Or...my First Time Experience Running CoS.

The following is the set of notes that I put together immediately after running Blood Opera at Continuum. As it was something like 2AM in the morning it's probably not as well structured as it could be, and I guess I'll remember stuff later on that was missed initially.

Introduction

I bought CoS at Dragonmeet in London last December, and it has been like a nagging scab ever since. I keep on picking it up and re-reading it, and asking what-if? This is a good thing, as many modern RPGs I pick up and think 'Yeah, whatever' after I've read them. There have only been a few that gave me the same excitement that I had some twenty-mumble years ago when I started gaming with 2nd Ed CoC, Basic D&D and Starter Traveller.

Anyway, as you know from the posts asking questions about the game, I decided to run Blood Opera at Continuum this weekend. Continuum is one of the UK's best roleplaying focussed cons (you can find out more at http://www.continuum.uk.net/  - it's a two yearly affair and rather excellent - or http://www.newtus.co.uk/continuum/ where the blog is for the con).

I set off, armed with the new crib-sheet, relationship web and characters. I'd been persuaded to run by First Age, one of the organisers for the con who also happens to frequent one of the BBSes that I am a regular on. He'd also got a copy of the game and wanted to find out how to play it. As he was running a demo of Stormquest (my HeroQuest Stormbringer conversion), I only felt it fair to return the favour.

I'd initially got sign-ups for 6 players for Blood Opera on Sunday night, which was pretty good as it was scheduled against the 25th anniversary CoC party (with Charlie Krank etc), but one dropped out so I got Grandmother Anna. None of the players had played CoS before, although all had played HQ, and several Burning Wheel. One of the players I didn't know had certainly played Sorceror, and may have read CoS before.

The Game

We set off into the scenario after some 20 min talking through characters and mechanics, and it ran pretty slowly at first. The kick off scene was the end of the funeral (as I felt this gave some better continuity) which then moved into the wake back at the family manse's great hall. The main point that happened here was a destiny point being spent by one of the players to make Uncle Ivan suddenly comment that he missed Ivana, and had liked her since he slept with her twice! This gave a stunned silence and everyone looked shocked. No one wanted to go anywhere near this comment and it was like the family were pretending it never happened. The family slowly settled to bed. There was some low key conflicts with Wiktor and Gregori trying to spot the servant watchers that Anatoli had set on them, and then Gregori failing against the butler (3D skill goon) when he confronted him about the spies!

[During the overnight section, Zygmunt's player and I had a chat, and it suddenly clicked with him that he was driving the plot rather than just me, and that really changed everything.]

The next morning started with a family breakfast which suddenly erupted into a conflict between Zygmunt, Vladick and Anatoli. Zygmunt was trying to force Vladick to stop pushing the limits and lording it over the players, and the other two opposed. Anatoli absolutely destroyed Zygmunt through a well pushed set of actions resulting in Zygmunt on zero vitality, which became a new temporary negative descriptor that he felt the whole family was falling apart into self destruction. The conflict system worked well with multiple characters. Doom came into play for the first time. We struggled a little working out how fast Zygmunt's Vitality recovered, but just arbitarily ruled that it came back once he had the descriptor.

We struggled a bit at first with players getting used to framing scenes, and also with the question 'can you change the skills/attributes and descriptors that you are using between actions in an exchange'. We ruled 'yes' to this, and it seemed to make sense.

I then introduced a cut scene with the coffin dug up with a DP, but left it to Gregori (who had left the house for the village during the fight) to decide whether the coffin was opened or empty. He decided open with a body, so I then spent a DP to have Ivana there, healed, but not responsive, with a rose between her hands that hadn't been there. Zygmunt almost came across Gregori with his sword at his dead wife's throat (checking for breath on the polished blade), but a quick decision saved this. Long and short of this was that she was alive but in a coma, Zygmunt in denial, and the two characters heading back to the house with the body following in a cart. [Retrospectively, I shouldn't have avoided Gregori being found with his blade at Ivana's throat as it would have heightened the tension.]

Wiktor, who had confronted (successfully) Anatoli and Vladick over their treatment of Zygmunt, headed back from his hunt and arrived in the stable yard as the cart arrived. The body was taken upstairs, and Anatoli created a healing potion which revived Ivana to consciousness (with the help of a DP). She immediately screamed and accused Gregori of murder. Zygmunt ran her through (saying she wasn't his wife) but she still lived (DP spend by both me and Anatoli on this). Suddenly, Anatoli tried to force Gregori to admit the truth, and Wiktor tried to kill Anatoli before the line of questions continued. Vladick blocked the attack by buying up his attack to first (2D6 penalty!!) and managing a disarm on Wiktor. Doom was in use left, right and centre.

