What's happening in the games
10th September 2006
My character didn't do anything much in 'Shadows' this session. The combatant characters went out to get some samples of the land-mutant-demon-bug thingies. My character was meant to go with them, but I fluffed the first stealth roll and they waved her back into the habitat instead. She went along with that, as she didn't have any confidence in the plan to obtain the sample bugs anyway, and doesn't perceive herself as a combatant type. (Even though she is actually quite tough and able, the rolls nearly always seem to go badly when we are in combat, so she has an impression of herself as not being a very good fighter as a consequence, plus she doesn't have any effective ranged weapons at present). Plus, the character is pretty upset and depressed still at being infected with a control device that effectively has crushed her free will and sapped her ability to take independent and spontaneous actions.
I might have done something different if I had realised that the whole of the rest of today's session would be taken up with that one bug-collecting task / encounter. The bugs seemed to be overly hard... It occurs to me that yes the point needed making that they were a fierce, difficult and hard enemy to deal with, and that stealth was very key to getting away with what we needed to do, but four hours of game play for one combat encounter seems a bit excessive. It also proves that the rules we're using are designed for a game that is not primarily about combat !
Metagaming tells me we are not actually meant to fight this particular enemy - they are too numerous and too tough, so we must be expected to deal with them through intelligent action rather than brute force, somehow. Shame I am not always as smart as my character is supposed to be...
It was very boring sitting for four hours plus with nothing to do. I actually got quite depressed in that time, for various personal reasons. I imagine my character found herself a relatively safe place to be and then just slept and meditated and chatted with her daughter.
Eventually the party got back with the bug sample and I was able to help discern that they are a fairly simple demonic lifeform. Their organs are non-functional, and they just use demonic energies to move their physical mass around etc., which sounds like it is going to make fighting them / defending the habitat / getting rid of them pretty difficult.
We also discovered that the guy running the habitat is in the (slow?) process of turning into a demon himself, and that if / when that occurs our own version of him will also reverse, which sounds like it could be really bad :-( This seems to be happening with most people native to the time period(s) we are currently stuck in. My character did have a theory that this could be a natural part of the evolutionary process, though it now appears it could also be a deliberate demonic plot by an NPC demon called Teth-ma-tet, who has an axe to grind with one of his fellow demons and is creating himself an army to go and kick some rival demonic butt.
I'm going to give my fellow players the address for this blog today, so maybe they will want to add their comments at some point.
20th August 2006
The Camarilla game went well at the weekend. It was a small game, but everyone got involved and things were achieved.
In-character (IC) we worked out some plans for getting cameras into bug-infested areas of the sewer system. We also met and came to terms with the small collection of vampires (NPCs) living in Stockport.
My thanks out-of-character to Mat, who NPCed all 9 of the Stockport people, including three women ! Well done ! Thanks too for the help my boyfriend has given in pointing me in fresh directions regarding the possible origins of the bugs.
The Pirates game concluded last week, with us finally managing to deliver our cargo at Antigua. We had to repel borders when we got into port first though. A whole crew of borders, in fact, dispatched by us with the aid of our captain and his friend and a few others, the rest of the crew having already taken to shore before the borders turned up. We think they were Dutch navy again, but we didn't get to uncover the mastermind who sent them because we ran out of time OOC. No new game with that group for a couple of weeks now, I think.
14 August 2006
We played 'Shadows' over the weekend. It went quite well. We spent the session travelling our characters from one place to another, on foot across the desert, whilst being harried by land mutants that had been demonically transformed by some dodgy food they'd picked up. We made it without incident, though we've yet to enter the underground city safely.
In 'Pirates' we set sail for Antigua. As I suspected, we were pursued, by what may have been a thinly disguised Dutch naval frigate. We couldn't outrun them, and we discovered our cannons had all been spiked, so we boarded them instead and tried to demoralise them into running away by causing as many casualities as we could. Fortunately that tactic was successful once we'd killed their captain and most of their officers. We think we may still have a spy onboard, though...
It occurs to me that telling you what's happening would be bad, if you happened to be playing the same games. Fortunately, though, that's unlikely; 'Shadows' is completely our own invention, and the plot for 'Pirates' is being made up by our GM as we go along, since it's a 'filler' game to keep us occupied until the sci-fi supplement for SpyCraft is published. Therefore, no spoilers.
10th September 2006
My character didn't do anything much in 'Shadows' this session. The combatant characters went out to get some samples of the land-mutant-demon-bug thingies. My character was meant to go with them, but I fluffed the first stealth roll and they waved her back into the habitat instead. She went along with that, as she didn't have any confidence in the plan to obtain the sample bugs anyway, and doesn't perceive herself as a combatant type. (Even though she is actually quite tough and able, the rolls nearly always seem to go badly when we are in combat, so she has an impression of herself as not being a very good fighter as a consequence, plus she doesn't have any effective ranged weapons at present). Plus, the character is pretty upset and depressed still at being infected with a control device that effectively has crushed her free will and sapped her ability to take independent and spontaneous actions.
