[Exemplar] Play-Test of Wraiths

[Jeph]

So, I'm going to be running Exemplar for the first time later today. (The link to the rules is in my sig.) Originally it was going to be a D&D game for 4, but then shit happened, so now it's Exemplar for 2. :^) The scenario used will be Wraiths, the sample adventure in the back of the book. I've spoken a bit with the players. Both want to play Exemplar--one a pilot along the lines of Han-Solo-With-Telekinesis, the other a ninja in SPAAAACE!--perfectly acceptable concepts with this game. I think I'll fit the former in as a co-pilot or techie aboard the Fortune, and the second as a covert op for a smaller and more stealthy order, most likely the Infiltrators.

I'm totally psyched. I hope the game runs with as fast a pace as I think it will. And if it doesn't--well, that's what playtests are for, right?
--Jeff

[Jeph]

So. Session's over, and we all had lots of fun. The characters were:

Citizen Kaleb
Prowess 15 (Blades)
Stealth 15 (Avoiding Notive)
Piloting 25 (Starfighters)
Charisma 15 (Concinving)
Tech 20 (Vehicle Repairs)
Wits 15 (Alert)
Insight 3
Willpower 2
Telekinetic Force, Matter Reshaping Method
Nemesis 1
Melee 15 (Standard, Injure and Disarm, 1 target)
Missile 15 (Light, Disarm, Many targets)
Plot Points: 1

Citizen Kaleb is a member of the Epsilon Free Exemplar Order and the second mate aboard the transport IAS Fortune. I created this character with Peter over AIM the night before, asking questions and assigning stats accordingly. His second Tecnique--Matter Reshaping Method--was created custom for him, when Peter commented that there was currently no power that let you open holes in walls. :)

Citizen pSmith
Prowess 25 (Guns)
Stealth 30 (Avoiding Notice)
Piloting 10
Charisma 15 (Diplomacy)
Technology 10
Wits 25 (Cool Under Pressure)
Insight 0
Willpower 3
Nemesis 1
Melee 25 (Light, Disarm and Injure, Many targets)
Missile 25 (Standard, Injure, One target)

Citizen pSmith was played by Wade, and was once an apprentice of the Exemplar Guild of Infiltrators. When it became clear he could not learn the required discipline he ran away, but took some formidable skills with him. He served as a hired hand and observer of relations on the Fortune, and was also working with the Free Order.

After two characters have a great deal of trouble finding Stealth specialties, it became apparent that I need to either (a) widen the definition of Stealth or (b) think up a goodly number of examples.

List of IGAC Approved Items Appearing in This Session:
IGAC Approved Ship
IGAC Approved Liftoff Procedure
IGAC Approved Docking Procedure
IGAC Approved Environmental Adaptation Protocol
IGAC Approved Orders
IGAC Approved Citizens
IGAC Approved Solders
IGAC Approved Pirates
IGAC Approved Recreational Facilities
IGAC Approved "Enemies of Our Empire" Propoganda Film
IGAC Approved Meal
IGAC Approved Quick Nutrition
IGAC Approved Self-Inflicted Punishment
IGAC Approved Colors
IGAC Approved Armament
IGAC Approved Standard Issue Sword
IGAC Approved Explosive Chemical Rounds
IGAC Approved Freefal X-Ray Projection Pistols
IGAC Approved Chain of Command
IGAC Approved Interceptor Starfighter
IGAC Approved Communications
IGAC Approved Hailing Procedure
IGAC Approved Registration Process
IGAC Approved Crate
IGAC Approved Really Big Gun

Two important rules were invented on the fly for this session, which will be added to the booklet. The first, Simple Contests: Divide the initiator's relevant Style by 5, add their Bonuses, and subtract their Penalties, and use the result as difficulty dice for a test made by the other character. This was used mostly for BSing and Stealth rolls.

The second, Dodging Explosions: Test your Prowess against 6 dice if you're at the very center, 4 dice if near the center, or 2 at the periphery. Success means you've gotten out of the way--completely. Failure means you make a chance roll as if you had been hit by an attack whose purpose is to injure, with the chance out of 10 being determined by the strength of the explosion.

Quick plot summary:

The game opened with everyone loading crates onto the IAS Fortune while being shot at by Free Order operatives trying to thin the ship's military ranks so that other operatives stationed on board the ship itself would have an easier time of taking it over later. The PCs didn't do anything complex here--just delay a bit, and get used to the basics of the system. After the ship had reached the atmosphere they were briefed on their mission: to investigate the Warpship IAS Purity IX, which had not made contact since it entered the system. They also got their secret orders from other covert operatives on the ship at this time.

The next scene took place when the Fortune docked at the Epsilon Orbital Station. More crew and supplies were brought on board while everyone else enjoyed some IGAC Approved Recreation. Lots of fun here talking with other Free Order opps. Bullshit flying so thick you couldn't see a meter. A brief scuffle with pirates ensued. When it spilled out into space, Citizen Kaleb took to the Fortune's interceptor/ferreyer to fight them off, while pSmith gave fire support from the Fortune's azimuth mounted railgun. This resulted in the game's first three explosions, which granted checks to Wits and Technology for pSmith and Piloting and Technology for Kaleb.

