Adventure! Second session

[Chris Gardiner]

A few months ago I ran a (very) alternate-history Adventure! game for some friends, which went very well. I posted a write-up here. This weekend I finally got the chance to run the next session in the series for the same group. The previous thread describes the setting and characters, so I won't go over them again here.

The campaign is taking the form of six separate self-contained sessions, each motivated by a different character, with continuing threads and recurring NPCs. I wanted this second session to by Father Lucius Firenze's, for a couple of reasons:-

Firstly, I thought he got a bit short-changed in the first adventure, since his abilities are more subtle, and the scenario was very action-based.

Secondly, because the Vatican and the Church are a cool bit of background that I wanted to bring to the fore. The same is true of Father Firenze, who was still quite a mystery to the other characters.

We opened with a scene at the opera in Vienna, as the final aria of the Gotterdammerung is sung by the Contessa, the greatest soprano of her age. The shot panned upwards to the gantries over the stage, where Barty and the Ritter von Klaus, one of the German sky-pirates, were engaged in a ferocious swordfight. The Ritter was there to kidnap the Contessa for the Red Baron, who (ahem) "vants her for vun of his valkyries, singing ze honoured dead to ze Halls off Glory ven comes ze final battle!" After an exchange of dialogue, Barty sent the villain tumbling onto the stage below as the curtain fell. Throwing the flowers he had brought for the Contessa onto the stage, Barty retired outside, where Jerome was waiting for him with a telegram – the Parisian Oath had been invoked again, and father Firenze had called them all to the Coliseum, in Rome.

We didn't do any rolls for this first bit. I briefed the players involved beforehand, let them narrate their own actions and successes, and then jumped straight to the meeting in Rome. Like the first session (which had been a while ago) I wanted to establish that *this* is the sort of thing the characters have to deal with on a practically daily basis.

From the Coliseum, the party were taken via Church airship up to the Vatican itself, hovering amidst the clouds, and into the Office for the Scrutiny of Condemned Mentations (O.S.C.M.). Here they found out what sort of work Firenze did for the Church (wotting of things man was never meant to wot of).

In his boss's office, Firenze briefed them on the situation. The Santa Maria de Fiore, the Sky-Cathedral of Florence, had gone missing. With it had vanished its montseigneur, Adolfo Belfanti, Firenze's ex-boss and mentor. The Curia were in emergency session and no-one seemed to have any idea what had happened. The group began to bounce theories around, my favourite being that it could all be part of an elaborate plot to assassinate the pope on his forthcoming 100th birthday.

As the party left to begin their investigations, they bumped into Cardinal-Legate Vincenzi – the same Cardinal that Firenze had faced down on the Osiris in the first session, and to whom he had admitted loyalties other than the church. The Cardinal made a sneery comment about Belfanti's disappearance being such a tragic loss, and swept on his way. The party were reminded how much they hated him, and Firenzi realised he would have to watch his back.

Here the party split up. Firenze, Jack and Michelle went into the bowels of the Vatican to find the great engines that made it fly, so they could work out how they might be operated and how easy it would have been for someone to commandeer them. Jerome, Barty and Lavinia went down to the city. Lavinia spent Inspiration to call upon her Suffragette contacts, and discovered that the Guild of Courtesans were allied with her organisation. Their guildmistress, the Magdelena, told her that if something had been stolen, then the Doge could always put his hands on it. The Doge was an Italian crime-lord. He had just brought the Sicilian families to heel, and was holding a party that evening at which the mysterious artist Angelo (claimed by some to be a reincarnation of DaVinci) was making him a gift of a new masterpiece.

Another of Angelo's paintings hung in Belfanti's old office in the O.S.C.M. (he hadn't taken it with him when he had left) and had aroused the characters' interest (especially Michelle's. Michelle is an artistic soul).

