A game over the holidays

[Marco]

This holiday I played in two excellent games. This is an analysis of the second.

There were three kingdoms. This is the fourth. Mars is baren. Europa has huge, dark inverted pyramids under the ice--it is desolate as well--but there are signals: something is waiting.

What was the third?

The third? The third was here, on earth. It came before us and fortold our coming. You knew us as Titans. We changed the world so that you could exist.

--Jake Prime talking to Jake

System: generalist, simulationist, point-based.

Premise: "What kind of game do you want?"
             "Cross the X-Files with Hellraiser."

Character Concepts: Powerful, cinematic characters (100pts, about double a beginning heroic character). They were novice FBI agents (modern day) with a fair amount of unusual (but not parnaormal abilities).

Character 1: Olivia Stake -- female agent. Had joined the marines and tried to go into a special operations group (like GI Jane) but there was no program so when she left she entered the FBI. Expert firearms, Karate, and observational skills. Wierd Trait: maxed out intuition--almost a psychic ability.

Character 2: Jake Frost -- male agent. His father was a card-magician who was mixed up with a voodoo-like church and was killed by them. The character, at a young age had tried to extract revenge, partially succeeded, but been unable to do anything about it. He had (using skills his father taught him) entertained work as a grifter--but decided to honor his father's name and gone into law enforcement instead. Weird Traits: some instinct, some combat enchancers, ability to throw playing cards as knives.

Notes: Being told to make cinematic characters who were a bit on the weird side codified into 100pts with 8pts of Wierd Stuff. It was, it seems, a pretty good way of determining just how weird and just how cinematic.  The characters, despite having lots of the same skills played in a much different fashion (Oliva was a crack-shot Expert shooter, Jake was merely compotnent. Both had similar raw skill rolls. Olivia fought karate, Jake was a street-fighter--both styles fought differently in practice, etc.)

Opening: We were two junior agents picked by a senior agent who was known for making excellent 'rookie picks.' Our part was a tiny one in a larger operation: we were to "babysit" an informant and provide surveilance backup to a newbie (but more senior) agent.

The operation was to attempt to insert the senior agent, posing as a young financial analysist, into a hollywood stock-scam involving personalized customized vacations for the rich and famous at an exclusive resort. Our informant "seemed to think he was an FBI agent" and was eager to get her in (he was making the introductions) but wanted a piece of the 'action'"

We were to stick with him, stay in his apartment, and keep him under control.

Notes: This was well done with a listing of the people involved and the power-structure they fell into (notable were the Murphy Brothers who were running the show and their psycho-analyst to the stars Dr. Apata who was strange looking). The conflicts were set up:

1. Our first mission was babysitting of the highest order--a lousy job.
2. Our newbie-Senior agent (Michelle) was a *advancement hungry* go-getter. She was portrayed (with very few strokes) as a serious type-A personality who saw herself as being in charge of the case although she wasn't. The person she was *pretending* to be was a lot like her (obvious to us--but she didn't see it).
3. Our superiors were fleshed out well (again with few brush strokes).

Problems / Questions: FBI Procedure is a tough one. The GM knew a lot about operations in general (MI background) but it's hard to say how exactly the FBI would handle certain things. I wondered about this. It turns out he based the crime on a real one--a little reasearch goes a long way. The Patriot act came up twice in the game.

Act 1: Arrival
We arrived in LA and went to meet Darren, our ward. When we arrived at his apartment he wasn't there (despite being told to meet the agents). He was on parolle so if he didn't cooperate we could have him locked up--but he had realized he had a lot of leeway: he was valuable to the operation.

Michelle split off and we waited for him. When he showed up he was a somewhat amusing, slick Kato Kalin type. He took us to his favorite night-club (a green glowing tower called Xenophillia) and introduced us as friends from out of town--we wound up paying for everything when his credit cards were declined (he knew this would happen). Our characters were annoyed at being stuck with this guy and they were bored. Our players weren't--the GM kept things funny an amusing (meeting haughty 'models' who, Darren told us, were only known for their toes) was interesting.  We also answered questions about our covers (asked by the people who he introduced us to). This was a good way for our characters to "get into character."

The next day we atteneded an operation planning meeting (good versimilitude). Our ward had left in the early morning and we couldn't locate him (detective skills indicated a missing surf-board and a beautiful day). We received a call from him later: he was in trouble--he'd planned to return early but been grabbed by some low-lifes. We had to go get him out of trouble. What followed was a non-plot-related combat scene.

We returned and the planning session (with agent Michelle being VERY annoyed with Darren and our characters being tired and bored and feeling left out of the plan--we'd be on a boat in the marina manning cameras with the surveilance guys). In the evening, with Jake outside on the balcony smoking and Olivia sitting at attention, running over the mission again and again, we both suddenly 'stopped.'

