Dresden Files RPG - Extended Combat example

So, last time I tried to figure out the rules to a game I wrote my way through a little playtest and shared it publicly, which was a huge help, since one of my players caught some mistakes that I made. Since it worked so well last time, I’m doing it again. 

----

Elizabeth Carter is a dangerous woman. Her mother once told her that her father was an angel. As an adult, she wasn’t even really sure if angels really existed, much less if she carried the blood of one, but at this point her mother was long since dead, and there would be no way to ask her.

What she did know, however, was that she herself was no angel.

It was nearly midnight on the day that would become know as the Night of Burning Skies. Things were never exactly quiet in Amsterdam, but tonight they were downright terrifying. The creatures she had heard described as the ‘fomor’ had been in town for a while, but they had mostly kept a low profile. Tonight however they had moved in a big way, and some sort of war had erupted because of it.

Elizabeth wasn’t exactly ‘plugged in’ to the local scene, but she knew that had to be bad, and she had friends that she needed to check in on. There were plenty of faster ways around the city, but she had elected to run down the back alleys and stay out of sight as much as possible. The roads and waterways just weren’t safe for the talented right now.

In a city like Amsterdam, however, that wasn’t always possible, and it was only a matter of time before she found herself slowing to rest a little too close to the water.

The run had been exhausting, and she had been at it for hours. She had called people, convinced them to gather for safety, and sent out as many messages as she could, but still there were those who had to be checked in on in person. So far the number she had found missing, with their homes or vehicles in a state of disarray was frighteningly high. Now she had no choice but to stop and catch her breath for a minute. She’d be no good to anyone if she came across a fight already tired.

She scolded herself even as she finished the thought. She wasn’t exactly superstitious, but if ever there was a time to knock on wood…

Of course, that’s when she heard the furtive movement behind her. She whirled around, but it was already too late. The first of the fomors’ servitors was already out of the canals and getting ready to pounce, with two of its friends coming out of the dark water close behind it.

Elizabeth Carter

High Concept: Touched by an angel (if you believe in such things).

Trouble: I’m responsible for those who put their trust in me.

Aspects:

• Anger issues.
• Unknowing, unwilling, Sword of Heaven.
• I fight for people, not causes.
• Spirit of an angel, heart of a young woman.
• Sins of the father.

Powers:

• Channeling (Kinetomancy) -2

• Inhuman Speed -2
• Refinement -2
• Inhuman Mental Toughness -2
• The Catch (Alien thoughts) +0
• Inhuman Toughness -2
• The Catch (Unholy Power) +0

Skills

• Alertness +2
• Athletics +4
• Contacts +3
• Conviction +5

• Discipline +6

• Endurance +3
• Fists +1
• Guns +2
• Investigation +2
• Lore +4

• Presence +1
• Rapport +1
• Resources +1

• Stealth +2
• Weapons +3

Gear:

• Ring: +1 Offensive power (force)
• Ring: +1 Defensive Power (force)
• Anklets: +3 to Athletics, 2/session.
• Cloak: Armor 4, 3/session.
• Potion (Undeclared)

Stress:

• Physical: OOOO
• Mental: OOOO(OO) Armor: 1
• Social: OOO

Consequences:

• Mild:
• Mild (Mental):
• Moderate:
• Severe:

Refresh: 2

Fomor Gorilla-Shark (3)

High Concept: Weird Fomor Minion

Aspects:

• Freakishly Strong
• Good Swimmer

Skills:

• Athletics +4
• Endurance +4
• Fists +5
• Might +5
• Physical Skills at +3
• Other Skills at +2

Powers:

• Aquatic -1
• Supernatural Strength -4

Stress:

• Mental: OO
• Physical: OOOO
• Social: OO

Refresh: -5

Our battlefield is simple: A long alley bordered on the north and south by two-storey buildings, with entrances at the east and west. The west entrance exits onto a main street, with a canal just beyond it. To the east the alley stretches a long ways before emptying into a small, dark, side street.

Elizabeth is pretty sure she could get away if she needed to, and she has no illusions about how dangerous and powerful these things were, but it’s been a hell of a night, and she feels the need to strike back. With one last sideways glance she turns back to face the creatures head on.

Round One - Fight.

Elizabeth begins in Alley (2). The first fomorian creature begins in the Street zone, with two more in the Canal.

Thanks to her Inhuman Speed Elizabeth goes on a Fantastic (+6) initiative, while the FGS (Fomor gorilla-sharks) go at Fair (+2). Seeing the opportunity to even out the odds a bit, she starts by erecting a wall of pure kinetic force along the zone border between the Canal and the Street, hoping to cut one of the creatures off from the pack. These things are strong, so she knows it’ll have to be tough. Starting with her Conviction of 5, she adds one for her defensive focus item, and decides to live with the stress of adding four more, bringing the total shifts of power to 10(!) for the cost of a 5 Stress hit to her mental track. She still needs to control the power though, so she makes a Discipline test against that same 10. Dice come up ++00, so still not quite enough. Unwilling to take another big hit to her mental stress this early in the fight, she decides to tap her aspect: The Unknowing, Unwilling, Sword of Heaven, so she tosses in a Fate point to bring her Discipline of 6 (8 after the die roll) to a 10 for successful control.