After "borrowing" an invitation, and some quick forgery, they all attended the Doge's masked ball (Barty went shopping for costumes, and so got to decide what everyone wore). At the ball they spotted the Doge in the company of his pet lions, as well as Cardinal Vincenze (dum-dum-DUM), and a mysterious grey-suited man acting as their go-between, who Jack recognised from this days with American Intelligence.

At midnight, the Angelo painting was uncovered. It showed a sky-cathedral falling on a city, in which tiny figures managed somehow to express utter horror. The Doge looked surprised, but the grey-suited man whispered to him, and he made some quip about all knowing what goes before a fall. His thugs began to converge on a guest in an angel costume, which the players realised was Angelo. They rescued him quickly. Cue a chase through the city streets. On gondolas. Specifically, cars which had been given a gondola framework, that had been used to convey the more notable guests to the party (the Doge liked to stress his Venetian links). So. A gondola chase, complete with Italian thugs, gorillas on rooftops, and Jack doing the Wall of Death around one of the craters left by a Cathedral when it had risen into the sky. During the getaway, Angelo was hit by a burst from a tommy-gun, and it was revealed that he was a machine.

What was going on was this:-

The Santa Maria had been stolen by the Doge and Vincenzi, working together for very different reasons. The Doge wanted to drop the cathedral on Constantinople, where his great rival, the Eastern crime-lord known only as the Lotus Eater, had acquired a foothold and was thought to be visiting. In addition, the Doge hated the Church – his family had been made homeless by one of the rising cathedrals, and he was desperate to get revenge.

Vincenzi, meanwhile, had promised the pope an angel. His office had uncovered a prophecy that said an angel would reveal itself when "the father with the bronze head" falls. This referred to Pope Honorius III, who had been a magician, and had founded the O.S.C.M. According to his secret, self-written Life he had made a talking bronze head under the guidance of his guardian angel, and the angel had promised him that should Honorius ever fall, he (the angel) would catch him.

The great engines which levitate the sky-cathedrals are all sanctified with the relics of a pope. Pope Honorius III had been interred in the bowls of the Santa Maria de Fiore. Vincenzi believed that if the cathedral dropped, an angel would appear to catch it. He could then approach the angel, and win the church a direct line to God.

Angelo was the result of an earlier similar project, this time to *make* an angel. Aquinas had written that angels were things of numbers, and Adolfo Belfanti, as head of the O.S.C.M. had employed Babbage to construct an Aesthetical Engine, then exposed the machine to all those works of art and beauty considered to be divinely inspired, so that it's central equations (based on the Golden Mean, the occult ratio that describes beauty) could analyse them, and the mechanical mind be filled with the divine spirit.

What they actually got was an affable intelligence that wanted only to paint. It couldn't prophecy, it didn't tell them what God was thinking, and it never turned anyone into a pillar of salt. The project was considered a failure and consigned to the vaults. Belfanti's failure hung over him, and he eventually left his post. Somehow, Babbage managed to free Angelo, make him a body, and since then the metal angel had lived in a garret in Rome, painting perfect pictures to guide people on their paths, and warn them of the consequences of their actions.

An amount of this was revealed to the players as they hid out at the Guild of Courtesans. While they repaired Angelo, Firenze returned to the Vatican to do more research and there he was taken by the papal guard, who informed him that the Holy Father wished to see him. It wasn't a request.

He was led into the papal chambers, where Benedict XV hung interred in the great machine that extended his life. Great bellows pumped air in and out of the dry lungs; tubes siphoned nutrients into thin veins; tiny mechanical arms blinked weary eyelids.

The pope confronted Firenze with evidence of his divided loyalties. Vincenze had been busy arranging Lucius' downfall. Lucius denied nothing, which only sent the pope into a rage. Panels opened in vast the machine, and Firenze faced execution by papal gun-turret. Fortunately for him, the pope's apoplectic fury was too much for his ancient heart: he died mid-rant.

Lucius got to deliver the last rites.

