[Everlasting Empire] The First Playtest

[Malcolm Craig]

This thread might provide some help in understanding the basics of Everlasting Empire:

Everlasting Empire Power 19

Last weekend saw the first ever playtest of Everlasting Empire. In truth, it wasn't in any way a full playtest, rather a testing of the Situation Sheet and Character Creation elements of the game.

The group consisted of people attending the Spodley Grange playtest camp in scenic Northamptonshire, an environment (and isolated farmhouse) that was highly conducive to focussed playtesting. Andy, Claire, Janos and Scott all took part, with me taking the GM role.

First there was a brief explanation of what Everlasting Empire was all about: for a British audience, this proved to be very easy: Dan Dare, Bulldog Drummond, Sherlock Holmes, The RAF, The Ministry of Space and so forth were all mentioned as cultural touchstones for the game. I described it as "peculiarly British pulp". Everyone seemed to key into these things pretty well and expressed a good understanding of the concepts behind the game (much mention was made of pipes, moustaches and bold man saying "What ho!" amongst the stars).

Then we fired straight into the Situation Sheet. As we had only allotted two hours in which to test these elements, it was vital that we push on, but also that we use the Situation Sheet to it's fullest extent.

For my part, this playtest showed that the questions as laid out in the situation sheet often blur together in real life. In many instances, things came up which were specifically asked for later in the SS. To my mind, this is not a bad thing and demonstrates to me that I need to adjust the text. These adjustments would take the form of saying that you shouldn't see the SS as rigid or prescriptive, that it should be there to encourage debate and discussion, not to be a tablet of stone to be adhered to.

Looking at the notes made by various players, it's very interesting to see what scribbles were made by people during this period. On Claire's sheets, she interestingly drew a funnel shape with 'Concept' at the top (the wide end) and 'Character' at the bottom (the narrow end).

Discussion was free flowing and enthusiastic, although Janos seemed the least engaged when creating the SS. I'm not sure if this was due to unfamiliarity with the genre, deep thought or some other factor. However, he did give valuable input and when it came to character creation, became much more engaged.

The SS ended up looking like this:

Who Are We?

"The Opium Wars" as a historical touchstone
Privateers taking drugs from one planet to another
The East India Company as a historical reference
Slightly criminal tinge

What Are We Doing?

Trying to get the drugs through a blockade
Oppressing the local 'peoples'
Suppressing information
Counteracting saboteurs
Exerting political pressure

What Is The Tone?

Black comedy
Ironic

Where Are We?

New Entwhistle on the Wold – Planet
St Pancras to the Stars – train station whish leads to the Beanstalk

What Is This Place Like?

Space elevator – The Beanstalk
Fairly inhospitable – domes built to contain green fields for cricket
Aliens – Large, buff, green men with three legs. Don't do cricket. Do do tea. Naturally peaceful, but the combination of tea and public school has made them warlike.

What Are Our Goals?

To quash or suborn the local warlord and his agents

Who Opposes Us?

The Green Peril – warlord
Treachery of some kind
Human group sympathetic to the aliens (Aliens Are People Too – AAPT)
The Stellar Intelligence Agency – SIA (Americans)
Space pirates – attacking all trade interests (uniting all factions)

There was great satisfaction at the end of SS creation. By this point, everyone was keen to actually play the game, which was a good thing. During the creation of the SS, the setting adopted slightly more comic overtones than the initial 'Opium Wars In Space' idea but also moved into some darker territory with the oppression of the alien race native to the planet of New Entwhistle. Nobody was bothered or disturbed by this, in fact it did seem that everyone around the table embraced what had been created as a rich environment for play. The idea of drugs eventually metamorphosed into being diamonds, but the British were the ones doing the drug dealing, as tea was found to be a powerful narcotic to the alien inhabitants.

We then moved in to Character Creation. Working on the SS seemed to have enthused the players and they dived right in to creating interesting and fun characters. Most of them were of high social standing, apart from the character created by Janos, who was of fairly humble origins and occupation. However, this was seen as a great opportunity not only for comedy but also for the puncturing of the expectations and views of the upper class characters everyone else had created.

It was intriguing to see what everyone made of the character creation systems and what came out of the other end. I interfered as little as possible, letting the players create the characters they felt were appropriate and in the way that they saw fit, rather than being prescriptive and enforcing a 'true way' as written.