Not realizing yet that he’s alone, the first FGS Sprints through Alley (1) to join Elizabeth in her zone. The difficulty is negligible, and with his Great (+4) Athletics he makes it easily, but the movement takes up his turn this round.

The other two FGS, blocked by the wall, decide to work together in an attempt to bash it down. FGS2 makes a Teamwork Maneuver check (Difficulty Legendary +8), rolling a +--- for a net of -2 to his Superb (+5) Might. Normally this would reduce it to a Good (+3) result, but Supernatural Strength adds +6 when trying to break things, so his final result is a 9. Good enough to place an Assisted by FGS2 aspect on FGS3’s Athletics attempt to move through the wall. Essentially he’s bashing at the thing trying to weaken it.

FGS3 then makes his Athletics check. ++-0 on the roll, plus the free tag on FGS2’s aspect brings his Great (+4) Athletics to Epic (+7). Still not enough for the mighty wall.

Current Damage

• Elizabeth:
• Mental: OOOO(XO)

Round Two - Prolonging the inevitable

Seeing the FGS’ strength in action, Elizabeth begins to rethink her decision to fight so many at once, but stay or run, she needs time. Hoping she can rely on the tricks up her sleeve to deal with the one on top of her, the decides to ignore it for now and reinforce her wall to buy some time. Making a roll to prolong, she summons 5 shifts of power, and pushes them all into the wall’s duration. Her Discipline roll is +--0, but she still makes it with her Fantastic (+6) skill, and only takes the mandatory single point of mental stress from casting. Now she has 5 more rounds to decide if she should stay, or if she should go.

FGS1, determined to make sure she’s going nowhere, makes his move, a powerful Fists attack, rolling +--0, bringing his skill down to a Great (+4). Elizabeth rolls Athletics to dodge, normally at a +4, but with Inhuman speed she gains an additional +1. Coupled with a good roll she ends up with a Fantastic (+6) dodge. Enough to avoid the damage completely.

FGS2 and 3 try to break through the shield again, and though they still fail, it’s a near thing. Elizabeth is beginning to realize that, even with such a powerful wall, she’s blowing through energy a lot faster than they are. Time to try going offensive.

Current Damage

• Elizabeth:
• Mental: XOOO(XO)

Round Three - Sink or Swim

Frustrated that her wall had cost her so much, but unwilling to let if be for naught, Elizabeth decides to redirect the energy from the powerful spell, pulling and compacting the wall into a spear of pure force that she yanks back toward herself, straight into the back of the creature attacking her. This still requires a Discipline roll to target the creature, but no additional energy, making it a free weapon 10 attack good for a single use. Rolling a +0--, her normally Fantastic Discipline drops to +5, but the FGS rolls even worse, not noticing the spear until it’s too late, and only dodging at Fair (+2). This creates a whopping 13 shifts of damage. Theoretically the creature could take a moderate and severe consequence to reduce it to 3 and stay in the fight, but the GM rules that it's more fun to just let the crazy powerful attack just Take the thing Out. He still has two more to continue the fight with after all.

With a toothy grin Elizabeth’s player describes how the spear of force takes the creature off its feet and pins it to the northern wall briefly before the magic dissipates leaving it to fall to the ground, limp and dead. She's seen a lot of friends disappear tonight, and the payback feels pretty good.

Free of the wall FGS 2 and 3 hesitate only a second to stare at their dead companion before quickly closing the distance and moving into alley (2) with Elizabeth.

Current Damage

• Elizabeth:
• Mental: XOOO(XO)
• FGS1: Dead

Round Four - A good run of bad luck

Elizabeth turns her not-entirely-sane grin toward the closing monsters and lashes out again. Flush with success from her previous attack, she goes for an 8 shift spear of force directly at FGS2. Even with her offensive ring this attack is going to cost her another 3 stress, and she’s becoming very aware of how quickly she is tiring. A bad Discipline check later, and now she's really regretting it.

Reduced by dice from a normally Fantastic (+6) Discipline to Superb (+5), Elizabeth is suddenly staring down the barrel of three points of uncontrolled energy. Too much to save herself from with her last remaining Fate point, she is suddenly kicking herself for pushing so hard. At this point she has a choice: she can take the backlash, doing a 3 stress hit to herself, but casting the spell at full power, or reduce the spell’s power to 5 and allow the other 3 points to leak out into the environment as fallout, probably damaging the buildings around her, but keeping her safe at least.

Reasoning that these monsters will do a lot more than three stress if she doesn’t kill them quickly, and noting that she can always take the backlash as physical damage, which is untouched, she decides to push the full damage into the spell, and take the 3 stress hit. Unfortunately, her roll to hit is also her targeting roll, and the fomor’s dodge roll is an amazing ++++, bringing it to a Legendary (+8). Not only does it manage the dodge, it gets Spin (an optional rule, but one we use). Already hurt and tired, and now with her enemy at a +1 to hit, Elizabeth is in real trouble.

FGS2 returns Elizabeth's grin and lashes out at her, rolling well enough to bring its Fists roll up to a +7 after factoring in its +1 from Spin. Elizabeth dodges, but only manages Great (+4), and takes a 7 Stress physical hit. This includes 4 points for the thing's Supernatural strength and 3 more for its net successes. Unable to soak that kind of damage, Elizabeth triggers her cloak to gain Armor 4 against the attack. This reduces the hit to 3 stress, but since she just filled that box with backlash it rolls up into her 4th physical stress box.

