[Cold City] Operation Violine, convention play

[Malcolm Craig]

This is a report on a cold City game played in a 3 hour slot at Warpcon, Cork, Ireland.

Con games in the standard 3 – 4 hour slot are funny things. You're never too sure how they will go, who you'll get playing and all that. However, my experience at Warpcon has always been that you get a good table, so hopes were high. Myself and Eamon (a friend from Dublin who was attending the con) had decided to jointly come up with a CC game for the con. Irish cons are pretty strict in that you have to submit and actual, written scenario in case they need to get extra people to run it. This is something I'm not too good at, with most of my games being a few post it notes of thoughts, some characters, and the imagination of players. Nonetheless, we had a bunch of scenes ready, some solid characters and a willingness to go with it.

As a side note, this was also the first time I had ever co-GMed a game with anyone. As there was only one table running, Eamon and I both took on GM duties, which actually worked out very well (more detail on how and why later).

In brief the game revolved around 15-year-old boy (Karl Schumann), traumatised during the war, who was receiving dream messages from his father. The elder Schumann was a senior SS officer who escaped through a dimensional portal to a 'national redoubt' on a cold, dead planet somewhere else in time and space (a detail lifted from 'The Atrocity Archives' by British author Charlie Stross). Karl has been instructed to collect various parts and collect pain (into 'pain capacitors') in order to reopen the portal and let his father and his cadre of SS men back into our space-time.

The characters for the game were:

Valerie Rochefor, France (real name: Guy Fontaine)

Rabid anti-communist who joined the Waffen SS 'Charlegmane' division but escaped just before the final apocalypse in Berlin. Terribly conflicted about fighting for such a genocidal, evil regime and tired of living a life that is not his.

Hidden Agendas

Personal: These people can never find out the secrets of your past. If they get to close, they must be silenced or convinced that revealing anything would be against their best interests.

National: Destroy or prevent the use of any technology you come across, prevent it ever being unleashed on the world again.

Gerhardt, Graf von Schuberth, Germany

Last in the line of a minor noble family originating in Bavaria. Trained as a chemical engineer, gaining a degree from Gottingen. Worked at the Peenemunde Rocket Facility under Wernher von Braun and Walter Dornberger. Avoided capture by the Allies in 1945, but was eventually arrested in Bavaria in 1946 by British military police.

Hidden Agendas

Personal: Convince the Yankees that you are valuable enough to take back to America where life will be so much easier and more comfortable.

National: Eliminate all traces of the former regime that you come across. Germany cannot afford to return to those dark days.

Captain Geoffrey Harris, UK

Former British commando, captured during the St Nazaire Raid and then sent to Stalag 133, near Rennes. When the camp was closed down in 1943, Harris found himself marching across France and Germany in the company of other officer prisoners from the camp, heading for Oflag VII-B at Eichstatt in Bavaria.

Hidden Agendas

Personal: Someone knows about your homosexuality. They can never be allowed to reveal this, otherwise...

National: Find out as many dirty secrets as possible about RPA officials so that they may be 'turned' as agents of British intelligence.

Richard Greentree, USA

Parents went back to Germany in 1940, Greentree stayed in the USA where he joined the fledgling OSS in 1942. Served an interpreter and analyst until early 1944 when he was parachuted into Romania to organise sabotage against the Ploesti oil refineries. Captured and tortured by the Waffen SS just before the arrival of Soviet troops, was wounded but not killed in mass execution of prisoners.

Hidden Agendas

Personal: Those who profess 'loyalty' to a regime are nothing but self-serving egotists. They should be eliminated.

National: Dig up the dirt on as many RPA officials as you can and use it to twist the organisation to the advantage of the US intelligence services.

Oksana Lebedev, USSR

Ministerstvo Gosudarstvennoi Bezopasnosti (MGB, or Ministry for State Security) appointed operative. Investigated Nazi experimental dimension gate site near Ludwikowice in southern Poland. Spent 3 years in the Steplag GULAG in Khazakstan thereafter. Has since been rehabilitated and sent to work with the RPA.

Personal: Secret agents and spies are all brutal thugs, make sure they all get what is coming to them...

National: Discourage and disrupt collaboration between the Westerners and ensure the failure of their plots and schemes.

All of the characters were presented to the players in a manila folder with the character name typewritten on the front and a B&W picture pasted to the side. Each folder contained a four-language character sheet (created by the redoubtable Jason Morningstar), a handout tailored to the individual character and a briefing note about the body they would be standing around in the opening scene. The tailored handouts were made to look as 'authentic' as possible, with coffee stains, watermarks, agency stamps and badges and so on. The players commented on how effective this was and that it really helped to set the scene and give them a feel for the setting.

