'One of those rare horror-genre gems produced for television,' wrote Adam Scott Glancy in a 1994 review for Unspeakable Oath. 'So far the first twelve [X Files] episodes rate nine out of ten phobias for solid horror/science-fiction genre entertainment.''
It's been a while.
Recently I was paid for an acting gig with iTunes cards, and used them to buy X-Files seasons 1 through 5. I tend to do that with stuff I want to see but don't care if I lose, which is always a risk when dealing with the Cloud. I pride myself on having a good memory, but I have to admit I'd forgotten most if not all the episode plots. Something about aliens? Maybe? And there were monsters, sometimes? Lone Gunmen? Someone who smoked a lot?
No, it was a total blank. This, mind you, after spending damn near every week plugged in practically at the electrical socket, waiting like a slavering fanboy for the least tidbit. That was back in 1994, and without wishing to be unkind to anyone here who may be counting their grey hairs, 1994 was over 20 years ago. If I'd had a kid back then, it would be on its way to college.
Hopefully I'd resist the temptation to call it Fox or Dana.
Looking back on it now, that first season was remarkably weak. Not awful - very good, really - but low budget, creaking along, with plots as shaky as an Ed Wood set. Inevitably they fell into a pattern: strange things happen, Mulder proposes something utterly absurd, Scully throws dirt on the whole thing, Mulder is proved right in every detail, madness ensues. Often there are plot holes you could drive a truck through, even if you accept Mulder's version without question.
None of that mattered at the time, and while it kinda matters now, that's only because time has passed. I'm less accepting of wild-eyed bullshit, and I've seen much better television since, so my standards have risen. Yet even with that firmly in mind I find I'm still in love with those early seasons, particularly from season 2 onwards.
That's when things begin to ratchet up, when Mulder's first informant Deep Throat is gunned down, the Cancer Man becomes more of a visible threat, and Mr X becomes Mulder's contact with the murky world of government conspiracies. Steven Williams plays Mr X, and he's such a badass in that role. He really makes it work.
It's also when I begin recognizing supporting cast. I don't know who was hiring back in 1994-5, but they picked some very decent talent. I knew Jack Black was in one of the early episodes, and he of course goes on to fame and fortune. But he's not the only one to hit the radar. Bradley Whitford, before West Wing, Jewel Staite, before Firefly, Titus Welliver, before Deadwood and Lost, Joe Spano, just after Hill Street Blues and before NCIS. Season 2 in particular is an exercise in 'spot the soon-to-be famous.'
If you really don't know what I'm talking about - which is always possible, though perhaps not forgivable - X Files was a supernatural/science-fiction genre show back in the 1990s, starring David Duchovny as FBI Agent Fox Mulder, and Gillian Anderson as his long-suffering partner Agent Dana Scully. The two are tasked with investigating X Files, cases involving paranormal phenomena. This can range from lake monsters to strange parasites from beyond history, irradiated fluke men and little grey men from outer space.
As you can imagine this does not sit well with their superiors, and Agent Scully is initially assigned to the X Files to debunk them, presumably because nobody's thought to fire Agent Mulder. Which is where the first of those peculiar plot holes appears; we're dealing with a massive conspiracy involving corruption at the highest levels, run by men who think nothing of murdering their enemies, their friends, the mailman; men who carry out mass experiments on unwitting human test subjects every other week without losing sleep over the death count. Yet those same men have some psychological block that prevents them from getting Mulder fired, even when he presents them with opportunities to do so with cause. It's papered over with tissue-thin excuses, but it's a problem nonetheless.
Looking back on it, I suspect it survived that initial year not because it was brilliant - good, yes, occasionally genius - but because it was unique. It was 1994. Nobody was doing horror on the small screen in 1994.
Hell, there weren't that many people making horror for the big screen either, come to think.
Tales from the Crypt is the closest thing it had to competition, and Tales was hosted by a scary Muppet. A bunch of carefree optimists tried to make a TV show out of Vampire the Masquerade, but that was in 1996, two years after X Files began, and it withered on the vine. Buffy doesn't start pounding dildos into pale Californians until 1997, and if I'd known what pegging was back then I'd have had a lot more fun watching that hot mess. Ultraviolet's 1998, and British. Touched By An Angel, maybe, but you could hardly call that horror.
It helps that Duchovny and Anderson, both talented actors, work well together. Anderson in particular is a lot of fun to watch; she's clearly got more on the ball than Duchovny. Yet Duchovny has one great talent: he's a natural doofus, and the show eventually starts playing to that, giving him more comedic or parody moments. I can't think of many television shows, genre or otherwise, that would be happy making its lead actor look like an idiot, and to be clear it's not like this happens every week, but when it does, it's a delight. Small Potatoes from Season 4 is a personal favorite.
Yet by the fifth season I find its appeal starting to wear on me. Though there are several moments when I can't wait for a show to finish, the episode Post-Modern Prometheus is the first one I couldn't force myself to finish. Yes, I know it won an Emmy. Chris Carter can thank his lucky stars I wasn't on the awards committee, way back when.
It starts to crumble under the weight of its own mythology at that point. There's just no way to make this all make sense, and it doesn't help that so much of it contradicts itself. One of the long-running secrets of the series is what happened to Fox Mulder's sister all those years ago; was she abducted by aliens, murdered by a serial killer, something else? But there are only so many times she can turn up as a clone, as a child worker clone, as an abductee, as a possible ghost, as a murder victim, before I start to lose interest.
You can butcher a turkey once, cook it once, eat it, make stock from its bones and skin, but when all that's done, you can't bring the turkey back again and eat it a second time. Not if you want to enjoy the experience.
Oddly enough I feel the same way about X Files as I do Delta Green, the RPG originally developed by Pagan Publishing many moons ago.
It first showed its warty head back in 1993, as part of the Unspeakable Oath magazine, but it doesn't really get its chance to strut its stuff until 1997. So it technically predates the X Files, though in practical terms it owes much of its format and initial appeal to that show.
Delta Green, as it was then, had a lot of promise, and I love its take on conspiracy theories, modern horror, cryptozoology, government cover-ups, little Grey Men. I played that game to death back in the day. I still have all the books.
Yet I look back on it now, and it's a mess.
A fun mess, but there's no skeleton here holding it together. The basic premise is solid, but the mythology soon crushes the whole thing under its ponderous weight. You could pick up a sourcebook and literally have no idea what you were getting, because the series didn't seem to be planned in any coherent way.
If you liked the Fate, for example, its New York occult menace based loosely on Club 57 and the exploits of Andy Warhol, there wasn't a Fate book you could get. You could get Count Down and Eyes Only, both of which have Fate-related material, but they also have a ton of other stuff you might not want. If you want to know more about tradecraft, intelligence agencies and the art of being a spy, that's in there too, but again it's scattered over most of the books with no real rhyme or reason as to which goes where.
The lethality level varies considerably. Some scenarios might as well have a footnote saying 'allow for 40 minutes downtime as everyone makes new characters right about now.' Others seem positively gentle in comparison. It reminds me of some of the X Files first season episodes, Darkness Falls in particular, where the writers find themselves in a situation where, logically, Mulder and Scully die. So they do, but not really. Delta Green isn't quite so kind.
There's some absolutely brilliant writing here, but looking back on it I have to ask myself how likely it is that the players are ever going to find this information, or find it useful. With the benefit of hindsight it seems to me now that it was written for the Keeper to read and be entertained by, but not necessarily use at the table.
One thing I admire about the Gumshoe clue system, apart from simplicity of design, is that it forces the designer to consider whether or not what's going on the page is useful. If it's a Clue, it has a purpose, and there's a definitive chain of events that lead from this Clue to the next Scene, where there are more Clues. From here, the players piece together the narrative, and decide what to do next.
I didn't back the Delta Green Kickstarter so I don't know what the new stuff's like. I almost regret that, but money's tight. One thing I hope and pray for is that, whatever it is, there's a plan. That someone has their eye on the long term, not a scattershot put-it-all-in-the-pot approach.
Anyway, it's been a day, and I'm exhausted.
Talk soon!
Showing posts with label Unspeakable Oath. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unspeakable Oath. Show all posts
Sunday, 23 July 2017
Sunday, 8 May 2016
Tale of Terror, Vampire Style (Night's Black Agents)
I've been buried in an Esoterror project, so I didn't post anything last week. I know, I'm evil. But then, so is Esoterror, so I guess that works out in the end. More or less?
If you're a Call of Cthulhu fan from way back then you probably remember the Tales of Terror. The Tales are short adventure seeds, with three possible outcomes. The intent being to let the Keeper and players riff on the basic premise, and use one of the three outcomes as the core of the encounter. The old Unspeakable Oath used to print these fairly regularly, but I've no idea what's going on with the Oath these days. I know there's a podcast, but I don't really follow the site any more.
However one quick glance over there shows that it does still publish Tales every so often, so if you're still unclear as to the concept then here's an example written by S Cogswill.
