Last night we wrapped up our first game of Dirty Secrets.  It’s been a bumpy ride at times, especially since the rules have shuffled around during this particular playtest, but it has been a worthwhile run, both from a playtest and story perspective.

Actual Play

When we last left our hero (such as is), Robert had just fought his way into a mobile home past Debbie Sandberg (his client) and Mollie George (his daughter), to discover that they were preparing for a violent confrontation of some kind.  Oh yes, his client was accidentally shot, and, in the course of the struggle, he had knocked out his daughter.

So, Robert beats a hasty retreat from the mobile home, especially since the police were coming.  Stepping over Debbie, he picks up the check that she had written for him and drives off.  He decides that he needs to come clean with Steven Sandberg, the husband of his client.  So he finds him and dumps everything on him while driving him to the hospital to see Debbie.

Then, in one of those odd convergences, Robert got a call from the mother of Stephanie Bloskovich.  Robert had gone looking for Stephanie at her house earlier that day, and Stephanie’s mother was calling to say that Stephanie’s half-sister had called and left a message for Stephanie.  She wanted Stephanie to meet her down at the Rhythm Kitchen.  The half-sister?  Courtney Jackson.

So Robert goes down to the Riverfront and stakes out the Rhythm Kitchen.  Courtney and Stephanie eventually show up, and Robert tails them into the restaurant.  Stephanie has been working with Courtney all along.  Indeed, she was supposed to set up Debbie and Mollie, and thinks that she has been successful in doing so.  Courtney is concerned that Jeff Stuber is going to double-cross them and thinks that Stephanie should keep her distance, but Stephanie isn’t really listening to her.  Both of them are prepared for the deal that is about to go down nearby.

After they eat, they walk over to the Riverfront Village parking ramp, where they meet Jeff.  He isn’t happy with how things are going.  He doesn’t like how they are selling out Debbie, and he wants to back out, along with the drugs that Debbie provided.  He pulls a gun to emphasize his point.  At this point, the last person shows up:  Steven Sandberg.  He is drawing on his wife’s old drug connections to coordinate this sale, and then he will leave Debbie holding the bag.  Jeff is very unhappy at this point and again demands that he be given the drugs.  Steven accedes to his wishes and tells Courtney to get the drugs for Jeff.  Courtney goes to a nearby car and pops the trunk.  Reaching in, she pulls out a gun and fires.

Robert is witnessing all this without intervening.  When the shooting begins, he slips back to one of the Emergency buttons that are all over the Riverfront and summons the police.  Then he thinks of Mollie.  Maybe this will let her escape the mess that she is in.

Then Steven stumbles around the corner to take cover.  He sees Robert and brings his gun around to fire.  Robert already has his weapon drawn and uses it to strike Steven in the face.  He stumbles backwards, firing wildly.  Robert has no other choice but to shoot him.  Down he goes, not dead, but seriously wounded.  At this time, the police begin to arrive, so Robert makes good his escape.

Robert goes to the hospital to see Debbie and confront her with the truth.  There never were any stolen drugs, because Debbie had actually stolen them and hidden them herself before she was arrested.  She wanted to pin the blame on someone else for her own double-cross.  Robert then takes out the check that she gave him and hands it back to her.  “I would like to be paid,” he says, “but only if you think that I’ve done something worth being paid for.”  Then he leaves the hospital room.

Mollie is waiting for him at his apartment.  She spills her story.  While in the hospital, she lost the baby.  But she was already miscarrying because of her drug habit.  When she found this out, Bill killed himself out of guilt.  He had gotten her pregnant, and he had gotten her hooked on drugs.  He blamed himself, and so he killed himself.

When Mollie got up to leave, Robert asked her to wait.  He said that she could stay with him.  He said that he wanted to be a good father.  He said that he wanted one last chance to make it right.

Mollie refused to listen to him.  “You already had your last chance,” she said.  Then she walked out the door.

Robert chased after her.  “Please,” he begged.  “Just one more chance.  I have nothing left except you.”

Mollie turned to look at him.  “You have nothing left?  I have nothing left.  Two days ago, I had a home, a man who loved me, and a baby.  I have nothing left.”

Robert said, “We can help each other.  We can take care of each other.”

Mollie paused for a moment.

“No.”

Robert watched her as she walked away from him down the street.  Then she turned the corner and was gone.

The End.

Thoughts and Stuff

We were all fairly tired last night, which is really too bad.  I didn’t feel the game as much as I might normally.  Also, since this is a playtest, there were rough rules that we still tripped over.

The biggest one, as noted by Ralph in another thread, is that the 6 x 6 Grid is really big.  When we started, the Grid rules were a bit different, but even so, there is a need to tweak it up some.  I think that I will make a few center squares impassable.  Between this and the addition of some special spaces, I think that it will work much better.

We tried out a rule for Crime Resolution.  If you roll a blank space for Crime Resolution, in addition to filling in your current square, you can write in a name anywhere on the Grid.  This seemed to work fairly well.

Oddly enough, two of the three Crimes that we had were committed by their Victims.  Bill Cornman’s murder turned out to be suicide, and the cocaine theft was actually just a sham.  This was particularly weird in Bill’s case, since his name only appeared on the Grid twice.

When you resolve all your Crimes, you play out one last scene, which has to resolve everything.  Our final scene was the final conversation between Robert and Mollie.  When I said that the conflict was going to be over if Mollie stayed or left, everyone became very intent.  Strangely enough, I managed to overcome Crystal in conflict twice in a row during this scene.  She never loses Liar’s Dice, but, for some reason, I had her number this time.

After the second exchange, Crystal decided to let the conflict end.  She could have pushed further, but her aesthetic sense kicked in.  I’m glad that the game allows for that.

As I said, we were all very tired, so there wasn’t a lot of post-game reflection or post-playtest rules thoughts.  However, both Gabrielle and Crystal agreed that it had been a satisfying experience.

For myself, I’m pretty stoked that the game seems to be coming together.  There are still rough edges that need to be smoothed out, but I’m confident that I will be able to do so.

And now, for a little post-game reflection.

At the time, it certainly seemed like a tragedy that Mollie did not want to be reconciled to Robert.  But, thinking about it now, I’m not sure that is true.  We had established that Robert was a lousy father when Mollie was younger.  We had also established that he hadn’t done much better during the game itself.  Sure, he gave Mollie shelter that one night, but when push came to shove, he shoved her.  The case was more important that she was, and he physically attacked her as a result of that.  Would she really have been safe staying with him?  Probably not.

Where will she go now?  I really don’t know.  But, sadly, I think that it will probably be better than staying with Robert George.  And that’s probably the saddest part of this story.