SGA 2003 Archive

The following SGA games took place in 2003:

Hellboy

Game System

GURPS Light

Pitch

Agents of the Bureau of Paranormal Reasearch and Defense investigate strange happenings in the Middle East

Game Master

Lukas Myhan

Players

3

Characters

Date

October 27, 2003

Technical Notes

Recaps

David Drake: In attendance were myself, Laura, and Joe Jay, playing (respectively) a changeling/sidhe prince, a monastic medium, and a composite being with immense knowledge and electromagnetic powers. Together we investigated a nazi expedition to the Brass City, and there fought a crazed nazi-magi-octagenarian and his rebellious Ifrit, successfully foiling their attempts to unlock ancient double-evil.

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

It Came From The Desert

Game System

Savage Worlds

Pitch

The 4-H club has taken it upon itself to ensure that America's children experience the blessed rugged heart of America: the Rockies. For a week, you've tromped around the mountains with a posse of kids, seeing the spring waterfalls and the mountain goats and the bright, bright mountain stars. Now, you're exhausted, and it's time to get home.

Home is Sweet Creek, Colorado, population 1043, which is, as the sign says, "the Pumpkin Capital of the Foothills." Sweet Creek is an All-American town. It's the home of test pilot Buck Drinkwalter and the boxer Harold "Wide Mouth" Mason, and the A-league Sweet Creek Sweets.

But alas, trouble struck on the road. The five of you -- the cheerleader, the nerd, the reporter, the social studies teacher, and the delinquent*--were riding in the teacher's Jeep when it blew out a tire. The spare was flat, and Mr. James in the school bus didn't seem to notice that you weren't behind him anymore. You had to walk fifteen miles to the next town to get a tow and a new tire, and that was this morning. What should have been a four-hour ride home has taken all day.

Now, it's after suppertime, getting close to dark, when you round the last hill before Sweet Creek and see....

Game Master

Johnzo

Players

Wilhelm, Alan B., and others.

Characters

Alan B. had the teacher. I believe Wil had a reporter.

Date

Monday, Sept. 15, 2003 in Cardhaus' sweaty back room.

Technical Notes

This was all miniatures on whiteboards. The bugs were purchased at Archie McPhee's. I had ants and spiders and honeybees and locusts.

Recaps

The bugs attacked while the flat was half-changed. There was a bridge involved. Weapons were improvised from a high-school chem lab. At one point, the bugs tore a rag top off a car and feasted on the soft, chewy innards.

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

TORG

Game System

TORG

Pitch

Anybody up for Monday TORG?

There'll be jungle mist, monster trucks, one of those big firefighting seaplanes, dinosaurs, a mountain lake hideaway, an Egyptian megalomaniac, ticking bombs, shootouts, swordfights, and, provisionally, syphillis.

Characters will be provided. All you need bring is a d20.

Syphilis? I have no goddamn idea what I was thinking when I sent this out.

Game Master

Johnzo

Players

Laura, Matt Wilson, and others.

Characters

A bunch of templated guys. I remember there was a lizardman and a mountie. Maybe a wizard too.

Date

Monday, May 19, 2003

Technical Notes

Recaps

There wasn't much to this scenario. It was just a tryout of the rules with several combat scenes, seeing how the oddball cards worked, etc. The rules seemed to work fine.

The only concrete thing I remember was that the lizardman came with a minigun that did completely ridiculous damage--it sawed a tyranosaur in half with one shot. Plus there was a helicopter shootdown too.

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Torg had long been a bridesmaid game of mine so it was fun to try it out. Maybe TORG in 2006?

Riddle of Steel

Game System

The Riddle of Steel

Pitch

Game Master

Alan Barclay

Players

Characters

Date

January 20, 2003

Technical Notes

Recaps

10 folks made it out for the evening... Alan ran "Riddle of Steel". Kevin ran "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" (zombie game).

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

FREEDOM, WVa

FREEDOM, WVa "movie poster"

Game System

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

Pitch

Game Master

Kevin Perrine

Players

Pete playing Dimitri

JoeZ playing Virgil

 ??? playing Forest

Lynn playing Calvin

Wilhelm playing Edgar

Laura playing Sara

Characters (aka. "our cast")

Dimitri: russian college friend / scientist.

Virgil: Tim's long lost brother and notorious Biker.

Forest: college buddy, now Tree Hugger type.

Calvin: 15 yr old Goth kid, taking pictures of the dying Tim.

Edgar: Youth Pastor and guitar playing friend to Tim.

Sara: childhood friend, now police officer.

Date

January 20, 2003

Technical & Pre-Game Notes

I plan to have the basics of several archetypes from the books.

I've trimmed them all down to the NORM level for this playtest session. If have the book and you'd like to make your own character and bring it - go ahead, but be sure and use the NORM rules... I'd also stay away from the supernatural powers (stuff using Essence) unless you clear it with me prior to Monday.

