LOEG: Them That Die

Back in 2018 I set a number of requirements for a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen style game here.

The adventure combines  genre-busting serial comic League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Kenneth Hite’s spy thriller Night’s Black Agents. Players will take on pop-culture characters from the last 20 years co-opted as spies for Queen and Country, tasked with stopping a nefarious plot.

LoEG Them That Die

What’s in the box?

• Genre: Spy Thriller
• Duration: 4 hours
• Number of Players: 2-5
• Dice: d6

The adventure module itself comes with five ready to play character sheets, safety rules and maps ready for play.

I have had the opportunity to run the adventure at our weekly one shots and at a number of cons. It always really cool to see the same adventure played out in different ways with different outcomes.

If you get the opportunity to run the game yourself I’d love to hear how it went.

LoEG: Them That Die at Go Play Brisbane 2019

An Extraordinary Musing

For some time now I have wanted to run a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (LOEG) inspired adventure for our one-shot players. With Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill currently releasing the conclusion to the franchise with Tempest, I had decided it was time to write that adventure.

The first hurdle I wanted to tackle was which system I wanted to use that would give me the LOEG feel I wanted. I have seen actual plays of Wushu and One Roll Engine (ORE) used with the franchise. Recently I have been trying to add some systems engineering principles when hacking games, as a result I listed a set of requirements for the system I wanted before settling on one. 

Before I delve into my requirements, I had recently watched a video on poor movie adaptations and why they failed. The opinion expressed was that in many circumstances (barring bad edits and other technical aspects) it was simply because they failed to address the themes and central premise that made people excited by the source material. Having said that I believe it was Alan Moore that stated that LOEG was originally supposed to be a Victorian Justice League but turned out to be bit of the darker side of espionage than the blockbuster superhero genre, deconstructing the very familiar characters.

Bearing this in mind I made the following functional requirements:

• Shall involve investigation.
• Should allow for powered individuals.
• Should encourage descriptive play.
• Should allow creation of larger than life characters/powered characters.
• Should be relatively simple for beginners to pick up.

With these requirements in mind I turned away from ORE and FATE. Powered by the Apocalypse systems tend to very specific to a specific genre and play. So I turned to GUMSHOE and in particular Night’s Black Agents (NBA).

The system puts an emphasis on investigation without having to roll for clues, allowing the players to focus on the what to do with said clues rather than rolling well. Night’s Black Agents investigative abilities have been designed to be aligned with the spy genre. Utilising Paranormal powers (pg 196 from NBA); powers like invisibility or wand magic can be simply simulated.

Over the next couple of weeks I will put together the adventure that I ran for our one-shot players. The adventure much like comics is based in nostalgia, with particular emphasis on reboots of the past twenty years or so.

Modifying Shinobigami Combat

Shinobigami is a Japanese Tabletop roleplaying game (TRPG) and at the moment it is in the process of being translated from its original Japanese to English via Kickstarter. It is a story game for 3-7 players about the clandestine war between ninja clans. Each player takes the reigns of a member of one of the rival ninja clans. Each game revolves around a MacGuffin which each player character (PC) having their own mission and secret mission to accomplish. Throughout the game the PCs are encouraged to make emotional bonds (emo bond), discover secrets, locate and do battle with the other PCs. As a result the games tend to be player-versus-player (PvP) orientated even when the scenario is designed to be co-operative.

It is a system I really enjoy especially interaction scenes between PCs and as a result I have ran it as gamemaster (GM) a number of times for our Weekly One Shot Meetups. Unfortunately, every time I run the game I run into one problem. Combat. In particular with the initiative system it uses. What I thought originally was a nice concise system, in play was often an annoyance to players.

The combat system relies on something the game calls the Velocity System, where players in the battle secretly assign a value of 1-6 on a die, called the Plot Value. 1 (Ghost Walk) being the slowest and 6 (Light Speed) being the fastest. The Plot Value dictates a number of things including:

• The order of attacks,
• The position on the field and how far you are away from other PCs,
• How many Ninpo you can use in one turn due to their cost and,
• The base Fumble value.

