Darkun Scum in Cursed Empire FRPG

[leonidas300]

Ok, just imagine a really nasty piece of work, the kind of character who comes over to a table and starts to spoil your evening where you are having a quiet drink with friends, spending some hard-earned cash and recovering from a recent mission. Think again.

Darkuns are no thugs or chaos warriors after a fight, they are far more deadly and brutal than that. As an MT (Master of Tales), you will have to get into their minds, as players you are in for the ride of your life, albeit a short and potentially glorious one.

Contrary to many games, the darkun is not generated by a player to progress the character but to enjoy a roleplaying moment of extreme fun and who knows, a chance to leave some glory behind for the temple. Darkuns are all members of a faction or subfaction of one of the 4 elemental cults. They are trained assassins, martial arts experts and torturers.

Life expectancy is 23 for a human: Darkuns are "timebombs" ready to go with a bang at any time.

Let me set the scene:

Vardoss of Morg, renowned Darkun Champion from the Earth Cult has summoned a group of potential future Darkun Champions to the Earth Temple of Karg. Accompanying them is one mercenary who has visibly had little direct dealings with Darkuns and their kind. Vardoss is renowned for testing candidates for "glory missions" as they are sometimes known, to see if they worthy of his time.

He presents the mission to the assembled party of 7 characters who all take the necessary information in. In the assembled ranks we have 2 Pure Cult Darkuns (Fire), 4 Black Dragons from the Earth Cult and the mercenary. Now one must note at this point that the Pures despise all members of the 10 other factions and will not hesitate to slay other Darkuns or feeble Pures for the slightest of signs of hesitation and weakness.

The 4 Black Dragons know that the Pures will be excellent fighters as long as they can keep an eye on them, they outnumber this fanatics 2 to 1, but nevertheless are very wary.

After the mission briefing Vardoss concludes with a "Death to the Empire" and a "for the glory of the temple", which is quite common for Darkuns. The ill-informed mercenary raises his hand and asks "how much money are we going to get for this?"...ouch!

Now the normal Darkun thing here would be to probably shut him up and get on with the mission, although some will wish to show weak members up and start a fight especially in front of Vardoss. The Pures jump in head first and say that the mercenary should be slain for such cowardice and disgrace to the temple.

"Are we not in this for glory, is glory not enough?", to which the Merc really digs his grave and says, you may be but I work for money. With that the Pures jump on him and the Black Dragons jump on the Pures. Vardoss watches with a certain degree of detachment, then walks away infuriating the Pures even more who really go for killing shots now.

Result, great deal of roleplaying, 4 characters dead and scenario finished before even starting. Vardoss returns and has the remaining survivors put to death for wasting his time. If he even thought that 1 of the others were worthy he would taken them out himself.

This really happened at a convention and we had over 20 spectators watching the game. All who knew nothing about Darkuns learnt the hard way, but all concluded that they had just had a great roleplaying experience and that they understood Darkuns.

More to follow.

Chris

[Albert of Feh]

A few questions, as I try to make sense of this account...

How much did the players know about the game setting in general, and the Darkun in particular?

What made the players of the 'Pures' decide to actually attack the mercenary? Did they go all that way on their own, or were they prompted at all?

What made the players of the Black Dragon PCs decide to join the fray? Wouldn't it be in their best interest to let the Pures do their thing and get on with the mission?

Were none of the players frustrated that the game so instantly devolved into and concluded with a seemingly pointless PC bloodbath? Especially the player of the poor merc; it sounds like the player probably didn't realize what he was doing?

[Luke]

Hi Chris,

this sounds like a post for Actual Play, not the Publishing forum.

Also, I'm curious about the answers to Albert's questions. Can you tell us what was going on at the table during the demo? When were dice rolled? What did the players decide to do? What was GM input? What were the players told for the set up of the scenario?

-L

[leonidas300]

A few questions, as I try to make sense of this account...

How much did the players know about the game setting in general, and the Darkun in particular?

What made the players of the 'Pures' decide to actually attack the mercenary? Did they go all that way on their own, or were they prompted at all?

What made the players of the Black Dragon PCs decide to join the fray? Wouldn't it be in their best interest to let the Pures do their thing and get on with the mission?

Were none of the players frustrated that the game so instantly devolved into and concluded with a seemingly pointless PC bloodbath? Especially the player of the poor merc; it sounds like the player probably didn't realize what he was doing?