For background:

My base idea is that the PCs are all coming into town to have ONE LAST HURRAH with an old friend that's dying from cancer... He's checking himself out for the weekend and you'll be partying like it's 1999 to celebrate his life. So characters can be from anytime/place from your friend's life (High School, College, Work, a walkabout in Europe, etc...), the only real requisite is that you're his friend (or family). :-)

Archetype I have are:

Alcoholic, Athlete, Beautician, Biker, Business Man, Butcher, Cheerleader, Tree Hugger, Criminal, Goth, Hacker, Hustler, Musician, Priest, Reporter, Rural, Scientist, Store Clerk, Teacher / Academic. If you have requests for something else I can write it up for you...

Recaps

check out threads around the SGA Yahoo Group starting here

10 folks made it out for the evening... Alan ran "Riddle of Steel". Kevin ran "All Flesh Must Be Eaten" (zombie game).

Player Thoughts

Ok that was alot of fun! It more than met my expectations. The only problem is the group (including the ZM) was so involved and did such a great job that i have no idea if the game mechanics were good. I've roleplayed for about 12 years now and i must say that SGA members tend to do a wonderful job playing their characters even if they didnt create them. I feel like an amature everytime. My favorite part was realised as my character when flying off the car that we were all headed to my SUV and not only do i have the keys but im the only one who knows the zombies weekness. other good moments included the tree hugger screaming somthing about death to toxic waste and charging in, the goth kid snaping photos of the zombies, the youth pastor thinking hes the right hand of god for a moment, the cop useing a flag pole as a weapon, and of course the biker fending off a little zombie with a teddy bear. -pete

I also had a great time. You have so much great energy Kev. You really got the zombie movie feeling going with your opening description of the semi truck driving down the highway outside of town! I also had fun with the improvised weapons. Calvin sticking Mr. Wiffle in the head with the check holder. Sarah accidently flinging Mrs. Wiffle at her friend with the West Virginia State flag, Whoops -- Laura

I thought the story was excellent. Unfortunately the amount of set up cut down on the time we were able to spend bashing Zombies, but it did also provide a good "normality anchor" to drive home the gruesomeness when the dead started walking. Part of it was simply dealing with the fact that since Monday night games are oneshots, we were on a limited time budget. They, um, kinda shambled? I found the rules system rather banal, and not particularly contributing to the genre, but they didn't inhibit it either. For example, I like the idea of open ended die rolls, but the AFMBE version of them just seemed like a clunky implementation of a good idea. I thought it worked well, and jumping between characters kept everybody involved. I really admired your effort to keep things moving quickly. It seems like the AFMBE combat system could be prone to bogging down if not carefully managed. For the most part we avoided that. The frenetic narration style you adopted was excellent. Really helped set the mood. Or are you always like that? Keeping the lifepoints hidden was a good idea. I was actually surprised when Dimitry went down, and I had no idea how badly Forest was hurting. I think love of Zombies transcends all barriers. "I kick ass for the LORD!" from the fine Peter Jackson film "Dead Alive". Which everybody should run out and watch. That or "Meet the Feebles". Both fine films. As good as "Lord of the Rings." Really. Trust Me. -- Wilhelm

I think if one person really jumps into character everyone else starts to follow along. Also kev you were really into it and kept the pace moving so we didnt have time to think about turning every situation into a pun. I think dead time is when i personaly start thinking of jokes. I love and hate opening sceens. I love them in that every game ive ever played with one has been an intresting story, usualy done by a good story teller and does a great job of keeping players motivated and intrested. I hate them because i have yet to see an open ended game that used them well. Games that use open sceens or movie style sceens are usualy built around a story and not the characters, however you cant really build a one shot around the characters. The beauty of the one shot is in that players are willing to be more heroic and go out with a bang rather than worry about losing this character they have played for a year. love it! one of the reasons i love shadowrun so much is the ability to burn a karma pool point for an automatic success I agree (lifepoints secret), one of the reason i like games that gauge damage on light vs serrious and things of that nature is that as a player im not tempted to say im ok i got 20 hit points ill use it when i get to 5 (yes i have munchkin temptations i must resist) As a GM though i try to let players keep track of most things because im lazy and i dont want to take the time im already tracking for the 20 bad guys. idealy though a GM should always discribe how bad a player is hurt and players shouldnt know stuff like i can take 2 more hits from a longsword. -- Pete

Additional GM Thoughts

6 folks had planned to play "All Flesh" for the evening. I handed out templates to choose from and we got the game rolling...

The mandatory piece for the evening was to come up with your connection to one: Timmy Coffin... our dying friend, who we were all coming into town for one last HURRAH to celebrate. The Town... a little place we like to call - "Freedom, WVa".

