Actual Play – This Ends Now (6/25/2010)

GM: Shaun Hayworth
Players: Sean, Travis, Fattig and Kristin
System: Dresden Files

The red court vampire Hernandez has put a hit on Saul Kaufman. Can his friend’s keep him alive when it turns out Hernandez is a guest of Maltheus, the Black Court monster with a hereditary hunger for Kaufman blood?

Yep, that’s the adventure in a pulp novel. Highlights included Sauls mom being the most disappointed Jewish mother on the planet. Sven trying so hard to protect Saul and constantly having his mark disappear. Jameson backing Saul’s plan of telling vampires “how it’s gonna be!” because he had pulled it off with Jameson’s sister Isabella.

Who is the Master of Bater Field? (yeah, that was gratuitous). It looks like Donnie. He messed up a sorcerer and his red court buddies. Wait… Sven hit one with a car. Two points there. And Jameson got all silver eyed and hungry tearing them up. Hard to say. I had fun using a sock with a rear view mirror stuffed inside as a bludgeon.

Final Scene – inside the Metal Clown pavilion that is home of the Black Court and his Red Court guests just as the ground suddenly polarizes and a flash of lightning strikes the metal coffin we’re all occupying. And mom said Thaumatury was never good for anything!

What rocked

I enjoyed getting to pull off a pretty big spell, that was fun.

Having everyone eventually agree to a stupid, stupid plan is always great.

Driving Sven crazy by being impossible to protect.

Finding out Gard is Sven’s handler… and then having him deputize Donnie with a high power rifle.

I’m seriously going to drop a giant lightning bolt onto a Ferris Wheel… that should be epic.

What could have improved

I’ve got to read the magic system over again… I keep doing it just as I try to cast a spell and it’s slowing the game down.

I realize I don’t have a good sense of what geomancy should do. My whole idea of aligning energies sounds great on paper when we’re talking about doing feng shui but it’s been hard to apply what I think are reasonable applications in game. Any suggestions on this front would be appreciated.

Actual Play – Polly Wanna Cracker (6/18/2010)

GM: Shaun Hayworth
Players: Sean, Travis, Fattig, Kristin and Rich
System: Dresden Files

We added Rich, in the form of our sold out warden to our motley bunch. It’s an interesting juxtaposition for me having another spellcaster in the group in that I believe it’ll cause Saul’s role to become more defined by who he is than by his power (as the warden is a more capable caster) or his connections (as the warden is also works for the mob). I think Luca (Rich’s character) will be a warning for Saul of what he could become if he doesn’t get out.

So yeah… the story. It was very Compelling!

Actual Play – Of Course it’s Your Last Job Saul (6/11/2010)

GM: Shaun Hayworth
Players: Travis, Sean, Fattig and Kristin
System: Dresden Files

I’m not sure if I can capture of the cool of this game, but I’ll try. I spent a car ride down to San Jose (about an hour and a half) talking about it with Steve and I thought that would get my mind ready to write the AP, but it seems that the frantic energy I had about the game has faded just leaving a nostalgic afterglow. The game rocked.

Fattig ran a little late for the game but that turns out to be cool. Kristin jumped in and took one of our “Face” NPCs and made it into her character. Anders, the White Court Pit Boss made flesh. Travis and I had her star in our books, forge a few connections and voom… we were ready to play.

As we were doing this Shaun casually turns to the group and says “I need a magoffin”. I wasn’t sure what it was for so I just spouted out “A Hollow earth threatening to collapse in on itself.” He looked at me a little strange and then I offered one less epic “An idol of power, taken from the vampires”. He nodded and went back to some notes while we continued integrating Anders with our charactes.

Fattig shows up and we got the party started.

Actual Play – Atlantic City Character Creation (6/4/2010)

GM: Shaun Hayworth
Players: Sean, Travis and Fattig
System: Dresden Files (woot)

So we’d settled on Atlantic City last meet, this time it was characters.

Travis went for a Monoc Operative named Sven. If you haven’t ready Changes yet, but have read the earlier Dresden books, he works for the same company that Gard does, which suffice to say has their own interests. He’s an Emissary of Power, and a recent one at that, having only entered the company’s employment during/after Desert Storm. Template: Emissary of Power.

