[Psi Run] One game right after another!

[Meguey]

Last Thursday we finished up our first Psi Run, as per this thread, with Vincent running for Emily, Julia, and me. It was fantastic! I got to break my lock-box and answer the relevant question, then save a cafe from sliding into the ocean using my *now unrestrained superpowers!!*

Meg's character, Charlotte:

What's in the box that's handcuffed to my wrist? [answered in play: A damper on my awesome Hulk-like Earth-based super-powers!]
Who is Donovan?
Where are my shoes? [answered in play: I don't wear any - my feet are lethal]
Why am I afraid of cats?
Which side am I on? [answered in play: The right one now!!]

Emily's character, Lorraine:

Why can I light things on fire by looking at them? [answered in play: because I was one of the first kids taken and injected with something to make them develope superpowers!]
Why won't this dog leave me alone? [answered in play: because it's been injected with my DNA and they're using it to track me]
Why don't I recognize what I look like? [answered in play: because I was burned horrifically and rebuilt surgically]
Why can I sometimes predict what will happen 10 seconds down the road? [answered in play: because the mutation that gives me superpowers wants me to be free, not controlled]

Julia's character, Meredith:

Why can I breathe underwater? [answered in play: because I'm not human]
Why is my skin turning blue? [answered in play: because I need to get back to the sea]
Why can I communicate with water animals?
Why do I have a picture of a giant octopus in my pocket?
Who is Sean? [answered in play: A friend from 'before' who owns a beach shop]

Emily's character, Lorain, had been recaptured and taken back to the glass cells underneath Pepperdine, Julia was with me at the cafe on Highway 1. Emily answered her last question and brought us to the end-game, which was cool, because it didn't all wrap up tidy. We did something different with the end-game.

End Game Options-
A New family
Face-to-face
On the run
Home
Turn the tables
The mission
Holed up

Of the seven end-game scenarios possible, Emily crossed off one for each question answered, leaving A new family, Face-to-face, and Turn the tables as options. Julia and I decided she rescued the other subjects there and went off with her New family to become a Xavier-like founder. Julia had answered the next highest amount of questions, and she crossed off end-game options equal to her questions answered, with the restriction that she couldn't use the one Emily had used. Emily and I decided she went Home, the call of the seals from the beach below the cafe was just too strong. I was last, fewest questions answered, most restrictions, and they decided I was Holed up somewhere in the little towns along Hwy 1.

Joshua was there for the last bit, and we were having so much obvious fun, he said "I want in!" As soon as we wrapped up, we figured out who'd GM the next game (Emily and I) and dove right in.

Vincent's character David

Where is my soul?
How can I stop from killing people? [answered in play: I have to get my soul back]
What is Whitechapel?
Why can't I forgive Abigail?

Joshua's character Rupert

Why am I holding up this convenience store?  [answered in play: We've been post-hypnotically suggested into it]
Why can I smell what people feel?
Why doesn't anyone notice me until I look them in the eyes?  [answered in play: I relied on *something* to intervene for me once as a child, and now I can do it at will]
Who is this girl in this photo?

Julia's character Siddhi Rahda

Where is my twin brother?
Why am I freaked out by mirrors?
Why is my (actual real) third eye fixed on the image of an assassination?
Why am I carrying a severed hand?  [answered in play: The hand, with the ring on it, is what They wanted us to get from the store]

This is a whole bunch of fun to play, and so far at least as much fun to run. I'm looking forward to next session!

[Parthenia]

Why do I have a picture of a giant octopus in my pocket?

This was also answered in play. There was something behind the giant octopus: a photo of home. This made Meredith's ending all the more poignant, even if she rallied her fellow selchie's to try to take over the earth people who were screwing everything up.

This game is so fun! Our current session if much creepier and darker than the first one.

Julia

[michael lingner]

wow, it sounds like you had a great session!  i smiled big time when i heard the Joshua wanted in because you were all having so much fun.

i was glad to hear that the last session you folks played had a darker & creepier emotional tenor than your previous sessions.   Chris & i had hoped that while this game holds quite a lot for adventure, that folks could develope stories [especially backstories] which held suprizes & some emotional depth. 

in our play we have had some heart wrenching turns, especially through the Revelation catagory. a couple of examples are~ 1] a character turning in a fellow Runner's long-lost mother to the Chasers -&- 2] a character handing over an infant (presumably, his own son) to the Chasers.

personally i like bitter sweetendings. so, it was great to know that the endgame didin't wrap everything up into a nice & tidy happy ending for everyone in the story -&- that Judiths character, Merridith, had  poingant ending in that her answer about the photo. 

the photo was not really a photo of an octopus. it was a photo of Home. nice twist!  the real importance of the photo wasn't what was in the foreground, rather, it was what was in the background that was significant to the character. great!

[chris_moore]

Hey, Meg and Julia,

Your session sounds great!  Here's a question:  I'm thinking, from my own playtesting, that six questions for one character is too many.  Is there a good number of questions per character?  Or, is this something you can adjust to vary the length of the game?

