Fun happens between the rules

Dammit, John.

Thanks for pulling the rug out from under my carefully constructed meta frameworks :)

However he's on point here. Some of the best game sessions I've ever been in or run had little or no dice rolling involved. So why do I still obsess over game mechanics?

The best Shadowrun game session was played in the dark, by candlelight and no dice were thrown. One of the best 7thSea game sessions was where I realized what needed to happen and asked the GM for a sidebar, where I described what I thought should happen and he went for it. We went back to the table and narrated the outcome of a dramatic duel.

Because game mechanics inform me what kind of game I am playing and what I can do in it. It's a twist on the old adage: "when all you have is a hammer, all your problems resemble nails." If your game system spends 50% of its word-count on structuring and adjudicating combat, then guess how I expect to solve problems while playing that game?

As a counter-example: I'm in a FATE game involving dreamers and where the dream world is as real as the mundane one. The concept is fascinating, the characters are interesting. But I have a problem in this game: I don't know what I can do in the game. Now in this case this is part FATE but also due to the setting as presented. Our characters are as new to this world as the players are, and therefore they are learning as we are. But it can happen with other games as well sometimes.

Mechanics inform gameplay, but also inherently define and limit choice in game. But genre also informs choice. In a Lord Of The Rings setting, you have all the novels and movies to draw upon for inspiration. Anime has tons of tropes used to describe what can happen in their worlds.

On the other hand, simulationist games depend on structure. The story evolves from the combination of choices made and results of dice. This is one of the reasons I don't roleplay in the Battletech universe; it's too damn easy for your mecha pilots to get killed outright and there's little to no game mechanics to mitigate that for story purposes. In this sense, a 1st edition Dungeons and Dragons game is the same way: your 1st level character has single-digit hit points, and a housecat stands a decent chance of killing your wizard outright. But lets set aside simulationist games for now and return to storytelling games.

Just what purpose do rules and mechanics serve in a storytelling game?
Rules and mechanics should be inclusive of all players and promote safety.
Rules and mechanics should enable fun.
Rules and mechanics should enable and inform choices, not limit them.
And if rules and mechanics get in the way, throw them out the window.

A post-game 'in-character' post

This is a follow-up to my previous post about the Star Trek Adventures game we started playing.
I had so much fun playing that game, I felt that a post-game 'in-character' report was appropriate for several reasons: A) it helped improve my understanding of my character, B) helps communicate that character to other players/readers, C) records for posterity the events of that game session, and D) extends the fun of the campaign when away from 'the table.'

I've been a fan of the concept of 'blue booking' as Aaron Alston put it so many years ago, but rarely had a chance to put it to the test. Nowadays, with actual game sessions happening at best once a month, I feel the practice is even more important to maintain connection between players and characters and the campaign world they play in. Hopefully this keeps the momentum going during the long downtimes between actual gatherings.

I should also add that the advent of FaceBook and other widely-accessible social medias, especially those that allow for private and semi-private groups, also can help with maintaining connections and momentum for a game group.

Anyway, all that aside, here's what Captain Joran Kyl, commanding officer of the Stargazer had to report to StarFleet Command after the last game session:

Enjoy!

<<BEGIN Encryption report>>
<<FROM: Joran Kyl, Commander, Commanding Officer: NCC-2893-A Stargazer>>
<<CYPHER codex: SFC.RE.Romeo-Omicron-Foxtrot-Lima-Michael-Alpha-Omicron>>
<<CYPHER key: Wiskey-Tango-Foxtrot-9925>>
<<CONTEXT TAGS ASSIGNED: Unknown contact, sapient rights, Xindi coalition, Conflict report>>
<<BEGIN REPORT>>
Stardate 49124.1

For those just being read into this situation report, here's a summary of my previous mission reports: 
Stargazer's first mission post-shakedown was to rendezvous with runabout 'Charon' and take onboard the contractor repair team, and one Lt.Kadar, and then to proceed into the Paulson nebulae to discover why Federation Automated Communication Post 1337 had stopped all communications. We were able to track down the likely location of FCPA-1337. Only the station wasn't there. Only radioactive dust remained. We extended our search, finding small parts of the obliterated station. Analysis by science team concluded the station had been obliterated by critical nuclear decoupling reaction (i.e. a 'nuclear warhead'), delivered by an ion-powered missile. As of last report, Stargazer was setting out to follow the ion trail left by the missile back to its source.

