[Universalis] Not anime, although it quacks like it

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

We played Universalis at the fall quarter's first campus club meeting on Tuesday night. Attendance started slow, but I expect we'll see some bigger groups later. I was especially happy to meet our own Forge member svenlein (Scott), who braved unfamiliar territory and new faces to join us. We played a little Guillotine to break the ice, and since, as it happened, I did not manage to get my prep for Haven: City of Violence finished in time, we played Universalis. I'd thoughtfully included it in my stuff as a possible backup.

I decided to post here based on my notes, to demonstrate what Universalis play "looks like" on paper in my experience as a group plays. This is not an interpretation or summary of our actual story, but rather a transcription of what got scribbled as we went. Recognize that sometimes features got added on or added to via Complications well after they were initially established, but the notes don't always show that order-of-addition explicitly. Nor am I going to present which player said what when, so you aren't going to be able to know our calculations of Importance, which Components were drawn upon for Complications, nor who controlled which ones throughout.

Tenets
post-apocalyptic world 1, hellish 1, developing societies 1 vs. bandits 1, need masks to breathe 1, love is forbidden 1, grain is the big resource 1, used for alcohol production 1, knights (1) wander the wastes (1), knights are partly inhuman 1, this story is subtitled 1, knights and cities are in conflict 1, mutant creatures 1, no normal creatures at all 1, cities are racial purists 1, knights are all about justice 1, the sun is an ancient legend 1, grain grows from radioactive waste 1, no damn tentacles 1, Rules Gimmick (1): character control is retained from scene to scene, Rules Gimmick (1) = transferring character control costs 4 Coins

(Notes from play: the second Rules Gimmick was bought off and canceled the first time it applied, by the same person who'd proposed it. He decided it was counter-productive.)

Scene 1 (dashes indicate player turns)
- Kitara (1) scratches ear with back foot (1). Kitara is a knight (1), with a large phallic machine gun (1, later bought up to 2). War barges (1) glide (1) across the wastes; it's almost time for the raid (1).
- The bandits (1) she's with are in a desperate state (1); the village (1) on the edge of the nuke zone (1) is cleverly defended with ingenious traps (1), and nearby is a city (1) which is allied (1) with the village. The bandit leader (1) has trouble working with Kitara (1).
- The village's trap is sprung (1), explosives (1) open up the caves beneath the ground (1), releasing the wild beasts beneath (1); the beasts are numerous (1), savage (1), and in fact are mutated from sheep (1).

(some interesting discussion from play: we decided the beasts were not bunnies, and the "no tentacles" Tenet got established at this point as well, with an admission on one player's part that he had deliberately refrained, and would continue to do so, from establishing "anime" as a Tenet. Also, I decided not to hassle ourselves with the group or squad rules, just say "numerous" as a one-Coin adjective and leave it at that. If we want more mutant sheep, we'll just add Coins to the importance of "numerous.")

Complication: beasts vs. Kitara + bandits. Outcome: the beasts win. I won't list costs for narration of Coins gained by the Complication; I'll include costs for new Components and when the new Scene starts.
- the bandits are overcome, the bandit leader is scarred, a wholly new cave is discovered beneath the sheep cave, Kitara falls in and is stuck in the strong (1) ooze (1), the barges are blown up, the clever defenses are negated, the beasts attack the village (whoops!), and a voice speaks (1) in the darkness.
- the bandit chief falls down there too

- Kitara becomes strong (1) and sexy (1); she is sinking in the ooze (1) way further (1), she lifts out the chief (1); the chief probes the ooze with a leg or something to help her (1). That last could have cost more, but we didn't bother.) The bandit chief loves Kitara (1), is a bad-ass (1), and is named Titus (1).

Complication: ooze vs. Kitara and the bandit chief. Outcome: the ooze wins.
- They both sink way way further, then the ooze turns watery and flows aside; the two of them are on an ancient metal platform, and the voice says, "Computer operative." - - The voice is familiar to Titus.

