are in a position to fight problems too big for any one person to deal with.

Mood: Bloody Aftermath. Unlike superheroes (who also tread the same ground), the characters are only human. While they can destroy monsters with their tools, inside they are as vulnerable as anyone else. The trauma of war leaves many victims and not just the ones who fell on the battlefield.

Inspirations: Pacific Rim, various Godzilla movies, Neon Genesis Evangelion

System(s): Microscope to establish the common history of the world since the arrival of Kaiju and the establishment of your team. Fate Core augmented by stunts and material from Mecha vs. Kaiju for the actual action.

Combats would be along the lines of the Michael Bay level of cinema. By which I mean explosions, giant robots, and lots of collateral damage. Drama would remain free of that sappy Hollywood romance (realistic versions available on request).

Commentary

Like many of my recent campaign concepts, this is really several games in one.

The first would be a relatively standard game of Microscope that allows us to collaborate on the history of the world, what the nature of the Kaiju invasion is and how the overall mission is fairing. I figure the brackets of the timeline would be 'The First Kaiju Wave' while the end would be "United Mechanized Defense Force Comes Online'. The virtue of shared world creation is that I wouldn't have to explain the history of the setting to the players since we would create it together.

The next mini-game would be a standard Fate group character creation where we would define the player characters and the initial adventures that link them together. I'm a firm believer in group character creation.

Finally we would reach the campaign proper: a Fate powered game of military operations, group dynamics, and personal psychology.

Extended Rolls

Originally published August 13, 2014

Another draft article that I'm clearing out. I'm not sure what I will ultimately do with these thoughts but perhaps other people have ideas along these lines.

I've been increasingly dissatisfied with rolling of dice. I keep wanting every roll of the dice to feel meaningful and full of suspense. Which makes Extended Rolls, rolls where the player rolls again and again adding the results up until they reach some target number, very frustrating to me. My focus for this frustration is the World of Darkness system. This is the game I play the most where this type of dice action occurs, but the principle applies elsewhere.

The question specifically is how can something like a Craft roll, an action which logically requires some time, time determined by a skill roll or rolls, be structured to preserve the tension of making those rolls. It is my opinion that each time the dice come out without direct consequences the game suffers, becoming something purely mechanical.

Clearly it can be done. Combat can be seen as an extended roll with each roll of the dice chipping away at the opponent's health. But the Craft roll equivalent is a slugfest where you just swing again and again at an unflinching opponent. Perhaps the game needs active opposition or alternating tactics or perhaps it should all be collapsed into a single roll.

There are a few ways I see handle the issue. In the absence of a single optimal solution, each might work for a given skill or skill application.

Level of Success

The easiest possibility: roll your dice pool, count successes, if you are happy with the results stop, otherwise roll again. This works best for cases where the desired number of success is low such as Medicine rolls. Once you get past 5 or so, or where you need a specific number, this tends to get back to that problem place for me.

Information Dribble

I first saw this in Intruders: Encounters with the Abyss. Basically every 3 successes yields a clue, interesting tidbit, or piece of background information on a subject of research. It helps to spice up an otherwise dull Academics, Investigation, Medicine, or Science roll.

I still like this method and it tends the make the players wonder if they have gotten all of the available information or if a big secret would have been slipped if they had tried a bit longer.

But...I feel as if there is a better way, some way to turn a research montage into something like a chase. I really need to run some of the alternate investigative systems I have and see if the systems there are better or spark something new for me.

Contests

Now we move into territory that feels more like a combat, if less interesting. Each roll is opposed by another character with one or both of them having a target number of successes to reach to end the conflict. It allows some narrative sliding back and forth but still gets old after more than a few rolls.

This works well of Computer hacking rolls, Drive or Athletics based chases, interrogation style Intimidation, and intense Socialize or Persuasion rolls.

I think with the right twist, something that added more options or choices, this would be fine.

Time Limits

More of a tweak on the existing systems, here we care about the time it takes to hack a computer, research a demon, or patch up some wounds. So we track how many rolls it takes.

This is where things get troublesome however. If time become the sole issue, even if there is a hard deadline the task becomes get X successes in Y rolls. Boring.

Larceny verses a static security system is this. So is lock-picking, black market hunting, Survival rolls, Crafts and Expression rolls, and Meditation rolls.

So the question is how to handle it. obvious if don't care about time, we don't roll. but if we do, I'd like to cut down the system to a single roll. Maybe apply a penalty to account for time pressure or use successes to shave off a percentage of the time.

But the roll also account for quality. Should that suffer under a time crunch? Probably.

Conclusion

So I still don't have a solution. I've outlined the problem, looked at some options but the fundamental issue (one which apparently in the minority for being concerned about) remains. It needs to be simple and quick. I'll have to think on it more.

Magical Keys

Originally published August 11, 2014

I've always the liked the symbolism of a key, a tool that opens ways to new vistas. Here are a few magical keys for use in World of Darkness (specifically Changeling: the Lost) but which can be adapted to any game.

Key to Dreams

This tarnished silver key seems like a simple key to a child's toy box or a jewelry box. But placed within the keyhole of a door while speaking the name of a specific individual, it allows access to that person's dreams.

Upon turning the key, a soft glow pours from the edges of the doorway. On the other side, instead of the normal contents of the doorway, one finds what ever the subject most recent (or current dream are).

The user of the key can use interact with the user's dream or simply study it to learn more about them. For those with access to the Changeling: the Lost rules, the user can use all forms of dream riding.

Token 3

Action: Instant

Mien: To those who can see beyond the Mask, the key itself emits of a weak silvery light when in total darkness. a fine tracery of symbols can be made out on the shaft of the key, which squirm and shift as the character watches.

Drawback: Upon using the key, the doorway remains open to the subject. The next time both the subject and user are asleep, the target is able to access the user's dreams just as his or her own were. This grants no understanding of what is happening though.

Catch: If the key is triggered without paying an appropriate price (typically 1 Glamour), the door swings both ways. Upon entering the target's dream, a figment from either the user's own or the target's dreams escapes into the real world to cause mischief.

Key to Your Heart

This wooden key seems more like a toy than a real tool. One end is carved into the shape of a heart while the other ends in a trivial notch.

When activated in the presence of a named target, it causes them to fall in love with the user. They gain the Swooning Condition:

Swooning
Your character is attracted to someone and is vulnerable where they are concerned. He suffers a –2 to any rolls that would adversely affect the specified character, who also gains +2 on any Social rolls against him. If the specified character is attempting Social maneuvering on the Swooning character, the impression level is considered one higher.
Resolution: Your character does something for his love interest that puts him in danger, or he opts to fail a roll to resist a Social action by the specified character.
Beat: n/a

Token 2

Action: Instant

Mien: Beneath the Mask, the key throbs jewel beats in time with the user's heartbeat. Upon being used a second beating can be felt as well.

Drawback: The effect of the throbbing key cause the user's heart to race. They suffer a -1 penalty to all rolls requiring concentration due to this distraction in the following scene.

Catch: If triggered without paying a tithe of Glamour, the user also gains the Swooning Condition but with a different nearby individual.

The Windup Key

This large six-inch key looks like something for winding up a very large toy. The metal is stained with rust, especially the end.

When placed against the back of a living animal or person and turned, it reverses any harm recently dealt to them. Each turn heals 1 point of Bashing or Lethal.

If placed against a corpse and wound for 5 turns, it instead raises the remains as a zombie.

Token 5

Action: Extended. Each turn the price must be paid and the key can only be turned a maximum of 5 times on a given individual in a day. 5 turns are needed to create a zombie.

Mien: In truth, the key is caked with blood from its many "beneficiaries." Anyone using the key hears a disturbing grinding of gears from within the recipient.

Drawback: The subject of healing if alive succumbs to a strange lethargy in the Scene after the key is used on them. They suffer a -2 penalty to all actions until they get a good rest.

