Returning to Apocalypse World

This coming weekend I'll be returning to one of the most challenging and unusual RPG's I've had the pleasure of playing, Vincent D Baker's "Apocalypse World". This time round the game will be run by one of my regular gaming colleagues, +Tony Reyes .

Last time he played a "Battlebabe", a fighter who is also a charmer, and was instrumental in some of the trickier storylines. The "Master of Ceremonies" (the GM) last time we played was +Michael Bay , who will be a player in this game. He's assuming the role of "Hardholder", the character who runs the town in which our campaign is based. I played that role last time and it was definitely a challenge, though it did result in probably my most memorable character. The rest of the group are people I haven't played alongside before.

The big challenge for me,as always, is what character should I play? A few appeal and while I want to try something different, there are aspects of the game that I'm drawn to. The "psychic maelstrom" for instance, is a wonderful concept...that "something" lingering over us all that can be tapped into for weird and bizarre inspiration. A few characters are more tied to that the others, such as the "Brainer", the "Hocus" and the "Savvyhead".

I also like idea of taking one of the more overtly violent characters and doing something more nuanced with them. Taking the "Gunlugger" for example and giving him some sort of personal code that he must follow, like a futuristic Bushido. Or the "Faceless", a brutally violent character who has a totally different personality when unmasked.

There are also characters tailored to the social side of the game. The "Skinner" looks fantastic, totally captivates an audience and can be the glue between the other characters. The "Maestro D" runs a social establishment. I was very tempted by this one, the idea of someone running an Amsterdam-style coffee shop where anyone can go to escape the real world for a few hours. That would heavily shape the focus of the game though and doesn't always work.

It looks like I'll try my hand at the "Hocus". This character taps into the weird side of life and at a glance seems like a Manson-like cult leader. I have my own ideas for it though that I haven't seen in play before, more along the lines of Gaius Baltar from Battlestar Galactica. I'm thinking less hippy, more an intellectual with a compelling (if strange) vision and taste for hedonism. I have a feeling this is going to be just as good as last time.

Delta Green Pt 4 - The Clinic

The latest Delta Green session had the players visit a small fictional town in Nevada, in an adventure that brought them closer to "Majestic 12", the main rival faction in this setting.Rather than run parallel adventures like last time, this one had half of the group join the main mission halfway through, but initially playing NPCs.

The basic story had former Agent "Andrea", a leader of Delta Green who had gone into hiding, re-emerging in a clinic in Nevada. She had been sent there by Agent Alphonse and contacted a player character, "Selene", who she had established a connection with in the previous game. Three players, including and led by Selene, faked clinic admission documents to get inside as patients. The other four players were waiting in the wings for further instruction.

I had created basic character outlines for five NPC patients who were already in the clinic, and these were randomly assigned to the four players. One of them was a Majestic 12 insider, another was a resurrected former player character from another time, a nod to the Nathaniel Bishop storyline. This worked great and all the players really embraced the roles.

Behind all this was the story of what was really going on. The town itself was a facade, home to an observatory run by the Mi-Go and a place for MJ-12 to try psychological experiments and conversion programs on Delta Green agents. I used a plot device from the "Music of the Spheres" scenario, so at certain moments the observatory would contact an Outer God, resulting in random psychological reactions from anyone in the town. Some of the reactions where violent, which triggered the usual destructive path established in this campaign.

With the clinic destroyed and all but one of the NPCs dead, the group quickly set about using explosives to destroy the town and observatory. While no-one went to inside to discover the story secrets, one character experienced a temporary mind swap with the sole inhabitant of the observatory..a Mi-Go. This obviously had big implications for his sanity.

So four chapters in and yet another small town destroyed. I might jump ahead and make the next chapter the final one, as I feel it's time to tie up all the threads and ramp up the scale. This has definitely been fun so far with plenty of insanity,paranoia and plot twists.

Vampire - Blood and Smoke

As followers of this blog will know from previous posts, one of my plans is to run a "World of Darkness" game. Having compared the 20th anniversary edition of "Vampire:The Masquerade" to "Vampire:The Requiem", "Masquerade" was the one I settled on, though it was a tough call. Now everything's changed with the brand new version of "Requiem", "Vampire:Blood and Smoke" due out this summer.

I have been following the developer blogs over at White Wolf and have downloaded the playtest documents. The main thing that has struck me is the redesign of the disciplines, the special powers that vampires have based upon their clan.I'd been reading the guidelines of the disciplines in "Masquerade" and after numerous readings, still wasn't blown away by what the disciplines do, and in some cases I was downright confused. The new versions are crystal clear. I can describe and explain each of them off the top of my head, which is the level of comfort I prefer to have in a game like this.The story potential from each is immense too.

