[DRYH] My Head Hurts And So Does The Universe

[RPL]

In an earlier post I wrote about a couple of characters I and my girlfriend came up with for a Don't Rest Your Head game. We played a bit in that session but I don't think I was enough to write an AP post on it.

However this last weekend we got around to finally play some more, and it rocked.

What just happened to us
I was running from a criminal, I guy I just spied on selling weapons to a known terrorist, in a dark alley some warehouses.

[from here on end we were no longer scene framing]

I came up to a dead end and decided to try climbing up some emergency stairs, when I got up there I came up to a locked door, in despair I try to ambush my pursuer by leaning on the door and shoot in just as he comes up the stairs to.
As I leaned on the locked door in opens wide and I fall for what seems to be ages into a dark pit of despair. When I came to my sense again I'm in the City (the Mad one) dump, were a see a lot of crazy people claiming to be "Miners Of Lost Dreams" and a dinner (yes in the middle of the dump), a real old fashion dinner like it just came out of the 20's.

After a lot of WTF?! And trying to take the miners in for questioning and get some info from the phone operator, Officer Tok and his man arrive. Of course that has the reasonable man that I am I completely refused to talk to a person who is masqueraded has a clock! Witch lead to a conflict were I ran from Tok and his men, I won it but pain dominated. We narrated that by having Tok hitting me in the head with his Big-Ben-mace-like-weapon and then having to leave because he was late for and appointment.

After that I was on scene framing again, we're playing this PTA style, witch means scene framing rights go around the table, and I completely blew it by making a very uninteresting conflict were I try to get some info from the clerk at the dinner, while I use my Madness Talent to take some bandages and stuff like that from my trench coat (Parker Lewis style) to clean my head wound and stop the bleeding.
Fortunately the GM saved the situation by throwing in there a newspaper were I headline by being captured by Tok's men and brought in for questioning, witch got me right back on track and in a dire need to go visit the Paper Boys headquarters.

I try to make it to the city but on my way there I'm caught by the paper boys who called a cop, they leave and I'm standing face to face with a guy with two heads, he tries to intimidate me into going with him, witch I promptly refuse by bring in 3 Madness Dice and 3 Exhaustion plus my regular 3 Discipline Dice against his 4 Pain. I win the conflict but Pain dominated, witch we narrated has my character feeling bad inside for disrespecting and order from a fellow officer. This was awkward, because we focused on Pain Dominance having a physical effect on the characters, like my head wound, but this wasn't't a physical conflict, so we went for emotional pain instead.

Has I refused his order the other head, witch was sleeping up till then, starts saying something like "For someone who has such a heavy consci... *bang*" I shoot the head clean off. Basically my character is REALLY paranoid about the crimes he has committed, and in the second he realized that the head was going to spill the beans on him he just lost it and shoot it. It was a dice roll where I brought in 5 Madness and Exhaustion Dice, were Madness dominated and I crossed a Fight Response Box. Right there and them I decided to pick up a scar: Killed ANOTHER cop to protect my secret.
Then I started to hear sirens in the background, a lot of police vehicles were moving in and I had to conceal my crime, so... I used my Madness Talent again, to pull a grenade from my trench coat pocket and blew up the hole crime scene (this was were we cemented my catch phrase for my Madness Talent "Real man always carry a handy *item here* in their trench coat pockets!"), this was a 6 die Madness roll and it dominated, so I cross a Flight Response Box and narrated has my character just completely losing it, throwing the grenade and just running like a mad man into the woods near the road, sweating all over and trying to get his mind clear of the dead cop and the burning flesh images.

After a good long run I came up to a garden, were some girls all dressed in black were playing, I came up to them and they tell me that their form the High School and I asked them to take me to their headmaster. I'll get back to this.

Rita (my girlfriend), was talking to her best friend in her terrorist cell (they were in a nice clean residential house a nice clean residential neighbourhood, having an evil terrorist cell meeting) and he confronts her by telling that he knows she's a girl. In a desperate act she hacks him into pieces and tries to hide her crime, unfortunately her cell leader isn't't fooled and she is forced to kill him to (checking a Fight Response Box in the process). As soon has she does it the house gets stormed by cops, weird cops at that, looking like human size clockwork toys but had the appearance of Indian English Imperial police officers, she bolts, she runs, she gets the hell out of there thru a sliding window using her Exhaustion Talent to jump over fences and such.
After a lot of dodging and hiding comes up a school bus were a loot of little girls all dressed in black are hopping in to.