If the key was used on a corpse, it decays violently after the end of the Scene, leaving the user with the Shaken Condition.

Catch: The key demands its price. Each turn of the key draws on the user's life force. They suffer 1 Lethal damage with every turn.

Campaign Planning: Summer 2014

Originally published August 8, 2014

So many things are changing. My local groups are on hiatus as my wife and I acclimate to our new family member. Sleep comes fitfully and in 2 hour blocks (if I'm lucky). But I still love to write and game so I'm enacting my long prepared parental gaming group protocol.

Okay Sebastian we have a lot of reading to do.

I started my online gaming group for many reasons. To collect my favorite roleplayers over the past decade. To ensure I had a gaming group wherever I moved. And as a plan for when I would be less able to have people over to game (or go to their places). In other words once I had a child.

As you can guess, I like to plan ahead.

Prospecti

As I have on many previous occasions, I gave my players a pair of campaign prospecti to consider. This time around there were two games I was interested in: a lengthy Apocalypse World game and a variant Trail of Cthulhu game. I asked my players to rate them on a -5 to 5 scale where -5 is loathing and 5 is wanting to play it right now.

Since these were pitches for the systems themselves, both take a bit from the introductory text of each game. Hope you enjoy:

Apocalypse World

Time counts and keeps countin', and we knows now finding the trick of what's been and lost ain't no easy ride. But that's our trek, we gotta' travel it. And there ain't nobody knows where it's gonna' lead. Still in all, every night we does the tell, so that we 'member who we was and where we came from... but most of all we 'members the man that finded us, him that came the salvage. And we lights the city, not just for him, but for all of them that are still out there. 'Cause we knows there come a night, when they sees the distant light, and they'll be comin' home. ~ Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Show me a man or a woman alone and I'll show you a saint. Give me two and they'll fall in love. Give me three and they'll invent the charming thing we call 'society'. Give me four and they'll build a pyramid. Give me five and they'll make one an outcast. Give me six and they'll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they'll reinvent warfare. ~ Stephen King, The Stand

Nobody remembers how or why. Maybe nobody ever knew. The oldest living survivors have childhood memories of it: cities burning, society in chaos then collapse, families set to panicked flight, the weird nights when the smoldering sky made midnight into a blood-colored half-day.

Now the world is not what it was. Look around you: evidently, certainly, not what it was. But also close your eyes, open your brain: something is wrong. At the limits of perception, something howling, ever-present, full of hate and terror. From this, the world’s psychic maelstrom, we none of us have shelter.

In Apocalypse World, we collaboratively build a world brought to ruin. Things remain unsettled and the world is ever-changing. You characters comprise some of the most powerful and interesting people of this world. You might be the Hardholder, running the local community to an iron fist. You might be the Savvyhead, fixing the relics of the Golden Age and building new wonders to explore this strange world. You might be a simple Operator, doing odd jobs for barter or cash and struggling to keep your head above water. Perhaps you are the Skinner, keeper of some of the last bits of beauty in an ugly world. Or you might be the Brainer, gifted or cursed with psychic abilities and trusted by none. These and many other options are possible.

Your choices will determine the nature of what destroyed the world, how it is today, and the problems you will face. This would be a fairly long game, perhaps 20 sessions of more, which for Apocalypse World, with its rapid advancement and action, is a figurative lifetime (or two) for the characters. I want to really dig into the world we create, see what makes it tick, and explore what sort of society the survivors have carved out for themselves.

System: Apocalypse World
Inspirations: The Mad Max series, The Day After Tomorrow, The Stand, Divergence, Waterworld, Aeon Flux, The Book of Eli, Life After People

The concept of this game is one part Apocalypse World (AW) and one part Saga of the Icelanders. I want to know what kind of world these characters live in and I want to do it collaboratively. So the game is an experiment in collaborative world building.

At the same time AW deals with a chronic problem in my group: late or absent players. It allows me to focus on the action of the other PCs instead. The others can be caught up with Love Letters. Even better the game is low prep thus allowing me to maximize my gaming time.

Trail of Cthulhu

Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos. ~ From Beyond

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of the infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. ~ The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories

There exists a hidden prehistory, aeons where alien gods and monsters colonized the Earth and warred over our planet, unleashing cosmic science and inconceivable powers until continents sank and seas boiled. They lie eternal in submerged tombs, resting but not dead. Deranged cults and horrific bloodlines pay them homage, hoping to use their powers to their own ends.

You are among the few who suspect the truth – about the mad gods at the center of the universe, about the Great Old Ones who dream of clearing off the Earth, about the extraterrestrials who use mankind in their experiments, about the ancient legends of undying evil that are all coming true. You have to keep the doors to the Outside from swinging open – no matter what the cost in life or sanity. You have to piece together the clues from books bound in human skin, from eviscerated corpses covered in ichor, and from inscriptions carved on walls built before humanity evolved. You have to go wherever the answers are, and do what needs to be done.

But do you dare to follow ... the trail of Cthulhu?

This game would follow a group of investigators as they unravel the secret horrors of the world. Perhaps you are book-hunters retrieving occult books for unscrupulous cultists. Alternatively you might be heirs to a dark legacy called to your ancestral home to some unknown end. Or you may be tweedy academics involved in a series of scientific expeditions in Greenland. Unlike a standard Cthulhu Mythos game, I will not be using much of Lovecraft's established mythology. Instead I intend to build new monsters and gods for the game, filling in descriptions and connecting the dots with your input during play.

System: Trail of Cthulhu.
Inspirations: Lovecraft.

I love Lovecraft. I read almost everything he wrote when I was in 8th grade. But he's a bit dated and more to the point he is so overused that his monsters have lost their strangeness. Trail of Cthulhu provides some great advice for dealing with that but I want to do something more ambitious.

I want to build a horror mythology with my players.

Can it be done? Can horror be built collaboratively? I think so. I have a plan of leading questions, character filled details, and madness sparked connections. But I need to playtest it.

Results

Both pitches were well liked, helped I believe by being fairly different from my previous games with that group. Apocalypse World was a bit more popular so it won. It seems the idea of defining a society was the little bit extra needed to push it over the edge.

I'm excited. By the time this is posted we will have played our first session. As with my game the The Price, I'll be doing an Actual Play. Tune in two weeks from now to hear more.

Geist Noir: Story Seeds Part III

Originally published August 6, 2014

I was clearing out my backlog of drafts as I end my paternity leave and I found a final article on my Giest Noir setting.

Geist Noir was a Geist: the Sineaters Chronicle proposal that failed to win over my players in Fall of 2013. I've blogged most of the NPCs, monsters, and stories I outlined for that game. Today I'll be presenting the remainder of the material.

One thing I usually do when planning a new campaign is scour my game library for existing story seeds and adventures for ideas. It saves time and I find adapting adventures to the specifics of my game fun. Even if they are not directly helpful, they can serve as inspiration for actual stories.

Death At Midnight

Pitch: A high-class party is held at a hotel rumored to be haunted. Unfortunately this turns out to be true. Worse someone has decided to use the spike in spectral energy to conduct a dangerous ritual atop the high-rise building. While the guests deal with hauntings and possessions, the PCs must battle their way to the top floor and defeat a rogue necromancer. All before the sacrifice at midnight of course.

Background: Death at Midnight is inspired by the adventure A Nightmare At Hill Manor which was a free World of Darkness adventure released on Free RPG day in June 2011. I loved the idea of being trapped in a haunted apartment complex and having to navigate the haunted building to escape.

Death at Midnight would borrow heavily from the scenes there but have Hill Manor be repurposed as a stylish hotel. The guests would then become New York City socialites.

