Post by culwych on Nov 11, 2015 0:30:13 GMT
Introduction
Good evening all and I hope you are all well.
Our gaming group has been running an eleven player game of Infected (yup 10 players lol) with the idea of beta testing the rules and also exploring the game world and feeding back to the team both the strengths and weaknesses we identified in the game mechanics/story.
As you can imagine 10 players is a handful so I recruited my colleague and experienced GM Adam and we decided to co-GM the game and then with him developed a storyline which I am going to try to share with you (though forgive me my creative writing skills are somewhat limited in both skill and confidence) to give the Infected Team and hopefully yourselves an idea of what we are getting up to and how it is working. Our club which is called the Essex Legion, in Hornchurch, Essex, UK had no shortage of volunteers to sign up so here's a big up to GM Adam, Bradley"Ravos", Delano"Lamo", James"Bad Arse", James "Evil Steve", Paul"the Gentleman", Andy "Mechboy" , Andy "Magic", Louis "Pretty Boy", Grant "the Viking" and Ben "Tyranid", thanks guys for helping out!
Quick Backstory: Surviving the Bon Adventure
The Bon Adventure cruise ship bustling with crew and passengers was at sea when the virus went live and was told by port authorities to stay away until the infection was under control. The Captain, obeying the instructions continued to sail in International waters and waited until the all clear was sounded (though it never came). 18 months later, the cruise ship is a shadow of it's former self. A combination of infection, suicide, mutiny and desertion of the desperate have seen the population of the ship tumble. Compounded to this yesterday the Captain died of heart failure prompting what remained of his loyal crew to take to the life boats and leaving the remaining passengers behind. To make matters worse the ship is 100 hours from the coast of Essex, England and is drifting towards shore as it's engines have for the past two days been silent due to some sort of engineering problem. Now the ship drifts with no engine, no crew and only one remaining life raft for five people. You are one of those left on the ship, what will you do to survive?
This is the opening briefing I sent to the players and asked them to send me their ideas for characters so I could create them and have them ready. After 24 hours I had ten volunteers who each had sent me a character to stat up whilst supplying me with their background stories. At this point I had the plot line in place which generally was do you decide to try to save the ship, get the engines running and attempt to beach it on a sandy shoreline or do you fight amongst yourselves to be one of the five on the life raft. As I wanted an open game with little GM interference I was interested in seeing what choices they made. Of a second note I also decided to link each character to another, adding a secret sub plot into each to encourage player tension, conflict and skull duggery between them and as I would be doing this I would need a second GM, someone with experience and skills who would lead the main story whilst I sat back and dealt with the secret player stuff going on behind the scenes. Hence Adam stepped up to the mark and offered to be my Co-GM and we started from there.
Player Characters
Here is a shortened list of the characters, I can't remember their names off hand but I'll it will give you an idea of their story and where they started. (Of note I am aware that some of this takes creative licence to appreciate. I'm aware that the characters have "realism holes" but decided that the story was more important than absolute realism and allowed for creativity to flourish). I appreciate that the below may seem a little confusing so here is a quick reference on who is who:character relations.key (801.22 KB)
Player 1 - Chinese Male, early 20's and a stowaway on the ship. Although he appears a shortsighted, bumbling student he is actually a Chinese government agent tasked with identifying an Activist on board the ship who is broadcasting via Long Wave radio anti-Chinese propaganda of their release of the Virus. He is a trained killer and has with him a device for detecting radio signal locations which he will use to track down the Activist on board the ship. His skills are mainly spread amongst combat and survival skills though he is both astute and and actor. His task is to kill the Activist and survive. He does not know that player 3 (ex-cop) has a hunch that he is more than he seems and is actively targeting him.
Player 2 - Pre-teen Girl. Her parents died early many months ago leaving her on the ship alone. As things became more desperate she took to hiding in the vents and scavenging for herself and has also regressed in her communication skills (yup, think Newt from Aliens). She is a quick, sly character with good sneaking and rogue skills who has a hideout in the ships ducts. She is slow to trust and somewhat feral and though cunning is unaware that the ship's navigator (player 4) wants her as a sex slave and is aware of her secret den. She also is aware that player 5 has sexual issues and knows where he keeps his ill gotten gains and his undead slave.
