Tales of the Apocalypse: Part 1, Character Creation
A few weeks ago, I reviewed Vincent Baker’s Apocalypse World role playing game and found it very well written and intriguing enough to give it a few session’s worth tryout. I brought the whole crew back together and we sat down to create characters.
(in spite of what transpired earlier this summer, we ended up talking about it out and decided to stick together and try a new approach)
Character generation in Apocalypse World is in many ways peculiar to the traditional Role Player. The Game Master (AKA Master of Ceremonies) drops a pile of playbook for about 10 different character classes and each players get to choose one, no duplicates. Then follows a series of choices for names, look, stats, gear and class-specific moves (powers) directly from the playbook.
Through this process, the MC asks all kinds of questions regarding the PCs to help create better defined characters. This process results in some very colourful characters…
Shanty Town’s crew (Dramatis Persona)
All the story/background elements were created through players answering my random questions or interacting amongst themselves. It was very cool.
Allison, female Hardholder (owner/leader of a populated compound), played by Yan.
Always dressed in combat fatigues, she’s insists on being called Colonel Allison by her 75 or so citizens although the title is meaningless since no organized armed forces have existed in the last 50 years. She rules a rickety settlement called Shanty Town made of corrugated iron panels too rusted to be recycled and thousands of yards of plastic tarp centered around an old, well-preserved car factory turned into a weapons plant. Its economy runs on recycled metal that her citizens scrounge/raid from the countryside and turn unto weapons.
While rich and very lucrative for Allison and her lieutenants, Shanty Town remains an undefended shit hole of trash and pestilence.
She also has no current partners, leading me to jokingly refer to her gigantic Magnum .44 handgun as “Allison’s Boyfriend”.
Quote:
Calm down, let’s do this right you bunch of savages.
Raven, female Faceless (masked, supernatural brute). Played by Franky, who literally wears a Raven full face mask whenever he’s in character.
Raven wears leather and spiked fetish wear weaved all over with black feathers and, of course, a black raven’s mask. She was a member of a nomadic “murder” of similar clad savages who got wiped during a disastrous raid (possibly involving the Thunder’s biker gang, see Eric’s PC below).
After the massacre, guided by the spirit of her Mask’s, she followed a caravan back into Shanty Town and currently hangs at the edge of the settlement near Ambush Hill, scrounging a living meager living under the watchful eye of Smith (Mike’s PC, see below).
The last thing that people see when Raven decides to kill them is her gigantic, gleaming machete.
Quote:
Nothing escapes the Raven.
Eternity, female Battlebabe (The name says it all). Played by Math.
Exceedingly sexy gal wearing a skintight bulletproof latex-like bodysuit complete with front zipper. When asked what she applies to her skin to keep it that splendid, she answers “sweat, and lots of it”.
Her signature weapons are a custom humongous brainsploding gun and a long, very sharp curved sword with cute spindly drawings on its handle. She “got” that blade from a very insistent client who got too friendly in her past life as a stripper.
She travels around by renting the services of a driver or from Thunder’s crew (Eric’s Chopper). She’s also currently employed full time as Allison’s bodyguard.
Quote:
Its so sad you have to die, you were this close to getting me in the sack.
Thunder, Male chopper (Biker gang leader) Played by Eric.
Thusder is large, shaggy and none too bright, but he’s one mean motherfucker. His boys call him Sarge even though he doesn’t want them to. This diseased and dirty gang is made up of 15 14 or violent motorcycle bastards. They get their fuel and food from Allison as part of the payment they get from the lucrative raids they perform on surrounding settlements.
The last guy Thunder killed was during a recent raid where he got too excited using his crowbar on a poor schmuck, doing his signature “working up” move by breaking all joints from ankles to shoulders.
Quote:
You had shit at the end of your machete, I smelled like gas. We fucked. End of story (Actual game quote).
Smith, male Brainer (Think psychic brainhacker). Played by Mike.
Wears a dirtied but valuable three-piece suit. Bony faced and sporting dead eyes, Smith is Allison’s Director of Security. He walks calmly around town, making sure everything is under control, scaring the shit out of everyone, or reprogramming anyone who isn’t.
A Lone Wolf to the hilt, Smith’s idea of calling for backup is getting his knives out when his violation glove fails to do the job.
He has a secret desire to one day meet someone’s who’s worth his time instead of the rabble he has to keep in check. It’s uncertain from Smith’s behaviour via Eternity if she’s a likely candidate or not.
Quote:
Don’t ever dream of stirring trouble up, I’ll brainwipe you so hard you’ll need diapers again.
Apocalypse History X
The last part of character creation is a somewhat convoluted roundtable where people set the value of their “History” stat (called Hx) with every other PC. That stat, represent “how well a PC knows”/”how intense recent history was” vs each other PC. It comes into play when characters interfere with one another and is one of the drivers of character improvement.
Beyond the mechanics though, some fundamental PC-to-PC relationships get created during that process. Here’s what transpired in our case.
- Raven appreciated that Smith was unafraid of her upon their first meeting.
- Smith has secretly been observing Eternity but she does not trust him.
- Eternity and Raven did something terrible once (jokingly refereed to as “very bad lesbian sex” which may stick as canon).
- Smith observed Raven sleep once without Raven knowing about it.
- Raven stole something from Allison’s settlement, and Allison knows about it.
- Raven finds Allison pretty.
- Allison and Thunder go way back, having worked together before all this.
- Allison also once stood up to Thunder and his gang and Thunder isn’t sure what to think of that.
- Although she hired him as her Director of Security, Allison quietly dislikes and distrusts Smith
I was highly satisfied with the results, Apocalypse World does not require the PCs to be friends, just start as allies. The game very much revolves around loyalty and some players were already bonding with their characters and the outbound links they created.
I was curious to see how the story would unfold but was highly nervous that I would have a hard time mastering that game. Stay tuned for the play report of that first session.
Mouse Guard Chronicles, Session 2, Players’ Turn: The Spurce Connection
You can see this session’s GM’s turn here.
Player’s Turn Summary
The successful but banged-up patrol hobbled back to Lockhaven to recuperate from their injuries under the ministrations of the Guard’s healers. On their way, they stumbled upon 2 surviving Scent thugs caught in the Flashflood and Jasper ran to their help, rescuing Garrow the Merchant and the huge Thug otherwise known as The Big Cheese.
Once in Lockhaven, Edgar delivered a report to one of his guard captain uncles and asked about his enemy’s recurring involvement with Scent smuggling. Finn tapped into many of his war buddies, now turned Inn keepers to try to find a contact involved in storage and transport of Scent and he found one in Sprucetuck.
