Lael's Game

[Ayrizale]

Lael, I hope you get your play in. Looking forward very much to your review.

Actually, I'm planning to shanghai a small group of players (me and two others) tomorrow night and get a bit of a game in.  Hopefully that will go well enough that I'm not ashamed to write about it.  :)

If all goes well, I hope to have the review up next week, possibly with a follow-up to it after I've had a chance to get a game together with 5 or 6 players.

Later,

Lael

[Mike Holmes]

Actually, I'm planning to shanghai a small group of players (me and two others) tomorrow night and get a bit of a game in.

Great. Do you think you'll be trying for a multi-session story, or a one-shot? Or will you just leave that to chance?

Hopefully that will go well enough that I'm not ashamed to write about it.  :)

I'm sure it will be cool. Some Universalis gets a bit self-inulgent, but even those stories tend to be pretty neat. Just remember that you and the other players are the monitors of your own game (I've seen people forget totally about the challenge mechanic).

If all goes well, I hope to have the review up next week, possibly with a follow-up to it after I've had a chance to get a game together with 5 or 6 players.

Excellent.

Most importantly, have fun with it. Relax and enjoy.

Mike

[Ayrizale]

Great. Do you think you'll be trying for a multi-session story, or a one-shot? Or will you just leave that to chance?

Not sure yet.  Probably going to leave it to chance for the time being.

I'm sure it will be cool. Some Universalis gets a bit self-inulgent, but even those stories tend to be pretty neat. Just remember that you and the other players are the monitors of your own game (I've seen people forget totally about the challenge mechanic).

I'll keep that in mind.  Thanks for the warning.

Later,

Lael

[Ayrizale]

Hello,

Well, I was able to get a small game going.  It was me and two two other players.  We played for 2 or 3 hours and a good time was had by all.  I did have one question, but I'll save that for the end of this message.  First, a recap of the action.

The game was to be set on an alternate Earth where the Nazis had won WWII.  They had gone on to conquer Europe and the Americas, but had met stiff resistance in the comunist nations.  The game was to focus on the actions of the Underground rebellion in the United States in the year 2020.  The majority of all wars and battles at this time were conducted via a Virtual Reality Matrix.

Besides the basic setting, a few things were also created prior to the first scene:

Master Component:  Cyber Neural Interface (Traits: Encrypted, Wireless, 2-way communication between brain and external computers)

William Crane, Hacker and leader of the Resistance, (Traits:  Leadership x2 (later raised to x3), Charisma x1, Hacker x5, Cyber-Nerual Interface)

A Ghost in the Machine, cloned from the mind of Adolf Hitler before he died.

The first scene opens with William Crane and a group of Resistance Hackers trying to break into the Datastore where Hitler's Cyber-clone was residing at this time.  (After setting this up, I left the scene for someone else to continue)

Two other characters were then introduced.  One, the leader of the 6th Reich.  The other was the true leader of the Resistance (and later turned out to be the twin brother of the first).  (Apologies for no names, but I can't remember them right now, and I don't believe that the notes from the game survived the clean-up.)

Ok, so the leader of the Resistance was then introduced to the scene with William Crane and his Resistance Hackers.  I took control of the datastore and Hitler's Cyber-clone and initiated a conflict with the hackers.  The hackers won easily and the datastore's defenses were overwhealmed.  But the nameless hackers were killed by the Datastore's Black ICE.

As the Resistance leaders were about to enter the Datastore and confront the Cyber-clone, the Cyber-clone comes out of the store and displays it's control over the Matrix.  It shows a powerful mechanical body, armed with Chainguns, Missiles, and various other warfare devices.  The leader of the 6th Reich, appearantly visiting his Great-Grandfather in the Virtual World, was also present (and was given some considerable counter-hacking skills (x5, I believe)).

Between them the Nazis were able to burn out the Cyber-Neural Intefaces of the two resistance leaders (couldn't kill them, too expensive  :)  ).