Fattig is a were-spider. This Italian guy who looks and talks like he could be mobster but hates the mob vehemently. Raised in Atlantic City, when he left for MIT he spit on everyone on the way out. Now he’s back and he’s learned a trick from his Grandmother, turning into a giant ass spider, which is apparently great interest to the Red Court. As Donney likes to say (or as Fattig likes to say) “Ah, we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.” Template: Were-creature.

I’m playing Saul, a new age Jewish thaumaturgist that practices feng shui, geomancy and the alignment of energies. His largely maternal family lived in New York (broadway actors) but moved to Atlantic City for political reasons, specifically the quality of life improvement and abolition of anti-Semitic values. Yes, his family is ushering forth a new power in Atlantic City: The Jewish Anti-Defamation League, much to Saul’s embarrassment. Sadly for Saul one of his first clients that wanted to know about aligning energies was the owner of Dukes, the mob boss of Atlantic City, who decided that wizards and the mob go together like spaghetti and meatballs. They both have their own code that they live by. None of them will go to the police when they get in trouble. And neither one liked newfangled technology. Now he’s under their thumb. Saul’s High Concept: Mama’s boy Thaumaturgist. Issue: Mixed up in the mob. Template: Sorcerer (minus the evocation).

Actual Play – My Steady Jenny (3/27/2010)

GM: Ryan Macklin
Players: Sean, Mike, Eric and Travis
System: Dresden Files

Heck yeah, I got to get my Dresden on! Macklin ran his audition game for Good Omens and opted to do Dresden, which got a few of us (specifically those who’ve been play-testing it) very excited.

We held the game at EndGame which was all around awesome except forgetting that we were in a retail story during business hours at being told we needed to watch our language (sorry Anthony).

The game was set around a group of were-creatures (Raven, wolf and wolverine) though I thought for the whole game that my character was a werewolf who just acted like a wolverine, but that’s beside the point. To Macklin’s great credit I’m sure there was some original plot involving a serial killer, but our game was all out the aspect Mike took for his team leader “My Steady Jenny” and the question he left unanswered in his novel “Will they stay together after he finds out the truth about Jenny?”

The game was ostensibly about who took Jenny and what she really was. Most of it played out, however, as juvenile college antics. Our characters were clearly more motive by our personal issues (like academic probation) than we were in being heroes and this created some tension between the leader who wanted to find his girlfriend and the rest of us who were tackling our own troubles. I was particularly happy that Mike (our leader) had two aspects that were really pulling him in two different directions: My Steady Jenny and Think of the Team.

What rocked

I had a lot of fun playing the dumb but fiercely loyal Levi. Even though he really wanted to help Tommy (the alpha) out all the time, his own life was complicated enough that he usually wasn’t much help. He also had some great moments where things went way over his head much to our collective amusement. When the deliciously deviant were-raven told him he wasn’t complaining about the “ride” last night, he thought she was talking about the trip to Circle K. And so on.

Ryan did a great job of taking our aspects and rolling with them. As mentioned Jenny became the spotlight of the story but there were a few others that kept coming up as well such as “Bros before elder gods”, “Academic probation” and the ever popular “Can’t take a hint”. In retrospect I probably should have had an aspect “C’mon Teach” considering Levi’s desperation to get at least a C- even though his teacher was a dark sorcerer.

Our character interactions were lots of fun, I think we might have exasperated Mike at times but as a whole I loved the character drama.

Ryan has a couple tricks I’ve got to remember. The one I liked the best was drawing us into an emotional connection to a character by having us all describe why we liked him so much, what was so awesome about him, and then BAM, telling us we were at his funeral. Good stuff.

Dresden, like its earlier counterpart SotC holds up very well in a con environment. You can play the game half baked and never feel like you’re missing anything. In this case we had characters that were only about 65% complete and using just the core rules mechanics and did just fine. We didn’t need any elaborate chase mechanics or nuanced stunts. The basics did just fine, which is perfect for a con scenario.

We took a very leisurely stroll through the adventure and set a pace that was conformable to us. We didn’t get much done (see below) but had a great time doing it.

What could have improved

Ryan was caught off guard in the beginning. He had forgotten some bits (character sheet, dice, etc) at work so we had to do more prep in the beginning. The result of this was that we really didn’t start playing until after our lunch break midway through. I would have been happy with another 30-60 min of play, but not sure we actually would have gotten farther in the game because most of the time our characters were just messing with each other.

