Review: Dungeon World

Dungeon World is a roleplaying game that combines the core mechanics of Apocalypse World (AW) with the setting and feel of Dungeons and Dragons.

My experience with this game is somewhat limited relative to its sources: I played a convention one shot and a short game (4 sessions) with my local group with my wife as game master. But I think it is sufficient to give a fair review of the game in comparison to AW and D&D, games I've spent years playing.

I should however admit that D&D as a game and genre has lost much of its appeal to me (why is a topic for another day) so I plan to focus on well it replicates the feel of D&D and not my opinion on the genre.

Dungeon World Review

Same System, New Genre

So let's start with how it resembles the less familiar of its two ancestors, Apocalypse World.

Like AW, it uses the dice mechanic of 2d6 + attribute where a 7+ succeeds. 7-9 means a partial success and 10+ being a full success. Failure serves to signal the game master to further complicate the situation.

Dice are used whenever a "move", or narratively important action, occurs. Attack a monster? Roll Hack and Slash. Climb down an abandoned well? Defy Danger if there's a threat (like crumbling bricks or hidden monsters), otherwise we skip to the bottom and what you find there.

The moves of Dungeon World tell us what is important about the game and how to handle it. Hack and Slash covers melee attacks and Volley does the same for range. Defy Danger is your catchall saving throw/skill check system. Spout Lore and Discern Realities tells your character something interesting about the situation from their education and perception respectively. Parley covers attempts to talk your way out of things.

There's a lot that harkens to the expedition model of dungeoneering. Encumbrance, while abstracted, is a move. Undertake A Perilous Journey exists for wilderness travel. Make Camp and Take Watch cover resting in dangerous environments. Supply covers the shopping trips and Recruit attempts to get meat shields hirelings.

Like AW, Dungeon World uses armor to absorb damage, though not very much relative to the damage thrown at characters.

Where it gets interesting is where it deviates from what one might expect from D&D. Last Breath gives one a chance to survive a brush with death (when your hit points drop to zero). Carouse lets you burn through your ill-gotten loot in true Conan style.

Magic items rarely grant a simple bonus. A sword might be flaming or sharp enough to cut through stone but that doesn't make the rolls easier. It might deal more damage or open up new moves instead. Mundane gear is simplified with less and there is much less shopping involved.

Adding to this is the fact that damage is based not on the weapon used but on character class. Fighters simply do more damage than Wizards even if they both wield daggers.

Experience comes from four main sources: failing rolls, following alignment, advancing your relations with other player characters, and fulfilling the main goals of the game: getting loot, exploring the world, and fighting monsters.

Finally the gameplay can be largely improvised. Like in many AW games by default the world is built up between the GM and the PCs thus creating a setting that both groups are familiar with. You could run the game in a "standard" D&D fashion with premade dungeon maps but there is nothing holding you to that.

Like (A)D&D

The world Dungeon World seeks to emulate is that of older versions of Dungeons & Dragons, like AD&D and Basic D&D, and not more recent systems like 3rd or 4th edition (Dungeon World was published in 2012 so comparisons to 5th edition don't come into it).

Characters are defined by six attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma which provide bonuses to rolls in a not quite linear fashion. Characters are also defined by a class and from that choice a race. A simplified alignment mechanic is also included (which unlike D&D's stick model, merely grants experience when you act according to your alignment).

Like D&D it includes hit points, based on Constitution and Class, and not AW's usual countdown clock. On the face of it makes the characters seem much tougher. However monsters in Dungeon World deal dice of damage, sometimes with bonuses, and characters soon appear quite fragile.

Characters advance in levels, which each new level bring more abilities and each level requiring more and more experience. Interestingly going up in level does necessarily add hit points or otherwise give bonuses (though characters do get to raise attributes which can have these effects). Characters thus grow more linearly than they would in D&D.

Spell casting sticks to the Vancian model of casting a limited number of prepared spells. Spells are not automatically lost when cast. That is fairly common option when using them however.

Unlike AW, combat tends to go back and forth for several "rounds". It's not quite like D&D but it certainly doesn't lend itself to the "one and done" behavior I enjoy in AW. Fights can get drawn out which means a lot more opportunities for failure and thus complications. Depending on how hard your game master is making his or her moves those misses can be worse than the initial fight itself.

Finally Dungeon World delivers the hordes of wacky monsters we've come to expect from D&D.