The Two Resistance leaders wake up in their hideout and there are SS SuperSoldiers knocking down the door  (the SuperSoldiers were a MAster Component with traits of: Extra Strong x2, Super Fast x2, Full-Auto Machineguns, Cyber-Nerual Interfaces).  There were three of them breaking into the room.

Another complication insued, and the SuperSoldiers won.  Blasing the building with their weapons, they destroyed the Security System and the Engineer that was operating it.  They also killed a number of Resistance Fighters that were there as well.  They then blocked off all access to the building...   Except for the trap door that allowed the heroes to escape to another bulding nearby.

(another character, Crane's daughter, was then introduced) and was promptly captured by the SuperSoldiers.  They were in the process of taking her to a Floating Fortress (with Massive Armaments x3).  The hideout of the Resistance also had some serious weapons at their disposal and used them in a Complication to take down the Floating Fortress, while Crane and the leader of the Resistance finally took down the Super Soldiers and rescued Crane's daughter.

At least one of the players was not really confortable with the setting, and didn't feel like she had much to contribute, so next time I think that I'm going to be a little more active in soliciting concerns about the setting when it comes to actually creating the initial basis.  It is very unlikely that this game will ever be picked up again by us.

Even with some of the difficulties involved with the setting, the game produced a number of fairly tense moments (at least for me) and everyone certainly seemed to have fun.  I'm sure that even if I can't get a larger group together to play again, I'm sure that I can get this group together from time to time and get a game going.

Now for the question:

At the end of the complication, my understanding is that the person that rolled the most dice on the winning side gets first choice of what happens.  Can that person spend a coin on an action and move a component "out of harm's way"?  So that by the time it comes to the turn of the loser of the conflict, it is impossible to remove or even damage a component?   (My example from this game is the SuperSoldiers.  Since they were based on the SuperSoldier Master Component, and only actually had SuperSoldier(Number x3) that it would only take 4 coins to remove that particular group of Soldiers from game (more could easily be created, of course).  There was at least one complication, where the winner paid a coin to create the "fact" that the Soldiers escaped unharmed.)

It seems to me that it is a perfectly legal expenditure of coins, but it seemed kinda strange because by the time it came for the loser to narrate any of the events in the complication, nearly all of the loose ends had been tied up and there just never seemed to be much in the way of things for the loser to do or affect.

Anyway, I need to go.  I'm going to get started on a review for RPG.net either today or tomorrow, so I hope to see it up probably sometime next week (depending on how long it takes to process the review, since I've never written one for RPG.net, I'm not sure how long the process takes.)

I'll let you know if I can get another game together and let you know what happens.  Thanks for the great game.

Lael

[Valamir]

Hey, thanks for posting this.  If you want, I'd love to have you do a full write-up of the session (with as much detail as you can remember) for us to post on our Play Examples page.

Was there anything particular in your game that really stood out as being really cool.  A moment in the story...something that was facilitated by the game mechanics that was unexpected but that you really enjoyed?

In answer to your question, you handled it completely right.  In alot of ways, the real advantage of winning a Complication is not getting more Coins but in going first.  So if Coins are spent to "protect" Components by the winner, the loser must abide by that.

Five Comments:
1) Technically speaking if the 3 SS were each individual components than it would take 3 Coins to exit them unharmed.  If it was just Component (defined as a squad of 3 troopers) than 1 Coin would suffice.

2) If a particular use of this technique seems inappropriate or repetitive the Challenge mechanic is always available.  I suspect with just the Negotiation piece a more dramatically satisfying (for all) outcome can be obtained.

3) You mentioned the Super soldiers had been designed as a master component...meaning the individual soldiers were probably pretty disposable.  For a subcomponent with the single trait of "Super Soldier" it would take as many Coins to save him (1) as it would to let him die and Create a new one (1).  Sub Components are meant to be Universalis's Mook rule.

4) Ultimately whatever Coins were spent on saving the soldiers were not kept by the winning player and were not used to cancel losing Coins, so they were an actual cost borne by the Winner to do this.