With that in mind, let's tear something from the headlines and use that as a basis for a Night's Black Agents Tale of Terror.
Here's a good one: Pile Up On French Road After 'People Smugglers' Shot At In Police Chase.
At about 5am on Thursday, a lorry driver in Belgium called local police saying that smugglers had tried to get 17 people into his truck and that he and other drivers had been threatened with a knife, the French paper La Voix du Nord reported.
When police intervened, the suspects sped off by car, first hitting a Belgian police car, then heading on the motorway towards northern France."
For the rest of the article, click on the link.
From there we get to:
Possibility One: Botched Rescue. The so-called people smugglers are actually trying to save the seventeen 'smuggled' victims. These people were being held at a Conspiracy site in Belgium, for reasons the characters don't yet know - blood banks, biological agent testing, Satanic ritual, something else - and their rescuers did their best to get them across the border. However it all went wrong in the worst possible way, and the rescuers panicked and ran. It did not end well. Now there's seventeen people in a detention center who may, at any moment, be stolen back by the Conspiracy, never mind their two would-be rescuers currently in police custody. What next? Character Link: One of the rescuers is a character's Network contact, or even Solace.
Possibility Two: Node Fratricide. Two Nodes within the Conspyramid are fighting, as described in Double Tap. One of those Nodes is in the people smuggling business, and its rival tips off the police. The result is much messier than anyone predicted, because the people smugglers panicked and ran. Now the characters are in an excellent position to exploit the situation, either keeping pressure on the damaged people smuggling Node, or letting the people smugglers point the characters at the other Node, as revenge. Character Link: Either one of the police is a Network contact, or one of the people smugglers is an already established dramatically important character, possibly a foil for one of the player characters.
Possibility Three: Blown Op. Among the people being smuggled is an operative on the run, who was hoping that the smugglers would be able to get him/her across the border after the operative built up too much Heat. However increased police vigilance, thanks to the Heat, led to the car chase and subsequent disaster. Now the operative is in real trouble, and the only hope is that someone gets the operative out before the opposition catch up. Character Link: The characters are gathered as an ad-hoc rescue team, or possibly a snatch team unknowingly working for the opposition, by a friendly Asset Handler. This op needs to happen fast; in a few hours the operative will be moved from a holding cell to somewhere much more secure. In an Edom Files game, the operative is Edom and so are the rescuers.
Why do this? Well, because it's fun, obviously. But also because it serves a useful purpose. There are going to be times when the Director is at a loose end, or the plot seems temporarily derailed by circumstances beyond the Director's control. While waiting for inspiration, the Director can use a Tale of Terror as an easy bridging point between the current impasse and the next significant plot development.
Besides, they're easy to do. All you need is a good headline for inspiration, and from that come up with three reasons as to why those events will interest the characters. After that, let the players go nuts. They're probably going to go nuts anyway, so what the heck.
On that note, since the headlines have been so useful this week, let's have another:
Oil Tanker Washes Up on Liberia Beach with No Crew or Lifeboats
"An abandoned oil tanker has washed up on the shores of Liberia in west Africa, prompting an investigation - and speculation over the fate of the ship's crew.
The Tamaya 1, which is registered in Panama, ran aground on a beach near Robertsport earlier this week, apparently without a crew or lifeboats. On Thursday the Liberia national police and bureau of immigration inspected the ship, days after local residents first discovered it on the beach.
The 64-meter (210ft) tanker's last known position was on 21 April near Gambia and Senegal, according to shipping site Marine Traffic - well north of Liberia along the west African coast. The ship was en route to the Senegalese port of Dakar, according to the site."
Panama registers nearly 20% of the world's merchant fleet. Panama is an open registry, also known as a flag of convenience, and has been since the 1920s. If your ship is Panamanian registered, Panamanian laws apply; this is often done by ship owners to reduce costs, particularly labor, but also the cost of keeping up with environmental regulations. Critics claim open flag jurisdictions are hotbeds of crime and terrorism.
Liberia, the Land of the Free, is still suffering from the effects of the civil war, and rebel leader Charles Taylor's excesses. As of 2005 the constitutional republic is led by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, but it's an uphill struggle. Trial by ordeal is not uncommon in rural districts, and corruption is endemic at all levels of government.
With all that in mind:
Possibility One: Asset On The Run Perhaps it's one of Edom's SBA's, a Conspiracy entity gone rogue, or an escapee from one of the other interested parties' weapons programs. Whichever it is, it's loose, and is doing its best to stay free. A lot of very powerful (and peculiar) people are suddenly very interested in Liberia, and agents are being sent in to see what happened to that escaped asset. Character Link: The agents have faced this particular asset before, but now the tables have turned the asset may be more amenable to moral 'suasion. Or, a Network contact in Liberia is very worried about some of the stories coming in from the hinterlands, and asks for help.
Possibility Two: Stage One of the Master Plan. The Conspiracy is planning something big, really big. The Liberian operation is either a test run, or the first stage in what amounts to a vampiric coup, taking out the democratically elected government and replacing it with a catspaw. Why? Well, Liberia's asset-rich, but perhaps there's something else out there that the Conspiracy really can't do without. Works best with Mutant or Alien vampire types. Character Link: This is it. If the agents are ever going to find out what the Conspiracy is all about, Libera's the place to be.
Possibility Three: Panamanian Shenanigans The Conspiracy's Node in Panama is shipping dangerous materials across the globe, and this time something went very badly wrong. Now that Node is scrambling to cover up the mess, and has hired mercenaries, or a science team backed up by mercenaries, to deal with whatever-it-is that's loose in Liberia. Character Link: One of those mercenaries is a Network contact, possibly a Solace. Alternatively one of the people the mercenary team comes into conflict with is a Network contact or Solace.
Enjoy!
If you're a Call of Cthulhu fan from way back then you probably remember the Tales of Terror. The Tales are short adventure seeds, with three possible outcomes. The intent being to let the Keeper and players riff on the basic premise, and use one of the three outcomes as the core of the encounter. The old Unspeakable Oath used to print these fairly regularly, but I've no idea what's going on with the Oath these days. I know there's a podcast, but I don't really follow the site any more.
However one quick glance over there shows that it does still publish Tales every so often, so if you're still unclear as to the concept then here's an example written by S Cogswill.
With that in mind, let's tear something from the headlines and use that as a basis for a Night's Black Agents Tale of Terror.
Here's a good one: Pile Up On French Road After 'People Smugglers' Shot At In Police Chase.
"Belgian police opened fire during a cross-border chase with suspected people smugglers driving a car with a British number plate, resulting in a pile-up on a motorway in northern France.
When police intervened, the suspects sped off by car, first hitting a Belgian police car, then heading on the motorway towards northern France."
For the rest of the article, click on the link.
From there we get to:
Possibility One: Botched Rescue. The so-called people smugglers are actually trying to save the seventeen 'smuggled' victims. These people were being held at a Conspiracy site in Belgium, for reasons the characters don't yet know - blood banks, biological agent testing, Satanic ritual, something else - and their rescuers did their best to get them across the border. However it all went wrong in the worst possible way, and the rescuers panicked and ran. It did not end well. Now there's seventeen people in a detention center who may, at any moment, be stolen back by the Conspiracy, never mind their two would-be rescuers currently in police custody. What next? Character Link: One of the rescuers is a character's Network contact, or even Solace.
Possibility Two: Node Fratricide. Two Nodes within the Conspyramid are fighting, as described in Double Tap. One of those Nodes is in the people smuggling business, and its rival tips off the police. The result is much messier than anyone predicted, because the people smugglers panicked and ran. Now the characters are in an excellent position to exploit the situation, either keeping pressure on the damaged people smuggling Node, or letting the people smugglers point the characters at the other Node, as revenge. Character Link: Either one of the police is a Network contact, or one of the people smugglers is an already established dramatically important character, possibly a foil for one of the player characters.
Possibility Three: Blown Op. Among the people being smuggled is an operative on the run, who was hoping that the smugglers would be able to get him/her across the border after the operative built up too much Heat. However increased police vigilance, thanks to the Heat, led to the car chase and subsequent disaster. Now the operative is in real trouble, and the only hope is that someone gets the operative out before the opposition catch up. Character Link: The characters are gathered as an ad-hoc rescue team, or possibly a snatch team unknowingly working for the opposition, by a friendly Asset Handler. This op needs to happen fast; in a few hours the operative will be moved from a holding cell to somewhere much more secure. In an Edom Files game, the operative is Edom and so are the rescuers.
Why do this? Well, because it's fun, obviously. But also because it serves a useful purpose. There are going to be times when the Director is at a loose end, or the plot seems temporarily derailed by circumstances beyond the Director's control. While waiting for inspiration, the Director can use a Tale of Terror as an easy bridging point between the current impasse and the next significant plot development.