Some key things I wanted to mention:

• I planned just too much, and missed some stuff but I don't think it effected the game so much. I tried using "bullet counters" for the players and I kept all the life points for the characters to add some dramatics to injuries taken...
• the players get a standing ovation from me... you guys did EXCELLENT! And Will - your girlfriend (forgot her name again damnit!) was incredible for not playing RPGs.
• My Favorite Quote: "I'm kicking Zombie Ass in the name of the LORD!"
• My favorite character Moment: tie between - Dimitri shot off the top of the police car into the store window and all that followed or Calvin using one of those pointy things you put checks on in restaurants to impale the Zombie Mr. Whipple's brain!!
• My favorite NPC Moment: that poor little Zombie boy with teddy bear in his footy pajamas...
• I was thinking of sharing my "preperation notes" if anyone is interested in talking about GMing and how you prepare for games, and show mine as an example. Anyone interested?

Zombie Stuff (was Monday (Jan 20) - How it went)

Sometimes players throw me as the GM. I was stuttered when

Joe really jumped into character (with Virgil) there at the begining and then everyone jumped in FAST. I forgot how excited some folks get. Even Lynn!! who is new to RPGs... just incredibly great. To make this relevant (enough butt kissing)... Why do you think that happens in some games? and then others lead to, not enough roleplaying - or just go silly with comedic reference - or are just bad...?

[on Dimitri flying and dying] True - that was epic (and unplanned for the most part).

I had waited all game to share that flashback with someone (that I thought would be appropriate) and I picked the PERFECT person. LONG LIVE DIMITRI!!

I always worry about my "opening scenes" have never NOT ran

a game without opening with some sort of opening scene.... I can't imagine starting a game anymore without that cool opening sequence that always comes prior to the titles and theme song (for movies or TV shows). It's stuff you wouldn't need to know (as players) and stuff you have to firewall as characters (because you technically didn't see it) but sometimes somepeople just don't understand what/ why I'm doing those openings... it also hopefully sets you into the tone of the game universe - starting up your disbelief engine. When I've done it best - they really add to the overall game. I just can't open a game straight to the PCs sitting around a table anymore.

[on Monday Night Short-Shot time budget]

I was trying to watch the clock to plan WHEN to get beyond the set up time. I was doing okay (everyone was in town at at the bar by 8pm) but then the length of time coming out of your rooms slowed down.... and then the group splitting slowly and then getting back together slowly (after the imminent dangers) rolled the game for about 2 hours. Which took up to near 10pm. and I hadn't done any of the stuff from outside (the chooper, the dogs, the rats, the bear, the bikers returning, the State trooper, etc...) I wouldn't change it much though - the set up was excellently played... I just wish we would have had 1-2 hours more or a second game session so that I could draw out some of the stuff I crammed in at the end. the one-shot time was limiting... but for me I'm learning with it. I had NEVER ran a one-shot game before. Combine that with the first time running AFMBE and I'm okay with the outcome. :-)

[on rules] I actually like the "Uni-system" as a rules set. Even though

they're not genre specific I think they simulate the world type well... and you're not afraid of rolling the dice. I look at little "gimmicks" like the re-rolling 10s and 1s as just that - Gimmicks.... to set the game further apart from all the other D? + Attribute + Skill = difficulty number games. My only wish... I worried sometimes (as player and GM) that in a game if you NEED to succeed at something and you have no way to help that (other than your roll) it can be hindering. I sort of wish ALL games would include a "hero point" type mechanic (seen in: Adventure!, Deadlands, MnM, 7th Seas, etc...) even if the cost is high, to help with those situations... Actually - Buffy RPG does have these "Drama Points" and it's a trimmed down Uni-system lite game...

[on frenetic narration style]

I do try to go "on-stage" when GMing. I figure - if the players see that I'm okay with making a fool out of myself in front of them by acting the parts and such then they will feel more open to playing their characters to the hilt. Lead by example kinda play... but no - normally I'm more reserved. a little goofy fun sometimes... I don't know that'd be a fun question for me to have answered by Joe or Laura - since they "know me" from other games and outside of games... Guys??

[on Keeping the lifepoints hidden]

Dimitri went down HARD... the throw through the window from the speeding police car crash was: D6 per yard (based on falling) with some "terminal velocity" (up to x50) involved = my roll of, (D6 x 4 slashing) x2 ... which brought him down 24 points (my roll was a 3), then the 4 Zombies ripping at his head (D4 x4 slashing) x2 forced him forced him below -10... making him roll a Survival check. If he failed he was dead. he succeeded so he lived for another minute - then you guys helped him a little stopping the Survival checks for the moment... Forest was in bad shape (hope I described that well enough) he was down to 17 of his 34 LPs prior to getting some first aid bringing him up to 24. One or two more good shots and he would have went down (from a Zombie - a gun would have killed him most likely) hence... I really liked the effect and modifiers that damage did... I like the effect of multiples slashing/stabbing and bullets do alot! It really forces the survival aspect. Minor note - all the damage everyone did to any Zombie was ignored (unless it hit the brain) A "chop" to a leg/arm for 15 points total would have severed them... but that never happened. :-)

