[PtA] Veritas Mundi - Spirits and Black Leather Coats

[Frank T]

Today I feel like lining in with the other PtA fans, boasting a bit about our great show. Maybe Caynreth and Nicolas (and Marcel?) want to join me. This game was played in IRC, you can find the logs in this thread, but they're German.

The Show: Veritas Mundi

The show is set in present day London and features an organization called Ordo Conservatione Veritatis Mundi (Order of Preservation of the World's Truth.) It's a very secretive and traditional organization, but the protagonists are young modern day people who joined in just recently. The thing about the Ordo is that its members summon and control spirits. Spirits of nature, mostly, but not all of them friendly and willing servants. We borrowed a little from Sorcerer here, making each spirit an individual with his or her own motivation and personality. Summoning and controlling the spirits requires a natural gift which few people have. Some use it by instinct, but training can greatly improve the ability.

The powers and manifestations of the spirits are pure plot device and vary wildly. Most of them ain't very subtle and make for neat special FX. The public is absolutely unaware of the spirits, the powers and their wielders. The Ordo is very strict on the use of the powers and demands that they be used only in service of the Ordo, not for personal gain. It also demands that its members put the interests of the Ordo above their personal interests at all times. Our protagonists, however, are not always quite in harmony with these ideas... The Ordo is also inclined to keep other summoners and supernatural occurences in check (voilà: Franchise). There is an opposed organization, for now just refered to as "The Others", who also operate in secret, but use their abilities to gain personal wealth and power. Followers of both organizations are small in number, spread widely across the planet, and do not generally take orders from a higher authority. The organizations are more cell-based.

Oh, I almost forgot: Of course the protagonists look really cool. Therefore the black leather coats (tm).

The Protagonists

John
John, played by Nicolas, is a martial artist barkeeper struggling with money problems. The problem is that he owes money to the mob, and the mob is threatening his family. His nemesis is the underworld boss he is indebted to. John has an ex-girlfriend Nina and a cop named Sandra, both of them pretty hot and interested in him. He also has two spirits on which he tends to call, Farzaz the Fire Spirit (cruel and passionate) and Elaila the Air Spirit (seductive and manipulating). Both like to take on a human form (Brad Pitt with fire-red hair and goat-beard or Jennifer Garner showing lots of legs respectively), but normaly only John sees them. His second problem is that these spirits don't obey him very well and tend to make demands on him. His Issue is temptation. It would be so easy to heed the spirits' demands. To let them take over. To use their power to solve his pity everyday life troubles.

Alina
Alina, played by Caynreth, is a Russian imigrant computer specialist. She has a dark secret: she killed her violent ex-lover with the power of her favorite spirit, Wania. Wania is kind of a lazy drunk, but once he gets into action, he transforms Alina into a high-charged fighting machine who deals 20.000 Volt spinkicks. Alina is very dedicated and obidient to the Ordo, since she is trying to make up for something. Her Issue is atonement. She hopes that by doing the right thing tm), she can be forgiven what she did - and forgive herself. Her problems start as Sandra, John's cop acquaintance, begins to dig on the death of Alinas ex-lover. Plus, there's this secret agent interested in her powers. The latter is her nemesis.

Jolene
Jolene, played by Marcel, is a teenage street girl who doesn't know of the Ordo yet at the beginning of the Pilot. She burned down her parents' house in a fury and, in the process, accidently bound an angry, possessive Fire Spirit into herself. The spirit isn't eager to leave - what he wants is full control over Jolenes body. The girl, on the other hand, doesn't have much control over the spirit. She doesn't have much control over her life, either. Her Issue is that she doesn't know where she belongs, or who she is. There is a power within her that she doesn't understand and can't control, and that scares here. Then there is Peter, another street kid and potential First Time. But the real trouble starts when she witnesses some illegal money exchange by a crime boss, her nemesis (the same as John's).

As you may have guessed by now, I am the Producer.

Sets

John's Personal Set is his bar. Anlina has a small Russian café / shop run by an old Russian woman, a connection of hers. Jolene has a storehouse at the harbor, whose elderly nightguard is also a connection. Most important Set is probably the headquarters of our little Ordo-"Cell". The headquarters is in the spirit world, only to be reached by the power of spirits. It is a magnificent English manor house, surrounded by a fairy tale garden. (The garden, however, is soon to become as battered as the Haliwell Sisters' attic...)

