[Scarlet Wake] The Other Extreme

[Nathan P.]

So I finally got to play Scarlet Wake again. You can see the results of my first attempt here, if you care to.

This time I was playing with just one guy, a friend of mine named Can (its pronounced John. Just in case you were wondering). I've talked to him about it before, but tonite was the first that I've had free in a long while.

We sat down and talked about the game some, and what kind of genre we wanted to play in. I know he likes guns, so I proposed a kind of modern gritty setting. We chatted about guns and gun-fu, and talked about different movies and stuff, and finally settled on a game set in "The City", a generic dark gritty modern nightmare of an urban wasteland kind of place. Guys can have enough cool factor to wade through seas of bullets, but no crazy high-flying stuff or superpowers.

Next up, character creation. This took a while, but in all the right ways. We talked about the characters and got into their backstory some. It was cool. Making the Lists took a little longer, just cuz we were each making full lists (far as I can tell, if you only have 2 players you have to make completely different lists. correct me if I'm wrong).

Characters:

Can was playing Trigger, a black-ops operative who was betrayed by his team for a lucrative drug deal. We started out with him in a central asian prison, taken captive by the local petty warlord after being left for dead by his "buddies".

I was playing Mr. Cellophane, an utterly run-of-the-mill middle management type. In his neverending efforts to earn a promotion and please his superiors he had gotten sucked into some shady dealings at work, and came home one day to see his house burned down. With his children inside. And his dog dead on the the lawn. Something snapped, and now he's exacting his bloody revenge.

Synopsis:

Trigger made himself an improvised punch-knife and fought his way out of his cell. He took the guards truncheons and tried to make his way out of the prison, but ended up being overpowered by military types that he ran into on the way out. He killed their officer in the struggle, so they were marching him back to his cell until they could get some orders, when he used some of his old army training and a tidbit from his former commander to slip out of their hands and continue his escape (Bind, gained Luck). He fought through more guards and soldiers, only for the main door to lock as he got to it. We ended his turn as he stared down his first Boss, Lu-Tze, the colonel in charge of the prison.

Mr. Cellophane took in the devestation of his home, and found a note pinned to the charred timbers basically mocking him for being such a wuss. It was signed "Top Dawg and Jetsetter". He went dead inside, and wandered until he saw some kids. They didn't want to talk to him at first, but after he pistol-whipped the tougher one, the nerdy one talked (hilight of the night right there). He cruised down the street in the direction indicated and came across the trio of Escalades that the kid had talked about.

He pulled in behind them, waited for some gang-lookin dudes to come out, and calmly shot them. More shooting ensued, until they surrounded the car and pulled him out (bind). They threw him in a shit-covered trailer with a savage dog, who he choked to death (gained Style). He then used the dogs body to burst the doors open and went on a rampage through the remaining peons, using the dogs spiked coller and the gangsters weapons to mow them down in a cold fury. We ended the turn as Top Dawg was about to show up.

Analysis:

Man, it was a fun session. We both enjoyed it a lot, and are excited about playing again.

We both agreed that three people would be optimum. I think three's the magic number with this game, I really do. Two was fun, but a third person would add another dimension for the Antagonists, especially, and also allow us to cross-pollinate the Bosses.

It felt like we took a long time (about 1 hour for chargen, and 1 for each turn), but I think this was because we were having fun with description and narration. Also, about half of chargen was talking about the setting, so that only kinda counts. If we were to start new characters, we would do them at home pregame to save on the time.

Can's a pretty detail-and-crunch-oriented guy (as in, he plays and enjoys GURPS). I was impressed and happy that he took to the game so quick. Afterwards he said he had felt a little nervous because it seemed like it didn't really have a lot of structure, but during play he realized that we could narrate as detailed or as abstract as we like. Something along the lines of "I'm used to there being rules for every little thing, but this was really fun."