5) Its perfectly acceptable for the loser to get a little creative with his Coins.  In this example "Before the Troopers left, one of them was secretly implanted with a subdermal tracking device"  This would take 2 Coins...1 for adding a Trait to the Trooper "Subdermal Tracking Device Implanted by Rebels) and 1 for the Fact that the Trooper was unaware of it.  Some groups might insist on a 3rd Coin to give the Rebels access to such a device to begin with.  Depending on how the rebel base was described I might agree or disagree with this position (if the base had a Trait of "full of high tech gadgets" I'd probably find it reasonable for such a device to be handy and not support a Challenge to make it cost more.
Technically, the Soldier did get out "unharmed", but now the Rebels might have a way to locate the hidden base (or some such thing).

Thanks again.  As more folks begin to obtain the rules I hope to see more reports just like this.

[Mike Holmes]

Well done sir. Congratulations on the first post-publication play post. Sounds like a hoot. Wish I'd a been there.

Good job going straight for the action. You got Cyber hackers, you got Cyber Hitler, you go straight at him. I love that you failed, too. That's such a great way to set up a game. Reminds me of SW episode 4 where things start out with the Rebels gitting their asses handed to them, and barely fleeing with the plans to the Death Star. Too bad you don't think that you'll play it again. Sounds like an excellent start.

Ralph's right about how you handled it. It's all good. If it feels right, you're doing it right. If it doesn't feel right, challenge. It's everyone's game, and those are the rules.

On collaborating on setting, all I can say is, yep. In fact, you might want to agree to do a session that's entirely discussion and creation of a setting. That might lead to a stronger committment to play the setting again. One idea that I've heard a couple of times (similar to Aria) is to play out the legends, history, and myths of the past. Then you can get into play on the "normals" level, and have a better feel for the permenancy of the setting. In any case, spending more time on setting can be rewarding itself. I did a whole session just working out a future history for Earth once with two other players. Very cool. Like formulated brainstorming, but with style.

Mike

[Ayrizale]

Hey, thanks for posting this.  If you want, I'd love to have you do a full write-up of the session (with as much detail as you can remember) for us to post on our Play Examples page.

Was there anything particular in your game that really stood out as being really cool.  A moment in the story...something that was facilitated by the game mechanics that was unexpected but that you really enjoyed?

I guess that the one thing that really stoof out was the power and utility of Complications.  We had a total of two scenes (I think) that did not involve some complication.  And three or so that did.  The Power of winning the Complication and the overall utility of initiating the complication (even if you don't win, you get Coins) was very clear.

Once I've got the reveiw up, I'll see if I can get something suitable done for your site.  I don't want to commit to anything at this time, though.  As I'm sure most people that are reading this can understand, Time is just not as plentiful as it used to be.

In answer to your question, you handled it completely right.  In alot of ways, the real advantage of winning a Complication is not getting more Coins but in going first.  So if Coins are spent to "protect" Components by the winner, the loser must abide by that.

That's what I thought should be the case, but it felt kinda "off" to me at the time.  So I thought I'd double check.

Five Comments:
1) Technically speaking if the 3 SS were each individual components than it would take 3 Coins to exit them unharmed.  If it was just Component (defined as a squad of 3 troopers) than 1 Coin would suffice.

The component was bought (by me) as "Squad of SuperSoldiers" with the trait of Number x3, and cost 4 Coins.  As I'm writting this, it occures to me that I didn't actually pay to have them linked to the SuperSoldier Master Component.  Should that have added a Coin (or 3) to the cost?

2) If a particular use of this technique seems inappropriate or repetitive the Challenge mechanic is always available.  I suspect with just the Negotiation piece a more dramatically satisfying (for all) outcome can be obtained.

True.  Like I said it just felt a little strange when it happened.  It only happened two out of three challenges, so I don't consider it to be a problem.

