Tony's first game

[Tony Irwin]

Greetings from Scotland folks. You'll be pleased to know that you now have 6 "Universalis Otaku" on the other side of the world. Nice (and perhaps a little weird) to know that people in other countries play & love your game eh? God Bless the Internet :-)

My little internationally shipped package arrived the other day and I ran (although really *we* ran!) our first game of Universalis last night. Being the only one of 6 to own the rule book I skipped all the pre-game collaborative world creation and rules and stuff: "Think Crouching Tiger folks. If it would work in the movie then it will work in our game."

I took the first scene, we kicked off in the famous Jade Temple with our hero "Wu-Shen", and his wise old mentor (who also had some made up name I forget). One of our players, Liam, was brave enough to offer to take control of the mentor and the resulting dialogue helped us establish how Wu-Shen was found as a babe abandoned on the steps of the Temple, and had been brought up in the martial arts becoming one of the greatest swordsmen in China.

Now that I'd demonstrated how to add traits, everyone started interrupting with lots of ideas of their own. Wu-Shen was brave, handsome, swordsmanx3, you know the package. "Wu-Shen is schizophrenic" was a shot out the blue, and then Shona went on to give a name and a bunch of nasty repelling traits to Wu-Shen's other personality. Here I introduced everyone to the challenge technique. Was Wu-Shen's alter ego to be a drunkard or opium addict? Drunkard might provide lots of comic opportunities, but long pipes and blue smoke might be more fitting to the setting.

After that *everything* got challenged. Everyone had their own take on Wu-Shen (and also his mentor who changed gender twice). But when I explained to them all the idea of Master Components, my fellow players became strangely silent as their brains schemed away at their own ideas and they carefully counted their tokens.

"A Masasume Blade is a master component. Its a sword that is unbreakable, unnaturally sharp, there is only one known to be in existence." For just 5 beads I'd created something very cool. "Now it only costs me one bead to say that Wu-Shen has a Masasume blade." Gasp! Sudden intakes of breath! Immediately Wu-Shen was old school, everyone realised that the way to go was create their own kewl character with his own kewl history and his own kewl weapon. But then why spend 5 beads when you could just spend one to use my ideas?! Quickly the uniqueness of the Masasume blade was revoked (I had not enough beads and absolutely no allies to help me challenge this!) and more were soon to appear on newly created characters.

The actual story wasn't moving anywhere so someone did the old "A messenger runs into the room. He says bandits are attacking the villagers!". It was the perfect chance to mess around with mini-scenes and introduce tonnes of new components, cutting to the village being raided by bandits, to the hillside where the Raccoon and Frog clan armies camped opposite each other preparing for war, and of course to the Masasume armed ronin who was strolling the town looking for work. Story threads were sewn left and right; the bandits had slain initiates heading for the temple, the chief bandit was Wu-Shen's long lost twin (who of course also had a Masasume blade), a gypsy woman was the mentor's daughter and also the ronin's lover, the ronin was actually a triplet with Wu-Shen and the bandit chief. Meanwhile the cult of the sword grew and grew: "A Masasume blade can never be wielded against someone else who carries one, a Masasume blade will always try and seek out the other two blades," and so on...

Finally once we'd spent all our beads in a mad frenzy of creation (all except Paul, who was obviously saving them up for some serious Raccoon Clan Army action) we ended the scene. We went over the bidding mechanic and how no one can interrupt the person who frames the next scene until they have played their first event. Everyone was reluctant to be the first to demonstrate this so I won the bid by default (everyone else bid zero). First I took them all to Nobunaga mountain on the other side of China. "A Dragon can fly, a dragon has an elemental attunement, a dragon has a breath weapon appropriate to its element, a dragon can move through substances made (or akin) to its element, there are only 6 dragons in China." Suddenly the Earth Dragon was born, bursting through the side of the mountain it soared into the clouds roaring "Today I hunger for man flesh!".

