[Wushu] Angst, suffering and darkness over Skype

[Filip Luszczyk]

I ran a session of slightly modified Wushu last Saturday, by Skype, for a group that contacted me after finding my old notice on one Polish forum. Actually, I didn't expect to return home for this weekend (and unless I'm home online play is currently out of question for me), so the game was rather spontaneous. After talking a bit with the player who contacted me, we decided on a dark fantasy one-shot, using some fast and easy system freely available online.

The system

I considered The Pool, Snowball and Exchange, and finally settled on Wushu. Seeing potential in the game, but not being entirely satisfied with the rules as they are, I made some minor modifications to the Open Reloaded version, though.

-I decided on a base dice cap of four, increased by one if the conflict is relevant to the character's driving Motivation, which I required the players to choose, and by additional one if it involved character's Issue (something that hinders the character in fulfilling the Motivation), doubled in especially dramatic conflicts. In play it turned out I forgot about rules that would balance NPC's dice cap, so later I had to adjust it on the spot.

-Aside from adding Motivation and Issue to the character creation rules, and using trait categories variant, I included modified "something special" option - character's signature move, special power or the like, usable once per scene to add one automatic success to either attack or defense, before the roll. Players used this only once, in the first scene, when I reminded them about the option - later these traits were obviously forgotten (actually, I think I should have stressed stronger that they can be used as many times as the players want, and only the mechanical bonus is limited to one use per scene).

-I limited GM to activating any player's Weakness no more than three times per session, and I added similar limit for players activating NPC's weaknesses (one activation per conflict or scene leading to the discovery of NPC's weak spots or devoted to preparation for later encounter). In play, we completely forgot about Weaknesses, though.

-I removed the mook rules. Also, I got rid of the scab rolls as I consider them an unimportant bother. Instead, I decided every conflict, regardless of the nature and the numbers of the opposition will be treated like it was a single Nemesis conflict. However, as I wanted everyone, GM included, to be involved equally in the narration all the time, I modified conflict rules slightly as well. First of all, everyone was free to add details every turn, until there was a long (3-5 seconds) pause in the narration, at which point the phase was closed by the GM. Then the dice gathered were divided in secret between attack and defense, and everyone rolled at the same time - but only the best number of attack successes of each side counted against the defense of all the opponents, with the best attacker gaining Coup the Grace. Additionally, the GM's side was always treated as using 4-point trait, and as having 3 Chi. To allow for some variation in difficulty and balance the players' slight advantage in numbers, I gave the GM a pool of points that could be used to pump up conflict's Chi - however, as it soon turned out even one point of Chi advantage was a lot, and the first conflict seemed to drag too much, so I didn't use the pool after the first scene.

Putting aside the problems with variants I mentioned, I have mixed feelings about the system. Although I see a lot potential in the general concept of Wushu, even after all my modifications I felt like it was too loose. Especially, I find the rules of rewarding details with dice lacking - the idea is cool, but I don't find it working perfectly well. As a GM I felt awkward rewarding myself (once, I had an idea of giving everyone right to reward everyone else in Wushu, but I had no chance to test it yet, and I didn't want to use in online game with unknown people). Also, nearly every turn everyone was reaching the dice cap, and I feel it kind of defeats the whole idea of supreme description being supreme tactically - in the end, everyone winds up rolling the same number of dice and even with being more strict and picky in rewarding details, for creative players it would all boil down to producing long enough stream of narration. Consequently, having the dice numbers based on characters' stats, but requiring players to "pay" for using them with narration (basically how it's done in DitV and family) would produce essentially similar end results. In addition, the way traits work is slightly irritating to me - it never pays to try to solve problems using anything but the best of the character's traits (what we did most of the time; stretching freeform traits to fit the context is rarely difficult after all), and sticking to the trait categories variant would make freeform descriptors mechanically meaningless in turn (kind of like it is in Paladin). Finally, I think traits determining success threshold work so-so, since results tended to average most of the time (especially with 5-point traits), and it felt rather bland - having more variations, e.g. with ones treated as two successes, could be good. All in all, I think that if I ever try something Wushu-based again, it will be a technically different game, only utilising PoNT, Coup de Grace and "everything is a detail" rules somehow.

The group

The players were Iza, Agnieszka and Jarek. From what they told me, they've been playing in the same group for 8 years or so (I suspect Iza's sister Agnieszka, still in her teens, is the exception). They tried some fantasy games like WFRP, MERP and AD&D, tried WoD (which they didn't like), tried GURPS and finally settled on Rolemaster - what is interesting, since the game is not popular in Poland. They had absolutely no previous experience with "indie" games, nor knowledge about their existence. It seems to me they belong to a rather hermetic group, one of those focused on a single neverending campaign and one game (to rule them all ^^). I got an impression it's a pretty coherent group with its own baggage of methods and quirks. They mentioned they know themselves extremely well and it's hard for them to surprise themselves with anything. I rarely have an opportunity to run a game for an already established group outside my own, and it sure feels different.