Malcolm also tapped into his contacts to to find his old friend the Tavernkeeper, known for his many shady dealing. As luck would have it, that contact was last seen in Sprucetuck too.
And so was Edgar’s enemy…
Table Chatter and GMing highlights
Retcon for great justice!
As we set up and started to roll for condition recoveries in the player’s turn, I realized that there were restrictions about the order of conditions a PC could recover from. Thus, a mice must recover from Hunger/Thirst before Anger before Tired and so on for Injury and Sickness. So a player can’t decide to keep the less problematic Anger to focus on healing an injury.
That meant that all my players had to spend 2 checks each to attempt to recover from their more serious conditions and success was NOT guaranteed. I could see that some of them wanted to take the story in new directions and were disappointed with that state of event.
So I invoked rule 1 of RPGs (fun over rules) and retconned my earlier call, making Edgar/Finn Injured and Malcolm/Jasper Angry. I dropped the second imposed condition and the group’s mood instantly bounced back! (I even got some positive feedback for that call the next day over IM).
Yay!
Northland thawing
You might recall I mentioned that Maze froze up a few times during the GM’s turn. Well he thawed up nicely during the player’s turn where he set up a great scene and got to rescue 2 of the NPCs who bullied them to spew out the positions of other guard patrols during the GM’s turn. This, along with a discussion I had with blogger Sarah Darkmagic about agile and comfortable DMs who freeze up when they become players gave me an insight.
In the Players’ turn, the only problems to resolve are mostly created by the players, who likely have the solution worked out, much like if the player was his own GM. I’m beginning to suspect that what really breaks minds in Mouse Guard is that constant dichotomy between being a classic player (choose a skill, roll for success) and being co-GM (describe the scene, including the elements needed to make the skill you use make sense) at the same time.
I’ll be watching Maze’s journey as it unfolds over the next few session. He’ll likely post his thoughts on his blog as well.
When the GM gets Fiasco-ed.
As the turn unfolded and players told me about the scenes they were setting up, it became evident that they were pushing to send the game toward a new plot. Alex sought his friend out, an old tavern keeper with the same criminal background as his. He tried to locate him on the map of the territories and I asked for a Circles test to allow Alex to set where he was. I also explained the Enmity Clause of circle tests where a failed test allows the GM to create a new enemy instead!
Yan: Really? Oh man I wanna roll a Circles test too!
Malcolm located his friend and placed him in Sprucetuck, home of Scent manufacturing. We had a potential ex-con in the city laying the first brick of my players’ fiendish plans.
PM played out a scene in Lockhaven where Edgar informed his uncle about the Scent dealings (thus accomplishing his goal). He then totally pulled an awesome, plot-defining quote on us that blew my brains out:
Edgar: Uncle, have you had news of that weather watcher scum (Edgar’s enemy) we’ve been chasing for so long? I think he’s once more involved with Scent smuggling!
Priceless!
When PM tried to place his enemy in Spructuck, I decided to gently stop him, judging he’d held to the narrative long enough for his turn.
Of course, that’s when Yan made the finishing move. After moving the party to Sprucetuck (I allowed liberal moving over the whole territories during the player turn) he had Finn and the patrol go tavern-diving through his old war contacts to find someone important involved with the shipping and storing of the Scent chemical. His circles test provided him with one such mouse, a mid-power mouse in charge of overseeing shipping of the Scent to Lockhaven and other guard patrols .
Phil: According to the rules, you get to name him now.
Yan (Making a very French “I have no fucking idea” facial expression): I don’t know… huh, Liam I guess.
PM: No way! That’s my enemy’s name.
Chatty: You guys are shitting me!
Yan: Absolutely not, I had no idea!
Chatty: Well then it’s settled, Finn’s new contact is Edgar’s enemy, that ought to be interesting!
So that the next adventure is obviously going to be about elucidating who’s stealing the Scent powder and why. I’d be a complete jerk to do otherwise. But that doesn’t mean I have to play it as straight as they are driving things to be now, right?
All in all, that was a great Players’ turn and an awesome game. Once again, a 10 minute prep session delivered a very satisfying 4 hours adventure.
We should pick the game up again after Gen Con. Chances are this Summer campaign will become the monthly geekout day game once fall rolls back and I settle on a new RPG/campaign with the new gaming group.
Thanks for reading.
Mouse Guard Chronicles, Session 2, GM’s Turn: Scented Storms
Prologue:
Guards Malcolm, Finn, Edgar and Tenderpaw Jasper are sent to find the whereabouts of a lost patrol. Failing to reach them on time, the patrol made the gruesome discovery that a predator ate most wayward guards while they were trying to trace a path through a new stream. Before our heroes could react, a fox jumped them but was fortunately chased away.
The guard then found the source of the stream, a newly built beaver dam over which they negotiated safe passage for all mice of the territory. Noticing the increased numbers of beaver families nearby, the patrol surmised that another dam had likely caused a stream to deviate and wash away part of the Scent Border to the Wild Country.
The patrol travelled to Port Sumac where Finn tapped Malcolm’s criminal contacts and secured some additional Scent chemicals…
Mouse Guard Canon Caveat
I accidentally and purposefully changed aspects of the Mouse Guard universe, particularly that pertaining to the Scent Border actual physical form in the comic books. My stance on Canon is very loose (pun intended) and echos my friend Chris’ so bear with me.
GM’s Turn Summary (for those who’d rather read about the story, not the whole game)
The Patrol left port Sumac with a shipping of Scent chemical with the firm intention of locating the breach in the northern border and sealing it up before more predators entered the territory. Before they could find it, they were waylaid by a group of thuggish mice who wanted to get their paws on their shipment of powder and learn the whereabout of other Scent-laying patrols.
After a heated but peaceful argument, the patrol, hyper focused on its mission, left with their precious cargo but informed the thugs where to find other patrols, letting the ruffians learn the hard way that not all guards were as sociable as they were.
The patrol managed to discover the spot where the border had been washed away and proceeded to spread the concoction while the weather turned nasty. Sadly, when they finally managed to complete their task, the whole patrol was caught in a flash flood sweeping two of them away. They were recovered by their comrades but were badly hurt in the process.
Fortunately, the newly applied scent, spread over high ground, held perfectly. Mission accomplished.
Table Chatter and GMing highlights
The Prologue
As we started the game, I knew something was wrong with my friend Maze. He offered to prologue the last session, a game mechanic where a player summaries what happened in the last session in exchange for a tangible reward (in his case, recover lost points of his Nature ability).
