[Schismatic Puddle] Game setup

[amel]

We are playing a game of Schism (Sorcerer mini-supplement) and used a modified version of The Puddle (a variation of The Pool) which can be found here.

The Situation

I made up a story map/r-map that can be found here (it's a doc-file). Three cabals are involved:

Holy Family Hospital:
The government knows about Psychogenesis, thinks it is a threat (it can be contagious), and quarantines people. The hospital is an institution that works with psykers. Lyle Rasmussen is the "leader" of this "cabal" – he is the head physician.

Sutton Inc.:
A faceless company. Patrick Sutton, an old stubborn man, who is very xenophobic, is the president. People who show Psychogenesis or have contact to psykers who are not put away are expelled from the company and probably will never get another job again.
Thomas DeFort is a manager. He had to pay for a very expensive heart surgery for his wife, when his daughter Caitlin showed first signs of Psychogenesis. Losing his job would have ruined him, he would have lost everything. He brought his daughter to the Holy Family Hospital, bribed some people and told the world (and his wife) that his daughter was missing. Caitlin was in the Holy Family Hospital and was kept almost 9 months in isolation. She fled. She is out for revenge and joined the Church of the 21st to spread some violence.

The Church of the 21st:
A terrorist cabal as mentioned in Schism. More like a gang.

The People
Lyle Rasmussen – Head physician of the Holy Family Hospital. Believed in what he does until recently.

Nathaniel Rasmussen – When Caitlin fled, Iain Rasmussen was in the clinic. His Psychogenesis was a catalyst for Caitlins hate and broadcasted it to Nathaniel and Cardillo. Nathaniel hates his brother now – a hate that existed all along but never surfaced before.

Iain Rasmussen – He never believed in his fathers work and joined the Church when he got Psychogenesis.

Hector Blue – The leader of the Church. I imagine him like Edward Norton in History X before he went to jail.

Michael Starr – He joined the Church because Blue convinced him that a fight is necessary for him to survive (he is a psyker, too).

Caitlin DeFort – The daughter of Thomas DeFort. She fled from the Holy Family Hospital.

Cecilia Sutton – A young woman that would like to join the Church. She will be tested by Blue (I introduced her for one of the first bangs).

Thomas DeFort – He gave his daughter to the Holy Family Hospital and regrets it now. But he does not know how to contact her – and if he found her he would not know what to say.

Evelyn DeFort – The mother of Caitlin. She tries to find her daughter. If she knew what her husband did, the marriage would probably be ruined.

Tom Sutton – The grandson of Patrick DeFort. An inapt young man, who desperately wants to please his grandfather. Without the family ties he would never have gotten the job, he just is not up to it. Tom is secretly in love with Claudia Belle.

Claudia Belle – A successful manager. She is in love with Michael Starr and would like him to leave the Church and go the hospital. He on the other hand would like her to leave the company.

Patrick Sutton – The president of Sutton Inc. He tries to fight Psychogenesis because he is madly afraid of it.

The Players
James Cardillo – He worked in the Holy Family Hospital and really believed in his work. When Caitlin fled the hospital Iain Rasmussen broadcasted Caitlins hate to Cardillo. When Cardillo noticed that he also was a psyker, he left the hospital (now doubting his work) and his family - even his girl-friend. He tries to find out what the source of his hate is.
Kicker: The kicker of Cardillo is his search for the source of his hate.

Bob Dunhun – He was boss of the security department of Sutton Inc. When he noticed he was a psyker others had already noticed, too, and he was fired. He joined the Church.
Kicker: He lost his job. Now he tries to steal money from the company (revenge) and live a happy life somewhere else.

Justus "Red" Marcovic – A delivery boy. He joined the Church because he did not want to be alone in the streets. Of course he is a psyker, too. The cabal became his family. He has a flexible morality but he does not like violence.
Kicker: He is told to kill for the Church.

Things I noticed

- The players had problems with the kickers. We settled with kickers that I thought would work somehow. They do not have the emotional oomph I would like them to have.
- If you have fractions it is pretty easy to make up r-maps, I think. Just make sure that relationships criss-cross through the fractions and you have enough tension for a nice game.
- I was pretty curious how the player of Red would be like in the game. He is a player whose characters are always extreme. That is something I always have problems with. You try to make up a morally difficult decision and he tells you: "I kill him/her/it." without even thinking about it. Here he plays a character who does not like to kill, that should make up for an interesting game.