At Stardate 49123.3 Stargazer encountered a previously unknown stellar system at the approximate coordinates <<INSET.ASTRONAVIGATION.COORDINATES>>. We nearly hit the stellar corona; there was no sign of this system on charts or sensors before automatic collision avoidance dropped us out of warp just in time. 

Immediate sensor scans identified an M-class world in the system, with signs of pre-Warp civilization craft moving about between the other bodies of the star system: the classic signs of a near-maturity and previously unknown and un-contacted civilization. In accordance with the Prime Directive I ordered Sargazer behind the primary star and deployed sensor drones so that we could observe and evaluate this civilization. 

Our initial assumption that this was a pre-warp civilization were incorrect, however, when our sensor drones suddenly went silent and a large modern-technology starship of unknown origin or configuration rounded the corona of the star with shields raised and weapons armed. In retrospection I realize that the unidentified ship must have been on the far side of the M-class planet when we initially entered system and thus we were unaware of it's presence. I ordered shields raised as a defensive measure. We transmitted on universal hailing frequencies our non-hostile intentions only to be met by subspace jamming. Not only did this opponent not want to talk; they didn't want us talking to anyone else either. Lt. Kadar's instincts proved themselves as sharp as ever as she intuited their attack just in time to avoid most of their initial volley, some sort of EMP blast intended to cripple us. Lt. Zynes' limited scans of the ship informed us that she was heavy on automation but light on crew yet she out-massed us a great deal. Roughly equivalent to an Ambassador-class Federation heavy cruiser. Stargazer was not up for a straight-up fight against such an opponent.

{Personal note: In my recovery after WOLF359, I recall spending time with a distant niece and the story from Earth she wanted me to read to her. I don't recall all the details from the tale, but the protagonists use of a 'Briar patch' to their advantage against a larger predator stuck with me.}

I ordered Lt.Tyvass to return fire and Kadar to go to warp back to the Paulson Nebulae. Tyvass scored a hit against the opponents engines, temporarily draining them of power and buying Stargazer an opening to go to warp. With a bloody nose, I doubted they'd give up the chase now and my suspicions were proven correct when we detected the unknown in pursuit. 

En route to the Nebulae, i called a quick team meeting and outlined my plan: I intended to lead our attacker into the Nebulae, where Lt.Zynes' previous extensive mapping of the gravitational fields and eddies would be used to our advantage; we were going to fight back with intent to disable our opponent and then offer them an opportunity to surrender. I asked my XO, Cmdr Delix to take command down in engineering for the meantime. Unlike other captains, I like all my section leaders to know the plan, in case the chain of command gets broken for whatever reason.

Again, i have to call attention to the skill Lt.Kadar has with shiphandling. As we dropped out of warp at the nebulae's edge, she dodged a grav-wave that sent our pursuer into a wild skid to retain control. Tyvass was ready with our guns and put phaser strikes into their engines and weapons. The attacker again tried to use their EMP wave against us, but again Kadar nimbly sidestepped the attack. I asked Chief Ray to power up our secondary core for more power, which he provided promptly. This gave us enough to strike again, knocking their shields out entirely and causing secondary explosions across the enemy's weapon systems.

Having given our opponent a thoroughly rough handling, I decided it was time to try some gunboat diplomacy. I recorded a message, offering them the chance to stand down and that we didn't seek their destruction. 

While the enemy re-established their shields, Kadar informed me she felt 'panic and disorder' aboard the enemy ship. 

I recorded another message: "Surrender or we will end this. Expeditiously." and sent that while ordering Tyvass to load torpedoes.

We received a weak communications signal from someone identifying themselves as "Dr.Okathra," who informed us that he and several others who have been prisoners on the ship have broken free in the chaos, but that the ships self-destruct has been set.

I ordered Tyvass to use our phasers to bring down their shields, then Kadar to bring us close enough for transporters.
Sensors indicated only a couple dozen lifeforms onboard. I ordered security to setup a containment field in the main cargo bay, and the transporter teams to start bringing everyone on the ship over and into the 'cage'. Tyvass headed down to take command of the security situation himself.

