[InSpectres] Game session at Dreamation 2005

[Andrew Morris]

Well, I've just started recovering from Dreamation 2005, so I thought I'd write up some actual play posts about the games I played there, starting with InSpectres.

We had four players, and Michael S. Miller was the GM. We created our characters on the spot, which took only a few minutes. I played Matt, a sleazy ex-car salesman. The other characters were Haji, the tech guy; Brick, the burnt-out ex-marine; and Marvin, a student who'd been used as a lab rat in scientific experiments. One thing I noticed was that we all decided to have one maxed-out skill (Matt - Contact, Haji - Technology, Brick - Athletics, Marvin - Academics). I don't know if this is how it usually works out, but it was a natural reflex for all of us. We even talked about who would be the "Contact guy" or the "Athletics guy."

Creating a very small franchise took only a couple of minutes more, so Mike rolled up an NPC who came in for a secretary position. The "interview" went quickly, and Marci was hired. A great part was when Marci asked where the chairs were (our franchise was in a yet-to-be-converted convenience store). Without missing a beat, Brick's player shouted, "We don't have any chairs! We pass the savings on to you." At full volume and with enthusiastic hand motions. I don't know if that's funny to someone who wasn't there, but it was the high point of my day. It really set the tone for the game and brought out his character's....uhm....character in no time flat.

We managed to get three jobs into a four-hour timeslot. The first mission involved our investigation of a strange glowing pasta at a local restaurant. Matt was recognized by a former customer, to whom he'd sold a lemon. Brick fired a grenade at his own reflection. Haji got an awful case of diarrhea (don't ask). Marvin figured out the problem. Our Franchise Dice barely covered our stress, leaving only one left over. Ugh.

The second mission took place at municipal building with a haunted air conditioner. We didn't make it past security, broke in (trampling a woman on the way in), and confronted the frozen-slime horror. At which point we realized that it had to have been summoned by a sorcerer, and rushed back to find the woman we'd left buried beneath the door we'd knocked in. Of course, she was casting a spell which had already opened up a pit into some sort of hellish dimension. Marvin, whose Stress had already reduced him to babbling fragments of H. P. Lovecraft, felt her pain, gave her comfort, and told her she didn't have to be an evil sorceress. They could go read Lovecraft together. It looked like he'd convinced her and made a new girlfriend when Brick came up and casually tossed her into the pit. "What? She was the bad guy, right?" This time around, our Franchise Dice didn't cover all our Stress, and we were back where we started.

On the final job, a stoned-out frat boy wanted us to investigate the mysterious squid that floated around the frat house when the lights were out. After the topic of payment was broached none too subtly by Matt, the frat boy produced his father's credit card, and everything was green. Charging in as per our usual strategy, we stumbled around the frat house for a while and checked out the basement, where Marvin got high "investigating" a bit of...ahem..."machinery." Nothing supernatural popped out at us, and we expanded our search, finding a new, prototype "machine." Haji investigated it this time, and found the squid handing from wires. Case solved.

The Confessional mechanic worked out great, though we mostly used it to screw ourselves over, rather than giving ourselves Characteristics which could get us more Franchise Dice. By the time we figured this out, we were going on our third and final job, so it didn't help us much.

Looking back on it, we totally skipped the "Research/Investigation" and "Suiting Up" phases of each and every job (other than procuring a Mr. Slushee van for transportation early on), but it wasn't missed.

A few running jokes developed, including Brick always driving the van and smashing it up (except on the last mission, where he got us there in one piece, but then threw someone out a window onto the van).

What really impressed me most about InSpectres was not it's super-fast character and mission generation rules, but rather how easily we all got into character and created an interesting story, while providing enough humor to keep us laughing into the wee hours of the morning. Anyone else experience something similar on their first game of InSpectres? Anyone who was there want to add to or correct anything I posted?

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Yup: InSpectre'd at last, InSpectres again: grrl version.

Best,
Ron

[Michael S. Miller]

Hi, Andrew.

Thanks for posting this. The game did surely rock, except in that last mission I was too tired to give you guys much Stress. I realize now that what I should have done was when the mission was over, I should have handed all the Franchise Dice to Tavis (as CEO) and had him distribute them as he saw fit. Maybe not everybody can go on vacation after each mission. Maybe you have to take one for the team.

anyway, lots of fun. Thanks for playing.

[Shawn De Arment]

I was Haji, and I have to echo what Andrew said about the great characters and story that just flowed out of the game. The body language from my fellow players in the Confessional chair was hilariously in character.

One of my goals in going to Dreamation was to find something to take back to the group that I have been playing with for over 20 years. That something is Inspectors! What I have been trying to express to them, this game says in gallons (of ectoplasmic fun).