[Cold City] MACE game: Projekt Flakturm

[Jason Morningstar]

I ran a convention game of Cold City at MACE in High Point, NC this weekend and it went very well.  I'd previously run a three session mini-campaign of Cold City, so I knew the rules and the setting and was confident. 

I created five pre-gen characters, one from each occupying power and a German, and made sure that they all had mutually exclusive national and hidden agendas.  My goal was to put them in situations in which they had the opportunity to betray one another, and let the game drive itself.  We had four players, and the French RPA agent was left out of the mix. 

Cold City really demands a lot of prep, and to some extent a linear plot.  I had a series of NPCs, situations, and events prepped, but remained flexible, cutting out some bits and truncating others based on the actions of the players.  I'd also given them memos from their superiors that offered ways forward and suggestions about prominent NPCs available to them.  These were, curiously, largely ignored and nobody shared their personal information. 

I established that a pair of RPA agents had gone missing, and that they needed to be located and recovered.  The players went on a clue hunt in the Berlin black market, as well as tossing the flats of the missing men.  I used these scenes as a chance to introduce the game mechanics through some Influence and Reason rolls.

There were some satisfying scenes in which they uncovered the information necessary to find the missing guys.  I introduced real people from history - a pair of ex-OSS agents drummed out for coruption, returned to Berlin on the take, and a very creepy ethnic German Serbian ex-Waffen SS officer who operated a brothel running young boys.  The players seemed engaged with the puzzle hunt, and put all the bits together before charging off to the scene of the weird action - the gun tower of Flakturm II, known locally as "rubble mountain", in Friedrichshain, east Berlin.

The area was cordoned off by MGB and Stasi troops, which they had fun avoiding.  Inside the perimeter were roaming bands of S-T zombies and, deep below the bomb shelter, a freaky Nazi high energy physics lab with a strange, deadly Incursor that generated horrific filaments of glass.  It was very pulpy and fun, and there was a good amount of skullduggery as hidden agendas came into play when they uncovered a trove of documentation on "Project White Horse".  There was no fabulous betrayal, but the happy-go-lucky British agent did end up bleeding out, trapped by an explosion, with the Incursor bearing down on him.  He shot himself in the head as an excellent and evocative end.

I had been concerned with Cold City's die mechanic, which I'd found unsatisfying previously.  In the convention game there were the expected abundance of partial successes, but overall it seemed to work smoothly for us.  The full successes were fairly rare but that made them powerful.  The system was easy for the players to grasp and we had three enthusiastic "indie gamers" and one guy who was new to the scene.  Everyone commented on their delight in the setting. 

[Emily Care]

Hey Jason,

Sounds like a great game (and con!).

I had been concerned with Cold City's die mechanic, which I'd found unsatisfying previously.  In the convention game there were the expected abundance of partial successes, but overall it seemed to work smoothly for us.

Why were partial successes expected? Had that seemed de-protagonizing in the past?

best,
Em

[Jason Morningstar]

Hi Emily,

There's a thread on our three session game here, where we talk about the troublesome way the dice tend to go.  We played wrong, but even the parts we got right tended to favor "partial successes", which in Cold City mean that you achieve your intention but in a limited way or with extra difficulty, and without suffering or inflicting consequences, which are mechanically relevant in a big way.  So unlike Sorcerer, to which Cold City owes an acknowledged debt, you can win in a way that is not definitive.  The way the dice play out this happens very frequently - in the four hour convention game, we had three regular successes and one significant success.  Every other roll, perhaps a dozen, was a partial. 

[JamesDJIII]

I played in this game!

I'd like to comment on and ask some questions about this game, as well some general meta-game issues it provoked in my head.

I'd also given them memos from their superiors that offered ways forward and suggestions about prominent NPCs available to them.  These were, curiously, largely ignored and nobody shared their personal information. 

I know I ignored my memo because it wasn't aligned in any way with stuff on my sheet. And as far as I could tell, only the stuff on my sheet was going to give me any sort of currency (like more dice in a related conflict). It seemed as if the memo was more than just color - but I couldn't push it as far as fuel for conflict.