The PCs would be guests at the hotel or attendees of the party. Alternatively they may have received advanced warning of the ceremony and crash the party before the doors seal shut and the entire hotel becomes inaccessible. For extra oomph, the necromancer involved could be a potent Sineater enemy of the PCs, a vampiric necromancer or a Strix attempting to become something more than a vampiric shade.

Antagonists: The ghosts have been conjured up from depths of Underworld, summoned by the potent ritual underway atop the hotel. They should be numerous and more potent than the average shade to deal with the powers of Sineaters.

Aftermath: Even if the necromancer is thwarted there may be a lot of fallout. Some guests may be permanently possessed, requiring exorcisms. Others may have died and need help moving on. Perhaps some die but get better, resulting in new Sineaters.

A particularly creepy possibility is that everyone who survives the party becomes mystically marked and are doomed to rise again after death in some fashion.

Then there is the necromancer's goal. Possibilities include summoning and binding an ancient and powerful Geist, merging of a mortal and Strix to creating something greater than a Sineater, or the transformation into a Death God.

Roots and Branches

This is a story from World of Darkness: Ghost Stories and could be used as is. I did have some ideas for customization however.

Outline

Basically a tree once used to lynch someone becomes haunted. It then causes others to die in its presence or draws nearby ghosts to it. These spirits then become trapped, haunting the park where the tree now stands. Only by helping the original ghost pass on can the tree be exorcised and the malignancy cleansed.

Customization

Clearly the tree while powerful is no match for a group of Sineaters. I would recommend increasing the power level and giving it some Manifestations or Numina to make it more of a threat to those who can see and directly interact with ghosts.

Additionally I would restructure the story so to be the slowly building B plot to another story or series of stories, where the hauntings and ghostly messages can be more easily lost in the shuffle. In the original adventure the creepiness of the hauntings drive the story but that would be too heavy-handed and easily solved for a Sineater Krewe.

To escalate the story, perhaps defeating the tree requires a trip to the Underworld to find where its roots dig deep into a Dead Dominion. It might even necessitate convincing the Kerberoi there to aid them.

A Piece of Me

This tale builds off the Unwilling Organ Donor of Urban Legends. While successful organ transplants are far in the future, the research was going on during the 1930s. In the World of Darkness, with the help of the supernatural, it is even working.

Focused on an Abmortal, a rich and elderly socialite whose thirst for life overpowers her morals, the Sineaters encounter a series of angry and maimed ghosts. Each is missing a vital organ: a heart, a lung, an eye. Each know nothing about where their missing part went but each desires it back before they move on. Research indicates each victim was found in one of the slums of the city.

Eventually they can trace the crimes to an unethical doctor and a murderous gang of ruffians in the employ of the Abnormal. Complicating matters is that the Abnormal is a pillar of the city, whose passing or murder will have significant repercussions. Can they get revenge for the donors without stirring up more trouble?

And how did the Abnormal learn that she could survive the treatment? What shadowy figure connected her with the doctor and to what end? Why are the doctor's notes stamped with the insignia of a centaur?

Hungry Ghosts

The final story deals with Bhuta or as I like to think of them Ghost Claimed. They come from Night Horrors: the Wicked Dead.

Pitch: Two weeks ago bodies began turning up in the local river. The authorities (the real ones, the vampires) tried to cover it up. The bodies were drained of blood and covered in human teeth marks.

The vampires know it wasn't one of their own but the press is screaming about vampire killers. So they hired you to find out who really did it and to make them stop.

Outline

This story would play out as a straight up murder mystery. The twist is that the killer has no connection to the victims and can jump bodies. The thrill is in the hunt as the Bhuta stays one step ahead of them.

And what happens when a second and third Bhuta appears? What is their connection? Why do they keep appearing near the MET? Does it have something to do with that new Egyptian exhibit?

Alien Apocalypse: Threats

Originally published August 4, 2014

A short while back I was asked to run a short game for a local gaming group. They were interested something more indie and so I ran an Apocalypse World game for them. In the spirit of many of my other posts, I thought I'd share some of that material. Last week we looked at Love Letters. This week we look at items and threats.

In session 1, the Brainer, Dog and Faceless discovered a cave filled with alien dead in the badlands. The dog had been using ears up, nose down to find a ranged weapon for his master the Faceless. She got a complication: "it's not what you expected".

They found:

Alien Gravity Pulse Beam: 3-harm ap close hitech messy. When firing this without a third (alien) hand, roll as if acting under fire.

Shortly into play, the Faceless bought an alien hand from a man named Doghead and had it attached to the gun. It will go bad eventually but for now it works fine for a month.

Also in the cave they found a mysterious orb that the Brainer claimed:

Mysterious Orb: cumbersome hitech. When exposing yourself to the orb roll +weird. On a hit ask a question about the past. The MC will answer it. Then roll Ψ-harm at +1. On a 10+ roll Ψ-harm at +0 instead. On a miss just roll Ψ-harm at +1.

In a longer game, the Mysterious Orb would have been the key to understanding the psychic maelstrom. Oh well.

Fronts

I found two fronts forming in my game in addition to the Home Front. One was quite a bit slower than the other so was less explored. Sadly I think that was the more interesting one.

Home Front

Children of H

Kind: Brutes – Hunting Pack
Impulse: to victimize anyone vulnerable
Cast:

• H – hidden mutant and holder, H hides behind his beaded curtains in a refitted water tower surrounded by his child army. He wants to increase Oasis's population but especially wants to add more minds to the collective.
• Bill – a knife wielding 10-year-old boy, he was last scene headed to Sutton.
• Pellet – a bucktoothed and braided haired little girl who leads the deadly gang of children who enforce the rules of Oasis.

H's kids can form a small gang (2-harm 0-armor savage) instantly anywhere in Oasis.

Custom Moves:

Of One Mind: treat the gang as one entity for the purposes of Read a Person or Brainer moves. They are in constant mental communication. Using psychic moves on the children counts as acting under fire (the fire being their numerous minds).

A Dry Oasis

Expresses: Hunger (for more)
Dark Future: The town of Oasis on the Salton Sea tears itself apart as people feud over resources.
Stakes:

• Will Oasis fail, leaving the region devoid of a major holding?
• Will Quick Ricky push out H, the local hardholder?
• Will Mice, H's right hand man, survive?
• Will Grome blackmail everyone and take over the market?

A Free Market

Kind: Landscape – Breeding Pit
Impulse: generate badness
Cast:

• Norvill – straight dealing merchant and Sahsa's contact for deliveries, he murdered his old partner before moving here with his wife Kettle (who was his partner's sister). He wants to save his own skin.
• Kettle – Norvill's wife and sister to his late (murdered) ex-partner. she doesn't know about her brother's fate yet...
• Chin – a lazy street doc, this Oriental man specializes in cyber-acupuncture.
• Grome – an ambitious merchant dealing mainly in transport: cars, gas, repairs, so forth. He wants to get rich.

Custom Moves:

Something Extra: when shopping in the market roll+Sharp. On a hit choose 1:

• You are offered a one time gig (2-barter/embattled)
• You can get something better if you come back tonight
• You can get an extra item worth 1-barter in the bargain, possibly with strings attached

On a 10+ gain +1 forward.
On a miss whatever you bought is bad: defective, stolen, or not what it seems.

Countdown: 3:00 – Norvill is blackmailed into closing his shop or feeding profits to Grome. 6:00 – Grome asks Humble the Brainer for help learning Chin's secrets. 9:00 – Grome lowers his prices to drive other merchants to leave or work for him. 10:00 – Norvill confronts Grome. 11:00 – the market closes early. 12:00 – the other merchants turn on Grome.

