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[Rustbelt] A betrayal & shooting at angry mobs twice

Started by Krippler, May 12, 2008, 09:04:59 PM

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Krippler

I played the fourth and for the time last session of this yarn recently. We will play some more Rustbelt, it's easy to see why this game isn't fit for this kind of campaigns with zero time lapses between the sessions (to heal up). Not much interesting happened from a testing perspective and I'll just summarize the story.

The legion arrived and Benisto was dumped in their base camp. Doc talks to the Centurion and buy some supplies so he can flee the upcoming carnage but he's forced to stay with them to help in the 'liberation'.

Jane, having rallied many citizens, gets an inoffical commande rank and lead a mob kicking down doors and shooting people who refuse wearing the Legions symbol.

Konrad does, after some hinting, ask Doc for pain meds so he can use his arms. Instant Vice 1 when he used them the first time. I wonder what would have been the most appropriate, either doing what I did (no Tough check to use arms if taking meds and adding 1 to Vice) or going by the mechanics (Getting 5 extra dice for Tough check and adding 1 to Vice). The reason I took the "friendlier" way was I really want Konrad to turn an addict.

Two mechanics defend their shop with great zeal. "Benisto"s new char leads the negotiations and the assault. One mechanic is captured and join the Legion when promised they will get to keep their stuff, the other one flees with a truck. This shop is surrounded by narrow tight tight alleys in all directions. Jane and the new character (can't even remember his name, he sucked) argues about what to do about the escapee.

Konrad and Doc face the truck in the alley (Konrad spotted the shop originally) and Doc outruns it and Konrad hits the dirt. When it's passed the board it and enter the cargo hold.

A plan is deviced to blow a hole into the "Palace" in which the town militia have holed up in. The captured mechanic says they've got dynamite in the truck. The truck is heading out of town.

For some reason I don't remember the truck comes to a halt outside town and Konrad rushes to the driver end and smash the window with a tire iron. He and the mechanic has a brutal brawl (tire iron vs. butt of rifle), my favourite part was when Konrad stated his goal was to pull the mechanic out of the seat and he tried to push Konrad away from him so he could use his rifle and someone pushed and both got into a mess on the ground. After beating the man to 20 blood he asked OOC: "what does it mean when you have 20 blood" and I was like "you die, eventually" and he was like "oh, I've got that". I gave Doc a 15 difficulty to stabilize each of them meaning he had to manage 30 to save both.

Here valid playtesting output occured: I asked Konrad how he felt almost beating a man to death over a truck and he took on the Faith "Everything goes when pursuing your goals". Bye bye empathy for obstacles!

Doc used his Faith in his own skill when he rolled and for something like 18 on it but he still got max in Sweat and a little in Blood for it. Jane and the other guy arrive and Doc is in a mess. Now hateful of the Legion (after he and Konrad arguing about the Legion Doc took on the Faith "The Legion will ultimately lead to Evil" and Konrad "The Legion will ultimately lead to Order (Order being his Hunger)" he threatens them with the rifle not to step closer and "ruin everything".

Jane, having been shot in the foot during the fighting decides to help Doc to the next City which is big and has a dedicated hospital. The new character returns to Harrison and has some toehr pretty uninteresting drama due to sucky planning on my part ("just roll Grizzled vs. 20 to see if you survive the battle"). The other three protagonists and the victim of their hijack drives off into the sunset.

Marshall Burns

Quote from: Krippler on June 26, 2008, 04:45:54 PM
He and the mechanic has a brutal brawl (tire iron vs. butt of rifle), my favourite part was when Konrad stated his goal was to pull the mechanic out of the seat and he tried to push Konrad away from him so he could use his rifle and someone pushed and both got into a mess on the ground.

That is great!  I really wanted results of actions to be unstable and unpredictable (but still within the range of expectations, in the sense of what we expect from the fiction) like that, even though intents and stakes (Danger) are clearly stated, and I'm super-glad that it works even for people who aren't me!

So, you mentioned about time lapses being necessary because of the healing rules.  This is, of course, intentional.  It's "realistic," I guess, but it's mostly supposed to be a thing that enforces a certain pacing.  The stories that I used to write about the Rustbelt ("used to" because playing the game is far easier and more rewarding) were done like that:  short, intense bursts of action and conflict suspended in time lapses and chronological convolutions.  So, Wilmer, how do you and your group feel about this constraint?  Does anyone resent it?  Is it just different but still interesting?  Or does anyone find it particularly cool?

-Marshall

Marshall Burns

Oh, and another thing:
The way that you handled the pain-killers is really the right way to do it.  I think it's a good idea to assign Challenge ratings for overcoming Injuries on a situational, case-by-case basis, rather than saying "this is a 20-point Injury."  Since Konrad was loaded on morphine (or whatever it was), the Challenge rating would be zero (or at least less than 10, which is functionally the same as zero since you don't roll for it).  Keeping Injuries entirely qualitative like this seems to work perfectly.  I mean, it's already been made clear to me through several clever moves on the part of my players that the immediate Color of the Situation -- the specific details of the circumstances -- is way more important than any of the numbers.

And, of course, when transforming Price and Damage (quantitative) into Injury (qualitative), just use the Rule of 20.  20 Price/Damage is enough for a grievous Injury like broken bones or torn ligaments or something.

Krippler

I think they understand that, however they are not keen on letting go of characters they've started to like (apart from Benistos player, he plays them full throttle till they die). No one has ever mentioned the game mechanics in a negative way which kind of worries me since the natural thing for me to do with something I liked would be analyzing the shit out of it and suggesting patches and improvements. They accepted this ending though since they all basically got shelved for future use. I have had one player ask for another game since he kind of thinks Rustbelt is just a toy while the other game is "the real deal" since it's a BRP variant.

I think I'll try put as much repetition or what you called in the Rustbelt setting to make it feel solid and coherent, it seems like a great trick especially if there are larger timelapses between different yarns and maybe when they play the bounty hunters they'll hear about "that war just over the horizon". Also I'll try to plan more events (bangs, bombs, whatever) and characters, I pretty much made all of them up on the spot and since that shows the players put alot less value in them than in a character that has had some time put into it. I think having the players make the characters a few days before the actual session would help me alot since the story originates from them and all of the crunch is within their psyches.