Some things I noticed and would like to know more about:

Item 1:
I think at one point you mentioned that the conflict resolution mechanics didn't cover all events. In our case, the corpse we found of one of the black marketeers was booby trapped, and a grenade fell out. There was a lot of excitement about who was where, who was going to get hurt, etc.

I did notice that a couple of players immediately went into Abused Player mode, as if their description of just how they were positioned and their reaction to the live grenade was going to deflect a casual hosing by our GM. (I'm not saying Jason did this or even intended to do this.) I think this is a pretty common reaction. I've seen and probably have done terrible things to players when that haven't, to my satisfaction, sufficiently covered their cans with color ("I move the sword this way, carefully using my gloved hand, which is on the other side of my shield, in case the jar of green water explodes...").

I thought about this a lot, in fact. I'm guessing that you could infact turn the craziness about who is where with a simple conflict - Who Planted the Grenade Vs. People in the Way. I haven't read Cold City's text well enough to figure this out, so please, correct me if I'm wrong.

I also wanted to ask about a comment made by another player about passing secret GM notes. I personally can't stand all the note writing, but maybe there are games where this is really needed. I'm going to take a stab and guess that you could do Cold City without them, at all.

If the idea is roll over your playmates and betray them, using secret knowledge to gain an advantage. But I feel as if the real suspense is not whether or not, in our game as an example, the German agent douses the package of Project Whitehorse with acid without my Russian agent knowing it. The real outcome is whether or not the information escapes the underground lab at all, right? I'd like to see more of this get out of the notes and into some dice hitting the table!

Imagine that instead of passing the notes, the German player says, right out in the open, "Jason, while I'm holding the documents, I ruin the documents with my packet of acid!"

I can easily see numerous ways that Jason could hose the German - "you didn't say HOW you were doing that" or he did say how, "you didn't guess the right combination of sneaky moves to convince ME you escaped notice..." etc.

Does Cold City allow for all the players to know what's happening? I think it could - why not a conflict that is all about whether or not "my Russian agent has a contact in the German's organization that neutralized the acid" (Color) based on me, the player, trying to win the conflict against the German agent's efforts? Or, if I decide not to do this, but I want another conflict about how I have some papers the German missed?

I'm not clear about how Cold City would negotiate the scope of the conflicts from big to small, and how they relate. I'm also asking because there's a lot of other games with similar features of resolution. Again, if anyone can help break this down, perhaps in another thread(?), that'd be very helpful.

Item 2:
Jason presented many NPCs, like the Waffen SS pimp, etc. I did get frustrated trying to navigate from one part of the clue hunt to the other. I've played and run games where the clue hunting was a big deal. You look down at your notes and you realize the person the players are talking to have NO information that will help them, or he does, and the player has blown the roll! What to do?

Does a game like Cold City allow for partial successes to introduce facts that might not otherwise be? Is it a conflict to be resolved with dice if the player wants "to convince this Stazi thug to open up about who's dealing in black market Nazi bio-tech" and the GM knows the prepared NPC really doesn't know anything about it?

Overall, I had a good time sneaking down into the bowels of post-war Berlin, dodging undead Nazi corpses!

[Jason Morningstar]

Hey James,

Thanks for the thoughts.  I'm hoping Malcolm will address your mechanical questions. 

The note-passing guy - that was where his comfort level was.  I agree that complete openness on that level is a good, fun thing but I made the snap decision that all his metagame subterfuge wasn't really going to do any harm.  I had to weigh the note passing against the time it would take to explain to him why sharing his secrets was cool, and dealing with squashing his fun, potentially.  I'm sure I could have handled it differently and better.  If it is any consolation, the final line of the game - yours - made the whole session for me:  (Russian agent looking at a satchel of ruined scientific notes, covered in acid)  "You've just killed my entire family". 

The in-game memos I handed you guys were just clue sticks (go see this guy) and additional color.  I guess I expected you to say "I know this dude who might know something about the whereabouts of Shraft and Feld..."  It wasn't a big deal at all and, in retrospect, not surprising given the paranoia that none of it got shared.