Scene 2
- Shortly thereafter (1), at the village (1), the bandits (1) herd the beasts (1) toward the village.
- The village priest (1) of Siense (1) plans to activate (1) the Avatar (1).
- The Avatar is not ready (1), it is functional (1), and it's not fully controlled (1).
- The village chief is a warrior (1), urges using the stasis field (1) instead; the chief is wise (1), intimidating (1); the Avatar can destroy the village (1).
- The Avatar is a bomb (1). The computer in Scene 1 controls the bomb (1), unbeknownst to the village (1).

(Notes from play: we did a lot of in-character dialogue in this scene as well as in the confrontational Kitara-Titus interaction when they were stuck in the ooze, but I'm not including it. A lot of Components got created from the dialogue, as in this instance, the features of the Avatar came from the chief and priest arguing.)

Complication: priest vs. chief. Outcome: chief wins.
- The chief disrupts the ritual and takes the keys; there will be no ritual today nor ever in the sight of the village.
- The priest threatens that the Blessed will come for those who defy Siense. (A little Alyria influence there) The ancients accepted the mutants and look where it got them
- The computer (here in the village) says, "You must protect the Core. Service techs are expendable."
- The priest leaves and sics the Blessed on the chief, for later.

Scene 3
- Meanwhile (1), in the ancient chamber (1), Titus (1) and Kitara (1) face the computer (1).
- "Primary systems activated. Intruder alert. Begin defensive protocols" (1). The ooze turns out to be leaking coolant (1), and Titus has dealt with computers before (1).
- The computer, being all mentally-funky (1), identifies Kitara (1) [it would "identify" anyone] and settles down (1).
- Titus doesn't know Kitara is a knight (1), knights are anti-technology.
- "Subroutine Warhawk undergoing activation. Confirm?" Kitara says, "No."

Complication: Kitara and Titus vs. the computer activating Warhawk. Outcome: our heroes win.
- Kitara reciprocates Titus' love (1, later to be strengthened to 3), the trouble between them is bought off.
- Kitara is fearless (bought to 2); she has explosives, which are set on the computer; she also contacts her techie friends with a widget and activates a virus from a disk she carries. (Notes from play: this led to an enjoyable digression about how so much science fiction is simultaneously Luddite yet technophilic to the point of fetishism, with a reference to the all-natural Force being associated uber-tech destructive light-sabres.)
- bandits and mutant sheep oppose the techie pals

(Note: I'm not sure from my notes just when the Complication ended and the new narration-turns began, if any, but I'm pretty sure that most of the rest of the game was narrating Complication stuff.)

- The bomb launches (note: the bomb is not the same as Subroutine Warhawk) (1), multiple explosions ensue (1), our heroes are holding hands (1).
- Cut scene: the priest enthuses that the Avatar is free, the villagers pray.
- Titus finds the secondary launch computer; missiles destroy the sheep and remaining bandits.
- The secondary launch malfunctions and blows up early, and the bomb goes for the nearby city; there's a "holy light" and the whole place (everywhere in the story so far) gets irradiated; the city retaliates with its own missiles.
- The city's defense grid is all messed up, the missiles go to all missile sites, the city gets irradiated too and the racial purists are all mutated (serving them right), Kitara grows horns, and the knights' features are all bought off except for their "wandering."
- Surviving knights become psychopathic; a little girl (1) finds a flower (1) and then they both get obliterated by the bomb blast (aforementioned 2 get bought off)

(The following is the final player's narration of his Complication outcome)
- The desolate plains burgeon with healthy, thriving grain; the grain's "limited" Component is bought off, and "hellish" and "post-apocalyptic" are bought off too. The whole ecology changes and the sun shines through the clouds in the sky (bought up to 3).
- Our heroes stand in a new paradise; the village chief joins them with a few sensible villagers, and Siense is cast down as the god. They all contemplate the new potential for a new life.

Final notes about play: unlike the previous Complications, in which the winning player corresponded his narration with the priorities of the characters on his side, in this final one, the player who rolled for the heroes and won the Complication was responsible for the bomb detonating, and the player who rolled for the computer is the one who narrated the sweet-and-nice aspects of the ending.

Best,
Ron

[Mike Holmes]

Two things make me laugh.

First, the "Subtitled" Tenet. Did that have the effect that I think it would on the game in terms of tone, or did it end up being a throw-away? Was that yours?