I confess: I cut things too close. The enemy ship's core detonated sooner than intended, and the nebulae amplified the explosion. We found ourselves tossed to the floor and main power was lost. Once the bridge was back under order, I left Kadar at con to handle damage control, while Lt.Zynes and I took the long climb down to the cargo bay.

We had to pry ourselves into the cargo bay. We found a standoff: when main power failed, the containment field also failed briefly. Captors, prisoners and my own security people were both inside and outside the containment zone in the aftermath of a wild melee. Tyvass, bloodied but unbowed had just gotten back the upper hand. 

When it was apparent that they were truly captured, the captors all committed suicide or attacked each other with intent to kill to be killed. Security stunned all they could but all but one of the captors died. The risk of toxic exposure to the rest of the crew forced me to leave the dead in the containment field for now. Dr. Okathra and most of the prisoners survived and were taken to medical, along with the surviving captor who was unconscious.

I then made my way down to engineering, finding that Delix had already begun damage control assignments. The explosion had knocked out our FTL and internal communications, and both drive cores were down. Chief Ray was already going EVA to stop a plasma leak from one our nacelles. While bad, this wasn't terminal. <<INSET.REF: CPO. Ray's damage reports>>
Seeing things were well in hand, I left for Medical.

I spent some time talking with Dr.Okathra, who turns out is a Xindi Arboreal. A geneticist by training, he told of how he and his team were conducting research into genetic maladies and the eternal challenge of bringing the various Xindi peoples back together. Wildly controversial among the Xindi population as a whole, he chose to relocate to a lesser known space to avoid trouble. And yet trouble is what he got when his FTL communications were cut, then an unknown ship appeared in their skies. Their Captors took them prisoner, forced them to perform genetics testing of various kinds. The timelines between the lost of communication from FCPA-1337 coincides with the timeline from Dr.Okathra. Assuring him we would do our best to right the wrongs he and his people suffered, I left him in Lt.Kadar's care; perhaps with counseling we can learn more about what happened.

Our EMH handled the autopsies of the dead and the captors and the 'Moreau's' (his term, I'll have to go look up the reference later) with the assistance of Lt. Zynes. While I'm no xenobiologist, here are the big takeaway points:

1. The 'captors' (a dozen humans, one Vulcan, one Tellurite) all underwent extensive biometric and genetic modifications to defy identification. Their remains are currently in stasis.

2. The unidentified humanoids are biogenic composites; a patchwork (in the very literal sense) of disparate genomes that somehow managed to work together. About 90% of the genomes can be identified leaving 10% unknown. Primarily these poor beings are drawn from Xindi species (yes, all six of them). Finally: whatever genetic 'glue' that held them together breaks down quickly after death: the bodies started decomposing before autopsy could be finished.

3. I have one of the captors still alive, but in dire state. The EMH doctor has this individual in a medical coma until they can be stabilized.

<<INSET.REF: Lt.Zynes autopsy reports>>

My ship is damaged, but still quite capable. 
We've taken out the major enemy space-based asset in the system. 
Given the information that Dr.Okathra has given me I feel it imperative to return to the unknown system to rescue any remaining of Dr.Okathra's people. And to hopefully learn more about the people behind these atrocities.

P.S. This has been one hell of a 'milk run' so far.

signed: 
~Commander Joran Kyl, C/O NCC-2893-A Stargazer.
<<END REPORT>>

Review: Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius games

A long, long time ago I picked up a boxed set game purely for the fandom of it.

The original Star Trek RPG, by FASA,circa 1986.

It wasn’t playable, IMHO, but it was nifty to own anyway and it had a small but devoted following. The tactical ship combat board-games were more successful and still ongoing to this day.

Then came along Modiphius. Along with the publication rights to the Elite:Dangerous, Tales of the Loop, Fallout, Mutant Chronicles, Robert E Howard’s CONAN, and Achtung Cthulhu, they recently put out a new Star Trek licensed roleplaying game.

And boy, howdy, is it better than that 1986 boxed set.

