Killing Characters

[Christoph Boeckle]

In my last session we narrate a last scene that goes roughly like this. All characters are Characters.

Julien (Authority framing the scene): The Investigator arrives at her apartment, the door is half open. She enters and sees her childhood friend sitting on the couch, her arm dangling at her side and a gun in her hand.
Christoph (Investigator): I step forward and get a better angle of view into the living room, revealing the neighbour dead on the floor!
Julien : Hey? What? Okay why not! (a very short conflict ensues, one violence)
Christoph (narrating outcome): The friend says "It's for your protection" and faints, slumping to the ground.
( Conflict resolution: hey! That friend of yours is responsible for the murder of your sister, not the neighbour! OMG )

It was kind of ambiguous, because we knew we were just about to enter a violence conflict, and as such, violent acts upon Characters should be determined by the outcomes. Then again, I was just suggesting an addition to the scene framing, and the Authority agreed (I offered to retract that statement but Julien didn't want to). This probably defused the tension of the violence scene, since Julien quickly called me instead of ramping up violence, even though he had stated upon blocking my scene that he wanted blood.

I was at a loss as to how we could have handled that as elegantly as possible according to the rules. I was a bit worried that my status as "expert on the game" and long-time roleplayer had a covert influence on Julien (who was at his third or fourth session all in all!) and thus was making sure that I had not trespassed what was intended by the game design concerning authority sharing.

I think it made for a great scene and it was approved by the Authority. Still, we killed a Character outside of conflict (and with no Crime cards left) and I couldn't find any points in the book that dealt with the fact at the time. I won't have the book with me for the next week or so, so I can't check further now, sorry if it's clearly covered in the game text.


In the meantime, have a nice Christmas with your family, Seth!

[GreatWolf]

Hey, Christoph.  Thought I'd write you back quickly before heading off to do Christmas stuff.  (Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee at the local shop.  Mmm....).  I know that you don't have your book at hand, but I'll provide page numbers as I work through this for future reference.

First, check out the narration rules on page 13:

During the game, you should fee free to make up whatever you think would be an engaging addition to the story, and declare it to be so...You can narrate whatever you want, whenever you want, unless another rule explicitly forbids it.

Emphasis not in original.

This is an important foundational point.  Unless the rules otherwise restrain you, say whatever you want.  Obviously, the biggest restraints on this are Jurisdiction and Appeal.

So, in your case, when you said that your investigator found the neighbor on the floor, you were merely exercising your most fundamental right to narrate "whatever you want, whenever you want".  Certainly, Julien could have exercised his Jurisdiction to override that narration, but he chose not to.  As a result, that event enters the fiction immediately.  No conflict, no Violence dice, nothing.  It happens right then.

How does this interact with Crime cards?  The rules for Crime cards are on page 34:

During the game, you may turn an unlawful action into a Crime as long as there are available Crime cards.

The rules then give the requirements for a given "unlawful action" to be turned into a Crime card.  The biggest effect of doing this is to deny anyone the right to narrate the perpetrator of the Crime.  However, the game assumes that there will be all kinds of "unlawful actions" that are not turned into Crimes.  This can include murders.  In fact, technically speaking, a given "unlawful action" has to be narrated (and therefore entered the fiction) before it can be turned into a Crime.

So, as far as I can tell, you did everything correctly.

I do have a couple questions.

( Conflict resolution: hey! That friend of yours is responsible for the murder of your sister, not the neighbour! OMG )

When you say "conflict resolution" here, do you mean Crime resolution?

Also, what happened during the Violence conflict?

[Christoph Boeckle]

Ok, thanks, I hadn't measured the extent of that bold phrasing! This makes perfect sense with the rest, thanks. I suspect future play will see more of this aggressive scene framing.

Yes, I should have typed Crime resolution in that quoted sentence. I don't quite remember what happened during the Violence conflict before, but it sums up to something like this:
Friend: Shakingly points the gun at the investigator.
Investigator: "Oh my god..."
Friend: Gets up. "I..."
Investigator: Comes close.
Julien calls on me. I win with 1 violence and narrate the friend saying "It's for your protection" or something like that and her fainting (light injury).

Quite soft for a violence conflict.