[Universalis] - Terrorists in the Caribbean

[Tobias]

Ok, so yesterday it was take 2 for Uni for me. E, with one game under her belt, was back for more, and also present were M and NI. Interestingly, N has previously expressed distaste for games with clear winners and losers - she likes the social process more, with games like pictionary, hints, etc., or truth-or-dare-esque games. It was no problem getting N aboard, however. Both N and M had no experience with RPGs, nor games outside the standard computer-board (and a little CCG) concept.

We had a blast again, but I think I need to polish my explanation a bit. Nothing too troubling, though. I just discovered we haven't had any Master components yet during the first 2 games, but they're not really essential anyway (efficient, though). I think I'll try introducing the 'free control takeover' gimmick in the next game - it probably encourages more play and more component creations (since there are more spare coins left for the players).

Also, during play, a neighbour and friend (P) came by, who had already heard about Uni from me. Since he was only staying a short while, I just gave him 5 coins along with everyone else when scenes refreshed (but 0 coins to start with). When his turn came up, he just burned through all 5 of them, which promoted a spending mood. However, his devil-may-care style was somewhat infectious on the group, and 5 relative Uni novices may be taxing if you care overmuch for the purity of the story - which I didn't too much, I liked just having a laugh and taking Uni for a spin again. The caveat about RPGing with people who's styles match yours and with whom you would otherwise get along well is true though - it's interesting how Uni and more traditional RPGs bring this across more strongly than traditional boardgames.

Anyhoo, onto the game.

Tenets

- The story will start on the coast
- It will be a thriller
- Set in the present ('medieval' was challenged)
- tropical trappings (palmtrees, white beaches)
- Police are incompetent (Rosco P. Coltrane style)
- Caribbean Island
- A psychopath is present
- The local population doesn't like foreigners
- 1 lead character is a pearl diver
- 1 person will lose a part of their body during the story
- There are rumours of a terrorist action

Scene 1

A diner at the coast. Present are Carlos and Marina, a married couple, who are having an argument. Pete, the bartender, is listening in on this argument, but he also overhears someone else in the room say that someone's going to have an accident. Carlos is overheard to say that he thinks Marina slept with some unknown pearl diver.

Sirens are heard outside, just as dusk is setting in. Suddenly, there is the sound of squeeling tires and a loud noise resounds, one wall buckling in as something crashes into it from the outside. The sires don't stop, however, but drive on. People jump up and rush outside, and so do Carlos and Marina. Marina trips on a pearl necklace, but this is not seen by Carlos, who runs out. Pete then comes rushing over and picks up Marina. Several bystanders try to take advantage of this situation as they try to loot bottles of liquor and the cash register. Noticing this, Pete drops Mary again, and also swipes some bottles [1].

Outside, the police cars head for the mayor's house.

From inside the diner, an flickering orange glow is seen. Seeing this, Marina crawls outside, but drags herself back in again as she wants the necklace [2].

Pete, meanwhile, runs  away along the beach to his house, which is full of pearl necklaces.

It turns out that the orange glow is not only the diner, but also the mayors house. The policecars that were on their way there encounter some of the looters, and pull on over and start getting drunk with them [3].

The car that ran into the diner is a big ol' Chevy, and one door opens. A masked man comes out. He peers in the car for a moment, and then decides to limp out of there, to which Carlos yells "Stop" and starts chasing him.

This is the first complication. In it, we learn the following things about Carlos and the Masked Man:

Carlos:
- Married
- Knows Karate [4]
- Has a ninja throwing star on him

Masked Man:
- pistol
- trained at a terrorist training camp
- Named Ewan O'Connor
- Been scrapping since age 5
- Wearing a Kevlar vest

Ewan turns and fires his pistol as Carlos throws his throwing star. The latter misses, however, and Carlos is shot in the kneecap, allowing Ewan to make a clean getaway.

Scene 2

We're with Pete, in his house. The house has a 'special' room that only Pete knows, which stinks to high heaven. Pete goes into the room to make a phone call - which turns out to be to Ewan. In the following conversation, Pete asks Ewan if his trial run went according to plan. Ewan says it did, and they agree Ewan will come to Pete's.

Pete, in the meantime, moves away some of the rotting fish and oysters, and reveals - a stack of semtex, it's smell obviously hidden from policedogs quite well. He also unfolds a blueprint of the nearby airfield.

Ewan comes over to the house and they discuss a plan where Pete will hollow out a number of pearls, fill them with semtex, and Ewan will distribute them to unsuspecting tourists. Pete will remote detonate them at a time of his own choosing. They agree to a paltry sum of money as payment. Ewan leaves, but following another foul smell outside, rounds the house and discovers a big wooden box containing - a dead pearl diver. [5]. Ewan quickly closes the box, to protect himself from giving in to his necrophile urges. [6]. Ewan walks back to Pete, and asks if he can have the corpse. Pete has no clue why but isn't about to complain, so he says yes, provided Ewan gets rid of hands, feet and head. Ewan agrees to remove them, provided Pete then takes care of them. Pete agrees to that, but only in return for the rest of the semtex Ewan has in his posession.