Never one to be left out, FGS3 hits as well, with a Fantastic +6. The mage tries to dodge, but her Athletics roll, even with the +1 for Inhuman Speed, ends up as a Great (+4). Two net hits, plus four for the monster's strength leaves her with 6 damage. Once again Elizabeth triggers her cloak, reduceing the damage to 2 physical stress, but she’s running out of tricks.

Current Damage

• Elizabeth:
• Mental: XOXO(XO)
• Physical: OXXX
• FGS1: Dead

Round Five - Last chance

Frustrated by last round's setbacks, but bolstered by the fact that she still has all of her Consequences free, Elizabeth decided to give it one last shot. Channeling a 7 stress force attack into her own hands she lashes out with a whip of energy at FGS3’s hand as it is turned aside by her cloak. She takes a 2 stress mental hit from the energy, but her gamble pays off as she rolls +++0 on her Discipline check. This brings her base skill from Fantastic (+6) to +9, or +10 after adding the bonus from her ring of Offensive Control. The creature tries desperately to dodge, but only manages Great (+4) on its Athletics. Adding her net success of 6 to her Weapon 7 attack, she just smirks as another 13 stress rips through the monster, just like the earlier spear did to its friend. When the GM concedes that it is Taken Out as well, she described the whip of living energy wrapping itself around the shark-headed thing until its struggles (and breathing) cease.

She has anger issues.

FGS2 is close to running himself, but he knows the young woman can’t keep this up forever. Deciding to give it one last chance he strikes out at the girl with both fists, as if trying to drive her into the ground. One last good roll puts his Fists attack up to Epic (+7), and Elizabeth knew she was in trouble. Even with her exceptional ability to dodge, and her last use of the cloak, she'd be hard pressed to get that hit down to 1 stress, and anything more than that would definitely roll up and either Take her Out, or force her to take Consequences. As a last ditch effort she decided to protect herself with magic instead of Athletics. The skill was slightly higher.

Elizabeth needs at least 8 shifts of power to deflect the attack, and even with her ring that means she takes a 3 stress mental hit. Since her 3 stress box is already full it rolls up to a 4, but she still only has to Roll her Discipline against the 8. Starting with a Fantastic skill, and rolling +-00 on the dice, she only manages a 6. She can’t afford the backlash, she's too low on Stress. A 2 stress hit on her mental track would roll all the way up to 6, and even on the physical track it would force a Consequence. Sighing she tags her Touched by an Angel aspect and uses her last Fate point.

Current Damage

• Elizabeth:
• Mental: XXXX(XO)
• Physical: OXXX
• FGS1: Dead
• FGS3: Dead
• FGS2: Unharmed

Round Six - Live to fight another day

Having fought until near exhaustion, Elizabeth decides to choose the better part of valor. She has let her anger run away with her again, and she knows it. Luckily for her, the creature looks hesitant to keep going as well.

A part of her knows she could take it, but at what cost? It's not worth leaving herself vulnerable and injured in a future attack just to polish off one more of these things, which mean nothing to their masters.

Instead of attacking again, she triggers her anklets and Sprints toward the southern wall. At a full dash her Inhuman Speed adds 2 to her normally Great (+4) Athletics. With the +3 from her anklets and a good roll (+2 more), her total is an 11. That’s enough to Sprint straight up the wall, across the roof, and jump over to another nearby building.

Lacking both the ability and desire to follow the powerful mage, the last FGS standing decides to let her go.

Catching Up with Jadepunk (part 3)

So, this is the last of these updates, enough to get us caught up to date so people can get an idea of how we put together a #Jadepunk campaign and got it rolling. If anyone has any interest I'll keep making my session updates available. I'm going to write them anyways for my own notes, so if it doesn't become annoying to my readers I may as well share them.

Session Three

Knowing they needed to hurry in case the Green Tiger came back with reinforcements, the group got right to work. Han and Saffron set about freeing the prisoner and bandaging the most grievous of his wounds while Keiko started searching the warehouse and fallen guards for clues.

The old man told them what had happened in the hours since he was kidnapped. Apparently he had been badly tortured, and in an effort to end his pain and get the Hu brothers to leave his daughter alone he had told them where the item (a book) that his daughter had stolen was located. The Red Dragon, the Hu brother the group had met during the fight at the tea shop had already left with several men to retrieve it, but his brother remained to continue gathering information from the old man.

Retrieving the stolen property hadn't been enough. They wanted his daughter dead.

Keiko, meanwhile, had found something else interesting. All of the fallen guards had evidence of old, congealed blood on their boots. Thinking that it was unlikely the entire squad had somehow walked through a murder scene, the group came to the decision that they must have been to a nearby slaughterhouse for some reason.

Having discovered what they could, Saffron picked up the Green Tiger's fallen knife and the group returned to their bolt hole to decide on their next course of action and give the old man a safe place to heal. There it was decided that the Red Dragon probably had too much of a lead on them to recover the book. That left them with only one choice: They had to leave the city, find the girl, and figure out what she knew that was so important that a large number of private police officers had been willing to die for it.

Thus the group split up one more time. Saffron returned to her shop to prepare some devices for their travels, Han returned to the Qin household to "borrow" a blue jade cloak that they kept there, and Keiko moved to investigate the slaughterhouse.