Player 3 - Ex Cop. Banished in disgrace and now a successful security guard company owner who was on a holiday trip. Selfish and all about himself he is all about his own survival. He has good combat and gun skills and has sneaked a riot shield and a cosh on board the ship. He has clocked that the Chinese student has a warrior way about him and he is not fooled with the "student" disguise but what he is not aware of is the fact that player 6 has rumbled him as a cop, and player 6 don't like cops.
Player 4 - Ship's Navigator. A drunken Horay-Henry who actually doesn't have many navigation skills and was only a part of the crew as Daddy paid for it the Navigator see's himself as in charge since the captains demise. It doesn't help that he spent some time in the reserve army making him think that he is a military man giving him an oafish and bully personality. He wants to rule the ship and will try to do so. He also knows of the Pre-Teen Girls secret den and now that law and order is gone he see's her as a slave in the making. Also that weird dummy of a builder, he's a social moron and easy to intimidate and may prove useful so leaning on him might do some good (player 10). What he is not aware of is that (player 7) has seen his true face and will not allow him to harass the poor girl. Though (player 7) is old, she has a deadly side that only a mother can have. Also the medic (player 8) see's through his military crap and is not fooled, he also don't like a bully so may be a problem.
Player 5 - A towering black male made of muscle and the brother of player 6. A simple soul whom has always lived well following his brothers orders whether it be moving and lifting things or committing violence on his brothers behalf he is both crude and effective. Since his rise out of the gang lifestyle that he was used to he has realized that he can have what he wants and is cunning enough to be able to hide it from his brother. Though on the outside he is his brothers loyal henchman secretly he has a room in the cargo hold which he has been stashing items of value with the idea of one day leaving his brother. He also keeps a young lady in there chained to a pipe. Though she is his "pretty one" and his play thing, her infection is getting worse but he still likes to stroke her...
Being an ex-drug pusher he knows a junkie when he see's one and as soon as he saw the ship's medic (player 8) he knew that the guy was a junkie. He's keeping that to himself for now, what he is unaware of is player 2 is aware of his secret hideaway and the infected girl in it and could spill the beans at any time.
Player 6 - A black ex-gangster dwarf and brother of player 5. Although his is not a fighter, too small and weak he is intellect is superb. Growing up in the world of poverty and gang lifestyle he soon rose to prominence and with the muscle of his brother carved himself a successful career as a DJ. Vey street and self confident he's a small force to be reckoned with as he don't take shit from no-one. People love him and clubs want him at their venues as he is all things Urban. What people aren't aware of is that he is also a die hard activist well in with the anarchist community and has used his skills in IT and broadcasting to spread the word about the things governments do. It was him that broke the news of the infection and pointed the finger at the Chinese and him that continues to send out the Word of freedom from governments and the sins they commit. He's radical and he's committed but he doesn't know that the Chinese want him dead and his brother has plans to usurp him. What he does know is that player 3 is a cop and all cops are Feds and pigs and don't deserve to live. The cop might be fooling everyone else with his security guard nonsense but not him and he don't give mercy.
Player 7 - An old lady (65) she is of noble birth. Long used to the way of things that only the rich can appreciate she carries with her a presence of distain that others cannot fathom. She was on board with her husband (The Lord don't you know) who unfortunately died when the ship began to struggle. Now she prows the ship radiating a sense of calm aristocracy and the belief that nothing has changed in only the way the British aristocracy can. In her younger years she was a skilled rifle woman who competed in the Olympics but her age has taken its toll. She's also astute and misses nothing, preferring to hide behind her nobility whilst actually secretly watching all around her with a discerning eye. Her mother's instinct tells her to look after the young girl (player 2) and she has seen the lust in the Navigators eyes (player 4) and there's no way she'll ever let that happen. The trouble is she so often feels sleepy and tired, she hired a private doctor (player 9) to chaperone her on the cruise but even his skills do not make her feel better, no wonder as she is unaware he is the one drugging her.