However, he froze up (here and later during the game) and delivered what I must sadly describe as a half-assed summary of what happened in the game 3 weeks before. Mark my words, I don’t expect a Toastmaster’s performance from the exercise, but I couldn’t help but think (wrongly so, I know) that Maze didn’t feel like making the effort or that it wasn’t relevant enough for him to do so.
Mouse Guard requires a lot more effort from players than D&D and it’s spiritual offshoots. I’m beginning to think that it is a strong factor in establishing the game’s learning curve depending on any given gamer’s background tackling the game. Fortunately, the exercise alternates from game to game, so I’ll see how others go at it. I suspect it’s a classic case of Chatty’s inhuman expectations again.
The mission and goals
This time around, the mission was dead simple: Re-establish the broken Scent Border
The players chose the following goals:
- Malcolm (Alex): Don’t let the patrol get caught by predators
- Finn (Yan): Re-establish Scent Border
- Edgar (PM): Send word back home that scent chemical is being traded by the underworld
- Jasper (Maze): Help at least one mouse in distress near Scent Border
All great goals including one that would end up leading the game in a direction set by the players during their turn.
The Argument Conflict
As planned, the PCs were supposed to track the beavers’ dam and deal with its effect on the environment. When the PCs failed to find the disrupted Scent Border (I ruled that it was invisible/subtle to find precisely, contrary to the comic) I went with one of my planned twists and had “scent pirates” waylay the party.
While Yan was ready to fight the band of mice thugs, Alex pipped in to address the situation diplomatically. I made the conflict into an argument, which is one of the hardest conflicts to run for everyone because you have to roleplay, usually in character, based on the actions you chose.
I divided the teams in 4: Two teams of guards (Finn/Edgar, Malcolm/Jasper) and 2 of thugs (Merchant/Bandit, Muscle/Bandit) and everyone chose different goals:
- Finn vs Muscle: Who keeps the powder?
- Malcolm vs Merchant: “Tell us where the border is” vs “Tell us where the nearest patrols are”
The conflict went better than last session but introducing the “Roleplay arguments as a fight” mechanics gave my players a few headaches. Working out the difference between a feint and a manuever were in the context of an argument was already hard enough… having to find roleplaying descriptions for each action was quite exhausting for many.
I had the time of my life! At one point I even delivered a good enough line that some players looked at each other and said “huh, I’d agree with that”.
In the end, Finn’s team won instantly (My feint killed by their attack) while the Merchant nearly completely beat Malcolm’s team.
It’s Science!
I think that the scene that broke my player’s mind the most, but also opened the way to what the game is really about, was when I described the last obstacle: laying down the scent chemical. I announced that it would be a Science obstacle.
At that point Maze dejectedly said “but what does science have to do with pouring powder on the ground” and Yan, engineer that he is, explained that the way he saw it, the job should be about working the soil to prepare a proper binding matrix for the powder and then working out how much powder to pour and fixing it to the matrix and so on…
(Or something engineer-sounding like that, don’t ask me, I’m a Microbiologist-Project Manager)
That’s when I smiled.
Chatty: That’s EXACTLY what I meant about a science roll!
Yan: (Cough) asshole (cough)
See, the game is all about the players telling the GM how things are going to be done. Succeeding means that’s what happens and the game world grows a little bit. The greatest thing though is that failing doesn’t automatically mean it doesn’t grow… it just means it doesn’t grow as the players planned.
As simple as that!
Swept Away!
The science roll was failed, but by then, I wanted to finish the GM’s turn soon so I introduced the game’s last twist and described how the Mice made sure to finish the job properly, even though a huge Spring storm struck (a weather-based twist). The storm triggered a flash flood and everyone had to roll to resist being swept away. That’s when both Yan and PM decided to go all out for failure to score extra checks on the player turn. Both ended washed away, crashing into trees and rocks.
Since all PCs shared help in the challenge that sent two of them in the soup, I called for Edgar and Finn to become Injured and Tired while I made the other 2 Hungry/Thirsty and Angry. I’m still at the level of establishing how much pressure you need to apply on PCs and I clearly recalled Luke gleefully telling me how broke, hurt and exhausted he left his players’ PCs after Burning Wheel games… this is echoed, to a lesser extent in the Mouse Guard rules.
Turns out that was a bit too much… stay tuned…
Freezing up.
As mentioned earlier, Maze, usually a very creative and social person, froze up several times during the game, at loss with how to interact with the game’s mechanics and how to grab narrative control and yield it effectively. The game ground to complete stops a few times while he became more and more flustered about how to play a given action or how to describe helping out with a given skill check.
I noticed that we didn’t help much because some of us soon swooped in with advice and pressured him to “unfreeze”. Luckily, it just so happens that Rob Donaghue posted a blog article about dealing with player freeze which basically boils down to telling other players and GMs to:
- Shut Your Pie Hole.
- A Little Patience Won’t Kill You.
- Back Their Play.
- Don’t Assume. Ask.
This one is a must read, go NOW! Heaven knows I’m making it my session’s Lessons Learned and shared it with all players.
Up next: The Player’s take ownership of the game!
Mouse Guard Chronicles, Session 1, Part 4: The Players’ Turn
See Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
Here’s the plot, have fun with it.
Mouse Guard has a very peculiar play structure I have not seen in any other games yet. The game is divided in 2 “turns” that each last 1 or 2 hours depending on how things go. The first one, the GM’s turn is what classic RPGs call the adventure and I covered it in detail in parts 2 and 3. Once the mission is completed (or failed), the GM’s turn ends and the Player turn starts.
Each player then get to do either of 2 things: 1) Attempt to recuperate from a condition (like Injured, Angry, etc) or 2) Set a scene to accomplish a goal, push the plot forward and/or create new plot/setting elements. Of course, there’s a trick. In order for players to get more than one ‘turn’ during that period, they need to earn them by playing against themselves during the GM’s turn. There are, of course, mechanics where you can impede/hurt your character’s chances to give yourself extra turns in the Players’ turn.
Convincing your players to gain such additional turns (called checks), especially those focusing on success/fearing failure, can be a challenge. But it’s a self-rewarding process that players usually grok after a few sessions. Since all PCs are likely to have at least one negative condition by the end of the adventure, they need to get themselves more turns if they want do something beyond recuperating.
Slummin’ it in Port Sumac
In this, our first session of what was to become a campaign, the players poked with their turns, not quite sure what to do with them. Malcolm healed his injuries while Finn found himself an artisan for some new skill he didn’t have (Armorer IIRC) and asked him to show him the basics. The NPC, somewhat annoyed to be interrupted by a Guard gave Finn a task that no newbies could achieve. Finn (helped by veteran armorer Edgar) managed it (using the “Beginner’s Luck” rule) and got closer toward learning a new skill.
