Last week my group got together and took Shock: for a spin. We had the intent to play a game in a setting similar to Shadowrun, so our two shocks were “Cybernetics” and “The Sixth World aka Magic.” Our issues were “Humanity,” “Classism,” and “Love.” Setting up the grid was pretty painless once we referenced the info in this thread and we had it done in short order.

Next, we created our protagonists. We had Huntress, a cyberdecker who is also the chosen of the Lion totem. Her beginning link was to the matrix itself, where she does her work. Her story goal is to resolve the situation with the Lion totem, since it seems she’s not really interested in being transformed into its avatar. Huntress is on the intersection between Humanity and The Sixth World. Her Antagonist is an AI that has managed to become the chosen of the totem of Man.

Rog is a Troll mage, specializing in hermetic and fire magic. His links are to the Underground where many of the goblinized live in the city and online dating. His story goal is to find love with an Elven woman. Rog is on the intersection of Love and Cybernetics. Rog’s Antagonist is Alequpela an Elven woman and corporate assassin.

Finally, Jerry Melkin is the corporate security chief of Aztechnology. He is cybered to the max from his former days as a runner and he grew up in the ghettos of the Sprawl. His link is to Sonia Delacroix, his girlfriend, and his story goal is to save his wayward brother Maynard. Jerry is on the intersection of Classism and Cybernetics. Jerry’s Antagonist is his employer Aztechnology, particularly Mr. Johnson the head of corporate wetworks.

We began with Huntress on assignment in the Matrix (in the form of an endless desert) hunting for information related to Maynard Melkin. She came upon a data node and was attacked by black ice in the form of a swarm of locusts. The Antagonist’s intent was to damage her cyberdeck and Huntress’ intent was to secure info on whose ice this was. Here’s where our first problem came up: Huntress’ player decided to allocate all three of his dice to d4s. Page 29 of the game allows “any combination of d10s and d4s,” but it didn’t seem right to have a protagonist in a conflict she wasn’t trying to win at all. It also brought up the related question of who reveals his dice allocation first – the Protagonist or the Antagonist?

Huntress was able to push the Antagonist’s result to equal his fulcrum number exactly, which results in escalation. This raised another question of what form this escalation takes – do both sides get to change their intents and, if so, within what constraints? The examples on page 31 involve shifting from causing injury or persuading to using deadly force which seems like a change of intent.

We allowed some revision of intents (although it didn’t matter for Huntress since she was only rolling d4s). Huntress then lost and not only was her cyberdeck ruined but her internal cybernetic headware was also damaged, putting her into a coma.

Rog’s first scene went more smoothly. After a hard day’s work in the Underground, he assumed an angelic human avatar and went to his frequent online dating haunts. A cat and mouse game with an online acquaintance with a male avatar revealed that the acquaintance knows Rog is a Troll and is seeking him out for some purpose. Eventually the acquaintance assumed the form of an Elven woman, found Rog in a different online bar, and set up a date with Rog in realspace. Rog readily agreed but had figured out that this was his acquaintance using a different avatar.

Meanwhile, Jerry was working late at Aztechnology trying to finish some key work before going on vacation. Mr. Johnson called Jerry to the subbasement where wetworks briefings are given and told Jerry that Huntress, who is a frequent runner for Aztechnology, has been injured while working the side project of finding out about Jerry’s brother. Jerry was chastised for jeopardizing a valuable company resource on personal matters, but told to take some leads on Maynard to Huntress at the hospital. Arriving there he found an unknown person about to slip drugs into Huntress’ IV and Jerry guts the fellow with his rippers (a leftover from his Sprawl days), but not before both Jerry and Huntress are stuck with the drug syringe.

Now that all of the first scenes were over, we were unsure of who should be framing the next scenes and if there is a particular turn order that should be followed. Round robin seems to make sense, but taking turns based on the number of Credits each character’s Antagonist has remaining seems a good option, too, since it would ensure no one’s story ends too far ahead of the others. We decided on using round robin and letting the protagonists continue to frame the scenes.

The drug turned out to be pure adrenaline, and Huntress bolted upright out of bed and, seeing the carnage, fled out the window. Jerry rushed outside and pursued as best he could. Huntress leaped onto the hood of a flying car, but her ride was cut short as the car itself was attacked. The car crashed into an abandoned building, and Huntress hid there until Jerry found her and calmed her down with some food.