"Auspex", for example, used to be about extra-sensory perception. Now a lot of those powers (seeing in the dark, smelling prey) are common to all vampires. Auspex is now about secrets, much in line with the clan that it's associated with, the Mekhet. At the most basic level, it allows the player to ask the GM questions about a situation to shed light on what's really going on. "Protean", which used to be more along the lines of animal shapeshifting, is now an emphasis on the vampire becoming less human and more of a beast. At the highest level the vampire can transform into mist!

While the clans appear to be the same as those in Requiem (Daeva, Mekhet,Ventrue,Gangrel and Nosferatu), the covenants could be changing. There is a new villain, the Strix, who prey on vampires. They first appeared in the "Requiem for Rome" setting and will be fun to use. The predatory nature of the vampires themselves has led to new mechanics being introduced.

Overall, everything I've read simply makes more sense to me.There also seems to be more of an open acknowledgement that many players aren't looking to play vampires for the angst, they expect vampires to be cool and enjoyable to play as well, possibly an influence from recent shows like "True Blood".

There will be a quickstart version of the game released in select stores on "Free RPG Day', June 15th, and it'll be published online soon after. This will definitely be my next game to run, probably starting in August this year, and I'm already looking forward to it.

Dungeon World - New Beginnings

Yesterday was a new chapter in the Dungeon World campaign being run by Michael Bay, the name of the campaign is "Screams In The Darkness". It was particularly fitting for this episode! Some of the characters had died in the last session so this had something old and something new.

The biggest change was realigning the group to being mercenaries in a wonderfully lawless town named "Gondgul". It has various influences, including Dwarven, Pharazonic (Egyptian) and numerous others. In the absence of government, the city is run by rival mercenary "expeditionary companies", wizards and religious orders.

Three characters returned from previous sessions, the Shaman, Thief and Fighter. The new characters were a Paladin, a Barbarian and my character, a Mage. I've never played a Mage or Wizard in a fantasy game before, I've tended to play front line law and order characters so this was a great chance to try something different.

I chose a magical path known as "The Mask". It's really all about illusions. My character can solve general problems magically which aren't related to his school, but that comes with a penalty. When he uses magic aligned with his path (misleading others,avoiding notice,cunning plans) he gets major bonuses. On the other hand, there are heavy restrictions....he can never use magic for brute force or to break facades. This was great because it forced me to play a style which was non-confrontational.

The game itself was excellent, a security operation to protect a warehouse, leading to the classic trek through underground sewers and ruins. I had a succession of spectacular failures in my attempts at spell casting, one which left us in complete darkness and having to abandon the mission! The dynamic within the group was fun as always,with a real sense of mischief from the various roguish characters. Michael did a nice touch in giving each character their own plot threads here and there.

The session ended with a revelation that there were Dwarven ruins beneath the city,plenty of exploration ahead of us.After levelling up, I added a new magical path for my character, "The Twilight",giving him the ability to manipulate shadows.The penalty? He can never create light or fire, very apt after the failures this time around. It was a great session with a more gritty feel this time around.

Monster Of The Week RPG

I recently purchased the "Monster Of The Week" tabletop RPG by Michael Sands. It uses Vincent Bakers "Apocalypse World" rules, along the same lines as other adaptations such as "Dungeon World" and "Monsterhearts".

I've played "Apocalypse World" and "Dungeon World", both run by Michael Bay. I like the simplicity of the system, just 2D6 rolled to determined success and no opposing rolls needed from the GM. Also the emphasis on bonds and history between the player characters adds a nice layer and encourages the making and breaking of relationships.

"Monster Of The Week" takes the system and applies it to a setting that would be familiar to fans of shows like "Buffy" and "Supernatural". From a game perspective, this game also resonates with me as a "Call of Cthulhu" and "Unknown Armies" GM...both are cited as influences on the game, and as in CoC the GM is referred to as a "Keeper". Essentially you have a group that investigates a supernatural event, identifies the monster behind it, finds its weakness and kills it.

The game starts with a basic setting up of the theme for the group, the reason for them to be together. They could be a slayer like Buffy with the rest of the group forming the entourage, or perhaps they're a family on the road, taking the fight to the monsters. Once that's established, players choose a "playbook", a character sheet. Each character has a set of moves, things that they,and only they, can do. If I were to play this I'd have a real tough time choosing which to be, as they all have so much appeal. There's the "Chosen", basically a Buffy kind of character. There's the "Wronged", like Dean on "Supernatural". Throw in the Expert, Flake (conspiracy theorist),Mundane,Professional and several others, and you have the makings of some great stories. One player can even be a monster that joins the group.

