[Story Steps] WWII - III of III

[Bill Cook]

Session I. Session II.

Just finished the third and last playtest session of my game, Story Steps. We've been playing in a WWII setting, basically re-enacting the Battle of Guadalcanal. Except, with almost no historical reference. Besides myself, other players that attended were Jason and Cory. Nick and Luke, unfortunately, had work commitments. We met at Cory's house for the first time. He lives inside an airport. In a hanger behind the house, we got to see his various airplane projects. He's studying to be an airplane mechanic.

Taking Turns
I explained to the group that I've been RPG design journaling about (among other things) turn order for leading scene input. We experimented with doing some Monopoly style. And that actually set the tone for the session. Everyone was pretty efficient and business-like; that and knowing that this was the last session, so get your kicks! So everything sharpened up. We still kibitzed and generally received each other well. For some reason, I didn't worry overly about not having any prescribed scenes to inject. And I stalled pretty awfully on .. I think, two of my turns. Acting for Capt. Halloway, I did this thing where I free associated intent out loud until I arrived at what become my announcement.

And I sort of suffered to work a roll into the scenes I wrote, and I think that kind of thinking sort of spread. So, that's something to watch; you certainly don't have to have a challenge or risk in every scene, and they can still be stellar and valuable. To wit, I wrote a cool tie-everything-together scene towards the end as Jason and Cory's threads converged, positioning Danny Beard, Flying Ace Extraordinaire, to strike a devestating blow to the Japanese base. (Not like that was my idea. We were just starting to integrate each other's input.) It was Jason, I think who announced his Next Step to signal for a bombing raid.

As I reflect, we did in fact indulge informality where the story carried us in a wave. And when it spent itself along the sand, we sort of came to our senses and said, "Ok, whose turn is it?"

Oh, My God! Are We Being Audited?
Kind of unbelievably, we had a guest graduate student named Yvette who is studying roleplaying. She has received funding from WotC to use applied anthropology to inform their marketing and (perhaps?) product development departments.

Calculating Body
Jason and I got snarled around calculating Body in a scene where his group of 50 started taking bullets to the skull from a sneaky Japanese sniper, none other than Okahaka. Finally, again, I realized that Body = HIGHEST( Strength, Agility) + Man Advantage. It'd be like adding the number of friends standing next to you to your Hit Point Total. It's kind of quirky, but damn it, it feels right.

Table Interview
Yvette arrived shortly after the Domino's delivery guy, so we all sat around the dining room table and dished RPGs and gamerdom. Of course, I couldn't pass up an opportunity like that to blab on and on about the Forge and contrast mainstream and indie design philosophy. Jason really summarized my group's two-year-or-so history and how we've become system tourists, up for damn near anything. We talked about troupe style vs. multiple narrative threads, exploration as virtual reality vs. scene framing, the illusion of GM-less play revealled as centralized vs. distributed duties, short sessions of arbitrary count vs. campaigns that go on for 5+ years, the primacy of reward, crunchy vs. light, harvesting NPC controllers from spare players, how liberation from role-playing maintenance functions is coupled with a bone-crushing pressure to perform, etc. Much, much fun, yes?

Group Mechanic Workout
There were two massive battles. The first was a machine gun nest that Saltzer (Jason's) team spotted, scouting ahead. It took some work to flank the position, and we got to burn red Body penalties for troop loss. It just .. I could cry, I'm so happy. That's exactly the way it should be. BW Mass has so prepared us to woodshed this mechanic. (Thx, Luke!) The sub-grouping created shifting man advantage bonus dice counts, depending on targeting. Now add Turtling, canceling acquisition. Now add blind return fire. Now add flanking position. Now sub-group to rearguard a sandwiched line. (Passes out from delirium.) It was delicious madness. Yvette stopped us at one point, and asked, "Now how do you guys know who's where and how to tell who's doing what?" Our answer: "We have now freaking idea." That's not really true, though. I estimate we retained 80% of tracking material, even in the most complex cases, and better than that for simpler ones.

(That reminds me. I stumbled on this technique to track pending penalties. I set my dice pools on a sheet of paper and place counters adjacent to them but off the page. At round's end, I brush them onto the page and sweep away any pool reductions. Simple yet effective.)

The second was the bomb raid on the Japanese base. We had three sub-settings streaming concurrently: Saltzer's charge through the bewildered front line, Beard's strafing run across the enemy airfield as the planes sputtered to life and Jackson and Chance's wild race through the outside line of buildings. (Jackson blew the munitions depot and ran outside into a mob of confused soldiers.)

Counting the Steps to the Door
I used a couple of timers, on the fly: the first counted rounds until riflemen reinforcements arrived after a machine gunner's mate radioed in a support request; the second paced Saltzer's charge to Jackson and Chance's wild scramble to sabotage the base and escape in the pandomonium caused by the bombing raid. I used to do this when playing D&D. I guess we all have:) Anyway, I made a pile of three beads, announced the end event and dropped the first one back in the center. It was a very effective device.

Instant NPCs - Just Add 3d6
How do you do demons in DitV? 4d6. Done. How do you do .. anyone in Story Steps? 3d6. 'nuff said. There've been so many little things that came up in this playtest campaign: fighter planes, anti-air guns, motorbikes, jeeps, satchel charges, machine gun nests, etc. Aside from my character network that we built together in the first session, I haven't got a crib in sight. And I don't need them. I just start with 3d6 and adjust from there. Okahaka, for example, got 4d6 and two bonus dice to resist acquisition for being a sneaky bastard. I'm pleased with how easy it's been.

Once, Twice, Three Times a Dead PC
Technically, Cory's character died three times. Each time, I asked him if he'd like to retire Jackson or continue. Each time he stayed with him, so we'd get Jackson left for dead, only to be dragged into the jungle trees and nursed back to life by his buddy, (.. quick, somebody think of a name ..) Chance. Slim Chance. Then Cory decided that the most sensible course of action was to brazenly attack 18 soldiers with a satchel charge and a pistol, himself, gravely wounded. Finally, .. Oh, nevermind. I keep forgeting, when he was struggling with that guard in the Jap base jail, the guard fired wide. That was what alerted the base to their break.

Anyway, it's just cool to me that we were able to keep using that character without breaking SOD.

I know I'm off topic, but I'm reminded: another cool thing we really sealed is using principal characters amidst a backdrop of mass conflict. It's kind of the grail, you know? There are two mechanics that make it work: Impact and man advantage. Impact can be applied to any character you own (protagonist) or control (pawn). And you really feel those scales tipping. With man advantage, one yank can take on a hundred Jap bayonet charge; he just has to work harder.

Unbelievable!
I can't believe my regular group agreed to help me playtest my system .. over multiple sessions! You guys rock. That reminds me, tonight I got the compliment we types most look for: "It works."