Prepping The Pool

[Eszed]

So last night I was pissing and moaning about having to miss another of our regular gaming evenings and how I was going through withdrawls and so on, when Tony and I look at each other and get funny looks on our faces and both think, 'hey, we could start some kind of a campaign ON OUR OWN.'  

So I jump on-line and print out a copy of The Pool and say, "here.  We'll use this.  But first just tell me what kind of character you want to play."

Now, I've not GMed a whole lot -- the odd published D&D module many moons ago; Great Ork Gods once last year (at which we had a blast); an abortive run at The Riddle of Steel, which fizzled partly because no one really got into the combat system ("c'mon," they said, "I just want to roll and know if I've hit") and partly because I did a couple of stupid railroady plot maneuvers over which I still kick myself -- and so I want to make sure to find the right way to approach things.  

I'm not sure I really know the trick to identifying what will make a good Bang, or just where the line is between leading and controlling the story.  So, I'd like to have some guidance from people whose Narrative-fu is a bit higher than my own.

Anyway, Tony describes his guy.  We just kind of free-associated with me asking lots of leading questions, and ended up with a ne’er do well young Samurai with an overbearing father who’s attracted by Ninjas because they have a fighting style (and way of living) that’s outside of the strict honor code within which he’s been raised.  He gets recruited by a Ninja group and secretly trains with them at night, initially with the idea that he would infiltrate and betray them, but then because they start to really fascinate him.

“So,” I said, sensing a developing Premise, “this is a divided loyalty kind of situation, isn’t it?”  and Tony agrees.  

“Ok,” I said, when all that was sorted (and it was already getting late), “the Ninjas are going to ask you to do something, and that’s where we’ll start play.  You go home and decide what it is.”

-- Uh, said Tony, maybe there’s a ship coming in next week with someone real important on it and they want me to assassinate him and steal his stuff.

I made a face.

-- Well if you don’t like it, Tony says, you come up with something better.

“It’s not that I don’t like it,” I said.  “It’s just that it doesn’t have anything to do with anything we’ve already described.”

Tony thought about that for a minute.

-- Maybe it’s better, he said, if they want me to steal something from my father.  

Oh, yeah; that sounded much more interesting.  So I told him they’d want him to steal a document from his father and he should go away and think about how to do it.

Now, here’s what I’m thinking, and where I’d like some guidance.

I figure I’ll let the theft itself play through largely as Tony guides it – when and how seems like flavor, really, and a chance for both of us to develop some comfort with The Pool.  Interesting details which come up in his MoVs I’ll incorporate as we go, but I don’t feel like I have to have any kind of agenda going on in that bit.

My idea though is that the stolen document (which might be in code) is a letter to the emperor ratting out the traitorous daimyo, which the father intended to give to the imperial representative who’s arriving on the boat next week.  

The BANG is that once it’s missing the father, who’s totally dishonored by its discovery, will have no choice but to commit Hara-Kiri, and will ask his son to assist his suicide.  I see a scene where the father reveals that he’s been betrayed and has our hero swear to find the traitor, not realizing that it’s his son who’s done it.  

Tony now has LOADS of choices.  He could go along with it and kill his father, which means he’d then inherit his father’s position (even, to make it even more tempting, his father’s really really cool ancestral sword).  The daimyo would act like the PCs greatest supporter, tell him that now they can together overturn the father’s hide-bound sense of honor, unleash the power of the Ninjas and become rulers of Japan.  

Oooh, that’s real evil, isn’t it?  

Or, he could confess, which (if he can still give the letter back to his father) means he’ll be disowned and thrown out or have to fight his father or even encouraged to commit Hara-Kiri himself.  Or (if he’s already passed the document on to the Ninjas and can’t get it back), his father STILL will kill himself (because he’s been revealed as the daimyo’s enemy), but tell the PC to get away and reveal the truth to the emperor’s representative (who could himself be corrupt, or assassinated, or there’s lots of other plot twists down that road too).