Ok thanks for posting, here are some answers:

The players were fully breifed and most of them were seasoned players of Cursed Empire. The Pures acted of their own accord aware that some party members were potentially wasting Vardoss's precious time. Pure are extreme characters, not indicative of normal Cursed Empire gaming sessions but superb roleplaying challenges nevertheless.

The Black Dragons could well have let them get on with it, but one of them decided (based upon her traits: Bloodthirsty, Brutal, Cold, Unstable and Calculating), that the Pures may benefit from impressing Vardoss and as such may steal the Black Dragons clout on the day. This triggered a deadly chain reaction. Once she interposed herself, there was no backing down.

Not one of the players at the demo was unhappy with the outcome, quite the contrary in fact. They still all quote this superb exchange between characters before they came to blows. This was a unique roleplaying experience because the players really acted out their extreme characters and took the whole session into their own hands. The bloodbath was not pointless in any shape or form. If you get into the head of darkuns it had a very significant meaning. The Merc was cannon fodder and indeed the player was inexperienced in CE, but he learnt an excellent lesson (as per his own quote): not to mess with Darkuns. At the end of the day these unique characters do not mix well with others. The player in question reacted with the knowledge he had to hand. This was roleplaying at its very best.

More to follow shortly.

Chris

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Chris,

I'm a little confused about one thing, maybe it's a coincidence ...

I have a game called Crimson Empire in which Darkuns and elemental temples are a big deal, and your description seems to match it in several ways. It's labeled "Spartans Unleashed Gaming System," appeared in its second edition at GenCon last year, and is authored by a guy named Chris.

Same, different? Or?

Also, regarding the game experience, I'm interested in the outcome. Did the mercenary survive?

I'm also interested in your answers to Luke's (abzu's) questions.

Best,
Ron

[Larry L.]

Ron,

They are the same. Cursed Empires is the second edition of Crimson Empires. The original title was apparently a trademark of Lucasfilm.

[leonidas300]

Hi Chris,

this sounds like a post for Actual Play, not the Publishing forum.

Also, I'm curious about the answers to Albert's questions. Can you tell us what was going on at the table during the demo? When were dice rolled? What did the players decide to do? What was GM input? What were the players told for the set up of the scenario?

-L

Dear Luke, thanks for taking the time to raise a few questions (BW:great game by the way).

I always take each player to one side to provide them with individual background and unique information. This really helps me to set the scene and offer them the tools to situate themselves within the geopolitical context. Then the group get a "group briefing" from which they can draw their own conclusions when cross-referenced with their own info. In this case, the Pures are reminded that they despise the Empire (good guys to keep it simple) and that they hate all other Darkun Factions nearly as much. The Black Dragons are also reminded of the unique rapport that they have with other Darkun Factions (see interaction chart in the Darkun book) and especially the Pures: they cannot be trusted and although fewer in number, will be deadly opponents.

Now the Black Dragon players were already thinking that the Pures should really be eliminated fast, early on on the mission as they are a liability. The Pures would rather use the Black Dragons until they are sure to complete the mission in which case they become expendable.

Darkun Player Tables rarely have other classes mixed within their ranks, only the occasional Warrior-Priest may be bale to control them. The Merc was on a bad footing from the outset as he would be used to take the brunt of a fight and had now real allies within the party. He was aware that there would be danger by teaming-up with the Darkuns but the potential financial gain was just too attractive for him.

The Master of Tales (MT) set the scene by describing the breifing hall within the temple (classic intro there). What was slightly less classic is that Vardoss lined all the party up then shouted "catch this", with which he throws a poisoned blade to the party. The most obedient Darkun caught the blade, proved speed and agility and got himself poisoned. An Endurance roll later with some nice modifiers applied due to poison type and he was still standing albeit in agony. Darkun chmapions like to test their adepts.

more to follow...

[leonidas300]

Hi Chris,

(...) When were dice rolled? What did the players decide to do?

-L

Dear Luke, the dice were rolled when weapons were drawn. Combat in CE is tactical and takes some getting used in that the mechanics are quite easy to pick up but learning what works best for any given character takes some practice, which players seem to enjoy through trial and a little error. CE allows for weaker foes to vanquish stronger opponents through what I like to call the "Achilles Heel" option. There is often less predictability on the outcome of a fight as a good shot in the right location can be the end of a foe.

I can detail this more maybe in a different topic if required.

Chris