[In a Wicked Age] Surreal Funk Exploitation Fantasy

[Hans]

Someone wasn't able to make it to my regular Riddle of Steel session last night, so Vic, Justin and I were left a bit adrift, wondering what to do.  I suggested we might try In a Wicked Age, and Vic and Justin, good sports that they are, said what the hey?  In this first post I'm just going to talk about the game itself.  If you are interested, the next post will just be about the wacky fiction.

THE GAME
* Rules-wise, we did make a number of mistakes, and had a number of questions come up.  I COMPLETELY forgot about the "we owe" list until after the game was over; we tried to reconstruct it as best we could at the end.

* There is very little discussion of how, when, and who when it comes to scene-framing.  As GM, I did most of this, with a lot of input from Vic and Justin, and it seemed to work well, but it strikes me that some more detail on this would be worthwhile.

* Character creation went very quickly and well.  It definitely needs a printed character sheet, as half of character creation was taken up with my slow hand writing writing out "Art", "Enduring duress", etc. over and over again for five different GM characters.  I also loved giving characters their one extra endeavour: "Passerbying", "Heading", "Driving Mortals Mad", etc.  Other record sheets are important as well, in order to record all the information that needs to pass from chapter to chapter.

* Conflict resolution seemed to work pretty well, once we got the hang of it.  It is HIGHLY random; oh man is it ever!  This is just about the least gamist game I have played.  There seems almost nothing you can do, mechanically, to improve your chances of success or reduce your opponents.  Especially in multicharacter conflicts, where you are rolling so many dice.  Part of this is because there is really no resource you can expend for temporary advantage (like hero points in Heroquest or a mid-Bringing Down the Pain (BDTP) advance in TSOY).  And yet...people frequently did not choose their best stat to use in conflicts, and I'm not sure the story or the fun would have been increased by more detailed conflict resolution.  I am torn between suggesting that some more fiddly bits should be added to make the conflict resolution have more options, and stating flatly it is good as is.

* Mastery die - does it ADD, like an advantage die, or is it just an extra die?  We were adding it, but on reflection I'm betting it is just an extra die.

* Why is it only the exerting or enduring stat that takes injury?  Why not always the stat that was used?

* In a conflict, can you change endeavours on a round by round basis (ala Abilities in BDTP)?  We played it this way.

* I love the negotiate other consequences thing.  I think there could be a few more examples of the types of things that could be part of this, to spur people's imaginations. 

* Very much like BDTP, this game seems to be about crafting just the right challenge; make it just right, and you get something cool and the other guy is willing to give to it without any more fighting.  This seems especially important as the conflicts really are so random, and anyone is as likely as anyone else to pay a price.

* What in sam hill is a specialization?  It seems like it is different from a mastery, and a specialization procedure is referred to, but not provided.

* Are masteries intended to always be the same across characters, or are they separated?  By this I mean, for example, if I up the significance of a mastery on one character sheet, does it up it for ALL characters that use that mastery?

Overall, I would say the game is a winner, and I will definitely be playing again.  I love the whole "short story" feel of it, where each night is its own little story.

Read on if you want to know what the story was actually about; totally tripped out happening modernish fantasy, baby!

[Hans]

THE FICTION
Here are the elements that came up:

*The head of a war-captain, stored in a carved wooden casket.

*A wandering intelligence, bent on driving mortals mad.

*A key on a broken chain, lost by the roadside.

*A hard won victory, with many deaths on both sides.

From this list, we settled on the following characters.

* The Head

* The current owner of the Head.

* The wandering intelligence.

* A passerby who finds the key.

* Leader of one side of the battle that will result in deaths.

* Leader of the other side.

* The person who lost the key.

Vic picked the Head Owner, and Justin picked the person who lost the key.  Vic suggested his character's name was Carlo, and he had won the Head in a game of chance.  Justin went with this, naming Guiseppe to the guy who was searching for the key.  To me, this suggested a sort of rennaissance Italy kind of theme, so I started nameing the other characters, as follows.