Titled Star Trek Adventures, it’s an ambitious -and in my opinion- successful attempt to mainstream the popular science-fiction franchise as a tabletop experience. Part of that success is due to the fact that out of the core rule book they support all three TV generations of the Star Trek universe: Enterprise, classic Star Trek, and the combined series of ST: The Next Generation, ST:Deep Space 9 and ST:Voyager. And it wouldn’t take much to expand that to the spin off series of Discovery, The Mirror Universe, and the plot-lines of the Star Trek MMO as supplemental material.

The core of Star Trek Adventures is Modiphius’ home-grown ‘2d20’ engine. At first I was a bit unsure about this system. Having been burned out on the deluge of ‘d20’ engine clones from the D&D 3.5 SRD flood, I was apprehensive about how Modiphius was going to treat my beloved childhood settings. And yet, the 2d20 engine has impressed me very much. This is no D&D clone, but a slick and relatively smooth new game experience. The fun I’ve had with Star Trek Adventures so far has made me eye Modiphius’s other 2d20 game settings (Corvus Belli: INFINITY and the reborn Mutant Chronicles) as possibilities worth investing in.

It also doesn’t hurt that Star Trek Adventure player characters are good at their jobs. StarFleet trains them very well, and you start the game with a very capable character in the fields they specialize in. 2d20 has a ‘momentum’ mechanic where extra successes generated by one player are banked for other players to capitulate on immediately. This gives your Federation characters a powerful sense of coordination and teamwork.

Character advancement feels slow however. But that fits within the TV-series feel of the game. Similar to FATE’s ‘Milestones’ for advancement, characters in Star Trek Adventures can shift around their abilities after minor milestones, and only improve them after reaching major milestones (‘Spotlights’ as the book calls them). Again, this is befitting the feel of the TV series, where one could argue that major characters were affected by lesser events, and only transformed by major ones that only occurred once or twice a season. But outside of statistical improvements, Star Trek Adventure characters grow by their reputations and service records, which have different effects. In our campaign we haven’t delved into this much yet, but it gives the GM a way to reward characters in alternate ways.

Another advantage of the Star Trek Adventure engine is that it treats Starships as characters in their own right, and this is very fitting of the feel of the show. Ships have the same array of abilities and disciplines that characters do, so it’s easy to see the synergy between ship and crew. Only a few additional details required by the technical details one is used to in a Star Trek game are added (shields, some power management, etc.), but Star Fleet Battles this is not.

Another compelling aspect of the game is that it allows the spontaneous creation of supporting crew as characters when needed, and in fact encourages their re-appearance in later episodes. This allows for players to still participate in adventures when their primary character isn’t directly involved; roll up a redshirt security officer, or a blue-shirted science team member for that away-mission. Every subsequent time a supporting character returns to play, they get a little more detail and stat boosts. This is how you get your Chief O'Briens and Lt. Barclays to become major characters in their own right after a few seasons.

So far our group has played two long sessions and we’ve covered A LOT over those two gatherings. Equivalent to an ongoing story arc. This has probably as much to do with the skill of the GM (not me), as well as all the players understanding that we’re sticking to a TV-esque format. We frame our scenes, transitions and breaks as one would a TV show. It’s been a refreshing restart to my tabletop gaming experience which has been lacking lately.

Titled: “Star Trek: Legacy” our campaign follows the crew of the re-commissioned Stargazer (yes, Picards' old ship) after she was recovered, refitted, and put back into service. In the big chair is a Trill captain, recently joined with symbiote; a Betazoid as her helmswoman, and an Andorian science officer who was raised on Vulcan.

The books themselves are beautiful and well designed. If you’re a Trekkie, and/or looking for a quick and fun game engine to enjoy, I feel confident in recommending this game. Modiphius is continuing to support the line, with miniatures, maps, published adventures and custom dice.

DIALECT: a game about language and how it dies

I finally got to play a game of Dialect: a game about language and how it dies, by Thorny Games. As a group we had a both a lot of fun, as well as some very touching moments as the very human generational drama unfolded. Great plot twists, and very cinematic visions of how the 'conversations' that root new words and phrases' genesis abounded.

We played with the initial digital download that was made available to the Kickstarters backers. The hardcover and professionally-produced cards are in development and I can hardly wait to get the final product.

Overview

DIALECT feels a lot of a fusion of FATE and FIASCO in the best possible ways. The game's structure is there to give everyone at the table input. Collaboration is absolutely required and highly rewarding. Best played with a group of creative, collaborative-happy people who like world-building.