Finn also tapped into Malcolm’s underworld contacts to secure enough Scent to reseal the breach, setting up the next mission nicely and opening a meta-plot element: “How come criminals have access to a supply of Scent?”.
Edgar roused the city’s population and gave a well-felt speech to calm the local population, promising that the guard was on top of the predator issue but that the Territories should still be ready to mobilize should it become necessary. Malcolm used his deceiver skill to disguise himself and act as a member of the crowd and shouted “It’s true! I believe in the guard, we’ll be safe” over and over again.
It worked… I blame the writers.
Finally, Jasper, wanting to impress his mentor (Malcolm), crafted a good luck charm with a tuft of Fox hair. All other PCs chipped in to help, but none of their “dice” helped… yet he succeeded in spite of that! Which made for a funny anecdote that all the advice Jasper got was wrong.
Thus was our first session concluded. A great success. As the next session will show, we all got much better with the game itself and the players literally drove the campaign in a new direction.
Thanks for reading!
P.S.: Next posts will be shorter. Likely 2 parts per session, outlining the highlights of the GM and Players turns respectively and the main GMing calls that I made in each.
Mouse Guard Chronicles, Session 1, Part 3: The Unarmed Hero
After character creation and playing through the first (failed) obstacle of the evening, we started our first Mouse Guard conflict.
The conflicts mechanic is the game’s most complex, involved element. It brings together everything the game can do and is, at time, very counter intuitive. For example, in a chase conflict, if you are the team trying to get away from the chaser, you need to use the “Attack” action to go after your goal (escape) instead of “Maneuver” which would be used to set your team up for a better escape route on later rounds.
Add the necessity of splitting the party in teams, the helping out rules, bonuses from “conflict tools”and Fate/Persona points… Things become about as complex as your favorite fantasy crunchy game. The hardest part of that combat remained how to establish the interrelation of multiple teams playing simultaneously. I won’t go into the details of it, but you have to follow a certain set of rules if 2 teams choose actions that would lead each team to play opposed dice checks vs their common enemy.
Fortunately, the rules are VERY well written and within minutes, Yan and I found rulings and agreed on interpretations. So after spending a good 30-40 minutes of false starts and going over the combat rules we finally settled in for a fight.
Foxy moves from the kid.
Combat involved 3 teams, Edgar/Finn committed to chasing the fox away, Malcolm/Jasper played defense and opted to protect the party and the fox sent out to eat one last morsel before moving on deeper in the territories.
The details are a bit fuzzy since the game was more than 2 weeks ago, but I recall the fight was over really fast. The fox and the Edgar/Finn team fenced a bit to no major effect while the fox disarmed Jasper’s bow, leaving the poor tenderpaw weaponless.
As luck would have it, the next round saw Jasper needing to attack without weapons. Maze was really flustered and out of his comfort one at this point. He was playing a non combative PC (designed a little to close to his own personality he later told me) and he had a very hard time “getting” that the game encouraged making stuff up on the spot beyond rules.
Maze: But I don’t have a bow? I can’t attack?
Phil: Dude, you are a Guard, a freakin’ ranger! Pick a piece of wood and fight man!
Maze settled on picking up a sharp stick and had his PC stand his ground, helped by his other buddies. Thus, Jasper took his improvised spear and set himself for the fox’s charge. Maze rolled amazingly well and racked up enough successes to seriously tap into the fox’s disposition (Mouse Guard’s hit points) Just as the crafty predator thought he was pouncing a defenseless, scared-to-death mouse, it realized that it got things only half right and had a nice punctured palate to show for it!
The combat’s last round was a classic Burning Wheel/Mouse Guard conflict moment I’m sure. All 3 teams chose actions that were a perfect triple “Rock/Paper/Scissors”. Edgar/Finn chose “Attack”, the fox chose “Feint” and Jasper/Malcolm chose “Defense”.
This meant that Edgar/Finn tore directly into the Fox’s remaining hit points (with an awesome “jump from a shield into the fox’s face” move) without any chance of the fox defending. Unfortunately, the fox’s feint also negated Jasper/Malcolm’s action as it tore into their own disposition.
After the dust settled, the fox was driven away, yelping in pain and Jasper/Malcolm’s starting disposition was more than halfway gone. That meant that the fox and the Jasper/Malcolm team had to reach a compromise. Edgar/Finn got what they wanted: The Fox was driven away. Jasper/Malcolm wanted the “party to be unhurt” which I had to honor to a certain extent. Since the Fox’s goal was to kill one mice and run away, I ruled that Malcolm would be injured in the fight (instead of both team members as required by the rules when you impose a condition to a team). Thus the fox and the defending team’s goals met halfway.
Finishing the job
After chasing the predator away, the party discovered the source of the unexpected river: a beaver dam. The PCs managed (i.e. succeeded ) to inspire an implicit trust in mice from the otherwise semi-sentient aquatic rodents and persuade them to allow the patrol to create a new mice path over the dam to finish the lost patrol’s job.
As the patrol pushed further toward the edges of the mice territories, they learned that many beaver families had moved in the areas. One such family had diverted a stream over the Scent Border, a mice-applied chemical barrier that prevents predators from entering the Territories, wiping it out and letting in the more adventurous predators in. They finally ended up in Port Sumac, a northern port city, ending “The GM’s turn” (i.e. the GM-controlled adventure).
GM’s thoughts, Session 1 GM’s turn
This game saw me get a better grasp of the Mouse Guard mechanics and trusting Yan with them to help me find relevant rulings when needed. I was amazed at how easy it was to move around adventure elements (i.e. obstacles) based on twists and player input during their actions. Mouse Guard adventures, while based on an otherwise flimsy mechanical frame, can grow rapidly into fully fleshed epic adventures…
… provided your players make the efforts required. Efforts that many other RPGs don’t require.
Getting into the conflict was a headache, but I’m happy to see how it went once all players had goals they were comfortable with and once everyone started to “get” how the system worked. I hope to get rid of that “dead time” that comes from setting up conflicts, I trust that with experience, it will be significantly reduced.
I remain worried that some players won’t be able to go beyond the “get introduced to a situation, inspect the tools available, find solution” model of classic RPGs. I noticed that Eric and Alex often looked on their character sheets to find things to do instead of finding an idea and trying to fit it to their characters and bullshitting me to get a bonus dice or set an awesome scene.
Based on comments from the players after the game, my fears could be set aside for the time being.
Up next: Players timidly explore their own turn.