Player 8 - An ex-marine who served in the Falklands War but is now the ships medic. A good man and ex-army he left the marines to work the cruise ships as his time was up and he was getting to old for war, what he saw at Goose Green didn't help either. Once enjoying his new life on the ship he is now struggling as the the toll of dealing with the constant demands of the population of the ship over 18 months has taken it's toll. Although on the outside he is calm, decent and clearly cares secretly he has returned to taking morphine from his stock to keep himself on track. It's just a little after all...
When the crew left his strong sense of duty said he would stay and his suspicion that the Captain was poisoned doesn't help but haunt him. Though he is unaware that the big guy (player 5) knows he is a druggie he does know that the big guy (player 5) is not nearly as simple as he makes out to all around him and if thats the case, what'e he hiding???
Player 9 - Private Doctor - Arrogant and selfish to the core, he carries about him a demeanor that only the middle class turned upper class can do. False, rude and without honour he is selfish to the core. However, he has an angle. He learned at an early age to hypnotise people and couple this with the drugs he is licensed to carry he has made a small fortune in drugging the rich, hyptnotising them them into giving him more money than they need to and living from the proceedings. Currently he is working on the silly rich old bag who paid for his cruise (player 7) and has her in his control. He'll make a mint from her. Also when he heard the Captain was going to dock in London (which would have spoiled his plans) he took time to sort him out, a bit of a suggestion here and a few drugs there meant no more Captain and he was back in business. His biggest mistake has been trying his luck with the fool builder, an apparent easy target he didn't realize that the suggestion he put him under (player 10) didn't work and now someone knows his secret, someone who can blow the lid from the the chaos he created. Oh and by the way did I tell you I have a drug habit??
Player 10 - Millionaire construction magnet. Although he suffers from Autism and is a poor communicator and cannot focus on more than one thing at once this guy is a genius. He can build anything you want just don't ask him to sit in the boardroom. Luckily (pre-fall) he had guys around to do that for him so he just had to build and the rest came easy. Rich beyond his dreams he enjoyed a life of work and fun. Now however things have changed, in a world brought back to basics he is back to where he was, a weird, socially inept struggler amongst people who have no time for the weak. He can build however and though he has limited engineering skills he is the nest that the survivors have got. He tries to avoid the Navigator (player 4) who scares him and makes him do what he tells him but hopefully if he makes friends with others that will change. recently he felt ill and went to the Doctor (player 9), it didn't go well. The doctor gave him pills that made him feel drowsy and unwell and tried to tell him to give him all of my money. Kept waving a clock in my face too. Even though he maybe not the best communicator he can see that the doctor is doing the same thing to the old lady too.
So that was it, that's where we have started. Two GM's, one for the story and one for the characters. We decided that Adam would lead the overall story and the players would text me with private actions which I would link in to the main game though out the evening. I'd keep the sub plots going and he would steer the story. Here's how we got on:
First Night in brief
The characters all met each other (officially) and begun their exploration of the ship, map here:ship map.paint (16.44 KB)ship map.paint (16.44 KB) (yes I'm pretty crap at IT drawing but it'll do).
We saw a night of everyone sensing each other out, people began exploring and looking for any items of worth. The crazy cop tried to abduct the young girl on the orders of the navigator however was unsuccessful. She in turn hid in the vents and went straight for the armory. The two brothers began organising the party to find items to make the engines work again whilst persuading the construction genius to work on the engines whilst the old lady decided to camp in the last remaining life raft and wait for a rescue. The only weapons on the ship were the rifle that player 7 has stashed away and also 2 flare guns and a Berretta 9mm which were all held in the ships armory. The young girl sneaked in via the vents to steal the ammo for the berretta and also a flare gun and managed to sneak away just before the Private Doctor and the Cop broke in. A punch up ensued between the two of them to get the best gear which ended up with the cop on the floor making a mental note that revenge was in order. The Doctor got the flare gun and also a set of body armour whilst the cop got the barretta without ammo so all in all the items available were spread out widely between them all. In the meantime a few other things occurred. A Mimic (the dead Captain) who was locked in the freezer fooled the party in to opening the door and immediately attacked "Lenny" the big lump of a brother as we began to name him. Lenny got badly hurt and was only saved by the Medic slamming the door and crushing the Mimic before he could do more harm. The Medic then treated Lenny (we struggled at this point to work out the rules for healing another) but managed to work it so Lenny survived without infection. In the meantime Yasmin (as we had named the young girl) exited the vent and as she trusted the Medic told him of the Cop's attempted abduction much to the anger of the Medic and the now recovering Lenny. It looked at this point like the Cop had made a few enemies.