From the outside the slaughterhouse looked much like one would expect, a low structure in a bad part of town, clearly still in use. The smells were terrible, attracting all sorts of vermin and birds. Around back however was a different story. Keeping an eye on the place for a couple of hours, Keiko watched as one by one men would approach the building, pay a heavily tattooed guard, and then enter. Using her disguise to try and fit in Keiko approached the guard herself and learned that the people who came through here were selling some sort of jade concoction, but she was unable to produce enough money to buy-in herself, and was forced to exit before the guard became suspicious.

----

Finally ready to leave, the group got directions to the hiding hole from Mr. Nguyen and made their way to the train leaving town as quickly as possible. Most of the journey went well, but the end would be tricky.

Since the group didn't have the white jade kite that Daiyu had used to get off the train while it was still in motion, they would have to jump when the train slowed down to cross a bridge passing over the river. Timed just right they would be able to land safely in the deep, muddy water and continue along their way.

I was too lazy to bring out tokens and cards to represent the
characters and zones, so you get to see my terrible art work.

Of course, nothing is ever quite that easy. As the group jumped into the river Saffron slipped. She landed without injury, but slipped too deep for a moment and disturbed something very large that moved beneath the surface.

Never content to let a bad roll go, and unwilling to let a single mistake bring the game to a halt, I generally use them to introduce some sort of consequence. In this case I decided to introduce something new: a very angry, green jade tainted, hippopotamus.

The thing came out of the water in the midst of the group like a force of nature. Saffron and Han quickly made their way to the shoreline while Keiko stayed to engage the thing. The fight was hard, complicated by the fact that Saffron's pistol had gotten clogged with mud (thanks to a compel on its aspect) during her fall and the fact that Keiko refused to run from a fight (thanks to a compel on her personal aspect.

The poker chips represent fate points (white), created advantages
(blue), and boosts (red) that had been spent during the fight.

In the end the group was successful in killing the thing, but now they were cold, wet, stuck on the banks of a river in the middle of nowhere, and very short on Fate points. It was going to be a very long night.

Left with little choice, the group gathered on the shoreline and began the next part of their journey into the mountains surrounding Kausao city. They needed to find Daiyu and figure out what she knew, and hoped that whatever it was would make all of this worth while.


End Session Three.

Catching up on Jadepunk (part two)

Second Session

Picking up with the #Jadepunk game where we left off, the characters decided to regroup and quickly gather what information they could before the authorities began to show up. Unfortunately there wasn't much they recognized. The enemy had been unusually skilled and well armed, each bearing a tattoo of a red tiger and green dragon arranged in a yin-yang on their left hands. They knew it had to mean something, they weren't simple thugs, but there was no time to investigate it further.

Saffron and the still-injured Keiko decided to take Mr. Nguyen and get out of there, while Han stayed behind to smooth things over with the authorities and see whet more she could gather. This proved to be fortunate, because a member of the city watch and several city guards showed up soon thereafter.

Though they didn't seem particularly interested in Han's story about what happened, they did give away some valuable information. the "thugs" the group fought were members of a private police organization run by the Hu brothers, a pair of famous (and dangerous) mercenaries. These weren't the kind of men that should be messed with, and the watch was content to let them handle their own business.

Armed with that knowledge Han left the scene and rushed off to find where the others were laying low.

Meanwhile, being the member of the resistance tasked with smuggling people out of Kausao City, Mr. Nguyen had a number of hiding holes in which the group could take refuge. The one they settle for was an old cellar for a building that had burned down years ago. When the new building was built on top of it no one realized that the cellar was there, and thus it had no access. This made it a perfect place to store refugees, since everyone assumed the store room belongs to someone else.

Today the cellar was empty save for a group of ravens that watched with interest as the group took their turn to take refuge there. Nguyen and Keiko were hurt badly, but luckily Saffron knew a bit about healing, and took the time to bandage everyone's wounds while Nguyen told them what he knew.

Mr. Nguyen had called the group together because he had what he thought might be a massive blow to several of the city's most prominent houses. A young but accomplished thief named Daiyu had stumbled across several important members of the bureaucracy gathered in some sort of clandestine meeting. Once it was over she broke into the chamber they had gathered in and stole something valuable (though Nguyen did not know exactly what). She had thought she managed to get away clean, but ever since then the Hu brothers and their gang have hunted and hounded her.

Unsure what else to do, Daiyu went to her father seeking help, who in turn came to Nguyen hoping that the rebellion could smuggle the girl out of the city. Nguyen agreed, but on the condition that she leave whatever it was that she had stolen for the rebellion's use. Once they had reached an understanding Nguyen gave the girl directions to a place in the nearby mountains where she could be safe, and he brought her father to the group so that he could tell them where to find the stolen property.

Which catches us up to what happened in the tea shop.

This left the group with two basic options: Find the girl, who was presumably safe in Nguyen's hiding place, or rescue her father from a powerful group of well armed men.

Ever the heroes, our players decided to do the latter.

Bandaged as much as possible, Keiko hit the streets to check with her informants about where the Hu brothers might be keeping the old man, while Han did much the same in more diplomatic circles. Saffron, in the mean time, decided to hit her engineering shop and put together a few surprises for the enemy.

Our map, with a few marked locations around town.