Mouse Guard Chronicles, Session 1, Part 2: The Lost Patrol
Prelude to the Mission
We spent half of the afternoon creating the Mouse Guard patrol. After that, I called for a break to play a game of the Battlestar Galactica board game, during which one of the players promptly fell asleep at the table!
We gently offered our overworked friend to go downstairs for a power nap and we reset the game. As usual, I ended up completely mucking things up without being a Cylon and the fleet ran out of fuel far short of Kobol. I love that game, but I don’t think I’ll be allowed playing it again anytime soon.
After we ordered and ate our evening meal I asked if they wanted to play a Mouse Guard session now that the PCs were made and that we’d had some time to take a break from char gen and do something else. All players were willing to start playing…
Quick! Get the mission parameters!
…So I actually had to prep an adventure, like right now!
Now here’s the fundamental secret that makes Mouse Guard so cool to GM for: an adventure is only really just 2 obstacles with 2 likely major story twists if the party fails. And the obstacle are actually a magical formula in which you pick your ingredients from a choice of 4:
- The wilderness
- The weather
- Animals
- Other mice
So armed with that and an idea spark I had had a few days ago, I took out a piece of paper and I wrote down something to that effect:
- 1st Spring Mission: Seek what happened to lost patrol in charge of Pathfinding in second ‘tier’ of territories
- Pathfinder check Ob 6
- Success: Lost patrol stuck on tree in middle of “new” river, fox trying to catch them
- Failure: Lost patrol killed by fox, fox attacks PC’s patrol
- Find new beaver dam causing floods in inhabited territories
- Play it by ear based on player input
- Success: Mission over
- Failure: Impose condition(s) on PCs
- Play it by ear based on player input
- Pathfinder check Ob 6
Design time? 10 minutes!
The Lost Patrol, Scene 1, take 1, action!
The game started in Lockhaven, the fortress-town of the Guard and nexus of the mouse territories. The party was summoned by Gwendolyn, leader of the Mouse Guard, to receive their orders for their first Spring mission. For the last few weeks, mice patrols had been moving outwards in the territories to re-establish post-Winter contacts with the various cities and towns, creating new paths where the weather and the wilderness had wiped them.
The party, a veteran patrol, was sent a bit later in the season to tackle the more complicated missions that arose from less experienced patrols getting into serious trouble. The PCs were tasked in retracing the steps of a patrol that was sent out pathfinding to connect a key town from the middle territories with those near the north east frontier.
This lead to a short goal setting session. Here is what the players chose for themselves:
Malcolm (Ex-con and Patrol Leader): Keep the team in good shape
Jasper (Desperately Helpful Tenderpaw): Impress the Patrol Leader
Edgar (Reluctant Guard Mouse): Find the Lost Patrol
Finn (Brazen Veteran Patrol Guard): Find the reason why the patrol was lost
Now Mouse Guard abstracts a lot of things by more or less fast forwarding between the mission’s briefing and the first obstacle. That’s what I did. I described how the PCs got to the last known position of the lost patrol and let the PCs deal with the obstacle: a Scout check vs a lvl 6 obstacle. That meant that a PC (whose average skill-level was 3 dice) had to roll 6 4s or more with whatever dice pool he ended up with after all bonuses were accounted for.
Now I forget what were the exact bonuses for that roll but it turned out that the party failed that scout check. As I’ve said before, the game is often more fun when failure occurs. This failed roll lead to the first “animal” twist of the game session. A new “river” had caught the lost patrol by surprise and, while trying to figure a way to cross it, were assaulted and killed by a fox.
I surmised that the fox wasn’t all that hungry but it still prowled around, wanting to wreck havoc with any other mice it met.
You are a guard, fighting is what you do!
I had set up the first twist to be a fight against a fox while the PCs could see a downed guard from the lost patrol lying on the river’s edge. Mouse Guard conflicts are, like much of the rest if the game, about specific goals, but like our last game, we all got confused between what type of conflict I had chosen (a fight) and what goals players wanted to choose for their paired-up PCs. Alex and Maze’s characters (Malcolm and Jasper) wanted to sleek away from the fight while the the other two (Edgar and Finn) were all for fighting it out.
Now if one thing Mouse Guard does not do well it’s conflicts about widely different goals. The rules are pretty clear that you can’t mix and match conflict types like combat and a chase and our previous experience pointed that out. The closest I saw to what the players wanted to achieve was to have Edgar and Finn fight out the fox and then, if they lost, have the fox chase Malcolm and Jasper.
That’s what Maze and Alex wanted to do but that solution, from a gameplay perspective, was less than ideal because 2 players would need to sit out a conflict while the other two would face a large threat with less resources. That’s when a rules heading popped up from the opened book and gave me the solution out of this:
Fighty Goals for Fighting Conflicts
Phil: I’m sorry guys, I’m asking for a fight conflict here, one fight that can lead to the death of one of you. You are of the Mouse Guard, you stand above other Mice in terms of courage and duty. You don’t run away from a predator, fighting them is one of your core missions, you have to choose goals compatible with combat.
Alex and Maze emmed and ahhed some but I uncharacteristically put my GM foot down and asked them to figure out a combat-related goal that worked within the confines of their beliefs and instincts.
In the end, the following goals were chosen:
- Fox: Eat one more mice before slinking away
- Edgar/Finn: Make the fox retreat (Mice can’t kill foxes unless they invoke a military or science-based conflict, they are too high on the “Order of things” scale)
- Jasper/Malcolm: Ensure that no Guard are killed in this fight
After some book flipping (Burning Wheel games require constant book reference, fortunately it is rapid)we were ready to start the fight!
Up next: An unlikely hero wins the day!
Image Credit: David Petersen
Mouse Guard Chronicles, Session 1, Part 1: Char Gen.
A few months ago, I played a one-shot demo game of Mouse Guard with some of my gamer friends and the experience had been very interesting. (See parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this long-winded game review/report). Enough for us to agree to play again and possibly start a short campaign of it. After playing it at a local convention 2 weeks ago, I wanted to GM it again… NOW!
On Canada Day, a small group of my gaming friends convened for an all day gaming geekout to create characters and, time permitting, play a session with the intent to have a extend it into a short campaign if it struck the group’s fancy, made of Yan, PM, Maze and Alex (one of our Pax East mates) and myself.
Mouse Cake recipe in 22 easy steps!
Making a character really is a simple (if multi-stepped) affair of answering a series of questions that shape each PC’s ability scores and skill levels. No points are spent nor are dice rolled. I have yet to read the actual Burning Wheel rules on which Mouse Guard is based but I assume this is what “Burning characters” is about.