Quick Ricky's Gang

Kind: Warlord – Pack Alpha
Impulse: to hunt and dominate
Cast:

• Quick Ricky – a slick drug dealing leader of a biker gang, Ricky has been trying to press Sasha the Operator into selling Angel Kitty for him. Since then he has gotten Run Wild the Maestro'D to be his distributer. He is looking to make money. He also his eye out for a good guard or guard dog.
• Gnarley – one of the gang members sent after Sasha, he narrowly survived being run over by her truck and stabbed to death by H's children. He bitterly awaits his revenge.
• Cycle Gang – this band of nomads were pressed into service by quick Ricky as some disposable muscle and sent after the operator. They died at the hands of the Faceless. (small gang 2-harm savage 1-armor)

Ricky's gang when needed functions as a medium gang 2-harm 1-armor.

A Busted Pump

Kind: Affliction – Sacrifice
Impulse: leave people bereft
Cast: the dusty citizens of Oasis who now have to haul salty water from the Sea a few miles away.

Countdown: 3:00 – people begin hoarding water. 6:00 – H institutes rationing. 9:00 – A fight breaks out in the water ration queue. 10:00 – people leave town. 11:00 - a mob forms demanding water. 12:00 – riots.

Brock & Gang

Kind: Brutes – Enforcers
Impulse: to victimize anyone who stands out
Cast:

• Brock - a thuggish man who runs a small biker gang, Brock always wants more. He thinks he can run Gatsby's without Run Wild the Maestro'D. He eventually got a better offer from Grome and back his play for the establishment. After Run Wild tossed Grome's severed head at him, he decided it was time to leave.
• Brock's gang - technically Run Wild's gang, they nominally belong to Brock and serve as security at Gatsby's. (small gang 2-harm 1-armor)

Alien Legacy

Expresses: Ambition (to replicate the horrors of the war for fun and profit)
Dark Future: Doghead finds the lost government lab and uses the technology to allow the aliens to destroy nearby settlements.
Cast: Sargent O'Neil - an elderly soldier guarding the lost lab, he is dedicated to his mission but craves human contact. He is heavily armed (3-harm (ap) autofire) and armored (2-armor).
Stakes:

• Will Doghead find the supply depot?
• Will the squatters be murdered?
• Will the maelstrom be weaponized?

Doghead

Kind: Grotesque – Mindfucker
Impulse: Craves mastery

Cast:

• Doghead – a leather duster wearing odd job doer, Doghead seems to be running five jobs at once. Secretly he is in league with the aliens. He has some hold on them, enough to convince one to sacrifice its hand.

Custom Moves:

How does he know?: if you let Doghead stare at you for a minute, he knows what you are thinking.

Like Them: can turn Brainer moves around on those who use them on a miss.

Wreckage

Kind: Landscape – Mirage
Impulse: entice and betray people

Cast:

• Mutant Chipmunks - inspired by a player comment, these dog-sized rodents feed with fang like incisors and are prone to latching on. (2-harm hand 0-armor 2-health)
• Degenerate aliens - bug like with multiple arms and compound eyes, these survivors of the war keep to the wreckage o their fallen ships. Armed with claws and covered in bullet resistant chitin they are hard to kill. (3-harm hand 1-armor)

Custom Moves:

They don't die like people: when you kill an alien with less than 4-harm, it's not there when you look back.

Squatters

Kind: Brutes – Family
Impulse: close ranks, protect your own

Cast:

• The Squatters - rejects from the alien experiments, these people are part human part alien and cruelly deformed.

Custom Moves:

Less than human: when interacting with the squatters roll +cool. On a hit their freaky mutations and mental weirdness doesn't get to you. On a 10+ gain +1 forward when negotiating with them. On a miss take -1 forward with them due to signs of your revulsion or disturbing curiosity.

The Play's the Thing, Part X

Originally published July 30, 2014

In my continuing series, I discuss The Play's the Thing, a player advice column that ran in Dragon Magazine in the early years of D&D 3rd edition. The point of the column was to help players improve their games for their own enjoyment and that of their fellow players. In addition to reviewing that advice, I'll be providing my thoughts on how it works in actual play.

This is the final installment and in contrast to the others was not written by Robin D. Laws but Penny Williams. It is no less relevant however.

How to win DMs and influence Players

Issue 308, June 2003

Don't dismiss the art of sucking up to the game master (GM) and your fellow players. In addition to making it easier to convince them to do something for you or your character, it can be used to smooth out any rough patches in a game. When everyone is in a good mood, it is easy to get past the little problems in life.

With that in mind here are a few tips for ingratiating yourself with your fellow gamers.

Bring Food: Keeping the blood sugar up is the easy way to keep everyone happy. Make sure the GM gets his own selection or at least reserve the last piece for her since the GM will often be preoccupied with the game. But don't neglect your fellow players either.

I'm actually a bit ambivalent about this advice. I love snacking but having been trying to lose weight for a while. For me I'd rather the snacks be outside of my reach. I doubt anyone would resent having snacks brought to them but be conscious of their dietary restrictions and goals.

Anticipate and Handle Trouble Spots: The GM is often called the referee, arbitrating rules disagreements and personality conflicts. While the later task should be handled by the GM, you can help out a lot with the people problems.

During the game, run interference for the GM, diverting arguments until after the session. Try talking to any disgruntled or unhappy players before or after a session and see if you can't find out what is bothering them. Maybe it is something you then need suggest to the GM after the game or perhaps something that you can help the player fix on their own (such as a character build that is poorly optimized to do what the player wants).

Whatever you do, keep the GM informed and avoid taking sides. You don't want to become the GM's tattletale or be seen as the leader of a coup against the GM. The earlier articles on negotiating with your GM will be really helpful here. Ideally you just smooth any ruffled feathers and make suggests to improve play.

I've played this role for many neophyte GMs. The GM has enough on his plate running encounters, responding to player decisions, and rule adjudication. He or she doesn't need to do on the spot character optimization or babysitting duties on top of it.

Avoid arguments with the DM: In addition to handling trouble spots, don't be one yourself. Avoid getting into arguments with the GM about any bad calls during the game session. Handle any disappointments due to rulings against your character calmly, asking for a brief explanation and then dealing with it more thoroughly outside of the game.

Also don't spring any rules breaking combos on the GM during play. Nothing makes a GM more reactionary and prone to arbitrarily saying no than backing him or her into a corner. At the same time you don't need to go along with everything the GM says.

As for your fellow players, support their ideas and avoid shooting them down.

I've discuss this in more detail in my previous three posts.

Get Organized: this is the simplest but most effective tip. Just keep track of your character and their resources. That means ensure your character sheet is legible, that you have some paper for notes and your own writing implement. Having your own dice is also a plus.

To really earn brownie points, record everything important that happens, such as treasure and experience gained and clues uncovered. Then you can take over the task of recapping the last adventure, giving the GM more time to review his or her own notes for the current session.

Keeping organized can continue into play. Work to keep the gaming group focused on their current goals and not get distracted by Monty Python quotes. Develop standing operating procedures for common situations. Having a plan for what the group does when faced with a locked and possibly trapped door will help to speed up play and make the game more enjoyable for everyone.

Another thing I love in player and which I try to do myself. Few of us have much free time so every moment wasted searching for an item on a sheet, looking for a pencil or struggling to recall a clue is one less moment spent having fun. If everyone pitches in a little the game goes much more smoothly.

Promote Active Use of the Party's Resources: using your notes from earlier, you should know the group's available resources. In many games, player characters (PCs) pick up an eclectic collection of potions, wands, and one shot items. Don't let that gear go to waste!

If you wait for the perfect opportunity to use an item, favor, or charge you likely will never use it. The group will be hauling that bag of random magical crap around for the entire campaign. If an item looks applicable use it.

So many times I've been in charge of carrying the group inventory and those lists of items get very long. I try to use them as much as possible because if I don't no one else will.

Learn from Your Adventures: Are there recurring problems in your game? Does one player always charge into the horde of monsters unprotected? Is the group chronically lacking in medical care?