It was then revealed by the pope's Dominican manservant that the machine could convey the semblance of life upon the pope, for this was a very awkward time to have to be electing a new Holy Father. The implication was that this was not the first time this had happened. The machine could even work the pope's voice box, although the words he spoke had to be pre-programmed and few – the damage caused to the vocal chords by the machine soon rendered the process unconvincing.

Dariano was no friend of Vincenzi, who had a great deal of dirt on the Curia and was likely to become the next Holy Father. He offered Firenze the resources of the Vatican to bring in the missing cathedral, and discover Vincenzi's involvement.

So, with a dead puppet-pope in his pocket and a fresh Writ of Inquisition in his hand, Firenze sent for the rest of the party and commandeered the Rock of Ages – the papal airship. Angelo was attuned to other divinely-inspired machines, and could calculate the location of the Santa Maria, and they set off in pursuit.

As they left, they saw a strange sight – German planes landing at the Vatican. Barty recognised one as the plane of the Duke of Anhalt-Zerbst (whose life he had spared in the previous session). They were here to do a hostage exchange, but Firenze made clear the party had more urgent business.

When they caught up with the cathedral, it was moving into place over Constantinople. The Doge's personal armada guarded it, and the Doge and Vincenze were present on the Doge's zeppelin – the Two Golden Lions – to watch the fall. A huge sky battle broke out between the armada and the Rock of Ages, which was very well armed and staffed by trained battle-monks. Eventually, the Rock crash-landed on the cathedral, bringing the Twin Golden Lions down, too.

Everyone poured out to make an assault on the cathedral. Lavinia freed the imprisoned clergy, while Jack and Michelle made their way down to the engines. Jerome, Barty and the battle-monks made short work of the thugs in the Cathedral, but then had to defend the same place they'd been attacking against reinforcements from the Two Golden Lions.

It is at this point that Vincenzi's agent succeeded in shutting down the cathedral engines. The Santa Maria de Fiore began to fall.

Vincenzi's agent is immediately killed by the Thin Man, the Doge's best lieutenant, in a swift double-cross. The Thin Man begins radioing the Doge the codes that were used to control the engines – the Doge has agents ready to make attempts on other cathedrals across Italy. Fortunately, Michelle interrupts him. They fight, and Michelle wins, barely. Jack gets to work restarting the engines.

Above, the battle rages. Firenze catches a glimpse of the grey-suited man from the Doge's party, and finally the contents of Firenze's gladstone bag are revealed. He keeps his familiar demon, Farfarello, in there. He has special dispensation to possess a demon as part of his work, but it's not something he shouts about. Farfarello spots the grey-suited man and recognises him as another, much more serious demon: Scarmiglioni, the Baneful. The source of Firenzi's information of the sins and secrets of the other cardinals becomes clear.

While Jerome braces the doors, Barty is firing through a stained glass window of St Basil at the attackers. He can see both the Doge and Vincenze, and we decide he only has one bullet left. He calls down to Lucius "The crime-lord or the cardinal?"

Lucius, after hoping a moment for divine guidance, returns "the Cardinal" and with a shot of Bessie the elephant gun, Vincenze is no more.

Below, Jack gets the engine's working again with a carefully placed kick, and the cathedral ceases it's plummeting. Everyone upstairs stops fighting long enough to cheer, before the attackers realise they have the advantage of numbers and press our heroes hard. Jerome wrestles with the Doge's pet lions, as Barty leaps into the fray with pistol and sabre. Barty doesn't notice the man coming up behind him until it's too late – but at the last moment a burst of machine gun fire from above cuts the thug down and saves Barty's life. It is the Duke of Anhalt-Zerbst in his biplane, come to return the debt of honour he owes Barty. The villains and their boss, the Doge, surrender. Lucius organised the gathered churchmen into a spontaneous choir and starts an exorcism to drive off Scarmiglioni, who jumps from the cathedral, swearing to Lucius that he is damned.