As the timer ticked down (remember 100 hours?) people continued to search the ship. The Private Doctor (Ravos) found that his attitude towards the two brothers (George and Lenny) was not not well received and an enmity between them became apparent. As the two brothers continued to work with the Builder (player 10) they left their possessions unattended which the Rich Doctor found and took the opportunity to deficate on. The Chinese Student keeping with his role as a simpleton decided to explore engine room 2 looking for wires (he was told that wires were needed to start engine 1). Finding the wires in engine 2 he took to the task of pulling them all out with gay abandon and then handed them over neglecting to tell the builder where he had found them. The Builder, working hard began to use them to fix engine 1 blissfully unaware that now engine 2 as now no longer working. Our Dwarven Activist became aware that he was in need of broadcasting and tried his best to disappear without luck whilst the Cop began to search the cargo hold and nearly finding Lenny's secret room and his pet girly forcing a worrying stand off between the two. The Medic did his job though out of all this whilst jacking up at every opportunity.
By this point time was ticking away, 10 hours was already spent. Night was coming and a storm was beginning to rage around the ship. pushing it closer to the hard rocks that is the coastline of Essex, England. With night needed sleep and we called it a day there. Who knows what the mext 24 hours will be bringing? Next week we will continue anew and see what happens to the good ship Bon Adventure.
What we learned
1. The contested actions went well. From fighting to lying to perception the system works well for inter-party interaction and can cope with things that go on well enough. Using a mobile phone to get secret dice rolls done is a very useful tool.
2. When Lenny got hurt by the Mimic, Adien the Medic tried to heal him, we struggled with finding the rules to heal another, lots on healing self, but its not clear what a healer should do, needs clarity here.
3. Linking character against another is a definite boon.It adds flavour to the story and prevents a hack and slash. The Walkiing Dead taught me that the least interesting people in a game are the zombies.
4. A limited environment helped us. Making the characters explain why the would have a juicy item on board (remember it's a civilian ship) kept the dynamics realistic and prevented cheesy players having a gun toting warrior. I did not want players to be inhibited by this however so used the character creation system of advantages (ie equipment, minions etc) as normal. My only stipulation was that although the benefits would not be available on the ship if the character survives and lands on the mainland of England he/she has the opportunity to later on use the benefit. For example, the Dwarf character has spent a lot of creation points on equipment (level 10) so I have given him a working ex-security van (like those ones that pick up money from banks) fully decked out with petrol and customized to be able to be a hacker on the move however it is 20 miles inland from the coast so he has got to get to it to access it making it an adventure in itself. In short there's nothing wrong with creating Uber benefits but there's no stipulation in saying it is readily available.
5. I shudder at the thought of creating new characters for a GM. My players went heavy on advantages rather than stats and skills. If people do that then as a GM you have a whole lot to think about if you use the advantages system. Just my take mind you, so not written in stone. If you go fluffy then you got room to work, if you go cheesy then good luck without the GM oversee'ing it is open to abuse. I'm gonna send Oliver all the characters to check so watch this space.
6. Our characters used 1300 pts on character design.
7. The character sheet doesn't work. It does't calculate hit points or initiative and makes you pay points for morality which is kinda dumb as my lot all wanted morality 1. This needs fixing as I ended up doing it by hand to ensure a balanced character.
8. Overall the game works. We managed it with what's been released so far and everyone enjoyed it. It's a good system and quick for others to learn. Your GM'ing is your stye and not mine so I won't comment on your handle just be wise with it as it stands.
Anyway there you go. Here's us on the Bon Adventure signing off for the night, we've got high seas, a broken ship and a rocky shore line to manage and thats before everyone starts killing each other. Who knows who will survive and what will happen but I hope that helps with your own adventures and what you have ahead to look forward to.
