[WoD/VtR] It Clicked

[Bill Cook]

My group finished the fifth and final session of our WoD campaign this morning. It was invigorating. Lots of interesting things to share.

BW vs. TROS
Everyone (including me) is jazzed about TFOB. But after Jason's Traveller campaign, Luke (Zazielsrephaim) drew the straw for WoD, and I reserved the next slot for BW. So it's BW. It interests me how I had to wrestle to schedule. And to enforce it.

Over Prep vs. No Prep
Luke, Jason and I had our usual GM's round table. We dished about how the NPC's blur to a GM, whereas a player can peel every onion layer of his one character. Luke said something I found particularly telling: "First TROS, I over prepared, and ended up not using a lot of stuff. This time, I wanted to see what it would be like if I didn't prepare anything." From my POV, it was rough at times. We did that fucking thing where you discover what you're supposed to be doing, during play (which, you can judge from my tone, I don't care for). But I learned from the second session of Jason's Traveller campaign that the best remedy for that style is to write your character into the back-story. By the fourth session, my master play incentive emerged: support my sire in overcoming her addiction to diablery.

"Don't counsel me!"
Nick's girlfriend, Libby, really broke down during the fourth session. She was massively frustrated by (1) not being involved and (2) not having her input be integrated. As I look back on it, I don't think she even minded so much not having a purpose or not making progress; I think she mainly wanted to be included and have her play matter. We stopped the game and discussed her play issues for a good while. And I did that stupid thing like I used to do in high school, trying to solve the problem instead of sympathizing with the expression. At one point, she said, "But you're counseling me! Am I supposed to just sit here and take it .. [overcome with emotion]" and she burst into tears.

That was a low point for me.

Tenet: Everyone Gets Turned
For the first-through-second or third session, we were turned, one by one. Not having discussed .. anything, I reacted by resisting. So did Libby. And we both just got smacked by rail cars. Then it dawned on me, this is his plan. So I changed gears and eased into it.

I never would have thought to fight it if I'd known that's what we were doing.

I must admit, we did go through dice-rolling mechanics a bit, prior to starting. It's funny how that's secondary to goals in play.

Silent Conspiracy Against Another Player
Cory (Ingenious) tried to wink, wink at me through IC dialogue. I didn't know what the hell he meant, so I said, "What?" And he did it again, with greater fervor. It was like that Monty Python sketch. ("Say no more! Say no more!") Growing frustrated, he wrote me a note. Basically, he wanted to ambush a slayer PC, using my character as the bait. And I wanted to role-play to the limits of in-game knowledge.

I didn't allow my PC to react to any intent that wasn't stamped to the SIS, and Cory wouldn't do it. Or actually, to his mind, he did; but my view of the SIS implies access for all, and he was trying to apply permissions.

To my view, it all worked out: the slayer got an opportunity to slay and Cory got a chance to employ advantageous tactics (e.g. man advantage, leg sweeps, knockouts, sniper assists, etc). But it was just weird, to me, witnessing another player, constraining himself from openly verbalizing intent, out of game.

Social Combat
Jason and I role-played a honking big disagreement about what to do with his sire's torpored corpse. He wanted to deliver it to the Prince of New Orleans, and I wanted to use it to tempt Catherine, my sire, to diablerize, providing my character the opportunity to break her from the habit. Jason wanted to Intimidate me; I wanted to Entrance him. Luke literally had us roll initiative, and we got after it. He ran it like overtime in sports: first one to score wins. On the third round, I finally spent enough Willpower to force my way.

Plot Twisting the Scene Frame
I described to Luke a scene I wanted to do in which Catherine would attempt to diablerize Roy, Jason's character's sire, and Jay, my character, would use Revelation to support resistance to her urges. So Luke was like, ok, I get it. So we started narrating the scene, and instead of her coming upon the sprawled corpse, she appears behind me, in my hiding place, behind a tree. There's blood on her lips, and she has no interest in feeding. She seems distracted and ignores Roy.

At this point, I say, "Look, Luke, if you're not going to support the setup, then fuck it; let's move on to a scene that does have a point." So he gets behind the conflict, and we roll cameras. Jason's character, David, threw a curve ball, perfectly consistent with that character concept; so it ended up having some variety, after all. And I got my big moment, Catherine in my arms at the cemetery, swearing off the taking of kindred souls. I did a touchdown victory dance, right then and there.

Luke's instinct, to me, in this regard, is .. bizarre. I think he's trying to be the kaleidoscope. And I'm trying to work my plan.

(And I want to give Luke credit: he wrote in a nemesis to Jay for Eric, a pickup player, to run. And the write-in was cool; he was hired by my voodoo charm-selling sister to slay me. After I was turned, she disowned me without mercy, which was just irresistible grist. So naturally, I played Jay with undying devotion to her, never giving up hope for reconciliation.)

Drunkenness
The unfortunate habit of excessive drinking during play continues to have deleterious effects.