In the end all of their intel lead to the same place: One of the Hu brothers was holed up with a large number of his men in an old, abandoned warehouse and sifting plant along the river.

Their quarry identified, the group moved in, Keiko using her extraordinary mask and scoundrel skills to disguise herself as a member of the gang, and Han helping Saffron to sneak up to the building around back along the river.

When the time came to act it happened all at once. Han separated himself from Saffron to check out a skylight on the roof, so the engineer took the opportunity to throw herself into the midst of the guards watching the building's rear entrance. Unseen by all but the ever-present black birds that circled the area, and armed with only a holdout pistol and a blade, she did an admirable job of creating a distraction. Half of the guards at the rear door were down before they knew what hit them. This allowed Han to slip in through the skylight unnoticed, and gave Keiko time to get inside the front door, throw off her disguise, and call out the men there.

The group was better prepared for the fight this time, and it went much better. It was long and hard, given the straight on nature of their attack plan (thanks to some creative invocations of their aspects), but it was clear from the beginning that the group had the upper hand. Even when the Green Tiger, the famous Hu swordsman entered the fray it was too little, too late to turn the tide of battle.

That's not to say it wasn't without difficulties however. In the middle of the fight Saffron discovered some sort of Jadetech refining operation and decided to destroy it while she had its engineers cowed into a corner. Unfortunately the whole thing was highly unstable however, and the resulting explosion killed all of the engineers, and nearly took out Saffron herself.

Meanwhile, this left Keiko largely alone to fight the bulk of the warehouse guard and the Hu brother wielding an extremely sharp green jade sword. Luckily Han was able to pick up a pistol he found on a dead guard that had been stationed on the catwalk at that point and join in the fight.

In the end it wasn't without cost, but the group won the day. The Green Tiger was forced to leave behind one of his trademark daggers and flee into the river, leaving the group in control of the warehouse and the old man they had come to rescue.

End of Session Two.

Catching up on Jadepunk (part one)

I know I've fallen behind a bit over the last few weeks, so I'm just going to jump right in and get to work covering our first three sessions. To keep the length manageable I'll split it over a few posts, but I expect them all to come out within the next few days.

First, let me say that I'm very please with the direction our game is going in. I'm a pretty big fan of giving players some shared authorship over where the campaign begins and where it is heading (see my posts on Campaign Mapping and the Jadeborn Campaign Map for details), and the technique hasn't let me down yet. Between our map and some outside inspiration from books and video games I have a very solid idea of what my version of Kausao City looks like, and what the opposition is likely to do. Now it's just up to the players to throw a wrench into their plans.

Speaking of which...

The Characters

Other than myself our group consists of three players: 

• Lisa, playing Han, an aristocrat serving one of the most powerful families in Kausao City (The Qin). Once a loyal servant until his love was captured by them and sold away. She now works from within the family, using her access to their information and Jadetech to tear down the system from the inside.
• Schroeder, playing Saffron, an Aerish jadetech engineer who uses her knowledge and a series of cleverly built devices to take on the enemy in a language they understand: power and explosions.
• Willy, playing Kei (or perhaps Keiko, depending who you believe actually lives under the jadetech mask), a former gang leader who was taken off the streets by an old monk and taught to use his skills to help the people instead of being part of the corruption that's oppressing them. Kei's primary weapon is a blue jade staff that can be manipulated to grow or shrink depending upon current needs that the character inherited when the monk was captured and sent to work in a penal mine.

First Session

Unfortunately we didn't get a ton done on our first night. Between finalizing characters and discussing the setting all we really had time to do was a quick intro. In this case we picked up right where my post on the Opening Scene left off. Our players chose to be members of a small but growing resistance movement dedicated to taking down the corrupt government of the city, and working to free people who are being held or worked unreasonably.

To this end they were tasked with meeting at a tea shop in an upscale portion of the city where My. Nguyen (their contact with the resistance) would be meeting them.

Now, I should throw in here that I like to start campaigns off with a fight. I find it gets the characters active and working together right away without the awkward small talk. It also serves as a crash course on the system for newer players, as well as making sure everyone knows what the team was capable of. Tonight was no different.

As soon as our characters were (mostly) ready to play we jumped right in. The group's contact was escorting an older man into the tea shop on the floor below the group when a lit lantern was thrown through a window, spreading burning oil across the middle of the shop. Immediately following it was a group of eight armed men, looking for trouble.

The group jumped right into action, with Keiko covering her face with her mask and extending her staff to slide down into the midst of the enemy. In the mean time Saffron wet a piece of cloth with water and used it to cover her face, hoping it would protect her from the smoke, as well as protecting her identity in the crowded shop. For his part, Han knew little of combat, and couldn't afford to be seen fighting in a shop his employers frequent. Taking the safe route, he pulled at table cloths and drapings to attempt to smoother the fire.

The fight itself was a lot tougher than anyone expected. The enemy outnumbered them badly (especially with a third of the group caught up fighting a fire that I also ran as a character), and it was all the group could do to hold their ground in the tight quarters. Keiko and Saffron managed to take out 5 of the enemy, but their ally Mr. Nguyen was badly injured and pinned to the ground by an enemy spear, while Keiko was (Thanks to a concession after losing two consequences) thrown out of a window, too badly hurt to return to the fight.