The grenade thing - from my point of view the outcome wasn't even relevant.  I didn't have a dog in the fight and as soon as I introduced that element of danger I realized that Cold City didn't have a strong way to address it.  So I improvised, and all the player positioning tomfoolery was a little counterproductive.  On a positive note, it did lead to the fun endgame for the British guy, who was injured in the blast and began his self-sacrificing death spiral. 

The American and the Russian go to East Berlin, make some inquiries, fail a few rolls, get nothing for their trouble.  This was just the GM dropping the ball and following the rules - in retrospect there were plenty of alternatives open to me, but in the moment I didn't see them.  Again, I appreciate your comments!

[JamesDJIII]

Jason,

Dropping the ball - hey no sweat - it's a con game! Bowen's suicide in the approach of the glowing ball of death was classic, to be sure.

I'm waiting patiently for your take on the DiTV game, btw. Now that, that game I think was your crown jewel at MACE.

[Malcolm Craig]

Cold City really demands a lot of prep, and to some extent a linear plot.  I had a series of NPCs, situations, and events prepped, but remained flexible, cutting out some bits and truncating others based on the actions of the players.  I'd also given them memos from their superiors that offered ways forward and suggestions about prominent NPCs available to them.  These were, curiously, largely ignored and nobody shared their personal information.

As always, thanks for running the game and thanks again for providing an AP report. From what I've heard, your GMing efforts at MACE were nothing short of heroic!

I'm interested that you characterise Cold City as requiring a lot of prep. Certainly I've found that I can run off the cuff games of CC and have them work quite well. Of course, the Hidden Agendas and so forth don't have quite the same impact in a quickfire sort of game. Do you feel that the prep required stems from a desire to have certain elements (real historical figures, references to actual events, complex conspiracies, etc)? When running a longer game myself, I certainly like to do some research and have a clear idea of what elements I will be bringing to the game. I would be very interested to hear you views on this.

I had been concerned with Cold City's die mechanic, which I'd found unsatisfying previously.  In the convention game there were the expected abundance of partial successes, but overall it seemed to work smoothly for us.  The full successes were fairly rare but that made them powerful.  The system was easy for the players to grasp and we had three enthusiastic "indie gamers" and one guy who was new to the scene.  Everyone commented on their delight in the setting.

I'm glad to hear that the game went well for you and the players enjoyed it. Referring to your mention above of prep time and so forth, is it your opinion that Cold City can work well as a convention game in the standard 3 - 4 hour time slot?

I played in this game!

Hi James, thanks for pitching in with your thoughts on the game. Always great to hear the views and experiences of players.

Item 1:
I think at one point you mentioned that the conflict resolution mechanics didn't cover all events. In our case, the corpse we found of one of the black marketeers was booby trapped, and a grenade fell out. There was a lot of excitement about who was where, who was going to get hurt, etc.

I did notice that a couple of players immediately went into Abused Player mode, as if their description of just how they were positioned and their reaction to the live grenade was going to deflect a casual hosing by our GM. (I'm not saying Jason did this or even intended to do this.) I think this is a pretty common reaction. I've seen and probably have done terrible things to players when that haven't, to my satisfaction, sufficiently covered their cans with color ("I move the sword this way, carefully using my gloved hand, which is on the other side of my shield, in case the jar of green water explodes...").

I thought about this a lot, in fact. I'm guessing that you could infact turn the craziness about who is where with a simple conflict - Who Planted the Grenade Vs. People in the Way. I haven't read Cold City's text well enough to figure this out, so please, correct me if I'm wrong.

Indeed, the resolution mechanics do not explicitly cover things such as grenades, big explosions and so forth. Hwoever, I think their effects can be extrapolated (perhaps not the best solution) from the text as it stands.

Your comment that the explosion could actually be a conflict is a good on. The intent of the grenade planter was to injure or kill those who discovered the corpse, thus preventing them following the trail of clues any further. The intent, I would imagine, of the players would be to avoid injury in order to probe further into the mystery, not just avoiding injury for its own sake. Players and GM could add a whole heap of colour to the situation, describing what they are doing, both immediately during the event and in the aftermath, why they are doing things and so forth. But, to my mind, the basic desired outcome for the players would still be "Survive in order to continue our investigation of this mystery."