Besides, they're easy to do. All you need is a good headline for inspiration, and from that come up with three reasons as to why those events will interest the characters. After that, let the players go nuts. They're probably going to go nuts anyway, so what the heck.
On that note, since the headlines have been so useful this week, let's have another:
Oil Tanker Washes Up on Liberia Beach with No Crew or Lifeboats
"An abandoned oil tanker has washed up on the shores of Liberia in west Africa, prompting an investigation - and speculation over the fate of the ship's crew.
The Tamaya 1, which is registered in Panama, ran aground on a beach near Robertsport earlier this week, apparently without a crew or lifeboats. On Thursday the Liberia national police and bureau of immigration inspected the ship, days after local residents first discovered it on the beach.
The 64-meter (210ft) tanker's last known position was on 21 April near Gambia and Senegal, according to shipping site Marine Traffic - well north of Liberia along the west African coast. The ship was en route to the Senegalese port of Dakar, according to the site."
Panama registers nearly 20% of the world's merchant fleet. Panama is an open registry, also known as a flag of convenience, and has been since the 1920s. If your ship is Panamanian registered, Panamanian laws apply; this is often done by ship owners to reduce costs, particularly labor, but also the cost of keeping up with environmental regulations. Critics claim open flag jurisdictions are hotbeds of crime and terrorism.
Liberia, the Land of the Free, is still suffering from the effects of the civil war, and rebel leader Charles Taylor's excesses. As of 2005 the constitutional republic is led by President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, but it's an uphill struggle. Trial by ordeal is not uncommon in rural districts, and corruption is endemic at all levels of government.
With all that in mind:
Possibility One: Asset On The Run Perhaps it's one of Edom's SBA's, a Conspiracy entity gone rogue, or an escapee from one of the other interested parties' weapons programs. Whichever it is, it's loose, and is doing its best to stay free. A lot of very powerful (and peculiar) people are suddenly very interested in Liberia, and agents are being sent in to see what happened to that escaped asset. Character Link: The agents have faced this particular asset before, but now the tables have turned the asset may be more amenable to moral 'suasion. Or, a Network contact in Liberia is very worried about some of the stories coming in from the hinterlands, and asks for help.
Possibility Two: Stage One of the Master Plan. The Conspiracy is planning something big, really big. The Liberian operation is either a test run, or the first stage in what amounts to a vampiric coup, taking out the democratically elected government and replacing it with a catspaw. Why? Well, Liberia's asset-rich, but perhaps there's something else out there that the Conspiracy really can't do without. Works best with Mutant or Alien vampire types. Character Link: This is it. If the agents are ever going to find out what the Conspiracy is all about, Libera's the place to be.
Possibility Three: Panamanian Shenanigans The Conspiracy's Node in Panama is shipping dangerous materials across the globe, and this time something went very badly wrong. Now that Node is scrambling to cover up the mess, and has hired mercenaries, or a science team backed up by mercenaries, to deal with whatever-it-is that's loose in Liberia. Character Link: One of those mercenaries is a Network contact, possibly a Solace. Alternatively one of the people the mercenary team comes into conflict with is a Network contact or Solace.
Enjoy!
Sunday, 13 May 2012
Silly Skills
Millionaire's Special was recently published via Pelgrane, and the profits from the sale of that scenario are going to help Heroes in the Dark. So far it seems to have done really well; when last I heard, sales had topped eighty downloads, but that was a little over two weeks ago so it may well have topped 100 by now. That's very gratifying!
I want to draw your attention to an ability introduced in that scenario: Gambling. People gambled heavily on the old liners. It was one of the main forms of entertainment on what was otherwise a longish trip across the Atlantic. Though the shipping companies did make sure that their floating palaces were well stocked with diversions (including a heated swimming bath and badminton court on the Titanic), the less athletically inclined were more interested in sedate entertainment. Gambling provided that surge of exitement coupled with pecuniary reward. It could be risky. Professional gamblers knew all the tricks, including several that Hoyle never thought of. Unwary travelers could end up much poorer after an otherwise enjoyable cruise.
The issue with gambling is, while it's appropriate to the situation and the era it doesn't lend itself to the pools system used in Gumshoe. There are a lot of abilities with the same problem. I tend to think of these as Silly Skills; abilities that may be fun or develop character but don't otherwise contribute to the plot. In the old Unspeakable Oath (TUO 10) there's an article by Duke Janus, Quirk Skills, that embraces the Silly concept and extends it to all sorts of potential abilities: Analyze Poetry, Annoy Coworker, Perform Tricks with String, and so on. Any Keeper can see the potential here for a roleplay moment, one that could be entertaining in the right circumstances. Entire scenes could be based around a Silly Skill. The old James Bond RPG played much the same trick. There was an extensive shot-by-shot golf game written into Goldfinger, for one, and while that was certainly appropriate for that senario it would hardly be worth inventing a whole new golfing mechanic for a skill only used once.
More often than not, Silly Skills have no real use. They may facilitate roleplay, but they don't advance a scene nor do they achieve a result that has any significant impact on the ongoing plot. Gambling is an appropriate skill for a Titanic theme scenario, and there are plenty of other potential uses for it. Something set in the California Gold Rush or modern day Macau will also have Gambling built in. However most other scenarios won't showcase a gambling opportunity. The same could be said of many other potentially useful abilities. Sports is probably the most obvious Silly Skill; while a character might enjoy playing out a rousing game of tennis or dominating the football match, the player may not appreciate having to spend out of his Athletics pool in order to shine on the playing field.
It's a scarcity problem. There are only so many points to go around during character creation. No player wants to cripple themselves right out of the gate with an ability that sees no use. They also won't want to spend in-game from pools that might otherwise be handy, like spending Athletics on football matches only to find that later in the scenario a well-judged jump from rooftop to rooftop gets more complicated now Athletics pools have been depleted.
Moreover in games like Trail or Call of Cthulhu there aren't many ways to gain more points as the game progresses. Even in RPGs with more significant point gains, like Dungeons and Dragons, players tend not to spend points in skills that don't directly benefit them in some way. I've yet to see a D&D player spend points on, say, Crafting skills who weren't intending to make magic items somewhere down the line. Similarly I'd bet that not many Trail players pick Astronomy as one of their starting abilities, unless they happen to know that their Keeper has a thing for astronomy-themed scenarios. It's not that Astronomy has no use, but that it gets used only rarely, and points sunk in an ability that only sees play once every three or four sessions are all but wasted.
On the other hand, picking at least one Interpersonal Ability (like Reassurance) is a no-brainer. It doesn't matter what the scenario is; so long as it's set somewhere in the real world, chances are pretty good that Reassurance will come in handy at some point. Similarly Evidence Collection is also an easy pick, for much the same reason. It fulfils much the same plot function as Spot Hidden in Call of Cthulhu, and there isn't a Call scenario written that a Spot check won't help solve.
When Janus wrote Quirk Skills his proposed solution to the scarcity problem was simple: don't make the player spend points on Quirks. Instead, let them roll a percentile to randomly determine their level of starting skill, and let things progress from there. While this works for Call, it doesn't help Trail, as Trail doesn't have a random element built into its abilities system. In theory the Keeper could create one, say by making all Silly Skills General Abilities and rolling a d10 (or whatever) to determine starting ability. This doesn't sound very satisfactory, as it eliminates any possibility of character depth. Someone who designs a sporty type with Athletics pool 8+ might only get a 1 on the d10 for Football Ability, while the weedy prof might get a 10 on the same roll.
Some players might enjoy that kind of random element, but I suspect most won't. The player who designs an Athletic type wants to shine athletically, and that isn't achieved by fumbling an easy pass or double-fouling in a tennis match. Similarly the prof might enjoy being a footie champ once or twice, but the player that builds around Library Use and Technical Abilities probably isn't as eager to seek out chances to show off athletically. It's all about player-facing Abilities; the pool should match the players expectations, and that isn't achieved by using a random result.
When faced with situations like these I prefer to base pools for Silly Skills on the character's existing pools in other, relevant General abilities. In Millionaire's Special, I reasoned that Gambling is probably best linked to Sense Trouble. The main rulebook says Sense Trouble allows you to perceive (either with sight or other senses) potential hazards to yourself or others and gambling is all about hazard. Therefore the base pool for Gambling was the character's starting Sense Trouble pool. That way they could spend Gambling points without depleting Sense Trouble, and yet have a base Gambling that reflected their initial character build. I further reasoned that some players cheat, and for those inclined to do so base Gambling could be boosted by adding the average of Athletics and Filch, rounded down. Filch allows nimble fingers . . . to unobtrusively manipulate small objects while Athletics is all about physicality. Nimble fingers and a certain physical dexterity are what card manipulation is all about. I could have added in Conceal as well, since that seems appropriate, but by this stage Gambling was beginning to look crowded. I wanted a General Ability, not an algebra problem. It was simpler to cap it there.