Now that I think about it I think it REALLY REALLY matters that

all the participants are open (if not excited) to try the game. Or to try playing with the GM or players no matter the game. Now that I think about it - every game that I've played or ran in which all the participant WERE NOT willing to forgo any doubts about the game (or GM or players) and be way open to making the experience fun for everyone (ie. NOT just themselves!), they've all ended up sucking really bad. sometimes playing with the same players for any long time can build weird assumptions that carry across to any other game you play with them. Sometimes it doesn't. weird... I think if the GM plans and doesn't get lazy with them (or the game) you can continue these right through. For example - if we were to continue the Zombie game I'd probably begin each "episode" like a TV show... First the "PREVIOUSLY on ..." describing last week's actions (and KEY moments or clues from past games). then move into a quick fun pre-titles scene with either the PCs in a short shot scene (setting up something or media res) or plan something showing the bad guys or other events that will lead into the game later... I think everyone gets to that point after playing for a time... I used to HATE rules and figuring them out. I'm still not the best at it but I know the things I like to KNOW before playing a new game. Like: what controls initiative, what the scores you need to be average are (to gauge yourself), etc.. etc... I'm feeling this way more and more these days. It is a LOT to track as a GM but I felt the Zombie game was better because the players just didn't know... It also helped that I didn't have to track bad guy DeadPoints because they only counted if hit in the brain. :-) that's another COOL thing that the Uni-system lite has going for it.... Its not in AFMBE, but in it's spin off rules for Buffy RPG the GM doesn't even have to roll in combat (NPC) situations. The bads have single numbers to compare the PC's roll to (either hitting or dodging) . So it would be easier to track the LifePoints. I'm really seeing that I LIKED the AFMBE Uni-System more than I thought.

Shadowrun

Game System

Shadowrun

Pitch

Game Master

Pete

Players

Characters

Date

January 14, 2003

Technical Notes

Recaps

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

Spaceship Zero

Game System

Spaceship Zero

Pitch

Game Master

Mark Hughes

Players

Kevin, Alan, ?

Characters

Date

January 14, 2003

Technical Notes

Recaps

Mark:

The good:

I described everything in a low-budget sci-fi manner--the planet scenes are all in a rock quarry, and though the players didn't push on the parts where they'd find out, the ship set is made of plywood. That'd be edited out for broadcast, of course.

The system is fast and simple; there's no rules at all to remember, really. Most complication-free game I've used in a very long time.

The players were just using templates, and still got really into character, hamming it up. Cheesy sci-fi all the way. It brings out the right stuff in people.

The bad:

It's hard to kill anything in one shot, unless you just use ZM fiat to say "he's dead". That's not entirely bad, but the super-modern weapons just aren't super enough. I might halve the number of Body Points you get.

Rolling skills too often is bad, because you have low percentages. So I used two kinds of tests: 1) Simple tests, where you would always succeed unless you rolled 00, but the skill roll tells me how well or badly for descriptive effect; 2) Stress tests, where you can fail drastically.

But if you don't roll skills often, you don't get to test those Zero skills and earn many Zero Points. What I'm going to do for long-term play is allow players to buy 1 Zero Point for 1 EP, once per session. I might also give out 2 ZP every time you roll a 0 when testing a Zero skill, since it didn't happen enough.

The optional:

I'm strongly considering adapting the TORG Drama Deck over to it, to enhance the cinematic feel even more.

The episode:

I fast-forwarded them through the destruction of the universe, and they came out near Tau Ceti, with systems damage to the Bendall Field and the BTL drive, and low on supplies. After a few false navigation starts by the Robot, they land on Tau Ceti IV: The Rock Quarry Planet, a couple miles from a habitation of some sort.

The Captain and Scientist send the Robot out to investigate, but unfortunately the Robot becomes lost. Finally all going out, they find that the camp consists of wood barracks and a shiny dome, with human prisoners digging in the rock, while human "trustees" with human prods keep them working, and hybrid overseers watch the trustees, armed with guns.

They sneak in, well, except that the Captain's none too good at that sneaking stuff, and are captured by would-be rebels among the slaves. After a bit of a scuffle, the Captain is recognized as the reincarnation of the "Chosen One", and they are brought into the barracks.

After a bit of "if someone asks you if you're a god, you say *YES*"-ness, the slaves are rallied into a fighting force of sorts, and an ambush is prepared for the next day.

Well, after a slightly bloody charge at the trustees and a horrifyingly bloody charge into the disintegrators of the Hydronauts (I'd expected them to pick off many of the Hydronauts first, oops), 169 of the original 206 slaves were killed, but the 37 survivors have been liberated and armed, and the Captain slowly restored their confidence and determination to free the rest of the slaves on Tau Ceti, while the Robot located the next slave colony. I made the world's simplest mass combat rules, just determining how many trustees, hybrids, and hydronauts a slave could kill per 2 turns, and vice versa.