There was a strange feel in the air. Both of us felt as though it was "snowing..." as though silent, dark snow-flakes were comming down on the hot california night. It was creepy (this was revealed through Intuition rolls which both of us had). We felt something was wrong.

Notes:

The combat was a show-case: our characters got to talk differently, fight differently, etc. There was a great "in-character" gamist moment where I took out a bad-guy in three hits and the other character decided she was "going to do it in two" (this was conversation between the characters). It showcased our character's personalities (my character with criminal tenencies confiscated a lime-green mustang convertible one of the bad-guys was driving and used it for the whole campaign) the by-the-book Olivia couldn't arrest them (we were under cover) but sort of 'read them their rights' anyway. Also: it was fun--our characters were bad-asses and we got to play it out. Finally, it was quick.

Other Notes: the game was lazy about getting started. I found I liked this: we weren't rushed into a conflict. The night-club conversation, leaning on Darren, the combat (which picked up the pace) and the descriptions of the interminable planning (and our reactions to it) set up character for us and the NPC's.

Final Note: It think the GM would have considerd all of this framing--(if the combat could be considered framing). There was a different feel when we got to the surveilance boat.

Act 2: The Murphy's Law
We were in a boat in the marina harbor with shot-gun mikes and telescopic cameras pointed at the Murphy's Law. Our agent (Michelle) was arriving with Darren and the GM managed to create a narrative sense of tension with the cuts from the boat (and notes about the b-list celeberites who arrived "That's Cammeron Crowe's daughter!" as well as music and light descriptions). The voice over from our controller--the surveilance expert--was perfect.

She arrived and was pitched--almost--her initial meeting with the Murphy's was a just short of a bite--they hadn't disclosed enough to get us a warrant to search. The climax (and our play was limited to commentary as to what we were watching) came when, after leaving the inner cabbin (where the sort-of-pitch was done) came when Michelle (undercover as Jennifer Griffon) met with the Psychologist Dr. Apata.

He was described as wearing round yellow sunglasses that flashed like brush-fires on the serengetti. He approached her and was amused--it was like he 'made' her immediately. "You're trouble," he told her ... he was playing with her--she was angry--and desparate. This was her big break (the mission) and it was clear that he had warnned the Murphy's off of her. It *wasn't* clear that he knew she was a government agent--he did have an unsettling habbit of looking at our cameras (all the way across the bay). When we left, she was devastated and enraged. Our senior controllers were being pulled out (due to events surrounding 9-11 and the release of held terrorist suspects) and she was trying for a second-chance to get in with the Murphy's. The Dr., who was creepy, had given her his card and told her if she remained in town he'd accept her as a client for a session.

Back at our hotel HQ, she railed at us and Darren who she beleived had blown he cover (he hadn't--he was slicker than she was). She called Dr. Apata and made an appointemnt. He told her he was in the office tomorrow--Saturday. She said she'd be there. We told her, and felt, this was an incredibly bad idea--and wanted to clear it with our superiors. They had flown out--and put the mission on hold until the emergency in Washington could be sorted out.

The next day, with a sense of doom, we went to the office (a 38 story-highrise and he was on the top). We 'cased' it--the only open common area was on the 5th floor. She would be up on the 38th. We told her it *wasn't* secure. We told her to call it off. She (essentially) misled our superiors and got the green light.

What followed was one of the creepiest secenes I've ever felt in gaming. We were listening as she entered (we were too far away to act).

Dr. Apata, on an intercom, led her into the waiting room (glass doors leading out, a big, ticking grandfather clock, burgundy curtains over the wall). He spoke to her (in a deep, sonorous voice), in the waiting room, over the speaker. It was clear to us that he was in control of the situation--she would do anything he asked for a chance to break the case.

He told her to cross the room to the wall--behind one of the curtains was a leather covered door with metal studs in it. He told her to open it. She did. We were practically screaming at her. Inside the hidden room was a hot-tub surrounded with mirrors. We could hear carnival sounds under the smooth voice of the Doctor.

"Isn't your life hollow? It is, isn't it--look around you--how many of the mirrors are empty?"

"Lots of them, Doctor," (she didn't sound good).

"Concept Entertainment needs Focus, Jennifer. We need Focused Hollow People."

"I'm ... I'm a focused hollow person, Doctor."

He told her to remove her clothes (and the wire) and proceeded through another secret door behind one of the mirrors. We lost her. Panicking, we called for back up.

The FBI team (including us) that entered the building and swept the office found no sign of Agent Michelle or Dr. Apata. The Doctor, in fact, was in the Police station all morning: one of his patients had shot up a wedding reception and blamed his psychiatrist for 'programming him.' Our agent was gone.

