[Mortal Coil] Dark Vegas

[Brennan Taylor]

This one played a little earlier than the Origins game, and the NerdNYC Recess game day on June 11. This one is set in Las Vegas, and like I always do at convention games of Mortal Coil, I only brought a seed of an idea and constructed the rest of the theme document during play. I found in my home group that sitting down without any preconceived notion, it can take up to an hour to get the theme down. The first basic concept is what takes the longest, and if that's already there, it usually only takes 30-40 minutes to flesh out the theme and build characters.

The idea behind this one is that Las Vegas is actually run by hidden supernatural powers, and something is happening to shake up these powers, some new player has arrived. From here, the group decided that the powers that controlled Vegas were European gods, and that the shakeup was going to come from Native Americans reasserting their strength. The players chose to take the role of the Native Americans, and we established in the theme that the main villains were Set, who controlled the Luxor (of course), Loki, in charge of Circus Circus, and Lucifer, who ran the Bellagio. These three existed in a sort of equilibrium, but had decided to have a game to determine who would be the sole owner of all of the powerful magic that came from concentrated gambling, and the other two would leave Vegas.

Into this came the characters: a Native American Elvis impersonator, his estranged son fresh off the reservation, a warrior with an enchanted axe, a professional gambler, a showgirl, and Coyote, the Native American trickster god.

Thing got started with a bang, as the group tried to get together. The son was left alone by the warrior inside the Luxor, and was immediately scooped up by Sekhet, the crocodile-headed servant of Set. His father, the Elvis impersonator, saw this happening and made sure he tagged along as the naive young man was brought before Set. (The fact that magically active people could see the true nature of supernatural beings was established, and so the characters perceived Sekhet and Set and animal-headed gods. The price was that they can also see you.) Set tried to buy the boy off, and dad's alcoholism and magical tie to Set was established at the same time. During the conflict, Set had a devastating willpower attack aimed at the boy's Will of 1. The player countered this by dumping all of his tokens into a Grace move to run to the stairwell and escape. Set was totally unprepared for his naive mark to just run away, and the boy escaped.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Coyote is having a drink and Sekhet approaches him. I spent a token to establish that gods could be in more than one place at a time. The price was set that each different place a god was in reduced each of their faculties by one. Sekhet generously gave Coyote $10,000 in chips. Bellagio chips.

At this point, the group finally gathered together, and they put together a plan to win the poker tournament away from the trio of gods. Their poker player was in the game, and they decided to set Coyote up as a ringer by having him take the form of Loki's player, and cheat to get their guy to win. To do this, they had to get to Loki's player, well-guarded in the Circus Circus.

The showgirl did a dance to bring down a snowstorm, and succeeded beyond all expectations. As the snow began to dump down, Coyote showed up in the form of Odin and demanded that Loki leave the Circus Circus. Loki tricked Coyote into going into an ambush, where he was attacked by a couple of giants. The showgirl and Coyote managed to escape this, but not unscathed, but they also managed to achieve their goal: to keep Loki occupied while the other group slipped in and stole away his poker player.

At the Circus Circus, the kid, his dad, the gambler, and the warrior all went after the poker player, who was guarded by Fenris the wolf. Fenris got a good chomp in, but the warrior managed to seriously smash in the wolf's skull, and they slipped the poker player away. Coyote assumed his form and took his place at the final, climactic game.

Combining Coyote's cheating (a help action for the gambler) and his own skill, the gambler managed to eke out a very close win, and recapture Las Vegas for the Native Americans.

This game was an interesting mix of power levels. Most of the opposition were gods (Ageless power level), while the players were mostly Novice and Veteran levels (Coyote was Ageless, of course). They worked together, and that allowed them to overcome the pretty stiff competition. And the one character who got stuck in a conflict he was doomed to fail just ran away! Even with this variation, it worked quite well.

I had a completely different idea of what this would be like going in, but the theme creation and the character concepts took it in a completely different direction. The game was really good, just not what I expected, but that is exactly what I want. When I play Mortal Coil at home, I push much harder for what I am interested in for the theme document. At a con, I generally let the players dictate almost all of this, with only nudges or suggestions to get conversation going from me.

[Tony Irwin]

Hi Brennan, thanks for posting this, I've read the sample (6 page) pdf and I've been sniffing about for play reports.

How often did the hidden bidding coin mechanic come into play? Every scene? More or less often?

How long did the game last and what did the Theme Sheet look like at the end of it? Was it building up step by step through play or was there a sudden rush at certain points with everyone chiming in at the same time. What's typical?

Also were you the only one who knew the rules? How much time did you spend in teaching them? To really master the game as well as you have, and know exactly what to do to get what you want out of it, how many sessions do you expect that would take?

Some coins don't refresh right? Did any players comment on that? Like not having enough to do what they wanted, or ending with loads they wish they had spent? How did they learn how to pace themselves?

Thanks!

Tony

[Brennan Taylor]

How often did the hidden bidding coin mechanic come into play? Every scene? More or less often?

Almost every scene. There was a big planning scene, where the players came up with a plan for winning the tournament, but that was the only scene that didn't have at least one conflict.

How long did the game last and what did the Theme Sheet look like at the end of it? Was it building up step by step through play or was there a sudden rush at certain points with everyone chiming in at the same time. What's typical?

The game lasted about 3 1/2 hours, and I had a full page theme document at the end. It built up step by step, with people adding facts as needed throughout, which is pretty typical.

Also were you the only one who knew the rules? How much time did you spend in teaching them? To really master the game as well as you have, and know exactly what to do to get what you want out of it, how many sessions do you expect that would take?

One or two of the players had played before. I spent about ten minutes teaching the basics of the rules, and we spent about 40 minutes building the theme and characters.

The rules aren't too difficult to pick up, at least in my opinion. I am probably the wrong person to ask, though. I think after one or two sessions of the game you will have them down.

Some coins don't refresh right? Did any players comment on that? Like not having enough to do what they wanted, or ending with loads they wish they had spent? How did they learn how to pace themselves?

Everyone managed their resources pretty well, and no one ran out too fast or held on to things too long. All in all, the players were wise in the way they spent or saved tokens.