In most cases a Silly Skill won't need to be as complicated. Football can be based directly on Athletics, or horse racing on Riding, without getting any other General abilities involved. Gambling is in some ways a special instance, where the base skill involves several different General abilities. There are bound to be others, but I doubt there are many.
I can forsee situations when this approach won't work. Treating a Silly Skill as a General ability and basing it on other pre-existing General abilities will cover most situations, but perhaps not all of them. Say I wanted to include Trainspotting, or Graffiti Tagging. Those ought to be based on artistic skill or spot hidden ability, but Art and Evidence Collection are not General abilities. It may be more sensible to assume that in situations like those, where there is little chance of a contest and no significant plot function, that anyone with the base abilities Art and Evidence Collection are also good at Transpotting and Graffiti. Therefore any attempt to spot trains or tag a building automatically succeed. So long as there isn't the prospect of a contest, automatic success on non-plot skill checks is reasonable. It's the contest that makes the difference here; if a Silly Skill can't be based on a General ability but does result in a contest, I would have to seriously rethink the problem.
Still, for the moment at least I recommend Silly Skills as a means of solving problems that other Abilities won't fix. There will be times when a chess game or a badminton match are of all-consuming importance to a player, but makes no difference to the overall plot. When other Abilities just won't do, Silly Skills are there to help!
I want to draw your attention to an ability introduced in that scenario: Gambling. People gambled heavily on the old liners. It was one of the main forms of entertainment on what was otherwise a longish trip across the Atlantic. Though the shipping companies did make sure that their floating palaces were well stocked with diversions (including a heated swimming bath and badminton court on the Titanic), the less athletically inclined were more interested in sedate entertainment. Gambling provided that surge of exitement coupled with pecuniary reward. It could be risky. Professional gamblers knew all the tricks, including several that Hoyle never thought of. Unwary travelers could end up much poorer after an otherwise enjoyable cruise.
The issue with gambling is, while it's appropriate to the situation and the era it doesn't lend itself to the pools system used in Gumshoe. There are a lot of abilities with the same problem. I tend to think of these as Silly Skills; abilities that may be fun or develop character but don't otherwise contribute to the plot. In the old Unspeakable Oath (TUO 10) there's an article by Duke Janus, Quirk Skills, that embraces the Silly concept and extends it to all sorts of potential abilities: Analyze Poetry, Annoy Coworker, Perform Tricks with String, and so on. Any Keeper can see the potential here for a roleplay moment, one that could be entertaining in the right circumstances. Entire scenes could be based around a Silly Skill. The old James Bond RPG played much the same trick. There was an extensive shot-by-shot golf game written into Goldfinger, for one, and while that was certainly appropriate for that senario it would hardly be worth inventing a whole new golfing mechanic for a skill only used once.
More often than not, Silly Skills have no real use. They may facilitate roleplay, but they don't advance a scene nor do they achieve a result that has any significant impact on the ongoing plot. Gambling is an appropriate skill for a Titanic theme scenario, and there are plenty of other potential uses for it. Something set in the California Gold Rush or modern day Macau will also have Gambling built in. However most other scenarios won't showcase a gambling opportunity. The same could be said of many other potentially useful abilities. Sports is probably the most obvious Silly Skill; while a character might enjoy playing out a rousing game of tennis or dominating the football match, the player may not appreciate having to spend out of his Athletics pool in order to shine on the playing field.
It's a scarcity problem. There are only so many points to go around during character creation. No player wants to cripple themselves right out of the gate with an ability that sees no use. They also won't want to spend in-game from pools that might otherwise be handy, like spending Athletics on football matches only to find that later in the scenario a well-judged jump from rooftop to rooftop gets more complicated now Athletics pools have been depleted.
Moreover in games like Trail or Call of Cthulhu there aren't many ways to gain more points as the game progresses. Even in RPGs with more significant point gains, like Dungeons and Dragons, players tend not to spend points in skills that don't directly benefit them in some way. I've yet to see a D&D player spend points on, say, Crafting skills who weren't intending to make magic items somewhere down the line. Similarly I'd bet that not many Trail players pick Astronomy as one of their starting abilities, unless they happen to know that their Keeper has a thing for astronomy-themed scenarios. It's not that Astronomy has no use, but that it gets used only rarely, and points sunk in an ability that only sees play once every three or four sessions are all but wasted.
On the other hand, picking at least one Interpersonal Ability (like Reassurance) is a no-brainer. It doesn't matter what the scenario is; so long as it's set somewhere in the real world, chances are pretty good that Reassurance will come in handy at some point. Similarly Evidence Collection is also an easy pick, for much the same reason. It fulfils much the same plot function as Spot Hidden in Call of Cthulhu, and there isn't a Call scenario written that a Spot check won't help solve.
When Janus wrote Quirk Skills his proposed solution to the scarcity problem was simple: don't make the player spend points on Quirks. Instead, let them roll a percentile to randomly determine their level of starting skill, and let things progress from there. While this works for Call, it doesn't help Trail, as Trail doesn't have a random element built into its abilities system. In theory the Keeper could create one, say by making all Silly Skills General Abilities and rolling a d10 (or whatever) to determine starting ability. This doesn't sound very satisfactory, as it eliminates any possibility of character depth. Someone who designs a sporty type with Athletics pool 8+ might only get a 1 on the d10 for Football Ability, while the weedy prof might get a 10 on the same roll.
Some players might enjoy that kind of random element, but I suspect most won't. The player who designs an Athletic type wants to shine athletically, and that isn't achieved by fumbling an easy pass or double-fouling in a tennis match. Similarly the prof might enjoy being a footie champ once or twice, but the player that builds around Library Use and Technical Abilities probably isn't as eager to seek out chances to show off athletically. It's all about player-facing Abilities; the pool should match the players expectations, and that isn't achieved by using a random result.
When faced with situations like these I prefer to base pools for Silly Skills on the character's existing pools in other, relevant General abilities. In Millionaire's Special, I reasoned that Gambling is probably best linked to Sense Trouble. The main rulebook says Sense Trouble allows you to perceive (either with sight or other senses) potential hazards to yourself or others and gambling is all about hazard. Therefore the base pool for Gambling was the character's starting Sense Trouble pool. That way they could spend Gambling points without depleting Sense Trouble, and yet have a base Gambling that reflected their initial character build. I further reasoned that some players cheat, and for those inclined to do so base Gambling could be boosted by adding the average of Athletics and Filch, rounded down. Filch allows nimble fingers . . . to unobtrusively manipulate small objects while Athletics is all about physicality. Nimble fingers and a certain physical dexterity are what card manipulation is all about. I could have added in Conceal as well, since that seems appropriate, but by this stage Gambling was beginning to look crowded. I wanted a General Ability, not an algebra problem. It was simpler to cap it there.
In most cases a Silly Skill won't need to be as complicated. Football can be based directly on Athletics, or horse racing on Riding, without getting any other General abilities involved. Gambling is in some ways a special instance, where the base skill involves several different General abilities. There are bound to be others, but I doubt there are many.
I can forsee situations when this approach won't work. Treating a Silly Skill as a General ability and basing it on other pre-existing General abilities will cover most situations, but perhaps not all of them. Say I wanted to include Trainspotting, or Graffiti Tagging. Those ought to be based on artistic skill or spot hidden ability, but Art and Evidence Collection are not General abilities. It may be more sensible to assume that in situations like those, where there is little chance of a contest and no significant plot function, that anyone with the base abilities Art and Evidence Collection are also good at Transpotting and Graffiti. Therefore any attempt to spot trains or tag a building automatically succeed. So long as there isn't the prospect of a contest, automatic success on non-plot skill checks is reasonable. It's the contest that makes the difference here; if a Silly Skill can't be based on a General ability but does result in a contest, I would have to seriously rethink the problem.
Still, for the moment at least I recommend Silly Skills as a means of solving problems that other Abilities won't fix. There will be times when a chess game or a badminton match are of all-consuming importance to a player, but makes no difference to the overall plot. When other Abilities just won't do, Silly Skills are there to help!
Monday, 31 October 2011
Hell Fire
As some of you may already know, my latest Pelgrane project. Hell Fire, has hit the electronic shelves. I'm very pleased to see it; it's been a while in gestation, and there's nothing like the satisfaction you get from seeing a creative work of yours take wing.
I thought I'd talk a little bit about the scenario writing process, and use Hell Fire as an example.
When I first pitched to Pelgrane, lo these many moons ago, it was for the scenario that eventually became Brick Kiln and appeared in the Unspeakable Oath. It didn't really appeal to the folks at Pelgrane, as it felt a bit too much like a haunted house scenario, and they were trying to steer clear of those. Then we talked about The Zeppelin Raid, a scenario which has yet to see the light of day and is based on a painting I saw at the Queen's House in Greenwich, London. Initial response was positive as they thought there were actually zeppelins in the scenario, something I hadn't really planned on, and parts of that idea were recycled into Suited and Booted, a Call of Cthulhu scenario that, as luck would have it, also ended up in that same issue of the Unspeakable Oath. From zeppelins war stories inevitably followed, and I successfully pitched Not So Quiet, which is now part of the Out of Time collection.