Notes: This act was done in 'audience stance' (in a sense). Our characters took almost no direct action--the feeling hinged on our losing the agent, the case, and maybe our careers. It relied on making Dr. Apata seem very real but almost supernaturally dangerous at the same time. The maze of secret doors and our agent kind of sliding in and out of character gave us   the real expectation something horrible would happen. This is the sort of thing that I'd describe as excellent story-telling (in that the story was mostly told) and yet we still felt we were 'in the game.'

Another Note: I was next to a computer with a HUGE MP3 library. I was the 'disk-jockey' for the game and played music appropriate to the scene. It was a cool idea.

--END PART 1

[Marco]

Act 3: Searching for Answers

We had great difficulty getting our superiors on the phone--but they did call. Things were going haywire in Washington (national security) and the Murphy operation and Concept Entertainment were small fry. Even a missing agent wasn't enough to get them out of exectuive-level meetings for more than a few minutes.

The mission was over.

Or was it?

Darren knew the Murphy's and believed he could find out what happened to Agent Michelle--but if his cover was made he was in great danger. We decided to back him up. Wierdly, the Murphy's were looking for Michelle too (her alter-ego) and believed something (we didn't know what) had gone wrong.

There were scenes where the three of us met the Murphy's and Dr. Apata. He wasn't the evil-genius we'd seen him as on the boat (and he wasn't wearing his Serengetti glasses--but we didn't put that together until later). There was detective work--that turned out that Jennifer Griffon (our agent's cover) had checked herself in at the Europa spa in Hollywood.

The Europa Spa was an emotional-breakdown/substance abuse rehab center catering to (mostly) European clients. We went in and met with Dr. Taylor (again in our cover ID's--the Murphy's had sent Darren to see what was up with her). Dr. Taylor, another creepy psychologist (a woman) had a back office in the rear of a very surreal building (weird statues, guided 'encounter' groups going on around us, and her office had a desk that appeared to be connected to the roof with thick chains--although it rested on the floor).

A Jennifer Griffon had checked in--but in a counseling room (with a one-way mirror for surveilance) we saw a folder with Agent Michelle's real name on it. Dr. Taylor--who we were pretty sure was hiding something, told us Jennifer had checked herself out. We got our hands on the folder and split.

On the grounds of the Europa--off to the North, was a dilapated old mansion. While driving by we thought we maybe-sort-of-saw the yellow flash of Serengetti sunglasses.

It was clear that while Dr. Taylor knew who Jennifer was, the Murphy's didn't. We were afriad that if we blew our cover--Darren was there legitimately whoever had Jennifer would harm her. We were able to trace her to a hotel in passidina and we followed her there. We also read the file.

Inside the file was some seriously paranoid delusions: she beleived there was a mole in the FBI--so she had to operate alone. There was a hermaphrodite psychotic midgit with a narcotic/hallucinogenic prosthetic ... umm ... member? He was working with the Jamacian cartel and had two AIDS-zombie skeletal thin bodyguards (she described them as ultra-fast sniper-level shooters). He was in town and she was to meet him at a strip club in under-cover id as a dancer ... it went on like this. It was *way* too weird to be credible--and we had placed her at a hotel hours away from the club (which did exist).

A call to local PD didn't find her in Pasadina but we decided to go out and run her down anyway. She wasn't there--but she'd left a message for Darren: a short insulting note telling him to go further west to the Red Ranch Rodeo, over the line in Nevada.

We followed her, getting further and further away from LA. Crossing the boarder was portrayed as crossing terminator line--going into shadow ... like that. I can't adequately describe the build up here--but it was like we'd been lured further and further away from home and were entering a dark forest.

The Rodeo was a lone bar out on a dusty stretch of highway. There were 17 beat-up motorcycles (in various states of decay) in front and country-western music coming from inside. Our Instinct told us something was 'bad-wrong' here and we left Darren out in the car and went inside.

It was a nightmare-horror-show: there were bikers but the were semi-human things (that contorted and twisted and split down the middle in combat). Downstaris was a poor little casino--and Michelle--sort of. It was a demonic thing that *looked* like Michelle (and was a total bitch) and knew who we were (Olivia's gun pointed at Michelle's forehead "Go ahead, girl, double-tap--just like they taught you in basic training!"). It was super-humanly strong and resistant to bullets. It could breath psychological dispair and fly. It threw me through a table (unconscious) and took Oliva's gun. It had been waiting for Darren (of all people) to do ... something horrible to him. It didn't kill us--"You're supposed to be rescuing me in the club tomorrow at 8:00 PM--now get out of here and do as you're told!").

We ran. The bikers had degenerated into slugs with human faces and were consuming the building. We drove petal to the metal without looking back.