Letting everyone read their characters and ask questions about them and giving a very quick rundown of the mechanics took about twenty minutes, after which we fired straight into the opening scene, with the characters standing around the dead an mutilated body of one Hubert Ostermann, black market dealer and all round shady individual. They were in a school in Spandau, with a couple of British army MPs lounging in a jeep outside as the cold, grey December day closed in further.

And I have to say, the players 'got it' immediately. Right from the very start they were using their hidden agendas, latching on to character traits and running with what they had been given. The blustering arrival of Major Baker of the Royal Military Police (played by me) and Meehan, a diplomatic development officer in charge of education (played by Eamon) caused immediate conflict. Baker wanted everyone the hell off his crime scene because Field Marshall Montgomery was due to visit tomorrow! The party split as some argued with Baker and other remonstrated with Meehan, a bluff Northern socialist only interested in maintaining all the good work that had been done at the school.

The co-GMing aspect really began to pay dividends here as it increased the mistrust and paranoia between characters. When they were relating what happened to each other and what the NPCs said, doubt began to seep in that they were telling the truth. Perhaps the British character had manipulated Baker for his own ends? And so on.

This became more apparent and even more exciting as the game progressed. I was initially worried about the co-GMing aspect and how it would affect the progress of the game. But, my doubts were unjustified. It really did help the game enormously. One player may g off to speak with Eamon or myself as an NPC while the others talked to another NPC. It may take some of them a moment to realise one character had gone, ramping up the tension and paranoia.

However, it wasn't all about mistrust. There was some positive trust that came out of it. The American character, due to his background, had a hatred for German and the Germans. But, as the game progressed, a bond of trust and respect developed between the German and American characters due to the way they were handled by their respective players. This creation of a very positive relationship between the two characters was great to see and came to the fore during the brief character epilogues at the end of the game.

Highlight scenes included the encounter with two Stasi officers ransacking the apartment of the deceased Ostermann. Due to misunderstandings and misapprehensions, both offices ended up unconscious. The players were in a quandary, but Oksana vowed to them that see would sort it out with the authorities. None of the others were really convinced by this, but in the ensuing conflict, Oksana managed to convince them of her honourable intentions. Obviously, her intentions were nothing of the kind and she killed the two officers with her knife as they dozed in unconsciousness, then running outside with her dress in disarray. Grabbing a passing VoPo, she claimed that Yankees had assaulted her and she feared something terrible had happened in one of the apartment. A very well played scene.

The player who had the role of Harris, the homosexual British officer played this conflicted and worried character with great subtlety, neither being too obvious or too reticent. A key scene here was where the gay lover of a dead German cabaret actor threw himself in tears into the arms of the former commando. The characters confusion and fear in front of his colleagues was made apparent, but not in an overblown manner. This scene also some more great play for the player taking the role of Oksana, the Russian. She goaded the lover of the dead cabaret actor, telling him that homosexuality was a capitalist disease, that such things would not happen in the USSR. He snapped and dove for the Russian, throwing her to the floor with his hands gripping her throat. At this point, the British RMP Sergeant (played by Eamon) provided a moment of levity but also underlined the attitudes of the time by exclaiming "Oi! I'm not having a poof strangling a commie on my manor!". The discomfort of Harris was palpable.

The final scene took place in the cellar of an abandoned villa in Lichtenberg, East Berlin. Young Karl has opened the portal and the SS are just about to come through. He is determined to prevent the PCs stopping him. The scene ended up being very fast and frenetic, with almost everyone at the table on their feet, in contrast to the other tables of games scattered about the area. The characters were confused, ill at ease and twitchy. In addition, there was a lot of doubt about the motivations of the characters, particularly the Frenchman.

Through luck and some notable successes in conflict rolls, the players narrated an end to the chaos and shut the portal down. They were shocked at the death of such a young boy. Yet hidden agendas were still in play. The French character left the cellar first, tossing a grenade back down. The German character heroically chose to kick it away from where the PCs were, saving their lives and further boosting the bond of trust and friendship between him and the American.

The game ended there (as time was close to running out) and we asked the players to each narrate a short epilogue for their characters. These were all interesting and varied and gave a nicely rounded conclusion to what was a great session of play.

Afterwards, everyone commented how much they had enjoyed the game, many saying that they liked being able to contribute a lot to the game through the medium of narration, hidden agendas and trust.

As a footnote, I also playtested the Newman-Dempsey Variation in this game. This allows negative traits to add dice to a pool (rather than taking away) but they must be of a different colour. If the negative trait die comes up as the highest number in a roll, something bad relating o that trait must be narrated into the outcome, regardless of success or failure. This actually came into play on a couple of occasion, working very well. Players were not put off by it; rather they enjoyed the further elements of danger and assistance to the ongoing story that it gave. Going on this experience, I think the Newman-Dempsey Variation could turn out to be a very positive change to the Cold City mechanics.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Malcolm Craig]

Oh, and I should note that some aspects of this game were utilised after reading AP posts from other Cold City games. The (real world) character of Christoph Diehm was previously used by Jason Morningstar. Jason also started some great threads about hidden agendas which really help me to think about more powerful hidden agendas.