Actual Play – Dresden Play-test (10/27/2008)

System: Dresden Files

We had most of our crew together and started our Dresden play-test.

Cast: Zak, Reggie and Xin Gao.

I started the game with some compels to bring the characters right in the middle of the conflict and to bring them together.

Reggie was playing the slots, bored, early in the morning when Sherry and Wanda, two old ladies (the Crones) flanked him and began to play slots on either side of him. Sherry started talking to Wanda about trouble she had crossing the street near the Luxor, some dog was loose. She mentioned that someone should do something about it. Sherry apparently thought her slot machine was broken because the red light was flashing. The old ladies left and teller came up behind them to tell Reggie his slot machine was flashing because he won more than it could pay out. I triggered “No such thing as a free lunch…” to compel him to go look for the dog.

Zak had been possessed by the Loa, and came to consciousness being chased down a street by cops with blood on his hands. I compelled Houngan: Priest of Legba to put him in immediate trouble. Zak escaped the cops by diving into the NeverNever.

Xin was performing at Cirque and send to do an “extreme” performance. I compelled Were-tire Acrobat to make him to work and then “Dogs are Loyal but Cats walk Alone” to outshine his partner Jade and push her to go beyond her normal limits. The rigging was set up so that she could potentially get hurt, all to appeal to a particular clientele, to fellows dressed up as pharaohs, undoubtedly from another show. After finding out that they were the ones that put the pressure behind the performance, Xin decided to investigate.

The story proceeded from there. Instead of my normal breakdown of what worked, what could have been improved, I’m going to further divide the sections into my GMing and the system. In some cases the lines are blurry.

As a GM, what rocked:

The female characters came off as powerfully sensual but capable. It is key to me that women are both strongly feminine without being helpless creatures waiting to be saved. Tara, that woman attacked I the alley was thankful for Reggie saving her but still had spirit and was able to help him escape from the Black dog that chased them. Jade, a character that came up out of thin air is fit, petite and pleasant on the eyes by fiercely determined to put on the best show she can. Margaritte, even though in a hospital, held it together enough to tell Reggie about the attack on her and what Zak had done to protect her.

The Crones were great. I think I just love playing old ladies, especially in pairs. I had essentially the same old ladies in my Mage game, as great aunts of a Mage who were always getting into things. I tried not to lay it on too thick, but I had a lot of fun playing them.

I managed to slip in some foreshadowing details. It made me happy that the players recognized things before I described them mechanically. They new they were talking to fey, they new something was happing at the Luxor, etc. The leaps weren’t huge, but I was happy they weren’t puzzled.

The player interactions were awesome. This doesn’t really belong in the “As a GM” section, but it doesn’t belong in the system section either and I’m not dividing things further. Reggie and Zak have some great chemistry and some excellent internal conflicts. I kept thinking about Angel and Spike when they were talking to each other… to me that is gold.

The story is sufficiently complex. There are women being hurt. A mysterious black dog attacking people. Unhappy Ogres kicked out of their house. A big fey procession. A hotel renovation and a Native American Art Exposition. All of these things tie back into each other and all provide leads to follow up on. See below, however for the downside to this.

As a GM, What could have been improved:

I forgot to put the conflict in their faces. I made two pacing mistakes that in retrospect I’m annoyed about.

  1. When they were first investigating the Luxor, I gave them some tangential details about the changes and insinuated that there was a private contractor who was organizing it. I gave them a name but should have just had the contractor show up and talk to them. It’s going to happen sooner or later, and it should have been sooner.
  2. Here’s the big one. I didn’t put the screws on. They bumped into a pair of summer court ogres that said they would meet at the Voodoo Lounge to discuss what they were mad about. That was shit. They should have just said, right there in the street. “This is our home and we’ve been locked out of it. If we can’t find a way in we’re going to destroy it. Nobody violates our territory.” The ogres represent the stories pacing. If the players don’t figure out what’s going on, they are going to start hurting people. It was a huge mistake not to bring that out in the first session. As is I think the players don’t feel much immediate pressure on them to figure out what is happening. The dial is at 5 and it needs to be at 11.

