[InSpectres] -- Ankh-Morpork City Watch

[anonymouse]

Observations about the stuff that went wrong:
Having played a lot of Donjon, InSpectres feels like some weird hybrid between that and "traditional" gamin' to me, and it's incredibly awkward. I can't plan out too far ahead, but I kept expecting the player (only one this time, next time we're trying distribu-GM and see how well that works, since I had very little to do in that role, really) to say, "Well, I'll do this thing here with an Athletics and then decide why I rolled it." This mostly just lead to some inertia-killing pauses as I groped around for something to do next. Thankfully, I had police proceedure to fall back on as a crutch at the start (I suck at beginnings) and then just threw all kinds of stuff at him during Fieldwork that required dice, so I had material to work with (and enough successes I could foist some stuff off on him, hah hah!)

Single-character InSpectres dun work so great. To meet those franchise dice requirements in any kind of smooth-flowing manner, you need more characters (preferrably in different scenes) just to have more rolls going on. The gameplay tonight showed me you can always have at least two "real" PCs (as opposed to just two different characters played by the same guy), so I don't think this'll be a problem again, but it's still something to note. "I tried it this way one time and it was thbbptt, don't bother!"

Observations about the stuff to change:
Technology just doesn't fit as a skill. I need something else to go there, but have no idea what, yet. The only real examples of tech in the Watch so far has been Littlebottom's forensics dept, which is really just Academics with a Device. And there's not much tech in the series (as defined by InSpectres rules) for us to ever have a real frequent way to do something with it.

We want some kind of character improvement (I know, I know, Jared; character development, but forgive us our need for number rewards). Also not sure what yet. Perhaps a "Watchman" skill based on character rank, spent like Cool but refreshing at the start of a new game. Also, franchise improvement is sort of weird; possibly rename it into Prestige/Reputation? I dunno, maybe that's just excess picking.

Weird Agents will likely only involve undead (by the Discworld standard). Every other race is normal and common enough I don't think they need the dependency of Cool-fueled powers and all the muckity muck that goes along with that.

I'm thinking about adding a Bar phase for some minor stress relief for high-target-dice cases. There's often some main character drinking at some point during them in the books, it'd be a shame to leave it out. Maybe not necessarily, we'll see what happens.

Confessionals.. maybe have a player instead have the opportunity to fill one notebook page (see below) with stuff instead of the video confessional style. Aesthetics, I guess.

We need our own "franchise" (Watch House) and character sheets; without aliens, but possibly with CMOT's takeaway on it.

The rest of it
The absolute best thing I did was buy a couple Moleskin-brand reporter's notebooks, the top-bound kind you could flip over. Handed the player one of those and a bit of pencil and said, "This is your notebook. It is for Clues and other Things of Interest." Worked very, very well to get into the cop groove fast. I'd encourage a similar tool (it's rather more than a prop, I think) for anyone else running investigation-heavy InSpectres.

So anyway, sibling and I had been playing some D&D/Soul Calibur-inspired gamey gamin', running the Knights of the Lich-Queen "mini-supplement" that hit Polyhedron a couple years back. That was sort of winding down, so I finally got him to read The Wee Free Men because, quite frankly, Discworld gnomes are maybe the most-awesome "fantasy race" ever devised by man. And predictably, he shared in enthusiasm. A slew of other D novels later, and he's hooked on the Watch (again, predictably, thanks to Sam "The Man" Vimes).

So secondly-anyway, thanks to Shreyas and Thomas for suggesting InSpectres. It had come to mind when I was pondering what already-written game might work for a Watch game, but I hadn't seriously considered it until they mentioned, and a couple of AP threads later (still, I think, the best kind of advertising a game can have) snagged me a copy.

The game works really well for the Watch. A-M ain't that big, and (at current "timeline") you've only got 6 or so men at a watch house, 2 on a shift, so you've got your small company right there. A new franchise just means a new Watch House; or you can use an existing one for more dice, no problem. (A new one is a little problematic, since "canon" A-M is like, a mile wide; but what if, Neverwhere-ish, there's an A-M Below?)

There's not a hell of a lot to say on the game proper; we did a 5-dice startup, 10-dice target. A Sto Lat merchant had his horse stolen near Hide Park, and it had been carrying a package for Unseen University. Our hero, Particularly Hairy Jock, a six-inch-tall blue-skinned angry Scotsman gnome (for those unfamiliar with Discworld racial diversity), was the only one in the King's Way watchhouse and popped off first to the Thieves' Guild; our poor merchant said the guys what robbed him didn't flash no license.

This lead to a spectacularly botched Contact roll; turns out that maybe the Thieves' Guild knew Mr. Jock had done some stealing of his own when he first entered Ankh-Morpork? And they couldn't prove it? And Vimes made a fuss if they messed with the Watch? But they happen to have a bill here with a lot of phrases like "Person Unknown, small, blue, hairy, reported nearby" next to each occurence of thieving? So our hero gets presented with a bill to his allegedly-unlicensed thieving in his pre-Watch days, and now the Guild (who've been trying to track these thieves down) have a very fresh report. And sharp knives. And this also netted him a point of Stress on his Contact afterwards, which was just, you know, cool.

By the way? I love the Investigation phase. Go to the place, use.. well, we used Academics, as a kind of "policeman clue observation thingy" skill. Anyway, Investigate somehow with a skill, come up with clues, which suggests other places to look/research/whatever, and keep movin'. This'll probably be where we do a lot of our play.

So.. yeah. The thieves were successfuly apprehended, had maybe ten rolls total, with five having 6's so that got us to our requirement nicely (bit of luck there at the end, tho). Next session we're going to be making characters for the rest of the watch house, do interviews, do a group swearing-in.. clean up what we sketched and go for broke. Plan right now is to each have 2-3 "starter crimes" in mind for next game. Watch novel crimes always lead to big, big, hugely fun stuff and that's our goal at the moment.

[beingfrank]

I just love this idea for a game.  I think I may have to try it myself.

Technology just doesn't fit as a skill. I need something else to go there, but have no idea what, yet. The only real examples of tech in the Watch so far has been Littlebottom's forensics dept, which is really just Academics with a Device. And there's not much tech in the series (as defined by InSpectres rules) for us to ever have a real frequent way to do something with it.

Tricky.  I can't think of something that doesn't impinge on the other skills.  Maybe the way to go is to consider the role of Technology in franchise formation, and decide what's the equivalent in A-M?

Sorry, not much else to day.

[knicknevin]

Technology just doesn't fit as a skill. I need something else to go there, but have no idea what, yet. The only real examples of tech in the Watch so far has been Littlebottom's forensics dept, which is really just Academics with a Device. And there's not much tech in the series (as defined by InSpectres rules) for us to ever have a real frequent way to do something with it.

Well, if you want to go the technological path, how about forensics? Depending on where in the time line you are setting this, the Watch House at Pseudopolis Yard has an Igor doing all the biological stuff (medic-cum-coroner) and Cheery Littlebottom handling the field work and alchemy (scene of crime officer), so maybe other watchmen could at least try either of these?

Alternatively, there is a lot of pseudo-tech in AM, mostly mixed with or replaced by magic, e.g. pocket watches, personal organisers and cameras all operate by having quick little imps who live in the box and do all the work; as of 'Thud!', its known that AM operates a thriving newspaper and printing industry, has a purely mechanical semaphore-telegraph system that crosses the continent, there is a functional super-computer in Unseen University and the city is on the verge of getting its own underground railway thanks to some ancient Dwarven artifacts. Basically, you can fit the technology in wherever you like, as long as you explain it in Discworld terms.