Conclusion

The result of merging D&D and AW is a game that seems a bit grimmer than most D&D games I've played. Characters are more fragile. Large monsters are scary, able to kill any character in just a couple lucky hits. Magical healing is limited and runs out quick. Monstrous hordes can easily wear adventurers down. This is not a game with the feel of a swashbuckling adventure.

Dungeon World's strengths over D&D include an experience system that rewards playing towards the game's tropes. The alignment system provided also works well as a guide and incentive instead of the usual straitjacket. The somewhat more narrative style also works for me.

The game could use some more examples and detail in places. I was never quite sure what a shapeshifting druid could do, seeing as only a bare handful of animals are detailed in the book.

All in all however, I think it's an excellently designed game that delivers on what it sets out to do: create the desired feel of D&D using the Apocalypse World system.

Infrastructure: The Wolves

Hidden throughout the world are pieces of Infrastructure, devices and beings designed to serve the occult purposes of the Machine, a universe spanning entity working to unknown purposes.

Some serve as ways to control and corral disruptive elements, to keep them away from fragile plans and facilities.

This week's idea comes from ideas I had when I first read about Vampire: the Masquerade. The Lupines seemed so much more mysterious then, with vampires being largely clueless to their beliefs and structure. It's something I'd like see more of in the World of Darkness: scary mysterious threats.

The Wolves

There have always been monsters at the borders. Here be dragons, don't venture into the old woods, beware of sea serpents at the edge of the world. Go too far at your own peril.

Some monsters exist to contain other monsters. In the city, vampires, wizards, and fae crowd in small neighborhoods, rarely venturing to other districts let alone crossing the long stretches of highway and backroads to another settlement.

They claim they are avoiding some particular weakness of their kind. Sunlight and the daysleep, the magical retaliation of their enemies, Keepers and the Wild Hunt. But there are also the wolves.

Some say they are just normal wolves. If those naysayers return from the wilds, they know better. Others say they are werewolves so lost to their inner beast that they can never return to human form. Some say they are tools of a savage vampire or fae overlord. Those who have gotten close and survived say they are less supernatural and more unnatural, creatures forged of flesh and circuitry. Those broken monsters babble about government conspiracies and black helicopters.

A Truth

The wolves are constructs of the Machine, serving it by keeping supernatural creatures from interfering with its works. Partly mechanical, partly flesh they combine the wolves' natural senses with enhanced strength and intelligence, making them a match for any vampire or fae.

Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 4, Resolve 4, Strength 6, Dexterity 3, Stamina 5, Presence 4, Manipulation 1, Composure 4
Skills: Athletics (Running) 4, Brawl 3, Computers 1, Intimidation 3, Stealth 3, Survival (Tracking) 4
Merits: Unseen Sense

Willpower: 8
Initiative: 7          Defense: 8 (Armor 1/1)
Speed: 18 (species factor 9)
Health: 9              Size:4

Abilities:

• Bite (1 Lethal)
• Jam Electronics (Strength + Computers)
• Night Vision (thermal and low-light)
• Cybernetic speed (x3 speed for up to one minute)

The wolves work in packs of up to a dozen. Several will distract opponents (making attacks designed to lower Defense) while others work to bring them down (with All-Out attacks on arms and legs to inflict Tilts). Once softened up they devour the poor soul as a group.

Other Truths

That's one way they might exist. But other possibilities exist.

• Hunter: the Vigil: the wolves are a tool of a Conspiracy, likely Task Force: Valkyrie or the Cheiron Group. Maybe they corral monsters to make for easier hunting or perhaps they've slipped their control chips and must be put down themselves.
• Werewolf: the Forsaken: Are these wolves claimed by insane machine spirits or are wolf spirits desperately trying to feed by claiming abandoned machinery? Or is some intelligence creating these living magath?
• Night's Black Agents: these are obviously tools of conspiracy, used to defend a base of operations in the wilderness.

General Abilities: Abberance 10, Fighting 12, Health 10
Hit Threshold: 4
Alertness modifier: +4 (night vision optics and keen hearing)
Stealth modifier: +1
Damage modifier: +1 (bite)
Armor: -3 vs. bullets, -1 vs. others; Unfeeling
Other Powers: Field Effects (block electronic communication)
Banes: EMP

• The Esoterrorists: the wolves are fake, but someone is behind these reports of monsters in the woods. Maybe they use disguised dogs, mulitated wolf corpses, and trickery to create these creatures. Pretty soon though something like them will creep out of the Outer Dark.