Anyway, am I grokking Nar-style game prep?  Make strong antagonists, devise situations requiring tough choices from the protagonist (and thus the players), but without pre-judging which direction those choices NEED to go.  Lay down lots of possibilities, but keep things as open as possible for as long as possible, and let the PLAYERS – through their MoVs -- determine which paths follow.

Yeah?  

I’ll report how things go after we get together next week.  I’m afraid I won’t be so good at identifying these sorts of things, or maintaining this sort of attitude, once dice and things start to fly, but we’ll see.

[Marco]

Hi Eszed,

Here's my take:

1. I'm not that familiar with The Pool--but here's how I see his first scenario pick. Making the whole "I work with/for Ninja thing" relevant to the character--by doing a (short) mission for them--establishes in-game that he does (or does not do) shady things for the Ninja (for example, you could make the 'guy' he goes to kill a woman passenger who is weak, noble (both in rank and spirit) and in need of protection under his code of Bushido. That establishes a divided loyalty right there.

Basically I don't think his mission had 'nothing to do with what you discussed'--assuming you're able to contribute to the scenario (which you clearly are). He is emphatically risking dishonor on his family and father and, I would think, clearly acting against his father's wishes just by taking the mission.

In my opinion, the mission would revolve around the concept that his father may be a jerk but the young, rebel samuari 'without a code,' might have to come to grips with the idea that the old man's values might be right anyway (perhaps the consequences of his robbery and assassination harm a noble family he likes, for example).

2. You say you have no agenda with him stealing the letter--but you don't address the possibility that he will fail to do so. As I don't know The Pool, it may be impossible for him to fail in that fashion, but if it is, then the rest of your plans are shot.

It's also possible he could decide not to hand it over to the Ninja once he sees it (assuming it's not in code--and, if it's short, might just put it back down).

If he does that (looks at the message, sees that it is in code or addressed to the emperor, and backs out), what happens next?

On the other hand, if his getting to the letter is a foregone conclusion, you might as well frame directly to that (start the game with him in the document room, standing over the letter)--I don't advise this personally--I might find getting to do some infiltration exciting--but only if there is some actual chance of failure.

3. If his father commits suicide that sort of removes the conflict of loyalty on which the character is founded right away, I would think. If the character's central conflict is interperted as being to the code rather than with his father then he'll have his conflict before the game starts (deciding whether or not to steal the letter).

4. Finally, and most importantly, I say this: I would strongly consider warning him OOC that his father might be disgraced by the loss of the letter and kill himself unless you are sure that:

(a) it would be complete surprise for his character even as a native of feudal Japan (I think unlikely). --or--

(b) You are certain he knows that is a possibility and factors his behavior appropriately.

-Marco

[Ron Edwards]

Hi,

That's some good advice from Marco.

Eszed, have you browsed the discussions in the Random Order Creations forum? There're tons of good "prep for the Pool" threads. Check out the ones that include Cassidy, but a scan of the titles in general will serve you well.

Best,
Ron

[Eszed]

Thank you, Marco.   Good suggestions.  I'm going to go away and think about them.  More later.

Yes, Ron, I've looked at nearly all of those threads in the Random Order forum.  It's good stuff.  I think I get what you're driving at all along, but  I realize I have no idea how to put it into practice for myself.  I can see WHAT to do, but not HOW to do it.

It's a matter of self-awareness in a way, of noticing my own blocks and tendencies, and seeing how those effect play and story.  

I'm trying to get beyond my own limitations, I guess.  Which is why I'm here, so you can point out WHAT I'm doing and help me learn HOW to do differently.

cheers,

[jc_madden]

One very SMALL point of reference.  The "ritual suicide" you describe is not Hari-Kari but Sepuku.  Sepuku is actually "ritual dismemberment" where the dishonored party uses his Tonto (a dagger) to make a sqaure shaped cut into the abdomen thereby releasing his bowels and making sure that the honor of his family is restored.  In the situation you describe if the father failed to make all four cuts another would behead him instantly, preserving his honor.  Hari-kari is just killing yourself to avoid FURTHER dishonor (to avoid being captured) but restores no honor in doing so.  It is done in a most un-ritualistic fasion like slicing one's wrist or throat, or most commonly (and painfully) impaling oneself on one's own katana.