I also wanted to ask about a comment made by another player about passing secret GM notes. I personally can't stand all the note writing, but maybe there are games where this is really needed. I'm going to take a stab and guess that you could do Cold City without them, at all.

<snipped specific detail>

Does Cold City allow for all the players to know what's happening? I think it could - why not a conflict that is all about whether or not "my Russian agent has a contact in the German's organization that neutralized the acid" (Color) based on me, the player, trying to win the conflict against the German agent's efforts? Or, if I decide not to do this, but I want another conflict about how I have some papers the German missed?

I think it's certainly more fun and promotes better story if the players know about the hidden agendas of each character. This, for me, allows the players to contribute more fully tot he game, pushing the button of the other characters and so forth. Obviously, this could be open to abuse with a player or players who did not grasp the in-game implications of same, but I've certainly found it does promote a better atmosphere and story.

Again, I agree in broad terms with your point about conflicts and the introduction of colour into them. Note writing can prove irritating to some players and their should be an agreement round the table whether or not it will be used or there will be 'full disclosure' of certain character aspects. if players want to keep all stuff hidden, then that's entirely fair, however, if there is a desire to be more open in the cause of having a better story, then that's an ideal way to go.

I'm not clear about how Cold City would negotiate the scope of the conflicts from big to small, and how they relate. I'm also asking because there's a lot of other games with similar features of resolution. Again, if anyone can help break this down, perhaps in another thread(?), that'd be very helpful.

I'm not entirely clear on what you are askng with this, so please forgive me. Is it in reference to conflicts of varying scales, for example:

1) Trying to bribe a border guard
2) Trying to influence the overall workings of the Stasi

Item 2:
Jason presented many NPCs, like the Waffen SS pimp, etc. I did get frustrated trying to navigate from one part of the clue hunt to the other. I've played and run games where the clue hunting was a big deal. You look down at your notes and you realize the person the players are talking to have NO information that will help them, or he does, and the player has blown the roll! What to do?

Does a game like Cold City allow for partial successes to introduce facts that might not otherwise be? Is it a conflict to be resolved with dice if the player wants "to convince this Stazi thug to open up about who's dealing in black market Nazi bio-tech" and the GM knows the prepared NPC really doesn't know anything about it?

The game does not explicitly allow this, but neither does it mitigate against it. In the game text, a Superlative success explicitly allows you to introduce new details and go beyon the initial stakes of the character in the conflict. However, there is validity in looking at partial success bring detail into a scene as a means of mitigating the disappointment of not having consequences from such a roll.

Your example of questioning the Stasi thug would come down to a question of whether or not it advanced the tory any for that NPC to have such information? I'm not convinced that your average secret policeman would know such thing, but if it served to enhance the game and move the story along, then that's entirely fair. I tend not to have a fixed idea about such things during the game and like players to input their thoughts into the situation. Obviously, a con game is a much more rarified situation and requires a good deal more structure that a free-flowing game with friends over a period of weeks.

Overall, I had a good time sneaking down into the bowels of post-war Berlin, dodging undead Nazi corpses!

Excellent, I'm glad you enjoyed playing the game. As you seem to have a lot of questions about the game in light of your play experience, pop me a PM with your email address in it and I'll fire you over a PDF of Cold City to browse. Maybe that will answer some queries in more detail.

Thanks
Malcolm

[Jason Morningstar]

Hey Malcolm, Cold City works great in a four hour time slot.  Of all the games I ran, it seemed best suited for that amount of time.  I specifically set it up to highlight the setting by including investigation, S-Ts, and an Incursor.  If we'd had time I also had an Alternative in the wings.  Three hours would have been too short.  And the hidden agendas rarely got invoked due to unfamiliarity and perhaps the thrust of the adventure - this may be an artifact of convention play. 

In terms of prep, I used the example materials in the book as a guide - the Spandau scenario has a lot of detail and is generally linear in form.  I can't imagine coming up with something like that on the fly.  Running a straight monster hunt would be easy, though.  I used existing material from my previous play sessions and still spent a couple of hours putting it all into a form playable in one four hour block.