Saving Orion (Gaelcon Post #1)

[cthulahoops]

Hi,

I just got back from Gaelcon (the biggest Irish games convention, http://www.gaelcon.com) where I organised a Universalis game called Saving Orion.    The set-up I used was really simple, there was one component called "Orion" with the trait "Needs to be Saved".   I also created a rules gimmick to try and complete the story.  After two and a half hours the current scene ended and players bid for the final scene.  After this scene, each player in turn narrates an epilogue for a component of their choice.  I convinced two others to run tables, so we had three tables.

The initial creation phase established that Orion was an intelligent alien space ship containing some of the last remanents of mankind.  Orion has a virus, is heading straight into a nearby star and there are other humans who would destroy Orion.  The year is 2047, Earth was destroyed by Orion.  The creator's of Orion are watching.   Orion has a sister named Aries.   Also, Orion did not want to be saved.

We began in the Growing Chamber.  The captain enters and opens the chamber.  Out comes a young woman named Anne.   He draws guns and shoots her.   She is immune and he damages the hull of the ship.  He races from the room and locks her in.  She survives the vacuum of space and crawls in the access tunnels of the ship.

A few days later on the main control deck.  The crew are discussing the incident in the growing chamber.   Anne is revealed to be a nanite created cyborg of the virus that infects Orion.  Arguements erupt and then Anne enters.  A young, enthuastic, computer genius ensign works on something on the computer and she orders him to stop.  She moves to infect him with the virus.  A team of heavily armed security goons blast her to pieces, but the blood splatter infects all present with the virus.

A day later in the Aries Control Room.  Aries is run by the Capodocians, a genecidal warrior race who steal resources from other races.  An argument occurs between Aries and the Medical Officer (who want Orion saved), and the Captain and a Computer Programmer who want Orion destroyed for its treachery.  The Captain orders Aries to forget she ever had a brother, an order she takes literally.

Meanwhile, in the Orion medical bay.   There's general panic, during which the gun crazy captain decides to put the wesley-like ensign in a cybernetic enhancement chamber, presumably to try and fix the virus.  Dr Phillips reveals that the virus has infected the whole crew and that the virus will cause Orion to crash into the star so long as there are humans on board.  The captain decides to sneak off to the lifeboat (holds 10 people) with the heavily armed security squad and leave the rest of the crew to their fates.  The ensign emerges from the chamber, but due to the virus he's now a murderous cyborg.  His best friend steps and appeals to his friend not to kill everyone in the room.  The Cyborg-Ensign kills his friend, and everyone except Dr Phillips who suffers amnesia.  However, the Ensign feels remorse and saves the remaining crew by turning them into murderous cyborgs.  Now, with no humans left on board, Orion can avoid the star.

Later on board Aries, the crew watches the events on board Orion with pleasure.  Some results appear on the screen.  Nano-virus contracted, Aries is programmed to crash into a star so long as there are capodocians onboard.

The game went really well, I've previously observed that stories tend to gain too many elements and fail to cohere, but this is the neatest story I've seen so far.  And that's with a table of players who'd never played before.  Actually, I had one player who had, and he pushed to introduce lots of complications which was great because I haven't seen good complications before and the brilliance of the mechanic hadn't quite sunk in.   There was some great use of coins generated in complications.   For example, the coins generated by the security team blowing up Anne were used to spread the virus.  The player controlling the guards ended up doing what the player controlling Anne intended to do anyway.   I enjoyed the use of the losers coins from Cyborg-Ensigns killing spree to cross off "Desires to Kill Humans" and replace it with "Remorseful".   The mechanic is brilliant because it allows exactly these kinds of things.

This sort of leads into IIEEEIE, which I think is pretty confusing for people used to other games.  There was trouble (and I probably explained badly) with the difference between a player suggesting something and it's establishment in the SIS.   This was particularly difficult in complications.  Actually, I'm rapidly discovering how important a clear IEIEIE system is, and Universalis is a nice example.

We introduced one rule gimmick during play, players can modify components they don't control, if the controller allows them to.   I've used this before, and I think it simplifies things nicely.  It basically just permitted what people kept trying to do.  Turn order always seems to get confused as people try to introduce just one little thing out of turn.   I'm very much still learning this game.