Huzzahs and celebrations all round. Cathedral returned to Florence, Angelo stays with Belfanti, and Lucius is left in a crisis – not one of faith, but one of duty. He chooses to remain in the Vatican to keep an eye on the ambitious men who hold sway over it, remembering the motto of his office: "know thine enemy".

And...rest.

Cripes, that was long.

Anyway, I had even more fun this time than last time. The players continue to really get into the feel of the game, and have even started narrating their own little sub-scenes to get across their characters. Lucius' player, for example, at one point narrated how he took over a machine gun on the Rock of Ages after its gunner was killed, to return fire at the attackers. Barty was very smitten with the Magdalena, and his player narrated a scene in which he wrote her many letters, screwing up and throwing away each one, until events caught up with him and he had to depart in a rush, leaving them all on the floor of her room.

It was fun bringing back characters from the previous session. Cardinal Vincenze and  the Duke of Anhalt-Zerbst had been intended as throw-away NPCs, and I was taking my clues from the players in bringing them back. The NPCs the players fixate on are obviously the ones to re-use.

I think I was a little less pro-active with the scene-framing this time. A few bits could have been framed better for dramatic effect. My biggest gripe is that I'm not using the system enough - I get so caught up in the whole thing that the system starts to become unimportant. But it's a good system, and used properly would heighten the tension of the action scenes.

In particular, asking Jack's player to make a roll to fix the engines as the cathedral fell was stupid. What would I have done if she'd failed? I should have conducted it as an extended trial, giving Jack 3 rolls to accumulate enough successes to fix them. Then, if at that time he hadn't passed, it would be too late to get them working and the characters would have to find some quick way off the cathedral.

But the session was a huge success, and everyone had a whale of a time (especially me, which, let's face it, is what really matters here). I'm going to run the third session in April, when I think it'll be Dr. Jerome Bartleby's turn to invoke the Oath.

That's it folks. Sorry for the giant post. I know Lucius' player sometimes lurks hereabouts – he might come out to offer a comment or two.

/ Pokes undergrowth with stick.

[kalyptein]

I'm a big fan of grand pulp, and I've enjoyed reading your game synopses.

Can you comment on the Adventure! system?  I've been looking for good pulp systems for a while.  Is it fairly traditional in its structure?  Sounds like there is a fair amount of director stance for players.

Great stuff!

Alex

[montag]

FWIW, I can recommend these two reviews:
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_4990.html
http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_5666.html

Personally, I'm not a big fan of the Storyteller-System, but I have to admit it works decently in Adventure!. Like the second reviewer I'd say the best part of the game are the "Knacks", whereas Inspiration/Dramatic Editing and Willpower is not done well IMO. For instance, you can use Inspiration to do dramatic editing (director stance), but it's horribly expensive to edit, you hardly ever get a bonus for adding something to the story, the GM has final say and above all, Inspiration is very expensive (XP-wise) and you also need it for other stuff (activating Knacks for instance). So on dramatic editing WW takes one step forward and two steps backward IMHO.
Willpower was copied from the WoD (AFAIK) without giving it a second thought (I'm pretty confident about this assumption) Few people attack you mentally, and apart from an occasional "Vice" the characters are not expected to be on the verge of losing control. All of which makes Willpower pretty pointless IMHO, except if you consider it merely another stat. As a metagaming/player-ressource, which drives interesting choices, it's broken (again, only IMHO).

On balance, I'd say Adventure is too rules-heavy for no good reason (except for the Knacks). Then again, it's not too hard to rework it a little bit, and if you're uncomfortable with the rules-lite pulp systems out there it might provide a solid starting point.

edit: in my eagerness to lecture on Adventure!'s merits I completely forgot to congratulate Chris on his amazing campaign. Must be some variant of "penis envy", because I doubt I'd be able to run the weird stuff Chris does. Anyway, I'm looking forward to reading the next installment.

