Actual Play: The Key to All Evil (YGAD game continues)

[Tobias]

Some quick facts on this weekend's session:

Between all the other things I'm busy with, I'm still translating the YGAD game (mechanics) to Uni Gimmicks, since I think there were too many flaws in YGAD for it to come to life as originally envisioned. (There were gems in there too - these have been mined and will come back in the future in seperate efforts, such as the Uni gimmicks).

This weekend we played a straight-up game of Uni in the YGAD setting/backstory/game we already had, with the gimmick of 'introduce whole YGAD setting for 1 coin' used again, and a pre-game gimmick of 'introduce the three main characters UNI-wise before the game starts (since I had misplaced my previous notes)'.

The three main characters are Eugene, circus strongman, Flemens, Modern-thinking alchemist in a fantasy setting, and Dalena, plantation kid that knows voodoo, lost in space and time.

We had a new player, K, and we generally try to have at least one character in the game that people associate with 'mine' (there are no rules or gimmicks for that, it's a social contract thing that didn't need to be made explicit. Everyone still uses all characters.) For her, this character turned out to be Scar (during play), apprentice to Nerak, one of the baddies. K had only role-played something D&D-esque in her past, and was definately new at the game, but slowly got into it as we played. Didn't spend a lot of coin, but did make contributions she enjoyed.

We use the 'ask for control of a character for free' gimmick and someone introduced the 'may pay the controller of a character a coin instead of the bank to take control' gimmick (a 'reward' for introducing stuff).

There were also a number of one-shot gimmicks that were used to 'repair' things in the game that everyone thought needed doing (like editing out a tenet no-one liked, or a 'I now give the turn to player X' gimmicks).

I set the record for number of dice on one side of a complication for our group - 16 dice. I was opposed by 12 dice, but I won, getting me 20 coin.

There were a number of 'invulnerable to normal weapons/X'-esque tenets, which proved somewhat disruptive to some possible resolutions of conflicts. Will need some testing of how our group will deal with this (good challenging and buying off the trait, for instance, may suffice). 'Resistant to X' or 'cannot die to X' may be good variations, for instance'.

An interesting tenet I introduced was 'A familiy member of one of the main characters will feature strongly'. Interesting stuff happened with the half-brother of Flemens (Nerak) and an ancient ancestor of Dalena.

There were about 7 scene's, I think, played out over 6-7 hours (hard to tell exactly with dinner in between). The system performed well given K's unfamiliarity with it, and the fact that a bunch of people were tired, getting ill (me), or getting over illness. There were a number of Tenets that added to the setting, but no one tenet that said 'today's game's goal is X', which made the going a bit slower, since we only figured out what it was about half-way (which was ok, but next time I'm making things more specific).

The story, in short:

The group arrives at the capital, where they are invited/summoned to the house of the head alchemist (about the matter of some books being stolen). While visiting, we see a Raven fly into an open window of a different room, and fly out again carrying a small bag in it's beak. A knife is thrown at it, but the Raven's invulnerable to normals weapons. The head alchemist storms out of the room, and when the main characters join him, he's flipping through a book, arriving at the conclusion that the Raven belongs to Nerak, Flemen's half-brother.

The camera follows the raven as it flies to a (distant) tower where it lands to hand over the bag to Nerak. Nerak unfolds the little crumpled paper that's in the bag, revealing a portrait of Dalena with some runes of protection around it. This paper is an essential part of an enchantment. We see Scar, Nerak's apprentice, peek through the door. They've had a falling-out and we see Scar leave the tower on horseback, at pace.

Back at the Alchemists (later), after a discussion and some spying on them by Scar, the main characters decide to head out to the tower.

There's a flashback to the dim past, and we learn that the Key to All Evil has been buried at the spot the Tower now stands. The then-guardian fends off an evil spirit that's possessed a carpenter that's started work on the tower.

A scene of half-way travel between capital and Tower follows, where the Raven checks out Dalena, Scar has a conversation with Dalena, and Nerak has a conversation (throught the Raven) with Flemens, warning Flemens that the head alchemist is setting him up, and telling Flemens some family details to prove they're related.

