Session 5

This was mostly a continuation from Wednesday's shortened session. IMO, it went really well and we got a lot of things done, not so much in game but in terms of communication. There were a couple of spots that could have been rough, but were handled in such a way that they were learning experiences. Again, I strongly felt that this game should almost be required for players and gamemasters alike. I also strongly feel that, unfortunately, the people who would stand the most to gain from Universalis and games like it are the people who will be first driven away from it. Ah, so it goes, I suppose.

In any event, we added a couple more rules gimmicks. At which point I should say that I proposed and paid for them. They're stock ones off the Universalis website. The first was the secret traits rule; I have some ideas that I wanted to establish the reality of now so I wanted to introduce this gimmick. The other is that we're carrying our coin counts over from session to session. In the past, I would play down my coins to really low levels, and sometimes the other players would have lots of coins. So, by taking 25 new coins each session I was getting more control over events that I “should” have had. Basically, y'know, I'd be getting ten or fifteen coins and they'd sometimes lose 10 or 15 coins. It struck me as unfair and I'm almost mad in my devotion to “fairness.”

We had three scenes and they went very well, IMO.

Ogodai and the White Warriors of the Sea

The first scene opened up with Ogodai on his razor boar mount looking out over the sea. There was a pole in the ground, and on this pole hung a huge horn with metal fittings. He blew on the horn and a mist grew over the sea, and out of the mist came the prows of white ships. They moored in the water, and a skiff was lowered and came to the shore. On the skiff was an oarsman and a pale woman clothed in white furs.

The woman asked why Ogodai has summoned her. He said he had seen portents and believed that the time of the prophesy was at hand. The Rat King was rising and seeking Paradise, and the children of rat and snake were together. The portents were thick and he wished to consult. She bade him to send out his riders to the other tribes, and see if the time of the mutant dominance was at hand. He agreed. She asked about the “the rose in the wild and the common man.” He said he had not seen them. He also said the wise woman who was to guide them was in the clutched of King Rat. The pale woman said if these were the scions of prophesy that they would free the old woman, and the rose of the wild and the common man would join with the tiger and snake.

She asked Ogodai where the Mongols stood. He said that they stood alone and unafraid, even though the times were dark. He said the Mongols recognized the authority of Grandfather Winter, whom the White Warriors of the Sea served. The woman smiled enigmatically.

She said that if these were the bearers of prophesy that she would open up open up the Secret Stores of Destruction. Which were established as fact as being secret stockpiles of weaponry.

While this was going on, hidden in a snowbank, was an albino rat scout of the king . . . .

Rats Attack!

We finally get back to our heroes. Rajadanya, Jian and Jigen are all around a campfire in the abandoned mill. Outside are a group of rat troopers, some distance away, with Prince Rat . . . in his tank.

Prince Rat said to his troopers to circle around and when he gave the signal for them to fall on the people and attack. It was a complication, and we used the extended complication rule we didn't get around to using last time out. The eventual dice pools were 20 dice on Prince Rat's side and 27 dice on the side of the heroes. There were four splits in the complication pool. The kangaroths of Jian and Jigen attacked the tank. This is semi-important because . . . .

Prince Rat won the first sub-complication. Jian's kangaroth, Fritz, leapt at the tank and . . . BOOM. The prince fired his main gun, splattering Fritz's guts across the landscape, killing the kangaroth. The rat troopers were locked in combat with the Jian, Jigen and Rajadanya. Jian smashed one of the rats dead with his tiger claw strike, and Rajadanya slew one with her sword, and Jigen killed a third with an elbow smash which broke the rat's neck. Duncan leapt on the tank, denting its armor.

Our heroes won the second sub-complication. Duncan dug his horns under the tank and flipped it over! Rajadanya slashed dead the remaining two rat troopers – or so she thought! One of them who she thought was dead was playing possum and when she turned her back he sank his fangs deep into her shoulder, wounding her. The tank, even on its back still was a tank, after all, and the turret twisted and the flamer whooshed – setting Duncan on fire.

Our heroes won the third sub-complication, too. Rajadanya leapt over to the tank and fouled its barrel with one of Fritz's tusks. Duncan extiguished himself in a snowbank. Prince Rat twisted the turret to one side and the other, until finally ice and snow gave way and his tank was flipped back on its treads. Then he flamed Rajadanya, burning her badly.

Our heroes also won the fourth sub-complication – but there was an edge die that went to Prince Rat's side. So Duncan leapt up on the tank, bending the barrel of the main gun. Rajadanya quenched her flames in the snow. Jigen leapt on top of the tank. They were at a loss what to do to destroy the tank. They didn't really have the weapons for it. So . . . Prince Rat wheeled his tank around and ran Rajadanya down, crushing her. Her sword flew from her hand as she was killed, landing point first in the ground before Jian, covered in his partner's blood. He fell to his knees crying, wracked with guilt and horror at seeing his companion dead. Then Prince Rat fled, his main gun crippled. Jigen was still on top of the tank, however.