Supporting Cast

For one, we have the Master, called Mortimer, who runs the "Cell" and trains the protagonists in summoning and controlling the spirits. He is very old and very strict, and not a very likable person. And then there's GRANNY, the good spirit of the headquarters, in the literal sense. (Do you say "good spirit (of a place)" as a figure in English? Probably not, but in German it's funny...) Anyhow, GRANNY is a spirit that takes the appearance of a friendly old lady and just stays around to take care of the protagonists whenever they need a little warmth. Unlike the other spirits in the place, she rarely obeys the Master.

The Pilot

The Pilot starts out with a little action scene. Alina and John are after a summoner called Matthew, who used his powers to rob a money transport. They spot him on a house-boat on some deserted channel. The house-boat is guarded by a Water Spirit, but our heroes spill that one all over the place. Matthew turns out to be a sarcastical, worn-down fellow with little ambition for violence and a past with the Ordo and the Master himself.

The next scene is Jolene's Kicker. She witnesses the money exchange, is spotted by the mob and chased by some thugs. The fire rises in her eyes, but she manages to stay in control and escapes without torching anyone. Being chased through the fogged streets, she is picked up by the Master and brought to the headquarters in a magical horse-drawn London Cab. In the meantime, we learn that John's brother has been beaten up by the mob and that both of John's spirits try to tempt him into letting them deal with the mob. We also learn that a Detective Sandra Wilson has been asking for Alina in relation with her late boyfriend, and Alina isn't exactly comfortable about it.

Next scene, the Master and Jolene arrive at the headquarters. Alina makes an appearance (again, literally), wanting to talk to the Master, but is introduced to Jolene instead. Both Alina and the Master are quite rude to her, so Jolene decides she's had enough and tries to run away. Finding that leaving is not as easy as she thought, she burns her way through the hedge maze and stumbles off into the mists surrounding the iron garden fence. The Master and Alina are watching, interested.

Eventually, Jolene makes it back to the real world and runs into John, who was just shutting his bar down. He invites her in and offers her some hot soup. By sheer incident, two mobster brutes arrive just a minute later. John tries to stop them using a cricket club, but they beat the shit out of him. He calls to Farzaz for help, but the spirit tells him, grinning, that he's not "in the mood". Jolene hesitates to use her powers. The gangsters leave John, and take Jolene with them.

Next, Alina and John seek out Matthew, whom they hold captive in an enchanted container (how d'you call the ones workers live in on a construction site?) The Water Spirit is also around, a tiny puddle silently crying for the misery of its beloved master. Matthew knows to summon a spirit that can track down people, so John wants his help in finding Jolene. Alina is sceptical because the Master certainly wouldn't approve, but John can convince her. They can talk Matthew into helping them, though he stresses that he's in only for the sake of the girl. The spirit he summons, however, attacks our heroes first and is joined by the Water Spirit. Matthew tries to escape in the confusion, but Alina and John defeat the spirits and catch him in time.

In the last scene Alina, John and Matthew come to Jolene's rescue just as some mean thug threatens to torture her. The final showdown takes place in the cargo bay of a huge fishing trawler bound seeward. Of course our heroes prevail, but they also manage to do so without causing grave harm or getting severely injured themselves. This time, Farzaz aids John, but John agrees to pay a price. Matthew lets an opportunity for escape slip and joins in to save Jolene, who uses her own powers to blow up the chains that hold her. As they finally escape into the spirit world, we see that they are beeing watched by a sinister fellow in a fine suite who types something into his palm (this time, not in the literal sense).

So...

Meanwhile, we are half way into the first Episode, which is Jolene's Spotlight Episode. Since gaming in IRC is a slow process, we decided to play only the Pilot and the three Spotlight Episodes. The game is great fun, it's exciting, fast, quite atmospheric for a chat game, and has lots of very funny Joss Whedon-style dialogues. Of course that's mostly an achievement of the players, not of the game. However, I feel the mechanics really work. The Issues and the Screen Presence are a real good lever to move the game into the right direction. And having the spirits as Connections most definitely kicks ass. To conclude (for now): I would watch this show! :-D

[Matt Wilson]

Hey Frank:

Unglaublich cool. Thanks for posting this. I don't even know where to begin with it.