The game is played in phases that setup your story, create characters in that setting for the players to experience the world through, and over three Acts to describe the lingual drift your group of isolates experience as their world and circumstances change. This culminates in the ending of their isolation (for good or for worse) and defining the legacy they left behind: What impact did this group of isolates have upon the greater culture they were absorbed into?

What we made

Here's some of the words and the meanings we developed during our play, which used "The Outpost" setting about Mars colonists who expected reinforcements only to be cut off from Earth for many years.

• "NASA" meant something well done, excellence. Based on a conversation when the air-circulation regeneration systems first came online and a high official said: "NASA couldn't have done it better." Often used the way Firefly fans say "Shiny."
• "Schroom-room" the botanical hydroponics for growing certain types of food.
• "UN-MET" based on the acronym logo on the sides of the original habitats and structures, this became slang for the concern that people had that they were productive enough and especially for youth worried if they'll have a role in society when they grow up.
• "The Drift" and "Drifting" those who slept on the long transit from Earth to Mars experienced odd dreams, and referred used this term for their experiences during the drifting between the planets. The youth co-oped the phrase to mean daydreaming, loosing track of time, or sleeping, which annoys the adults who lived thru the original experience.
• "A Breath" A unit of time, between refreshes of air supplies between the central hub and all the spokes of the colony., typically between 12 days and a fortnight. This spawned related phrases for "Inhale" -the first day of refreshed air supply, and "Exhale" - the latter half of a Breath where air quality slowly and noticeably decays. It also set the tempo for social activities in the colony spokes.
• "Sparking" - the act of cleaning solar arrays, usually by static discharge.
• "Tinkerbelles/Tinks/Teebs" - those who specialize in maintaining solar arrays, often performing 'Sparking.'
• "MET" people who have proven their worth. "Never-MET" outsiders; anyone who hasn't faced the challenges the MET have, and never will. "Well-MET" might be someone who's well known to be competent, skilled, etc.
• "RED" the red sands outside the crater the colony was established in, the same way one might use the term "outback" to refer to wilderness. This also spawned phrases such as "Going-RED" for getting lost outside, and for committing suicide.
• "Inflate" the act of establishing a safe, neutral space for meeting. Born from the act of inflating a temporary structure for both sides to meet in. "Lets inflate and talk this out," or "I'm willing to Inflate with them." It also became a euphemism for sex by teenagers.
• "Same bubble, same air, same spoke, same water. ALL HUB, ALL MET." A 'war song' that made its way into the collective memory, even if the origin of it was lost. The conquering armed forces adopted using "ALL HUB" as a patriotic challenge, to be answered by the chant of "ALL MET", the same way modern day paramilitaries might say "Hoo RAW".
• "NASA" and "Pops." After discovering that the same NASA that was idealized was also the identity of those who were coming to take the colonist's lives, the use of "NASA" meaning excellence fell out of usage. The bravery and sacrifice of "Grandfather" Kennedy to forestall the war led to the adoption of "Pops" to mean what NASA used to.
• "UN-MET" With the impending culturecide coming, the use of 'UN-MET' as a pejorative  was heavily discouraged. "We are all MET" became the cultural unifying meme.
• "Glassmine" an jerry-rigged powercell, used as a kind of defensive weapon. The massive discharge would fry electronics, electrocute humans and result in a circular red glass plate of fused Martian sand.

Suggestions for improvement

After our game ended we discussed what we liked, didn't like, and what we'd like to try next time.

A good supply note cards. Maybe even a set of dry-erase note cards. Games like FATE and FIASCO and now DIALECT burn thru a lot of 3x5's through play.

An open google doc or other digital resource to track the game as we played. I took furious notes in a journal while we played, which is why this post is as detailed as it is (I'm still leaving details out). An online shared format could be seen by all at a later date.

We often found that a word or phrase coined would quickly spawn lots of derivatives and use-examples ("RED" and "Breath" for example, immediately spawned many related words). We found the need to write these down as they added to the setting, but needed to be outside the normal turn structure or else everyone's turns would get eaten up adding Variants to the same word.

Because of the geography of the setting we ended up making maps and diagrams as we played: these helped immensely in both communicating ideas and inspiring new ones.