Thanks again, and I look forward to the next session!
Chris

[Parthenia]

I think if you start with 4 or 5 and go up to 6 questions (so you add 1 or 2) that would be good.

Julia

[michael lingner]

Meg & Julia thanks for telling us about your last psi*run session & for the input re: charachter questions.

in our playtesting it seems to Chris & I that the number of questions & the number of characters effects how soon the endgame comes into play in the game.

so that we may further test this belief could you please tell us about the time frame of your psi*run story? 

what would you say were the running times of each of your game sessions?

if remember this correctly, your troop played 3 sessions. in the 3rd session you came to the endgame. right?   

i'm glad that you are all having a grand time playing psi*run, both as players & as GMs! thanks again. ~cloud

[lumpley]

We've finished our second game. It was good, it was darker than the first, and it ended with lots of unanswered questions, which I liked quite a bit. An NPC whose motivations we never quite got, backstories left unfilled-in. Very cool.

But mostly I'm going to talk about the rules.

1. How many questions?
At character creation, we each wrote four questions. For at least me and J, coming up with the fourth question was challenging, but I thought it was worth it. Three questions all tie into one another too tidily; reaching for the fourth means breaking out of tidiness.

During play, here's how we did the reveal category:
6: you answer one of your own questions
4-5: we answer one of your questions
1-3: we can give you a new question if we want to, up to 6.

During the first session, when I put a 1-3 in reveal, they didn't give me a new question; I hadn't raised any in their minds. During the second session, when J and Julia put 1-3 in reveal, we gave them new questions, because we had new questions for them.

At the end, we had 7 epilogues to choose from. Let's see if I can list them from memory:
Face to face
The mission
Home
Holed up
Turning the tables
A new family
On the run

How many of your questions have you answered? Cross out that many of the epilogues. The rest of the group chooses one from the ones that remain, and tells you your character's epilogue.

So I ended the game with four questions answered. I crossed out the mission, turning the tables, a new family, and on the run. They chose face to face for me and put my character face to face with what he'd done.

Julia's answered only two of her questions. She crossed out face to face and turning the tables. We chose the mission for her and in epilogue revealed her character to be even more soulless than mine had been.

I really like the way it worked. It's what I'd recommend for the game: Four questions at character creation, group's option to add a question on a 1-3 reveal, at endgame cross out as many epilogues as you have answered questions, group chooses your epilogue from the remainder. You can expect a game to last 2-3 sessions of 2-3 hours each, and to end with significant questions unanswered, which is cool.

2. PC vs PC?
I was like, "I totally kill Abigail [an NPC]." J was like, "no! Not okay! What can I do about that?"

Here's what we did. J said, "you have to get through me first," so I rolled on that. My goal was "get past J's character." I put a low die in it, but if I'd put a high die in it, THEN I'd've rolled again with my goal being "kill Abigail."

That worked fine, but it's not what I'd recommend. What I'd recommend is, J says "you have to get through me first," so J rolls on it. His goal would be "get in V's character's way." If he puts a high die there, I don't get the chance to kill Abigail; if he puts a low die there, then I get to roll to kill her.

3. Hitting PCs with a low die in brainstorm?
When you put a 1-2 in brainstorm, bad stuff happens all around you. That's cool. Can it hit the other PCs?

We played that if I put a low die in brainstorm, the GM(s) can call for Julia and J to make rolls with goals like "the demons don't possess me" or "I'm not caught in the blast." We may have talked about this already. I strongly recommend doing it this way: the consequences of a low die where it can affect other PCs is, those players have to make rolls.

4. How many GMs?
For our second game we did what I suggested before: at least one person has to be a GM, at least one person has to play a character, everyone else gets to choose which they want to do. J, Julia and I chose to play characters, Meg and Emily chose to GM.

Maybe Meg and Emily will say how it went for them? For me, it was as smooth and slick as could be. I didn't see any downside. Chris, Cloud, I really encourage you to give this a try and include it as an option in the rules.

That's what I've got!

-Vincent

[chris_moore]

Hey there,

I really like the options you all came up with.  Especially the Reveal option. 

Here are a couple of questions:

Did the endgame trigger normally (someone had answered all six Questions)?

Any branching trails this time?

Were the Chasers noticeably different from the first game?

This feedback is gold.  Thanks to you all!
Chris

[lumpley]

The endgame triggered when somebody answered all their questions, which was me with 4. 6 questions is the max but endgame doesn't have to wait for it.

No branching, but some staggering, with J's character running ahead of mine and Julia's all the time. In this game, the pursuit got ahead and stayed ahead, so they were always there wherever we went.

Noticeably different, yes. Also similar in funny ways: last time, they were from Pepperdine; this time, they were Skull & Bones.

-Vincent

[chris_moore]

The endgame triggered when somebody answered all their questions, which was me with 4. 6 questions is the max but endgame doesn't have to wait for it.

At first I was worried about this, but, if you have everyone start with four questions, the game won't stop too early. 

I'd also love to hear from the Co-GM's about how that part of the game went!

Chris