ReCoil: First table-top playtest

[Lance D. Allen]

Ran my first table-top game of ReCoil today. Didn't get to finish the mission, but it was a good start. Dunno when we'll get a chance to play again, as this was done on what was normally Lx's weekend to run, but eventually I hope to finish the mission, so I'll have a little bit more input toward finishing things up.

Recap-

Characters: Random, an agent with a penchant for gambling, both literally and figuratively, and Rain, a caretaker/protector sort of Agent.

The Mission: The agents were sent down with 75 hours until the incident, which involved 37 deaths on a draw-bridge (like the ones they raise for boats to go under) in San Francisco.

Summary: Random's first host was a Porn Producer, on his way to interview a prospective employee. During the, uh, "high-point" of the interview, Random jumped into the prospective employee, then proceded to further demonstrate her qualifications for the job. Once that was over, she headed to the gym to look around. Once there, she found one of the Naughtwraiths, and Edited the host, causing nearly instantaneous death and booting the 'wraith back to where it came from.

Rain's host was a young, idealistic lawyer who wanted to help people. Rain had a level 5 synch with the host, and so was able to communicate with him, so convinced him to help. It turns out that the executive that the lawyer was investigating in a domestic violence case has some connection to renovation contracting one of the two bridges that Rain believes will be the Naughtwraiths' target. It also turns out that this same bridge is near the gym where Random's second host goes, and is also one of the bridges that the lawyer crosses to get from work to home. They've retired for the evening, to make plans for their efforts on the morrow.

Comments: Character creation lagged a bit, as the style of game is very new to the player of Rain, but once things got going, they flowed fairly well. 17 hours of the 75 passed, with good information being uncovered, and one Naughtwraith taken care of. A good beginning session.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Lance,

Congratulations!

I recommend that folks do a search on "ReCoil" and get an idea of what's been accomplished. This is a bona fide idea-to-discussion-to-implementation Forge event, and it deserves some attention.

What do you think of the rather distinct difference in the moral characters of the player-characters? Is this the sort of game in which strong contrasts like this make it all more fun? Or did it end up creating two separate mini-games, each with a different flavor/fun/point?

How about the time & paradox issues? Are they fun, or laborious, or what? Most especially, are these GM-only concerns or part of the player-decision experience as well? I'll have to review the older discussions myself to be sure exactly what I need to ask about this, but I'm interested in your general take.

Finally, are the rules currently available in a consolidated form? 'Cause if they are ...

Best,
Ron

[Lance D. Allen]

I think the difference between the characters is interesting in relation to the sort of characters they play in my TRoS game. Random, played by Lxndr, seems to have a lot less focus and personal morality than Lord Radanthar, who he plays in the TRoS game. Rain seems, after an initial bit of oddness, to be notably more focused, driven (which, honestly, is one of Rain's traits) and upright than any of the characters the player, Kory, has played in previous games. The contrast between the two characters in this game actually, from what little bit of experience I have, seems to be fairly standard. I did one session on indie-netgaming previously, and the characters there were an interesting selection. As for how it affected play, I don't think it was really too separate, as both characters, despite any sidelining they did, have the same goal, and are able to contact each other at a moment's notice.

As for time, it didn't seem to be as much of an issue as I'd believed it would be during the creation period. I just ran with approximates of how long certain tasks would take, and switched back and forth whenever one or the other would do something that didn't require playing out. Paradox I dodged by making the agents exist outside of time; their actions in the "past" do not affect their futures, and the effects that they do have on the future/present of the world are less than important. Time exists in somewhat of a bubble through the actions taken by Oblivion. It eats the past in a fashion reminiscent of the Langoliers, and the future hasn't yet come to exist in a solid form. The agents work within the bubble which has already come to exist, (though, yes, their actions change what will have already happened) and eventually catch up with the "present", shortly after which they will have succeeded or failed.

Generally, the GM is the only one to worry about managing time. The players know they have to work within the clock, but in this particular session, it's not much of an issue, as I rolled a 10 on the die (which gives them the maximum amount of time possible for their mission).

The rules are currently available in a .pdf which is on my site, linked below. As explained in the Afterword, character advancement rules do not yet exist, as I need certain information from playtesting to know where to base certain factors and costs. Other than that, and the various tweaks which will come from playtesting input, the game is in a complete and playable format.