Seems like IRC would promote a stronger feel of being the show's writer, moreso than being the person playing the part. Got any thoughts on that?

[Frank T]

Hi Matt,

I'm glad you like it. Thanks for writing such a great game!

As for PtA and IRC: Since I'm the Producer, I really feel pretty much like writing the show. But the players can maybe give more information on that account. Plus, I haven't played PtA person to person yet. I definitely do imagine the whole show visually, and very strongly so. Maybe a little less accustically.

What I can say is that PtA works very well for chat roleplaying. It provides for a quick, smooth game, and that's what you need when you have so slow a medium to cope with. One problem is that the scenes can become boring for those not involved. We solved that through excessive commenting and proposing, and through distributing NPCs whenever possible.

Frank

[ScottM]

This game sounds like a lot of fun.  I like the Order- it seems like a pretty standard organization, but the friction it creates (with the spirit summoning prohibitions and the like) really seems strong.

What did Matthew reveal about Mortimer at the end of the initial action scene?  Was it something that's come back, or was the information less important?

I'd watch the show, even with subtitles.
--Scott

[Frank T]

Thanks Scott,

the one thing we didn't manage in the Pilot was for Matthew to reveal much about his relation to the Ordo and the Master, or about why he robbed that money transport in the first place. So we'll save Matthew for later, since he's still a prisoner. I believe he'd also make for a great mirror for any of the three protagonists. He's definitely not done for yet.

Frank

[Nicolas Crost]

Hi, I´m the player of John (as you might have guessed)

Seems like IRC would promote a stronger feel of being the show's writer, moreso than being the person playing the part. Got any thoughts on that?

Well I have never been much of an immersion person. For the biggest part of my gaming career I have been the GM of my group, which has lead to me always having some kind of distance to all of the characters I play even as a player. Which is to say: I usually favor Author Stance.
But when comparing face to face play with IRC play, I think your assessment is true: I do indeed feel more distanced from play in terms of not feeling like "being the person right there". Which suits my tastes very well! I think this stems from not being in a group of players and from IRC play being a lot slower than face to face play (which lead us to have one episode last two sessions instead of one so we could get about 12 scenes in one episode). Especially in scenes where your protagonist is not involved you have a lot of time to think about the story and what might be a cool "bang" to drop on the acting protagonists. This has lead to a fair amount of kibbitzing, which I also very much like. So the whole thing turns more from a "What would I do in this position" to a collaborative story telling task.

Which is not to say that we do not do any in-character dialogue at all. As Frank mantioned, we do. But (since they take up a lot of time and time is an issue) they usually are rather short. Which in my eyes does promote the feeling of a TV show, where a whole story has to be told in 45 minutes and dialogues tend only to be used to make a point of some sort.

I think PtA lends itself very well to IRC play: focussed by the issues, scene based, low handling time - all of that corresponds very well to the time constraints of the IRC. But still I can´t wait to try it out on GroFaFo (almost)Con in february.


Well Matt, as you can tell, besides being a hell of a lot of fun, PtA is a worldwide success! :D Did you ever think about a German translation...? ;)

[Frank T]

Episode 1: Crossroads

It is Jolene's Spotlight Episode, so it's about self-confidence and about finding out where she belongs. Opening Scene: Jolene is training with the Master and Alina in the headquarters' garden. She can see the spirit within herself as a floating face of fire, but it just laughs at her. As she tries to gain control, the spirit instead takes control over her. A giant eruption of fire rages over the garden, leaving it totally scorched. Alina manages to block the fire from the Master, saving a narrow aisle of green from devastation. Jolene slams down, unconscious.