Each turn the die is secretly assigned once again by each player and what happens more often than not PCs are flitting along the Velocity track unable to hit anyone they want to attack. This can be mitigated with certain Ninpo but is often exacerbated by injuries and battle area effects like Bad Weather.

Due to the aforementioned, I propose the following:

• With the secret die allocation the player determines how quickly their ninja will act. This still affects when they attack, how many attacks/buffs they can use and defines the fumble value. But it no longer determines where they are located.
• In descending order from 6 to 1 determine where they want to be on the Velocity track (or battle map) in terms of distance from other PCs. Draws simply place at the same time.
• Once again from descending order 6 to 1 attacks are resolved. Once again with draws occurring at the same time in the narrative.

The logic behind this is that those PCs focusing on speed are concerned with attacking swiftly and often. Whereas, those choosing to go slower are actually watching their opponents and choosing their positions carefully. It also enables sneaky PCs to enter combats and stick to the sidelines, aiding or hindering other PCs using their emo bonds.

These modifications affect a couple of Ninpo as follows:

• Sandbind – Affects those slower than you in initiative.
• Arrow catching – Is related to the distance on the battlemap.
• Out of sync – This means you can reduce your initiative after revealing.
• Resolution – This means you can increase your initiative after revealing.
• Plot Restriction – Restricts how fast one can go to no higher than 3.
• Evening Calm – sorta falls apart, as one needs to be in close combat range (ie same plot value) and same speed. Instead of acting simultaneously they act first.
• Silhouette – You can move to another ninjas place on the battlemap.
• End of the Beginning – This affects those with higher initiative than the ninja.
• Scent of Spring – Range affects the battlemap but the attack hits all those slower than you.
• Body Double – The other ninja must be on the same area on the battlemap.
• Shadow Duplicate – You can choose your initiative twice on two separate dice then choose one when everyone reveals.

I plan to run Shinobigami in the near future to test out the modification and see if it cleans up some of the annoyance. I would be interested with what others have experienced with the game.

Rick and Morty One Shot (Part 2)

Click here for part 1.

 The Game

I wanted to keep the overall improvised feel of the TV show so I went with the system used by the Doctor Who. In this system it utilises a pretty famous improve tool ‘Yes and…’. The player rolls 2d6 plus an appropriate Attribute and Skill and then compares this to a set difficulty. The margin of success determines what outcome they get:

–          Yes and… – Oh my god you’re on fire, you succeed in what you are doing and you gain an extra boon.

–          Yes – You succeed (Good for you).

–          Yes but… – You succeed but it didn’t go as you planned.

–          No but… – You don’t  succeed but you salvage something.

–          No – Nope, just no.

–          No and… – You’ve really cocked up, not only have you filed but things escalate getting worse.

This outcome is built into the very resolution mechanics of the game. Stuck in a groundhog day loop Morty attempts climb up to the where the driver sits on a moving coach to convince the driver to push the plasticine horse pulling the coach harder. This is a Normal task requiring Morty to use his Coordination and Athletics. He rolls a 9 and gets a total of 13. Yes he manages to climb from inside the coach to where the driver sits but he loses his balance and knocks the driver off leaving him alone to drive the horse driven coach.

Story Points give the player characters the ability to control the story and allow themselves to do sweet stuff. Experienced characters like Rick already have Traits that allow them to do sweet moves and therefore have less Story Points but green adventurers like Morty get far more as they are more malleable. This may be simply bumping up your failure to a success, emulating Rick’s scientific expertise, introduce something new to the scene or saving yourself from death.

Summer has just broken herself out of a Galactic Federation interrogation room finding herself in the station’s garage filled with ships. She’s seen Rick fly one of these things before, drunk so how had can it be. She spends a Story Point and she is able to use Rick’s Attribute and Skill to fly the tiny space shuttle instead of her own.