Which was the end of that complication. So, how did the extended complication work? It worked pretty well. It definitely took more time than a standard complication and is something that we feel shouldn't be used for every complication (which was never the point, in any event) but for big fight scenes it did really well in my opinion, allowing the fights to be a little more “interactive”. I was very well pleased.

From there, Jigen tried to rip off the cover of the tank, but Prince Rat heard him and started whipping the turret around and he swerved, throwing Jigen from the vehicle into the snow. Then he actually did escape.

For completeness, I was in charge of Prince Rat. I went pretty hard on the group, I admit. But I had my reasons for doing so. In particular, I hate incompetent evil. One of the defining points in my life in his regard was the original Star Wars movies, particularly the first two, but especially The Empire Strikes Back. In the first movie, Obi-wan dies. He DIES. And in the second one, well, the Empire struck back, oh boy. The Empire kicked ass all over the place. It was great. It established the bad guys as bad asses. Which was what I wanted to do. I wanted us to take these guys seriously. The kill heroes. They maim heroes. They're bad motherfuckers.

Also, I was thinking somewhat thematically. The game has kung-fu people, mutants, Old West elements and government agents in the tenets. The heroes should include all of these. I was, er, making room? :p That was my thinking, at least.

I also consulted people before killing Rajadanya. They were more upset about Fritz. ;)

Bringing on Caroline and Bill

Jigen returned to the group, little worse for the wear. Jian was in a gloomy mood. They began the process of burying the dead, first Rajadanya and then Fritz. Then Caroline and Bill road up on their own kangaroths. Caroline asked what they were doing, and then noticed and recoiled in disgust. She asked what was going on, and Jian said that she was not a warrior and it was none of her concern. She snapped off something about being in the government . . . .

And Jian hefted up Rajadanya's sword and threw it so it split the skull of the kangaroth she was on, tossing her into the snow as she drew her pistol.

I was controlling Jian (you might be getting the impression I am the trouble player; this is generally true, hehe, but I was in part inspired by advice from Mike Holmes to use the challenge mechanic to help enforce your vision of the game; that's what it's for, right?) and did it to establish Jian's arrogance and grief over his friend's death. Adrienne was going to have Bill and Caroline leave . . . and I found myself challenging that. She said that she could bring them back in, later, but I didn't want them to leave. This has to do with my history of online RP where one person would have something happen and the other person would just withdraw their character, ending play between those characters. I didn't want that to happen. So we talked it over. This is how we resolved it.

If you go back several sessions – to the second – when the heroes got to the abandoned steel mill, they were with a cloaked figure. The identity of that figure was never established. Adrienne, who introduced the cloaked figure, sorta thought it would be Chennai. But it had already been established as fact that Chennai was in King Rat's dungeons. So, obviously, it wasn't Chennai. Looking through the cards, we decided that the cloaked figure would be Marion Rangel, whom we hadn't seen in a while. She told Jian to slow his roll, there, and talk to the nice lady.

Caroline said that she was from the government, doing her job, and things of that nature, to ingratiate herself with the tempestuous Jian. This was a complication and, damn, I love these sorts of complications. Caroline won the complication and added to Jian's sheet the trait of “tolerate's Caroline.” The simple power of the complication mechanic gives me a neat thrill. How it can handle tanks, kung-fu and social situations with identical ease. Anyway, enough praise.

From there, it was mostly Caroline and Marion talking to each other, eventually getting quite catty with one another. But Marion told Caroline what happened, some information about King Rat, and it finally got around to the heroes that, indeed, Chennai was a captive of King Rat. The group resolved to go get Chennai, and Caroline invited herself and Bill along. Marion was about to resist, but Jigen had already slunk away from the two women's cattiness, and Jian had “tolerate's Caroline” on his character sheet, already, so he was mostly OK with it. She shrugged and admitted defeat.

Which was the end of the game. This time, ironically, the coin spread at the end of the game was very tight – the precise situation that wasn't happening in other games! Josh had 22 coins, I had 21 coins and Adrienne had 20.

We also talked and I said it might be a good idea to keep scenes in mind, or jot them down, between game sessions. I think that the Universalis experience would be helped with just the tiniest bit of preparation. I know I have several scenes in mind. Josh was somewhat worried about this, because he was afraid that he would overplot the scene and it would veer away from what he wanted to his frustration. I suggested just thinking of a sentence or two, and to keep an open mind in play – which he seemed to buy, but we'll see Wednesday, I guess.

Overall, Universalis is, for me, just a really wonderful game. I guess I had a little more praise in me, tonight.