The Head of KriegFuerher Schadenholt

Romanesque, a wandering intelligence (really no thoughts on this one at this point, other than a name)

Gattemalata - Mercenary Captain

Dona Francesca di Mantovani - Captain of the Armies of Mantovan

Maria of the White Hand - the finder of the key

I came up with one Mastery for the Head, "Conduit of the War Gods", which included such things as "I raise an army of the Dead to oppose you", for example.

Not really knowing how else to get started, we just sort of started, with Vic suggesting that the story should start in a Tavern back room, with people playing cards.  Carlo has apparently just won the head from the drunken Gattemalatta, which is sitting locked on the table, rattling occasionally as if something wants to get out.  He is know trying to get Gattemalatta to bet the key to the box.  Carlo seems to have NO idea what the box is, he just knows its valuable. 

Guiseppe comes in, seemingly drunk, and wants to join the game.  Gattemalatta wants to see some money, but when Guiseppe shows him some, he sits down to the game.  Justin makes it clear that Guiseppe is not really drunk...in reality he and his order have been searching for the head for years!

Gattemalatta decides to bet the key in order to win back the head...but can't FIND IT!  He accuses Carlo, drunkenly, of stealing his key.  He swings his sword around the room in a violent rage, but is eventually convinced that Carlo does not have the key.  He wanders off with some of his men to find out what happened to it.

At this point, Guiseppe trys to win the head off of Carlo.  Carlo bets the head, and asks Guiseppe what he can offer as a counter bet.  Justin takes his car keys out of his pocket and throws them on the table, and Guiseppe says "How about the keys to my Aston Martin".

My mind starts to spin...what did he just say?  Aston Martin?  I ask Justin "Did you just say Aston Martin?"  He says, "Yeah, right, its sort of 70's theme thing, right, Quentin Tarantino, right?"  Vic nods in agreement.

I sit there stunned for a moment, as my brain begins to calculate this radical shift.  Here I had been picturing Rennaissance Italy all this time, but Vic and Justin had somehow decided that it was Italy, but in a 1970'ish kind of setting, with both of their characters sort of John Travolta-esque slimeballs.  Again, I was stunned.  And then, the mind starts working...and I realize this is just about the coolest thing I have ever heard in my life.

Ok, so we now continue.  Justin and Vic have a conflict over the head and who leaves with it, with Guiseppe using his "Compulsive Cheating" endeavour and Carlo using his "Gambling" endeavour.  At one point, Justin brings Gattemalata back in to the room, who has just morphed in my mind from Condotierri captain to Che Guevarra-esque revolutionary leader.  The sword he was waving around (thanks to Baz Luhrman) has become a Sword 9MM.  Guiseppe tricks Gattemalatta into think Carlo has the key (by throwing the Aston Martin keys at him) and takes off with the head (winning the conflict, the first of many Vic was to lose that night).

Carlo finally convinces the drunken Gattemalata that he does not have the key, and Gattemalatta essentially says that Carlo better come back by morning with the head, because Gattemalatta needs it for a battle scheduled then ("A revolutionary uprising of the workers!") 

Carlo walks outside, and sees a stylish black Aston Martin DB5 sitting on the curve, but decides not to take it.  He starts to walk down the street.  I describe it as a dark Italian Mountain Town, but with enough porn shops and brothels to give Amsterdam a run for its money.  Vespa's line the cobblestone streets, and its raining.

Carlo walks aways and stops.  There is a black Aston Martin sitting on the street.  Hmmmm.  He walks a ways further and stops.   There is a black Aston Martin sitting on the street.  Double hmmmm.  He walks even further down and stops.  There is a black Aston Martin sitting on the street.  Is that Aston Martin following him?  He begins to run, as the Aston Martin starts up, its lights flip on, and it cruises after him.  Yes, true believer, on the spur of the moment I decided that the Aston Martin HAD to be the wandering intelligence.  It pulls up next to Carlo, standing on the street exhausted from running, the window rolls down, and its empty, serious funk pumping from the 8-track.  We have a conflict, and Vic loses again, and Carlo gets in.  A voice remarkably like Barry White's comes over the radio and informs him that the wandering intelligence Romanesque is greatly desirous of the head, because madness always follows where the Head goes.  Justin, Vic and I, by this point, are having a fantastic time with the surrel funky flavour of the thing, using the words and phrases "Totally crazy, baby", "I'm digggin your scene", etc, far too often for our own sanity, especially since none of us is older than 40 and we were all grade-schoolers during the 70's.  Personally, I'm digging back for every Richard Roundtree, Cleopatra Jones, Bruce Lee movie I can think of, and all of us are channelling Quentin Tarantino.  I'm doing my best Barry White imitation.