If you see a problem, point it out. Work with your GM and fellow players to fix it. Maybe the barbarian can be convinced to hold back on his initial attack or perhaps the group can better protect him. Get that wand of healing for when the cleric is tapped out.

Learn your group's weak points and then work to shore them up.

Know the campaign: Just as you learn from your encounters, also learn from the game world as a whole. Keep track of what information your GM has been provided, who the powers that be are, and what the world is like. If it is a published setting or based on a novel, it can't hurt to read up on it.

At the same time, if your GM is using a published setting, learn to censor yourself. Things your character has no reason to know (like Elminster's hit points), you should keep to yourself. That goes for any out-of-character knowledge. Instead use your knowledge of the setting to build a believable character.

This does just help with roleplaying, it can also be a game changer. Like knowing where the local temple of healing is for example.

Cultivate Relationships with NPCs: The NPCs don't have to be there just to give you your next quest or be cut down in the final act. Spend some time getting to know them, whether that be plotting to take the villain down or talking about the good old days with the old sheriff.

Investing yourself in the NPCs lightens the GM's workload as he or she can then rely on a few recurring roles. For positive relationships, it gives your character a reliable source of information and a potential ally in a conflict. For negative relationship, it makes those battles all the more poignant.

A hundred times this! PC-NPC relationships are what make a game come alive. Now your character wants something from an NPC and they can then ask you for favors in turn. That creates openings for the GM to bring in new plot hooks.

Provide and Use Adventure Hooks: Including those NPC relationships, you should try to make your characters with built-in hooks to them get into the GM's stories. These might be an interest in a particular part of the game, ambitions to gain a certain item or position, a code of conduct, or a history laden with potential adventure seeds. These then become easy ways for the GM to both get you into a given story and make you focus of it.

Keep things on the level: In other words, no cheating!

Cheating steals the spotlight from other players. Your failures leave openings for someone else to shine. Cheating also keeps you from improving your own tactics and becoming better at the game.

In the same way it hinders the GM from learning from his mistakes. How is the GM suppose to know that his encounters are way too hard if you cheat your way to victory? At some point he will be caught without your sleight of hand and probably kill off the party.

That doesn't even include the loss of trust if you get caught.

Conclusion

A well fed party, free of disagreements, well-organized and informed, invested in the world and primed with plot hooks makes the GM's life easy. They also make it more likely that you will get more limelight, cool gear, and interesting plot points. Enjoy the virtuous circle.

Alien Apocalypse: Love Letters

Originally published July 28, 2014

A short while back I was asked to run a short game for a local gaming group. They were interested something more indie and so I ran an Apocalypse World game for them. In the spirit of many of my other posts, I thought I'd share some of that material.
The gang decided on an alien apocalypse, full of rusted crashed saucers, toxic regions, black rains, and scarcity. In other words a perfect Apocalypse World setting. The characters included:

• Buster, The Dog
• Humble the Brainer
• Run Wild the Maestro'D
• Sasha the Operator
• Zinc the Faceless

I've discussed Buster before but in summary, he is a psychic dog who refuses to talk to anyone. He has refused to have an allied NPC and instead attached himself to Zinc as his master. Ultimately I chose to work around him.

Humble may have alien DNA, a subject of the alien experiments. Dressed in rain gear (in the desert) and sunglasses to hide her inhuman eyes, she wields an umbrella that functions as a violation glove (its core is made of an alien metal). She scavenges alien tech and has worked with Sasha in the past.

Sasha's player, like Buster's, gave me a lot of backstory. She owns a semi which uses to transport supplies from one hold to another, making some profit on the side from scavenging and her own deals. I decided to treat the semi as part of her crew.

Zinc has her gas mask stitched on and publicly shows the scars of her double mastectomy. She eats through IV tubes. A deadly killer she has a secret even she doesn't really know: she was a researcher during the war with the aliens. They captured her, extracted parts of her brain and turned her into this.

Run Wild joined us in the second session and ran Gatsby's, a club selling drugs, drink and sex. A sort of metallic dance club/saloon, Run wild had to deal with the disapproval of the local hardholder H, the ambitious leader of her gang Brock and the troublemaking Doghead. An androgynous figure, Run Wild was a set of cruel barbs wrapped in velvet. She wins the MVP award for the game.

Love Letters

Even it was only a 2 and a half session long game, I wanted to give my players the full experience. so I made sure every player received at least one Love Letter.

Session 1

This builds off the idea Sasha's player sent me.

Sasha,
You've had problems unloading some goods and getting good work lately. In addition to whatever goods your barter represents you've yet to unload a couple of items. Choose one of the following odd items:

• sympathy sphere (remote hitech): if someone tells their name to the device, it become attuned to them. You can then use it to help or interfere with that person remotely using the psychic maelstrom.
• eyeball (tag valuable): if eaten this weirdly shaped fungus (or is it?) grants +1 forward to open your brain. It may also expose you to ψ-harm.
• beacon tracker (hitech unreliable): this jury-rigged device picks up signals from invasion era supply beacons. Most have been looted long ago but it is rumor there remain a few unlooted locations in dangerous areas. It has been beeping for the past 20 miles.

Also you have the following:

• A single 30 lb glow-in-the-dark potato (cumbersome alive)

Buster left me with less to work with but had the idea that perhaps he could sense some of the alien language.

Buster,
You've discovered you know what the not-people are saying (or at least what they mean) better than your owners. You gain the following move:

• Smell Speak: you gain +1 ongoing to read a person who is not really human or a normal animal (MC's call).

Who's a good girl?

Humble's love letter turned out to be useless since Buster decided to remain mute and antisocial. Sigh...

Humble,
Something about you is different. Maybe it is in your genes, maybe in how you learned how to do what you do (is there a difference?). You gain the following:

• +tele-radar: you can hear the telepathic thoughts of certain Earth animals and alien lifeforms. You cannot lose this tag.

Session 2

In session one, Zinc and Humble found an alien machine in a cave in the badlands after surviving a battle with the Cycle Gangers. So by session 2, I had more to work with and created a love letter for Zinc and a new (useful) one for Humble:

Zinc,
Your sleep has been disturbed by ever since you picked up that alien weapon. Humble's glowing blue orb or one like it appears in your nightmares. You are strapped down to a metal table as the aliens experiment on you. Roll +weird. On a hit ask one of the following questions:

• What did the aliens want from my mind?
• What were they hoping to accomplish from their experiments?
• How could I reclaim some of my memories?

On a 10+ gain +1 forward to learning more about your past. On a miss take -1 forward as nightmares of a strange blue sphere, knives, and alien experiments leave you tired and frustrated.

This next love letter was again not perfect. While it helped steer the plot to a good ending, the roll to determine the fallout from the asking about the lost government lab robbed Humble of some agency.

Humble,
Your visions have grown stronger and stranger since you acquired the orb. You receive images of looking up at a ceiling lit by multicolored lights. Other times you appear to be looking out through shaded lenses. Still other times you see men dressed in uniform arranged around a strange machine. Someone you can't see is describing the workings of the device.

Your search for your origins has led you to investigate local rumors. You've heard that there is a lost laboratory where the government did experiments on aliens during the war. They even learned how to modify their tech. No one is sure where it is exactly, but its nearby the big saucer.

Roll +Sharp. On a hit pick one.

• You heard it from Doghead.
• H's kids didn't overhear you asking.
• It cost you 1-barter.

On a 10+ gain +1 forward to finding the lab. On a miss get all three.

Session 3

The final session let me create a letter for Run Wild, dealing mostly with a new drug she was peddling for Quick Ricky and his gang. I also asked how her gang was paid to determine what threat type they were. I really liked the drug roll as it became a case of spend Hold for cash or hold back to avoid trouble. With an extra bad thing for holding too much back.

Run Wild,
Business has been crazy since you started trading in Angel Kitty. Everybody wants some. What do you cut the drugs with if anything?