In the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game the combat system nearly almost always lethal and when it isn’t damage comes straight out of the characters Attributes. This is elegantly handled with the systems Initiative mechanic, talkers going first in the Initiative order with runners second, doers third, and lastly attackers.

Rick finds himself face to face with Scanners Rick and Morty. Scanner Rick is sitting in a chair pointing a laser pistol (which does lethal damage) at Rick, he intends to simply shoot Rick where he stands. Luckily, Rick has got something to say so he goes first.

 The Outcome

All in all the adventure was fun and was resolved in the 3.5-4 hours of play and the players enjoyed themselves, resulting in some good bits.

Every time I use the Vortex system used in conjunction with the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game I find the resolution system satisfying. Especially in a one shot adventure players has no compunctions with spending their Story Points. But it does take some time. The player needs to roll calculate their outcome, the GM then tells them how well they failed and then waits to see if they would like to spend some Story Points to bump up their success. In a one shot I find this can bog things down a big pace-wise especially in a fast paced shoot at the hip show like Rick and Morty.

A thorn for one of the players was that he felt that one aspect of Rick and Morty  are the bits and the scenes. Expressing that a Fiasco playset or using Primetime adventures might give that feel.

Would I run Rick and Morty again? Yes.

Would I run it in the same Fashion? Probably not.

If there isn’t one already I would actually consider creating a Fiasco playset for Rick and Morty.

Otherwise I might try my own chimaera of a system to handle it. I would utilise Primetime Adventures to help build scenes and the characters and use the resolution system from Itras By. These are also inspired by improve but are simply cards that can be randomised.

Until next time Wubba Lubba Dub Dub.

Rick and Morty One Shot (Part 1)

Thursday night and its my rotation as lead game master at our local Brisbane one shots. This week I had decided as an experiment with a Rick and Morty themed game. Rick and Morty for those of you unfamiliar with the hit animated comedy from Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon. It is a show about a jaded cynical scientist, Rick and his impressionable grandson Morty where they juggle inter-dimensional travel and domestic life. The show blurs the lines between improv, dark humour, existential horror and philosophy.

Research

I did my research leading up into the game, mind you this predominately consisted of watching Rick and Morty and looking at common the tropes. It also consisted of researching systems that might best handle the tropes and themes of the TV show, also listening to the RPPR actual play of their own Rick and Morty adventure using a homebrew of Monsters and Other Childish Things.

System Choice

The three systems I felt that would handle a Rick and Morty adventure were; Primetime Adventure, Cubicle 7’s vortex system and Monsters and Other Childish Things (a mod of the One Role Engine).

Primetime Adventures – This is a game that’s very mechanics are aimed at creating scenes in your own or your favourite TV shows. One player takes the role of the producer while the other players take the roles of the actors/characters in the TV show. The game itself is built into 4 acts and is then broken down further into scenes where each player takes a turn and deciding if their character wants a character development scene or if the character wants to succeed in something furthering the plot. This system’s beauty lies in its high level approach to enable the telling of stories of any genre by breaking down the TV structure and gamifying it.

Monsters and Other Childish Things – In this system each a player’s PC is a child but that child also has a beast friend. A monster and they get up to all sorts of michief. Rolls are quite simple and a number of d10 are assigned to each of the child’s attributes. In RPPR podcast altered the system slightly by making the child Rick and the monster Morty. This worked well in the podcast as each of the players played a Rick from another dimension with their own Morty. I ended up avoiding this system for this very reason as I was thinking of running a game with Rick, Morty and some others in the supporting cast.

Cubicle 7’s Vortex System – The Vortex system is the one used in the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game. Rick and Morty have many parallels with the Doctor and their companion. Travelling through space and facing existential risks at every adventure. Its just that Rick ad Morty don’t bounce back from the existential horror that the Doctor and his companions do. The system itself utilises those techniques used in improvisations like; Yes and, No but and such forth. The system also uses Story Points that give power to the player to improve their roles or directly change the world. When it comes to combat it is generally lethal and generally pushes players to talk or run their way out of trouble. This is also reflected in how initiative is handled with Talkers going first, then Runners, Doers and finally Fighters.