Gregori pointed the finger at Wiktor, and also spent a DP to modify the outcome of the contest and speculate on the motive (an affair?). Wiktor confessed, but pointed the finger at Vladick. Vladick admitted he had handed letters that proved Ivana's duplicity to Wiktor, and suddenly, Zygmunt spent a DP to make them forgeries he had created to entrap Wiktor. We drew a Veil at that point.

Spent the next hour taking the game apart - which was unusual, something like I'd do with friends after a good film - but everyone happy and enjoyed it.

Key points;

1) If players haven't dealt with conflicts and or games where they have more plot control, the start can be slow until they get the hang of things.
2) Need to work up some better beats/bangs to force action.
3) The traits and skills on the new sheet need a line between them, as players become confused.
4) This scenario would be different if I ran it again with the same people ;-)
5) Zygmunt's motivations can be hard to get a good understanding of for the player as they read as quite internally focussed.
6) Doom is great.
7) Destiny points are great.

Anyway, we all really enjoyed this. Thanks,

Dom

Dom,

Glad it went so well for you.  The thing I love about the scenario is that it is different everytime some one plays it.  I too have noticed that it takes some getting used to for people who have never had that kinda control in their game before, but fuck if that revelation moment isn't so worth it.  I love the way people suddenly get the light bulb about who is driving things.

If you work up more beats/bangs, add them to the Wiki.  The more tools the better.  Also if you got some ideas on how to open Zygmunt up, by all means share that shit.

In your post over here you mentioned It certainly shifted my pre-conceptions about RPGs (which was quite an achievement as there are 20 odd years to shift!).  Care to go into that?

Hi Keith,

Sorry for the delay in repsonding, but I needed some time to think about this and get it together coherently. You asked me to expand on how it changed some of my preconceptions about RPGs. I guess that the best way to explain that is to say what I found special about the game.

1) I found using conflicts and framing the situation, 'setting the stakes' before any roll was made really powerful. By explicitly doing his in every conflict everything was much cleared, and it raised the tension in the game. It is something that I've used before, but only by chance and never deliberately. I'm currently involved in producing a Stormbringer HeroQuest conversion, and some notes on using this have gone into it because I think that it makes a real difference.

2) I also felt the game was a far more collaborative and consensual experience. A lot of the antagonism between the GM (mwahaha I have the plot) and players (hehehe we'll see what we can do to throw something leftfield in to screw the plot) was gone and everyone was trying to make the story the most satisfying and important thing by staying in characters and presenting interesting situations.

3) I loved the way that players riffed off each others descriptors, dooms, triggers and drives. They became very open about things that disadvantaged them, but grew he plot.

I've GMd off and on for quite a while (23 years! ouch, feel old) and the whole experience of the game was one of the best that I have had, and I think that the players enjoyed it in a similar way because they spent such a long time after the game chewing the cud about it with me.

Reflecting on it, could I use such a style of gaming with all the groups I play in? Possibly not. At least one of them is too traditional and scared of change. But is it worth trying? Very much so. The power of switching to a much more collobrative style can't be under-estimated. It also takes some pressure off the narrator, getting rid of the challenge by the players of 'go on, entertain me!'. The relationship becomes 'let's have fun together'.

I'm now looking at some of the things that really impressed me for use in other games, especially HeroQuest.

Conflicts - a matter of GM style and changing mindsets.

Destiny Points - actually covered in Mythic Russia, with something called a 'plot edit'. This goes in too.

Doom - I mentioned that I was looking at something like this and have drafted some notes for a similar mechanic for HeroQuest.

We all had a great time, and it's something that I'd do again.

Cheers,

Dom

Keith wrote:
If you work up more beats/bangs, add them to the Wiki.  The more tools the better.  Also if you got some ideas on how to open Zygmunt up, by all means share that shit.

Dom wrote:
Doom - I mentioned that I was looking at something like this and have drafted some notes for a similar mechanic for HeroQuest.