String Theory Recap: The Red Eagle

The fifth session of my Night's Black Agents, String Theory, saw the introduction of a new player. Mike rejoined my regular group, post-wedding/schooling, and brought in Guy, a wheelman and smuggler who used to work with the CIA. He's sort of the Transporter minus the hand to hand skills (that we've seen). He rounds out the group of Robin and John.

The Red Eagle

After holding up in the mountains for a month, the team has put together a plan of action. They intend to interrogate Brigovic to see what he knows and who responds. To help with the manpower they bring in Guy, a wheelman and smuggler, who used to work with John when he was with the CIA.

John looked into Madison after he split from the others in Italy. His mentor, the Chessplayer, informed him about a rogue operation in Germany that might be related.

Of important note here is Heat rolls. Last time they were in Serbia they left a trail of dead bikers across 30 miles of highway. So there is a search underway for them. The difficulty is 1 (murder of criminals) +1 for the sheer numbers +1 for the conspiracy putting pressure on this investigation -2 for time. That's a total Difficulty of 2 (adding in the base 1 for being ex-spies). They roll a 1.

Once back in Belgrade, John and Robin slip on board the mobster’s party barge, the Red Eagle, under the guise of a rich heiress and her bad boy date. Guy waits in the harbor for a fast escape.

High Society to gain entrance.

After staging a fight with her "boyfriend", Robin gains Brigovic’s trust and interest. He takes her up to his room for some privacy.

I charged a 2 point Flirting spend to get the mobster alone without dealing with his goons.

Robin convinces him to engage in some playful bondage. Once he’s tied up, she scares him into spilling the details on his employer.

She spends 1 point of Interrogation to break him.

She learns The Bride and Madison are the same person. She and another operative, Talbot, help over see the human trafficking operation here in Belgrade. The laptop theft was not the normal sort of operation and was authorized by the Bride herself. Robin also extracts info on the defenses of his warehouse where the human trafficking operation keeps people while in Belgrade. She then robs his safe and takes his phone and laptop.

Outside John scouts the defenses. Brigovic’s door is guarded by his personal bodyguard. Once Robin alerts him that she is done, he distracts the guard by approaching aggressively. The bodyguard warns him off, giving Robin a chance to slip away.

John spends a point of Intimidation to give a 3 point Infiltration refresh to Robin.

The pair then slip aboard Guy’s boat before anyone is the wiser.

Of course this means Brigovic is alive and livid. The group is about to have a lot of Heat dropped on them.

John gets a call from the DOD. Serge Milic is dead. John goes to the morgue to check it out. With Guy driving the getaway car and Robin on overwatch, he pretends to be a cop and checks the corpse.

Serge however reanimates and attacks him. John shoots him through the left temple (blasting open the opposite one as well). Black slime oozes from the wound as Serge throws him across the room.

Time for my first vampire attack. The plague bearers are incredibly tough. Bullets do only 1 damage to their dead bodies. Also they are very strong. Luckily they are slow...for vampires.

John manages to escape Serge to the street. As he leaps into Guy’s car, Serge jumps on the back. Guy shakes him and they toss a Molotov at him for good measure.

John wins the quick chase of Athletics rolls. After this I start boosting Aberrance to account for how rapidly I spend down. I only barely catch the car. An easy Drive roll shakes Serge as he's exhausted his Aberrance. The molotov (obtained via Preparedness) actually does hurt him but they don't stick around to see how badly.

The team reassembled at the hotel. John showers. Examining some of the dirt from the corpse, they learn he likely was at Brigovic’s warehouse. Also the black slime seems to be a bacterial mass, specifically containing the black plague.

More clues, revealed via Chemistry and Diagnosis. John also makes a hard Health roll to avoid the plague.

At that point the hacked lobby cameras alert them to the authorities arrival.

A straightforward Electronic Surveillance spend for the minute's heads up. This is the fallout for the failed Heat roll earlier.

As Robin and John sneak out the window, they notice Madison and her allies waiting for them. A rooftop chase ensues. They climb up the fire escape and jump to the rooftop next door, slide down a storm drain and race through a market, then grab some bicycles and head for the meet site.