Definitely a pyhrric victory, but that works well for the tone of the show described in the episode guide.

I can't reveal the details in public, but my Universe 2 is pretty variant. After reading the ep guide, I couldn't just do *one* world, I have to give them a whole bunch of strange places to go and universes to blow up before they get to anything like home.

Player Thoughts

Kevin: It's basically a game that you play in the style of the old Sci-Fi radio and TV shows - you know the ones as campy (or more) than Captain Kirk with that styrofoam boulder over his head... Think Captain Video, Buck Rodgers, Flash Gordon and the like. I LOVE that style and time period for short run games... I'm not sure how it would feel running it long term - I'd guess it's best at short shots. The rules however aren't my cup of tea... They work just fine (very similar to the old Basic Roleplaying rules of CoC) but they don't feed into the style of the game much at all... Beyond that I had a great time playing! Mark did a good job giving us the feel of the game... Myself (the befuddled Scientist), Alan (the Robby style robot) and KevinS. (the man's man Captain), found ourselves on a world inwhich humans were being opressed by evil fish overlords... As any Space Corp crew would do, we quickly set ourselves up as Gods and went about freeing the slaves from tyranny (only losing 170 of the original 200)! Much fun was had by all including much GREAT roleplaying by Alan and Kevin really sinking into their roles!!

Additional GM Thoughts

The Zero Dice would, if you had more of them. I'm definitely using some house rules next time to start PCs out with their max ZD, and get more ZD more often.

But yeah, a very simple percentile system like that is just meant to work and get out of the way, and it doesn't try to be period. Since I grew up playing Star Frontiers, Call of Cthulhu, and Rolemaster, it feels perfectly natural to me.

I think the game works well for an episodic tone. You *could* run a continuous-time campaign, but fast-forwarding through what's happened since the last ep and starting you in the action is more in line with how a TV show works. I was strongly considering having a "commercial break". I didn't try out the "Dramatic Time" rules for only using in-character speech, but that's more for the radio serial.

The Riddle of Steel

Game System

The Riddle of Steel

Pitch

I'll be running The Riddle of Steel that night. Characters will be pre-generated, and there will be room for four players.

Game Master

Clinton R. Nixon

Players

Laura, Gabriel, Pete, Ryan

Characters

4

Date

January 6, 2003

Technical Notes

Recaps

Gabriel: For my first time at the Game Night, I had a blast. We started out on my ship. I was the captain, Virgil. An explorer. We are first attacked by a Sea Serpent. We manage to defeat the beast, but I suffer a nasty chest wound, causing me great pain.

From there, we sail towards a glimmering shimmer on the edge of the ocean. It turns out to be a small island. Upon landing at the island, we find a track into the forest. We follow it, leading to a small glen, with a glittering pool. In the pool is a beautiful lady, only she seems more beautiful than humanly possible (think elven beauty here). My first mate, Corwin, dives into the pool upon seeing this fair thing. I tie a rope around me, and instruct our cohorts to pull me out in a couple minutes. I dive in after Corwin.

Opening my eyes under the water, I see myself beside the beauty, but what ho! I am not underwater, but on the deck of a ship, sailing on the clouds. I ask the woman where my friend is. She replies, "he is safe." I disagree, and ask where he is again. She tells me that I worry too much. I say, "Yes, I do worry, but for good reason, I think." Finally, I break free of the spell and see Corwin floating below me, almost within arms' reach. I try to grab him, but they begin to pull me out. I try harder. So close. Almost! My fingers brush against the collar of his jerkin, but alas, it is too late. I am pulled free.

I look up to see a elven fellow aiming a nocked arrow at me. I get up, and reluctantly follow him, and my companions. What have I gotten myself into?

I soon find out as we approach the ruins of what seems to have been a great elven city, but is now only ruins. There are a few structures in decent repair, but by and in large, most of the city is moss-lined, grass covered debris. A shame, perhaps. At this point, the fellow I hired on as a deck-hand dashes off, away from our captors. Suprisingly to all, he disappears into a building. The guards chase after him, but he manages to avoid them and escape. I do not know what becomes of him. The guards return, and they look quite crestfallen, and saddened. Must not have expected a human to get the best of them, eh?

Finally, we reach a large building, and our led inside. Our weapons are taken from us, but I think the druid hid his dagger. We are led into a room, where the woman who appeared to us earlier is seated in a thrown, incrusted with elven art (think leaves and scrolls). She tells us that she is thankful to us for having brought her a new consort to revive her people, and for the ship, to strengthen the fleet. But we are also told not to meddle, lest our lives be forfeit. I tell her that in now way may she have my ship. She disagrees. Suddenly, she glances at one of her guards, and points at the ceiling. He nods, and departs. Leaving only her and the guard, I bide my time. After the guard has been gone a few minutes, I proceed to make a dash for my sword, stored in the other room. But fate is not on my side this night. As I attempt to bypass the other guard, I am defeated. He first hits me in the shoulder, causing great pain, then strikes me in the jaw. The world goes black.