Since then we've talked about several other projects, one of which became Hell Fire.
I enjoy history. My personal bookshelves are split about 50/50 these days between history, (a broad term in which I lump such diverse subjects as stage magic, occultism, the Great War, piracy on the high seas, Prohibition, Victorian England, Medieval Europe and the great ocean liners of the early 20th Century, among others), and fiction, much of which tends to be historical fiction (ie. this sort of thing) these days. So the attraction of what amounts to a spy story set in the 18th Century and involves the Chevalier d'Eon and a heavily disguised Benjamin Franklin ought to be fairly obvious. That I was then able to set part of it in Bermuda only sweetened the deal.
Why disguise Benjamin? Well, the answer has nothing to do with worries I may have had about plunging a real person into the depths. After all, the real person did have (nebulous) links with Dashwood's Hell Fire Club and may or may not have been involved in espionage, both of which subjects are important parts of the scenario. No, the reason for changing the character was that, as written, the odds were fairly high he'd die (though of course in an RPG scenario nothing is certain) and I didn't feel entirely comfortable changing established events to that extent.
One of the major problems with writing for print is how to get the characters in the same room following the same plot. Many of the old Chaosium scenarios assumed that the characters were 'into that sort of thing' and were likely to take a leave of absence from their jobs and scuttle off to, oh, Mississippi, or Maylasia, at the least hint (delivered by newspaper clipping, more often than not) that Something Wicked This Way Went. There wasn't any attempt to rationalize it. While this does have its good points - frankly I'm not sure you need to rationalize that sort of thing - it does create an atmosphere of desperate cliche right at the start of the session, which really isn't something you as Keeper want to foster. It's the horror equivalent of going to the travellers inn and talking to the mysterious man in the hooded cloak, and not (for example) the barmaid with the bubbly personality who doesn't have an adventure hook but does seem like more fun to be around.
Another option is to be summoned to the plot location by a dear old friend. This has been done more than once, and starts off at least one famous campaign. I've used it myself in Brick Kiln, though I tried to add to it by saying that the dear old friend wanted them to value something he'd picked up in France. Again, it's not a bad way to start a game, and it does get them all in the same room at the same time, but it has been used many times now and is starting to look frayed.
A third is pure accident: the characters end up at the plot location by chance and then have to deal with what follows. I used this in Not So Quiet, and it's an important part of the scenario Mr Corbitt in Mansions of Madness. I like it as a concept, but it's the sort of thing you can only really get away with in one-shots or in the opening scenario of a campaign. Otherwise it starts to feel as though the characters are the unluckiest group of misfits since Scooby Doo, wandering by simple chance from disaster area to disaster area.
A fourth, which is the Hell Fire option, is to start with the characters already up to their necks in trouble, forcing them to start swimming or drown. As they're already heavily involved in the plot (or what appears to be the plot) they've every reason to start working together, since if they strike out on their own they probably won't make it. I haven't seen this in published scenarios that often. The Cthulhu Now scenario In Media Res, first published in the Unspeakable Oath issue 10, uses it, and there are others. The idea lends itself to pregenerated characters but I suppose there's no reason why that has to be so. Nor does it have to be a one-shot; you could start a decent Golden Dawn or Delta Green campaign that way. Of course it does assume that all the characters have broadly similar beliefs or tastes. In a Golden Dawn setting all the characters would have to be members of that occult group, while in Hell Fire the protagonists are all members of the same Club.
The trick is that whatever option you (as writer) choose, it has to be sufficiently open to cover all the bases. You don't know what player characters will come tramping through the front door, not bothering to wipe their boots and tracking mud all over the clues. It might be one of several scenarios in someone's campaign, or it might be a one-shot. They could be anybody. A group of tweedy academics from Miskatonic, professional spook hunters a la Carnacki, or a few darn kids and their talking dog; the list is endless, but the point is you have to consider all possibilities, and close off as few of them as possible. So you can't afford to be too picky, when it comes to the opening scenes. Yes, the dear old friend ploy may be riddled with cliche, as might the funeral gambit or the haunted house scenario. That shouldn't matter. What should matter is efficiency: does this format serve the purpose of getting the group to the plot as quickly as possible? If the answer is yes, then go for it.
In RPG writing, the plot is what's important. The opening scenes are just a means to an end. This is slightly different from fiction writing, in which the opening sentence is supposed to be where you put your wow factor; in fiction, you're trying to tempt the reader into reading the whole thing, so the first thing they see is critical to your success. In RPG writing, that isn't so. The characters will never know what your first sentence was, and they certainly won't care too much about the ropey opening scene if what follows is sufficiently engaging. People soon forget about the desperate, threadbare nature of the plot hook in Masks of Nyarlathotep (for example) because once they're invovled in the plot it occupies all of their attention, and to this day Masks is considered one of the best Call of Cthulhu campaigns out there.
Of course, if the players don't like the plot, they'll probably also complain about the opening scenes, but that's just them babbling. They didn't like the whole of it, so they'll pick apart the whole of it. At that stage it doesn't matter if the opening scenes were first class or rubbish; they're just part of the target area which they're currently carpet bombing.
That's enough of that, I think. Next time, something other than RPG stuff!
I thought I'd talk a little bit about the scenario writing process, and use Hell Fire as an example.
When I first pitched to Pelgrane, lo these many moons ago, it was for the scenario that eventually became Brick Kiln and appeared in the Unspeakable Oath. It didn't really appeal to the folks at Pelgrane, as it felt a bit too much like a haunted house scenario, and they were trying to steer clear of those. Then we talked about The Zeppelin Raid, a scenario which has yet to see the light of day and is based on a painting I saw at the Queen's House in Greenwich, London. Initial response was positive as they thought there were actually zeppelins in the scenario, something I hadn't really planned on, and parts of that idea were recycled into Suited and Booted, a Call of Cthulhu scenario that, as luck would have it, also ended up in that same issue of the Unspeakable Oath. From zeppelins war stories inevitably followed, and I successfully pitched Not So Quiet, which is now part of the Out of Time collection.
Since then we've talked about several other projects, one of which became Hell Fire.
I enjoy history. My personal bookshelves are split about 50/50 these days between history, (a broad term in which I lump such diverse subjects as stage magic, occultism, the Great War, piracy on the high seas, Prohibition, Victorian England, Medieval Europe and the great ocean liners of the early 20th Century, among others), and fiction, much of which tends to be historical fiction (ie. this sort of thing) these days. So the attraction of what amounts to a spy story set in the 18th Century and involves the Chevalier d'Eon and a heavily disguised Benjamin Franklin ought to be fairly obvious. That I was then able to set part of it in Bermuda only sweetened the deal.
Why disguise Benjamin? Well, the answer has nothing to do with worries I may have had about plunging a real person into the depths. After all, the real person did have (nebulous) links with Dashwood's Hell Fire Club and may or may not have been involved in espionage, both of which subjects are important parts of the scenario. No, the reason for changing the character was that, as written, the odds were fairly high he'd die (though of course in an RPG scenario nothing is certain) and I didn't feel entirely comfortable changing established events to that extent.
One of the major problems with writing for print is how to get the characters in the same room following the same plot. Many of the old Chaosium scenarios assumed that the characters were 'into that sort of thing' and were likely to take a leave of absence from their jobs and scuttle off to, oh, Mississippi, or Maylasia, at the least hint (delivered by newspaper clipping, more often than not) that Something Wicked This Way Went. There wasn't any attempt to rationalize it. While this does have its good points - frankly I'm not sure you need to rationalize that sort of thing - it does create an atmosphere of desperate cliche right at the start of the session, which really isn't something you as Keeper want to foster. It's the horror equivalent of going to the travellers inn and talking to the mysterious man in the hooded cloak, and not (for example) the barmaid with the bubbly personality who doesn't have an adventure hook but does seem like more fun to be around.
Another option is to be summoned to the plot location by a dear old friend. This has been done more than once, and starts off at least one famous campaign. I've used it myself in Brick Kiln, though I tried to add to it by saying that the dear old friend wanted them to value something he'd picked up in France. Again, it's not a bad way to start a game, and it does get them all in the same room at the same time, but it has been used many times now and is starting to look frayed.
A third is pure accident: the characters end up at the plot location by chance and then have to deal with what follows. I used this in Not So Quiet, and it's an important part of the scenario Mr Corbitt in Mansions of Madness. I like it as a concept, but it's the sort of thing you can only really get away with in one-shots or in the opening scenario of a campaign. Otherwise it starts to feel as though the characters are the unluckiest group of misfits since Scooby Doo, wandering by simple chance from disaster area to disaster area.