I ended up going with the Vortex system, as I am very familiar with the system and I was wondering how the system would handle the genre.

In the next part I will give the outcomes from running, including character sheets for Rick, Morty and Summer.

Blackout: The Manor

In the previous posts I covered the general premise, the background  and the playbooks of Blackout; a Powered by the Apocalypse adventure, a cross between Buffy’s Tabula Rasa and the College of Wizardry.

This installment lays out the further hooks and clues that may help the PCs navigate their predicament. This is not an exhaustive list and it is implored that the GM introduce anything they seem are necessary for their adventure.

Blackout: The Playbooks

In the previous posts I covered the general premise and the background of Blackout; a Powered by the Apocalypse adventure, a cross between Buffy’s Tabula Rasa and the College of Wizardry.

In this entry I will run through the playbooks I used to run the game, most of which came from Monster of the Week with one originating from Apocalypse World. I will relate each Archetype from the Background and I will link them to the existing playbook they correspond to. For the original playbook I implore you to support Monster of the Week or Apocalypse World. The ratings and terminology used should for the most part correspond to the Monster of the Week rule book. I will continue on to describe what I did differently with these original playsets.

The Mulder: The Flake, Monster of the Week

Muggle: You are unable to cast spells, create potions or perform alchemy due to a lack of magical potential. Your weirdness is a measure of your knowledge of the secret magical world helping you use magical artefacts.

Moves and Ratings remain the same for the Mulder.

What’s in your pockets?

Badge: Detective Sergeant Wasserman

99mm [gun]: 2-harm close loud

Flashlight: 1-harm hand

Flip phone: One unread message:
‘If you are hearing this message it means they’ve got you again and they have erased your memory, killing a past version of us. The short story is these people are from a secret society of magic users, hiding amongst us. On the most part they seem just like us besides the fact that they can use magic. There seems to be some sort of government and law enforcement agency that aids in keeping their world secret. Their favourite tool to employ on ‘muggles’, (this is what they calls us) are memory altering charms. They change your lives with their power and then they take away our memories of these events.

All you know is that they don’t understand technology very well and their reliance on magic has left them complacent to physical attacks. Get in close remove their wand. Your partner can be trusted. Once you have listened to this message mark it as unread.’

Look:

Man, woman, transgressive, concealed.

Wild eyes, tired eyes, focused eyes, searching eyes, suspicious eyes, wide eyed.

Utilitarian clothing, unkept clothing, neat clothes, comfortable clothes, ruppled suit.

The Scully: The Mundane, Monster of the Week

Muggle: You are unable to cast spells, create potions or perform alchemy due to a lack of magical potential. Your weirdness is a measure of your knowledge of the secret magical world helping you use magical artefacts.

Moves and Ratings remain the same for the Mulder.

What’s in your pockets?

Badge: Detective Sergeant Pavlov

99mm [gun]: 2-harm close loud

Pocket knife: 1-harm hand useful small

Car keys [BMW in fairly good condition]

Look:

Man, woman, transgressive, concealed.

Friendly face, alluring face, laughed-lined face, trust-worthy face, ‘every-man’ face, serious face.

Uniformed, casual clothed, immaculately kept clothing, street clothes, slept-in suit.

The Warden: The Brainer, Apocalypse World

Cloistered: Blessed with magical potential you are able to cast spells, brew potions and perform rituals with roll +Weird. You are unfortunately cloistered from the muggle-world and receive -1 to all rolls when dealing with muggle artefacts. For fast magic you require a wand like all witchards.