After she awakens, she strolls through the corridors of the headquarters, amazed by its magnificence. She runs into John, and he comforts her a little. There is a short flashback when Jolene comments on John's spirits probably not being easy either. John looks up, and we see him talking to Farzaz, his Fire Spirit, about the price he has to pay for the spirit's service. Farzaz reminds him of Nina, his ex-girlfriend. "I know she still cares for you. You're gonna call her. Remember those things she once asked you to do? But you were too cowardish? You're gonna do it now. And I will be watching." Cut back to John and Jolene. John: "We'll talk about that another day." The scene finishes with the two of them joining GRANNY for tea and cookies.

Next scene, we have the Master talking to Alina. He tells her that she is the only one he can rely on, and that she needs to keep an eye on the other two. He knows all about how they asked Matthew for help. And he breaks to Alina that a man called Alexandre de Villiers, obviously a terribly powerful villain, is in the city.

After that we have John's date with Nina, or rather, the two of them arriving at Nina's flat. Of course we don't see what they do, but we hear the slapping and crying out, and we see Farzaz with an evil grin, taking pictures. Cut to John and Farzaz, standing beside the pinboard at the office where Nina works. Farzaz wants John to post the pictures there, but John defies the spirit. "You're gonna help me anyway. You just enjoy it too much."

It goes on with Jolene visiting her connection Frank at the old storehouse. She is shadowed by Alina. As she leaves, the sinister guy from the end of the Pilot stops her. It turns out that he is said Alexandre de Villiers. He wants Jolene to join him, offering to teach her in the Art. Alina steps forward, confronting Alexandre, who belongs to "The Others". There is an argument about selling one's soul vs. beeing a traditionalist coward, and Jolene is torn. In the end Alexandre spoils it by having three nasty Shadow Spirits attack Alina. Jolene catches the powerful wizard by surprise as she kicks him - all street kid style - where it really hurts and pushes him into the channel. Alina, though bruised, defeats the Shadow Spirits with Wania's help, and the two escape.

However, they can't revel in their victory for long. Back at HQ, Jolene goes looking for Matthew, who is imprisoned there, to ask him the questions about the Ordo and the "Others" that the Master won't answer. Matthew tells her about the two organisations, and he reveals a little about his past. About his leaving the Ordo involving the death of a loved one, the Master always demanding that you put the Ordo above everything else, and Matthew knowing too many secrets for the Master to just let him go. In the end, Matthew tricks Jolene into letting him out of the cell. Alina, who has been following Jolene, tries to stop him, but fails and starts yelling at Jolene, blaming and cursing her.

Next scene, the two get their share by the Master. John, who is also around, stops Jolene from protesting. He takes her hand, and she holds on to it. Alina is shocked that she is partially blamed, too. The Master sends the three protagonists to recapture Matthew, while the Master himself will take care of Alexandre de Villiers. John protests that Jolene is too young, but the Master will have none of it. "She gets a chance to make up for her fault."

After that, Alina has her set-up for her upcoming Spotlight Episode. She is still very nervous about that cop, Sandra Wilson, digging up on the death of her ex-lover. So she meets with her brother Sergej and some friends of his, who are in the Russian maffia. Sergej assures her he'll take care of the problem. In the back, Jolene is secretly watching, it beeing her turn to sneak after Alina.

Finally, our heroes seek out the place where Matthew presumably has hidden the prize from his money transport job, the attic of an old storehouse. They find it all covered by spiderwebs. The door slams, and Matthew appears at the other side of the attic, telling Jolene to stay out of the fight for it isn't her's. John tries to get at Matthew, but he is attacked by a nasty Spider Spirit that entangles him in its web. Alina faces two more Spiders. Jolene has to make a choice now. Does she belong with the Ordo, or will she just leave? Most surprisingly, she sticks with the Ordo and calls on the Spirit within herself. This time, she is all determined and forces the Spirit under her will. Her flames destroy the Spiders, also setting the wooden roof bars afire. John cannot stop his Spider from attacking Jolene, slightly wounding her, but she takes it and marches through the attic to face Matthew. But just as he looks defeated, the old bastard pulls a knife out of his sleeve and strikes at Jolene. Alina pushes Jolene out of the way, taking the blow herself, and goes down. Jolene hits Matthew with a huge blast of fire, hauling him through a window to tumble several stories down. Our heroes escape as the flames consume the attic.

