[CoS] The Screaming Saint - stickin' it to the man

[Judd]

CoS is an interesting system.  It has a wiff of TRoS SA's in its Passion and Drive (which I think should be re-named) and is obviously inspired by TRoS combat.  It has some Sorcerer bits, most noticeably cover, descriptors and the fine group kicker.

It says its a fantasy game about dark conspiracy but...think about, what fnatasy RPG have you played that WASN'T about the group getting involved in the rooting out of a conspiracy of some kind.  Hm.

I love the conspiracy creation questions and my own effort can be found over on Bob Goat's forum under the title Conspiracy of the Deeps. (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14429)

The group is an interesting mix.

Jeff and Julie are a married couple who met at a LARP.  Julie has played in several games I've run including a short Sorcerer run and a BW one-shot.

Jeff has played in many games I've run.

The second couple is Paula and Mike.

Paula played in a long-running Sorcerer game I ran using Dictionary of Mu.  It was Paula approaching me and asking me what system I would use to run a pirate RPG that got this whole shindig started.

Mike, her boyfriend, was the one whose idea it was originally to run a pirate RPG, one night when another game got cancelled over at Paula's place.  He's an actor at a local college and the only person I haven't gamed with and the youngest in the group.

Janaki's my girlfriend.  She has played in several games I've run and the brainstorming for her character can be found in the Actual Play forum here (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14601)

Robert is the only person in the group who isn't linked to a couple.  However, he played with Paula in the Sorcerer campaign I ran.  He's a fun gamer and has played in many Sorcerer games I've run.  If I could have chosen a captain from the player pool, I would have chosen Robert and was rather thrilled when the group talked it over and he came out of the discussion, rather surprised, as captain.

Both Robert and Paula have a habit of over-writing their character histories.  Once I had to ask Robert to save a great idea that came out of such an e-mail for table play and it ended up really MAKING that Sorcerer session.

Captain Marco de Abolfi (played by Rob)

Passion:

Life's satisfaction comes through making the elite fall for their corruptions...just like us small people do.

(He was caught smuggling goods while an officer in the royal navy and was sentenced to lifetime indentured servitute on a penal plantation in the colonies.)

Drive:

I went to bust a buddy out of a prison plantation and witnessed his sacriface to Dark Powers.
Ethnicity:

Cover:

Lieutenant in Castillian Navy

Attributes:

2 Fortitude - Won't lie down and say die

4 Reflex - Rigging Monkey

2 Knowledge - Can you hear that in a bar? -

3 Temperament - Gruff deck officer -

Skills:

4 Archery - Gunnery chief

3 Athletics - Champion swimmer

3 Brawling - Glass jaw -

2 Larceny - Smuggler

2 Melee - Dirty Fighting

First Mate Brian Abernathy (played by Jeff)

Passion:

His ego demands that people know how great he is.

Drive:

They took and corrupted his father's holdings, leaving his inheretence gone.  

Ethnicity:

Vendel

Cover:

First Born "Golden Child"

Attributes:

2 Fortitutde - tough in the spotlight

3 Reflex - Panache

2 Knowledge - uninterested if it does not concern him -

4 Temperment - over-confident

Skills:

2 Archery - trick shooter

3 Athletics - graceful

3 Brawling - fast hands

3 Ettiquette - charming

2 Horsemanship - Riding well bred horses

4 Melee - good at humiliating moves

Abasi (played by Julie)
Passion:

He has an extreme devotion to freedom and fair play and democracy.  Being a pirate seemed like the only way to have those things.

(Escaped slave who seeks freedom.)

Drive:

The conspiracy feeds off of slaves and his sister is missing in the same region at the same time.  That is to say, if there is even the slightest possibility that one has to do with the other, he's there.

Ethnicity:

Nyambe (Europe became Theah, so I just changed Africa to Nyambe)

Cover:

slave, field worker

Attributes:

4 Fortitude - strong from field work and then sailing

2 Reflect - Big, strong but not quick

1 Knowledge - ignorant ex-slave

4 Temperment - Bull-headed, everything is either RIGHT or WRONG with no in-between

Skills:

3 Athletics - you outrun the search dogs and see how athletic you are

3 Brawling - If he seems something wrong, he'll stand up for the weaker party, even if that means getting his butt kicked

2 Craft - wittles wooden animals, has some carpentry skills

2 Folklore - Knows Nyamben folk tales from grandmother

3 Horsemanship - worked with animals all his life

4 Survival - outrunning and hiding, he lived in the wild many times

Gerrard Desrochet (played by Mike)

Passion:

Adrenaline addicted.  Gerrard is moved by adventure towards exilleration.

Drive:

Conspiracy = Adventure

Ethnicity:

Montaigne

Cover:

Thief/Con-man

Attributes:

2 Fortitude - Rum-wasted

2 Reflect - Sleight of Hand

2 Knowledge - under-handedly knowledgeable

5 Temperment - silver-tongued

Skills:

3 Craft - skin/bone

4 Larceny - the con

3 Melee - the kerambit

5 Performance - lying

1 Survival - Streetwise

(Mike also communicated an aspect of this character that was interested in collecting bits of oddities and occult creatures and making items out of them.)