Steve Dempsey and Joshua Newman also came up with the Newman-Dempsey Variation, which has proved to be an excellent revision to the mechanics, so I owe thanks to them.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Yokiboy]

Hello Malcolm,

Great Hidden Agendas, they must've led to a lot of conflict. Good job!

The Newman-Dempsey Variation allows negative traits to add dice to a pool (rather than taking away) but they must be of a different colour. If the negative trait die comes up as the highest number in a roll, something bad relating to that trait must be narrated into the outcome, regardless of success or failure.

This is awesome! There was something that just didn't feel right before. Now negative traits will generate color rather than just hinder the player from getting what he wants.

TTFN,

Yoki

[Jason Morningstar]

This sounds like a great session.  I really like the Newman-Dempsey Variation (which also sounds like a sinister piece of arcano-tech). 

One thing that struck me was Harris' personal agenda, which, in the best Mountain Witch tradition, is open ended and gives the player a lot of freedom.  I think when I play CC again I'll make sure every personal agenda reads similarly. 

[Yokiboy]

Jason, I agree that Harris' Hidden Agenda of "Someone knows about your homosexuality. They can never be allowed to reveal this, otherwise…" has a great sense of urgency to it. However, can it be resolved too easily? What happens to a Hidden Agenda if resolved?

Say Harris' player narrates an NPC into existance, and that he's the guy who knows Harris' secret, then proceeds to kill him. What then? Will you simply roll with it, leave some evidence that points out that the NPC already squeeled, or perhaps some former boyfriend might not be so tight-lipped about their affairs and will Harris' quiet him as well? In other words, do you keep stringing along the Hidden Agenda, as it should be what the player finds important in the game (as normally you personally pick them).

TTFN,

Yoki

[Jason Morningstar]

That'd happen in one of two situations - either the player didn't like the hidden agenda in the first place, and essentially burned it like a Key in TSOY, in which case I'd ask him to provide a new one that excited him, or the player was being a dickweed, in which case I'd ask him to leave. 

I think it'd be far more likely that a player would invoke an NPC and be engaged, encouraging the tension and conflict and allowing it to run a natural course.  I don't see the death of the pivotal NPC as a huge problem if the player was still rocking out with the hidden agenda - he left notes, he told a friend, there are lots of angles. 

[Malcolm Craig]

Thanks for the feedback chaps.

The Newman-Dempsey Variation does indeed work very well in play. Even from my limited experience with it, it's a tiny tweak that improves the use of negative traits by a huge amount. Players now actively want to bring in negative traits, rather than being slightly wary of doing so.

An example of the N-DV in play:

A Stasi officer had struck Oksana Lebedev in the face during the scene in Ostermanns apartment. Even though he was deeply suspicious of the Russian, von Schuberth was still outraged (as an aristocratic gentlemen) at this boorish bully striking a woman. Now, von Schuberth isn't much of a physical character, but he wanted to pull the Stasi officer away from Lebedev and knock him unconscious. In creating his pool, the player brought in a die for the negative trait 'Arrogant': he's not strong, but believe that he can do this. It comes up a 10, the highest number rolled. It's still a good conflict success for the player though, so he narrates that von Schuberth, in a fit of righteous anger, lifts the Stasi man off his feet, then realise that he's simply not as capable as he though he was. He fall over, landing flat on his back with the Stasi officer collapsing on top of him, knocking his head on the floor and becoming unconscious. He got what he wanted out of the situation, but the use of the 'Arrogant' negative trait made the outcome slightly embarrassing and unfortunate for him.

Within the context of this particular game, the possibility that Harris could resolve his personal hidden agenda was there, but in such a short game, it would be perfectly reasonable to have it work out within a limited timeframe. However, the personalised handouts that were given with each character reinforced the idea that someone within the team was hiding something, thereby making more than one person suspicious of character motives. As Rochefor and Harris both had very deep secrets to hide, this would serve to make both of them nervous.

The handouts were as follows:

Greentree: A memo from an old OSS buddy, now a desk jockey for the CIA giving him more background info on his parents and a hint that someone within his RPA team may not be all that they seem.

Harris: A letter from a close friend and former lover in London, worriedly saying that he has heard rumours to the effect that someone might know about Harris' sexuality.

Lebedev: A memo from her superior officer (Captain Rogov), saying that one of the Westerners holds deep secrets and to watch out for the activities of the Gehlen Org.