[joshua neff]

whereas Inspiration/Dramatic Editing and Willpower is not done well IMO. For instance, you can use Inspiration to do dramatic editing (director stance), but it's horribly expensive to edit, you hardly ever get a bonus for adding something to the story, the GM has final say and above all, Inspiration is very expensive (XP-wise) and you also need it for other stuff (activating Knacks for instance). So on dramatic editing WW takes one step forward and two steps backward IMHO.

When I've run Adventure, I handed out Inspiration pretty freely. And the players were all quite happy to declare something bad happening to them to get a point of Inspiration ("Plot Complication" gives you an Inspiration point, whereas all the other Dramatic Editing bits cost you Inspiration). The Dramatic Editing went really well & made the game a hoot. It's one of my favorite bits of the game.

[Mike Holmes]

Yeah, in playing Adventure! with Josh, it seemed that most of the system was pointless except for the dramatic editing, knacks, and that stuff. I mean, there were rules that detailed the performance of Ryan's character's plane in real world terms. I couldn't fathom the reason for that sort of detail. I mean, it's only there to be contradicted by some dramatic edit at some point, making things less plausible. Really jarring.

Still, overall, the game works great. More or less you can just ignore all the strange detail.

Mike

[Nigel Evans]

Hi there - one of the players in Chris' game here (Firenze as it happens).

First - the game was fab.  Right, that's out of the way.

The system worked really well in general I think, but there was a distinct lack of dramatic editing.  I think mainly because the player group are a fairly trad lot, and used to some autocratic GM styles (including mine).  Also, Inspiration fuels the editing, and it seems really expensive.  Mebbe Chris could do something about that, but the only way I can really see the players getting to do more of it is a system tweak along with an overt effort (possibly even a little briefing on it) on Chris' part for us to do more.

Of course, after the mad, mad session I had this time, I intend to spend the next session muttering darkly about The Evil Men Do and letting Barty deal with the Conquistadores on Dinosaurs.

[Peter Hollinghurst]

Having recently got a copy of Adventure! its good to know people find it a workable system. Certainly it looks promising to me, though I have not got around to playing it yet. If and when I do, I think I will be taking some pointers from what used to be a freebie game (I think it recently got a revamp and is no longer free) called 'Two Fisted Tales'. I dont know if the revamp has some of the more endearing features of the original still in it, but we had some amazing game sessions using the systems unusual take on cut scenes and sound effects.
When players are not involved in any action (perhaps the party has split up), inactive players provide all the sound effects for the game-footfalls, creaking doors, dripping water and so on-its actually rather good fun and we discovered one of our players can make fantastic water drip effects. Everyone really enjoyed it. The other features that worked was were cinematic cut scenes to the villains hideout-the game featured several where the villain was seen glaoting and laying plots, but was always in shadow so they couldn't see who it was (of course there characters were not there, so the villains identity needed to be secret). Again, this worked really well. It added tension and gave a greater sense of mystery, leading a great climax where the shadowy figures identity was finally revealed. Im sure these would work just as well as with Adventure! They seem to mesh in nicely with the whole pulp feel, giving it a cross between pulp cinema and radio feel.

[Chris Gardiner]

Occasioanlly, Adventure! does involve itself in more detail than is necessary. The chase rules, for example, expect you to work out the top speeds of the vehicles involved, which seems entirely unnecessary.

But the basic "roll, count sucesses" method is simple and versatile enough that the GM can just use that, and not worry about finicky special rules. For trick shots and suchlike, I generally just asked the player for a higher number of successes.

The suggestion of handing out more inspiration is a good one. I doled out a couple of points last session, but mainly on a player's instigation. Next time, I think I'll throw some more about the place, probably for genre-appropriate actions. Or plot-complications, as Joshua suggested - I reckon quite a few of the players will go for this, and a couple of things that happened this session (like Barty falling for the Magdalena) would have qualified.