With your current "sampler" pack you have Hold 3. You can spend Hold to cut the drug or reduce the dosage, multiplying the amount of cash you rake in. Each Hold spent equals an additional 1-barter profit.

Roll + your remaining Hold. On a hit choose 1:

• You piss off H.
• Jinx crashes his jalopy into the back of Gatsby's, high on Angel Kitty.
• Word spreads of a rival dealer.

On a miss, all of the above. On a 10+ someone OD's: Tome Asson (your best customer), Norvill (local merchant who deals with Sasha), or Chin (the streetdoc) (you pick).

Regardless you also earn 1-barter. Oh and Quick Ricky is asking 2-barter for the next batch.

Finally does your gang enjoy the benefits of Gatsby's (when not working of course) or are they strictly professional?

Buster got shot up in session 1 and missed session 2. That made this love letter the only one that was really needed.

Buster,
For the last week you've been in a nacrostab induced coma. Thanks to the gentle if absent-minded attentions of Chin, the local medic, you are fully healed.

While knocked out, you had dreams. You are running through dim metal corridors. You smell nothing natural, only metals, plastics, and old death. Something is chasing you, something with more than two legs. You come to a keypad and put in the code with your blood streaked hand: D.A.K.O.T.A.

Roll +weird. On 10+ pick 1. On a 7-9 pick 2. On a miss all three:

• Your dreams leave you unsettled. Take -1 forward.
• Chin gets +teleradar from being in your presence.
• Chin forgets to leave water for you. Gain +dehydrated until you get some water.

Conclusion

That's it for this week. Next week I showcase some new gear and the threats from the game.

The Price: Final Thoughts

Originally published July 25, 2014

Now we reach the end of my material from the Price. There's more that I might share but I think I've shown the best work that exists. Now I want to look back at what worked and what didn't in my campaign, to discuss what lessons I've drawn from the 21 sessions of play using Changeling: the Lost, the God-Machine rules, and World of Darkness: Innocents.

What Worked

When I replaced the Court system in Changeling with Guilds, groups devoted to a particular purpose and roles in the Freehold society, I untangled a large knot that had hinder me and my player's enjoyment of the game. On paper I love the Courts, with their emotional resonances, and Entitlements, with their pledge based duties. But in practice, I found neither satisfactory.

Entitlements asked so much but gave so little. Characters took on responsibility and filled out odd requirements for a 3 dot token and the option to call yourself a noble. I never liked how "nobility" could easily doled out in a society with only a few dozen members. You need peasants.

Courts were less troublesome to me but bothered my players more. They lacked a defined purpose beyond a support network and their government made little sense to True Fae and mortals alike. Does a community of 100 (like Miami) need more than half-dozen officials? Why would their positions rotate every 3 months? Wouldn't that make them much less efficient? Why not just use democracy to confuse the True Fae?

Guilds took the best from both ideas: defined organizational roles (Entitlements), a support network (Courts), and actual magical or temporal power (Courts).

Using Innocents and starting the characters as children went really well. I enjoyed exploring bullying, dealing with bedtimes, and other issues of childhood. The players also enjoyed it a lot. When we did the time skip and filled in the years from childhood to adulthood, that also was nice because we had this history established of how they were as children and could then see how time changed them.

Mechanically, I had great luck this game abstracting the results of rolls. I adapted the Social Maneuvering rolls to navigating a haunted house, turned social rolls into a way to create temporary Staff, and computer rolls to build some temporary Resources. I discovered that Professional Training was a sort of super Merit, so much so that I felt bad for the one PC who didn't exploit it. It really helped round out characters though in their day-to-day lives.

In terms of the plot, I was well satisfied. It took about 3 sessions for the story to solidify but then everything worked as planned. In my original write-up the Queen of Shadows wasn't the mother of the McQueen boys and Feral Tom's character was fused with her. It wasn't until session 3 that an interesting suggest from my wife split the two creating a somewhat sympathetic figure from the Queen and creating Feral Tom to continue the plot line I stole from Baron Fairweather in Night Horrors: Grim Fears. The plot element of the Quill of Fate wasn't fixed until I had a chance to play up Hedge the time traveler. After that it was just a matter to run the long con.

What Didn't

So I love the idea of Conditions but in practice they are a bit of a pain. It is relatively easy for a character to build up 3 or 4 of them which then need to be tracked. I had one player that was clearly frustrated at not being able to resolve some of them (because they were tied to specific characters or situations). And with Conditions from Integrity rolls, I felt like I didn't have enough options.

All of this would be fine, if they were not also a way to gain Experience. Since they were, I ended up adding a tracking method for my game (which is online), attempted to brainstorm more Conditions, and interpreted the Resolution mechanics more broadly. But it was a bit frustrating.

Aspirations also were a bit hit or miss, at least until I enforced a period at the end of each session to refresh them. It did require additional bookkeeping and I realize I was not always the best at incorporating the players' goals into the next adventure.

Indeed, I felt several times like I was failing to keep all of my players happy. The player of Rocco was stunned at one point with how soon I planned to end the campaign. Nikki's player was bothered by the group's secretiveness and general lack of planning. And I know I let Marco's plot arc hanging for most of the game.

What Would I Do Differently?

Most things can helped with better communication. Certainly that would have helped Rocco's confusion and did improve the situation with Aspirations. Perhaps I could have facilitated a group discussion to resolve Nikki's frustration. Keeper better and more open track of Aspirations and Conditions earlier on would certainly help everyone stay on the same page.

For my part I need to tie my player's plots in deeper into the main story so that they advance more regularly. I did that with Miroslav and they advanced well. But it wasn't until the last session that Marco's plot of taking down the Mob became a main feature.

I also find myself want to run slower games, to dig deeper into the lives of the characters. Especially in the second half, when the characters were adults, I felt that I glossed over who they were.

Am I Done With Changeling?

The final question is whether I will return to Changeling. I think it comes down to what themes I haven't run yet. My first Changeling game, Into the Hedge, focused on dreams while The Price dealt with Pledges and the Goblin Market.

The theme I remain interested in is the idea of "You can't go home again." Its a central theme of Changeling: the Lost, one tied directly to fetches. My first game was supposed to explore this but I was thwarted by my player's character concepts, all of which involved being missing for decades.

I think to make the theme most powerful, you need the hope and seeming opportunity of stepping back into your life. So if I was to run another game, I would enforce the rule that the characters were all taken or changed no earlier than a few years before the game begins and that they remain, physically at least, roughly the same age as their fetches. This would allow them the illusion of being able to step back into their lives. Obviously I would make it clear to the players that their characters would have to really struggle (and likely fail) to accomplish this.

I would also like to reuse Alice and Hedge, seeing as they are both characters who cannot go home and thus reinforce the theme. I might even use Rosebriar again.

It is something to consider for the future.

The Play's the Thing, Part IX

Originally published July 23, 2014

In my continuing series, I discuss The Play's the Thing, a player advice column by Robin D. Laws that ran in Dragon Magazine in the early years of D&D 3rd edition. The point of the column was to help players improve their games for their own enjoyment and that of their fellow players. In addition to reviewing that advice, I'll be providing my thoughts on how it works in actual play.

In the past two weeks, I talked about how you, as a player, can deal with problems that develop within your gaming group. The steps I outlined were:

1. Identify the problem.
2. Identify the problem's causes.
3. Figure out, and learn to respect, the other person's point of view.
4. Solve the other person's problem another way.
5. Present the problem with a possible solution.
6. Be prepared to compromise.

This week we'll focus on understanding your game master's (GM's) perspective and how you can use that to better negotiate with him or her.

Negotiating with Your DM

Issue 303, January 2003

Once you've identified the problem and its causes, you need to know the other person's point of view. Since the GM has been at the heart of many of the problems we have looked at, knowing what types of GMs exist can be extremely helpful in determining which suggestions will work best for your GM.