In the end Saffron managed to chase away the remaining three thugs, but not before they captured and carried off the man Mr. Nguyen had brought for them to meet. A scattering of ravens took flight as the young woman chased the enemy out into the street, hoping to follow them. Unfortunately, the enemy's rear was being protected by a newcomer to the fight, a tall man wearing a duster, with his hand resting casually on the grip of a red jade revolver, a red dragon tattoo etched in jade on his hand.

The fire finally out, Han ran to the door and dragged Saffron back inside. They were too hurt to continue this fight and face a new, unknown opponent.

End of Session One.

Back again

Sorry that it's been so long since my last post. I'm not sure if I mentioned it before, but I'm transitioning to a new job and my schedule is a bit hectic. More importantly, my free time has a bit of a drain on it.

I may have said it before, but right now I'm running four RPGs. The Jadepunk game I keep talking about, an Earthdawn game that I wrote about a while back, a sci-fi based Savage Worlds game, and a 5th edition dungeons and dragons game.

Two of those (Jadepunk and Savage Worlds) started very recently, both on the same week, and without much in the way of warning. This basically means that I'm playing catch-up on both of them to varying degrees, trying to get out setting info, re-reading rules that I haven't (in the case of Savage Worlds) seen in years, and trying to keep up with the emails that my group uses to bridge between sessions.It works great to encourage down-time actions, keep players in the game, and allow some space for easy player-generated  content. Unfortunately, it's also time consuming.

That said, things are finally evening out. My settings are well set, my rules re-read is through, and I'm only a couple of weeks away from finishing training at the new hospital. My apologies for the spotty posting, but I'm working towards getting back up and running.

Thanks for your patience.

Shadowcraft: The Glamour War Kickstarter

So, I'm not one to try and sell anyone something, but right now the team that put together Jadepunk (which I obviously adore) have a kickstarter going on their newest project: Shdowcraft. I'm really looking forward to this game, so I've been encouraging everyone to at least give it a look. Kickstarter may not be your thing, I know it takes something special to make it mine, but at least go listen to their pitch. They've proven themselves with Jadepunk, both as capable designers and reliable producers, and I feel like this is a pretty safe bet.

Anywho, I'll let their work speak for itself. They do a better job of explaining it than I can, but it's Fate with nifty new mechanics, and that's pretty much an automatic win for me. Toss on top of that a cool, unique setting, and I'm in wholeheartedly.

Now I just need you to back it too, so this actually becomes a thing.

My son the DM

Last year I introduced my 11 and 9 year old kids to gaming for the first time. They've seen me run for my friends, and we play a lot of board games (including the D&D 4e games), and they were keen to try their hand at an RPG.

We started with Dungeon World. It's a simple game to jump into, and doesn't require a lot of specialized knowledge on the players' part. They adored it, particularly my son, and ask to play all the time.

Unfortunately we don't have enough time to just sit and play very often, so my son has decided to draw upon his other resources: his friends.

Yesterday he asked me if he could borrow my Dungeon World book. Today he's half way through reading it and asking me to print character sheets. I'm proud of him, he's a smart kid, but doesn't always follow through and apply himself. Having been that kid myself 30 years ago, I know how much RPGs (or any hobby that requires a certain amount of work really) can help with that.

It's kind of a weird place to be at really. I never thought I'd raise gamers. Not that I have anything against it, but I know people who actively encourage hobbies or opinions outside of the norm, and that's just not me. I sit back and try to let my kids discover their own personalities instead of pushing my hobbies and ideas on them, and yet they came to this on their own.

It's a little cool, I'm not going to lie.

Improv GMing, part 1

The other day I posted a link to the blog that I wrote about my first experience with Dungeon World to the Google community and in response I was asked about my methods for improvisational GMing. As my response got longer it seemed like it might be easier just to blog about it.

First, let me say that I don't claim to be any kind of expert on the subject. I'm absolutely certain that there are others who do it better than I do. Nor is it the only way that I GM. For me it's all situational. If I have the time to do prep, I usually do, and my games are generally better for it. Right now however I have work and school and four kids at home. That kind of time is precious, and very rare.

That said, even when I have plenty of time I've never been into super heavy prep. I think that games run best when they incorporate the ideas and plot seeds woven by the players, and too much prep makes that harder to weave in. In general my prep revolves around world building and finding ways to fit the character in to what is going on around them, to mix their ideas with my own.

All of that aside, that's not what this post is supposed to be about. It's about how I improv without any prep in general, what techniques I used in my Dungeon World one-shot in particular, and what kind of tools the game gave me that I used to generate setting in play specifically.

Let's start with general tips.

The very first thing I like to know about a game is: Who is the bad guy, what do they want, and what will they do to get it. I ask myself these three questions first any time I start thinking about a game, regardless of how much prep time I have. If I have those three questions answered, I have what I need to play. From here, I simply play the bad guy like my PCs might run their characters. They don't get screen time of course, but I work from the assumption the bad guys are going to get what they want unless the PCs intervene, and then rely on the players to come up with a plan for how they intend to spoil things. Once that happens the bad guy reacts to the new circumstances, and the cycle begins anew until the PCs eventually win. That's very simplified of course, but it works very well.

Of course, for that to help you already need to have some sort of inspiration.