The dragon (apart from adding great mythological colour to the game) was simply a fall back plan in case the Raccoon Clan Army ended up marching upon the little villages and people that everyone had invested so much in, but obviously Liam was worried that the dragon might just be another Raccoon Army in disguise so he gave it a quest. "Before the Earth Dragon can hunt he must find his 5 other dragon brothers". This of course reminded everyone that there were five other dragon traits up for grab! "Dragons are shape shifters.", "Komal (the ronin) has the Dragon trait but does not know his true nature." "The father of the triplets was the Water Dragon but when he died Wu-Shen became the Water Dragon but is so far unaware of his true nature". A few more Dragons were fleshed out and the Dragon master component got "Ancient Wisdom", and "Fiercesome Strength"

Now that the power of framing the scene had been demonstrated, Paul used a massive bid to take us to the Raccoon Army Camp where he was able to flesh out his army uninterrupted and give them a General with divine ancestry (but no dragon blood this time!). In the next scene Alan took us to his ronin at the armoury, overseeing the sharpening of his famous sword. In the scene after that Shona created a little shop in the village run by man and wife. I took control of the woman and we had an entertaining little argument about curtains. Stuart interrupted, introduced his Gypsy into the store and announced that the gypsy had some shoplifting in mind. I reached for the rulebook and we figured out how to run our very first Complication...

Wow. The gypsy only had a couple of relationship traits (and no sword or a dragon for a dad) but with the *incredible* quantity of beads won from the complication, a legendary gypsy thief was born! She was someone, we mused, who might even be nimble-fingered enough to steal a Masasume blade...

I won't describe any more scenes. The story didn't move much further than that, we were all just having too much fun creating! Some players, like Alan, enjoyed loading all their beads into a single character while others like Kenny, enjoyed a bird's eye view of the game, creating complex family trees and motivations that would inevitably draw all the characters together for a big showdown.

We're still familiarising ourselves with how the rules can actually be used in a game. For example there weren't many character Take Overs. Paul or Alan would have been shocked had someone held ten beads back to take over the Raccoon Army or the famous Ronin at a key moment. Much more play is needed.

We actually finished the game prematurely, it wasn't till towards the end that we realised that big feats of creation are best done on turns where you win the bid and also that Components and Master Components can be scribbled down in advance and held for a key moment in which to be introduced rather than just interrupting the moment that it pops into your head to do it.

Also we agreed that in future sessions we would announce in advance what the basic theme was. Everyone could bring pre-created character classes and the such like along with them and introduce them before the game begins. In fact for a future Star Trek game we've decided everyone gets 5 points to plan a character class (engineer/science officer/whatever) in advance. We can just propose it as a rules gimmick for one bead instead of the 5 it would cost to create it step-by-step.

Our next game is tomorrow night. We're all big Legend of the Five Rings players so will be creating our own version of that world to play in. (we found we were introducing Japanese terms anyway into our Chinese game, so we figured "Hey", lets just go all the way next time.

With clear ideas of what we want to do, and how to use the rules to do it cheaply and speedily, we should be able to create a very involving story...

[Valamir]

Greetings from Scotland folks. You'll be pleased to know that you now have 6 "Universalis Otaku" on the other side of the world. Nice (and perhaps a little weird) to know that people in other countries play & love your game eh? God Bless the Internet :-)

It is indeed sweet.  Finland, Greece, South Korea, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Sweden, Australia...even Canada ;-)  Not possible even 10 years ago...and really hard just 3 or 4 years ago.  God Bless the Internet, and God Bless PayPal.

Being the only one of 6 to own the rule book

I'll be happy to help you rectify that problem :-)

<snip much great adventure>

Everyone could bring pre-created character classes and the such like along with them and introduce them before the game begins. In fact for a future Star Trek game we've decided everyone gets 5 points to plan a character class (engineer/science officer/whatever) in advance. We can just propose it as a rules gimmick for one bead instead of the 5 it would cost to create it step-by-step.

This is a great way to introduce structure into the game if you already know what setting you're going to want.  Ben aka Noah Wan is working "starter boxes" to include various setting details, characters and components.  He's working on a Police Drama set right now,  You might want to hook up with him and collaborate on a Feudal Japan set.

With clear ideas of what we want to do, and how to use the rules to do it cheaply and speedily, we should be able to create a very involving story...

I always find it fascinating what part of the game different groups latch onto.  Sometimes its the Complications and dice start flying at the slightes provocation.  Sometimes it Take Overs and bizarre plot twists.  Sometimes they go Creation Crazy and 2 hours later realize they've built a lot of fun toys but haven't actually started playing yet.

[Mike Holmes]

Greetings from Scotland folks. You'll be pleased to know that you now have 6 "Universalis Otaku" on the other side of the world. Nice (and perhaps a little weird) to know that people in other countries play & love your game eh? God Bless the Internet :-)

As Ralph said, ecstatic. And Otaku? You guys are Universalis Samurai! The session sounds like a blast of creativity.