From core concept (a one sentence genesis of the PC) to place of birth, family craft, apprenticeship and Guard training, character generation culminates with the the beliefs and instincts roleplaying catalysts. It took us 2 hours to generate a group of 4 PCs using only one physical copy of the book. (The GM drives the show by asking the 22 or so questions).
We all found that it was a very well invested 2 hours as each player had a good grasp of their PCs and a summary idea of each other.
The Summer 2010 graduates of Lockhaven!
In the end, the following PCs were created:
Malcolm (Alex): 51 year-old Patrol Leader, former criminal who found himself forced in the Guard many years ago.
- Belief: If we were all a little more cunning, there would be a whole lot less fighting.
- Instinct: Find all escape routes
- Feature: Jack of all Trades but lacking the fighting skill.
Jasper (Maze): 17 year-old Tenderpaw, Desperately wants to be useful, all the time.
- Belief: Help others so that they, one day, help you
- Instinct: Escape at the first sign of danger and assess the situation
- Feature: Owns a towel
Edgar (PM): 22 year-old guard mouse, reluctantly upholding the family’s honour as an exemplary guard.
- Belief: Everyone can choose their own path
- Instinct: Go with the first proposed idea
- Feature: Best fighter, very rich background (son of legendary Guard Captain)
Finn (Yan): 35 year-old Patrol Guard, Insubordinate, grizzled war hero
- Belief: Overcoming hardships makes you stronger
- Instinct: Fight first, sort it out later
- Feature: Dedicated combatant, wielding a halberd
Makeup! We film in 5!
See how just 3 simple elements (design concept, belief and instinct) can create such rich and diverse characters? I’m already looking forward to creating adventures based on these beliefs, hang story hooks to challenge instincts and bite in the implied setting that the players have given me.
For example:
- What forced Malcom out of the crime biz and into the guard? Are the reasons related?
- What will Jasper evolve into once he realizes that pleasing everyone is impossible or when he’s forced to fight people he’d rather help?
- Why is Edgar reluctant about his job in the guard yet does such a great job doing it? Is he covering a family secret? If he believes in choosing one’s path, why does he do something he has no wish of doing?
- How many enemies has Finn really made among the mice territories and how will they feature in the tribulations of the upcoming campaign?
My head is fizzing with possibilities… and I’ll likely have to do close to no work to get things moving!
I can’t wait to tell you more about it.
Up next: Creating an adventure in 5 minutes… and playing it for 3 hours.
Roludothon 1 Report: The Sea patrol.
See part 1 of my convention report here.
The afternoon of this con saw me join a new group for a game of Mouse Guard. I had not been a player (instead of a game master) for some time and I was approaching the experience with a mix of excitement and worry. Excitement to finally see someone else run Mouse Guard, worry that he’d be bad at it, or that I’d hog the spotlight from other players and annoy the hell out of others like I know I can do.
Then I gently told my numerous neuroses to go outside and play in traffic while I settled in my chair to have some actual fun. This post relates the 1st of 2 missions we played that afternoon. While both were very enjoyable, the 1st one bests showcased how the game plays.
Dramatis Persona
I was soon joined by a group of awesome players: Florian, Cedric, Harold and our GM, Dominique.
Dominique is one of those Burningheads you hear about in gaming conventions. You know what I’m talking about right? I mean those who wear Luke Crane’s Burning Wheel t-shirts all the time and get the game’s logo tattooed behind their necks to show their undying support for his games!
I kid. Dominique was a very enthusiastic GM whose quest for finding the RPG that met his needs led him to Burning Wheel and Mouse Guard. He’s told me he played several successful campaigns with both. My initial worries were rapidly put to rest.
Our GM presented us with our Mouse Guard patrol, made of various pre-generated characters. I decided to go for a Tendepaw apprentice called Sloan whose beliefs and traits screamed “evil git” but who I morphed into something closer to my own playstyle which was “impulsive troublemaker”.
Harold, with whom I developed a quick friendly report, picked up Thom, our “I’m too old for this crap” Patrol Leader. Florian (who later joined my 4e game) played the role of “I need to listen to my heart and follow my head” Sadie. Finally, Cedric played Baron, our beefy halberd-yielding tough mouse.
The Mission
The mission, as is mostly the case in this game, was very straightforward. Sadie’s enemy, a merchant called Shane came to us, all battered and wounded, telling us he had been waylaid by pirate mice on the Northern “Sea”. He begged Sadie to help escort his ship and cargo from Darkwater to Port Sumac (2 coastal cities on that “sea”, scale is pretty screwed up in that game) and find any info about the pirates hideout to recover his lost wife.
I’m having a bit of a fridge logic moment here… wouldn’t Shane ask us to find his wife first? I guess there’s a reason why Sadie didn’t like the guy. After a bit of hesitation, Florian decided to have Sadie accept helping his adversary and we set out on his boat.
GM’s Turn: Disaster Strikes!
As our party of guard mice set out on the open water, I knew trouble was coming (the game thrives on obstacles and conflicts) and I also knew that trouble was even more fun when we failed a challenge! So when the DM hinted that the weather might be changing and that he wanted to know how we were going to deal about that, I let go my inner instigator. I knew full well that the first player to step on the plate had to go for it and could not weasel out.
Except that Sloan was not, by far, the best mice for the job.
So using my low mid-range weather watching skills, accepting the guidance from my mentor, but pushing away the help of Sadie (my belief was “I’m superior to all other mice in the territory”). Thus, I only managed to tie the opposed check vs weather. When given the choice for a tie-breaker by Dominique, I promptly chose to use my “Cunning” trait in favor of my opponent (i.e. the weather) arguing that I secretly wanted to fail to get a better occasion to shine later.
The weather turned, much to Sadie’s displeasure and the boat started collapsing. Sadie took the lead to prevent it from breaking up and, as can be expected, refused my help! (The tension was rising!) All other guards chipped in but the roll failed and the boat collapsed and we managed to save most of the cargo onto a makeshift raft slowly drifting toward Port Sumac… right into a nest of Geese!
The GM called for a fight and we split in 2 teams, each choosing our conflict goals. A pair of geese males would try to teach us mice a lesson by capsizing our raft, Harold and I settled on “Striking terror in the heart of those birds so they leave all mice alone” and the other team chose “Prevent the loss of all cargo”.
What a fight that turned out to be! My character had no direct fighting skills (my weapon was a shield) so our team alternated between attacks, defences and manoeuvres (and generous use of my poison-lore) while the other team focused on attacks and manoeuvres. The geese made a few passes at the boat and destabilized our position quite strongly yet with a few well played strokes of Thom’s sword, Sadie’s sling and, especially Baron’s Halberd we also dropped the geese’s disposition (the game’s hit point).