A fourth, which is the Hell Fire option, is to start with the characters already up to their necks in trouble, forcing them to start swimming or drown. As they're already heavily involved in the plot (or what appears to be the plot) they've every reason to start working together, since if they strike out on their own they probably won't make it. I haven't seen this in published scenarios that often. The Cthulhu Now scenario In Media Res, first published in the Unspeakable Oath issue 10, uses it, and there are others. The idea lends itself to pregenerated characters but I suppose there's no reason why that has to be so. Nor does it have to be a one-shot; you could start a decent Golden Dawn or Delta Green campaign that way. Of course it does assume that all the characters have broadly similar beliefs or tastes. In a Golden Dawn setting all the characters would have to be members of that occult group, while in Hell Fire the protagonists are all members of the same Club.
The trick is that whatever option you (as writer) choose, it has to be sufficiently open to cover all the bases. You don't know what player characters will come tramping through the front door, not bothering to wipe their boots and tracking mud all over the clues. It might be one of several scenarios in someone's campaign, or it might be a one-shot. They could be anybody. A group of tweedy academics from Miskatonic, professional spook hunters a la Carnacki, or a few darn kids and their talking dog; the list is endless, but the point is you have to consider all possibilities, and close off as few of them as possible. So you can't afford to be too picky, when it comes to the opening scenes. Yes, the dear old friend ploy may be riddled with cliche, as might the funeral gambit or the haunted house scenario. That shouldn't matter. What should matter is efficiency: does this format serve the purpose of getting the group to the plot as quickly as possible? If the answer is yes, then go for it.
In RPG writing, the plot is what's important. The opening scenes are just a means to an end. This is slightly different from fiction writing, in which the opening sentence is supposed to be where you put your wow factor; in fiction, you're trying to tempt the reader into reading the whole thing, so the first thing they see is critical to your success. In RPG writing, that isn't so. The characters will never know what your first sentence was, and they certainly won't care too much about the ropey opening scene if what follows is sufficiently engaging. People soon forget about the desperate, threadbare nature of the plot hook in Masks of Nyarlathotep (for example) because once they're invovled in the plot it occupies all of their attention, and to this day Masks is considered one of the best Call of Cthulhu campaigns out there.
Of course, if the players don't like the plot, they'll probably also complain about the opening scenes, but that's just them babbling. They didn't like the whole of it, so they'll pick apart the whole of it. At that stage it doesn't matter if the opening scenes were first class or rubbish; they're just part of the target area which they're currently carpet bombing.
That's enough of that, I think. Next time, something other than RPG stuff!
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Trail of Cthulhu
I've written a few things for Trail in the last year or so. Not So Quiet is already in electronic print, and is now one of the scenarios in Pelgrane's Out of Time compilation. Other Pelgrane projects are in playtest stage, including a few Great War scenarios and a historical piece set just before the American Revolution. The Unspeakable Oath has published another Trail scenario, The Brick Kiln. I also helped with the map indexing for Bookhounds of London, a suppliment I very much admire.I've been discussing other projects with Pelgrane and those may come to fruition; if they do, they'll probably see print next year, as I haven't finished writing the most recent one. What with playtesting, layout, editing and other issues, I don't see that getting done before Christmas.
I suppose I ought to discuss Trail as a system, and say why I've grown to like it more than its parent RPG system, Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium). As this is where I discuss books, I'll treat Trail to the Bookshelf format. So, here goes!
My copy is the 2008 hardback edition, with Jerome Huguenin's evocative artwork on the cover. I think I bought this at Dragonmeet in London, which would mean I had it the same year it came out. I remember being a little reluctant. Not that I didn't like it - I did - but I was between jobs then and I was money conscious. For some reason the Yankee Dollar price and the GBP price for RPG stuff tends to be roughly the same, which means the book cost me forty quid, roundabout. That was about thirty nine quid more than I really wanted to spend on anything, leave alone a system I knew little about beyond a few favourable words on Yog-Sothoth. However I bit the bullet, though when the fella behind the counter tried to persuade me to buy something else I declined. I suppose I ought to regret that, since whatever it was is certainly out of print by now. I don't. I've never been very good at impulse buying. I tend to keep my hand on my wallet and smile politely.
Though I suppose if you want to look at it in crude money terms then the cash I've earned from scenario sales by now outweighs the initial investment by at least a hundred to one. So there's that. If only everything I invested in had the same result!
The book is well put together and sturdy, which is saying something for the RPG market. The binding is stitch, not glue, and it stands up to hard wear. I've owned hardback suppliments that collapsed after three or four months, shedding pages like a dog does fleas. In fact, the only other time in my recollection that I've bought a hardback RPG book which actually took punishment was when I bought the AD&D DMG, Player's Handbook and Monster Manuals. I've still got those in a box somewhere. The pages may be yellowed, but they never once fell apart, despite the hundreds of hours they spent being knocked around at school or dragged from house to house. Hopefully this book will last as long.
The rules are based on Robin Laws' GUMSHOE system, which tends to emphasise roleplay over dice rolling. In GUMSHOE each player character has a certain number of points spread over several investigative abilities. When an ability is used, the player is supposed to spend a point and describe how he's going about the investigation. So if it's a situation where X is in a shady part of town trying to track down a hired gunman, he might say something like: "I go to my usual haunts, chasing up snitches. I spread a little payola around, because what else are you going to do? Whisper sweet nothings in their ears?" Then a Streetwise point is spent (representing the character's known interest in snitches and shady places), and the result of his investigations is adjudicated by the Keeper. It's a fairly simple system which doesn't need dice to make it work, most of the time. The key thing is, it lends itself to player control. It was the player who decided to have a point in Streetwise, the player who decided, not just to spend it, but how it was spent.
That's the key issue for me. I prefer a roleplay style of game. Anything that promotes roleplay is aces in my book, and leaving the responsibility in the hands of the player makes things very interesting. The Keeper has to think of more eventualities, anticipate players' responses to the ongoing plot. The players have to take responsibility for their characters' actions; it isn't just a roll of the dice any more. If anything, the GUMSHOE design reminds me not a little of the old Troupe style of play popularised by Ars Magica. In that game, everyone had responsibility for world design as well as character design. Building a covenant of magi was a group activity, based on point spend with a set budget. The group had to decide what they had and did not have, and in the process they ended up describing a fair part of the world they lived in. So too here with Trail, except that now the group is de-emphasised and the individual has control.
Take the Streetwise example. The player only spent one point, enough to get the information. If the player had spent two points, they could have had the information and also bought themselves an additional asset - the Black Cat Club, for example, and its owner Jack Quimper, half-French former crook turned solid citizen, who passes the player the information and also says that the gunman will be in the Black Cat later on, as he always shows up when Lola's singing. The player gets the Black Cat, which he can return to again and again in future scenarios. The game world gets a new location, which the Keeper can then plan around for his own nefarious purposes. It's a brilliant idea, and one I wish more players were courageous enough to use.
The other standout for me is the game's treatment of its bestiary. The Cthulhu universe is well populated, and by now veteran players will have worked out what most of the creatures can and cannot do. Trail specifically encourages the Keeper to "rework the creature to suit the setting or the scenario, keeping their basic nature the same. Should ghouls be albino, almost insectoid creatures like Morlocks, and attack subway trains instead of grave robbers? Should byakhee emerge from deep wells or simply assemble themselves out of trace metals and corpses in the vicinity? How does the Colour work as the Sound out of Space?"
This is giving the Keeper carte blanche to do as they like. Of course, Keepers have always had that power, but they battled against player expecation. If the players know that X is X, then they're justifiably suspicious when X suddenly resembles Y, or Z. For much the same reason rolling dice behind the Keeper's screen is perilous, as is fudging die rolls. The fudge itself isn't the problem. The issue is the Keeper's basic sense of fairness. If the players get even a whiff of an idea that the Keeper isn't playing by the same rules they are, they'll start wondering whether the result of the last few dice rolls had more to do with a personal vendetta than good game play. Once that idea gets into people's heads it's impossible to dislodge, and can ruin a long-running game. This way, both sides know ahead of time that the Keeper may change things to suit the situation and the rules allow for that to happen. The fairness issue is taken off the table.
Moreover the statistics are streamlined. There's just enough here to be useful and not enough to be cumbersome, while some entities have no statistics at all, on the understanding that the Keeper has the final word as to what it can and cannot do. This speeds things along while keeping the player in control, since the existing stats are less 'what It can do' as modifiers to the player's dice roll. The Stealth Modifier affects the player's chance to Sense Trouble, its Alertness Modifier affects the player's chance to Sneak. That and a small scattering of abilities and armour is the sum total of most creatures' write-up.
Now, pros and cons.
Pro One: This is a well-designed roleplay system which puts emphasis on player's actions and responses, as well as encouraging more Role (and less Roll) play. People looking for a less dice-heavy game should look no further.