During her flight, she comes to realize that everything seems very very off in her surroundings, she knows that neighbourhood like the back of her hand, and know nothing seems to match her memory.

She tries to sweet talk them a little bit and they promise to giver her a lift to their High School. It was very disturbing watching the GM play the roles of the little girls by the way.

Once she gets there they ask her if she wants to come in, after all good girls are always welcomed to the High School, since she's on the run she decides to take them up on their invitation a stay at the High School for a while, at least until she knows what's going on and where she is.

They take her to see Mother When, who obviously was already expecting her. Mother When pays no attention into Maryam manly disguise and of the bat treats her by her real name, then goes on about trying to convince her into joining her like a Ladies In Hating and answering her questions about how she knows what she knows and where she really is, she takes Maryam in a tour of the School grounds, showing her the classes they have (envy, malice, greed, and so on), she goes along for the ride but always with a hand on her scimitar just in case.

They go into Mother When library and says that she knows everything about her since it's all written in The Book, and this was where the proverbial excrement's hit the fan at very high velocity, Maryam who was already on full paranoid status ever since cops come crashing down her hideout and people left and right seem to know about her secret identity, draws her scimitar and uses her Exhaustion Talent to jump over Mothers desk brings the blade to her neck to intimidate her into showing her The Book and keep her from moving.

Dice where rolled and Pain got dominance, and again we where faced with a Pain Dominance, however we didn't't came up with any interesting physical effects to throw on the character so again we went with emotional ones. Maryam has always been talked down and oppressed by man and she hated it, however here she was point a blade at another woman's neck and oppressing her, so that was the Pain effect, she felt terrible discomfort and emotional agony by oppressing another woman.
Also we thought that this was a great opportunity for Rita to give he character a scar: I oppressed Mother When (a woman). There is something very wonderful and funny about reading this scar out loud.

Mother does has she's "asked" and shows Maryam Her Book, where every event in her live history is recorded, she also reads a very disturbing part, the book says that at the terrorist meting a man named Basit was present, this is disturbing for two reasons: 1) She didn't't see anyone there besides the people she killed there 2) Basit was supposed to be under arrest, my character was the one who caught him.

And now this is were my character comes into the scene. But before he did we had a very good conversation between players and GM were we decided that the person my character and his partner framed was Basit, a man we knew was guilty of a lot of crimes but couldn't't prove it and who was a part of Maryam terrorist cell but that he only went to meetings every once and again and was a bit more distant than the other members, we also decided that our characters "knew" each other, I new her from investigating Basit and she new me from the news on the media about Basit being arrested. Rita also decided that since Basit was supposed to be in jail but actually was at the meeting, that her secret was blown and that the cops new were the meeting was being held, then putting everything together must mean that me and Basit are in league to bring her and her terrorist organization down! Witch was brilliantly paranoid on her part.

So I walked into the library and immediately our characters recognize each other and weapons were drawn. This was a very cool PvP moment, Maryam uses her Exhaustion Talent to jump into the air from the stairs and tries to get herself in a position to pin me down with her sword, at the same time I throw a lamp at her and try to dodge into a better position so to have an advantage over her. I wan but my Exhaustion dominated, so we narrated that I disarmed her with my lamp throw but my very slow reflexes don't allow me to take full advantage of the situation, so despite the fact that I'm away from her and have the advantage of having a ranged weapon, she was quicker than me and got her blade back, witch means she is still a threat.

And thus it ended, very nice cleave hanger. I ended up with 2 Response Boxes checked, and a Exhaustion permanent die, from now on I think I'm going to put a lot more Exhaustion dice into my conflicts than Madness (my average is 3 of each, for a total of 9 dice, and yes I just do it for the rush of it).

Questions
Overall we had some difficulties in trying to translate Pain dominance in non physical effects on the characters, does anyone have any suggestion on how to deal with this?

At this point our characters are still trying to understand what this brave new world they just entered is, and so our actions are for now trying to figure this out, how long do you guys think this can give some interesting scenarios and events, how do you deal with setting discovery in your games?

After looking at the use of the Talents it seems I'm much more prone to using my Madness Talent and my girlfriend her Exhaustion Talent. I think she hasn't brought up her Madness Talent because it's pretty lethal and there's been no reason for it, I think I haven't brought my Exhaustion Talent because the more I read it the more it sucks and it isn't all that interesting. I'll probably try to change it into something more investigation or interrogation wise, does anyone have any suggestion?