Fortunately, both of our teams managed successful Defence rounds (which “heals” our disposition) and my character went all out, climbing the rafts mast, jumping in the air and landing a very solid “Death from Above” hit on one of the 2 aggressive birds, making them flee in abject terror, all cargo safe. Sadie’s enemy was pushed overboard, but Sadie, after visibly hesitating, threw Shane a rope to bring him back on the raft.
Tired, hungry and thirsty, we made it into port, sought out Sadie’s friend who owned a Tavern and eventually convinced her to share with us that some thugs over at the docks had contacts with the pirates who careened at an island near Port Sumac.
Player’s Turn: Sloan’s revenge!
The player’s turn is that very peculiar mechanic where players obtain, through using character traits against themselves during the GM’s turn, a number of turn tokens to use to redirect the story’s narrative and recover from the tribulation of the GM’s turn (i.e. the adventure).
Now the game rewards players who use their character’s beliefs, instincts and traits, so I decided to go for gold. My instinct was “Always seek revenge” and I had a target!
I used my token to approach Sadie’s enemy who was painfully recovering from this whole ordeal. I suggested that Sadie could use a good lesson in humility and proposed that I play a prank on her, provided that Shane supplied a very specific chemical compound that I was sure he had in his cargo of dies we had just saved. He happily obliged and I, in front of a disbelieving GM, explained how I planned to concoct a bleaching solution to drop in Sadie’s washbasin during the night. I made a sneaky skill roll and succeeded!
Now what was really cool was that Sadie’s player, Florian, totally played with me on that one and described how Sadie cluelessly went about washing her furry face, failing to notice all the bizarre looks she got from everyone.
We managed to track down the pirate’s most likely hideout (with the help of Sadie and myself acting as distractions) with the help of Baron infiltrating a dock gang and got to see Thom try to armtwist a governor into helping the patrol and then fight a dock thug to secure his commitment.
A great mission. Dominique showed all the elements I look for in a great GM, enthusiasm, flexibility and a willingness to let players suggest events and consequences whenever he has to make a choice. The other 3 players were also great to play with.
I truly love this game and I can’t wait to play it with my friends tomorrow. I’ll keep you all posted!
Roludothon 1 Report, Morning: Robo-Rally, Agricola and Cheetoism
Last Saturday, I attended a Montreal-based mini- gaming convention, called Roludothon 1, based around our newest bilingual gaming forum Roludo (which, unless I’m mistaken, means roleplaying in Esperanto).
The event, held in a beautiful 8 room apartment in Montreal’s Plateau brought together about 20 gamers playing board and roleplaying games over 3 tables and 3 time slots. The apartment was this HUGE early 1900s multiplex so typical of my city and our hosts Jocelyn and Marie-Mousse showed all the grace and informal generosity typical of Québécois hospitality. They also ran a tight ship, having tables and chairs prepared before each event, including cardboard signs with the names of the events and participants on each.
The apartment was located near a local commercial street filled with cafés, bistros and restaurant, it truly was a perfect setup for such an awesome nerd party that was this mini-con.
Board Games Morning Slot
The morning slot had a supers RPG called Wild Talent and a more general board game area. That’s where I registered and was joined by my friends Eric, Martin and 3 other very friendly gamers. We started the day with a game of the latest edition of RoboRally, Richard Garfield’s game of programmable racing robots shooting, pushing and screwing with each other’s well crafted plans.
We played a short game focused on one map with 5 robots and it was absolutely hilarious. This game remains the closest thing to a what I’d like a fast paced version of Car Wars to be. Still, I love that game and the small tweaks they did in the newest edition makes for a smoother running game (like adding a timer to prevent stragglers from thinking for too long).
I still want to use RoboRally in a D&D 4e game and I in fact have made mechanics for them.
Soon, real soon!
We then started playing a game of Agricola, one I had started hearing more and more about in my gaming circles but hadn’t had seen yet. For others like me, Agricola is another of those fast to play, more complex than expected European games. All players control a family of farmers staving off starvation while trying to build a farm and make it prosper.
Here’s a great quote from Nico Solitander over at Board Game Geeks:
…turns out its about raising wild boars and making babies in the German schwartzwalds. But then you press “play” and it’s pretty damn awesome a game.
The game is a “worker placement” game in which you have a certain number of turns to place your family tokens on various tasks to generate food, resources, make babies and build stuff like grazing fields, stables and new rooms to your house (to make room for said babies). The interesting/cool/unnerving thing about this game is that as the game progresses, you have more and more options on which to place your workers and less and less time before harvesting season comes, forcing you to feed everyone to avoid making everyone beggars.
The game is very interesting but the sheer amount of choices one needs to make can be catatonia-inducing. For high-level, reactive types like myself, I find myself unable to stick to a clear plan and it costs me dearly. Still, I caught on mid-game and finished with a pretty decent score for a beginner.
Yet, as clever and as engaging as this game can be, it screams Analysis Paralysis and I would not want to play this game with aggressive analytical types who requires to be given as much time as needed to “think & plan properly”.
Oh man, I just had a nightmare flashback to my one and only Federation and Empire game.
In fact Agricola is one of those games where you have to punch through the steeper than expected strategy learning curve to truly start appreciating the genius of that game. But be forewarned, a small early planning mistake can and will haunt you for the rest of the game.
Cheetoism at its best!
The con organizers had set a 90 minute period for lunch, which allowed each participants to go out and choose whatever takeout delight they wanted. I decided to go with a classic Montreal Submarine sandwich of grilled steak, Sauted veggies (green peppers, onions and mushroom) with melted cheese and fresh tomatoes!
Yum!
We all converged back to the apartment where the kitchen and backyard tables had been made available to all those hungry gamers. Now this may sound inane, but the fact that our hosts suggested that we get the food for take-out and directed us to these tables made us all mingle a lot more than we had so far in the day.
Through the smells of Subs, Burgers, Poutine and Persian delights, I got to talk and listen to stories about Pathfinder, French RPGs and Burning Wheel quite a lot and I got to learn more about a lot of people who had mostly been strangers. It’s been said that the activity of sharing a meal is an important step in forging stronger social ties and I witnessed it clearly during both lunch and dinner. This is a must repeat for future events, regardless of the venue we chose as this event grows.
Up next: Chatty plays Mouse Guard, and prevails!