We have a full chase this time. I handle some of the options poorly, I think the players were looking for more refreshes than swerves.

They lose Madison early on by dropping a Molotov on top of her. as she puts herself out, her goons chase them down until they lose them on bicycles.

Another Preparedness roll, this time from John.

Guy meanwhile simply wanders out, trying not to attract attention. He triggers the wiping of the hotel security video and then races to meet the others, just missing them at the market.

Guy uses Preparedness to retroactively set up a device to erase the existing security footage. Since he just hired on, no one recognizes him as one of the agents. He manages this feat for quite a while.

Racing to the meet site, he instead finds Madison waiting for him. He drifts his Audi into her. Instead of sending her flying she end up under the car.

Again I missed player intent. Guy intended to hurt her and knock her away. The first worked out but I misunderstood the later.

John point to the car, just as it begins to lift from the ground. Guy puts the pedal to the metal with no effect. Madison slowly lifts the car above her head as Guy deftly slides out, slicing the fuel line along the way.

As Guy calmly walks away, John fires a single shot at her, igniting the gas and killing Madison.

Another explosion! Guy spends Athletics to avoid any damage by being blown clear. Madison however is too close and dies instantly.

Robin snatches Madison’s phone from the wreckage. She pulls an ax from her coat and lops off an arm for good measure.

Another Preparedness roll, this time for a cutting tool and heat-resistant clothing. Giving the preponderance of explosions, the later isn't that much of a stretch.

Then team escapes into the city.

Infrastructure: Alternate Pattern Spider

Hidden throughout the world are pieces of Infrastructure, devices and beings designed to serve the occult purposes of the Machine, a universe spanning entity working to unknown purposes.

Continuing on last week's post we look at an alternative pattern spider to Cob and something stranger still.

Alternate Pattern Spider

The concept for these characters came from the Mage: the Ascension adventure Loom of Fate which I adapted to my Mage: the Awakening chronicle "The Darkness That Men Make". Due to some parallel reality troubles in that chronicle my players got to see Norna Weaver make both choices: to choose to keep her humanity AND to become Cob's replacement. Add to that a clever mid-game plot by the PCs to replace Cob themselves using the proto-Geist (ghost-spirit hybrid) of Simon Ellsworth from the adventure Chicago Workings and the result is a fairly complicated assortment of spirits attempting to hold Chicago together.

Arachne/The Weaver

Norna Weaver felt like a prisoner of fate but in the end she got an opportunity few do: to change her fate and live both lives.

On one path she struggled against her destiny and refused the path laid out for her. The young Acanthus mage took on the name Arachne and helped by the cabal that rescued her became a potent oracle for the Mysterium.

Then an act of Imperial Magic provided her the opportunity to rewrite her own past. Her past provided many tragedies to alter: the murder of her mother, the death of her father, the cataclysms of her days as a neophyte. She chose instead to change a pivotal moment in her past, her one real choice: whether to remain human or become something greater and stranger.

In the reality that currently holds sway, she accepted her destiny on her own terms. Subject to a powerful magical ceremony she shed her humanity and Supernal spark, becoming something more spirit than flesh. She became the elegant Weaver, a silver skinned pattern spider which combines order and chaos in a way to promote balance and strength throughout the city. She replaced the fallen Cob, rebuilding the spiritual reflection of Chicago stronger than before.

Rank: 4
Attributes: Power 10, Finesse 10, Resistance 8

Willpower: 18  Essence: 25
Initiative: 20     Defense: 10
Speed: 30          Size: 6
Corpus: 14

Influences: Balance 3, Infrastructure 3
Numina: Chorus (order spirits), Greater Influence (x 2), Material Vision, Mortal Mask, Prophecy, Strengthen Gauntlet
Ban: The Weaver can be bound by a net (without a resistance roll) that includes a strand of hair from Norna or her parents.

Ellsworth

A third entity supplemented Cob's position for a while in a now lost version of Chicago. Once a gifted but fundamentally mundane architect, after his death Ellsworth rose to become something greater than a ghost but not quite a spirit.

In life Simon Ellsworth pursued sacred geometry by following secrets left behind in a text known as "Chicago Workings". With it this geomancer infused his spirit into the city itself, imparting some measure of his sense of charity to the people living there.

