The Pool: Capes vs. Tentacles

[hix]

Finally after 2 years, I get round to running the Pool. We played Paganini style (see this thread): a group designed setting and each player providing kickers.

Quick decision to play "Supers in Wellington", and after some discussion the setting skewed into Noir. Because one kicker involved a teleporter, JULIAN NEWBY, hearing strange, disturbing noises from the dimension he travels through the setting also took on a Cthuloid vibe.

Supers vs. Cthulu is an odd mix ... eventually the game slid between noir and comedy/farce.

2 kickers involved characters who wanted something: JACQUI needed a new job, JAMES JONES wanted a cure for his super-rubbery skin condition. I tied them together with REX, an NPC criminal underlord of the city who'd give them what they wanted if they stole an artifact from the orphanage run by MS. POTTS (the love of James's life). See below for a question that James' kicker raised.

1 player came up with what I thought was an awesome kicker: MISTY McGRAW's powers manifest for the first time during the middle of a photo shoot ... when she freezes a model to death in a swimming pool. First, the system proved itself for the first time when she rolled well enough to narrate that the police let Misty off with the promise she'll come in for questioning the next day. Second, neither the player or I could figure out how to come to grips with the kicker's ramifications ... I ended up tying her into Rex's heist plot via her "Great Boyfriend" who wanted to exploit her powers.

In fact, there were whole elements of their 50 word backstories I didn't explore. Jacqui was fired from the zoo because animals keep attacking her, Julian's thesis supervisor wants to explore sunken ruins in Dunedin. Let's chalk it up to time constraints and all hail the value of an initial session entirely devoted to character prep – which gives a GM time to think about incorporating these sorts of things.

The climax brought everyone together at the orphanage to stop Rex summoning dark entities into our realm (he wanted to wipe out a rival crime family). Now I was disappointed with this because to me it felt like a contrived big fight between the heroes and villains from the Batman TV series ... but when I mentioned this after the game, everyone else disagreed ... they liked the rough and tumble bring-everyone-together-for-the-finale vibe. I guess they spent much of the game in their separate stories and this gave them a different energy.

In retrospect, a lot of cool things came out of the ending: Jacqui trapped in a shadow dimension, Julian possessing a demonic artifact, Misty discovering her boyfriend might like someone else and James Jones may have beaten a crime boss to death.

Truly I kept the game as loose as I ever have. Framed scenes as bangs as much as possible with no expectations as to where they'd go. Developed a relationship map in play – and as I understood the links between characters, I tried to illustrate them in the next appropriate scene. In one case, when Jacqui's player said she wanted to go to the library to research why animals kept attacking her, I linked her into Julian's demon-hunting story – with nods of approval from all the players.

The temptation to rewrite the game in my head is overwhelming. We established that Misty's boyfriend worked with Jacqui at the zoo, so of course he must have set Jacqui up with the job interview with Rex. And what about playing more jealousies and rivalries between Jacqui and Misty over the boyfriend? ... Oh well.

Opinion on The Pool was divided. Jacqui's player lost all her dice – and said the system was exciting, it felt like a gamble. Others said it was okay, plain, it got the job done. Overall, I see this and Metal Opera as a warm-up for InSpectres next time.

Finally, a question ... The kicker for James Jones was that he didn't like his rubbery condition and wanted a cure. Challenging this, I said that wasn't active enough for a kicker ... but was assured by the player that the search for a cure would be a driving motivation in James' life.

In the first scene for James, I offered him a cure in exchange for robbing his love's workplace. He said no.

I was disappointed he said no, but fair enough. It was his decision and he obviously prioritised love over self-interest. I was more disappointed that the information there was a cure – and soon after he found out it was his only option – left him indifferent.

So my question is: what sort of prompts, comments and challenges should you offer to get a strong (read: workable) Kicker? Are there other threads on this?

[DannyK]

Finally, a question ... The kicker for James Jones was that he didn't like his rubbery condition and wanted a cure. Challenging this, I said that wasn't active enough for a kicker ... but was assured by the player that the search for a cure would be a driving motivation in James' life.

In the first scene for James, I offered him a cure in exchange for robbing his love's workplace. He said no.

I was disappointed he said no, but fair enough. It was his decision and he obviously prioritised love over self-interest. I was more disappointed that the information there was a cure – and soon after he found out it was his only option – left him indifferent.

So my question is: what sort of prompts, comments and challenges should you offer to get a strong (read: workable) Kicker? Are there other threads on this?

Let me say this in the most direct way possible: he suckered you.  The easiest way to address this that I can think of is to spike his Kicker a bit: not only is there a cure available, but his condition is getting worse.  If he doesn't get the cure, he'll eventually turn into a rubbery mass like the guy in "I have no mouth and I must scream."

[Trevis Martin]

Well here's a bit I copied from a Sorcerer thread in the Adept Press forum.  I suggest doing a search on the word Kicker in that forum specifically as the term was invented in Sorcerer.  But this is a direct quote from Ron about kickers.

Kickers: what has just happened to this character that will, in retrospect, be the beginning of the most important personal change in his or her life?

(originally from this thread but the good discussion followed in Hooks and Kickers)

Looking at that, what your player provided really isn't a kicker.  It wasn't an event that happened that forced a decision on the part of the character.  What you put to him afterwards was more of a kicker situation, but its best if the player comes up with it.

Clearly he thought of the rubberiness as a static condition.  No real problem there, so of course he is indifferent.  Several things could spice that up.  As suggested before the condition could worsen or degenerate.  Another possibility is that the love rejects him based on the condition. (Or his love's family rejects him and puts their foot down and his love has to choose between her family and him.)  I mean it souds like he didn't really author himself into wanting something very badly.  He just didn't like the condition, sounds so casual...well why not?  He's got superpowers right?  Now if there are serious social or physical consequences to his condition, now THERE is a reason to not like it.

best,

Trevis

[hix]

Let me say this in the most direct way possible: he suckered you.

... Yeah, fair call :] It was a weird sensation - normally I'll quickly lock on to things players care about but this time it felt like gears on a bicycle not engaging. Looking back, I think I should have focused on putting pressure on the PC via the relationship he cared about ... the player has a history of being interested in that.

Trevis, thanks for the links. I'll do some more searching. Meantime, here are some questions I gleaned :

* How is this the most important thing to have happened in your character's life?
* How does this destabilise your life? Make it impossible for your life to return to normal?
* What in this situation DEMANDS attention or action?

[A Kicker is] a player-authored situation that (IMO) puts the character into motion, often by somehow destabilizing that character's life.

Hindsight: I would have liked to have asked the players for ideas on other peoples' scenes – getting their contributions in putting the pressure on. This is something I've been circling around for about nine months so it's time to start implementing it. Hopefully next week's game of InSpectres (with its confessionals) will point our group in this direction.

[1 edit for grammar.]