They mentioned that they focus on realism, which of course told me as much as nothing about their normal playstyle and priorities, but scared me a bit. Talking with them I figured out they have a preference for complicated systems that claim to be realistic and back it up with a suitable rules bloat, and playing "by the book" they enjoy being under an illusion of realism. However, when I told them I tend to run cinematic stuff, no one opposed. Before the session most of them browsed Wushu Open Reloaded rules, and they were surprisingly open minded about it (Iza mentioned some earlier failed attempts to run Rolemaster online). I explained the basic assumptions of No Myth play, and this also didn't meet with any complaints - but in play they made no attempts to establish any background facts from their own initiative (aside from making some pretty obvious assumptions about things that directly concerned their characters).

Actually, there were hardly any complaints during and after the session, and I'm not sure what to think about it. They could have been enjoying the game, but it's just as well possible that previously they had been "indoctrinated" in something I refer to as Iron Rule (after seeing someone calling it this way on one Polish forum) - that is, the idea that talking about any problems is a fun ruining sin, and even after the session it should be avoided out of sheer politeness. The medium of voice chat didn't help me in reading them, so I honestly don't know what to think about it.

The preparation

I made sure we're roughly on the same page as far as the genre is concerned, mentioning I'd prefer it to be more like Elric or Berserk Anime than Warhammer (Old World, specifically in its RPG interpretation, is normally a benchmark for dark fantasy settings in Poland, but I dislike the exaggerated grittiness of what I usually refer to as "Polish redneck fantasy"). We talked a bit about the setting and the magic in particular, but "your average medievish fantasy kingdom" is rather self explanatory, I think. Then we proceeded to character generation.

Iza created an assassin with the Motivation of "fulfill the mission from the lord" and an Issue of "abandoned an assassin guild and avoids using her skills in combat, fearing guild's retribution". She chose Two-Weapon Fighter, The Goal Justifies the Means and Loyal as her traits. Her choice of "special something" surprised me a bit, as she wanted "a dying blow, kind of like at the end of the 13th Warrior movie" - and she stuck to that even after I explained that usage limit won't give her any additional benefits and proposed some more playable alternatives (and I was explicit that no character will die without players' consent anyway).

Jarek created another two-weapon wielding character, with the traits: Swift Fencer, Focused on the Goal and something I no longer remember. His Motivation was "to become rich and famous", but later he added "in defense of the kingdom", and his Issue was "my parents were killed, and I suspect it was from my lord's order". He chose "teleport at short distance" as a "special something".

Agnieszka (being an Anime fan as I was told), probably took my Berserk reference to heart, as she created an oversized sword wielding warrior. She picked the following traits: Brave Knight, Honorable Fighter and Smart Swordsman. She chose "to become rich and famous" as her Motivation, and "addicted to gambling" as an Issue. Also, she chose "teleport 100m" as a "special something". Note that she and Jarek were sending me their Motivation and traits via private messages, so the similarities were purely coincidental (but this probably tells something about the game they've been playing previously, as well as about their playstyle and typical tactics). Aga's character struck me as slightly inconsistent in comparison with the rest - not that I care about character consistency that much, but her traits choice alone didn't make a good aesthetic impression on me.

Finally, they had chosen "their standard names" for the characters, and when I asked no one expressed desire to add any more detail. Actually, before the game I used online generator to produce a list of names to use in play (as I often find it hard to think up good sounding name in the middle of the session), but in the end I didn't use it, and no one asked for names in play - for the whole time we were calling people and places by their function (the city, the prince, the noble etc.).

Also, I found it surprising how many similarities there were between the characters (I suppose both two weapon combat and short distance teleportation are popular tactics in Rolemaster), and how they limited the power of their characters despite being told that "everything goes". E.g. someone asked if it was fine to choose "Summon Armageddon" for "special something", and after I answered "sure, as long as this is the character you want to play", resigned. Iza's mechanically hindering "special something" also made me wonder - I find making sub-optimal mechanical choices strange.

The whole preparation took us no more than half an hour, although players mentioned it's hard to think up traits. Obviously, that must have been the first time when they weren't expected to pick form the list (most of Agnieszka's traits were chosen from the examples I gave them).

[Filip Luszczyk]

The game

We played using Skype, and surprisingly it went without any noticeable lags. Also, we used Gametable (v. beta 1.2) for dice, and I prepared some pogs to represent dice in different colors that I intended to put on the board as players added details. It worked well, although Iza and Agnieszka had some problems with centering the view several times, and had to reconnect.