Many regards to your all.
Cully.
Good evening all and I hope you are all well.
Our gaming group has been running an eleven player game of Infected (yup 10 players lol) with the idea of beta testing the rules and also exploring the game world and feeding back to the team both the strengths and weaknesses we identified in the game mechanics/story.
As you can imagine 10 players is a handful so I recruited my colleague and experienced GM Adam and we decided to co-GM the game and then with him developed a storyline which I am going to try to share with you (though forgive me my creative writing skills are somewhat limited in both skill and confidence) to give the Infected Team and hopefully yourselves an idea of what we are getting up to and how it is working. Our club which is called the Essex Legion, in Hornchurch, Essex, UK had no shortage of volunteers to sign up so here's a big up to GM Adam, Bradley"Ravos", Delano"Lamo", James"Bad Arse", James "Evil Steve", Paul"the Gentleman", Andy "Mechboy" , Andy "Magic", Louis "Pretty Boy", Grant "the Viking" and Ben "Tyranid", thanks guys for helping out!
Quick Backstory: Surviving the Bon Adventure
The Bon Adventure cruise ship bustling with crew and passengers was at sea when the virus went live and was told by port authorities to stay away until the infection was under control. The Captain, obeying the instructions continued to sail in International waters and waited until the all clear was sounded (though it never came). 18 months later, the cruise ship is a shadow of it's former self. A combination of infection, suicide, mutiny and desertion of the desperate have seen the population of the ship tumble. Compounded to this yesterday the Captain died of heart failure prompting what remained of his loyal crew to take to the life boats and leaving the remaining passengers behind. To make matters worse the ship is 100 hours from the coast of Essex, England and is drifting towards shore as it's engines have for the past two days been silent due to some sort of engineering problem. Now the ship drifts with no engine, no crew and only one remaining life raft for five people. You are one of those left on the ship, what will you do to survive?
This is the opening briefing I sent to the players and asked them to send me their ideas for characters so I could create them and have them ready. After 24 hours I had ten volunteers who each had sent me a character to stat up whilst supplying me with their background stories. At this point I had the plot line in place which generally was do you decide to try to save the ship, get the engines running and attempt to beach it on a sandy shoreline or do you fight amongst yourselves to be one of the five on the life raft. As I wanted an open game with little GM interference I was interested in seeing what choices they made. Of a second note I also decided to link each character to another, adding a secret sub plot into each to encourage player tension, conflict and skull duggery between them and as I would be doing this I would need a second GM, someone with experience and skills who would lead the main story whilst I sat back and dealt with the secret player stuff going on behind the scenes. Hence Adam stepped up to the mark and offered to be my Co-GM and we started from there.
Player Characters
Here is a shortened list of the characters, I can't remember their names off hand but I'll it will give you an idea of their story and where they started. (Of note I am aware that some of this takes creative licence to appreciate. I'm aware that the characters have "realism holes" but decided that the story was more important than absolute realism and allowed for creativity to flourish). I appreciate that the below may seem a little confusing so here is a quick reference on who is who:character relations.key (801.22 KB)
Player 1 - Chinese Male, early 20's and a stowaway on the ship. Although he appears a shortsighted, bumbling student he is actually a Chinese government agent tasked with identifying an Activist on board the ship who is broadcasting via Long Wave radio anti-Chinese propaganda of their release of the Virus. He is a trained killer and has with him a device for detecting radio signal locations which he will use to track down the Activist on board the ship. His skills are mainly spread amongst combat and survival skills though he is both astute and and actor. His task is to kill the Activist and survive. He does not know that player 3 (ex-cop) has a hunch that he is more than he seems and is actively targeting him.
Player 2 - Pre-teen Girl. Her parents died early many months ago leaving her on the ship alone. As things became more desperate she took to hiding in the vents and scavenging for herself and has also regressed in her communication skills (yup, think Newt from Aliens). She is a quick, sly character with good sneaking and rogue skills who has a hideout in the ships ducts. She is slow to trust and somewhat feral and though cunning is unaware that the ship's navigator (player 4) wants her as a sex slave and is aware of her secret den. She also is aware that player 5 has sexual issues and knows where he keeps his ill gotten gains and his undead slave.