I also had fun comparing to the other tables who from the same initial set-up concluded that Orion was a political philosophy of equality for (good) wingless-fairies in a Noir type setting ruled by evil winged fairies, and proving the Zombie principle, a teacher in a school overrun by Zombies.

I think all three groups enjoyed themselves and I haven't (yet) heard any complaints.

Adam.

[Valamir]

Hey, that's a GREAT idea to start a Uni session.  Prep 1 element that could literally become anything as a creativity seed for people to start riffing off of...

I'm going to put that up on the website next update.

I can easily see all sorts of things from Orion being someone's pet cat that's been lost, to a runaway girl in trouble, to rescuing the actual Greek hero...and of course zombies...there are ALWAYS zombies...  The Equal Rights for Wingless Faeries cracks me up and demonstrates what I love about Uni.  Never in a zillion years if you'd started me with the premise of Orion Needs Saved, would I have ever thought of that.

Really pretty brilliant.  I'd love to see a bunch of Uni fans all take a session or two to run an Orion needs Saved game with their group and see what the range of stories that emerge is.  Maybe I'll make that a contest on the web site...

This sort of leads into IIEEEIE, which I think is pretty confusing for people used to other games. There was trouble (and I probably explained badly) with the difference between a player suggesting something and it's establishment in the SIS. This was particularly difficult in complications. Actually, I'm rapidly discovering how important a clear IEIEIE system is, and Universalis is a nice example.

A nice example of the need for one?  Or a nice example of a game that has a good one?  The paragraph is a little hard to parse.

In a nutshell it boils down to:  Pay a Coin and its established in the SIS...don't pay a Coin and its just color that can be ignored at will.  

We introduced one rule gimmick during play, players can modify components they don't control, if the controller allows them to. I've used this before, and I think it simplifies things nicely. It basically just permitted what people kept trying to do. Turn order always seems to get confused as people try to introduce just one little thing out of turn. I'm very much still learning this game.

That has become such a standard Gimmick for so many groups that I'm going to include it as an option right in the text for the next printing.

[cthulahoops]

Hey, that's a GREAT idea to start a Uni session.  Prep 1 element that could literally become anything as a creativity seed for people to start riffing off of...

I'm going to put that up on the website next update.

Thanks.  I thought lots of people would do it like that.

To trace the history of the idea, Micheal S. Miller gave me the idea when he directed me to the following from:  http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=3820.  I used the idea for a convention game earlier in the year replacing the city with a character named "The Gatherer".  It seemed a natural idea to import to Universalis.

This morning, Sunday, I had no players show up for what would have been my impromptu 3rd rendition of "Burnius." A touch disappointed, I played in Kat's Everway game "City of a Thousand Moons." It is, in my admittedly biased opinion, one of the greatest scenarios ever written for any game. The players make their Everway character at the table, using cards that Kat provides. The only limitation on character is "your character is searching for the fabled City of a Thousand Moons, which appears only once every thousand moons in any given sphere. Tell me why your character is seeking it." Based on what the players state as their goals and expectations, the City becomes that which they seek. Now you see whay she's the creative one in the family.

A nice example of the need for one?  Or a nice example of a game that has a good one?  The paragraph is a little hard to parse.

In a nutshell it boils down to:  Pay a Coin and its established in the SIS...don't pay a Coin and its just color that can be ignored at will.

Sorry, tired and babbling.

A nice example of a game with a good one.

A lot of games I'm used to run as:  tell the GM what you want to do and immediately receive a response.  During Complications, a player doesn't get the result of a character's actions until all players have had fairly unlimited opportunity to add new elements and modify the game world.  This causes quite a bit of confusion at the table as nothing actually happens until the dice are rolled.

You left elements in your nutshell.  Pay a Coin, announce the element, negotiate the element, handle any challenges that arise and then it's established in the SIS.  This difference is another potential source of confusion if one player thinks something is established in the SIS, and another is still trying to negotiate it.

None of this is criticism of Universalis, by the way.  I GMed (or not in the case of Universalis) four games over the weekend (Sorcerer, Cthulhu, Universalis and Synergy (a freeform thing)) and the whole question of IIIIIE was raised for me in each of the games in a different way.  It's on my mind.

Adam.

[Valamir]

You left elements in your nutshell. Pay a Coin, announce the element, negotiate the element, handle any challenges that arise and then it's established in the SIS. This difference is another potential source of confusion if one player thinks something is established in the SIS, and another is still trying to negotiate it.