Each player created a character to follow/embody during the story, and for the most part they all survived to the end, but afterwards we discussed the possibility of much longer periods of isolation and the possibility of playing generations of characters for each Act in those circumstances. Some Settings could do with more options/discussions on generational affects upon play.

Finally: even with five players we found going around the table once per Act felt limiting in terms of what we added to the tableau. We discussed the idea of smaller groups having two or more turns around the table per Act. Especially when a baseline new word/phrase would spawn lots of Variants (as above).

Conclusion:

Overall I really enjoyed playing DIALECT and look forward to playing it again, both with the crew I we did this session with, and with new players.

Postscript:

I promised my fellow players that I'd write up all my notes from the play session, and I will. As comments to this main post. Stay Tuned!

Fiasco: an actual play experience

So I finally got to play Fiasco this week, with friends Chien, Kit and Ember. Previously I had only watched Fiasco being played on TableTop.

The first step in playing Fiasco is the Setup which starts with choosing a Playset, which is a setting. Then you work your way around the table, defining Relationships, Locations, Needs and Items relevant to that Playset. We chose McMurdo Ice Station for our Playset and immediately I started thinking of films like The Thing, Ice Station Zero, and some classic Dr. Who episodes. 

In going round the table, we established Relationships. You get one with each person to our right and left around the table. There were Professional Rivalries, Mutual Survivors, members of the same Religion, and Criminal enterprises afoot. Needs resulted in Earn Respect, Need to Escape (and I forget the rest). There was a undefined Weapon and a locked room in the Biology wing. 

Then character creation began:

I ended up playing Hope Anderson, a recent grad student, arriving on station after getting hired by Ember/Anke’s husband, the senior researcher on McMurdo. Hope had written Anke, having followed her online for years, and plead to be hired.

Ember created Anke Jornsdotter, a Norwegian leader of a radical feminist sect (our mutual religion). Her husband was the senior researcher on McMurdo. Anke is secretly trying to invoke her goddess, and to that end, she’d convinced her husband to sleep with Dr. Andrea because Anke herself was infertile. In the meantime, Anke works as the schoolmarm for the base, teaching kids from elementary up to high school.

Kit created Dr. Andrea Lorearu, and ambitious bio researcher, gorgeous and not adverse to using her wiles to get what she wanted. She also believed in unspecified extremist of beliefs. She found a kindred and plyable patsy in Thomas Rhys while he was a doctorate student and she her advisor.

Chien created Thomas Rhys, PhD, who had attended university with Hope and they had rivaled for Dr. Andrea’s approval for their Doctorate programs. Thomas had crushed hard on Hope, but Hope only strung him along, until he met Dr.Andrea, who made him her lover and minion and approved his thesis over Hopes’. Once on McMurdo, they were conspiring to develop an exotic lifeforms they’d discovered under the ice as a possible bio-weapon for sale on the black market.

Fiasco is played in a series of Acts and Scenes, each player getting to either open or close a Scene involving their character, going round the table. There is a pool of white and black dice, representing if the scene went well for you or not. However, in the first phase, you give the dice you earn to another player.

Act One:

Kit/Andrea got to go first, and crafted a flashback scene laying out how Andrea and Anke were the sole survivors of a terrible accent during the base’s celebration of the winter solstice. Something with tentacles ate all the other members of the party.

Three months later, Hope arrives on McMurdo, looking forward to proving herself both before Anke and professionally in spite of the setbacks by Thomas and Andrea. Waiting for her was Anke and not Dr. Andrea. Anke informs Hope that Dr. Andrea is now in charge and Hope would be working for her instead of Anke’s husband. Hope is a little downtrodden by the news, but Anke promises to take her under her wing. Anke also gives Hope a list of activities and things she’ll need for her Initiation into the Order. Hope, having studied all she could about their faith online, is suddenly surprised she has a lot of extra homework to do as well to prove her commitment to their religion.

Now Dr.Andrea was the senior researcher, and made it clear on their first meeting (since college) that Thomas was her right-hand man, and that Hope had a long road to proving herself. Dr. Andrea was also six months pregnant by now, father unknown. 