Player 3 - Ex Cop. Banished in disgrace and now a successful security guard company owner who was on a holiday trip. Selfish and all about himself he is all about his own survival. He has good combat and gun skills and has sneaked a riot shield and a cosh on board the ship. He has clocked that the Chinese student has a warrior way about him and he is not fooled with the "student" disguise but what he is not aware of is the fact that player 6 has rumbled him as a cop, and player 6 don't like cops.
Player 4 - Ship's Navigator. A drunken Horay-Henry who actually doesn't have many navigation skills and was only a part of the crew as Daddy paid for it the Navigator see's himself as in charge since the captains demise. It doesn't help that he spent some time in the reserve army making him think that he is a military man giving him an oafish and bully personality. He wants to rule the ship and will try to do so. He also knows of the Pre-Teen Girls secret den and now that law and order is gone he see's her as a slave in the making. Also that weird dummy of a builder, he's a social moron and easy to intimidate and may prove useful so leaning on him might do some good (player 10). What he is not aware of is that (player 7) has seen his true face and will not allow him to harass the poor girl. Though (player 7) is old, she has a deadly side that only a mother can have. Also the medic (player 8) see's through his military crap and is not fooled, he also don't like a bully so may be a problem.
Player 5 - A towering black male made of muscle and the brother of player 6. A simple soul whom has always lived well following his brothers orders whether it be moving and lifting things or committing violence on his brothers behalf he is both crude and effective. Since his rise out of the gang lifestyle that he was used to he has realized that he can have what he wants and is cunning enough to be able to hide it from his brother. Though on the outside he is his brothers loyal henchman secretly he has a room in the cargo hold which he has been stashing items of value with the idea of one day leaving his brother. He also keeps a young lady in there chained to a pipe. Though she is his "pretty one" and his play thing, her infection is getting worse but he still likes to stroke her...
Being an ex-drug pusher he knows a junkie when he see's one and as soon as he saw the ship's medic (player 8) he knew that the guy was a junkie. He's keeping that to himself for now, what he is unaware of is player 2 is aware of his secret hideaway and the infected girl in it and could spill the beans at any time.
Player 6 - A black ex-gangster dwarf and brother of player 5. Although his is not a fighter, too small and weak he is intellect is superb. Growing up in the world of poverty and gang lifestyle he soon rose to prominence and with the muscle of his brother carved himself a successful career as a DJ. Vey street and self confident he's a small force to be reckoned with as he don't take shit from no-one. People love him and clubs want him at their venues as he is all things Urban. What people aren't aware of is that he is also a die hard activist well in with the anarchist community and has used his skills in IT and broadcasting to spread the word about the things governments do. It was him that broke the news of the infection and pointed the finger at the Chinese and him that continues to send out the Word of freedom from governments and the sins they commit. He's radical and he's committed but he doesn't know that the Chinese want him dead and his brother has plans to usurp him. What he does know is that player 3 is a cop and all cops are Feds and pigs and don't deserve to live. The cop might be fooling everyone else with his security guard nonsense but not him and he don't give mercy.
Player 7 - An old lady (65) she is of noble birth. Long used to the way of things that only the rich can appreciate she carries with her a presence of distain that others cannot fathom. She was on board with her husband (The Lord don't you know) who unfortunately died when the ship began to struggle. Now she prows the ship radiating a sense of calm aristocracy and the belief that nothing has changed in only the way the British aristocracy can. In her younger years she was a skilled rifle woman who competed in the Olympics but her age has taken its toll. She's also astute and misses nothing, preferring to hide behind her nobility whilst actually secretly watching all around her with a discerning eye. Her mother's instinct tells her to look after the young girl (player 2) and she has seen the lust in the Navigators eyes (player 4) and there's no way she'll ever let that happen. The trouble is she so often feels sleepy and tired, she hired a private doctor (player 9) to chaperone her on the cruise but even his skills do not make her feel better, no wonder as she is unaware he is the one drugging her.