I might have done something different if I had realised that the whole of the rest of today's session would be taken up with that one bug-collecting task / encounter. The bugs seemed to be overly hard... It occurs to me that yes the point needed making that they were a fierce, difficult and hard enemy to deal with, and that stealth was very key to getting away with what we needed to do, but four hours of game play for one combat encounter seems a bit excessive. It also proves that the rules we're using are designed for a game that is not primarily about combat !
Metagaming tells me we are not actually meant to fight this particular enemy - they are too numerous and too tough, so we must be expected to deal with them through intelligent action rather than brute force, somehow. Shame I am not always as smart as my character is supposed to be...
It was very boring sitting for four hours plus with nothing to do. I actually got quite depressed in that time, for various personal reasons. I imagine my character found herself a relatively safe place to be and then just slept and meditated and chatted with her daughter.
Eventually the party got back with the bug sample and I was able to help discern that they are a fairly simple demonic lifeform. Their organs are non-functional, and they just use demonic energies to move their physical mass around etc., which sounds like it is going to make fighting them / defending the habitat / getting rid of them pretty difficult.
We also discovered that the guy running the habitat is in the (slow?) process of turning into a demon himself, and that if / when that occurs our own version of him will also reverse, which sounds like it could be really bad :-( This seems to be happening with most people native to the time period(s) we are currently stuck in. My character did have a theory that this could be a natural part of the evolutionary process, though it now appears it could also be a deliberate demonic plot by an NPC demon called Teth-ma-tet, who has an axe to grind with one of his fellow demons and is creating himself an army to go and kick some rival demonic butt.
I'm going to give my fellow players the address for this blog today, so maybe they will want to add their comments at some point.
20th August 2006
The Camarilla game went well at the weekend. It was a small game, but everyone got involved and things were achieved.
In-character (IC) we worked out some plans for getting cameras into bug-infested areas of the sewer system. We also met and came to terms with the small collection of vampires (NPCs) living in Stockport.
My thanks out-of-character to Mat, who NPCed all 9 of the Stockport people, including three women ! Well done ! Thanks too for the help my boyfriend has given in pointing me in fresh directions regarding the possible origins of the bugs.
The Pirates game concluded last week, with us finally managing to deliver our cargo at Antigua. We had to repel borders when we got into port first though. A whole crew of borders, in fact, dispatched by us with the aid of our captain and his friend and a few others, the rest of the crew having already taken to shore before the borders turned up. We think they were Dutch navy again, but we didn't get to uncover the mastermind who sent them because we ran out of time OOC. No new game with that group for a couple of weeks now, I think.
14 August 2006
We played 'Shadows' over the weekend. It went quite well. We spent the session travelling our characters from one place to another, on foot across the desert, whilst being harried by land mutants that had been demonically transformed by some dodgy food they'd picked up. We made it without incident, though we've yet to enter the underground city safely.
In 'Pirates' we set sail for Antigua. As I suspected, we were pursued, by what may have been a thinly disguised Dutch naval frigate. We couldn't outrun them, and we discovered our cannons had all been spiked, so we boarded them instead and tried to demoralise them into running away by causing as many casualities as we could. Fortunately that tactic was successful once we'd killed their captain and most of their officers. We think we may still have a spy onboard, though...
It occurs to me that telling you what's happening would be bad, if you happened to be playing the same games. Fortunately, though, that's unlikely; 'Shadows' is completely our own invention, and the plot for 'Pirates' is being made up by our GM as we go along, since it's a 'filler' game to keep us occupied until the sci-fi supplement for SpyCraft is published. Therefore, no spoilers.
posted by Katisha @ 7:02 PM
3 Comments:
At 6:29 AM,
Anonymous said…
There is of course a third option.
You are all going to die :)
At 8:46 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hi, thanks Katisha for posting out the addy of this Blog. It's a fascinating to be given an insight into the gamer and the character.
I have to agree, the system is not appropriate to combat and the storyline of the game is not based on winning battles but finding solutions to the problems and conflicts.
It did take too long to roll out the main conflict. Considering in game terms it was a skirmish at most. It involved 3 PCs and 10 npc Rock Wasps. The main engagement in game time lasted a bit over 5 mins, with about 2 or 3 mins for after action clearing up. And this took over 3 hours to play.
It is a worry situation to have a player left with nothing to do, and I appreciate your patience.
The control devices needs comment as well I think. One does ones best in all situations to leave a trail of clues which would allow players to pre-empt a problem. Before the attack which led to the implantation of the devices there were a trail of clues and warnings from previous sessions.