I think of great descriptions in my head but they always come out too wordy. As I’m trying to describe the scent of the pharos, I stumbled over words. The description of Tara was also flimsy. I need to remember short, succinct descriptors or phrases that convey the sensory input I’m going for.

While complex (which is good), the story is a little confusing. I want a bunch of disparate elements that interweave, but they connections need to be made clear once they are seen so players don’t become overwhelmed by the possibilities. I wasn’t clear enough.

A minor but dumb thing with timing. When Xin went to pursue the Ogre/Pharos, they should have been long gone, but I had them still in the street. I guess they could have stopped for a hot dog, lingered around for a bit, I mean they had no reason to make haste, but what I should have done instead was let the player think of a way to track them. I mean, c’mon they were dressed as freaking Pharos, it’s not like it would have taken rocket science to put it together that they came from the Luxor. The goal was a good one, to keep things moving, but the execution was poor. I should have put the ball in the player’s court.

Another minor but potentially VERY confusing bit. I completely flipped-flopped Summer and Winter court appetites. I had these two Summer court ogres getting exited about a woman nearly falling to her death from an aerial. It would have been beautiful and full of sorrow. GREAT for Winter, totally wrong for Summer. Oh well, they are Ogres, they’ve got strange tastes.

As a system , what rocked:

I know I’ve said this before, but it’s worth putting down again. I love using compels as plot hooks. It’s like “Here’s an adventure to go on AND a cookie to get you started.” This works so incredibly well that I want this in every game. It works especially well in Dresden because the players start so short on fate chips. YES YES YES!

Declarations worked well again. This time the declaration failed and created a complication, which was just as entertaining as it working. Very happy with this, although I’m not sure if I’m using it correctly. I’m allowing players to make declarations based on any appropriate skill. Want to know about where to punch a dog, roll fists. Maybe it should be survival instead, or maybe only scholarship. Going to have to check this but I hope that it isn’t only scholarship, because I love it when players do it.

Maneuvers, as per standard fate, were flung all over the place. We had pinned, clubbed, seeing stars, and a few others. This is core to the system and I know it doesn’t need to be tested, but it’s worth noting that I think having few fate chips makes players more interested in creating aspects they can tag for free, rather than having to spend fate chips. So, if anything Dresden made maneuvers better.

Spellcasting. We did some Thaumaturgy. Three spells in particular.

  1. Using a persons blood to determine if they are alive. I set the difficulty for this at Fair (+2) because the person was in the hospital and while easy to find with a Contacting roll, would be harder to see or have a doctor tell their status.
  2. Using that same blood and a voodou doll to experience that persons’ sense. I called this a great difficulty, but think I retrospect to gain all five sense I probably should have made it higher (maybe even as high as legendary) with the option to do fewer sense at a lower difficulty.
  3. Sending a message through the NeverNever to a recipient using their hair and a vodou doll. For this one I didn’t require a roll, as we agreed the difficulty would be trivial.

Overall, the spellcasting felt like it did what it was supposed it appropriately. (WOOPS, I just realized Zak may not have had his Staff of the Loa with him. Hmm, have to check on that)

As a system, what could have been improved:

I felt pretty awkward framing some conflicts. We had one where the stage hands were trying to prevent Xin Gao from getting onstage and rescuing his partner. I agreed to let him use Athletics to move there, essentially as his attack to overcome the obstacle of the stage hands. He rolled something like Epic and defeated the Conflict in one roll. I guess that, mechanically is fine, but it didn’t satisfy what I was trying to simulate. Another conflict, with a Black Dog, the stakes weren’t really clear. This could be as much being unfamiliar with the system as it is anything else.

We ran into an issue with compels. The rule is say yes, roll dice or compel. What happens when the compel is refused? Do you go back to rolling dice, or do you just say yes? I was a fan of the later, but the players (to their own detriment) wanted the former. Not sure about this.

All right, this is going on 4 pages, and I have a 3 hour long recording of the session. I think I’ve done enough on this session. I’d like the other’s thoughts though, leave a comment.