The fuel-bind-fire cycle flowed like melted butter down a slip'n'slide. We both took out some Peons, got into Binds, got out and proceeded to rip the shit out of the rest of the Peons. It was hot. However, we didn't really use much Kick - I used a little on Can, and he didn't use any on me. I think it's because we both wanted each others character to get a little success before screwing him over.

Can seemed to be intrigued by the fact that taking damage was actually good, cuz it leads to Binds, which make you better. It's really key to the game, and now that we're both on the same page it can't go anywhere but up, I think.

Ummm...I think thats it. The mechanics were fine, didn't notice anything grusome.

Overall:

Great session. Tons of fun, and we're both excited about playing again - and we actually will this time, as opposed to my last try. I'm going to try to dig up a third player, cuz that would be awesome. But yah, it was good times. Kudos to you again, Ben.

[Ben O'Neal]

Hahaha, I laughed just while reading your post, so that has to be a good sign.  That pistol whipping bit was awesome, as was choking the dog (I never would have thought of that).

I'm really glad you had such a fun time! And almost as glad that the rules seemed to flow easily. I can't wait till you both really start using Kick, but I've noticed that new players are nearly always a bit hesitant to use it, or perhaps they just aren't familiar with it enough to be constantly conscious of it.

Also, regarding your turns taking around an hour, do you think the 10 minute scene limit in the rules is too short? Or that perhaps it should be scaled for the number of players? I've found that in my own group of 3, we rarely stick to the limit, with each turn usually taking around an hour, but I simply attributed this to the fact that we are all good enough friends and involved enough in each other's stories that we don't mind the time so much (at all). Perhaps a scale of 10min per scene for 4 players, 15 min per scene for 3 players, and 20min per scene for 2 players? What are your thoughts?

Thanks,
-Ben

P.S. "Can" pronounced as "John"? What nationality is that?

[Nathan P.]

He's from Turky. Apparently that combination of letters is actually pronounced "John" in Turkish. Learn something new each day!

Heh - you know what, I totally forgot about the 10-minute time limit per scene. And I think we would have ignored it anyway. I feel like that rule is kind of a failsafe - if someones hogging the spotlight, you can say "you know what, technically you're only supposed to be taking 10 minutes". But if everyones cool with it, I don't think it matters. The scaling sounds like a good idea - something like "To keep play moving, here's how long each turn should be taking with this many people". But really, with only 2 people, its not like anyone's being left out of the action. I feel like in a group with a decent social contract its going to regulate itself, really.

But yeh - Mr. Cellophane is modeled on that one guy from Boondock Saints, the one who waited to wash and dry his hands before busting out of the bathroom and beating the Italian guy with the towel hanger. Without the trenchcoat. He's completely calm, cold - and completely full of hate. When the kid gave him lip, he just smacked him across the face with his pistol. After that scene me and Can just kinda went "Wow. This guy isn't taking any shit." It was a cool moment.

Yeh, Kick should be interesting. I used it to introduce some Peons for Trigger, but I'm waiting for a juicy boss fight before really bringing it in.

[Nathan P.]

Update - we played another session (wooo!). I can give a plot synopsis if anyone wants, but I just wanted to touch on a couple of things.

1. We really saw the dice variability (I dunno the technical statistical term) come into play as our stats got larger. That is, at one point he was rolling 2d6, 1d8, 2d10 and 1d12, i think, and rolled a 9. I'm pointing this out as a feature, not a bug - it meant that he got binded hardcore, which is always fun (it didnt help that I threw 3 R4s and 2 R1s at him...he didnt realize how many dice 14d4 really is).

2. We agreed not to use Kick to kill each other (duh), and are realizing how cool it is that you can't die. It becomes a challenge to escalate binds one after another, especially when you get into two or three in one turn (oh, those dice were not kind to Trigger...).

3. I'm still feeling the need for a master list of Bosses, I keep on looking at my List and using my stats for his dudes. I'm prolly just gonna print out another couple character sheets and cut the character parts off, but it would be neat to  have one sheet of paper with room for all the Lists on it.

[edit - fixed something my brain forgot]

Until next time...