Back at the alchemists, we do indeed see a scene proving the alchemist and Nerak are in it together.

The group arrive at the tower in a (magical?) blizzard and are confronted by 4 snow-banshees. Flemens and his Evil Sword (from earlier session) prove to be immune to soul-sucking, and a big throw-down occurs between the snow banshees, the main characters+Scar and one thousand ghost-raven, ancestors to the Raven that now guards the Tower's Guardian. The banshees (me) win big, but I narrate them being destroyed anyway (taking all the ghost-raven with them, though, for eternity).

The group enter the tower after Eugene breaks open the gate (first dislocating his shoulder, though). We see Nerak and the Alchemist observing this from a distant hillside, Nerak mentions he is 'invulnerable in the tower' and he's got a 'backup plan'. He will wait for Dalena to dig up the Key to All Evil (since she's the descendant of the previous Guardian where he is just some successor), then enter the tower, and take it from her. Eugene and Flemens head up into Nerak Labratory, Dalena goes into the cellars in a trance, and Scar guards the entrance.

Dalena, after being shown the ancient shovel the Key was originally buried with by the Raven, digs up the Key. Nerak moves to enter the tower, is confronted by Scar, but gets past her with some talk. We DO learn that Nerak's not invulnerable in the tower at all. The tower starts to crumble in a cinematically responsible way. Nerak struggles for the box with Dalena, cannot get it though. The box, being some kind of demonic clam-thing, opens, though, and releases the Key - seemingly just a bit of air, but it is in fact the Last Breath (TM). This is now loose.

All the characters pile out of the tower just in time, it collapses on poor Nerak. The head alchemist loyally does activate Nerak's backup plan (4 mercenaries on horseback), but they are efficiently slaughtered by Eugene's knives and Scar's spells/alchemical concoctions).

End of story. Fun had by all, a bit higher pace/clearer goal will be good next time.

[Mike Holmes]

I was going to say that this sounded like a lot of Gimmicks, but, then, it was a long session, and it sounds like you guys were really adjusting to lots of percieved nuances of the play so far. So good for you.

Especially given the illnesses, etc, how did a game that long seem to go? That is, even with a break, it sounds longer than most Uni games go. Was this a good thing, or a bad thing that you can discern?

Do you feel that you'll be coming back to play again, soon? Were any provisions made for this?

Mike

[Tobias]

There were more Gimmicks in this game than usual, yes. They were generally an expression of social contract issues, or group opinion on whether or not a Tenet was being disruptive, so they didn't have to be argued, it was just a desired adjustment that someone paid for (sometimes the gimmick started with the sentence 'and at the end, I get my coin back.':) )

A game that long was ok, but tiring for everyone, especially near the end. We make sure to take occasional breaks, though, to keep us fresh, and that works. Tired people contribute less, which can occasionally slow down the story (compared to 5 energetic contributors). A  'tired' end to the story is/was also (slightly) less rewarding, IMHO.

I think the lack of evening-/story goal was more of a contributor to session length - it's good to have some kind of grand resolution in mind, sometimes (especially with players not committed to the on-going (YGAD) setting).

Coming back to play is generally an issue of personal agenda's - they're often not compatible. We will be coming back, though, and the notes were kept to make sure coming back would be possible.

Interestingly enough, K, the new player, commented that she was more comfortable with the classical RPG-player role - solve puzzles, kill stuff, clear challenge provided by GM. She did think it was fun, but expressed being a bit lost in the open format.

[Mike Holmes]

It sounds like K has played other RPGs? Lots, little? Do you think she'll be back?

Mike

[Tobias]

K has played 1 or 2 sessions of a D&D-style game - about 15-20 years back. :)

If she'll be coming back to Uni, it'll be due to the group of friends I play with. She'll be back to play games (not neccesarily RP) in general with this group, sure, but what game(s) will be played, I don't know.