Anyway, Carlo tells Romanesque that Guiseppe has the head, and they cruise away, looking for him, Carlo VERY nervous about this whole talking car dedicated to driving mortals mad thing.

Meanwhile, Guiseppe is heading towards the Covenant's headquarters, head in hand.  What is the Covenant you ask?  Who knows?  Anyway, he bumps into this gorgeous woman on the street in a white polyester pant suit, platforms and a fantastic afro.  As Guiseppe has "womanizing" as an endeavour, he strikes up a conversation, and she agrees ("Baby, I dig that scene!") to follow him back to his pad for a party.  In reality Guiseppe intends to sacrifice her to the Head, to quench its blood thirst for the time being.

As they approach the Covenant's headquarters, the lady seems nervous, she doesn't want to keep going.  There is a conflict, midway through the Lady suddenly changes demeanour and starts throwing the jiu-jitsu stuff at Guiseppe.  I win the conflict, and she steals the box, running off with it and yelling back over her shoulder "Now we have the key and the box, baby, and we are setting hell loose tomorrow morning!"  This, of course, was Maria of the White Hand.

Carlo and Romanesque find Giuseppe at this point.  Giuseppe knows exactly who the car is.  Carlo just wants to get the heck out of this crazy car and run for it; he has had enough weirdness for the night.  Giuseppe wants to keep Carlo in the car, because Romanesque is a freaky weird wandering intelligence who wants to drive people mad, and if anyone is going to be driven mad its going to be Carlo.  Another conflict ensues, and Vic loses again.  This time, thought, both Vic and Justin agree that Carlo gets away, but the next time Carlo and Giuseppe have a conflict, Carlo will simply give.

Giuseppe and Romanesque make a deal...Justin suggests through the dialogue that the head is the only way for Romanesque to die, something Romanesque longs to do.  Therefore, Romanesque will help Giuseppe get the head, and the Guiseppe will help Romanesque.  They head back towards the Red Key Tavern (the place where everything started, named at some point along the way), suspecting that Maria and Gattemallata are working together.

Meanwhile, Carlo is running for it, trying to just get away from all this weirdness.  He runs around a corner and meets...Dona Francesca and 5 of her soldiers, waiting for him.  She is calmly smoking a Turkish filtered joint on a long cigarette holder, dressed stylishly in a mannishly cut tuxedo.  Carlo goes "oh crap".  Dona Francesca grills him a bit, and figures out that a) Gattemallata is in town and b) probably has both the head and the key, and c) he's currently drunk at the Red Key.  For the 2nd time that evening, Carlo gets a gun waved in his face, but Francesca believes him, sort of.  She demands he travel with her to the Red Key (the LAST place Carlo wants to be), so that, if he is lying, she has him handy to punish him.  Vic loses (again), and gets into the big Mercedes limo.  Carlo is then forced to go into the main room of the Red Key with a plain-clothes soldier, while Dona Francesca's men take up positions around the building.