The Moves remain mostly the same but are flavoured differently:

• Casual brain receptivity = Casual leglimancy
• Deep brain scan = Deep leglimancy
• Direct-brain whisper projection = Forced entry
• In-brain puppet strings = Hypnotic eyes

The Warden was also given the Moves:

• Bottle it up: If you want, you can take up to +3 bonus when you act under pressure. For each +1 you use, the GM holds 1. That can be spent later – one for one – to give you a -1 on any move except act under pressure.
• Healer: You have a full healer’s kit, and the training to go with it. When you do first aid, roll +Cool. On a 10+ the patient is stabilized and healed for 2 harm. On a 7-9 choose one: heal 2 harm or stabilize the injury. On a miss you cause an extra 1 harm. This move takes the place of regular first aid.

The ratings were also altered to to reflect those of the Monster of the Week format. The Warden was also given one additional Ratings line:

• Charm =0, Cool +1, Sharp +1, Tough -1, Weird +2

What’s in your pockets?

Identification [edict of legimancy]
Warden Konstantin as part of their duty to uphold the tenants of secrecy is awarded extraordinary means to determine the truth during their investigation. This provides Warden Konstantin the authority to administer truth serums and utilise memory extraction techniques on those thought to be in breach of the tenants or protecting one in breach of the tenants, jeopardising a witcharding Conflux.

This edict is published with the authority of the Warden.

Wand: Range small

Photograph The people in this photograph are moving. It depicts two muggles within a witcharding conflux/conclave dressed in ludicrous attire, one actually appears to be wearing a bath robe.

Veritaserum: small vial potent truth serum

Look:

Man, woman, transgressive, androgynous.

Soft eyes, dead eyes, deep eyes, caring eyes, pale eyes, ruined eyes, wet eyes, scarred eye.

Ministry blue robes, tattered robes, garish robes, impractical robes, leathers.

The Scion: The Spell-slinger, Monster of the Week

Cloistered: Blessed with magical potential you are able to cast spells, brew potions and perform rituals with roll +Weird. You are unfortunately cloistered from the muggle-world and receive -1 to all rolls when dealing with muggle artefacts. For fast magic you require a wand like all witchards.

Combat Magic, Tools and Techniques are ignored for this archetype, it is assumed that the wizard is able to cast magic appropriately.

The Moves remain mostly the same but some are flavoured differently:

• Advanced Arcane Training = Advanced ritual training
• Arcane Reputation = Reputation through lineage

The remaining Moves remain the same. As do the Ratings.

What’s in your pockets?

Signet ring: On your finger is a signet ring looking around the room you notice a coat of arms over the mantelpiece that matches the ring. The name Van Maldergem and Quia Divina et Humana Prudential.

Wand: Range small

Pendant: Set in one panel is a small photograph, which includes yourself and someone that looks suspiciously like you. On the opposite panel are the words.
‘Never Forget Avalon’

Look:

Man, woman, transgressive, concealed.

Sly eyes, fierce eyes, weary eyes, sparkling eyes, soft eyes, ancient eyes.

Fashionable robes, ink stained robes, gothic robes, casual slacks.

The Magus: The Montrous, Monster of the Week

Hedge mage: You are an illegal magical practitioner, you did not attend any of the magical colleges and learnt the craft through trial and error. Most die before they come of age, those that do normally dabble in crime, dark magicks or both. They often bear the marks of their unsanctioned experimentation on their person. For fast magic you require a wand like all witchards.

For the Magus; Curses, Natural Attacks, Mental Dominion, Unquenchable Vitality and Incorporeal are ignored.

The Moves remain mostly the same but some are flavoured differently:

• Immortal = Dorian Grey
• Unnatural Appeal = Monstrous appeal
• Unholy strength = Full metal alchemist
• Preternatural speed = Quicksilver veins
• Shapeshifter = Animagus

Ratings remain the same for the Magus.

What’s in your pockets:

Wand: Range small

Bag of salt useful

Stick of chalk useful

Vial of viscous crimson liquid useful

Ritual Dagger: 2-harm hand small

This dagger has a living bloodshot eye fashioned into the hilt like a gemstone which follows the holder.

Hand: animated useful

Look:

Man, woman, mysterious, transgressive.

Tattooed face, manic face, scarred face, soft face, aged face, gaunt face, monstrous face.