Actual Play – Dresden Files (10/22/2008)

System: Dresden Files

This is also posted in the DFRPG community, but I put it here for people who don’t like to read on black backgrounds:

Here is a recap of our game. Points of confusion are in red and the recap is at the bottom if you don’t want to read through the all the action. I started by doing the following:

  1. Ask the players how their characters “normally” interacted with each other. Yes, they had been in a book together, but on a regular basis, do they call each other when something goes down, do they have a poker night, have the become close friends?.
  2. Review how aspects will be invoke and (especially) compelled. I wanted to make sure I had a good idea of how the players wanted their aspects compelled. What they were hoping to see in game.
  3. Review the rules with the players
    1. Basic dice Mechanics
    2. Aspects (invoke, tag, compel)
        How compels are used as an alternative resolution system
    3. Stunts
    4. Contested rolls
    5. Combat (stress, consequences, concessions and being taken out)
    6. Maneuvers and blocks
    7. Assessing and Declarations
  4. I discussed the mood of the game. I wanted a game close to Jim’s mood. Near noir in style, viewed in sepia tone, with a few core rules
    1. Crime always comes to a bad end
    2. Accordingly, the bad guys are always REALLY bad guys but,
    3. There are lots of shifty people in the middle, and
    4. Even the heroes are rough around the edges, full of faults
  5. I made a big point about Declarations. Harry makes them all the time and it is just as interesting when they are wrong as when they are correct. Use them. Often!
  6. We discussed character death and agreed that characters should not die due to dice rolls and if a character was in a situation where death would be the only likely outcome we would collaborate as a group to find an alternative.
  7. I brought up the mechanics that I was specifically looking to test
    1. Movement through borders (treating borders as blocks)
    2. Making/Removing maneuvers
    3. Blocks (specifically grappling)
    4. Spin (to use it or not)

The setup. Two players were present. Their characters are Zak and Reggie. In step one they agreed that Reggie would feel comfortable in the Zak vodou church. It’s got a heavy dose of Catholic elements and has an old world feel that would be comfortable to Reggie.

The situation: After the congregation, the community was going to engage in a fun game of “catch the greased pig.” I compelled Zak’s “Strong: Guns of Steel” to show off in front of the ladies and Reggie’s “Time lost frontier gentleman” to be a good sport and get in the game.

  1. Framing the scene. In the middle of poor residential Las Vegas there is an old field divided by a rusty metal fence. On one side is a grassy field (zone 1) on the other side is an old beat up playground (zone 2) across the street and are some densely packed buildings (zone 3). Each zone had fair border (+2) between them (the fence and the somewhat busy street). I described the scenery sparingly making note of the worn down nature and suggesting (but not overtly stating) the aspects it might have.
  2. Establish the groups in the conflict. There were the player characters, a group of kids and the pig. All three groups were essentially antagonistic to the others. The kids wanted to rib the adults and catch the pig. The pig wanted to get away from everyone.
  3. I skipped starting initiative because Reggie started off with a cool declaration and I let him roll from there.

Actions

Reggie: Declaration. “You wanna know the way to catch a pig? First you gotta kick it in the kidney”. Rolled Survival and got a Superb Result. The pig gained the aspect “kick it in the kidney”

Reggie: Mental Attack. Whooping and waving his hat around to intimidate the pig. Attempting to cause mental stress. In this case I let him use Survival as a social skill. Both of them rolled good. No result. NOTE: Reggie has a great survival. I was willing to give him a second roll using it (for both the declaration and the intimidation) but didn’t want it to become the catch all “pig catching” skill.<

Zak: Sprint. Attempted to move from zone one (the field) across the fence to zone two (playground) in effort to get ahead of the pig. Rolled athletics and failed (blocked by the fence)

Pig: Attempted to run Zak in circles and tire him out (maneuver). Pig rolled Athletics vs. Zak’s Endurance. Pig won and Zak gained the aspect “winded.” As a supplement action it ran under the fence to zone 2. NOTE: I wasn’t sure if athletics could be used as an attack, but couldn’t think of another way to represent the pig tiring out the people chasing it. Also, I deiced to ignore the border for the pig as it was small enough to run under it.

Kids: One of the kids tried to shoulder check Reggie and knock him out of the way. Fists vs. Fists to cause damage. Both rolled fair so no damage but they did bump into each other.

Reggie: Picked up some rocks and tossed them through the fence as a maneuver to give the pig the aspect “paranoid” Weapons vs. Athletics. Pig won. No result.