I had only the first scene prepared, and my plan was to proceed with a flashback scene for each of the characters, and then go with the flow, guiding things to some closure.

I described a hellish scenery, with the characters traveling on a narrow path over the sea of liquid fire in the direction of an obsidian citadel on the horizon (with the smell of sulfur, cries of the damned etc.). I hinted that the citadel was the groups destination, but I didn't reveal any specifics at this point. Then I described some demons crawling on the path and assaulting the characters. Resolving the conflict and closing the scene took as something between 30 minutes and an hour, and the whole time I felt things dragged a bit - especially that the players were dividing their pools in a very defensive manner, and many turns ended with an impasse. Finally, Jarek got Coup the Grace narration (being eliminated from conflict at the same time, but still winning CdG) and the group reached the citadel. I closed the scene with the description of heavy lead gates opening, and the characters being bathed in the blinding glow from the inside.

Some observations I made in the first scene remained valid till the end of the session. Basically, the players' old habits were very visible. The whole time, they've been in the "I try to", "if there is" mode, despite me constantly reminding them it should be "I do", "there is" in Wushu. Also, they probably took "detail" term literally, as their descriptions were extremely detailed, but the actions themselves rather repetitive and uninspired (well, despite me giving them cinematic examples of what they could do, they stuck with "realistic" tactics). Also, I suppose they had been imagining situation in terms of relations in space and battle map, whereas I never even try it outside D&D, and usually visualize stuff as series of independent images (at one moment Iza pointed out that some monster's action was impossible due to their positioning - and it was the only veto during the whole game, by the way). It may be worth noting that Jarek was usually the first to start the narration, and Agnieszka almost never narrated anything until I started counting down after a pause (at which point everyone but Aga was usually way over the dice cap, while she had nothing - I've been putting the dice pogs in rows, so it was always visible). It may be because them being accustomed to turn based combats, or maybe Aga's hesitation was the result of her normally playing with people ten or so years older. It was also noticeable that there was almost no table talk during the whole game (much, much less than I'm accustomed to), and at the same time nearly no comments from players who weren't involved at the moment (made me wonder constantly whether they're still there on the other side of the screen).

After the first scene, I proceeded with the flashbacks - starting with something in the lines of "before the armies of Hell invaded the kingdom and the cities fell into the state of permanent siege, life was different...". I started with Agnieszka, seeing how she didn't took initiative before. I framed a scene in which she gambled in some tavern, losing her last pennies - and then she met a money lender who requested she started paying her debts. She declared that she wanted to go to the bad part of the city, and rob some robbers, so I gave her a stereotypical encounter with thugs. She acted like she wanted to intimidate them, so I started the conflict as social - but she soon switched to narrating how she cuts them down. After she defeated the thugs, a cloaked man approached her, explained he heard about her being a master gambler, and proposed to give her a purse of gold in exchange for some unspecified future favor. She accepted, and I moved action in time to the point when she was broke once again. The cloaked man approached her once again, this time promising mountains of gold in exchange for something as unimportant as her soul (and I sure pointed out the possibilities of gambling the treasures). She feigned acceptance, but returned to her room "for a pen", snuck by the window, and ran away.

Then, I framed a scene for Iza - the prince called her and gave her an order to dispose of a priest from a nearby town who had been preaching against his rule. The prince specifically wanted her to make an example for anyone who'd oppose him out of the priest's death. Iza infiltrated the town and gathered info about the priest. Obviously, he was a living saint, and the people loved him. He actually preached against the cruelty of new laws and pointed at some prophecies about "The Black Prince". Iza decided to frame him and make him accused of sorcery, and so she did - the priest winded up burned on the stake, and she got praised by the prince for her professionalism and loyalty (I resolved the whole plan as a conflict, giving Iza dice for every part she described - but I have a feeling she rather expected me to asses her ideas and decide whether she succeeded or not according to her cleverness).

Finally, I did a scene for Jarek. I established he was a member of the prince's elite guard, and involved him in the culling of peasants revolt. He was given a small squad of troops and sent to kill the family of the noble who started the rebellion and to bring the noble himself before the prince. Similar to Iza, Jarek started describing his plan, with lots of tactical details, which I mostly found irrelevant - this time I wasn't interested in resolving it mechanically, and I assumed he simply gets to the noble's mansion. Then, when he stormed the place with his people and proceeded to capture the noble, I described him remembering the man as his father's friend (and hinted that they could have plotted against the prince in the past). Jarek decided to disarm and stun the noble anyway - the fight I resolved with a conflict - and ordered to murder his wife and children later. Then, going back to the city, he talked with the noble, accusing him of revolting too soon and without a proper preparation, and asking for any weak points of the prince that could be used against him in the future. The noble pointed out that the prince is a cold and cruel man, and his only weakness is probably his daughter "for whom he would give his own life if needed".