Then came the docking with and exploration of the Purity IX. Many wraiths were fought, and then the PCs killed everybody near them and blew the ship strait to hell with some mighty cool description and heavy expenditure of Plot Points. Then they returned to the Fortune in a new interceptor stolen from the Purity's bay and proceded to kick ass on Marines Templar. The last Plot Point was expended to make sure an IGAC Approved Really Big Gun graced the arsenal of the ship, which Kaleb then telekinetically pulled to himself and proceeded to use with great effect. This scene also boasted the only expenditure of Willpower and use of Nemesis, all of which was used in a battle with Commander Samuels, the man who lead the Marines aboard the ship. When central command paged great hilarity ensued while attempting to prop up Samuels' corpse so that the biometric verification would scan correctly, and much fun was had feeding the planetside Templars false information.

The session ended with pSmith and Kaleb taking their stolen Interceptor back to the planet, where they were escorted to a Free Order base by a small squadron of atmospheric fighters. Other Free Order ops stayed behind on the Fortune to run analyses on the Wraiths and the Epsilon Jump Gate. Nobody noticed the Infiltrator who stole planetside with the PCs.

At the end of the session, pSmith had one check against Tech and two on Wits. Kaleb had one on Prowess, one on Technology, three on Piloting, one on Willpower, and two on Nemesis. When you take "good checks minus bad checks," that's three for pSmith and four for Kaleb--not bad.

Much fun was had by all, and we look forwards to future sessions. Wade made the comment that he felt there was too much player empowerment in the system, but thought long, hard, and indecisively when I asked him whether the game would have been more fun without it. When I run it next we will probably have one or two more players with us, which should be fun. Also, the next session will probably include more fights against named Exemplar, whereas this one was mostly against Unnameds. I'm curious to see how pronounced the differences are.

I look forwards to running it again. :^)
--Jeff

[DevP]

This sounds wicked cool!

Much fun was had by all, and we look forwards to future sessions. Wade made the comment that he felt there was too much player empowerment in the system, but thought long, hard, and indecisively when I asked him whether the game would have been more fun without it.

I'm curious which parts of the game, overall, he meant. Do the Exemplars kick too much ass? (Will this be solved with hot Exemplar on Exemplar action?)

Other notes:
* How did it go with explosions leading to advancement? I like it, but I worry it would eventually get hokey.
* The text says that only the best fighter of the mob of mooks goes. Well, given that they're mooks, I feel that this is good, within reason. ("How were we supposed to fight him?" "All at once." "And how DID we fight him" "One at a time...)
* Did the rules encourage enough diverse combat descriptions?
* Do you see this as a sort of more gamey (Gamist, even?) game? I've been looking for something cool in that area, and this might be it.

[Jeph]

Hi,

I'm not totally sure what Wase meant by "too much player empowerment," and I'm not convinced that he was either. He hasn't played with my group that much and was bread on traditional d&d kill-the-dragon-take-his-l00t fantasy. He'd watched Equilibrium the night before, so he sure as hell knew what to do with the empowerment, but I think the Story Tokens and my general attitude of "Yeah, that sounds cool" still sort of makes him uncomfortable. Next session this Friday--we'll see how it goes then.

How did it go with explosions leading to advancement? I like it, but I worry it would eventually get hokey.

It almost did. I decided, while they were gunning down a brace of pirate starfighters, that for multiple small explosions of the same sort in a row (Bam--one fighter... Bam--two fighers...), only the first counts per character.

The text says that only the best fighter of the mob of mooks goes. Well, given that they're mooks, I feel that this is good, within reason. ("How were we supposed to fight him?" "All at once." "And how DID we fight him" "One at a time...)

This also means that if you want to give them a penalty for being wounded, you need to wound ALL of them. Which results in crazy circle cicks, blades thrown in arcs, and IGAC Approved Really Big Guns being Tokened onto a nearby weapons rack.

Did the rules encourage enough diverse combat descriptions?

We had diverse combat description, but I'm not totally sure the rules caused it. It certainly helped, though, but I set a high standard for action, having played waaay too much Feng Shui.

Do you see this as a sort of more gamey (Gamist, even?) game? I've been looking for something cool in that area, and this might be it.

It can get quite gamey. Once the players become more comfortable with the system and their Nemeses start to pull them under, I have a feeling that twiddling Technique selection's going to be a big thing. I also noticed a nice resource allocation trend going with, believe it or not, Nemesis. Willpower comes back so often that it's not much of an issue, and Story Tokens have such a big effect that you really don't need them that often. But Nemesis is easy to use, has immediate effects, and it NEVER comes back. However, there's not a huge tactical element, what with the gross abstraction of combat.