Scene 3

We're in the burning house of the mayor and his wife, in their bedroom. They only notice the fire now, and panic, jumping out the window, but they accidentally land on their fence [7].

While this is happening, Ewan drives to his hotel, and passes the mayor's house, with the still-intact corpse sitting in the back seat of the car [8]. He gets a flat, right near the stopped police officers who shoot - to his aid. One of the officers smells a foul smell, and notices the form of the corpse in the back seat, but Ewan bullshits him and the cop buys his story.

Back outside the mayor's house, both the mayor and his wife escape injury by their fence, but the mayor exclaims: "I've totally had it with this place, we're getting out by plane tomorrow." His wife agrees, but mentions she'll use the day after to also get some memento's - like a pearl necklace.

Scene 4

We're at the makeshift hospital, it's the evening of the following day. Carlos and Marina are lying in 2 beds, close to each other. Carlos is telling Marina how sorry he is, but as he does that, we see Ewan slowly peering in through the room's window. Ewan slowly attaches a silencer to his pistol, and aims for Marina - who he's had sex with, two nights before. He shoots at the moment Marina is bending towards Carlos to kiss him, as a nurse is also moving closer. The nurse turns out to be the mayor's wife, on het last day at the hospital, and she's hit - in the belly. Ewan, however, has been careless, and a piece of glass from the window falls down on him, first knocking him unconscious, then falling on and severing his little finger. The mayor (who's picking up his wife from work) sees this, and pockets Ewan's gun with silencer for himself. [9] After that, he calls the police commisioner to take Ewan away.

Scene 5 [10]

We're at the beach, the following afternoon. Pete's selling pearl necklaces to innocent tourists who are planning to return home. Everything goes according to plan, and late in the afternoon the tourists head for the airport. They run into a police post, though, and since the police are natives and thus dislike foreigners, they relieve the tourists from their necklaces, citing export restrictions.

Around 20:00, Pete thinks it's time for fireworks, and detonates the necklaces. The island shakes, and large plumes of smoke obscure the skies. As the smoke starts to clear, Pete sees a big plane fly off safely into the sunset. Bewildered, he searches out the source of the smoke, and discovers that the police station is now a crater. The small hospital next to it is also gone, and Carlos and Marina have perished in the explosion. Ewan, stuck in a cell, is also blown to oblivion.

The mayor and his wife have escaped, and Pete is, to say the least, bummed. His semtex is gone, and Ewan is AWOL. He returns to the diner, which has been looted and has burned down to the ground. He walks around, also over to the police station, and as a last act of indignity notices bits of Ewan strewn around.

THE END.

Some notes:

[1] and [2] are 2 different players deciding opposite things for a character in quick succession. Next time, when I feel there's not enough respect being shown for what one player introduced, I think I will challenge such quick turn-around, when they are not in-character.

[3] I found a bit far-fetched. Next time I might ask the player to explain in a bit more plausible detail how this happened - making it easier to keep my suspension of disbelief going.

[4] Karate - a flash of absolute non-inspiredness from E, who blandly copied this component from the previous story we ran. Next time I will ask for something a little more creative. Then again, there certainly are similarities to the stories (probably because I let E start the scene).

[5] We wondered how you could notice 'pearl diver' from a corpse. I joked: "Cause he's wearing a cap, 'Kiss me I'm a pearl diver'", which got a lot of laughs, which continued as P joked: "and f*ck me if I'm dead".

[6] The players sort of snuck this necrophile thing in as I was messing about with getting them drinks. Rather than raise a ruckus as people were obviously testing how far they could go, I resolved for myself to let it slide, but challenge any in-scene execution of these urges, since I didn't want them in this story.

[7] Actually, the player stated they 'forgot' about their fence. It came across as another attempt of juvenile humour (by the way of delivery), but since that selfsame player had them land uninjured, everything was cool to me. A good point for trusting a player's reasons and vision.

[8], and the silliness around it, is due to it getting later and people caring a bit less about the story. Next time, a break is probably in order, but we had limited time. Some of the last points (6-8) are also due to P's irreverent attitude towards the story. I boycotted (challenged) the necro-action that was also going to happen here (and that challenge was quickly accepted, so there really was no problem).

[9] The mayor's actions were actually by me, without any clear reason to do so other than a desire to thicken the plot. Tiredness and the length of play was also getting to me, by now.

[10] This last scene is actually a triumph of meta-talk. P had left to go to bed, and M and N indicated they also wanted to go fairly soon. I suggested we could let the story go out with a bang - and so we did, with N running the nice twist that the cops took the necklaces. This scene went excellently (leading me to believe that a break between scene 3 and 4 would've been wise). We all blew out or coin on things exploding, characters dying, etc.

There's been some talk of revisiting this story - with Pete (which seems to be a recurring name in our games - but this time suggested by N, who hadn't heard his name in session 1) running for mayor or police chief. [/u][/i]