True.  This is one reason for the pretty rigid turn order in the game.  It is, in fact, the reason that you have to formally Interrupt and formally Take Control in order to add a Trait to a Component in the Core rules.  

Played strictly by the book, there is little to no chaos at the table, precisely to avoid the sort of confusion you noticed.  The Turns are very carefully regimented in this regard.  There should never be a time when anyone is unclear what is fact and what isn't.  

That said, I don't know anybody (including myself) who plays the turn order as rigidly as written.  It was written that way as a teaching tool to demonstrate how things are supposed to happen if play starts to get a little tangled.  But pretty much every group starts to introduce their own degree of free form anarchy into the process.  The Gimmick above is a manifestation of that.  It was a concious design choice to make the turn order rules extremely tight and then let groups Gimmick them looser rather than start loose and leave groups floundering on how to tighten them up.

None of this is criticism of Universalis, by the way. I GMed (or not in the case of Universalis) four games over the weekend (Sorcerer, Cthulhu, Universalis and Synergy (a freeform thing)) and the whole question of IIIIIE was raised for me in each of the games in a different way. It's on my mind.

It should be on everyone's mind.  I think a clearly defined IIEE system is probably the most important contribution a game designer can make to their game.

[A.Neill]

Actually, I had one player who had, and he pushed to introduce lots of complications which was great because I haven't seen good complications before and the brilliance of the mechanic hadn't quite sunk in.  

Hey that was me!

I'd played a three session Uni game once before - so I was well clued into creating complications to claw back some valuable coins. There was a least one "oh wow" moment when one of the players (Sarah) realised that winning one of the fight scenes allowed her to author the outcome of the complication rather than just have the character "win".

I thought two of the guys had some difficulty getting away from the "my guy" mind set - particularly when playing the Old Captain - but when we started discussing how we wanted the story to progress they began to see that the characters were story-creating devices and, particularly toward the end, were mentally prepared to "let them go".

Thanks for the game - thoroughly enjoyable!

Alan.

[cthulahoops]

That said, I don't know anybody (including myself) who plays the turn order as rigidly as written.  It was written that way as a teaching tool to demonstrate how things are supposed to happen if play starts to get a little tangled.  But pretty much every group starts to introduce their own degree of free form anarchy into the process.  The Gimmick above is a manifestation of that.  It was a concious design choice to make the turn order rules extremely tight and then let groups Gimmick them looser rather than start loose and leave groups floundering on how to tighten them up.

Thanks, this is one of these nice paragraphs that makes things click into place.

I'd noticed that inevitable anarchy creep, it's good to know it's a feature not a bug and good to understand this design choice.   I only just realised reading this post that it's possible get the turn for free just by asking people to pass it around to you.  You only have to pay if there's competition for authorship.

Hey that was me!

Played Universalis before and a Forge reader.  Were you at one of the sorcerer tables?

I'd played a three session Uni game once before - so I was well clued into creating complications to claw back some valuable coins. There was a least one "oh wow" moment when one of the players (Sarah) realised that winning one of the fight scenes allowed her to author the outcome of the complication rather than just have the character "win".

Yes, absolutely.  I'll be bringing Universalis to future cons.

I thought two of the guys had some difficulty getting away from the "my guy" mind set - particularly when playing the Old Captain - but when we started discussing how we wanted the story to progress they began to see that the characters were story-creating devices and, particularly toward the end, were mentally prepared to "let them go".

Agreed, except that I thought the control of the Captain led to an amusing characterisation.

Adam.

[Gary_Bingham]

Darn it! I had to pull out of the trip to Gaelcon at the last minute due to health reasons and now I have missed Universalis and Sorcerer :) I am glad to here that Uni went so well for you. I think Universalis is a great idea for a convention game, where the players have a real opportunity to try something that is completely different and memorable.

I guess that makes three Irish Forgites :) I hope to see you at a convention in Belfast sometime.

Gary

[OnyxFlame]

Great idea. :) I'll be getting the game soon if nothing goes horribly wrong...do you think this Orion thing would be good to base our first game on, or should we wait until we know what we're doing? (My mom seemed paranoid that this was "just another game with dragons" so I'm not sure how well she'll accept the whole Orion thing...she'll probably just think I'm intending to have astronauts slaying dragons. :P)