Notes: I realize this comes off as really, really disjointed. There were several trends going on: two Dr. Apata's, etc. There was a magical feel that had started with the "dark falling snow" and culminted here.

The combat was really exciting: the demon wasn't so powerful as to have the fight be no contest--we had a chance (albeit a small one) and managed to hurt her fairly badly. Getting thrown through the table messed my chacter up pretty badly--having game mechanics that modeled the grappling was nice.

This struck me as a case where Simulationist combat *managed* to yield the story-required result. No PC's were killed, the single scene "character thrown through table" happened to do the right damage and have the right effect. The battle between Agent Olivia and the demon (which involved blocking, shooting, and grappling) managed to play right. This is a case where a story-oriented system would have been a sure thing and perhaps superior (as opposed to the first combat in the game where gamist and sim systems showcased the characters and player's abilities).

Also: We had to roleplay an encounter with the impossibe ("It ... it was a demon ... it acted kind of like Michelle ..."). We weren't playing with sanity mechanics so it was left up to us to role-play it and we did a pretty good job. My charater (Jake) was hurt pretty badly so we had to find a doctor. He also drowned his pain in alcohol.

The Night Club: Determining what was real was getting difficult. The Midget was ultra-disturbing and, we figured he *couldn't* be real--the result of a serious delusion ... but then there *was* the demon.  We went to the club--we used one of Daren's contacts to get in posing as a potential dancer (so we came in the back and were up in the private lounge where we could see the whole floor). It was a good "undercover" scene.

When we saw the Midget arrive (the ugliest thing you've ever seen--a 3'5" hideous fireplug of a guy in a thousand-dollar suit). He was flanked by the tall, emaciated AIDS positive body-guards (their arms thin enough to fit through champaign flasks). The bodyguards just touched people and whispered to move them out of the way. The Midget stood on a stool at the stage. Michelle came out.

There was some horrified disbelief roleplaying followed by a cool and disgusitng gun-battle in the club (it was psychotic!). We rescued her. The Midget was killed (as were the body guards who were indeed ultra-fast crack shots). Body armor came in handy.

We got her out: "What the hell is going on?"
She didn't remember much--but we knew we were supposed to take her to Europa so we didn't. We called Dr. Apata and lured him off the Murhphy's boat to the Xenophile Club. When he arrived he wasn't wearing his glasses.

He explanined everything:

The demon--and the Dr. Apata with the Serengetti glasses were Dark-Matter projections: they were the incarnations of the Jungian Shadow-selves. Everything our public persona rejects. He (and others) were seekers in the occult ... and the darker recesses of psychology and had discovered this.

The whole rodeo/midgit thing was Michelle's shadow punishing her persona for years of supression. Dr. Apata-Prime (the dark matter demon) was indeed a monster and wished to consume Dr. Apata-Normal to become "whole" (but wasn't trying to do this full-time--the prime was working with him currently). The real Dr. Apata was scared--horrified--of being consumed. Dr. Taylor at Europa was a Shadow-consumed whole being and he was terrified of her as well.

He had the Dark Matter Core ... in his office. And we knew that Apata-prime and Michelle-prime were coming for us. We went to his building and created our shadow-forms (Apata knew a binding meditiation that would, theoritiacally, place them under our control).

There was a very interesting scene where we created our shadow selves. The GM did a great job of asking questions and interperting (Olivia's was a petite, cutsey young woman in a pink dress with hearts, carrying a giant scythe filled with stars). Jake's was a face-less thing in a sharp over-coat and hat. Inside the coat were faces it could wear. It could also throw cards that hit like a chain gun.

We returned to Europa (Apata, we learned, was constructing a transmitter to reach the moon Europa to contact the beings that had lived there and change everything on earth). We fought with him and multiple coppies of Michelle, destroying the old mansion and forcing him to surrender.

Notes: Having the GM play your character's shadow is a tall order. It was done very, very well. The GM had worked with us on back-story ("why did you join the FBI, etc.") and it was very believeably done.

The final battle was one of several possible endings: we had seveal other options beyond going after him (we weren't sure we'd win) so it didn't feel railroaded to me (could be illusionism but I doubt it--there were several other good end-game strategies we could choose from). One thing that worked nicely was the ultra-powerful nature of our Prime-selves. The simultion was strong enough to handle walls getting blown down, enemies getting obliterated, etc.

Also Note: by the end the GM had shifted our goals from FBI oriented to survival oriented. It was a player as well as a character switch. If that hadn't been done properly it could have caused resentment.

I found out after the game that there were some cool scenes with Dr. Taylor we avoided by not playing into them. They wouldn't have hurt us--in fact the game might have been better for it--but nevertheless the choices we made avoided them.

I don't know if this has been found to be interesting, but there it is ...

-Marco