Thus ends my part in the story. I look forward to finding out what happened.

Pete: Corwin the mighty (or johny bravo take you pick) I had sailed us bravely through monster infested waters when alas a great serpent was spoted so I loaded the canon for my noble captain... alas it struck but the serpent came so my captain shot it squarly with his trusted crossbow. still the beast came it bit my captain, so i grabed my trusty axe and with a great war cry behead the scummy thing. Alas my captain had fallen but i had my revenge. I then found an island and rowed us ashore.

I blased a mighty trail through the thickest of woods till we came to a pool. The most beautiful of women lived in the pool and beconed me to join her so i droped into the mighty waters and took her...

darkness...

i awoke in the might suit god had given me and in a grand bed my lady entered so i arose and went to her proundly ready to take her again, but she told me she would already bear me a might warrior of a son and to put some cloths on that she might not be tempted by my beauty. I did as my lady asked, but left my shirt unbuttoned so that it might tease her and all the other women. We went to the great chamber where my captian came. I sat on my mightly thrown as king and told my captain to take a sack of riches with him if he would cut me from my contract and go his way leaving me with my lady. He agreed and one of the guards arose in anger that a human would be alowed to take elven treasure and struck down my captain. In my bitter rage i killed the guard with my bear hands. Then i picked up treasure and strung it over my back. Then i went over to the lifeless body of my captain and picked him up. I kissed my lady goodbye saying the elf men would always be jellous of my beauty and i must leave. She wept bitter tears but let me leave saying she would take good care of my son and he would know of his heroic father. I carried my burdens back to the ship and set sail for a great adventure... but that is another tale.

Player Thoughts

Ryan: Open seas, blazing trails, battles, bravery, and adventure.... The tails you speak of of great heroes, and stir my blood to do the same....

Additional GM Thoughts

I had fun last night as well. I didn't think my Riddle of Steel game went as well as it could have, but a splitting headache on my part added to the distraction.

Stone Hearts, Stone Memories

Game System

Ronin/Dust Devils

Pitch

Game Master

Wilhelm Fitzpatrick

Players

Characters

3

Date

January 6, 2003

Technical Notes

Recaps

Wilhelm: Well, here it is, what I believe is the first actual play report for Ronin (the feudal Japan adaptation of the Dust Devils rules). I'll try to play to all factions by recounting the story we created, along with my observations on my experience of using the Dust Devils system.

First let me comment that I had never played Dust Devils itself, nor in fact run any of the modern systems that explicitly transfer director power to the players, although I have played in some. So the first thing I noticed was the serveral times my players had to remind me when it was time for me to shut up :) But in all, I liked the ability for players to insert their own ideas into the story. One trick I did use a few times was to "clarify" a fact that a player had introduced in narration to introduce a plot element from my back story. Is this a sin against the freedoms of shared directors stance? I dunno, but i seemed to work.

Also, I added a variant to the variant, in that I felt that the use of poker cards as the fortune mechanism was a great choice for the old west, but disturbed the mood of Ronin. So I developed a variant conflict resolution system using Mah Jongg tiles. We also used Go stones in place of poker chips. The players had a little difficulting figuring out their hands until they got used to the Mah Jongg suits, but I had prepared cheat sheets with pictures of the tiles, and after a few conflicts they got the hang of it. Everybody loved the feel of using the tiles, and it was great to be able to say stuff like "Well, your flush in bamboo wins the hand, but I have the red dragon so the narration is mine!"

I set my adventure in the early medieval period, during the fall of the Kamakura Shogunate and the rise of the Daimyos as powers in their own right. Unlike the sample Dust Devil adventure, I did not pregen characters, but had players create their own. One of the players wound up using Roji the Damned from the Ronin sample rules. The others were:

Matsunai Ishiro, a samurai disgraced by defeat in battle, driven to seek out and challenge the best swordmasters in the land to learn their secrets.

Endo Toshiro, a ronin of dubious repute, driven by his lust for wealth, justified to himself as "saving his family from poverty"

Tanaka Umiko, daughter of a great swordsmith and last of her line, she seeks revenge on the mysterious lord who killed her family and stole her fathers greatest sword.

One challenge was then to weave the characters motivations into what I had prepared. My preparation consisted of developing four important NPCs whose relationships presented two seperate, but losely linked conflict, was well as detailing a few important locations, and providing myself with a list of other 'color' NPCs that might come in handy if needed. The back story I developed was partially a mystery, and in development I had to explicitly force myself *not* to come up with all the answers, since I did not want to be too wedded to something if the players came up with a better idea. My final approach was to provide myself with a good history of how the current situation came to be, but not to run my ideas forward to any kind of conclusion.