Rochefor: An unsigned and many-time copied letter from a 'comrade in arms' addressed to 'Fontaine' (Rochefors real identity). This was actually an approach from elements of the Gehlen Org.

von Schuberth: A letter from a Dr Weils, now attached to the 125th Intelligence Wing, USAF at Tempelhof. He again turns down von Schuberths request to go to the USA, but offers an olive branch if he will help to bring to justice rogue members of the 'former regime. As an aside, he also mentions his 'discussions with Dr von Braun', who is less than keen to have von Schuberth brought to the US.

Each handout also had 'out of game' footnotes that provided snippets of information for players who may not be familiar with particular historical nuances of the period (e.g.: what the Gehlen Org was, who Brigadefuhrer Krukenberg was, etc). As a side note, the handouts were all worked on in some way to make them appear a touch more 'authentic': the American one hand mis-spellings corrected in pen and a coffee ring on it, the Russian one was entirely stained with tea to make it look crappy and Soviet, the French one was photocopied many times to make it blurry and blackened, etc. The players all commented that this was an effective way of heightening atmosphere.

Going back to the overall idea of open ended personal hidden agendas being resolved too quickly, I think Jason hits the nail on the head with his last comment. If a player wants to resolve such an agenda, then they should be at liberty to do so. If it they preferred to have a new agenda, then resolving the old one in play and then bringing in the new one would be the way to go. However, I've found that players get pretty involved with the hidden agendas of their characters (as I kind of hoped would happen), so it doesn't really present too much of a problem. In a short convention game, the problem doesn't really exist.

Cheers
Malcolm

[komradebob]

Malcolm:

I hope this isn't side-tracking too much, but could you tell me a little bit about this part:

Each handout also had 'out of game' footnotes that provided snippets of information for players who may not be familiar with particular historical nuances of the period (e.g.: what the Gehlen Org was, who Brigadefuhrer Krukenberg was, etc).

I tend to like historical settings or fantastic settings with a bit of history to them. However, quickly conveying bits of info (that the characters would have naturally) to players can be a bit of a bear.

How lengthy were these bits of side info, how did you present them, and so on?

[Malcolm Craig]

Malcolm:

I hope this isn't side-tracking too much, but could you tell me a little bit about this part:

Each handout also had 'out of game' footnotes that provided snippets of information for players who may not be familiar with particular historical nuances of the period (e.g.: what the Gehlen Org was, who Brigadefuhrer Krukenberg was, etc).

I tend to like historical settings or fantastic settings with a bit of history to them. However, quickly conveying bits of info (that the characters would have naturally) to players can be a bit of a bear.

How lengthy were these bits of side info, how did you present them, and so on?

Hi Robert,

No, not sidetracking at all. I'm more than happy to talk about these bits of the game. I agree, conveying this information can be difficult. I was torn between putting all the info on one handout or having it split between two. In the end, I decided to use just one handout per character, but put the information that wasn't strictly part of the 'in game' information for the character as footnotes in smaller text.

Here are three of the handout PDFs if you would care to see them:

Handout for Oksana Lebedev (USSR)

Handout for Richard Greentree (USA)

Handout for Valerie Rochefor (France)

Hope this gives you some idea of the way it was handled.

Cheers
Malcolm

[Kami-no-Mark]

Now those handouts are quite something!

I love how they're all very differently done, but do a great job of conveying the same sort of conspiratorial feel.

I'm impressed that they're short enough to get through quickly but convey plenty of information and drop enough hints.

That has set the bar rather higher for when I get round to running CC.

Thanks for sharing them.

[komradebob]

Those are really great Malcolm.

Did anyone have follow up questions on the footnotes? I'm guessing that if you find yourself in a CC game, chances are good that you probably also have a passing familiarity with the period or the war, but maybe only passing. I'm amused to see both Gehlen Org and Charlemagne Div. showed up in the background ( almost required, IMO. The only thing missing is Skorzeny and Odessa...)

[Yokiboy]

Jason and Malcolm, your replies for the quick resolution of a Hidden Agenda are spot on. I don't have enough experience playing with Kickers, but what you're saying makes perfect sense.

Malcolm, those hand-outs are really cool. Man, I haven't done anything like that in a long time. I'm all into low prep lately, and enjoy being lazy.

TTFN,

Yoki

[Malcolm Craig]

It's the most prep I've done for a game in a long, long time and Cold City by no means requires all this kind of thing. However, Warpcon has a very high standard of games and I felt that i wanted to do something a bit special for this one, hence the handouts, folders and so forth.

For me, it's a nice thing to do for a special game, but way too much work for a regular one. I'm normally a back of the napkin kind of guy when it comes to games anyway!

Cheers
Malcolm