The last scene has Jolene and John briefly talking to a recovering Alina, then leaving her. By incident, John tells Jolene about his cop friend Sandra Wilson. Jolene: "I think I've heard that name somewhere before."

Conclusions

The game is getting even more fun. I really like the Stakes, they are the highlight of the resolution mechanic. For example, the Stakes for Alina in the last conflict were: can she show Jolene that she supports her, or not? Making every Protagonist have their own Stakes and compare with the Producer seperately really makes for a nice variety in the possible outcomes. It is also a strong motor for individual character developement.

What doesn't quite work for us is the scene Focus. We are constantly riddling about whether a scene is Plot or Character, since the plot is so closely linked with the characters. That's no real problem since we have the Agenda and keep an open dialogue about what should be in the scene. It's just that we don't really use the Focus. Maybe that's different in a show where the Episode Plot doesn't really have much to do with the Protagonists.

Also, we don't have that many Conflicts. "Crossroads" had ten scenes and only five Conflicts. But I think that was just fine. The Pilot had six Conflicts in nine scenes.

[Mike Holmes]

The game is getting even more fun.

I have this sneaking suspicion that the first episode is always going to be more fun than the pilot. For the same reason that a real show's pilot is often not the best episode. And that is that the characters aren't really set in stone yet. I think you probably spend the pilot feeling out the characters a bit; it's a test run. Then in the first episode, you make some adjustmentsbased on mulling around the character in the interim, and the adjusted character is just that much better.

After that, the feeling of continuity probably prevents a lot of tweaking. But I think that the pilot is a brilliant idea from this POV. I've occasionally allowed players in other games to change their character concepts somewhat after a first session of play - I'm seriously thinking that this should be done in every game now, and that the player should have complete freedom of revision (along with the other players having an editorial say in the process).

Mike

[Frank T]

Episode 2: Consequences

The second Episode is Alina's Spotlight, so it is about doing penance (or not, as it turns out) and about facing her past.

Scene 1 is a flashback. Alina in bed with a man ten years older than her. We learn that this man, Samuel, has a wife and Alina is his mistress. He keeps stringing her along, but he will of course never leave his wife. Through a call on his mobile Alina learns that she is not Sam's only mistress. The two have an argument, Sam grapples Alina, and she uses her Power to kill him in cold blood.

Scene 2, the present, has the Master introduce a very special friend of his, Mrs. Patricia LeGuin, to Alina. Patricia has a little poltergeist problem the Master wants Alina to deal with. She is also Sam's widow.

In the next Scene John sits in his bar and talks to his cop friend Sandra, who tells him about the case she is currently investigating – Sam's case. John starts to suspect something when he hears about the mysterious death cause, 20.000 Volts out of nowhere. Then Nina enters and accuses John for not calling her, for just using her to have a little fun the hard way. San-dra is speechless. John calls on Elaila, his seductive Air Spirit, to erase the whole story (in-cluding him dating Nina again in the first place) from both women's memory. Farzaz is angry because he enjoyed the fight.

After that, we have Jolene and her not-yet-boyfriend Peter sitting by the docks. Peter clum-sily tells Jolene that he cares for her, and tries to kiss her, but she is so nervous that she sets her umbrella afire, stunning Peter with shock. Embarrassed to the bone, she flees.

Scene 5 has the Russian mafia thugs "argue" with Sandra as she just leaves John's bar. Alina is watching from inside the thugs' van as her brother, Sergej, beats and threatens San-dra, presenting her with a photograph of her little niece. John rushes out and tries to stop them, but is shot and passes out. Alina cannot push herself to stop the whole thing and take responsibility for what she has done. This was the Turning Point of Alina's story, I think.

Next Scene our heroes are investigating the poltergeist thing. Alina is ice cold and snappy with John, even mocking him for getting into trouble because of his womanizing. Jolene, who hears about Russians beating Sandra up and remembers what she witnessed earlier, real-izes that Alina is responsible. Then Alina is confronted with the poltergeist, who is, of course, Sam's restless spirit. He accuses her that through the murder and the investigation, his be-loved wife found out everything about his affairs, that now she hates him and he cannot leave before she forgives him. He demands that Alina tell her companions the truth. Alina scoffs and starts the exorcism. With the help of Farzaz, John and Alina drive the poltergeist off. Jolene just stands by, staring at Alina in disgust.