That might have been the end of it if not for the death of Cob, a crisis within the city, and the inventiveness of a cabal of Mages. Using a spell crafted by a long dead (but not entirely departed) Mage, they elevated Ellsworth from a fading ghost to something greater and stranger. He became part ghost and part spirit, composed of ephemera and infrastructure.

Ellsworth resembles the aged bald man he was in life but his eyes shin like sunlit glass while his skin has taken on the texture of steel and brick. Despite the inhumanity of his appearance, those in his presence feel a comforting warmth.

Virtue: Charity. Ellsworth looks after the needs of everyone in the city down to the lowliest beggar.
Vice: Pride. Ellsworth pushes himself hard and refuses to accept less than perfect results from himself.

Attributes: Power 6, Finesse 4, Resistance 5
Influence: Chicago Architecture 3
Numina: Gauntlet Breach, Chorus (city and infrastructure spirits), Commune (Reaching), Hallucination
Ban: He cannot refuse a request from someone who is truly homeless.

Willpower: 11
Initiative: 10     Defense: 4
Speed: 20          Size: 6
Corpus: 11

Review: Fate Core

Time for a long overdue review: Fate Core. I've played in two one shots (an improvised game at GenCon featuring brave vloggers facing down an emergent AI and a game of Mecha vs. Kaiju at DunDraCon) as well as one campaign (set in 17th century Mystic India) and run one campaign myself (To Boldly Go, a hard scifi corporate take on Star Trek). So I feel well versed in the rules and how they work in actual play.

Fate Core

Mechanics

Fate 's system is simple but can easily be expanded to greater complexity. All actions are resolved by rolling 4 Fudge dice, which are six sided dice labeled with two plus signs and two minus signs with the other sides blank. After totalling up the pluses and minuses, you then add your skill value. If your result beats the target difficulty, you succeed. You can also choose to succeed at a cost (minor if you just make the difficulty, major if not) rather than fail.

You can also invoke Aspects (or descriptors) for the scene, character, or situation to gain a +2 bonus (per invoke). Sometimes this is free but more often you need to spend a Fate point. More on Fate points later.In practice I find the spread of results to be oddly skewed. Unlike d20 or percentile systems, Fate works under a curve where 0 is the most likely result. But the results don't feel the same as for a 2d6 or 3d6 system (like Apocalypse World or GURPS). I don't know why, but it feels like the results slide more easily to extremes. Perhaps everyone I play with just sets the difficulties a touch too high. Then again that may be intentional to encourage tagging Aspects.

Tagging or invoking an Aspect relies on spending Fate points or setting up a situation so you have a free invoke. Each player character starts off with a small number of Fate points at the beginning of each session and earn more whenever they accept a complication to change their course of action (known as a compel). In practice I find Fate points run out (except for perhaps a point in reserve for near death emergencies) before the climatic end of a game. There's supposed to be a flow of points from the GM to the players and back into the pot but it never seems to work as well as advertised. And if difficulties are too high or rolls are too low and you lack that Aspect bonus, you tend to fail a lot.

Anyway, the system breaks everything down into four basic actions: Overcome (to defeat an obstacle or create a concrete result), Create an Advantage (like overcome but creates a new Aspect with a free invoke), Attack and Defend.

Combat involves comparing Attack rolls to Defend rolls. The difference is the damage dealt. Characters have relatively little ability to absorb damage (or Stress as it is called in the game) without consequences. By default a very tough (high Physique skill) character might be able to absorb 10 points of Stress but more generally you can deal with 3 or 6 points max. Instead characters can avoid damage by taking on conditions (i.e. harmful Aspects for character). Damage heals quickly with stress vanishing between scenes. Conditions last somewhat longer (depending on severity).

So in the end, Characters consist of a few Aspects, several Skills, and a few Stunts, or ways to alter the basic rules of the game. Stunts might increase the bonus from an Aspect or allow a skill to be used where it would otherwise not be appropriate. The more stunts you have the fewer Fate points you get.

That's the system briefly.

Cons

Other than the aspects of the system that don't click as well as I'd like, a major con to me is the 'meta' nature of the system. Every invoke of an Aspect tends to pull me out of an immersive mindset. In other games you might narrate back and forth with a player/GM to describe the action, breaking out the dice when something of consequence occurs. But in Fate you must constantly be aware of the Aspects in play and how to exploit them.