[iago]

Thanks for the write-up!

Questions
Overall we had some difficulties in trying to translate Pain dominance in non physical effects on the characters, does anyone have any suggestion on how to deal with this?

Emotional trauma, shaken confidence, social disadvantage... in general, these are the things I'll reach for.

At this point our characters are still trying to understand what this brave new world they just entered is, and so our actions are for now trying to figure this out, how long do you guys think this can give some interesting scenarios and events, how do you deal with setting discovery in your games?

For my dollar, the setting is just a tool for the characters to (eventually) explore their own personal growth-stories.  Exploring the setting alone doesn't force someone to, say, have a crisis of faith, or come to terms with their troubled childhood.  The GM needs to lean hard on the character stories provided through the character questionnaires in order to sustain long play (IMO); which isn't to say that can't be woven into a bad-ass big arching plot.  But without questionnaire-awareness (which I harp on for like a third of the book), that stuff's gonna fall flat.

After looking at the use of the Talents it seems I'm much more prone to using my Madness Talent and my girlfriend her Exhaustion Talent. I think she hasn't brought up her Madness Talent because it's pretty lethal and there's been no reason for it, I think I haven't brought my Exhaustion Talent because the more I read it the more it sucks and it isn't all that interesting. I'll probably try to change it into something more investigation or interrogation wise, does anyone have any suggestion?

There's nothing wrong with how you're playing.  There are definitely "exhaustion-biased" and "madness-biased" playstyles that have emerged in other play that I've seen.  (For example, my own actions as a player tend to be Exhaustion-biased.) They both have awesome stuff to offer, so really, any choice you make is a good one.

[RPL]

Thanks for the write-up!

I think it came out a bit to long, I'll try to make the next one (we're playing this weekend again) a bit shorter.

Emotional trauma, shaken confidence, social disadvantage... in general, these are the things I'll reach for.

Yeah, that's what we went for to, and it was kinda cool, because all the scars we got during play came from when pain dominated on an emotional level, so we are very traumatized persons at this point hehe.

For my dollar, the setting is just a tool for the characters to (eventually) explore their own personal growth-stories.  Exploring the setting alone doesn't force someone to, say, have a crisis of faith, or come to terms with their troubled childhood.  The GM needs to lean hard on the character stories provided through the character questionnaires in order to sustain long play (IMO); which isn't to say that can't be woven into a bad-ass big arching plot.  But without questionnaire-awareness (which I harp on for like a third of the book), that stuff's gonna fall flat.

At this point we're doing both setting discovery and personal growth. The way I see it a DRYH can go thru two phases:
1) The characters start figuring out the setting and the new world they're in - this is when the GM throws things at the players related to their questionnaire. Example: my run into the cop in the road between the dump and the Mad City / when my girlfriend character gets involved with Mother When.
2) When the characters have figured out the setting and try to milk it - this is when the players use the setting in relation to their questionnaire. Example: i can totally see my character going to the Bazaar Bizarre to look for a jar of Grany's Old Jam o'Peace Of Mind (the answer to my path) / my characters girlfriend trying to fit in this new society by taking over the High School some other thing like that.

We're still in phase 1), but I think we can go to phase 2) on our next session, since we are at a very good place to make that shift.

I think that this also works for first time gamers who don't know the actual setting, because someone who does will probably jump right into phase 2). This all seems very pointless discussion but there is a reason for it, me and my GM are planing to run a couple of demos in a RPG store in our home town (Lisbon, Portugal) in order to show new games to RPG players and RPG to new gamers, and I really want to go with a DRYH game, and since our gamers will probably no nothing about the setting I really need to figure out the weight that both the phases must have in a game. I'll talk more about this when we have everything ready to move.

There's nothing wrong with how you're playing.  There are definitely "exhaustion-biased" and "madness-biased" playstyles that have emerged in other play that I've seen.  (For example, my own actions as a player tend to be Exhaustion-biased.) They both have awesome stuff to offer, so really, any choice you make is a good one.

That's cool to know, and I'll keep that in mind. I definitely have a madness-bias, but this can be for 2 reasons: 1) I really like my madness talent 2) my exhaustion talent is a bit lame, I think I'm going to change it next time we play, I'll use my scar to shift my characters reaction to things from "*weird stuff happens* I draw my gun!!" to "*weird stuff happens* I use my extreme intimidation exhaustion talent to get my way".