Each GM's style is unique but a few broad categories can be sketched out. Your GM might fit into more than one category but knowing which styles exist should help you identify what they enjoy about the game and thus gives you something to leverage to get what you want. Here are a few of the more common types of GMing:

Author

GMs who follow the path of the Author seek to create a compelling and often epic story. Working out the details far in advance, he or she steers the game within a predetermined narrative. When it works, your characters become the heroes of an epic tale, like the Fellowship of the Rings. When it fails you feel railroaded between scenes or treated as secondary characters observing while the GM's NPCs take care of the heroics.

When negotiating with the author, you'll want to convince him to loosen his storyline and allow more real choices for your characters. Your solutions should be pitched to show how allowing those choices can still allow him to tell an exciting story. One thing you might emphasize is how the choices of the player characters (PCs) can also give him a sense of being part of the audience, as your decisions lead the story into unexpected places.

Battle Master

By contrast, the Battle Master deals with the immediate: combat. At his or her best, the game is action packed with many interesting and challenging encounters. In the worst case, combat consumes the game as the story become only a vehicle to more fights.

Negotiations with the battle master tend to dwell on improving the balance between combat and other types of scenes (such as roleplaying or investigation). You should focus on highlighting how specific combats might have been given more emotional resonance or tension through earlier roleplaying and investigation scenes. In other words he can make the combats more interesting by using non-combat scenes to invest the players in the stakes or combatants. You might also suggest ways that noncombat abilities can be tested so that your character is properly challenged outside of combat.

Director

The Director is the more flexible form of the Author, spinning stories on the fly and improvising off of the actions of the PCs. This requires the PCs to have interesting goals and the volition to pursue them. If you are a proactive and creative player this can be great. Otherwise you might feel yourself left out as the story gets pushed forward by the GM and other players.

Negotiating with this sort of GM is generally fairly easy, since she wants to work with your ideas. She will generally be happy to work out with you what your character wants and thus develop plot threads from that. So the first step is to just voice your wants whether that be abstract (more combat) or specific (avenge your fallen mentor).

Monty Haul

The "Monty Haul" GM (so-called after the game show host Monty Hall) loves to give out treasure and experience to the players. A power gamer at heart, he or she likes to make everyone feel like a winner. On one hand this GM knows that they are trying to entertain the players. They just resort to material gain to achieve this.

You are unlikely to convince this GM to cut back on the goodies so focus on improving the challenges you face. Suggest ways your characters can all of this loot while still satisfying your own preferences. So if intrigue is your interest, you might ask for an item to allows telepathy or mind control and opportunities to use it. Similarly slug-fest combats can be transformed by magical items that alter terrain.

Off the Racker

The off-the-racker runs things by the book, often using published adventures. They might be new to GMing or simply lack confidence in creating their own material. In this case the game is as good as the material, which can be quite good. However it will also leave less room for customization.

Your negotiations should focus on improving the GM's level of confidence. Praise him when he improvises and creates his own material. If you've GM'ed before, assure him that everyone is nervous at first. Alternatively you might just look for adventures that match what you want in the first place and suggest those to the GM.

World Maker

The World Maker loves to create settings. They may devote endless hours to detailing the world and use the game to showcase the results. Often they treat the setting as a sort of grand experiment and let the PCs do what they want within it. On the negative side, this GM might not correct for a shortage of satisfying stories or exciting fight scenes.

Negotiate with them by focusing on the aspects of the world that you want to spend time on. Often they will be more than happy to spend time adding the additional detail. For more big battles, ask them about warfare within the world and any martial subcultures. Dig into the parts of the world that should yield what you want.

Negotiating Basics

Most problems in gaming (or life) come from a difference in expectations. These include your own. So remember that the game itself might not be bad, merely failing to cater to your particular tastes. What we want to do is convince the GM to adjust the game to feed those tastes.

Assuming you've followed the outline above, you now have identified the problem, its source, your GM's viewpoint, and some possible solutions. Now what do you do?

Next comes the task of negotiation.

The key thing to remember about negotiations is that they are a matter of give and take. Just as you hope to bend your GM to your ends, you in turn will often need to concede a bit as well.

You want to remain emotionally unentangled in this task. Otherwise you will find yourself pursuing two incompatible goals: convincing the GM to do something for you and to be proven right. No one likes to be proven wrong and forcing the issue generally slams the door on any other goal. So give up on the goal of being right (or if it means that much to you, on your friendship with the GM and participation in the game). Focus on the practical goal of convincing the GM to make the changes you want.

So some tips:

• Be Friendly: Be polite while making your case. Many people say they are open to constructive criticism but few people really want their weaknesses pointed out or their viewpoints challenged. So be as polite and non-confrontational as possible.
• Be Deferential: As part of your non-confrontational stance, respect the GM's authority. Couch your suggestions as opinions, i.e. "I'd really enjoy it if there was a little more action in the game". This leaves the GM a lot of room to negotiate how much more action to include without saying anything about how their current game is lacking. By giving them nothing to object to, you remove a potential stumbling block.
• Avoid Abstract Argument: Avoid hypothetical arguments. Reductio ad absurdum will not win an argument. By invoking abstract positions you just harden the other side's position. Instead focus on specific items for your discussion: how this exact problem affects this combat or this situation. If the other party takes the argument to the abstract level, politely but firmly return to the specific dilemma at hand.
• Be Aware of Past Baggage: Let any previous arguments or debates stay in the past. Bringing up the past will only cloud the current issue and possibly prejudiced the GM against you. At the same time, try not to think of the current negotiation as a rematch of a previous conflict. Remember you are trying to get the GM to fix this specific problem and not win an argument. You can't change people but you can convince them to alter their current plans.
• Listen: While you have tried to see the other person's position before, it always helps to keep listening. They have things they want too and those may not be as obvious as you thought. Maybe you discover that your interests are not so far aligned and that he just needs some extra help. Listening is often more helpful than talking.
• Modify Suggestions Accordingly: As you learn more from your GM, incorporate that information into your suggestions. Don't be afraid to admit that you hadn't thought of something. It signals flexibility and makes them more willing to compromise.
• Enlist the Other Party's Help: Demands usually meet resistance but asking someone to help find a solution is harder to resist. You show that you can compromise and the Gm then naturally feels obligated to reciprocate. Cooperative problem solving is much more effective than a battle of will.

I hope this helps you navigate the minefield of fixing problems in your games.

Tales from the Darkness: Charmer

Originally published July 21, 2014

A while back I played in an Apocalypse World game using Jamil Vallis-Walkers's Darkness rules. The other players and I explored a world permanently shrouded in a psychic darkness that corrupted the strayed too far from the light. It was an evocative setting but my character died in an unsatisfying way. In the interest of getting past that bad experience, I used the Mythic Game Master Emulator is run a short game for myself, to device a more stisfying ending. I found it pretty therapeutic. Here is some material from that game.

Charmer

On the edge of Salt lies acres of rusted and shattered spires. Atop a few of the towers are several working wind turbines, still spinning and generating electricity. Thanks to them the desert town has enough power to keep the darkness at bay. However, the machines need continual maintenance.

That's where Charmer enters the scene. A mysterious freak who lives on the edge of the town, Charmer trades in brainer tech and stranger oddities. One of the few who will trade with the cannibal nomads who wander the desert, he has a reputation for getting the better part of any deal and messing with people for fun.

Charmer's loose robes and veil obscure his (or her?) features, leaving little revealed to hint at who or what he is. Only the surgical scars seen around his dark eyes hint at the horror of his actual appearance. After a nasty encounter with a Savvyhead and her friends, Charmer lost his right hand. It is unknown if he's managed to replace it.