I really like the advice for running stories and campaigns in this,and what struck me was how closely the guidelines given map to my own process of running and preparing games. It's taken me two years to find my own style, and it's interesting to see someone else from a "Cthulhu" background end up in the same place! The advice is really clear and well articulated. I recommend getting this for the advice alone.

"Delta Green" is set to finish after three more sessions and then I'm on to "Vampire:The Masquerade". "Monster Of The Week" is my top contender to run after that, or perhaps alongside it. I think it'll be great fun  to run.

Delta Green Pt 3 - Cleanups and Conspiracies

The third part of my Call of Cthulhu "Delta Green" campaign took place yesterday and was a departure from previous games, featuring some elements I'd never tried before.

The group consisted of eight players, so my thoughts in advance were to break the group into two or three smaller ones. I specialize in this anyway and enjoy running a game in parallel threads, taking full advantage of the group being divided. It also means that each player gets a piece of the pie in terms of game time, rather than being sidelined by the group as whole.

Instead I did something I've never done before. I split the session into two separate missions, completely unrelated to each other but tied to previous sessions. The beauty of this was that I could make plot revelations in one mission that had importance to the characters in the other mission. The players of course would all realize this, but the characters can't acknowledge what they don't know!

Also, the missions themselves where very basic "one room" stories. One was about destroying evidence that had been salvaged from the previous game, the evidence was being mailed to a college professor, later revealed to be one of the leaders of Delta Green. The other was a cleanup mission at the woodland cabin of former Agent Alphonse, a character who'd died in the "Aklo" game.

I sent a group of NPCs to the cabin game and this is where the conspiracy ramped up. They claimed to be members of Delta Green, that the organization had been compromised at the highest level...and that "S" Cell was really part of Majestic 12, the arch rivals of Delta Green. "S" Cell of course, consists of the player characters in the other mission! Characters turned on each other,lied to each other, even shot each other. Lots of twists and turns played out in mass confusion. Nobody knew who they were really working for anymore...though the big revelation at the end was that the players are legitimately members of Delta Green. The cell sent to the woods was from Majestic 12...though there are still big questions about who really runs Delta Green and to what level it has been compromised.

All in all this was exactly what I hoped it would be. An intense, confusing session that left everyone feeling really uneasy at the end, setting the next three sessions up perfectly. I'll be bringing more horror back into the next one and I'm delighted with how this format works. Some of the players were even discussing creating a new Delta Green..."Delta Greener"! Lots of fun and good preparation for other future games that I have planned, such as "Vampire:The Masquerade" and "Monster Of The Week".

International Tabletop Day

Yesterday was International Tabletop Day, an event promoted heavily across social media (notably Twitter and Tumbler) by celebrities such as Whil Wheaton and Felicia Day. Despite battling an especially nasty chest  ailment I decided to attend the event at Gigabites Cafe in Marietta,GA.

I had planned to maybe play a game that was on offer, like "Fiasco", or run something myself. Given how bad I felt, I thought I'd play it safe and take along a fun scenario that I could knock out in a few hours and knew inside out. My choice was an old favorite, "Jailbreak", a scenario by Greg Stolze for the "Unknown Armies" RPG. I've run this at Gigabites before and also at Dragon*Con 2012.

A few gamers who I consistently play alongside or run games for where there when I showed up, none of whom had played this before.I spent thirty minutes describing the system, setting and character sheets, then we played. The whole thing took maybe two hours, consistent with the previous runs that I've done.

The scenario is simple. A group of convicts escape from prison during a riot. They hijack a car which runs out of fuel. It's a stormy night, so the prisoners take their hostages to the nearest building, a remote farmhouse. The game plays out over the course of that evening. The players can choose to play a convict, a hostage (including a prison officer) or an inhabitant of the farmhouse. The convicts want to avoid detection, the hostages want to be freed, and the farm owners want their "guests" gone.

The characters also have secrets and personal triggers that have been set up in such a way that they're bound to conflict with each other in the situation.Having run this with three different groups, everybody really understands the characters, interpersonal dynamics and system with little explanation. That shows how well this was designed.

I don't like to publish major spoilers but a minor one is fine in this case. What turns the scenario on its head is that one of the characters is an occultist. Nobody is told this up front as I like the possibility of a player choosing that character without knowing the secret...until they get the sheet! It's also possible for that character to be an NPC if not chosen. There is a real sense of uneasiness in this scenario and it's been a success every time  I've ran it. I'm glad I took part in the event and it's great to see the hobby get so much recognition.