Romanesque has changed form by this point into a foxy black lady...I don't mean black as in African American, I mean black as in literally coal black...skin, hair, clothing, eyes.  She still speaks with Barry White's voice, of course.  Giuseppe and Romanesque head to the Red Key to try to recover the box, but realize as they arrive that the place is surrounded by soldiers in plain clothes.  Giuseppe asks Romanesque to take care of them.  She steps up onto the top of one of the Mercedes limos, and I ask Justin "Are you going to watch what she does, or turn away.  If you turn away, then you and I have a conflict, because she is going to try to drive you mad."  Justin says, "of course I am watching!"  Classic funk begins to pump from nowhere as Romanesque begins to sinuously write on top of the limo.  The soldiers are mesmerized, stumbling out into the street, and begin to pluck at their own eyes to ensure that this sight is the last they ever see.  I WIN the conflict,on a challenge that while Giuseppe is not actually mad, after seeing the vision of Romanesque, he will never be able to love another woman.  Dona Francesca, inside the limo, makes a run for the tavern, knowing what danger anyone in the street is in.  This distracts Giuseppe enough to avoid complete derrangement.

Inside the Red Key, Gattemallata and Maria come out of the back room.  Gattemallatta notices Carlo (who is frantically trying to get as drunk as possible), and gets all chummy with him.  At this moment, Dona Francesca bursts in waving her chromed Colt M1911, and we realize that half of the tavern occupants are revolutionaries, half undercover soldiers, all armed to the the teeth, and all hell breaks loose as everyone opens fire.  Carlo climbs under the bar.

Now its a big three way conflict; two sides (Justin versus me) over control of the head and key, and two sides (Justin vs. Vic) over whether Carlo gets out, or is taken captive by Guiseppe for later sacrifice.  During the course of this fight, we have Maria and Guiseppe again duking it out, an Army of the Dead is raised under the tavern, Carlo lights a fire (making it an Army of the Flaming Dead), and at one point the box is briefly open, where we see that the Kriegfuerher Schadenhold was a beautiful blond woman before the whole decapitation thing.  Vic finally wins a conflict, and starts to escape, and the last two scenes are Maria and Giuseppe finally prying apart and falling back to opposite sides of the room as complete quiet descends (except for the crackle of the rising flames) and notice that the box is gone, and the key lying on the table, and then we see Carlo hoofing it down the alley away from the burning Red Key, box under his arm.

WOW!!!!  All of us agreed that this was fantastic, and by far one of the most surreal games any of us had ever done.  It was a total collaboration on one hand from beginning to end, as we all worked off each others previous funky tripped out tidbits, and at the same time was desparately competitive, as we all fought for different aspects of the story.  About midway through, we all realized that it was obvious how it was going to end...everyone else pretty much dead while Carlo high tails it for the hills with the head in his arms.  It was just a matter of getting there.

[lumpley]

This makes me happy.

If only, if only the game were written already.

-Vincent

[Hans]

This makes me happy.

I'm glad to hear it, Vincent.  For my next time playing, and curiosity, are there answers to the questions I asked, which I have separated out below for ease of reference?

* Mastery die - does it ADD, like an advantage die, or is it just an extra die? We were adding it, but on reflection I'm betting it is just an extra die.

* In a conflict, can you change endeavours on a round by round basis (ala Abilities in BDTP)? We played it this way.

* What in sam hill is a specialization? It seems like it is different from a mastery, and a specialization procedure is referred to, but not provided.

* Are masteries intended to always be the same across characters, or are they separated? By this I mean, for example, if I up the significance of a mastery on one character sheet, does it up it for ALL characters that use that mastery?

[lumpley]

Let's see.

1. Just an extra die.

2. I've always played it the other way, but I have no strong feelings about it.

3. Ha! It's a relic of revisions. Masteries replace specialization.

4. Separated. You improve your own, not everyone's.

-Vincent

[Hans]

Let's see.

The light of wisdom streams over me like a gentle rain.  Thanks!

[Christoph Boeckle]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing, Hans!

Conflict resolution seemed to work pretty well, once we got the hang of it.  It is HIGHLY random; oh man is it ever!  This is just about the least gamist game I have played.  There seems almost nothing you can do, mechanically, to improve your chances of success or reduce your opponents.  Especially in multicharacter conflicts, where you are rolling so many dice.  Part of this is because there is really no resource you can expend for temporary advantage (like hero points in Heroquest or a mid-Bringing Down the Pain (BDTP) advance in TSOY).  And yet...people frequently did not choose their best stat to use in conflicts, and I'm not sure the story or the fun would have been increased by more detailed conflict resolution.  I am torn between suggesting that some more fiddly bits should be added to make the conflict resolution have more options, and stating flatly it is good as is.