The characters came out like this:

Andy
Who am I?
Charles Holmfirth, Royal protector, Lord Commander 2nd Stellar Battalion of the Royal Colonial Forces

What do I do?
Suppress the locals, ensure the diamonds flow by whatever means necessary

How do I serve King and Empire?
I travel to foreign planets, plant the flag and when they turn their backs on gentle British hospitality, I show them the error of their ways.

Action: 3
Brains: 2
Grit: 4

Motifs
Smoking: An ivory handled pipe that he taps when thinking
A green and pleasant land

Motivations
The diamonds must flow!
The locals should know their place!
Might is right!

Traits
The lost art of duelling
What ho!
What what!
A true British gentleman

Resources
Brass plated Worthington MkIII particle cutlass passed down from my Grandfather
A shiny steel 'Edgbaston' laser pistol
A pristine red Colonial uniform decorated with medals of countless conflicts

Claire
Who am I?
Lady Victoria Duck-Manton, Daughter of the Governor

What do I do?
Lead a double life as elegant lady and also lover of aliens and agitator

How do I serve King and Empire?
By obeying my father

Action: 3
Brains: 3
Grit: 3

Motifs
Smoking: Thin roll-ups
Trousers tucked in to socks and boots

Motivations
My love for the green flesh!
Bored and want excitement!
Stop inequality!

Traits
The fine art of duelling
Tactics as I have spent much time playing complicated parlour games
Persuasive and innocent
Good at lying and deception

Resources
Plain looking pocketknife which conceals a devilishly sharp blade made of finest Sheffield steel and also concealing a small personal micro transmitter
Wallington's Finest personal surveillance system for Girls on the Go
Smoking pouch including a 'Surelite' ("Wind and alien environment proof!")cigarette lighter
'Wet Look Wench' for lush underground revolutionary lips!

Janos
Who am I?
Edwin Brownswoggle of the 7th Cornish Irregulars

What do I do?
Whatever needs doing!

How do I serve King and Empire?
Keeping the green men in their place and our lords and masters out of harms way.

Action: 3
Brains: 1
Grit: 5

Motifs
Smoking: The pungent smell of Cornish blend form and old, worn pipe
Grubby

Motivations
Show the natives what's what!
Prove to the Lords who's who!
Good solid lunch!

Traits
Deadeye shot
Takes a lickin', keeps on tickin'
Aye aye guv'nor
Honest as the day is long

Resources
Old Betsy, my faithful Bennings repeater
A battered old armoured lunch pail

Scott
Who am I?
Lord Rupert Fellowes, gentleman thug

What do I do?
Heir to the Swithin-Fellowes Corporation, purveyors of fine teas to the Empire

How do I serve King and Empire?
By building British trade interests

Action: 3
Brains: 2
Grit: 4

Motifs
Smoking: Harsh Turkish tobacco that makes weak men choke
Firmly clenched jaw

Motivations
No pity for the weak!
Self-improvement!
Profit above all!

Traits
Hit them for six
Steely blue eyes
Pull yourself together man!
A fine specimen of British manhood

Resources
Leather thing boots polished to a perfect shine by his manservant
His Grandfathers willow cricket bat, blood stained and held together with tape
Old school tie, held by tiepin made from the first diamond ever mined in the colony

It was instructive to see the range of Motifs, Motivations and Traits chosen by the players. What was more interesting is the number of each that were chosen. In Everlasting Empires, you have points to spend on these character aspects on a 2/3/4 formula (2 on one, 3 in another are and 4 in another, all according to the choice of the player). All of the players spent 2 in Motifs, 3 in Motivations and 4 in Traits. Further playtesting will likely reveal if this is a trend that expresses itself during the game or simply something that was common to this session.

The final part of the character creation process was to give a selection of people whom you feel socially superior or inferior to (at least one of each). I've not listed these for reasons of space, but they threw up a good range of NPCs and character relationships. One thing which came out of this was the suggestion that at least one of these relationships should be with another character. A very valid suggestion, which I'll be incorporating into the text. It was also suggested that these relationships should, somehow, have a mechanical effect in a similar way to Resources.

It was noted that Motifs, Motivations and Traits has the potential to move between the categories as play progressed. This is a fair point and one that I'll need to consider. And as a final note, it was opined that each character really should have a 'catchphrase' that offers some form of in game benefits for its use. Perhaps this could be incorporated as a Motif, which seems the most appropriate thing to do.

To round off, this was a very satisfying playtest of Everlasting Empire, especially as it was the very first one. It wasn't particularly long but it did raise some good points for the future and gave me a feel for how the process of creating character and situation might flow.

Cheers
Malcolm