Player 8 - An ex-marine who served in the Falklands War but is now the ships medic. A good man and ex-army he left the marines to work the cruise ships as his time was up and he was getting to old for war, what he saw at Goose Green didn't help either. Once enjoying his new life on the ship he is now struggling as the the toll of dealing with the constant demands of the population of the ship over 18 months has taken it's toll. Although on the outside he is calm, decent and clearly cares secretly he has returned to taking morphine from his stock to keep himself on track. It's just a little after all...
When the crew left his strong sense of duty said he would stay and his suspicion that the Captain was poisoned doesn't help but haunt him. Though he is unaware that the big guy (player 5) knows he is a druggie he does know that the big guy (player 5) is not nearly as simple as he makes out to all around him and if thats the case, what'e he hiding???
Player 9 - Private Doctor - Arrogant and selfish to the core, he carries about him a demeanor that only the middle class turned upper class can do. False, rude and without honour he is selfish to the core. However, he has an angle. He learned at an early age to hypnotise people and couple this with the drugs he is licensed to carry he has made a small fortune in drugging the rich, hyptnotising them them into giving him more money than they need to and living from the proceedings. Currently he is working on the silly rich old bag who paid for his cruise (player 7) and has her in his control. He'll make a mint from her. Also when he heard the Captain was going to dock in London (which would have spoiled his plans) he took time to sort him out, a bit of a suggestion here and a few drugs there meant no more Captain and he was back in business. His biggest mistake has been trying his luck with the fool builder, an apparent easy target he didn't realize that the suggestion he put him under (player 10) didn't work and now someone knows his secret, someone who can blow the lid from the the chaos he created. Oh and by the way did I tell you I have a drug habit??
Player 10 - Millionaire construction magnet. Although he suffers from Autism and is a poor communicator and cannot focus on more than one thing at once this guy is a genius. He can build anything you want just don't ask him to sit in the boardroom. Luckily (pre-fall) he had guys around to do that for him so he just had to build and the rest came easy. Rich beyond his dreams he enjoyed a life of work and fun. Now however things have changed, in a world brought back to basics he is back to where he was, a weird, socially inept struggler amongst people who have no time for the weak. He can build however and though he has limited engineering skills he is the nest that the survivors have got. He tries to avoid the Navigator (player 4) who scares him and makes him do what he tells him but hopefully if he makes friends with others that will change. recently he felt ill and went to the Doctor (player 9), it didn't go well. The doctor gave him pills that made him feel drowsy and unwell and tried to tell him to give him all of my money. Kept waving a clock in my face too. Even though he maybe not the best communicator he can see that the doctor is doing the same thing to the old lady too.
So that was it, that's where we have started. Two GM's, one for the story and one for the characters. We decided that Adam would lead the overall story and the players would text me with private actions which I would link in to the main game though out the evening. I'd keep the sub plots going and he would steer the story. Here's how we got on:
First Night in brief
The characters all met each other (officially) and begun their exploration of the ship, map here:ship map.paint (16.44 KB)ship map.paint (16.44 KB) (yes I'm pretty crap at IT drawing but it'll do).
We saw a night of everyone sensing each other out, people began exploring and looking for any items of worth. The crazy cop tried to abduct the young girl on the orders of the navigator however was unsuccessful. She in turn hid in the vents and went straight for the armory. The two brothers began organising the party to find items to make the engines work again whilst persuading the construction genius to work on the engines whilst the old lady decided to camp in the last remaining life raft and wait for a rescue. The only weapons on the ship were the rifle that player 7 has stashed away and also 2 flare guns and a Berretta 9mm which were all held in the ships armory. The young girl sneaked in via the vents to steal the ammo for the berretta and also a flare gun and managed to sneak away just before the Private Doctor and the Cop broke in. A punch up ensued between the two of them to get the best gear which ended up with the cop on the floor making a mental note that revenge was in order. The Doctor got the flare gun and also a set of body armour whilst the cop got the barretta without ammo so all in all the items available were spread out widely between them all. In the meantime a few other things occurred. A Mimic (the dead Captain) who was locked in the freezer fooled the party in to opening the door and immediately attacked "Lenny" the big lump of a brother as we began to name him. Lenny got badly hurt and was only saved by the Medic slamming the door and crushing the Mimic before he could do more harm. The Medic then treated Lenny (we struggled at this point to work out the rules for healing another) but managed to work it so Lenny survived without infection. In the meantime Yasmin (as we had named the young girl) exited the vent and as she trusted the Medic told him of the Cop's attempted abduction much to the anger of the Medic and the now recovering Lenny. It looked at this point like the Cop had made a few enemies.