Pro Two: It's a very faithful adaptation of Cthulhu mythology. I haven't discussed the Sanity and Stability mechanics in any detail, but they do work well in a Purist setting, where the assumption is that everyone is doomed from the outset as the Horrors reveal themselves. It also lends itself nicely to a more Pulp style game, particularly if the Bookhounds of London suppliment is used.
Pro Three: The emphasis on storytelling and scenes rather than dungeon crawling is a welcome change. Veterans of CoC may remember some of the older scenarios with their vast, mapped-out locations crawling with unspeakable things, and shudder as I do not at the horror but at the prospect of working through the bloody thing room by room and corridor by corridor, changing characters every third or forth chamber as the previous ones get et. This isn't that sort of game.
Con One: While not strictly diceless, it is remarkably dice free. That will be a turn-off to some gamers.
Con Two: The players may be overwhelmed at first by the amount of responsibility put on their shoulders. Gamers are used to the Keeper doing most of the work. They sometimes seem afraid to spend points, or reluctant to embrace the challenge. This can be a stumbling block at first, though overcoming it (provided everyone's willing) isn't impossible.
That's it from me! Have a good one.
I suppose I ought to discuss Trail as a system, and say why I've grown to like it more than its parent RPG system, Call of Cthulhu (Chaosium). As this is where I discuss books, I'll treat Trail to the Bookshelf format. So, here goes!
My copy is the 2008 hardback edition, with Jerome Huguenin's evocative artwork on the cover. I think I bought this at Dragonmeet in London, which would mean I had it the same year it came out. I remember being a little reluctant. Not that I didn't like it - I did - but I was between jobs then and I was money conscious. For some reason the Yankee Dollar price and the GBP price for RPG stuff tends to be roughly the same, which means the book cost me forty quid, roundabout. That was about thirty nine quid more than I really wanted to spend on anything, leave alone a system I knew little about beyond a few favourable words on Yog-Sothoth. However I bit the bullet, though when the fella behind the counter tried to persuade me to buy something else I declined. I suppose I ought to regret that, since whatever it was is certainly out of print by now. I don't. I've never been very good at impulse buying. I tend to keep my hand on my wallet and smile politely.
Though I suppose if you want to look at it in crude money terms then the cash I've earned from scenario sales by now outweighs the initial investment by at least a hundred to one. So there's that. If only everything I invested in had the same result!
The book is well put together and sturdy, which is saying something for the RPG market. The binding is stitch, not glue, and it stands up to hard wear. I've owned hardback suppliments that collapsed after three or four months, shedding pages like a dog does fleas. In fact, the only other time in my recollection that I've bought a hardback RPG book which actually took punishment was when I bought the AD&D DMG, Player's Handbook and Monster Manuals. I've still got those in a box somewhere. The pages may be yellowed, but they never once fell apart, despite the hundreds of hours they spent being knocked around at school or dragged from house to house. Hopefully this book will last as long.
The rules are based on Robin Laws' GUMSHOE system, which tends to emphasise roleplay over dice rolling. In GUMSHOE each player character has a certain number of points spread over several investigative abilities. When an ability is used, the player is supposed to spend a point and describe how he's going about the investigation. So if it's a situation where X is in a shady part of town trying to track down a hired gunman, he might say something like: "I go to my usual haunts, chasing up snitches. I spread a little payola around, because what else are you going to do? Whisper sweet nothings in their ears?" Then a Streetwise point is spent (representing the character's known interest in snitches and shady places), and the result of his investigations is adjudicated by the Keeper. It's a fairly simple system which doesn't need dice to make it work, most of the time. The key thing is, it lends itself to player control. It was the player who decided to have a point in Streetwise, the player who decided, not just to spend it, but how it was spent.
That's the key issue for me. I prefer a roleplay style of game. Anything that promotes roleplay is aces in my book, and leaving the responsibility in the hands of the player makes things very interesting. The Keeper has to think of more eventualities, anticipate players' responses to the ongoing plot. The players have to take responsibility for their characters' actions; it isn't just a roll of the dice any more. If anything, the GUMSHOE design reminds me not a little of the old Troupe style of play popularised by Ars Magica. In that game, everyone had responsibility for world design as well as character design. Building a covenant of magi was a group activity, based on point spend with a set budget. The group had to decide what they had and did not have, and in the process they ended up describing a fair part of the world they lived in. So too here with Trail, except that now the group is de-emphasised and the individual has control.
Take the Streetwise example. The player only spent one point, enough to get the information. If the player had spent two points, they could have had the information and also bought themselves an additional asset - the Black Cat Club, for example, and its owner Jack Quimper, half-French former crook turned solid citizen, who passes the player the information and also says that the gunman will be in the Black Cat later on, as he always shows up when Lola's singing. The player gets the Black Cat, which he can return to again and again in future scenarios. The game world gets a new location, which the Keeper can then plan around for his own nefarious purposes. It's a brilliant idea, and one I wish more players were courageous enough to use.
The other standout for me is the game's treatment of its bestiary. The Cthulhu universe is well populated, and by now veteran players will have worked out what most of the creatures can and cannot do. Trail specifically encourages the Keeper to "rework the creature to suit the setting or the scenario, keeping their basic nature the same. Should ghouls be albino, almost insectoid creatures like Morlocks, and attack subway trains instead of grave robbers? Should byakhee emerge from deep wells or simply assemble themselves out of trace metals and corpses in the vicinity? How does the Colour work as the Sound out of Space?"
This is giving the Keeper carte blanche to do as they like. Of course, Keepers have always had that power, but they battled against player expecation. If the players know that X is X, then they're justifiably suspicious when X suddenly resembles Y, or Z. For much the same reason rolling dice behind the Keeper's screen is perilous, as is fudging die rolls. The fudge itself isn't the problem. The issue is the Keeper's basic sense of fairness. If the players get even a whiff of an idea that the Keeper isn't playing by the same rules they are, they'll start wondering whether the result of the last few dice rolls had more to do with a personal vendetta than good game play. Once that idea gets into people's heads it's impossible to dislodge, and can ruin a long-running game. This way, both sides know ahead of time that the Keeper may change things to suit the situation and the rules allow for that to happen. The fairness issue is taken off the table.
Moreover the statistics are streamlined. There's just enough here to be useful and not enough to be cumbersome, while some entities have no statistics at all, on the understanding that the Keeper has the final word as to what it can and cannot do. This speeds things along while keeping the player in control, since the existing stats are less 'what It can do' as modifiers to the player's dice roll. The Stealth Modifier affects the player's chance to Sense Trouble, its Alertness Modifier affects the player's chance to Sneak. That and a small scattering of abilities and armour is the sum total of most creatures' write-up.
Now, pros and cons.
Pro One: This is a well-designed roleplay system which puts emphasis on player's actions and responses, as well as encouraging more Role (and less Roll) play. People looking for a less dice-heavy game should look no further.
Pro Two: It's a very faithful adaptation of Cthulhu mythology. I haven't discussed the Sanity and Stability mechanics in any detail, but they do work well in a Purist setting, where the assumption is that everyone is doomed from the outset as the Horrors reveal themselves. It also lends itself nicely to a more Pulp style game, particularly if the Bookhounds of London suppliment is used.
Pro Three: The emphasis on storytelling and scenes rather than dungeon crawling is a welcome change. Veterans of CoC may remember some of the older scenarios with their vast, mapped-out locations crawling with unspeakable things, and shudder as I do not at the horror but at the prospect of working through the bloody thing room by room and corridor by corridor, changing characters every third or forth chamber as the previous ones get et. This isn't that sort of game.
Con One: While not strictly diceless, it is remarkably dice free. That will be a turn-off to some gamers.
Con Two: The players may be overwhelmed at first by the amount of responsibility put on their shoulders. Gamers are used to the Keeper doing most of the work. They sometimes seem afraid to spend points, or reluctant to embrace the challenge. This can be a stumbling block at first, though overcoming it (provided everyone's willing) isn't impossible.
That's it from me! Have a good one.
Friday, 29 July 2011
The Old Ousatonic - Spine
Now I'm going to talk about the final piece of the Trail puzzle: the Spine. For the Old Ousatonic, this is as follows:
The Call: Core Scene. The protagonists are contacted by Richard Fulton, a fellow stockholder, and are told that the Ousatonic stock that they own may be worth something after all.Fulton
I both do and do not like the Spine, as a game concept. I can certainly see how useful it could be to the Keeper. This, with the possible addition of a spreadsheet, gives a clear picture of the scenario's contents and how they all fit together to make a cohesive whole. Keepers who fear they might get lost in the details will find the Spine a godsend.
My concern is, the Spine isn't uniform. Each scenario writer has their own idea of what a Spine ought to look like. The Ousatonic's Spine is broadly similar to the Spine in The Kingsbury Horror, found in the core rulebook. It gives the title of each scene and a brief description of what might be found therein. Incidentally this is also why I give my scenes such descriptive titles. The Ghost is a bland descriptor that might be overlooked when searching in haste through the scenario book. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, less so, particularly since it ties to an old Don Knotts comedy about a fake haunted house, and the scene happens to be about a fake haunting.