After a few weeks work, Hope discovered that vital supplies are missing, and goes directly to Dr. Andrea. Andrea, who knows Thomas is using the supplies in their secret bio-weapon research, tries to distract Hope from the issue by bringing up Hopes’ proposed thesis project, and offers her a currently unused greenhouse module on the far side of the science sector to continue her research. Hope, excited for the opportunity, agrees. Andrea tells Thomas to let Hope borrow what equipment she needs for her pet project. When Thomas isn’t paying attention, Hope borrows a spectrum analyzer that happens to have some frozen ’Bacteria-X’ samples in it.

What follows is a montage of Hope doing lab work during normal hours, pursuing her old thesis project in the greenhouse and also setting up and practicing initiation rites in the same space; doing triple-shifts, if you will. The greenhouse becomes a messy combination of thesis project and cult initiation paraphernalia.

This was the midpoint of our story, the game mechanics change somewhat. First you determine The Tilt: the mechanisms by how things go so badly wrong. We ended up determining "Something precious is on fire," and "A beast (even metaphorical) is set loose."

Then Act Two begins: You still go around the table, requesting scenes, or dictating them. But when you earn a black or white die in phase two, you keep it. The dice you have (from phase one and two) have a direct effect in the final phase of the game.

When Thomas realizes the spectrum analyzer is missing from his secret project, he tracks it down to Hope’s greenhouse, finding Hope chanting and carving a wooden effigy in the midst of lab equipment. He startles her and she cuts her hand with the carving knife, bleeding onto the incomplete idol. She breaks down, exhausted and crying and wounded, confessing all. Seeing her injured and broken, Thomas takes the opportunity he’d always wanted, takes care of her injury and takes her away to the infirmary, but not before the bloody idol is placed precariously on the analyzer. He looks over his shoulder as they leave the greenhouse, thinking he can come back for the analyzer when Hope is out of the way.

After delivering Hope to the infirmary, Thomas checks in on Andrea, who once learns Hope was cut and bleeding near Bacteria-X, orders the infirmary to put Hope in quarantine. She then nearly faints from stress and seeming to have early labor pains, but not before ordering Thomas to clean up the greenhouse “by any means necessary.”

Thomas returns to the greenhouse, but learns that the bloody effigy has fallen on the samples of Bacteria-X, and now some kind of glowing moss is growing on the idol. Afraid to get close, he goes to fetch some gasoline and fire source…

Anke, taking some of her kids on a tour to the medical wing, sees Hope get placed into quarantine. She hears Hope muttering something about her idol and her work, and Anke makes for the greenhouse. She arrives in time to see Thomas dousing everything in gasoline. She interrogates Thomas, learns Anke is having some kind of labor pains, learns about Bacteria-X. About that time, Hope’s idols eyes start glowing. Anke tells Thomas to burn it all. She heads to find Anke, and tells Thomas to get Hope out of quarantine, telling him: “Hope may be the only person who can undo this!”

The very second the fire hits the glowing chia-pet idol, Andrea suddenly goes into intense labor pains. It feels like a salamander is slithering in her belly. Anke arrives, finding Andrea delirious and believing she’s back on the ship when the terrible accident happened months ago.

Thomas arrives back in the hospital and distracts the doctor on duty by telling her that Andrea’s having some kind of preclampia and can’t make it to the ER. The doctor sends two paramedics to get Andrea, and rushes off to prepare the maternity wing. Left alone, Thomas then breaks Hope out of quarantine. He reveals that the greenhouse is on fire, Andrea is in pre labor, and Anke said to free Hope because she could stop whatever was happening. 

Hope drags Thomas to the greenhouse, only to find it in ruin, but there’s a very large hole in the ice, laced with purple moss of some kind and apparently dug by either fire or claws. She convinced Thomas to man up to protect the woman he loves. They grab outdoor gear, tranquilizers guns from the biology lab near by, and jump into the hole to follow whatever monster they’ve set loose on the world.

Anke arrives and snaps Andrea out of her fugue, tells her she knows that the child is her husbands, that it was Anke’s intention, and that Andrea is probably carrying a god. But all of Anke’s practices and plans were based on nordic legends and practices, which happen on the other side of the world, and here in the antarctic, who knows what kind of diety she’s invoked on the polar opposite of the planet… Paramedics arrive and take Andrea & Anke to hospital. Anke using her training and rituals to keep Andrea calm and easy the fires caused by the god-child inside her.