5) Its perfectly acceptable for the loser to get a little creative with his Coins.  In this example "Before the Troopers left, one of them was secretly implanted with a subdermal tracking device"  This would take 2 Coins...1 for adding a Trait to the Trooper "Subdermal Tracking Device Implanted by Rebels) and 1 for the Fact that the Trooper was unaware of it.  Some groups might insist on a 3rd Coin to give the Rebels access to such a device to begin with.  Depending on how the rebel base was described I might agree or disagree with this position (if the base had a Trait of "full of high tech gadgets" I'd probably find it reasonable for such a device to be handy and not support a Challenge to make it cost more.
Technically, the Soldier did get out "unharmed", but now the Rebels might have a way to locate the hidden base (or some such thing).

This is true, too.  Will have to keep that in mind for future games.

Thanks again.  As more folks begin to obtain the rules I hope to see more reports just like this.

I'd really like to read about others games too.  This game seems to bring out some fairly interesting ideas once the juices get to flowing.  I'd like to find some way to get the creative thoughts working before starting the game in earnest.  Have any of you tried playing a short (say one hour) pick-up session of Universalis prior to the main game to get everyone thinking?  Or anything that would get the minds of the players working?  That was one of the difficulties that we ran into, was when people would sit there and say "I can't think of anything".  (My excuse is that I had just run a three hour session of Jadeclaw and was trying to use Bangs for the first time.  It went well, and I was feeling pretty good going into the Universalis game, but I just couldn't come up with the quick ideas.)

Later,

Lael

[Valamir]

The component was bought (by me) as "Squad of SuperSoldiers" with the trait of Number x3, and cost 4 Coins.  As I'm writting this, it occures to me that I didn't actually pay to have them linked to the SuperSoldier Master Component.  Should that have added a Coin (or 3) to the cost?

Nope.  Since "SuperSoldier" was a Master Component (which does cost an extra Coin to make it a master component), Creating a Component whose role is "SuperSoldier" is automatically a sub.

Have any of you tried playing a short (say one hour) pick-up session of Universalis prior to the main game to get everyone thinking?  Or anything that would get the minds of the players working?  

In another thread up in Actual Play, I think, Ron suggested starting games requiring alot of active player input by playing a round or two of the card game Once Upon a Time.

[Ayrizale]

The component was bought (by me) as "Squad of SuperSoldiers" with the trait of Number x3, and cost 4 Coins.  As I'm writting this, it occures to me that I didn't actually pay to have them linked to the SuperSoldier Master Component.  Should that have added a Coin (or 3) to the cost?

Nope.  Since "SuperSoldier" was a Master Component (which does cost an extra Coin to make it a master component), Creating a Component whose role is "SuperSoldier" is automatically a sub.

Ok, Cool.  I was writting about it and thought that might not have been the case.  Thanks for the clarification, I'm sure it's covered in the rules, but I don't have a copy handy here at work.

Have any of you tried playing a short (say one hour) pick-up session of Universalis prior to the main game to get everyone thinking?  Or anything that would get the minds of the players working?  

In another thread up in Actual Play, I think, Ron suggested starting games requiring alot of active player input by playing a round or two of the card game Once Upon a Time.

I guess I'll have to look into getting a copy of Once Upon a Time, then.  :)

Thanks again,

Lael

[Mike Holmes]

That was one of the difficulties that we ran into, was when people would sit there and say "I can't think of anything".

This happens to all Universalis players.

Pass your turn.

Keep your Coins for later when you are inspired. If you find yourself, not participating for a long time, think up a whole new character, or place, or plot twist that will take the game into territory you can enjoy. Wait until a scene ends, and jump big onto the next one, and drive the game to where you'd like it to go. Better to pass than forcing something, or holding the game up, especially if there are others who have something to contribute right away.

Have a few generic tricks up your sleeve at all times. My favorite is to re-introduce characters who haven't been seen in a while. They are cheap, and fun to see show up again. If the tone is right, do somehting really weird like bringing in a dead character. Can't think of how they got back there? Don't worry about it. Somebody will come up with a reasom - or it'll be a nifty mystery.

Like, say you've got this wizard, and he fell into a bottomless pit after fighting with this huge demon creature...

Mike "just rented LOTR again" Holmes