In most sessions the usual player paranoia would have made it far harder to infect the PCs. The subdued population, the ease with which the characters were allowed to get away from Eidan after being detected. The way the group were trailed, as they head back to a known location and the evidence found on arrival that the base had been interfered with.
But all that is an aside and not intended in anyway to indicate it was OK to do that to PCs.
Fractured Earth is complex in its simplicity. On one hand the communities are small, simple subsistence survival attempts. Yet on another hand they each are different encapsulating an idea and ethos that has lasted from before the fracturing or has developed as a modern necessity.
Eidan and Gehenna, the meaning in the names was soon spotted by the players.
The story of that Fracture is in many ways more tragic than others you have encountered because in that Fracture one of the PC alternate existence characters has made a real attempt to create a civilised and organised society. To end exploitation of races and enable fair trade. And inspire his community to work towards a solution to the big problems.
There in lies the tragedy of Eidan and Gehenna, and another link to the wider metaphors of the game.
Instead he has created a police state, with paranoid levels of monitoring. His liberated people have been freed from bondage, and now in their determination to prevent 'injustice' have become the oppressors themselves. All done in the name of best intentions, rule of law and justice.
Was it fair for the PC's to get such an up close and personal taste of it? Honestly I don't know thats for the players to pronounce judgement on. The control device has not actually done anything to any player, not changed a thought, influenced or prevented an action. It's simply present and unknown.
I knew the risk in running this plotline, but it was a story line I think that needed to be included and one I felt the players would want more than just the role of a little feeling sorry for the locals. Right and wrong are matters of perspective, the whole point of this story line is no one feels they are in the wrong not the NPC's or the PC's. Both sides of the argument feel they hold the high moral ground, and just to make matters more complex circumstances now force them to be allies.
It shows a possible outcome of one of the alternate solutions, therefore should be of use to players who want a better solution.
Shadows is a non linear game, with many complex strands intertwining and forming complex intrigues. I have never held back from making the players suffer it, out of respect for the players not because it seemed like a good idea.
The dualities and cycles in Shadows are the game and the story it would not be possible run the game the game without going with it.
A few simple philosophies have been applied to the Shadows scenario's and arcs.
Firstly its paranormal investigation - the plots and twists should favour 'out of the box' thinking. That was the game's original creator's intention, and I hope I have followed it.
Secondly though focused on the PC's its a world so other things happen and other stories follow through out of the players sight. At points they will interact with it. And it will be done as at the point of development for that story arc line. Not be a story that has been put on hold until the PC's come across it.
This simple objective is in fact very difficult to run. It means that all the alternate story lines not followed and all the surviving NPC's that might have influence need to continue their existence and actions even though it has little to do with sessions being played. Over the years Shadows has incorporated hundreds of NPC characters and personalities. Each created with the idea that all people have their own story to tell.
It is a continuity nightmare but on the other hand it does mean the scenarios fit well into the Shadows world, and new random things don't have to be created to fill in next weeks session.
Thirdly Shadows worlds are an alternative viewpoint on the real world. An exploration taking myths, legends and religions as holding complex truths. Not in a 'faith' sense but in a literal sense. We have looked at what does it mean to be a god or demon or a spirit, or blessed or cursed etc. Many games god characters are just very powerful characters with miraculous levels of skills. In Shadows they have been explored in how they do what they do, what are their responsibilities, how do they fit in to creation, what are their limitations. And given the choice would a character truly choose to be one. We have also looked at cyclical histories and some very weird cause and effect relationships created by cyclical history. Even Fractured Earth follows this alternative view, though in it the players are now walking in the flipside, in the first two installments the players walked along the boundary of reality and felt the pull and influence of arcane worlds. In the final installment it has flipped they are now immersed in it, in a place where beginning and end meet. Like seeing things from the other side of the mirror, but in this its a Shadows mirror so things are a little more than the wrong way around.
Anyway I mustn't ramble on your blog. I am sorry if my GMing ruined your day. Though it may not seem like it I do try very hard to keep in mind all the factors that make a good session, and not let obsessions take over and ruin fun. I like to think I consider the effects on the players and whether they actually would be interested or not in roleplaying such a plot. One tries to get the right balance of challenge and opportunity for players who want more than just a puzzle to solve, sometimes one fails.
Respect, Love and Hugs.
At 1:00 AM,
Katisha said…
Terrific response from our GM there ! Thank you. I think it gives a very good demonstration of just how elaborate, carefully considered and well-developed our game is.
I can't get the blog to let me answer here point by point, so I'll send an email instead.
Thanks too to Nathanial. I'm presuming that's an IC kinda thing there ;-) Good to see you are staying positive, old chum. Lily figures you've either become Emperor of your own Fracture or have killed every living creature in it (other than your mate from the computer) by now... ?
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