Archaic robes, tattered robes, singed robes, stylish robes, animal skins, white flowing robe.

Next we will delve into the manor itself.

Blackout: Background

The HP inspired adventure first mentioned in Blackout: or How I Stopped Worrying and Love Powered by the Apocalypse. Blackout features five different player characters archetypes; the Mulder, the Scully, the Warden, the Scion and the Magus.

Some time the Mulder and the Scully as police detectives stumbled upon the witcharding world. After their first encounter with it their memories were obliviated. Fortunately, the realised something was amiss and were enraged by the fact that erasing their memories was akin to murder. They put measures in place so their memories though they were erased the Mulder was reminded that they don’t remember everything.

Along with the Scully they begin investigating these witchards eventually making it to a conflux of this magical beings. But they also discover that  kidnappings and murders made five years ago were connected to a group of fundamentalist witchards. To their shock they soon find out that not all the perpetrators were arrested, that some to this day still lived. This is when the Mulder and the Scully hatch a plan to arrest the Scion for their crimes.

Discovering the Scion addressed they address a letter and attach it to an owl setting it free. They follow the owl to the address with a sneak-a-scope (to detect hidden things) and discover the Scion’s manor out in the cold northern country side.

~~~~

The Warden is a member of the Magical Ministry and has been tasked to investigate two muggles who have continuously ‘relapsed’ from their obliviation. He has been given privileges to use leglimancy to disseminate the cause of their relapsing, and put an end to the tirade once and for all. Keeping their distance on their broom the wary Warden follows the muggles to the Scion’s manor…

~~~~

The Scion is the last of their bloodline, once they were two. Twins. But their twin took the wrap for the kidnapping and murders of those muggles. See they were members of the Iron Legion, a group of witchards that don’t see magic as dark/light but as a haze of grey. They champion that demonology, blood magic and other dark magics can be harnessed if used appropriately.

The Scion’s twin was put to death for their crimes and the Scion became obsessed with their death creating a shrine of sorts in the twin’s old room. Eventually the Scion turned to the Magus and imploring them trying to help resurrect their dead sibling.

~~~~

The Magus is an unregistered witchard who is known through the circles of the Iron Legion, mostly known as a mad diabolist. Most self-taught witchards dabbling in dark arts are either driven mad or killed but the Magus is savvy and has beaten the odds. The Magus’ illegal practices means they need to keep moving to avoid Ministry attention.

The Scion in need of the of the experimental expertise of the Magus and has agreed to harbour the Magus in their manor during the duration on their resurrection experimentation. The theory behind resurrecting the twin is to create a body or vessel that will be able to house the soul and memories of the deceased twin.

The Magus plans to contact a demon of the choir of destruction and arrange a pact that will attain the memories of the twin. Together the Scion and the Magus are gathered in a hidden room in the cellar of the manor gathered around a summoning circle that will bring the demon into our plane. They begin the ritual but are interrupted when intruders barrel through the front door of the manor and they disapparate and confront the intruders (the Mulder and the Scully, and soon the Warden).

~~~~

While upstairs gunfire and spells are fired; downstairs in the cellar the demon, Anamnesis swirls into existence, the ritual that would normally bind it is incomplete. It takes this advantage its smoke-like form to central chimney of the manor to attack everything in the manor. Devouring their memories leaving them with nothing of their past.

Unable to vacate the premises due to the sunlight outside, the demon waits for night to come.

The player characters awake in the disheveled lounge of the manor.

Blackout: or How I Stopped Worrying and Love Powered by the Apocalypse

Wednesday night leading into a heatwave we held the fourth Weekly One-shot meetup in the comfort of an air conditioned meeting room. Tonight it was my rotation to host a game. I decided to playtest a home brew adventure of mine I’ve penned as Blackout with those that attend our weekly games.

An adventure for 3-5 players, Blackout would interest players interested in investigating and those who enjoy conflicting agendas between the player characters.