Thanks for the interest,
--Jeff

[DevP]

Do you see this as a sort of more gamey (Gamist, even?) game? I've been looking for something cool in that area, and this might be it.
It can get quite gamey. Once the players become more comfortable with the system and their Nemeses start to pull them under, I have a feeling that twiddling Technique selection's going to be a big thing...

Sweet. I was in fact looking for something like this. It has the options/twinking/tweaking "crunch" that seems to help gamism, but it's also light and crap-free. Given that there are bonuses for tactical situations, I think that's adequate.

[Jeph]

Right. Just finished another session chock full of pirates, sea squalls, and giant squid! There were very few checks given out--only one to pSmith to Prowess--but we saw some HEAVY expenditure of nemesis. Enough to put both characters at 2 dots.

So anyway, we started off with Commander Conners (dude in charge of the Purity mission) returning to Eefoc (Epsilon Exemplar Free Order Command) in a shuttle. He's then sent right back out again along with Kaleb pSmith, another Exemplar by the name of Lao, and 10 normal troops to find the Kracken who live out east and convince them that an assault on New Tampa would be in their best interest. A journey involving sea squalls, broken water filters, and non-violent confrontation with IGAC scouts and IGAC Approved Pirates.

Anyway, On day 4 they start running into Kracken. Wade plot points a trio of hover-jet-skis-with-missiles onto the mission's hovercraft and goes out to test the waters. A small (14 or so feet) squid named Nukupai seems to be chatty, and points pSmith towards an island where a witch friendly with the Kracken supposedly lives. They find her isle deserted, and are directed by local squid to a chain of four green islands, where Kakkarun, their leader, makes his home, and where the witch is currently visiting.

They head that way, and run into IGAC Approved Piratical Whalers. (Whalers who hunt the giant squid, that is.) They bullshit their way out of trouble by claiming to be IGAC ops on a super secret mission that if you mention we'll have to kill you, go ahead psicast to Prime but don't say we didn't warn you, uh-huh, that's what we thought, now scat.

They reach the emerald isles, request an audience with Kakkarun. After a bit of questioning this is granted.

pSmith:
"Hey! What's Kracken?"

Kakkarun:
::stony silence::

Kakkarun proves a bit xenophobic, but agrees to consider an alliance between the Free Order and Kracken after some persuasion from Pseidene, the witch. They are shown to the southern most island, where they rest. Next morning, they sight Pseidene meditating overlooking the sea. pSmith approaches in a suave gentlemently fashion, ask's what's up. Pseidene talks about the mysteries of the depths.

pSmith:
"If Outer Space and the Ocean got in a fight, Space would totally kick the Ocean's ass."

Pseidene:
::eyebrow up to HERE::

Kaleb ambles up. Psychic chat. Pseidene warns Kaleb not to trust Takoa, Kakkarun's arch rival and a manipulative bully. At which point Nukupai swims up and reports that three strangers are in the water. pSmith goes to check it out, Kaleb to tell Kakkarun. He sees Takoa talking with the guards, who are stilted and intimidated by them. He gets through to Kakkarun, who tells a guard and Kaleb to go check it out, and calls Nukupai a coward.

PSmith sees three Black Scorpion pirates, same sort encountered earlier this session and at Epsilon Orbital. He gives them the same "I'm a deep cover op get your asses out of here" spiel, and recognizes the device they're working on as a sonic detonator. Enter Kaleb with the guard, kaleb takes over the chat, pSmith sneaks around back and disables the bomb. They fight, with the guard killing a pirate that would otherwise have been kept for questioning. Oops.

They head back. Takoa bullies Nukupei, gets in a staring contest with pSmith, who seemed about to start something. Nukupei slinks off. PSmith and Takoa threaten eachother some more then part ways. Kaleb takes the sonic detonator back to the hovercraft, where Conners is laid up with some illness, and dismantles it.

He then takes his interceptor (already established to be docked on the hovercraft) out for a sweep, spots movements on one of the middle islands. He tells PSmith, then swoops down, and gives the super secret op BS, only to learn that the people he's surprised in fact ARE super secret IGAC ops. Oops. He shoots a missile at their radio.

At this point pSmith leaps out of hiding and goes gun-fu, finds out that even 10-point Exemplar are way tough, and spends 2 willpower and 4 nemesis defeating ONE enemy. Kaleb sets his interceptor on hover, jumps down, and uses his psi to turn the body armor of the other two Exemplar into plastic and aluminum strait jackets. Kracken gather round, Kakkarun gets over his xenophobia, and Takoa sulks. End session.

Wade complains that "Cool Under Pressure" (his Talent for Wits) is useless--it's only been used once in two sessions. I rule that spending 1 check from a score allows a character to replace a Talent. He switches to Blades.

Wade and Peter are remembering NPC names and discussing Kracken society, which is Good.

Overall, fun was had all around. I'm really liking Exemplar. Next week: Giant Squid Armada vs. IGAC Armed Forces! FIGHT!

--Jeff