This scene was great in connecting the characters, but we were unsure as to what the role of Huntress’ Antagonist should be. Should he introduce an additional element of adversity and roll dice per normal, or should be only roll 1d4? As it was, we only allowed the 1d4 and Huntress’ story goal hasn’t moved nearly as close to being resolved as the other two characters since her Antagonist was not a part of her second scene. Is this the way things are intended to go?

Our final scene of the night involved Rog waiting to meet his online acquaintance at a local bar. He was shocked when his acquaintance turned out to be an actual Elven woman named Alequpela who offered to take him to dinner. They headed off in her flying car when suddenly a crazed woman landed on the hood and the car was attacked by weapons fire. Rog threw himself in front of Alequpela and was hit by several rounds. The car crashed and Rog blacked out. When he awoke, Alequpela was gone.

Here we came upon another question – when you threaten a link to reroll the rules state that you’re starting a new conflict. Does your Antagonist have to spend Credits again to get dice to roll against you? We assumed they do not, but wanted to make sure.

The next scene we play this week could easily feature all the characters – is this possible in Shock:? The rules seem to contemplate only scenes with two *Tagonists or players; is there a way to handle three?What role, if any, would the Antagonists play in such a scene?

Thus far, we’ve enjoyed playing the game and like how the set-up creates situations that are easy to riff off of. I’m hoping some of our initial confusion can be cleared up by Joshua or anyone else with thoughts to make our next session even better. 

Hi, Eric! I just saw this here. I've been a touch incommunicado and am back now.

Some answers:

You did escalation correctly: only the player whose dice wound up on the Fulcrum rerolls 10s. The opposition rolls 4s. What you do is "up" the stakes of the conflict. If you went into it with the Intent of "I want to steal the diamond" and you wind up having to escalate, then you might say, "I want to get away safely!" or "I want to blow the building up!"

Going in order of Antagonist credits is interesting. Let me know how it works. We go around the table clockwise (so you play Antag, then Protag); if someone's story ends early, it's not a big deal; they're still playing Antags and they still have Minutiæ.

Remember that Antags aren't really people, but interests. Just because there's not an expected person present doesn't mean the Antag's interests aren't being represented.

You're correct that Antags don't spend more credits to roll again when you're risking a Link.

I've played several games of Shock: where the Protags are in the same place. The rules are not damaged by that; they just don't assume that you're all in the same place all the time. It's still someone's scene, but the following scene, you're just in the same place. You characters can count as Minutiæ if you want to support someone else's Intent, or if you have something you want out of the scene yourself, you can roll an Intent, just like normal.

Joshua,

Thanks for the reply. That really helps clarify things, especially with respect to multiple *Tagonists in a scene. Here's a couple follow-ups that got lost in the shuffle:

So can a protagonist (or any *Tagonist for that matter) allocate all his dice to d4s and not try to actually achieve anything in a scene? Like I mentioned above, the rules seem to allow it, but it ended up making the scene really wonky.

Also, who reveals their allocation of dice between d10s and d4s first - protagonist or antagonist?

Is there a rule on who sets the scenes after the first one - protagonist or antagonist?

In a scene where two protagonists are sort of opposing each other (Jerry trying to catch Huntress while Huntress just wants to find safety), does Huntress' antagonist spend credits and roll dice? Your answer makes it sound like her antagonist always rolls dice to oppose in her scenes and that another character may choose to pursue an intent as well or just serve as minutae. So we did not play out Huntress' last scene correctly since her antagonist did not spend any credits to roll dice in that scene. Am I understanding that right?

Thanks again, and kudos on a very engaging game..

You always have to roll at least 1d10. Otherwise, you don't really have an intention.

The dice reveal thing is open for negotiation. I've never had it be a real problem. If it's a real problem fo  your group, allocate the dice in your hand without showing anyone else until you throw them.

Antagonists really set the scenes, but it often makes sense to listen to the Protag to see what they're after.

When Protags are opposing each other, they roll normally. No one's using Antag Credits. This is not necessarily the case when on Protag represents the interests of the other's Antag.

So, Alice and Bob are in a conflict with their Protags. Charlotte is playing Alice's Antag.

You can choose one of these: Bob is using his dice, which can neither use Charlotte's credits nor resolve Alice's Story Goal; OR Charlotte is using Bob's Protag (probably with a whole lot of input from Bob), spending Credits, and possibly resolving Alice's Story Goal.

Dig?

Got it. Thanks for the clarifications. We'll be playing again tomorrow, so I'll update this thread soon after with any additional questions and a report of some more awesome play.

Rock. I look forward to it!