And by inspiration I mean, of course, a willingness to steal good ideas. Bonus points for stealing them from the players, but any source of media will do. In my actual play I mentioned that the government was called the Federation, that it had outlawed magic, and implied that it would be a major long-term threat within the setting. Every bit of that was ripped whole cloth out of the Heritage of Shannara series by Terry Brooks, which I am in the process of re-reading. I needed a villain, and it was what came into my mind so I grabbed it. You don't have to be that obvious and direct, but there's no rule saying you can't be. A long time ago I ran a two year campaign of DnD 2nd edition where the players had to gather pieces of a mysterious artifact that would expel the demons who had been invading their world that was inspired by a cartoon called The Pirates of Darkwater and no one ever noticed. The key is to make a choice quickly, move on, and be willing to adjust it later as needed. As long as the game keeps moving few people are going to second guess where your inspiration comes from so long as you don't use obviously stolen names.

As for making choices quickly and moving on, that can be the real hard part. For that I recommend that you find some excuse to give yourself a breather when you need it. Time only passes when everyone is sitting there staring at you, waiting for you to say something. Very few groups need much of an excuse to take a short break, get a drink, and tell a few bad jokes, and so long as you're not in 'game time', no one even notices if 5 or 10 minutes pass. Give yourself what time you need, move away from the table and out of range of whatever questions people might be asking. Allow yourself a quiet moment to just think without being responsible for anyone else's entertainment. I like to grab a drink and step outside for a little fresh air, but sometimes it's easier to make a quick trip to the bathroom if you don't want anyone following you or trying to talk to you (which you really don't if you need to think). Worst case you can always just tell them why you need a second and excuse yourself. Players get it that you sometimes need to process. The real key here is to do it sooner rather than later. Don't wait until you're stumped or you run the risk of creative block from frustration. Take a break right after characters are all together or right after the initial action to put at least the outline of what you think is going to happen together in your mind.

Next, think of a couple of generic openings. The kind of things you see in movies that aren't really related to the story at hand, but introduce the protagonist. James Bond movies are great at this. A lot of times the movies start at the end of his last assignment, just to show off what a badass he is. Personally I like to start with action. This serves a huge number of functions: It helps the group to learn the system, introduces all of the characters, let's them stat to gel as a team from the very beginning, and shows you as the GM how they interact with one another. Also, it buys you time. For most systems an opening combat is low enough impact that you can start to link character histories, and think about who that bad guy should be. Do they look like they are enjoying beating these guys up? Are they making up good reasons why they're in this fight? Ask them. If they are, then maybe these bad guys are related to the larger plot. If they're not, move on to something that hooks them better and just treat this one as a warm up.

Speaking of asking them, don't try and do it all yourself. Got a detail you don't know or care about? Ask someone. I recommend a single player, rather than the group at large. Point to somebody and say "Why are these guys trying to kill you?" This is not a time for discussion. If they hesitate, or don't seem to have something quickly, point to someone else. If it's weak, have another player expand on it. "We stole something from them," should be followed up with: "What did you steal, and why?" Spread it around the table though, the game shouldn't be any one player's story, not even your own. If it is a player asking a question ("Does the Federation have somewhere they could keep a prisoner in town?") let them answer it themselves ("I don't know, you tell me."). They're obviously the ones most interested in the answer.

Finally, keep notes. I'm all about running games with little or no prep beforehand, but you really need to write things down afterwards. It doesn't have to be anything big or extensive, but at least enough to give you an idea of what happened and any important names that you should be remembering. It's ok to come up with something on the fly and just throw it out there, but sooner or later it needs to be integrated into the overall plot or explained away. Not every random encounter with a goblin horde needs to become a major storyline, but by explaining it later in a way that makes sense ("Hey, did you hear that someone took out those goblins that have been raiding the King's Highway? Seems like they finally messed with the wrong group, maybe trade will start flowing again.") adds to the sense that the world is lived in, that what the players do matters, and ties up loose ends. For me personally I think this is what makes playing improv games work in the long term. Their biggest weakness is that they can feel random, like a monster-of-the-week. By taking a few minutes after the game is over to remember important things and integrate them in you r mind you can avoid the worst of that.

Ok, I promised to get into some specifics, but it's getting late and this has gotten really long. I'll have to wrap up how all of this fits into Dungeon World tomorrow. 

Dungeon World

I ran my first game of Dungeon World last Saturday night. Given that I was suffering from food poisoning and had to eventually kick everyone out mid-dungeon it went relatively well. I made a few bad choices in retrospect, and I'm not entirely certain that my players quite got how important it is to be proactive, but it was fun.

I hadn't actually planned on running it at all. I usually run my fantasy themed Fate game for this group, but one player wasn't going to make it at all, and another was several hours late, so it seemed like a good chance to try something new.

Since I didn't have anything prepped I just started with a basic situation. The players were returning from a night in the inn. From there I decided to roll with whatever happened. I was hoping that, by not actually starting in a dungeon, I'd have time along the way to come up with any details that needed to be filled in.

As the group passed through an alleyway the paladin decided to search for evil, so of course evil men were waiting in the shadows. He yelled to his friends that evil was about and rushed toward one of the ambushers, who promptly let fly an arrow that bounced harmlessly off the paladin's shield. The thief took the opportunity of the distraction to slip off into the shadows, and the ranger leapt to the side to avoid a second arrow, but a bad roll sent him into a stack of crates that he managed to knock over leaving him sprawled on the ground. After that the rest of the enemy was upon them, grappling with the warrior types and bearing them down where their daggers and close weapons would be more effective.