Each of the flashback scenes took about half an hour, and it was a bit longer than I expected - I started to get worried that the remaining players have nothing to do at the time. I've been constantly looking at the clock, and I didn't like how the scenes dragged, figuring out there won't be time for more than one or two scenes after the flashbacks. It turned out the players had a lot more time than I automatically assumed, being used to running shorter and shorter games recently (I notice that I kind of start to panic lately if things don't seem to close to finish in the third hour of the session).

I got back to the citadel, describing the group standing on an empty courtyard, and this time revealing their goal - they've been sent to rescue the prince's daughter (and each of them had some reason to do it: for Aga - money, for Iza - loyalty, and for Jarek - yet unspecified, but there was an obvious connection from his flashback scene). The cloaked man from Aga's flashback greeted them, asking for the reason of their visit, and mentioning that both Iza and Jarek have a place already prepared for them in Hell (Aga was the only one with more or less clear conscience among the group). They were brought before the Emperor of Hell, whom I've described as a giant black winged angel chained to the throne, with an iron mask covering the face, but eyes burning with concentrated hate. We winded up doing a three sided conflict - Jarek wanted to negotiate a truce and free the kingdom from the demonic armies, Iza and Aga wanted to release the princess, and the Emperor wanted to corrupt them and make them swear fealty to him. We winded up with a longish debate about the evil human nature, salvation and stuff ^^ Aga did something interesting, as at one point she countered Emperor's argument with "but I still believe in that guy in Heaven!" - she did it with quite a cheerful tone, and it kind of brought a catholic TV program for teenagers to mind, giving us a laugh. Jarek was eliminated pretty fast due to bad luck, but Iza and Aga managed to convince the Emperor to let them take the princess back. In the discussion, I established that the armies of Hell invaded the kingdom because the prince made a pact with the Emperor, cementing it by sacrificing his daughter - but later became full of remorse and sent the group to bring the princess back. They've released the crying princess from a dark room in the highest tower of the citadel, left the obsidian fortress and teleported back to the prince by means of Town Portal spell (I simply couldn't resist ^^). During their way down, the princess tried to steal Iza's dagger, but she stopped her.

When they came back to the prince, I narrated how the princess hits his face in hate - and Aga declared that she makes it possible for her to snatch the dagger this time. At this point we did a conflict with Jarek, as both he and the princess wanted to kill the prince, to check who will be the first. Even after Jarek's character beheaded the prince, the princess still repeatedly stabbed him, while the rest of the group disposed of witnesses. Jarek mentioned something about trying to take control over the army and taking the throne as a regent, but the princess clearly stated that the throne is hers alone - and since the rest of the group supported her, they simply divided important functions between themselves. Jarek took the army, Iza took the secret police and they proposed that Aga, due to her "believing in the guy in Heaven" takes care of the Inquisition.

I wanted to finish things up at this point (it seemed a good ending point for me, and I got the time panic I mentioned earlier), but since they still wanted to continue, I framed another scene. After the princess took the throne, the demons left the kingdom and it once again started to prosper - but there was gossip about the princess kidnapping the citizens and drinking their blood. The players decided to pay her an unexpected visit, and I proceeded to frame a blood orgy scene in her private chambers, but Jarek and Iza stopped me and started negotiating the plan (Iza declared her loyalty to the princess) - I proposed to resolve it as a conflict, but Jarek convinced Iza in the second round and she simply gave. In the end, they kidnapped the princess (from the middle of the blood orgy, disposing of any witnesses), and with the help of Aga's Inquisition transported her to some secluded monastery, where they started exorcising her. I resolved it as a conflict, with the stakes like "if you win - she is purged of the evil, the kingdom is saved and you live happily ever after; if you lose - she gets exorcised but the demons return to the kingdom, no longer stopped by whatever possessed her". The stakes I proposed surprised them noticeably, but they agreed. The group won, and I wrapped up the session, leaving the issue of the punishment for sins awaiting Jarek and Iza's characters ambiguous.

All in all, despite some problems it was quite a fun session for me. I'm not sure about the players, but as I said earlier, no one complained and I don't know what to think about it. Jarek mentioned that a little bit of storytelling from time to time isn't bad, which made me confused since in Poland by "storytelling" people usually refer to freeform WoD or other games ran in such a manner - and I think the session, despite turning pretty angsty, was far from being freeform.