[psi run] cold and rainy in San Francisco

[lumpley]

Where were we? Oh yes. Charlotte, Lorraine and Meredith fell in with some oceanographical-type researchers on a rented fishing trawler in San Francisco Bay. They snagged one of them, a PhD student named Thomas, and had him take them back to his little grad student office cube at Berkeley. He traded them a little downtime and internet access for an interview with Meredith. I liked Thomas. They talked him into taking them to his house for better downtime and to plan their next moves - they'd kept the agency comfortably behind them through three of four good rolls - but on the way there they stopped to buy new clothing and the agency came crashing in on them.

Oh, there's too much to tell. It was great. Charlotte got serious pain-and-memory-loss from tampering with the box handcuffed to her wrist, but failed to open it or remember what was inside. We met Sean from Meredith's character sheet. He and Meredith were old friends who couldn't really remember each other, and he had two prosthetic arms, which he hadn't had last time she'd seen him, and he couldn't remember what had happened. This was nice and frightening. We learned something about the pursuers: they were operating out of Pepperdine, backed by who-knows-who, and they'd been injecting cell matter (we called it "DNA" but I wince) from Meredith's undersea people into adolescent kids to get them to develop superhuman abilities. Then there was an explosive encounter with the pursuers and while they kept hold of Sean, they lost Thomas, and they took Sean to the nearest doctor's office. Also, we didn't find out why Charlotte's afraid of cats, but we did find out that she'd been on the agency side back in the time of the glass rooms. Then Lorraine died taking the box off of Charlotte's wrist, and Meredith gave her rescue breathing until the air transport team took over and now she's gone. To the hospital? Yes, and back into agency hands.

I was right - in the second session, the game really kicked in. Good stuff.

More rules talk!

1) Adding questions is essential ("which side was I on?"), but should it go where it does in the dice rules? Here's my reservation: a) It matters how many questions you've answered, relative to the other players. You don't want to fall too far behind. b) Adding a question replaces answering one.

Maybe that's okay. I don't see any other good place for it. But at the end of the second session, Julia's answered 4 of her 5 questions, while Meg's answered only 2 of her 5. We all figure that Julia's going to end the game earlyish in session 3, with Meg not having much chance to catch up.

On the other hand, Meg also played it safe with pursuit, passing up opportunities for revelation to keep the pursuers off their track. That certainly contributed.

I guess the solution is just to give everybody lots of opportunities to roll, and for the GM to especially give lots of opportunities to the trailing player. Then if they aren't putting good dice into reveal, it's on them.

2) Killed! Emily put a 1 in safety and her character was killed by the mystery box on Charlotte's wrist. Wicked.

2a) What does Emily do in session 3?

When we started the game, I offered anybody to be a co-GM instead of playing a character. My first thought is, cool, now Emily's a co-GM. The problem is, GMing the game has gotten super easy, as the game's picked up momentum. There's hardly anything for ME to do, let alone a co-GM. I don't think this'd be a problem if there'd been two of us to begin with, but it feels awkward to add a co-GM now.

Could there be a way for Emily to keep in the game, like a dead character's player in The Mountain Witch, still holding Trust? Especially, could there be some way for her questions to get answered even though she's not making any rolls?

2b) When Emily killed Lorraine, Julia immediately jumped in with Meredith's rescue breathing to bring her back, as a goal, and won it by the dice. I think that's fine, I wouldn't disallow it by the rules - but what do you think? You might even specifically require it: on a 1, the character dies if no one provides medical care, or is permanently injured if someone does.

We all agreed that even if it works, she should suffer (at least) a permanent injury.

You could also add "captured" into the mix. If you were to just copy our actual play, a 1 in safety would be "the character dies, unless someone else wins a medical attention roll, in which case the character suffers a permanent injury and is captured."

3) The pursuers got ahead. Now first, obviously the players can't avoid them from now on by pushing them further and further ahead, right? We played it that until the pursuers fall behind again, I can bring them into any scene I want to, but I don't have to bring them into every scene.

The only reason that's okay is because by now as GM I've got little enough to worry about that I can manage making that decision. It might be better to have a rule. Having the agency be there in every single scene is too much, but knowing for sure when an ambush is coming is too easy. Maybe there should be some little subsystem for when ambushes happen when pursuit is ahead - the GM rolls a die at the start of the scene, something like that.