Monk a.k.a. Henry James Montgomery (played by Paula)

Passion:

Undermine the Powers that Be

(really short version: Skipped out on a life with the clergy to sail the seven seas.)

Drive:

Uncovered that the mercantile companies, royalty and church knew about sacrifices made at sea to horrid creatures in order to keep the shipping lanes open.

Ethnicity:

Avalonian

Cover:

Pilot

Attributes:

2 Fortitude - skinny

3 Reflect - Acrobatic

4 Knowledge - Nautical Geography

2 Temperment - Easily disgusted

Skills:

5 Academics - Science

3 Athletics - Nimble

2 Brawling - slipping away

1 Ettiquette - Nobility

2 Melee - rapier

4 Medicine - triage

Janaki didn't get her sheet done but we'll work on it this weekend.  She was a little dizzied by the way the others at the table, all veteran gamers, were coming up with descriptors on the spot and spending their points.  Rather than ask her to make decisions that would be meaningless to her, I thought we would get the cell creation done, kicker solid and we could take her character, complete with passion and drive and fill in the other blanks at home.

I like the way descriptors work at the table while making the characters up.  They really help flesh the numbers out, make them mean something.  It is interesting to me how different people used them in different ways on their sheet.  Some used them for background and others used them more for specialization.  Interesting.

The group went a few points over on cell creation and I let it ride, really liking what they came up with.

Allies:

Brian Abernathy's port-wife/girlfriend

Artifacts:

Figurehead of ship, a heretical saint who is now a santaria figure

Contacts:

Captain Ernesto Savigne - Castillian Navy, old chum of Cap' Marco

Manpower:
15 crewmen

Ship:

two-masted sloop, the Screaming Saint
[/b]

[Judd]

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=14620&highlight=cos

Is the link to the beginnings of the game, chargen and such.

We played today from around 1 p.m to a little before 8 and perhaps I've been running Dogs in the Vineyard too often lately because I wanted to give them the whole dirty situation right off.  I very nearly did.

Here are some bullet-point highlights:

* The group kicker worked great and we made up a second one together after the first game, deciding together that the first kicker was well played out.

* Jeff's PC shooting his brother in the head after taking his ship that was escorting a boatload of slaves to be dropped into the maw of the Leviathan.  "Go on, brother, shoot me, isn't that what your sort -BANG-"

Me:  You shoot him?

Jeff:  I do, in the face.  Should I roll.

Me:  No...no, don't bother.  But make a Taint roll, kinslayer! (he made the roll)

* PC's arguing about whether the earth was round or flat.

* Mike's breaking in to a known noble conspirator and getting caught, stabbed upon his hasty exit, having to slit a guard's throat in order to get away.

* Robert spending Destiny Points for someone else's scene, taking it a turn for the cool.

Destiny Points rocked.  I am a big fan.  I think we all are.

* The combats we did were fast and brutal, no extended swashbuckling this time around.  We'll see for next time.

* One of the players, Paula, seemed a little edgy, especially when her PC wasn't in the spotlight.  Her character is the first I have seen in a long time who isn't very combat effective and I think it might be bugging her.  I e-mailed her to ask what the deal was.

She kept playing up her PC's grumpiness and I wondered if it wasn't her being grumpy through him.  We'll see.  Pending on how the initial e-mail goes I'll ask her to turn the grumpiness down from an 11 down to a nice gruff 8.

* The players captured a bunch of NPC's who are deeply enmeshed in the conspiracy and found out what they're up to and how the Brotherhood of the Fish fit into the puzzle.  Now its just a matter of what they are willing to do about it.  Again, I didn't leave much mystery for too long, taking a very Dogs in the Vineyard approach to the whole gig.

I might've really blown the whole dark fantasy X-Files vibe.  Ah well.

* Next game's kicker will be the PC's springing a member of the Brotherhood of the Flying Fish out from a hanging.  Nice.  I will set the game up so that we play through some pre-hanging judicial combats so everyone can take an NPC and play through some tricksy combat without risk to their characters.  Should be fun.

[Keith Senkowski]

Judd,

Very cool boss.  I must ask though, anything not work?  Find anything problematic?

Keith

[Judd]

Judd,

Very cool boss.  I must ask though, anything not work?  Find anything problematic?

Keith

One thing about combat.  There are the combat maneuvers listed on the character sheet but these don't include just basic the Offensive Hit manuever...right?  

It might be less confusing if the basic melee and ranged attacks were listed along with the fancy shit.

[Keith Senkowski]

Judd,

Yeah, I'm a dumb shit when it comes to the character sheets.  You are not first person to point it out to me.  Consider it noted for a redone character sheet.

However, if that was the only issue I am a happy clam.

Keith