"Think Crouching Tiger folks. If it would work in the movie then it will work in our game."

Hey, if everyone agrees, that's perfectly valid. I've seen play where even that much wasn't stated up front. Really bold players can just jump in with no assumptions, and just pray that the game goes somewhere coherent. Sometimes it gives startling results.

I took the first scene, we kicked off in the famous Jade Temple with our hero "Wu-Shen", and his wise old mentor (who also had some made up name I forget).

Sometimes its just cool to pump characters up. Just talking their traits up can be fun.

Quickly the uniqueness of the Masasume blade was revoked (I had not enough beads and absolutely no allies to help me challenge this!) and more were soon to appear on newly created characters.

Democracy in action! Woo-hoo! Very cool. Can't keep a good idea down.

The actual story wasn't moving anywhere so someone did the old "A messenger runs into the room.

Funny how things that were seen as cliches in your average RPG suddenly become not only acceptable, but launch you places you hadn't imagined.

"A Masasume blade can never be wielded against someone else who carries one, a Masasume blade will always try and seek out the other two blades," and so on...

Cool. Were these Traits? It'll be interesting to see how they get activated. And more interesting to see them get violated. See who can be the first to have a character violate one of these and not have it be challenged away. IME, the only way to do it is to set up some circumstance where there is something more important tto the character happening. If you can convince the group of that through play, then they'll allow the violation without batting an eyelash. And that will mark your passing into true Universalis Samurai Master status.

"

Today I hunger for man flesh!".

Well done. Can't make a dragon and not give it some motivation. Plot-wise, this is a dangerous dragon. :-)

"Before the Earth Dragon can hunt he must find his 5 other dragon brothers".

Story created out of competitive play. Neat. You guys were on a roll.

A few more Dragons were fleshed out and the Dragon master component got "Ancient Wisdom", and "Fiercesome Strength"

This is perhaps the coolest uses of the Master component technique that I've seen.

Stuart interrupted, introduced his Gypsy into the store and announced that the gypsy had some shoplifting in mind. I reached for the rulebook and we figured out how to run our very first Complication...

Wow. The gypsy only had a couple of relationship traits (and no sword or a dragon for a dad) but with the *incredible* quantity of beads won from the complication, a legendary gypsy thief was born! She was someone, we mused, who might even be nimble-fingered enough to steal a Masasume blade...

Swoot! Well spent Coins sounds like to me.

I won't describe any more scenes. The story didn't move much further than that, we were all just having too much fun creating! Some players, like Alan, enjoyed loading all their beads into a single character while others like Kenny, enjoyed a bird's eye view of the game, creating complex family trees and motivations that would inevitably draw all the characters together for a big showdown.

This was all well done. At points it's better to just reel back and allow things to build up some momentum in terms of their story mass. Then when you unleash and start the plot ahead, there's a lot more steam behind it.

We're still familiarising ourselves with how the rules can actually be used in a game. For example there weren't many character Take Overs. Paul or Alan would have been shocked had someone held ten beads back to take over the Raccoon Army or the famous Ronin at a key moment.

The learning curve exists, but it can actually be enjoyable. As people learn what they can do and clever ways to do it, the play seems to alter, and that can feed synergistically into the story. We'll see how it works for you.

Much more play is needed.

Yay!!!

We actually finished the game prematurely, it wasn't till towards the end that we realised that big feats of creation are best done on turns where you win the bid and also that Components and Master Components can be scribbled down in advance and held for a key moment in which to be introduced rather than just interrupting the moment that it pops into your head to do it.

Again, there's that learning curve. But again, I think you guys did awsomely well for still being on the curve. Mastery is soon to follow, I'm sure.

Also we agreed that in future sessions we would announce in advance what the basic theme was. Everyone could bring pre-created character classes and the such like along with them and introduce them before the game begins. In fact for a future Star Trek game we've decided everyone gets 5 points to plan a character class (engineer/science officer/whatever) in advance. We can just propose it as a rules gimmick for one bead instead of the 5 it would cost to create it step-by-step.

Thinking about Gimmicks the first time out. Again, well done. Make the game yours.

Our next game is tomorrow night. We're all big Legend of the Five Rings players so will be creating our own version of that world to play in. (we found we were introducing Japanese terms anyway into our Chinese game, so we figured "Hey", lets just go all the way next time.

With clear ideas of what we want to do, and how to use the rules to do it cheaply and speedily, we should be able to create a very involving story...

Wow, I can't wait to hear what happens. You guys rock!

Mike