My thought process during a typical session tends to the following. Do I want to spend a Fate point to invoke on this attack? Probably not (I only have three points). So I'll need to set up a free invoke. That eats up a round of action while the opposition strikes at me. But if I don't get that free invoke I'll burn through my Fate points fast, perhaps within one combat. Alternatively I'll always be one away from a success.

All in all the system just feels very much like a game: getting the right combos/invoking the right Aspects. The very codifying of Aspects makes them more prominent and distracting to the overall action. When the Aspect is "The House is on Fire" it become hard to focus on the choking smoke, occasional falling timbers, and curling burning wallpaper that gives the scene immersive depth. Everything feels swallowed in bold details.

It breaks immersion for most styles of games I like: drama (I do not want to roll to set up Aspects for everything as I smooth talk the prince to my way of thinking, I'm doing enough strategizing already), horror (so do I know all the Aspects or not? Because knowing kills the dread), mysteries (see horror but add the possibility of roadblock failures).

Pros

Having got through my cons, what makes Fate great?

Well the core book is free and the system is trivially hacked to support any setting you want. Just change the skills, add some stunts, and maybe include some rules for extras like magic weapons, mecha, or cybernetics. There are also a ton of tools to make the game your own.

The mechanics are simple and easy to learn. There is little book-keeping and character creation is fast and collaborative.

Also the style of action the game supports (let's call it pulpy or comic style) works great for genres where conflicts naturally involve setting up for the big hits. Good settings include ones where success comes from invoking your magic sword, shouting out power words, or powering up the giant robot's main weapons to pile on the hurt.

Conclusion

Fate is a well-built, fast paced game. Character creation and game preparation is a snap and the system can easily be modified to whatever setting you find interesting. However this is not a game for immersive roleplaying and the mechanics will be more in your face than you'd expect. Also working the Fate point economy requires continual attention.

This game has a place in my collection but will never be my game of choice.

Infrastructure: Pattern Spider

Hidden throughout the world are pieces of Infrastructure, devices and beings designed to serve the occult purposes of the Machine, a universe spanning entity working to unknown purposes.

The Pattern Spider

The concept for these spirits came from the Mage: the Ascension adventure Loom of Fate which I adapted to my Mage: the Awakening chronicle "The Darkness That Men Make".

Within the spirit world of the city, a spider-like creature lurks, tapped into the network of infrastructure that makes the city hum. Telephone cables, power lines, rail roads, fiber optics, asphalt and concrete all converge on this spot. From here it can sense any disorder and send its agents to repair the damage to the network.

But this potent spirit remains the network's greatest vulnerability, a linchpin without which the whole network could collapse. What it protects and for whom depends on who you ask.

• Mage: the Awakening: the spider serves to protect the burial-place of one of the Bound, a fallen god trapped here when the Exarchs ascended to the Supernal. Its creators serve the will of those Exarchs.
• Demon: the Descent: this Angel serves the Machine, helping to maintain a vast and potent network of lesser Infrastructure.
• Werewolf: the Forsaken: this spirit represents the city's infrastructure. It exists because the city exists and it works to maintain the flow of essence that sustains it. If it dies the city itself may die.

Whatever it truly is, it is served by a swarm of lesser pattern spiders.

Pattern Spiders

These dog sized spiders shuffle about on clockwork legs, chittering with squeaky metallic voices. Glass and steel make up their carapaces in equal amounts.

Servants of both incarnations of the spider, these beings of order repair the damage to the city's pattern like busy worker bees. Each seems much like the next though the perceptive can recognize minor differences in their appearances.

Rank: 1
Attributes: Power 1, Finesse 4, Resistance 1

Willpower: 5    Essence: 10
Initiative: 5      Defense: 4
Speed: 10          Size: 4
Corpus: 5

Influences: Order 1
Numina: Ban of Power, Calcify, Material Vision, Strengthen Gauntlet

Ban: Cannot resist a command from a superior, must repair or recycle damaged items left in its path

Cob

A unique pattern spider, Cob may have been conjured decades ago by a group of mages known as the Seers of the Throne. Or perhaps it is the product of the Machine's occult matrices and is truly one of its Angels. Either way it has since been strengthened the Seers’ magics.

