codrus

This may move off this to my web page, assuming I decide to set up a separate SOTC page, but for the moment, this is the most convenient place to post it. Today was the opening session of the Spirit of the Century game. We still had an hour or so of finishing up some character bits (mostly linking to other people's backgrounds, a useful but occasionally time consuming process), but after that it was to the islands we went!

I didn't take detailed notes of when aspects were used, but I'll mention the ones I do remember.

Apologies to the other players, all name spelling errors are mine).



Dr. Chance receives a communique that one of his labs is having problems. The lab is doing research into gas extraction from volcanos on a small island in the China Seas. Recently, they've had a number of robberies against the lab, one of the scientists (Dr. Solenkin, a geologist) is missing, and the people on the island are getting upset with the lab. How can he refuse?

Dr. Chance decides that the best way to get some information is probably for the crew to go in under disguises. Wa Ping, a skilled circus acrobat, inspires him with the idea of showing the four of them off as a group of entertainers. Taking inspiration from her custumes and such, the group quickly fabricates a set of acts:

LeClerk: The Lion of France, with his precision knife throwing technique
Blake: The Great Mysterio, whose powers of the mind will astound you.
Wa Ping: The famed acrobat
Chance: Pryotechnics.

(Some of the costuming and such was backfilled in using Doc's Prepared Mind Aspect...clearly if we'd decided to go in with the circus for cover, he'd have had some time to fabricate up fireworks and costumes on the multi-day trip to get here).

We show up on the island in a boat, having left the Djinni hidden miles off the coast. Blake notices that a number of the people seemed not only fearful, but outright angry at us. The Mayor, Ta Nan, shows up on the docks after Wa Ping has already put on a small circus performance to inspire/distract the crowd. Black and Chance fake being unable to speak Mandarin, while Wa Ping convinces the mayor that a show might help make his villagers happy. She also says, in secret, that she's here to help the village against the evil Lab on the island. We set up at the local establishments, and go off in our various directions.

Wa Ping practicses where she can be seen. She's approached by a small boy who asks if she's there to help find his uncle. She's introduced to the boy's mother, who tells her that her brother worked as a laborer at the "strange place" (which appears to be what everyone calls the local Cromarty lab). He disappeared 3 days ago, but was seen in the local forest 2 days ago.

Blake wanders around town, sensing something is very much not right about this place. There's a hint of corruption, of something that wants to spread this corruption...not natural. (Mysteries roll, Awareness roll, Psychic)

LeClerk and Chance wander around. LeClerk notices the criminal signs for at least one smuggler gang that he knows of. The two of them discover signs of heavy equipment being dragged from the water up into the city. Their wandering takes them into the seedier side of down (Aspect: Wrong Side of the Tracks was invoked), where they are accosted by 5 drunkards, who call us dirty foreigners. Two of them twitch in sudden, unexpected rage; there's something very not right about it.

LeClerk pulls a knife and threatens the men...two of the unaffected ones back down. Dr. Chance, showing unexpectedly dirty fighting, steps in and deals a low blow to one of the two angry men, followed by two more dirty moves, knocking all three to the ground. ( I rolled a +4 on my Fists die roll).

(technically, I think by the rules they were two different groups of minions, so I shouldn't have been able to carry over into the second group, but I took it! *grin*)

He grabs the guy he dealt the low blow to and slams him up against a wall, trying to figure out what exactly is wrong with the guy. (Science roll). He decides it isn't alcohol, but the pasty, sickly pallor of the guy fades as he looks. Whatever it was, it certainly was unusual. Thus far, Chance hasn't come up with any other explanation other than some combination of volcanic gasses having some sort of hallucigenic effect.

The group meets to share information and prepare for the evening's performance.

The group puts on a rowsing show (lots and lots of die rolls here) starting with LeClerk, who appears in a puff of smoke in the middle of the crowd. After his knife throwing act, he disappears, sneaking into the Mayor's office to look around.

Mysterio's act has him "learning" Mandarin from the villagers and making a few perform amusing antics under hypnosis. Wa Ping and the Doctor have equally superb results. The final result of our acts is that Wa Ping's performance as the ringleader/MC places a "The Town Adores Us/The Crowd loves Us" Aspect on the scene.