After this Alina meets with her connection Evgeniya, the old Russian woman, drinking vodka and talking about that she has worked too hard and should indulge herself more. The Master calls on Alina's mobile, but she feigns being totally drunk, mocks him and turns him down. She has given up trying to do "the right thing" (tm) as penance. She refuses to feel guilty for what she has done anymore.

The last Scene has Jolene tell Sandra and John that Alina hired the thugs to threaten San-dra. On this, the Episode ends, leaving the reaction out.

[Mike Holmes]

So was my sneaking suspicion correct?

The blow by blow can be fun to read, but it doesn't really tell us lots about the game play. Can you comment at all about how the real people reacted to how the rules affected play? Heck, did they have fun? Any assumption one tries to make from the plot details is likely to be incorrect.

Mike

[Nicolas Crost]

So was my sneaking suspicion correct?

Heck, did they have fun?

Well, I certainly did have a lot of fun! And I think that the show did get better after the pilot. The basis for the following conflicts was laid out during the pilot and from then on, we got rolling!

Also actually playing PtA has voided one of my previous concerns about it (and, to be honest, about Narr play in general). When I started playing, I already had a pretty good idea about where the story of my character would be going. I always envisioned that he would "go over the edge", becoming "evil" in the process. And I always felt that this might be a problem, since in Narrativism theme should be the answer given during play to the question posed by the premise. So, if I had decided on the outcome beforehand, what fun would that be? Would it be Narr? Was that "answering through play" thing even possible?
Now, actual play has changed that view. Since Alina (Cay's Character) has gone "evil", I feel that my character might no longer be needed to fill this thematic niche. So I am thinking about not having him turn, but reject the power given to him. I am still not sure about it.
This is rather exiting to me: Actual play and the behavior of the other players changed the way I see my characters story resolving. And what is even more important: I don't know if I will have my character turn evil or not. The answer will actually be given through play in the next episode. Ain't that cool?

So, now I really understand why Ron changed Egri's premise from a statement to a question. It really does fit roleplaying as a medium.

[Ron Edwards]

Thanks man. I actually sorta needed that today.

Best,
Ron

[xenopulse]

Thanks for sharing. This does sound like a great series, and one I'd love to watch (or even play).

It does seem to me that IRC is a good medium for this type of game, simply because IME, people write more about their character's reactions, emotions, and other details than they to FtF. At least for me, it's easier to write something out (with a little bit of time) than to say it in a group.

Wenn die Zeitverschiebung es nicht unmoeglich machen wuerde, wuerde ich gerne dem Spiel gerne zukucken, aber da kann man wohl nichts machen.

Hummel Hummel from an exiled Hamburgian,

[Frank T]

Thanks for sharing. It does seem to me that IRC is a good medium for this type of game, simply because IME, people write more about their character's reactions, emotions, and other details than they to FtF. At least for me, it's easier to write something out (with a little bit of time) than to say it in a group.

I believe that's partially true. On the one hand, if you have to type everything, and your time is limited, you spare a lot of detail. You just need to finish a given scene in a reasonable amount of time, so you can't really enlarge on any emotion or reaction. Thus far, I do not share your perception.

However, it is true that there are some things I would rather write down than say in the face. The sexual stuff we had in our show, e.g., could have felt sort of embarrassing and awkward had we been sitting face to face. As it was, I for my part found it quite alluring.

[Ian O'Rourke]

I've not played PTA over IRC, but I think that playing over IRC puts you very much in the role of writing the character rather than playing him.

The reason I think this is it happens in Neverwinter Nights, which despite the 3D graphics the role-playing is done via texts. You feel very much as the author of the character, and it works very well. I believe it is just as good as actually speaking overall. I like writing, so I possibly would say this, but it works. The benefits and drawbacks work out equal for me. It certainly tends to result in more emotion being revealed at the gaming 'table'.


PTA on IRC is a good match for this reason, along with the scene construction providing a structure to the IRC experience I would think.