4) I still mean to talk about the GM and final say. When I get more time I will. For now, I'll give a teaser: consider, instead, that the GM and the players have different responsibilities for first say, and final say belongs to the group as a whole.

I'm excited for session 3!

[michael lingner]

hi all. this is Chris'  co author, Michael.  i'd like to say thanks for playing the game. and  for giving us such great feedback & feedforward.  it is great reading how other folks have done with Psi*RUN. i'm glad that you're having fun! 

RE: Death of a Runner in play~ unlike your group we haven't had a Runner die. so we haven't dealt w/ the contingency in play.  also i don't believe that the  sample of  rules that Chris gave in the First Thoughts Forum mentioned this difference  -but- our group has always had the # 1 result in the Harm/Safety Catagory idicated that the  "Runner dies in this session".

the understanding was that the exact scene where death occured  was something which  could  be  determined through open debate & the preference of the one who controlled the Naration. we had thought that in having some fluidity in the timing of deaths the players could craft death scenes which fit into the story in a more graceful & fitting way. 

that might be a bit fuzzy -but- that was the way we had been funtioning.

~Cloud

[chris_moore]

Should characters be able to die?  I mean, it makes sense on one level, but the game is about being caught, not dying.  On the other hand, I like people being able to choose death over being caught. 

[michael lingner]

We all figure that Julia's going to end the game earlyish in session 3, with Meg not having much chance to catch up.  ....  On the other hand, Meg also played it safe with pursuit, passing up opportunities for revelation to keep the pursuers off their track. That certainly contributed.  ....  I guess the solution is just to give everybody lots of opportunities to roll, and for the GM to especially give lots of opportunities to the trailing player. Then if they aren't putting good [/size] dice into reveal, it's on them.

<> that has been the assumption that we have always played under.  we roll then choose where to best place the dice to create the story that we are aiming for.

2) Killed! Emily put a 1 in safety and her character was killed by the mystery box on Charlotte's wrist. Wicked.  ....   2a) What does Emily do in session 3? ...  Could there be a way for Emily to keep in the game, like a dead character's player in The Mountain Witch, still holding Trust? Especially, could there be some way for her questions to get answered even though she's not making any rolls?

<>honestly i hadn't give that kind of thing much thought.  the way that i had assumed  that things go w/ Life (character involvement) Beyond the Grave as a possiblity within the game was~ if we had a Runners who psi included Asteral Travel or some other Out of The Body Phenomina & that this fact was established within previous play. in such a Runners death there could well be a Conflict roll to see if they stay among the living in a new way. much like the CPR Conflict roll that happened in  your  2b) example of play. this roll may well  have to be repeated a number of times for said Discorporial Runner to remain in play.

2b) When Emily killed Lorraine, Julia immediately jumped in with Meredith's rescue breathing to bring her back, as a goal, and won it by the dice. I think that's fine, I wouldn't disallow it by the rules - but what do you think? You might even specifically require it: on a 1, the character dies if no one provides medical care, or is permanently injured if someone does.   ...   We all agreed that even if it works, she should suffer (at least) a permanent injury.

<> i love how you all handled the situations in 2b) it made great sense.

You could also add "captured" into the mix. If you were to just copy our actual play, a 1 in safety would be "the character dies, unless someone else wins a medical attention roll, in which case the character suffers a permanent injury and is captured."

<> your suggestion above is very much like our the first version of  our play  where the  category of  SAFTY was pretty harsh.  # 2 = doomed (You die or are "captured*" in this session), # 1 = gone (you die or are "disappeared**" in this scene) (( * ~   this could indicate 'controlled' -or- 'influenced' -not just- 'taken hostage')) (( **~ character becomes an NPC never to be a Runner again))


3) The pursuers got ahead. Now first, obviously the players can't avoid them from now on by pushing them further and further ahead, right? We played it that until the pursuers fall behind again, I can bring them into any scene I want to, but I don't have to bring them into every scene.

<>that is very much the way we have handled it so far. if the pursuers gain & pass the Runners they can, at this point [lest they fall behind again],  make any scene a trap for our Runners. this ambush was up to GM discression. i like the idea of trying out a subset of rules like the one you mention below.

...  It might be better to have a rule. ..<snip>... Maybe there should be some little subsystem for when ambushes happen when pursuit is ahead - the GM rolls a die at the start of the scene, something like that.

<> once again, wow.  i love that you folks are enjoying this game so much. sorry this has taken so much space i don't know how to reduce the quote size.   ~Cloud