Cob's arachnid form is composed of steel, allowing the bear sized spirit to loom over its surroundings. Its eight rusty limbs end in a prehensile grippers, powered by leaky hydraulics. Dull black and covered by rivets, its armored carapace has cracked in places, revealing patches of rust and broken wiring. Stiffly it clambers through a web of fiber optics, copper wires, and steel girders.Its many eyes shine with television static.

The burden of maintaining Chicago's infrastructure has worn down Cob, aging and weakening it. More than simple physical damage, the spirit is weary and tired.

Rank: 4
Attributes: Power 8, Finesse 8, Resistance 12

Willpower: 20  Essence: 25
Initiative: 16    Defense: 8
Speed: 26          Size: 7
Corpus: 19

Influences: Order 4
Numina: Alter Integrity, Calcify, Commune, Left-Handed Spanner, Material Vision, Reconfigure Object, Repair Object, Strengthen Gauntlet

Ban: Has no Defense against fire from a burning building

String Theory Recap: Post Mortem

We've reached the fourth session of my Night's Black Agents, String Theory. This session saw my smallest group with only Scarlet and Robin joining in. They did relatively well, considering.

When last we left the agents, they were fleeing agents of "the Bride" and the Serbian Mob. They arrived in Italy having almost eluded their pursuers.

Post Mortem

The agents began the session with Hot Lead 9.

John splits off from the others to hunt down a lead of his own while the rest of the team takes a train across Italy to catch a ferry to Corsica.

The train ride is uneventful but as they board the ferry, they notice a suspicious delivery van boarding at the last moment. As the boat pulls out into the harbor, Scarlet scrambles to use her cell phone to identify the drivers: “Lefty” Rico and Bronco, Italian hit men associated with the Serbian mob.

Scarlet spends Criminology to quickly access some databases before they are out of cell range.

Robin lurks in the vehicle bay and watches the men (plus a third) talk. Lefty seems worried about something in the van. After Lefty and Bronco head upstairs, she sneaks up to the vehicle. Carefully she pops the lock and looks inside.

An easy Surveillance roll and a not so easy Infiltration roll. She beats the third man's Alertness modifier but not...

Inside a hairy beast lurks, chained to the interior of the van. It smells her and begins to burst its chains. She shuts the door and finds cover.

And I begin spending Aberrance on Super Strength for my werewolf.

Up above, Scarlet attempts to impersonate a German tourist but fails to blend in. As a rain storm moves in, she is spotted by the hit men. Lefty grabs her as she tries to slip through the crowd. She slips his grasp and escapes into the vehicle bay.

Scarlet fails a Disguise roll but makes the Hand-To-Hand rolls to escape the goon.

Scarlet hits the fire alarm on the way down and runs to join Robin. As the werewolf begins ripping its way free of the van, Robin targets the gas tank a nearby car. The blast burns it badly and wounds Lefty as he hurries after Scarlet.

Another explosion! Robin makes the tough Shooting roll to blow the car and then uses the cover to avoid any damage. The werewolf is not so lucky. Bronco manages to avoid damage by spending his Athletics pool but Lefty is badly hurt.

Lefty warns Bronco to remember the command word as he heads toward the burning van. Lefty then turns his gun on the female agents. Scarlet shoots back and kills him. Bronco finds the werewolf but is too slow with the command word. The beast rips him apart. The sprinklers turn on.

The werewolf charges the ex-spies as a pair of sailors descend to deal with the fire. The monster eats their hail of bullets but smashes Robin into a wall and eviscerates a sailor before realizing it is dead. Robin sends the survivor back up with stories about a tiger on the loose.

From then on Robin liked to refer to the werewolves as "tigers". Also guns at close range do a lot of damage (+2 damage in fact).

The remains seem less bestial in the light of the blaze: a man surgically altered with a body that suggests steroid abuse if not for the copious amounts of hair covering it. Scarlet grabs the dog tags hanging from its neck and takes a sample of its blood.

Robin races to the wrecked van. She blasts it with a fire extinguisher and grabs some notes from the blaze. Then the pair head upstairs before anyone notices them.

Robin retroactively produced the fire extinguisher via an easy Preparedness roll.

Avoiding the authorities actually turned into a fiasco as the pair began failing fairly easy Disguise and Infiltration rolls. Eventually a Reassurance spend by Scarlet created enough rumors swirling about the incident to convince everyone that the true culprits had escaped via speed boat.