Second, the player who bought the "PC" Gimmick subsequently buying it off. People ask about PC Gimmicks all the time, and I think assume that it's an almost neccessary addition. Until they play a bit, and see how unneccessary it really is (not to say it's not a fun variant). I mean, players typically can't play solely in Actor Stance, anyhow. So when they feel the "GM-iness" of the play, they see that it doesn't make a lot of sense to have limits on transfering control.

Further, you can create a sense of ownership without much actual cost when required, so why bother? I mean, if a player doesn't get the idea from your attitude toward a character that a Component is "your toy", then doing a Take Over right after he does one will usually make the message concrete.

Does this seem to mesh with your observations of the game? :-)

Oh, third laugh:

the racial purists are all mutated (serving them right)

Is that your opinion, or the whole group's?

Mike

[Valamir]

Heh, I never cease to be amazed at the level of unusual stuff that Universalis engenders.  Its like the improved Delorian from Back to the Future II.  You drop all sorts of garbage and refuse into it and it spits back nuclear power.  In this case the garbage and refuse is often banal genre tropes and tired cliches (the "spare homegeniety you have lieing around") and what you get out ranges from the bizarre to the sublime.

The presentation of the above left it a little hard to track, but strange "wasteland" "mad max" vibe was certainly action packed.

I'm especially interested in the feedback from your players.  How into the game were they / did they become.  Was the session an "acceptable time killer in lieu of playing the scheduled game" or was it something they really got excited about?

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Mike,

The "subtitled" Tenet wasn't mine. Although it helped establish a bit of genre, I can't say it added anything unique relative to the "postapocalyptic" and "knights" stuff anyway. We referred to things like Fist of the North Star and Nausicaa of the Valley of Winds during this phase, but we also specified that we weren't going to lock it into animated vs. live-action. And the person who contributed the most toward genre conventions was also the person who deliberately avoided proposing "anime" as a Tenet.

My input on that score, though, was the "No damn tentacles."

As for the Gimmick, note that we did retain the Gimmick by which players retained control of characters from Scene to Scene. That's something I've been wanting to do with Universalis for a while now, and I think we all liked that, for our purposes in this game. It started things off more RPG-like from the get-go.

But what got jettisoned was the cost of taking over someone else's character, especially when we found that all instances of doing so were consensual; i.e., it was a way to avoid a Complication by paying a Coin, and everyone at the table would rather save their Coins for a whopper of a "real" Complication later in the Scene.

Best,
Ron

[Mike Holmes]

Given that the control of characters was, as you say, maintained between scenes, that means that they could only be introduced by the controlling player (I assume Take Overs were allowed for Components not in the scene?), or via a Complication? Or didn't it come up? Just curious about the particular implementation. Often times Gimmicks have effects that aren't seen when they're made, leading to neccessary clarifications later. Was that the case here, or was it solid enough to start that it didn't need any fiddling?

Mike

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Mike,

It was pretty solid. You had to pay to bring characters into a Scene in the first place (as per the rules), but nothing extra for that purpose (unless their controller objected, but we never did).

But what the Gimmick really meant was that any time the scene's narrator had that character do anything, it dragged in the controller immediately for role-playing purposes and immediately set up for a potential Complication.

Effectively, it meant that the current narrator was much more like a traditional GM with his NPCs and that the current controllers of other characters were more like traditional players. All the rule meant was that "currrent controller" was more constant per character than in most Universalis games I've played.

For example, I played the sheep beasts, the ooze, and the village priest at all times, and the computer some of the time. Both Kitara and Titus were played by one player each (i.e., Kitara by one person, Titus by the other), throughout the game.

Best,
Ron

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

I missed couple of points and posts ...

1. The racial purists getting what they deserve was, as I recall, an interjection by the same player who'd made the knights "partly inhuman."

2. The game was great as it was, without any sense of a second-rank substitute or anything like that. The other players were pretty interested in playing "by the book" and understanding the rules as we went, and we all took a certain amount of care to learn Universalis rather than merely go by "Ron knows it."

Best,
Ron

[Mike Holmes]

Thanks, Ron, that helps a lot. And thanks for the play in general. :-)

Mike