The advantage of having the setting worked up in some detail was that I was able to come up with plausible tie-ins for all the characters except one (Roji) and after the game I realized I could have accomodated him as well with a little more thought.

I also took some effort before hand to think up a variety of "intro scenes" for characters other than "you start at the inn" (although I did include that :) which allowed me to start the characters fairly spread out. I think this worked out well, because even once the characters came together (and not till near the end) they did not seem at all averse to suddenly striking back out on their own as need dictated, and I think we did a good job of avoiding the "party mentality".

The setting was the village of Isawa, in the moutains of Mutsu province, the summer estate of Governor Ando Tadao adjoining the village, and the nearby Stones Rest monastery. Peaceful until recently, there were now reports of bandits waylaying travellers on the road at night, and the Governor had sent his most trusted lieutenant, Takehashi Takeru to investigate and deal with it. Unfortunately, the lieutenant was *not* dealing with the problem, and instead was spending all his time at the Ando estate, being entertained by the governor's daugher, Lady Haruko (the governor was elsewhere). Ishiro arrived in the village, having travelled to challenge Takeru, but instead met his wife, who was camped outside the gates of the Ando estate, waiting for her husband to emerge. Roji travelled in from the opposite direction, spending the night at the monastery and learning strange rumors from the monks. Toshiro came to the village following the talk of bandits, whether to gain a reward for defeating them, or to join them was not clear at first, and Umiko came to the monastery on the rumor that they might have word of her father's sword. Toshiro and Umiko had stopped at the inn, and heard locals speculating that instead of bandits, an Oni (demon) was loose in the mountains.

Early on I ran into two difficulties figuring out how to do certain things in the Dust Devils system. One: how to deal with conflicts that involved some uncertainty, but wouldn't really result in any risk if the didn't succeed. For example a character wanted to identify strange carvings at the Stones Rest temple using a lore talent. I wound up using the conflict mechanic, and simply ignoring difficulty if the player lost. The other was what to do if really only one element applied. For example, in the aformentioned challenge, its really just intellectual, so after some messing around the players and I agreed that it was okay to just pull tiles for one attribute. Since these conflicts were usually minor, I typically only pulled a three tile hand for them, so I think it worked out. Also once in a while I would simply pull a tile for myself to randomize some decision I needed to make (i.e. who spots the bad guy first).

There was an initial convergence of all the characters but Ishiro at the monastery, but it didn't last, as each character had distinct motivations. Toshiro appeared to be casing the joint, Umiko wanted to know if they had ever heard of the sword she was seeking, and Roji was fascinated by the strange carvings on the temple tower, which predated the founding of the monastery. Also, on the way up to the monastery, Toshiro had found a roadside Shinto shrine which had been defiled by the addition of a cracked human armbone to the offerings, which lent some crendence to the Oni idea. Or was somebody trying to frighten people.

Toshiro actually figured out that the mysterious carvings on the temple were t'aoh t'ieh, ancient Chinese beast masks of uncertain provenance. This involved an interesting piece of resolution, as Toshiro won narration, but I paid all players one stone to bid away the narration, since I wanted to introduce the t'aoh t'ieh symbolism for forshadowing. I see reading the rules afterwards that that is not one of the listed options for the dealer, but nobody seemed to mind, and it worked out fine in play.

There were some good role playing bits at the temple thanks to the character of a elderly monk with a vow of silence I had added as a color character. He would only communicate via guestures and by writing the occasionaly character in the dust. I think the players were exaspirated by him, but I can tell you that the GM had a ball :)

Umiko was redirected to the Takeru the swordmaster by the monks at the temple, and when she arrived at his pavilion, found Ishiro waiting there with Nezumi, Takeru's wife. Ishiro had taken to tossing small rocks at an elderly farmer whom he felt was being too nosy into the affairs of his betters, which eventually got him read out by the farmers daughter who was also working nearby, and earned him the nickname "rock thrower" for the rest of the game. Nezumi chided the Ishiro and Umiko for being irresponsible lay abouts, and urged them to seek out the bandit (in the hope that if the bandits were eliminated, her husband would have no more reason to remain in the area). This in fact got the characters to go do some more investigation on the moutain road.

One other piece of preparation I did was to write up a few events which I could drop on characters to get them motivated again when things go slow. I believe in Forge terminology these are called "Bangs" ? Anyway, having them handy came in useful several times. Nezumi goading the characters into going after bandits was one of them.

Umiko and Ishiro going up the mountain met Roji coming down, and they decided to join forces. This is where the characters started to come together. They searched for awhile, then set up camp in the forest to have dinner, and were telling tales of their exploits to each other, when they were surprised by the appearance of the elderly farmer from earlier. His name was Horokewpo, and he was an Ainu (northern barbarian) who had once served Lord Ando in his youth, and who despite having lost a hand in the service of his lord, was later abandoned when his lord found him socially inconvenient, and he felt a bit ill used by the Ando family. "I gave my hand that my lord might take an arm" he said.

