Lots of little things in the last few days. On Thursday night we had a big windstorm in the Seattle area, that knocked out the power in many households — including ours. We were lucky, as we got it back the next evening, but a friend of mine was still without power yesterday (Monday). Thursday night was also the night we had our office Holiday party.
Lots of shopping, wrapping, sending cards, etc. in the last few days.
On Saturday, I ran episode 2.6 of my ongoing Top 10 campaign. It went well, despite the lack of preparation (sheepish look). I had a thread of plot going: the team was working on a few cases, most prominently following up on the death of a former nazi war criminal who had been a big player in the local drug market; and investigating a series of thefts of powers rings, arcane items and registered devices.The players had chosen to look for the underground lair that the old nazis were known to have built under the city of Neopolis. I hap an idea what NPCs these plots involved, and what they were doing in the mean time, but I really didn’t care which way the PCs came at the story; I had no interest in making them roll to find a specific secret passage or what have you. I thought this group might be interested in bringing in more story gaming and more shared control. I told the group I’d like to try this, and explained they could create the story by deciding what would make for the coolest scenes and adventure.
They had already met with an old science hero who had sketched a map of the tunnels for them; they new some entrances were in the sewers, others were under buildings that had been demolished and rebuilt, etc. What would make the story fun for them — would it be to discover the old nazis’ connections to a shiny new hi-tech corporation? A grungy gang in an old warehouse? Crocodile-men in the sewers? They immediately took to this. They decided that the investigation should lead to the Bavarian Wagnerian Church and its Albert Speer-inspired temple. They created decoy locations, hidden caches, etc.
A fun bit was a player creating complications for his own character. He plays a noir detective somewhat inspired by The Spectre, Johnny Mortis. Mortis is very hard to hurt but has essentially no offensive capabilities, has some post-cognition abilities, and can travel astrally. Mortis, in astral/ghostly form, was scaring off a bunch of skinheads who had come to the priest’s rescue. At the end of the fight, Mortis’s slumped body had disappeared in the scuffle. I only intended a bit of annoyance and slowing him down, probably giving the character some clues at the same time. But the player took to this. The rules say that he can only get about 1,000 feet away from his body, but do not specify what happens. I was expecting that he would simply decide that his spirit snapped back to the body and he’d wake up. But the player decided that his character was not held together very well, and that getting away further than 1,000 feet meant he couldn’t find his body anymore. He suggested that perhaps someone or something else might even take control of the body, use his connections and identity, and create a mess for Johnny Mortis!
Then on Sunday, I helped Edmund finish preparing for his Christmas game. He had decided to run Crisis on the Island of Forgotten Toys!, using The Zorcerer of Zo. At his request, I drew the characters’ portrait and I wrapped the toys that served as player characters. Then he ran the game last night at our local gaming club. Read the results on our RPG.net Actual Play thread!
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