Hope and Thomas follow the tunnel, which leads back under the complex and comes up into Andrea’s office space. They follow the path of destruction thru the office spaces, leading outside again, and clearly headed for the hospital wing. They jump on ice bikes and race after it.

Hope and Thomas catch up to the monster just as Andrea has delivered a glowing child in the maternity wing. The monster kills the doctor and the attending nurse, and grabs the child and appears ready to eat it. Hope and Thomas attack with their tranq guns, but they have no effect. 

Thomas charges the beast, bravely throwing himself between it and the woman he loves, trying to save the child he believes may be his.

Hope sees that while most of the monster is mossy tentacles, it still has the incomplete idol as a ‘face.’ She realizes that it was her ritual of making and her blood that brought this monstrosity to life. She tears the bandage off her wounded hand, smears the ritual carving knife with her blood, and while singing the rite of Unmaking, stabs the monster in the idol/mask.

Everything goes white.

At this point we’d spent all our scene dice, which means that it was time to roll the Aftermath, and narrate what happens to our characters. You roll all the dice before you, subtracting the negative ones from the positive, and lookup the resulting value on a table in the book, which gives you a general description of the level of how-screwed-your-character-is. It’s then up to narrate how your character’s story ends:

Thomas is dead. He was used by stronger women, played for a patsy, but he was brave and died trying to do the right thing.

Andrea is emotionally and mentally broken, confided to a psyche ward; breaking into hysterical screaming fits when she sees Anke or her child or any child for that matter. It will take a long time to heal her mind.

Anke leaves McMurdo, godling child in arms, but without a husband or the support network she was hoping for. Just what kind of being has she brought into the world? How will she take care of it?

And finally, there’s Hope, who was burned and unconscious after the battle. I imagine the last scene of the ‘movie’ is looking down at her hospital-bed confined self; one eye covered in bandages. Int he final shot her good eye opens, and a purple glow emanates from under the bandage where her other eye should be. 

Slam to black screen and roll credits.

Bumps, Dips and Restarts

Regularly-scheduled campaigns are difficult to maintain. Couples spit; people drop out. Life gets complicated; there are children, jobs, sickness and seasonal activities (summer with kids, holidays,etc). Sometimes games just burn out, which I've somehow managed to do with two campaigns at the same time.

Online games are easier to maintain: someone else is keeping the server's running and patching the client software and usually writing all the 'story' which you and your friends use as a backdrop for your own stories. You (generally) don't have to travel anywhere, just be at your computer or console on time.

Question is: how does one reboot, recover and restart? The quest continues.

Deconstructing design systems

I have a secret confession: I love crunchy design systems. I mean games that have design systems within them for designing and creating things to use in the game. Starships, giant robots, equipment and computers/programs, etc. Mostly this applies to sci-fi games, but also for a bare handful of fantasy settings. They're a game in and of themselves.

I enjoy the intellectual pursuit for systemic elegance and purity. There's a kind of glory in learning and using a design system to achieve what your design goals, which is why games like Mekton Zeta are still on my shelf even though I'll likely never actually play it. Actually playing these kind of games can become a pain, however. (See my previous post on Deconstructing conflict systems for why)

I've already mentioned Mekton Zeta Plus' Technical System. Other examples include GURPS' Vehicles, DGW/FFE's Fire Fusion and Steel, which vary in level of detail from 'lots' to 'absurd.'

I look at the laundry list of things to finish developing and implementing in my TURK Eclipse Phase game and despair over the workload as well as what impact it may have when playing it. Details of weapons, armor, tools, drugs, nano, medicine, mesh and hacking, etc... Eclipse Phase is a setting that cries out for details, crunch and variety: social, morphological and infological freedom being core tenants of the setting. It begs for a way to design things on the fly and implement them in the game. Not just gear but also NPCs and organizations and so on.

The trick then is: How to make playable yet customizable design systems? How do you prevent runaway detail escalation, or loopholes that munchkins can abuse?

I'm toying with the idea of a 'fractal' of game details. Most 'things' get a single stat, representing their overall quality/usefulness/effectiveness; if need be, that rating can be broken down into sub-stats for specific examples. The latest edition of ShadowRun seems to have latched onto this. We shall see where and how it goes.