I second you on that. Kind of whiffy. Of course, there's always the possibility to cross off one's character's name from the we owe list to get a d6 with pips, but I would like just a wee bit more, cause even when he had used three such bonuses over the session, my brother's characters was completely inefficient due to bad luck. I could see an angle from where this is perfectly normal, but I'm not sure what to think about it yet, haven't played enough. What do you think, Vincent?

[Hans]

Of course, I noticed that rule about the "we owe" list AFTER we had played...doh!

It seems likely that characters get put on the we owe list with great frequency, and, if I am reading this correctly, they can appear multiple times?  If so, I can see how the "we owe" list could be the pseudo Hero points of In a Wicked Age. 

[Hans]

I just realized something about the playtest; in a conflict, if the answerer would beat the challenge, we were NOT leaving the dice on the table...we were rerolling them.  After rereading the rules, it seems like you leave your dice on the table if you beat the other guys roll.  For example:

Alice and Bob start a conflict.  Alice rolls a 7 as high number, Bob rolls a 5.  Alice is the challenger and leaves the 7 on the table.  She issues the challenge "I stab Bob in the throat."

Bob now rolls an 8 and beats the challenge, saying "I totally block Alice's stab".  Bob leaves the 8 on the table and now challenges "I stab ALICE in the throat."  Only Alice rerolls, Bob does not.

Alice now rolls a 6.  Not enough to beat the Bob's challenge, but not enough to lose either.  Alice does not give, and says "you graze my throat, but I'm still in the action".  Both players pick up the dice, but Bob adds an advantage die.   

Bob rolls a 12, Alice a 4.  This is not an immediate win for Bob, even though Bob has more than twice Alice's roll.  All this means is that Bob is the challenger.  Bob says "Still throat stabbing".

Alice rolls a 5.  Now the conflict is over, and Alice has a dagger sticking out of her larynx.

Is this correct?

[Anders]

Hi Hans,

That's how I understood it, yes. It sure is how we've played it.

I liked your AP! I'm glad other people get so much fun out of this game and it's good to see some threads about it. I've written a couple of reports in Swedish but have been too lazy to translate them.

Also, there are sheets on the wiki that Clinton Nixon set up. Very useful.

[Hans]

Thanks Anders...I went straight to the full rules for printing from Christoph's link ot his own playtest, and didn't even realize there was a higher level page.

While I am asking questions, some more:  from reading through the rules it seems like characters belong to particular players.  Is there any way for a character to shift ownership to a new player that I am missing?

Also, am I correct that if a character isn't on the "we owe" list at the end of a chapter (either because it just never was in the right situation or because its name has been crossed off everywhere it appears) that character will NEVER reappear in the game (at least in that form)?

And last but not least...the "we owe" list is a "last in, last out" list, I assume; that is, new names always get added to the end, and never in the middle (and therefore assuring that characters will eventually rise to the top if there names have not been checked off).  Correct?

[Anders]

While I am asking questions, some more:  from reading through the rules it seems like characters belong to particular players.  Is there any way for a character to shift ownership to a new player that I am missing?

If a character comes up as a element later in the game I guess another player can take ownership of her. But I'm not certain. Maybe I only confuse matters. I hope Vincent will be around to clear things up.

Also, am I correct that if a character isn't on the "we owe" list at the end of a chapter (either because it just never was in the right situation or because its name has been crossed off everywhere it appears) that character will NEVER reappear in the game (at least in that form)?

That's correct. There's some posts over at Anyway that clarifies a couple of questions like this. That said, the game's said to have changed quite a bit from the current document.

Similar to my first answer, I've understood that I character can reappear if her element comes up between chapters and that characters player choose to have her back in the game.

And last but not least...the "we owe" list is a "last in, last out" list, I assume; that is, new names always get added to the end, and never in the middle (and therefore assuring that characters will eventually rise to the top if there names have not been checked off).  Correct?

Yes!