Some things were already decided. I had four main players plus my wife who would be playing in a one on one game that would exist parallel (and occasionally crossing over) with the others. I want the game to run for a couple of years or 15 to 30 sessions. Lastly I want the player characters to trust each other. After the issues in my Apocalypse World game, I want to make sure the players were all on the same side as much as possible.
That established the structure of the Chronicle as conforming to a single Ring plus a friendly and trusted outsider (my wife).
Themes
As I always do, I first began by looking at what themes I wanted to stress in the game. My initial list of possibilities included those recommended by the Demon: the Descent corebook and the other books of the line: Dissonance, Possibility, Disaster, and Technognostic Espionage. I also reviewed material from earlier drafts my Demon: the Descent pitch: Black Science, Broken Code, To Reign in Hell, and the Soul Cipher.Black Science would focus on the idea of forbidden or impossible science much like the weird happenings of the TV series Fringe. To Reign in Hell would be a political chronicle forcing the PCs to find their personal Hells before others imposed their own ideas upon them.
After a short talk with my players, I shelved my ideas for a politics heavy game. Maybe one day I’ll do it after I show them how easy it could be.
Then I sent this questionnaire:
Theme Questionnaire
Choices:
Please rate the themes on a -5 to 5 scale (where -5 is hating it and 5 is loving it):
Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives: two or more versions of Seattle exist side by side. On the other side your allies might be enemies, your cover might still (or always) be human, and you might never have Fell. These What If worlds cross into our own and ours into theirs. There's danger...and opportunity.
A Digital Exorcism: The Vatican has a special force dedicated to fighting the forces of Hell. A cursed bloodline hunts monsters to atone for their progenitor's Fall. Those of the faith work together to push back the darkness and hunt Demons. Biblical imagery blends with that of the Machine.
Living the Lie: Agents of the God-Machine are always searching. Maintaining Cover and blending in with the human herd is a Demon's best defense. But how do you balance the obligations of life with those of your true nature. And what if you have multiple Covers? Do you take Joey to the soccer match or investigate that new facility behind the school? How do deal with your boss discovering that you really go to top off at that broken piece of Infrastructure on 9th on your lunch break?
My final question is a bit more open-ended and deals with the question of how many NPC demons you want in the game. More means more potential allies, more politics, and more rivals. It also means more Agencies. Agencies are organizations of Demons devoted to a common cause. A few options exist:
Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives received three 3s, a 1, and a negative vote. That vote came from a player who wanted to focus more on their character’s mundane life.
A Digital Exorcism got a 4, 3, 1, and was sunk by a -2. The dissenter was fine with the theme as the subject of an occasional story however.
Living the Lie scored well with three high votes, one zero, and a -3. This conflict is less of an issue however since I can apply this theme to individual players. I just need to work with those who were not interested in it to determine what sort of trouble will take its place for them.
The population vote was hardest to manage. My wife obviously wanted more demons involved since she would otherwise be even more isolated. Many players favored either One or a Few Agencies but one player voted for anything but that. I brought that person around with an assurance that their character would not be pressured into joining.
Please rate the themes on a -5 to 5 scale (where -5 is hating it and 5 is loving it):
Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives: two or more versions of Seattle exist side by side. On the other side your allies might be enemies, your cover might still (or always) be human, and you might never have Fell. These What If worlds cross into our own and ours into theirs. There's danger...and opportunity.
A Digital Exorcism: The Vatican has a special force dedicated to fighting the forces of Hell. A cursed bloodline hunts monsters to atone for their progenitor's Fall. Those of the faith work together to push back the darkness and hunt Demons. Biblical imagery blends with that of the Machine.
Living the Lie: Agents of the God-Machine are always searching. Maintaining Cover and blending in with the human herd is a Demon's best defense. But how do you balance the obligations of life with those of your true nature. And what if you have multiple Covers? Do you take Joey to the soccer match or investigate that new facility behind the school? How do deal with your boss discovering that you really go to top off at that broken piece of Infrastructure on 9th on your lunch break?
My final question is a bit more open-ended and deals with the question of how many NPC demons you want in the game. More means more potential allies, more politics, and more rivals. It also means more Agencies. Agencies are organizations of Demons devoted to a common cause. A few options exist:
- We are on our own. There are a few other demons but they operate alone and we rarely interact.
- There's the one Agency (maybe you want in, maybe you steer clear) and a number of other demons who work alone or in small groups.
- A few Agencies exist and they don't always get along (maybe you want to form your own).
- Many demons frequent the city and the Agencies have organized against any upstart organizations. They run the shadow world where you hide from the Machine.
The Response
In retrospect perhaps I gave my players too many options. The results were hard to disentangle. No one player caused a problem but together the results were almost mutually exclusive.Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives received three 3s, a 1, and a negative vote. That vote came from a player who wanted to focus more on their character’s mundane life.
A Digital Exorcism got a 4, 3, 1, and was sunk by a -2. The dissenter was fine with the theme as the subject of an occasional story however.
Living the Lie scored well with three high votes, one zero, and a -3. This conflict is less of an issue however since I can apply this theme to individual players. I just need to work with those who were not interested in it to determine what sort of trouble will take its place for them.
The population vote was hardest to manage. My wife obviously wanted more demons involved since she would otherwise be even more isolated. Many players favored either One or a Few Agencies but one player voted for anything but that. I brought that person around with an assurance that their character would not be pressured into joining.
Aftermath
This process has left me with a few items to discuss with the players as a group:- What are the Agencies fighting over?
- Are you (as a group) part of an Agency? Forming one yourselves?
- How did you meet? How did you learn how to trust each other?
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