As the timer ticked down (remember 100 hours?) people continued to search the ship. The Private Doctor (Ravos) found that his attitude towards the two brothers (George and Lenny) was not not well received and an enmity between them became apparent. As the two brothers continued to work with the Builder (player 10) they left their possessions unattended which the Rich Doctor found and took the opportunity to deficate on. The Chinese Student keeping with his role as a simpleton decided to explore engine room 2 looking for wires (he was told that wires were needed to start engine 1). Finding the wires in engine 2 he took to the task of pulling them all out with gay abandon and then handed them over neglecting to tell the builder where he had found them. The Builder, working hard began to use them to fix engine 1 blissfully unaware that now engine 2 as now no longer working. Our Dwarven Activist became aware that he was in need of broadcasting and tried his best to disappear without luck whilst the Cop began to search the cargo hold and nearly finding Lenny's secret room and his pet girly forcing a worrying stand off between the two. The Medic did his job though out of all this whilst jacking up at every opportunity.
By this point time was ticking away, 10 hours was already spent. Night was coming and a storm was beginning to rage around the ship. pushing it closer to the hard rocks that is the coastline of Essex, England. With night needed sleep and we called it a day there. Who knows what the mext 24 hours will be bringing? Next week we will continue anew and see what happens to the good ship Bon Adventure.
What we learned
1. The contested actions went well. From fighting to lying to perception the system works well for inter-party interaction and can cope with things that go on well enough. Using a mobile phone to get secret dice rolls done is a very useful tool.
2. When Lenny got hurt by the Mimic, Adien the Medic tried to heal him, we struggled with finding the rules to heal another, lots on healing self, but its not clear what a healer should do, needs clarity here.
3. Linking character against another is a definite boon.It adds flavour to the story and prevents a hack and slash. The Walkiing Dead taught me that the least interesting people in a game are the zombies.
4. A limited environment helped us. Making the characters explain why the would have a juicy item on board (remember it's a civilian ship) kept the dynamics realistic and prevented cheesy players having a gun toting warrior. I did not want players to be inhibited by this however so used the character creation system of advantages (ie equipment, minions etc) as normal. My only stipulation was that although the benefits would not be available on the ship if the character survives and lands on the mainland of England he/she has the opportunity to later on use the benefit. For example, the Dwarf character has spent a lot of creation points on equipment (level 10) so I have given him a working ex-security van (like those ones that pick up money from banks) fully decked out with petrol and customized to be able to be a hacker on the move however it is 20 miles inland from the coast so he has got to get to it to access it making it an adventure in itself. In short there's nothing wrong with creating Uber benefits but there's no stipulation in saying it is readily available.
5. I shudder at the thought of creating new characters for a GM. My players went heavy on advantages rather than stats and skills. If people do that then as a GM you have a whole lot to think about if you use the advantages system. Just my take mind you, so not written in stone. If you go fluffy then you got room to work, if you go cheesy then good luck without the GM oversee'ing it is open to abuse. I'm gonna send Oliver all the characters to check so watch this space.
6. Our characters used 1300 pts on character design.
7. The character sheet doesn't work. It does't calculate hit points or initiative and makes you pay points for morality which is kinda dumb as my lot all wanted morality 1. This needs fixing as I ended up doing it by hand to ensure a balanced character.
8. Overall the game works. We managed it with what's been released so far and everyone enjoyed it. It's a good system and quick for others to learn. Your GM'ing is your stye and not mine so I won't comment on your handle just be wise with it as it stands.
Anyway there you go. Here's us on the Bon Adventure signing off for the night, we've got high seas, a broken ship and a rocky shore line to manage and thats before everyone starts killing each other. Who knows who will survive and what will happen but I hope that helps with your own adventures and what you have ahead to look forward to.
Many regards to your all.
Cully.