The Spines in Stunning Eldritch Tales, on the other hand, are nothing like that. Some of them are barely a paragraph long, the kind of paragraph that reads andnowthishappenedthenthatohandbytheway. Others are a collection of bullet points, barely fifty words long. I don't pretend to have read every single published scenario, but I'd bet money that Graham Walmsley, for example, has a completely different take on the Spine to say, Robin Laws. I'd feel happier if we were all singing from the same hymn sheet on this one.
That, and I can't help but think the Spine takes up a lot of space. This doesn't matter so much for a .pdf product, where word count isn't a problem. It matters a lot when writing for other publications, like The Unspeakable Oath, where word count is strictly monitored. Every word spent on the Spine is one that can't be used in the scenario. This probably isn't a problem that will occur often, since I'm fairly sure the Oath is the only outlet besides Pelgrane itself for this material. Still, a market's a market, and Oath readers are just as likely as anyone else to be intrigued by a new Cthulhu game; all the more reason to make sure Trail material gets in the Oath.
That said, from a writer's perspective, creating a Spine helps focus the mind. Starting from the Introduction, it's easy sometimes to get lost, wandering through forests of the mind and praying for a breadcrumb trail. The Spine helps avoid that, by forcing the writer to lay the trail and then do the actual writing. So by the time it comes to write that scene where the protagonists discover the corpse of accountant Klein, I already know where that fits into the overall plot, and what it leads to. It simplifies the writing process.
Going back to the Ousatonic, remember when I mentioned earlier that the Colour would have to be encountered accidentally? Some players might be fooled into thinking that 'there's no Mythos here!' After all, the initial hook and follow-on scenes don't have any real beasties for them to encounter. However there are little hints scattered here and there, in scenes like The 1849 Disaster and Trouble in Paradise, which will tip off clever players that all's not well. However they will have to be clever players, and here's the rub: very few players are as clever as they like to think they are. Most, in my experience, are either blinded by their own brilliance or in too much of a hurry to think about the implications of the information they have in front of them.
Of course, that's when the Keeper needs to hit them, and hit them hard, with the consequences of hasty action.
Keepers who want to read the complete text of the Old Ousatonic can find it here.
The Spine
The Call: Core Scene. The protagonists are contacted by Richard Fulton, a fellow stockholder, and are told that the Ousatonic stock that they own may be worth something after all.
Train Enthusiasts: Core Scene. The protagonists discover that they aren’t the only shareholders who were contacted by Fulton
Mishap or Murder? Protagonists who use Cop Talk or similar in the previous scene may investigate Fulton
A Meeting of Minds: Core Scene. Other Ousatonic shareholders meet with the protagonists to discuss their options, but all are pessimistic. The stock hasn’t been worth a dime in forty years, and the older among them blame the Waterwitch. Connected scenes: Crooked Accountancy, The Waterwitch Curse.
Crooked Accountancy: Protagonists who investigate the Ousatonic stock further discover that the shares are being quietly bought up by persons unknown, via a shady accountancy practice, Gilmore & Klein. This may lead to an antagonist reaction from the private investigator, Gerry Packer. Connected scenes: The Truth – Or Is It? and The Unpleasantness of being Klein.
The Truth – Or Is It? The protagonists discover that the cabal want the stock because the New York , New Haven
The Unpleasantness of being Klein: If the protagonists follow up on the Gilmore & Klein connection from Crooked Accountancy, they find Klein has been murdered (by Packer, though they may not realize that), and that his Ousatonic paperwork has gone missing.
The Waterwitch Curse: This is a blind alley which the protagonists may follow, if convinced that a decades-old curse has something to do with their current problem. They can learn all about the canal boatman’s curse, and the 1849 train wreck that it is supposed to have caused. However they may discover an important clue: the astronomer Morgan Hatfield was also interested in the Waterwitch. What connection does he have? This may lead to The 1849 Disaster and Trouble in Paradise .
The 1849 Disaster: The protagonists can, if they wish, visit the site of the 1849 train wreck that put an end to the Ousatonic railroad. This doesn’t have any actual significance, and is an extension of The Waterwitch Curse blind alley. However they may discover further clues: an unusual fish kill, which provides further evidence of Colour involvement.
The Ghost and Mr Chicken Antagonist Reaction In which the ghostly boatman makes his final appearance, courtesy of the cabal.
The Packer Ultimatum: Antagonist Reaction Gerry Packer, now a double murderer, intends to make the big play. He’ll use what he knows to blackmail the cabal, but for that to work, he needs to deal with the protagonists. So long as they keep poking around there’s a risk they’ll connect him with the killings. Packer has several alternative reactions, depending on protagonist involvement.
Trouble in Paradise : The protagonists, following on The Waterwitch Curse, learn more about Morgan Hatfield. They discover that he recently stole an artifact from a museum and has since disappeared; nobody, not even his fiancée, knows where he is. His apartment tells an odd story; clues there may help protagonists when they reach Wither Jones? and beyond.
Wither Jones? Core Scene. The protagonists trace surveyor Jones. Is he somehow mixed up in the Ousatonic fraud, or is he connected with the Waterwitch curse? The truth is he fell into a trap, accidentally set by the astronomer Hatfield, and was badly affected by the Colour. If the protagonists don’t rescue him, he’ll escape and live long enough to give clues that lead to The Canal House.
The Canal House: Core Scene. Possibly for the first time, the protagonists discover what they are truly up against. They find Hatfield’s final resting place, in the old Canal House, and discover his last letter to his fiancée, in which he details what has happened to drive him to this desperate step. Connected scenes: Trapped.
Trapped: Antagonist Reaction. The Colour makes itself manifest, and attempts to drain the protagonists’ life energy. The Colour is traced back to its hiding place, the forgotten Red Rock Canal
Postscript: A final resolution, in which the true value of the Old Ousatonic is revealed, and the Colour (possibly) dealt with.
I both do and do not like the Spine, as a game concept. I can certainly see how useful it could be to the Keeper. This, with the possible addition of a spreadsheet, gives a clear picture of the scenario's contents and how they all fit together to make a cohesive whole. Keepers who fear they might get lost in the details will find the Spine a godsend.
My concern is, the Spine isn't uniform. Each scenario writer has their own idea of what a Spine ought to look like. The Ousatonic's Spine is broadly similar to the Spine in The Kingsbury Horror, found in the core rulebook. It gives the title of each scene and a brief description of what might be found therein. Incidentally this is also why I give my scenes such descriptive titles. The Ghost is a bland descriptor that might be overlooked when searching in haste through the scenario book. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken, less so, particularly since it ties to an old Don Knotts comedy about a fake haunted house, and the scene happens to be about a fake haunting.
The Spines in Stunning Eldritch Tales, on the other hand, are nothing like that. Some of them are barely a paragraph long, the kind of paragraph that reads andnowthishappenedthenthatohandbytheway. Others are a collection of bullet points, barely fifty words long. I don't pretend to have read every single published scenario, but I'd bet money that Graham Walmsley, for example, has a completely different take on the Spine to say, Robin Laws. I'd feel happier if we were all singing from the same hymn sheet on this one.
That, and I can't help but think the Spine takes up a lot of space. This doesn't matter so much for a .pdf product, where word count isn't a problem. It matters a lot when writing for other publications, like The Unspeakable Oath, where word count is strictly monitored. Every word spent on the Spine is one that can't be used in the scenario. This probably isn't a problem that will occur often, since I'm fairly sure the Oath is the only outlet besides Pelgrane itself for this material. Still, a market's a market, and Oath readers are just as likely as anyone else to be intrigued by a new Cthulhu game; all the more reason to make sure Trail material gets in the Oath.
That said, from a writer's perspective, creating a Spine helps focus the mind. Starting from the Introduction, it's easy sometimes to get lost, wandering through forests of the mind and praying for a breadcrumb trail. The Spine helps avoid that, by forcing the writer to lay the trail and then do the actual writing. So by the time it comes to write that scene where the protagonists discover the corpse of accountant Klein, I already know where that fits into the overall plot, and what it leads to. It simplifies the writing process.
Going back to the Ousatonic, remember when I mentioned earlier that the Colour would have to be encountered accidentally? Some players might be fooled into thinking that 'there's no Mythos here!' After all, the initial hook and follow-on scenes don't have any real beasties for them to encounter. However there are little hints scattered here and there, in scenes like The 1849 Disaster and Trouble in Paradise, which will tip off clever players that all's not well. However they will have to be clever players, and here's the rub: very few players are as clever as they like to think they are. Most, in my experience, are either blinded by their own brilliance or in too much of a hurry to think about the implications of the information they have in front of them.
Of course, that's when the Keeper needs to hit them, and hit them hard, with the consequences of hasty action.
Keepers who want to read the complete text of the Old Ousatonic can find it here.
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