3:16 Carnage Among Friends: Part 2, Lead 4 Dead
About 3 weeks ago, when I realized that we would not have the necessary number of players for our usual D&D session, I looked into Critical Hits’ review bin and found one of the games I long wanted to try, 3:16 Carnage among the Stars written by Gregor Hutton.
I wrote a review of it here, Chatty Sarge style!
I sent out feelers for the game and got 4 willing participants: Math and Yan, my longest standing players, stepped forward as volunteers.
Math: As long as there’s wine and a chair, I’ll play anything.
My long-suffering lieutenant PM also joined us, as did the newest members of our gaming tribe: Maze and Vyper.
Quick, prep the game, they’ll be there in 10 minutes!
To say that 3:16 little prep is like saying that rain is wet. With the help of a few charts to pick planet names, planetary environments, alien appearances, alien powers and various NPC names, the GM just needs to add a few creative sparks to create a 2-3 hour long adventure.
Here’s how I did it:
I looked at the alien types and saw “Corrupted Trooper”, defined in the rules as “renegade troopers that must be all killed”, then over the power list, I saw “Wounds resistant” which allows the ‘aliens’ to ignore wounds in a combat round (provided the GM pays with some of his pool of alien “threat tokens” each time)… finally one of the planetary environments was “Toxic Atmosphere”.
Of course these choices (our of many many more) popped up because earlier in the day people had been pointing me toward the Left 4:16 Dead hack of 3:16.
All this started something brewing in me brain!
Hmmmm, brains….
The 3rd army recently attacked a planet where lifeforms with very advanced nano-tech triggered a Scorched Earth defense before dying out. A planet-wide strike release of Nano-bots, over-saturating the Terra-like atmosphere attacked all DNA-based lifeforms, took over their neural functions and turned the invaders into near-mindless, tough to kill monsters hungering for the flesh of their uninfected kind.
Of course, the army command could not afford to let the secret of their botched mission out to Terra, nor could they inform the grunts… so before they nuked the whole planet, they sent one last mission to try to isolate the “Zomvirus”, study it and leave all grunts involved in the mission planet-side to roast in radioactive fire.
The first mission would be to capture the North Pole base, where the concentration of corrupted troopers was supposedly lowest.
Length of prep? 10 minutes.
Basic Training
I spent a few minutes explaining the core rules and all players made PCs.
Here’s what they created (Rank & Name, Reputation, Player):
- Sarge Beloved, Smartass, played by The Maze.
- Corporal Vyper, Ice Cold, played by Vyper (Real name Steph, but not our usual Steph)
- Trooper Will “I like all Positions”, Ruthless, played by Yan
- Trooper Frederico Mayweather, Bravado, played by Math
Character creation, 15 minutes, including pouring some wine and re-explaining a few concepts.
Dropships leave in 5, get your ass in gear!
Structure of play usually goes as such:
- Briefing (GM controlled)
- Lead to 1st Encounter (GM controlled)
- 1st Encounter (Group Narrative)
- 3-6 more encounters (Group Narrative)
- De-briefing/Leveling up (GM controlled, Player choices)
One of the reasons why prepping is so short is that the game discourages GMs from planning too far ahead to prevent railroading. The game’s fun does not come from following a well crafted plot (this is a game about mindlessly killing aliens) or the combat mechanics (at least not the tactical aspects of them) but rather the way players spontaneous use military and Space Marine tropes and clichés to build a story that ends up grabbing everyone’s attention.
Yes, this is Indie RPG talk, but it worked. For a good chunk of the evening, even the rules crunch addicts of our group were enchanted with the concept and we enjoyed it a lot.
Playing the role of an uncaring lieutenant, I briefed the group on a mission about rebel troopers from the 4th having taken over a previously cleaned world. Their mission was dead simple: Drop near the North Pole, recapture the base there and progress to kill each and every rebel.
Math (lisping heavily): Oh man, I can’t wait kill all thoshe fucking traitorsh!
Man, we had barely started hitting the first bottle of wine that Math was already deep in character.
Will: Hey Frederico!
Math: It’s not “Frederico” It”s “Fheyderico”
Will: Hum, Fheyderico”
Math: FHEYDERICO!
Will: That’s what I just said!
Priceless.
If it don’t talk, Shoot it!
The players instantly got the whole ” troopers are Zombies” shtick and played along. The first 2 fights were mostly us getting used to the whole combat system and were dispatched quite rapidly. The first one was about the ‘Corrupted Troopers” charging the squad and dismembering a few NPCs before the PCs figured out the difference between guns and grenades. During the second scene, where the PCs were taking over a base filled with ranged-weapons armed Zombies, Vyper used one of his Flashbacks to “Ambush the Ambushers” and win the whole fight.
The high point of the evening (which also inadvertently triggered that game’s downfall after) was shortly after Vyper left for the night.
Maze: Hey, I know, what if Vyper got infected and we had to kill him? Then we’d load him in a sealed suit and send him back to the ship!
Others chimed in and they more or less created the adventure’s “end” scene:
Some time after the debriefing, Vyper’s motionless body is seen lying naked on a morgue table, waiting to be incinerated and chucked in space… As the Camera slowly pans to his ashen restful face, he opens his eyes!
Fade to black.
Everyone cheered!
Now with my usual post-game hindsight, I realize that I should have gone with making “fight zombies on the ship” the game’s next scene and go from there. That’s how the game was designed to go, players are expected to direct where the action goes from the 1st mission onwards and what they came up with was truly awesome.
Instead, by classic gamemaster reflex, I had already decided to push forward with the plot I had in mind about tracking the nano/bio lab in planet’s capital and fighting 2 more waves of zombies to get to it.
Understandably, as we played the next 2 scene, a certain ennui set in in regards to combat and we ended up fast forwarding the final fight downtown around the ruins of the Nano-lab with another player taking a Flashback and putting an end to it all.
Aside: If you intend to play 3:16 as a one-shot, I suggest not giving PCs any ‘Strength” flashback or planning more scenes that there are players to avoid each fight being dodged using them.
Debriefing
After playing the game, Yan and I felt somewhat unsatisfied about the experience. He wanted more tactical options and I felt that the later combat encounters and story felt flat. In hindsight, going over the whole experience and focusing on the period where we were in the game’s ‘zone’, we all agreed it was tons of fun and that we would give the game another try to see how it stacks up in campaign mode.
So stay tuned for more adventures of the 3:16 troopers who were mysteriously found to be immune to the “Nano-virus” but, by a freakish accident of fate and paperwork (both under the portfolio of the same Goddess BTW), were reassigned to duty instead of being quietly executed in the massive cover up that followed the mission and its consequences.