Zak: Seeing the fence was hard to climb, pulled some bars apart using a might check to give the fence an aspect “sweet spot”. Spent a fate chip to invoke “Strong: Guns of Steel” to make it happen. NOTE: I used an “average” difficulty for this as per suggestion in the book, but it seemed like pulling apart a fence should probably be harder.

Kids: One kid tried to distract Zak by teasing him for being too slow to catch the pig. Presence social attack, contested by Zak’s rapport. Zak beat the kid by 6 shifts and gained spin, calling the boy out and putting him in his place.

Other kids (the pig wasn’t doing anything because it had made it to zone 2): Called Reggie and old man. Deceit vs. Rapport. Kids did two composure stress by tagging aspect “I got my AARP card right here.” NOTE: Wasn’t sure what social skill to use for teasing and goading. Opted to use deceit as the kids weren’t doing it in earnest.

Reggie: NOTE: Player asked “Can I take my time to make it over the fence or do I have to make an athletics roll to cross it.” I explained how the fence acted as a block and he would have to roll to climb it. This caused momentary discord, but the player decided to give it a shot. Reggie made a declaration “Kids, back I my day in the army, you were always told if you want to hop over a fence, hop to the left, if you hop to the right you’ll squash your balls”. Reggie rolled and athletics declaration, which he failed (rolled terrible, -3) followed by an athletics roll to spring which he also failed horribly. I decided the outcome of the series of horrible rolls was the mild consequence “Ooooh” as Reggie only made it halfway over the fence. NOTE: I let the player make a declaration as essentially a free action, because I like what he did with it. I’m not sure if that is a good idea (as a GM, I really like declarations though so I want to encourage them).

Zak: Push through the fence. He made an athletics check and take his free tag of “sweet spot” to get through it.

Pig: Just as Zak gets through, the pig is running from some other kids the pig barrels down on Zak. Fists vs. Fists. Pig looses and runs under a slide. (staying in the same zone)

Kids: The kids heckled Reggie who was groaning in pain. Presence vs. Rapport. Reggie won with spin and the boys were chastised by the old ladies watching, one of which helped Reggie down the fence and told the boys to be respectful of their elders. NOTE: Again, not sure what social skill to use here for heckling.

Reggie: Pulled a slingshot from one of the kids back pockets. Burglary vs. Alertness. He won and put the maneuver on himself “Slingshot”. NOTE: I wasn’t sure if I should call this a maneuver or not, but it worked.

Zak: Jumps on the ground to startle the pig into running into the monkey bars and get “stunned”. Intimidation vs. the pigs Empathy. Both roll Good and the pig is stunned. This is an intention set up for a grapple.

Pig: I think about having the pig “shake off” being stunned but decide that removing a maneuver, while tactically sound is pretty boring. Instead it tries to run across the street into the housing area. This time since traffic is the border, I make it roll athletics, and it fails. Still stuck in the playground.

Kids: Having had his slingshot stolen one of the kids jump on Reggie to make him “knocked down”. Reggie uses his “Barrel Block” stunt to use Guns vs. Fists in defense. We agree that the “barrel” of a sling shot isn’t significant enough to block a blow, but snapping it at him unloaded should fend him off. It’s close, so the kid tags “I got my AARP card again” to move faster than the old man and give him the “knocked down” aspect.

Reggie: On the ground he uses his “wide eyes behind the barrel” stunt to use Guns to cover the threat trapping of intimidation and aims the sling shot right at the kid to give him the “peed pants” aspect. Guns vs. Rapport and Reggie startled the kid good.

Zak: Zak tags the aspect “stunned” to grappled the pig. He rolls might for the block and only gets average. Invokes “Strong: Guns of Steel” to improve that to good. At this point Zak is out of fate chips.

Pig: Tries to break free. Rolls a “Good” athletics to wiggle free. We look up and determine that he has to exceed the block to break free. The pig spends one of his few fate chips to invoke “greased pig” (his only aspect) and slips out.

Kids:: The kid rolls Presence to “keep his cool” and removes the “peed pants” maneuver.

Reggie: Loads his sling shot and fires at the pig in the kidney. Guns vs. Athletics to create maneuver “Pissing Blood”. Invokes his free tag of “Kick it in the Kidney to do it.” Note: all this accomplished with trading aspects but we felt this was worth while as the “kick it in the kidney” wasn’t an aspect I was going to let them use to grapple it.