After reaching Corsica, they travel quietly to the meet site, an isolated cabin in the Alps. The dog tags identify the monster as Sgt. Patrick McDermott, a former navy SEAL. He was connected to Madison Smith’s unit.

Some chemistry work also allowed them to concoct drug regime to counter act the artificial adrenaline in the creature’s system.

A Chemistry spend here.

After mapping out connections between the agents and organizations they had encountered, the team decided that targeting Danilo Brigovic would yield the most intel for the least work. With Scarlet hanging back to pour over the laptop contents, John and Scarlet geared up for a return trip to Belgrade.

Infrastructure: Grinding Teeth

Hidden throughout the world are pieces of Infrastructure, devices and structures designed to serve the occult purposes of the Machine, a universe spanning entity working to unknown purposes.

Grinding Teeth

Within the city, an unassuming building sports an odd sheen of metal along the seam between the stones that make up its lowest level. Passerbies instinctively keep away from this decoration, sometimes complaining of a grinding noise.

To those who can see past the simple illusion, this sheen takes the form of thousands of bronze teeth, constantly gnashing and grinding past each other, as if chewing on something. In addition to a metal grating, one can sometimes hear the faint screams of its latest victim.

The entire building serves as a means for the Machine to destroy and recycle potent supernatural creatures and devices, grinding them down into a purer form of energy to power its other projects.

Interpretations

The idea that this building serves the Machine is just one of several possibilities:

• Mage: the Awakening: A potent cabal of Mages constructed the building to serve as a way to remove otherwise indestructible artifacts from the world. These "Guardians" claim to know which items deserve to be saved and which must be destroyed. Unfortunately that grimoire you need is next on the building's menu.
• Werewolf: the Forsaken: The teeth are merely a clue that the building has been Claimed by a potent hunger spirit. It prefers to eat werewolves and other spirits but in a pinch it will devour anyone. Slowly people disappear from the structure's many offices, snacks for the spirit's unending feast. Recently a cult has formed within one of the businesses housed there by people who see the building for what it truly is: a god. Some claim to have Werewolf kin. The god demands sacrifices.
• Geist: the Sineaters: the building has particular tastes, it only eats the dead: ghosts, Geists, Kerberoi, and...Sineaters. No one knows who built it but rumor says they somehow created a Dominion outside the Underworld. Within the building's neighborhood, all dead beings must obey its single law: the dead must be devoured.

Mechanics

So what happens if your character is the unlucky sap thrown into the teeth? The process of being ground into nothingness is painful but slow. Mechanically, the character suffers 1 point of Aggravated damage and loses 1 Dot from their power stat (Gnosis, Primium, etc.) each day. Once they reach zero in their power stat, they suffer 3 Aggravated damage per day instead as the teeth render their body into energy.

Lost Dots return at the rate of 1 per week should the character somehow escape.

Someone with access to the building can easily siphon off energy from the process, gaining 5 points of Aether or Essence each day as long as the teeth are fed fresh victims.

Lynchpin

While taking down an entire building clearly would stop this piece of Infrastructure from working, it would also bring down lots of attention from the collateral damage.

An alternative method would be to feed the Grinding Teeth a poison pill: a being or artifact whose destruction would drain or destroy its mechanisms. Likely options include: a Promethean (who might survive due to Azothic flare), an Abyssal spirit, a Mummy or some other deathless thing.

2016 New Year's Resolutions

A New Year and some New Year's resolutions. Mostly these are gaming related but I've include a repeat my (relatively successful) resolution from last year.

New Year's Resolutions

1. Diet. I did this for all of 2015 and while I didn't reach my goal, I did make significant progress. 27 pounds down, less than that to go!
2. Write Every Day. I've felt with the end of my Actual Plays (at least those created from transcripts), I've been writing less. Ultimately I’d like to manage a regular 1000 words a day but for now I'll focus on just writing something down every day. For the site, for possible submission, or just because.
3. Tumblr Posts. I have a tumblr but I don't use it much. I've had comments in the past suggesting I should post of some of this material there as well. So I intend to give it a go. I don't promise any regular schedule and a lot of the material will be old posts from the site but expect something up there at least weekly.
4. New Gaming Group. With my local group likely to go on long-term hiatus (new children do that), I need a new group to play with. I figure I've got at least a year where I can reliably play an evening a week and I know that I need more than one game ongoing at a time to satisfy my creative itch.