Total Satisfaction vs. Bitter Disappointment
After John Shmoe (Eric) brought down Sergei (Corey), Jay (me) broke a whiskey bottle over his head, and he passed out. Jay commandeered a vehicle at gunpoint, stowed the slayer and fled the scene. Panicked, Jay drove to his sister's house and was rebuffed. John regained consciousness and tried to stab Jay in the calf. Startled, Jay fired the shotgun, missed and dropped the weapon. They wrestled for control of the gun, and John won out. Jay, still unaware that his sister had hired John to kill him, begged that John spare her as a condition of surrender. John unsheathed a sword, lopped off Jay's head, cut out his heart, accepted final payment and left town.

Two hours earlier, Sergei followed John as he pursued Jay, leaving the club. During a vicious brawl on the street, Sergei was peppered and burned by incendiary rounds unto torpor. 30 years later, David stole into the Ventrue crypt and devoured Sergei's soul; he took no pleasure in the dishonorable revenge.

Eric loved the session. Corey hated it. Eric's play mantra: "slaver, slaver, kill." Corey's: "machinations, coalesce!"

Meaningful Death
As you read above, I elected death for my character as a statement of his concept. It was like biting off a whole mouthful of beef:)

Marathon Play
We played from 11pm 'til 6am, approx. Luke was a basket case, by the end. I've ranted in the past about my displeasure with this habit. It's interesting how when the story starts clicking, and the GM is more trying to keep up than prod the players along, how the whole group digs in and drives the campaign, crashing into finality, no matter how long it takes. So I sort of sympathize. Then again, TV episodes end on cliff-hangers. Why can't an RPG session?

[hix]

Great write-up. I didn't understand what impact a couple of your points had on the game (the 2 quotes below):

I must admit, we did go through dice-rolling mechanics a bit, prior to starting. It's funny how that's secondary to goals in play.

I didn't allow my PC to react to any intent that wasn't stamped to the SIS, and Cory wouldn't do it. Or actually, to his mind, he did; but my view of the SIS implies access for all, and he was trying to apply permissions.

Could you clarify those?

[Bill Cook]

Surely. Glad you like it.

For the first, I was noticing the myth of "knowing what dice to roll and in which combination" equals "ready to play." By in-game goals, I meant: everyone gets turned, Jay tries to wean Catherine from diablery, John Shmoe slays Jay and gets paid, etc. We went through the dice formulas, but we didn't decide (as a group) what we'd be doing in play.

The dysfunction with the second reflects differing views of the SIS. I see it as a common space, and Cory (I infer) sees it as priveleged access. So I have no problem saying, "Listen: when John [PC] enters the club, I'll lure him into the drug parlor in back. You guys hide in the room and assassinate him with crossfire before he can react." Cory sees that as tipping his hand.

As I think about this .. maybe it's IIEE insecurity. Cory may feel like he's in a race with Eric to execute. I think he doesn't want Eric to apply out-of-game knowledge to avoid risk. I can see the frustration, but I trust Eric not to be a pussy.

** ** **

Speaking of whom, Eric did this weird thing in one scene. John (Eric) beat on Jay's apartment door in the late afternoon. Jay dropped down from the ceiling, made sure the shades were pulled and went to the door. After some negotiation, Jay let John in under the pretense that he was a private investigator, working a missing person's case.

John said something about demonic posession, and Jay stood up, said he didn't want to buy any voodoo charms and asked him to leave. John went to open the shades, and Jay burned a vitae to use Revelation, suggesting that John was behaving foolishly and should leave before he gets arrested.

After he left, John pulled Catherine from the closet and asked to borrow ice from Mrs. Rodriguez, his next door neighbor. After draining her quite low, he stuffed her stockings in her mouth, taped it shut and used her vacuum cleaner cord to tie her in a chair. Jay and Catherine crawled under the bed and got some sleep.

Now, I told Eric (Jay), "Don't worry about opportunities for access; I'll leave myself open for scene-framing crosses; I want conflict as much as you do. But let's allow other player turns and we may get better weaving."  He nods assent and then starts making this argument that the Revelation has worn off. He returns to my apartment, blasts open the door with a shotgun, searches the place, finds my dealer friend, whom I slew in desperate confusion, hanging from the shower rod by his tie, and starts going door-to-door. And I'm thinking, did he understand a word I said? Does he think this is a video game?

Fortunately, Luke stepped in and wrote cop sirens. Eric had John bust open Jay's mail slot on the way out and follow a paycheck to the club where he plays.

[hix]

Thanks. Think I get it now. In Case 1, knowing how to do what you want to do is different from knowing what you want to do.

Case 2, withholding information from the SIS, man I've had that happen several times in my current group, most recently with Sorceror - where the IIEE order meant that a player had to describe a sightgag he wanted to play in the middle of a combat round rather than just describe it at the point it'd be funny.

A little different from withholding information to gain a tactical advantage / element of surprise over your GM, but I think the principle's the same.