Meanwhile, back in the office, find a ledger, and a description of an attack on the lab by "wild men from the forest". He hears someone else sneaking into the lab, and he fades into the shadows. A blond man moves over to the desk, and takes something from a secret compartment in the desk drawer. LeClerk pulls his knife and uses the brass knuckles on it to knock the guy unconscious. (In game play, this was talked about as a consequence, afterwards it was pretty much that this guy could only take 1 consequence before he was out. I suggested it might also have been a consession).

LeClerk discovers that the man had taken two vials from the Mayor's desk, and he takes both the vials and the man's wallet. The man is a Russian. He leaves the unconscious man and leaves the building. He spreads rumors in the crowd that someone was seen sneaking into the Major's house.

After the performance, the group goes to the mayor, where Wa Ping wows him (okay Rapport roll, plus the free Tag of the "The People Love us", plus a tag of her "I'm Chinese" aspect). We head back to his villa, where he's overheard muttering to someone about removing the body from his study. We're set up in a small sitting room. When he shows up, the Mayor says the Lab was involved in selling equipment to the Russians, and that all the strange behavior started with at/with the lab a few days ago. Dr. Chance, hearing about the labs involvement and apparent doubledealing behind his back, can't take it any more.

After a moment of continuing to hide his Mandarin skills, he finally decides it is time to take over the delicate negotiations. (Dean compelled my Cromarty Labs aspect). In fluid Mandarin, he speaks of the mayor as "Honored Magistrate" and states his ownership of the lab and his desire to come here and set things right. Blah blah, flowery speech, blah blah. (Rapport roll, bumped to great by tagging the "The People Love Us"). The Mayor is clearly surprised, but moved by knowledge of the proper courtesies, but before he can speak, we hear cries nearby!

To Be Continued....

So far, so good! :)

We only had a couple of very small combats, neither lasted long enough to see how things play in a larger setting. Mooks without a hero to prop them up seemed like chumps. Otherwise, we dipped our toes into aspects and a few other bits of play. I really like how aspects play out.

Some of the session was really trying to get people into the nuances of How Things Work. e.g., it wasn't just about rolling well on all our acts, it was about establishing an Aspect that we could use to assist us later. Learning what skills are useful for what and how to combine skills was the key here. All things you'd expect when learning a new system, but SOTC definitely has some novelties to it that stretch the typical roleplaying experience.

We didn't really use Spin during the session, although Dean said after the fact that he was sort of factoring it into our various performances. The concept of Spin is: If I roll really well on a roll I make, I can transfer a +1 to the next person in line to go. I've decided that while I like the idea they were shooting for, it is a pain in the ass to remember, and I'd just rather that sort of thing be temporary aspects.

I didn't keep a complete tally of fate points, but I think all of us are sitting around 8 fate points each, with most of having spent 3 to 4 points and received 1 or 2. All in all, I think that's a pretty reasonable rate. As always with hero points, there's a burning desire to never fail a die roll and spend the fate points to avoid it, but at least in my case, I resisted that on at least two bad die rolls I made. (e.g. during the other performances, I was supposed to be listening to the Mayor who might talk freely in front of the Loud American -- but I rolled a -4 (-3 total) on my Alertness check....so clearly I was engrossed in everyone else's performances).

Post-game, we took 15 minutes and ran a VERY quick improvised fight just to see a bit more of the system. It was too fast to make real determinations. I will say that having props for characters and "zones" is essential. Dean rapid-fired off a description of his "arena" and we call collectively said "HUH?". Minis and some simple sheets of paper were enough to clarify it.

Finishing back at Aspects again, I find myself admiring and inspired by the elegance of the concept. I mean, jumping out of this specific setting, two concepts I came up with for aspects:

Star Wars: You Will Never Find a More Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy -- tag for just about anything seedy. :)

The Matrix: Clearly the matrix has its own set of rules, but at least some of that could be similated with matrix-y aspects. Of course, I can spend the fate points to boost my athletics roll...I'm in The Matrix.

And for a third, Dean asked me to pick a few aspect ideas for the Djinni, and one, inspired by the Hunt for Red October: Most things in here don't react well to bullets.

It isn't too hard, after playing for a bit, to "hear the brackets" around certain phrases, and just assume, oh, there's an aspect there I can tag.