Luckily for the party this is when the thief decided to step in. Coming out of the shadows behind the enemy she ran two of them through before they knew what hit them. That, and a little intimidation on the paladin's part, was enough to send a third guy running and cause the fourth to surrender.

The thief started after the fleeing brigand, deciding to discern reality in hopes of seeing who they were, but one bad roll and an unwelcome truth later she discovered that they weren't thieves at all, but agents of the Federation government wearing cloaks to disguise their uniforms.

This of course lead to the paladin parleying with the prisoner, offering him freedom in exchange for information about who they were and why they were ambushing the PCs. The guard agreed, and told them they had been following a bard who had been seen slipping something into the possession of the PCs while they were carousing in the inn. The paladin claimed to know nothing of this, but after finding that his belt pouch had been torn during the fighting the alley was searched and a lumpy clay statue was found among the rubble. Realizing that there was no way the guard would believe that the two dead agents were all a misunderstanding (and given that they had detected as evil to the paladin) the group took the opportunity to flee into the night, leaving the small town behind and making a camp in the nearby forest.

At this point there was a lot of discussion about what should be done, and the thief took out the statue to examine it. Noticing that the clay was covered in a thin layer of paint and cracked from the fighting, she decided to break it open and found a second, small golden statue inside along with a map written on which was "The goddess Theodonus holds the key in her hands".

Not sure of what this was supposed to mean, the group decided they needed to find the bard that slipped them the statue. Since the guard had been watching her it seemed likely that she was in custody by now, and thus there was only one obvious choice: prison break, something the ranger agreed with whole heartedly since it played directly into his alignment.

The group snuck back into town where the militia was being called up to search for them, and took advantage of the confusion to make their way to the small stockade at the outskirts. There they found the agent they had let live and a handful of citizen militia guarding the bard and another prisoner. The ranger let fly an arrow that stunned the agent and the paladin stepped in and commanded the militia to flee, thus leaving the thief free to open the cells and let loose the prisoners.

At this point our late player joined us, which was interesting, because she hadn't heard any of our schpiel about how to make a character or play, but we handed her a bard sheet and told her to get to work.

One Spout Lore later she was telling the group that the goddess Theodonus was the goddess of magic and knowledge, outlawed after the last war when magic had been turned against the people to terrible effect. The map points to the last of her temples, hidden underground to protect it against the Federation.

It turned out that the other prisoner was being held as a spy for the rebels who were working  against the corruption of the Federation as well. There was something dark at the heart of the nation, and a government that would employ evil men to do its bidding was not one to be trusted.

Seeing his point the group decides there was naught to do but check out the temple and see what there is to see, so they set off into the wilderness, and three days later they arrived.

Here the bard told the group that the hidden temple had been built by a necromancer at the end of the Federation's invasion of the area as a place to store spellbooks and magic that might be useful in a future attempt at regaining the land's freedom.

Intrigued by the possibility that they might find something inside that could aid them in their attempt to put down the oppressive Federation the group prepared to enter, first sending the thief to check the door for traps while the bard searched the area nearby for clues.

The thief did indeed find a rather ingenious crushing trap on the door that would quickly lower a rock shelf down upon anyone attempting to bypass the lock. She also found  the keyhole, which looked to be perfectly shaped to accept the golden statue that the bard had slipped them.

The bard, for her part, found something as well. It was the long dead body of some previous adventurer that looked like it had stumbled from the cave and taken shelter in the trees, where he had died. What was intriguing about it was that he hadn't died from the crushing trap they found, but some sort of stab wound that he must have suffered inside.

After some discussion it was deemed worth the risk to continue. The thief slipped the statue into the keyhole where it immediately began to sink out of sight, while the stone door of the temple rose into the hillside. Noting that it would only remain open for a little while the group used a piton to hold it open and moved inside only to find themselves in some sort of large receiving chamber strewn with the bones of several men.

Almost immediately the bones began to move and join themselves into the forms of skeletal warriors. The paladin threw himself into the battle, with the ranger moving to his side to help. The thief used the cover to push to the far side of the room and begin to search the door there for traps and unlock it. The bard meanwhile wracked her brain for what little she knew about these creatures, but all she could come up with was the fact that they were difficult to kill, and could reform themselves if enough bones were still around.

Looking at the piles of bones around them they decided the fight might be a lost cause. As soon as the thief had the door open everyone rushed out of the room.  Everyone, that is, except the paladin who had gotten himself cut off from the others in the fighting. Thinking quickly, the bard wrapped a rope around herself, tossed the other end to the remaining members of the party and waded in among the dead after him. Both were injured in the attempt, but the others managed to pull them free and slam closed the door, placing its bulk and sturdy locks between them and the skeletons.

Unfortunately, that's as far as we got. I was pretty ill by this point, and had to send everyone home. We did have a fun time though, and got a fairly good run at the game. I was especially impressed at the fact that the bard's player was able to just pick up a sheet, build a character, and jump right into play even though she had never even heard of the game before, and missed our brief "how to play" discussion at the beginning.

I have a lot of thoughts about Dungeon World, and I'm bummed that I can't say exactly when we will play again. That'll have to wait for a future post however, this has gone fairly long already.