He revealed to the players that Lord Ando had once driven an Ogre (or Oyasi as he called it) from the tower which is today the monastery. He mocked the characters, and felt they would not fare well against such a creature. He then left for the village, but Umiko, reminded of her father by the old man, chose to escort him back. And well she did, for as they came upon the roadside shrine, seated upon it in the moonlight, reading from a book was a giant terrible figure. Umiko tried to sneak up on it, but the creature spoke a poem of secret things coming unbidden, and turned and stuck at her with what at first she assumed to be a bone, but later realized was the pommel of sword. She also learned that the creature was missing its left arm.

(This was one of my "edits" of player narration. The player said bone, afterwards I added "well, that's what you thought it was at first..." In additional incidents I detailed the sword until it was finally determined to be the one that Umiko was seeking.)

Umiko was overcome by the beasts furious strength, and ran for it, pulling the old man with her. Unfortunately, he fell, and the ogre seized the old man and lept over some nearbye trees and vanished.

(This was an adaptation of bang I had prepared, in which Horokewpo would be captured while seeking the ogre out by himself, and his daughter would come to the character's for aid. I learn that prep work is good if you are ready to quickly mold it to the situation that the players ultimately develop)

She quickly returned to the camp and gathered the rest of the players (Toshiro had now joined them). They attempted to track the creature, and eventually were able to trace him to a nearby crag, where they found his campfire and stewpot set up, and Horokewpo trussed up but not yet cooked. They freed him, and he informed them that the Ogre (Wu Fang, although the characters never learned his name) had not eaten him yet because it seemed very impressed by this threats that Lord Ando had beaten him once and would do so again. Fang had then left saying he had a task to complete.

(Toshiro also stole a book from the creature's cave, which turned out be a volume of ancient poetry (the Kokin Wakashu). The player specified "an ancient tome" in his narration, and I had happen to specify that the ogre possesed this book in my character description. Ain't coinkydink lovely? :)

Realizing that the Ogre was up to mischief, the characters rushed back to the village, and spotted him climbing over the wall of the Ando estate. Ishiro, headstrong, rushed into the house without even knocking and began searching it. The rest of the characters waited outside to ambush the Ogre as it emerged. Ishiro wound up waking up the head servant, and convincing him of the danger, and they and additional members of the household rushed to the Lady's bedchamber to check on her.

Meanwhile, having been woken by the noise from the house, Takeru emerged from his pavilion to spy the other characters lurking suspiciously about, and thinking them bandits, challenged and attacked them. Being honorable, the characters chose to fight him one at a time, and Toshiro got lucky with a tremendous draw and managed to disarm and humble the swordmaster before things got out of hand.

Ishiro, hearing the fighting outside was about to rush out when a crash from in milady's bed chamber drew his attention. Peeking in, he saw the Ogre in the act of opening a great iron chest. He taunted the creature with insults and tried to draw its attention, which he succeeded in doing, but not before the creature drew from the chest its missing arm and reattached it.

The Ogre attacked Ishiro with a terrible fury and nearly slew him. However the noise from that battle drew in the characters outside, in time to save Ishiro, and defeat the beast. Umiko's fury on beholding her fathers sword was truely terrifying, but in the end it was Toshiro's masterful swordwork that saved the day.

Takeru, witnessing this battle, realized that he had become deceived by his pride in his own skill and worth, and that true selfless valour was what was needed of a great samurai (in his battle with Toshiro, his Fire had been reduced to 0). He abandoned his foolish daliance with Haruko, and returned to his faithful wife.

And we rolled credits.

A final comments on the experience. I initially found it difficult to figure out when to call for conflict, since the mood of setting seemed to make it often more appropriate to introduce subtle obstacles or innuendo. Alot of things along these lines were handled by Karma, or later as I got more comfortable I started using three card hands and ignoring difficulty as I discussed above. Of course once the sword play got thick and fast, conflicts were all around.

We discussed the suitability of the DD rules to the Ronin setting afterwards. It seemed like the concept of Duty was not quite as much of a driver as the DD devil, and also seemed to be prone to "being completed", but on the other hand we speculated that a linked series of adventures might be done by having new Duty grow out of the old one as the original one was fulfilled.

All in all, a good, and fairly thematic time was had by all. For those that are interesed, I plan to put my Mah Jongg variant up on the web, as well as the Stone Hearts, Stone Memories scenario (once I have had a chance to do a little polishing).

And if you were one of the players in the game, I'd love to hear your opinions about how it went as well, and how the system affected your experience (and was I being too controlling?)

Player Thoughts

Additional GM Thoughts

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