You wake up to find yourselves in chateau, with no memory of who you are or how you got there. As you all try to piece together the events of the previous few hours from things on your person and from the house, you begin to realise that something definitely went wrong. But will you be able to stop this threat before you tear each others throats out?

This year I plan to attend the College of Wizardry LARP in Poland which probably inspired the adventure. Other inspirations include Sir Poley’s Harry Potter and the Natural 20 as well as JK Rowling’s popular Harry Potter series. The themes I wanted to capture in this adventure are heavily inspired by the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Tabula Rasa where the player characters play a mixture of muggles and witchards that find themselves in a strange manor with no memory of their past.

Since the beginning of this year I have been tossing up what system to use. The adventure would be heavily investigative so Trail of Cthulhu came to mind but didn’t quite serve the PVP that might ensue. So I turned to Fate which I have previously used in Potterverse RPGs but figured that Aspects that linked the players may give away too much of the mystery. Finally, I decided to road test Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) even though my adventure goes against the very tenants of the system and improvisation. But I felt that how the playbooks aid quick character development and the Moves really suited the adventure I had planned (also this year has been a bit of a showcase for the PbtA system).

Monster of the Week was the PbtA system of choice, the idea of each ‘episode’ contains a mystery with a monster of the week, which was the driving premise of my adventure. I had a couple of ideas that differed from Monster of the Week that I thought would suit Blackout. The ideas I wanted to experiment with included:

• Instead of using Cool to Help or Hinder, I planned to use HX much like Apocalypse World but with the difference; instead of HX being determined during character creation a character would gain HX as they learned about another character throughout the adventure. The incentive to learn about your enemies would be just as important as learning about your allies.
• Character creation would remain much the same the players choosing their Ratings, Appearance and Moves. But each character would also be given items that they find on their own person. These included identification, weapons, or sinister artifacts that aim to give the characters an impression of who they are, provide hooks and raise suspicions between the other characters.
• The biggest deviation from the PbtA mission statement are the pre-established flags of the adventure.

Alpha Test of Blackout

The adventure was played with 3 players and ran for 3.5 hours. There were enough hooks in the adventure flags that the adventure could be easily played over two sessions, especially with more players.

The HX mechanic I introduced unfortunately was not utilised to enough to truly gauge if it was effective.

The players felt that the most of the Basic and Hunter Moves were appropriate to a Potterverse world but a couple of Hunter Moves just did quite work with the amnesia or a one-shot setting. The hooks that were found on each character were effective, though once again sort of goes against the intent of PbtA.

Overall the players enjoyed the adventure and the hooks. The only thorns from the players was that one didn’t really like investigation games but he said he just made up for it by causing conflict.

Conclusion

I plan to run the adventure again the next time we run a introduction to RPG session. I haven’t decided yet if I will continue to use PbtA or try a different system like Trail of Cthulhu.

Over the next couple of weeks I will post the adventure in segments for those of you who would like to try out the adventure which will start with the background for Blackout.

The Beast: Review

My favourite part in the movie Se7en is during the Lust sin reveal. We are not privy to a seeing the crime unfold or really see much of the aftermath. All we see is a Polaroid of the ‘murder’ weapon and its up to our own imagination to put the pieces together.

Alek­san­dra Son­towska and Kamil Węgrzynow­icz’s The Beast pits your imagination with in the unreal situation where you are having a secret affair with an alien creature. The Beast is a solitaire roleplaying game where one keeps an erotic journal of this carnal sex. The game is not just about the sex but how you feel about your relationship with the Beast and how it effects your daily life and your other relationships.

The game is designed to be played over the course of 21 days where each day you pull a card with a topic or question and you are urged to describe the events in your journal. There are a variety of questions; my favourite being “The Beast wasn’t there when you came to visit. How do you satisfy yourself?” The cards themselves are beautifully designed and if you buy the pdf set print out nicely.

At the end of the 21 days you are urged to hide or destroy the journal. As I have used this blog as the journal I plan to leave the journal post up for a couple of weeks before deleting it. There’s a lot of bleed in there so get in there and pick apart my brain.