Neil,

One of the things that Zygmunt's doom allows for is that he can be one of the few (only?) decent people in the scenario. Of course, he rarely is, but I quite like the possibility. I agree that Zygmunt can end up feeling like a reactive pin-cushion - maybe that needs to be covered in GM notes to address with the player, or something?

- Alexander

That's how I handled it - about 45 min in the player and I had a chat which changed things somewhat...

D.

Neil wrote:
You might like to have a look at the "Goals" thread in the HeroQuest forum: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=20179.0 .  It's a different take on the same thing.  Putting the two ideas together might help to create something even better.

Iskander wrote:
One of the things that Zygmunt's doom allows for is that he can be one of the few (only?) decent people in the scenario. Of course, he rarely is, but I quite like the possibility. I agree that Zygmunt can end up feeling like a reactive pin-cushion - maybe that needs to be covered in GM notes to address with the player, or something?

Some more (and playing from Neil's thoughts too);

- A flashback - Ivana is seen meeting one of the other characters (pick) in a snowy forest clearing. No dialogue can be heard, but there appears to be an argument going on.

- Ivana's coffin is found dug up. The seals may be broken, and the body may, or may not be there.

- The body has been disturbed in some way (in the game I had a red rose placed in her hands that wasn't there when the coffin was sealed).

- If the body is there, it is healthy, healed and comatose and can be woken. Whether or not Ivana retains memory is another matter, As is why she lives.

- There is a disturbance in the village - someone claims to have seen something happen to Ivana. This could range from happiness (if she was hated) to a full pitch fork and torch bearing mob bent on vigilante action.

- (Some or all of) Vladick's dogs are found brutally slain in their kennels.

- A letter is found in Ivana's handwriting.

- A fire is set in Anatoli's book collection.

- A peasant arrives with a baby claiming it is the love child of one of the brothers.

- Cut scene (or flashback) - several of the characters are seen around a fire in the darkness, with books and candles.

- Ravens (or Rooks) start circling and nesting in the house.

- Magpies (1 for sorrow, 2 for joy etc) start to appear by appropriate characters.

- 'I died unjustly' is found written on the mirror in Ivana's room.

- 'I loved them all', or other cryptic messages are found.

Just off the top of my head...

These are great ideas, bu they all sound like things that could or should have happened in your game; one of the joys of running Blood Opera, for me, is that players frequently come up with their own bangs, and if not, provide plenty of material to produce them on the fly. It's a radically different game each time. I much prefer leaving the players the choice of deciding whether, for example, Ivana is innocent of treachery or not... just because Vladick framed her, doesn't mean she isn't guilty - or, as has happened in one game - that Zygmunt isn't complicit with her.

Dom,

These are good thoughts.  One point, though, on the nature of Bangs.  They're there to kick the players into action.  That means that a Bang needs to be something that the players can't ignore, and it has to be something that the players can react to in a variety of ways.   (Ssome people also burble on about "thematic appropriateness" or somesuch, but I find that a bit too woolly to worry about.)  That means that things like:

Dom wrote:
- Ivana's coffin is found dug up. The seals may be broken, and the body may, or may not be there.

Dom wrote:
- Ravens (or Rooks) start circling and nesting in the house.

Iskander wrote:
These are great ideas, bu they all sound like things that could or should have happened in your game; one of the joys of running Blood Opera, for me, is that players frequently come up with their own bangs, and if not, provide plenty of material to produce them on the fly. It's a radically different game each time. I much prefer leaving the players the choice of deciding whether, for example, Ivana is innocent of treachery or not... just because Vladick framed her, doesn't mean she isn't guilty - or, as has happened in one game - that Zygmunt isn't complicit with her.

Iskander wrote:
I much prefer leaving the players the choice of deciding whether, for example, Ivana is innocent of treachery or not... just because Vladick framed her, doesn't mean she isn't guilty - or, as has happened in one game - that Zygmunt isn't complicit with her.

Hey guys,

Sorry I am so late to this party.  Work, GenCon and post GenCon all sucked the life out of me.  An idea you guys sparked is to maybe post to the wiki two lists.  One would be Sample Color and the other would be Sample Bangs as a resource for folks who are going to run it.

Sounds like a good idea. I'm hoping to run this again at Furnace in October ;-)

D.

Keith wrote:
An idea you guys sparked is to maybe post to the wiki two lists.  One would be Sample Color and the other would be Sample Bangs as a resource for folks who are going to run it.