Zak: Decides he wants to ameliorate the “greased pig” aspect somewhat by throwing sand on the pig to give him a “easy to hang onto” aspect. He rolls Weapons vs. Athletics but the pig is too fast.

Pig: Rolls Athletics again to run across the street into the housing area (zone 3) and make it. The pig is loose again.

Ladies on the side line: Start hollering at Zak that if he wants to catch a pig, he’s got to do with his bare hands and bare-chested. The compel his “Strong: Guns of Steel” to show off some.

Reggie: Runs after the pig but rolls horribly on his athletics checks. Invokes “Pissing Blood” to catch up with it as it’s moving slowly. Also invokes “Slingshot” to take out a traffic light and clear traffic to make it across the street.

Zak: Zak yells at Reggie that he just busted a traffic light in Zak’s neighborhood. Zak thinks about berating him and Reggie tosses him a fate chip to compel “protect the community, but at what cost” to get into a fight.” Zak now has two aspects that are compelled. I tell him he can net 0 fate chips and follow one but not the other or he can try to follow both and get two fate chips. He does both. Hulk style Zak rips off his shirt and calls Reggie out in the middle of the street.

Resolution

We decided the pig chase is over. The kids will probably catch it. Now there is something more serious going on. Zak is mad as hell that Reggie thinks he can break things in his home. We start a new conflict, this time a social one.

Action

They roll empathy for initiative and Zak wins.

Zak: Opens up with a diatribe about how his community is poor enough as is and how the white man isn’t going to be the one blamed for the broken light. He is essentially shaming Reggie. Zak rolls Rapport vs. Empathy. Zak rolls Epic and Reggie gets Mediocre. The player wants Reggie to loose this fight, but on his own terms. He invokes his “Time lost frontier gentleman” to explain that he’s out of his element and doesn’t even know what traffic lights are really for and invokes his “I got my AARP card” to say he’s an old man, don’t give him such a hard time. This reduces the shifts from 6 to 2, which he takes as Face stress.

Reggie: Makes a concession. He agrees that he was wrong and offers to pay for new traffic lights for the whole block. Reggie takes the Moderate consequence “Broke” and suffers a loss that for the time being (until the lights are actually fixed) Zak’s community frowns on him and doesn’t want him around.
So… that was our session. We had a good time but had to look things up pretty often. We managed to try out a lot of maneuvers, blocks, and moving through borders.

Here’s what we really liked.

Zak’s player has never liked grappling rules… in any system. This is the first one that he has felt pretty good about. We want to try it more.
I highly encouraged players to make maneuvers instead of constant attacks. They did this… a lot (as did I) and it really made the conflict rich and full of descriptive action.
Declarations were great. I allowed two of them as free actions. I think in the future I would probably just allow one as a free action (internal monologue) and the others would have to be made as standard actions. They really filled the scene with expectations and excitement.
I was extremely happy when one of the players compelled the other player’s character to get into an argument with his character. It made for excellent role-playing backed up by mechanics. Is that perfection or what?

What wasn’t so hot

Reggie’s player knew Reggie only had a mediocre athletics and didn’t think he could climb the fence. He would have liked to take multiple supplemental actions to get over it. I didn’t allow that though, based on the block rules. This turned out fine, but reminded me that I need to be wary of what blocks I create.
I really didn’t know what to do when a declaration came up wrong and was followed by a horrible roll. I opted for a consequence (in this case mild) which worked fine but there wasn’t any structure I could find to follow for this.
It seems to me that getting an aspect as a result of a maneuver and then removing it makes for very boring exchanges (e.g. Player: I trip him. GM: He stands up). Nothing is accomplished. It’s fine to leave in the game, but personally I wouldn’t use it “removing maneuvers” much.
When Reggie grabbed the slingshot, I wasn’t sure if I should give him an aspect “slingshot” or just treat it like a weapon. In his case he only wanted to use it for maneuvers and such, so making it a weapon wouldn’t do as much good.
Nobody tried to use the terrain aspects, which I really assumed they would, especially in the playground. I think I need to be more overt about them in the future.

Next game: Magic!

css.php