This post is already far too long. I will post about our first session within the next days. If you have any questions, I am happy to answer them.

[Lisa Padol]

Sounds cool. I look forward to hearing more.

-Lisa

[amel]

Our first gaming session went surprisingly well. Actually I was pretty exited; we had some really good moments.

While I prepared the Bangs for the session (and even more when I prepared the Bangs for the second session) it became obvious how important well defined and strong character goals are. Making up Bangs becomes pretty complicated when the goals of the NPC are a bit weak. When I prepared the r-map I did not look at the goals hard enough. It still seems to work somehow, but it makes life less easy.

Something else I noticed when we ran the first session is that Bangs actually serve more than one purpose:
1. The first is (obviously) to have something handy, when you need to drive the action with a Bang.
2. The second purpose is that the GM has to think about the situation at hand before the gaming begins. I think preparing Bangs is far from easy. I think about it, make a Bang up, throw it away, think again, come up with something new, only to change is so long that it becomes something else. And actually, I think that this is a boon and not a flaw. After thinking about the situation and the game so hard, it becomes easy to follow the characters around and to play the NPCs as they deserve.
I hope this was not too confusing.

The game began a bit slowly but became pretty fast and intense over time.

- Red and Cecilia were told to rob a grocery store. The store was very close to the Holy Family Hospital and most of the money it did was from people coming from or going to the hospital. Dunhun had a vision and saw Caitlin killing Cecilia. When she asked to join Red and Cecilia, he talked her out of it and joined the two. Red was told by Hector watch how Cecilia behaved and if she is up to join a terrorist gang. The Bang was a very young and obviously inexperienced guard from the hospital coming in with a gun. Unfortunately, the player of Dunhun decided to play him pretty ruthless. In the end the store was blown up, the guard and the owner of the store were dead. There was not much emotional impact, but the scene was fun anyway.

- Cardillo (the only PC that was not a member of the Church) met his former employer Lyle Rasmussen in a bar. Lyle was drunk and forced Cardillo to sit down. He talked about his family and that his sons hate each other and how he suddenly thinks that probably his work is not for the benefit of humankind. Cecilia comes in and tries to kidnap Lyle. She heard Caitlin talk badly about him. Now she wants to prove something by bringing him to her. Instead of a gun she has a pen in her pocket. Cardillo notices that and insists in coming with her. She does not know what to do and takes him with her. Hector is pretty upset (she brought both of them to the main quarters of the Church) and interrogates Cardillo who tries to show his Psychogenesis and fails (and the player gets the first black die of game). He flees but looses his driving license.

- Hector tells Dunhun and Red about the incident and tells them to "do something about it". They drive to the address on the driving license. It is the flat where Cardillo lived with his girl-friend Iris and when they arrive he is on the roof of another building and watches her through the window. When he sees them coming he makes loud noises for them to notice. Red and the rest already talked to her and saw that she was pregnant, when they hear the noise and run back to the street just to find Cardillo on his motorbike waiting for them. One of the best scenes of the session is when Cardillo and Dunhun play "chicken" (Dunhun in his car) and after Cardillo was hit (Dunhun used his 6th sense to see where he would be driving) Iris goes to her former boy-friend to save him. Cardillo orders her back in the house (via Psychogenesis). After a bit of talking four people drive to the main quarters of the Church (Iris stays, not knowing what all this was about).
I loved that scene. It was pretty intense and a strong emotional bond was formed between Iris and the _player_ of Cardillo. Also all PCs came together. They were all working for it. Bringing them all together naturally is far better than forcing them into a group (just like Ron says). The players loved it, too (or so I was told).

- Back in the main quarters (actually just the flat of Hector) Cardillo told the Church of his Psychogenesis and asks if he can join. Hector demands obedience and gives him a pistol. "Shoot Cecilia!" Dunhun tried to talk Hector out of it, but he insisted. Cardillo did not shoot. Of course the gun was empty and Hector just wanted to see, what Cardillo would do. Still it was a nice scene although I did almost all the talking. In the end all players were members of the Church.

And that was the first session (well, part of it). As I said it went pretty well. The robbing of the store was pretty much simulationist stuff we were used to. The only problem I saw was that all the momentum of the action was lost in the end of the evening. I saw problems designing new bangs – and I was right.

But that is another post.