Threat Type: Grotesque: Mindfucker
Impulse: craves mastery

Custom Moves:

Transmit: Underneath his robes, beneath his skin, wires and electrodes are tied into Charmer's nervous system. He uses this network to tap into the Darkness, using it as a medium for transmissions to his allies and others. Anyone opening their mind to the psychic maelstrom (peering into the void under Jamil's Darkness rules) may receive a message from him in addition to the normal effects of that move.

Receive: Charmer's cybernetics allow him to tap into any mind tied to the Darkness. When peering into the void at Charmer, you must answer one of the following questions. Charmer knows your answer.

• What is one of your secret pains?
• What do you crave forgiveness for and from whom?
• What was your lowest moment?

Gear: Charmer has a collection of devices he builds or alters in his hut. Here are a sampling:

• explosive vest [intimate 4-harm area refill]
• personal EMP [close area refill]: kills all electronics within range

Charmer works with a loose group that is trying to commune with the Darkness. As such he is interested in anything or anyone with power over or access to the Darkness. He has heard about a Dark Room that allows one to isolate and control the darkness. He wants to one for himself.

Material from The Price: Under-Hedge

Originally published July 18, 2014

In my Chronicle the Price, I made an effort to personalize the Hedge in every location. One of the more evocative sections was the Under-Hedge: a subterranean realm that bordered on the Underworld.

The Under-Hedge

Beneath the Wilds and Mo-Hedge (as the Hedge of Detroit is called) hides a subterranean realm of cracked masonry covered in thin pale brambles. Damp marble walkways wind beside inky black waters like a Morlock Venice. In places overgrown railway lines lead to unknown quarters while above vaulted ceilings give way to root clogged dirt.

Infrequent lanterns illuminate the labyrinth with cool blue flames, masses of fireflies or even odder lights.

Under-Hedge remains unclaimed, not subject to the laws of the Night Market. Only the lowest members of the Freehold come here to scavenge. They risk the ire of the diminutive Under-King, the hob lord of the devolved humanoids that haunt this realm. Rumors also circulate of ghosts and entrances to the land of the dead.

Mechanics

Despite the maze of tunnels, the hard confines of the Hedge make it relatively easy to navigate. Rolls to travel through the region gain a +1 bonus, with a +2 bonus for attempts to reach upper realms of the Hedge.

Characters of the Under-Hedge

Several people, mortal and Hob, have their destinies tied to this dark realm.

Under-King

The Under-King could be found sitting upon an earthen throne in a hidden grotto. The deformed figure resembles a hunchbacked dwarf, squatting amid his misshapen court, surrounded by hundreds of tree roots. Despite having but one eye, his gaze always seems to find those who visit. Dressed in elegantly made armor of blackened steel, his twisted body fidgets uncomfortably within its metallic confines.

Attended by his brownie warriors, dressed in their ant carapaces, he was once the dominant force in the Under-Hedge. His downfall was the same as that which gave him life.

The tale of the Under-King begins in a Detroit hospital in 1988 when a young woman gave birth to a set of conjoined twins. One, Yvette Gambol, was healthy and beautiful. The other was twisted, an undeveloped parasite. The doctors excised the twin, discarding its broken body removed.

But the Hedge remembers things.

The Under-King was born of the lost flesh, seeking to rejoin with his source. After the customary seven years, he stole Yvett from the mortal realm. Her friends and neighbors luckily managed to convince him to let her go. Soon after, she moved to Chicago to live with her father.

Permanently separated from his other half, the Hob withered and died.

Virtue: Honor
Vice: Misleading
Attributes: Physical 3, Mental 5, Social 6
Contracts: Hearth 2, Darkness 2, Fang and Talon (Worms) 3, Fang and Talon (Ants) 3

Brownies

These tiny men dress in rat-skin cloth and wear helmets made from hollowed out giant ant heads. Armed with 3 foot long spears and tiny blades, they are weak but still dangerous.

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 2, Resolve 1
Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 1
Social Attributes: Presence 1, Manipulation 2, Composure 2

Mental Skills: Crafts (Traps) 3, Occult 1
Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 2, Larceny 2, Stealth (staying still) 3, Survival 2, Weaponry 2
Social Skills: Persuasion 1, Subterfuge 3
Merits: Brownie’s Boon, Fleet of Foot

Wyrd: 1
Contracts: Artifice 2

Virtue: Loyal Vice: Avarice
Initiative: 4 Defense: 3
Speed: 9 Health: 3 Size: 2
Gear: Tiny spears and swords (deal Lethal damage)

Yvett Gambol

Back in Detroit, Yvett was a tiny African-American girl with braided hair. Despite her bright pink clothing, her smile was always troubled. Followed around by a coal-black cat named Mr. Soot, she could often be found playing in the overgrown lots near her home or tagging along with her older brother Everett. She also spent a lot of time over at the Callaghan’s when her mother is too busy (or drunk) to take care of her.

Rumors still swirl that when Yvett was born in 1989, she was deformed somehow. Her mother refuses the speak on the matter and the little girl seems normal enough.

In the spring of 1996, she was kidnapped by the Under-King but the Callaghan and McQueen kids managed to rescue her. But the Under-King continued to send her disturbing and magical gifts while his servant Ulf watched over her at night, crawling in the walls.

In the end Social Services saved her, taking her from the monsters and her troubled mother and sending her and her brother to Chicago where her father lived.

Aspirations: Help her family get along, Do well on the big test at school, figure out how to tell Mom what really happened
Age: 7

Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3
Physical Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2
Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 2, Composure 2

Mental Skills: Crafts 1, Study 1
Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 2, Stealth 1
Social Skills: Animal Ken 1, Empathy 2, Persuasion (Adults) 2, Socialize 1
Merits: Defensive Combat: Brawl 1, Pet 2, Small Framed 2, Unarmed Defense 2

Willpower: 5 Integrity: 6
Virtue: Kindness Vice: Self Centeredness
Initiative: 5 Defense: 5
Speed: 8 Health: 5 Size: 3

Everett Gambol

In the late 90s, Everett was known as a skinny African american kid who ran with the local gangs. Failing to look tough in his bright T-shirt and scuffed up jeans, he was the bullied more often than the bully.

In modern-day, he keeps his hair in a crew cut and fills out his T-shirts with bulging muscles. He speaks with confidence and an air of command.

Everett had a reputation as a cocky kid but everyone knew he had no guts. His neighbor Marco McQueen used to shake him down frequently for cash when he wasn't fast enough to run away. In school he attended class with Nicole Callaghan and Rocco McQueen where he regularly earned F’s.

Everett was born in 1986 and his presence kept his folks together long enough to have his sister. But it didn't spare him from his mother's bitterness. He was simultaneously neglected and smothered, scolded for anything he did wrong and seldom praised. After his father left, Everett strayed to the gangs, seeking positive attention. They turned him into a runner.

He was picked up by the police in July 1995 on suspicion of drug possession. Rumor has it his mother locked him in his room without food for three days as punishment. Later that year his sister went missing. He knows something strange happened to her, something he doesn't like to think about. It involved creepy talking dolls and something moving in the walls.

All of that eventually went away when he and his sister moved to live with his father in Chicago. There things improved for both of them.

Later Everett graduated from school with an adequate education and enlisted in the army. He is currently on his second tour.

Aspirations: Get out of the gang, Get a new video game, Earn some money
Age: 10

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

Mental Skills: Crafts 1, Occult 1, Politics 1
Physical Skills: Athletics (running) 3, Brawl 2, Larceny 2, Stealth 1
Social Skills: Socialize 1, Streetwise (avoiding trouble) 2, Subterfuge 2
Merits: Contacts (gangs) 1, Eye for the Strange 2, Fleet of Foot 1, Odd Jobs 1, Parkour 2

Willpower: 4 Integrity: 7
Virtue: Protective Vice: Ambition
Initiative: 5 Defense: 6
Speed: 11 Health: 6 Size: 4