Author Topic: The Big Easy: Ghosts of the Past, Part Two  (Read 15997 times)

Offline mroehler

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 29
    • View Profile
The Big Easy: Ghosts of the Past, Part Two
« on: April 19, 2010, 07:31:27 AM »
The other day the remnant of my gaming group, myself and two others, embarked on the first step of our DFRPG campaign, rolling up characters and a city. We live in St. Louis, but let's face it, that's a boring city and would just come off as Chicago-Lite. So instead, New Orleans. We ended up giving NO the three main aspects of Devastation's Wake, Voodoo, and Let It Slide.

The first of the two characters are a War Vet Warden named John Whitfield, specializing in Air Magic and Wards (although I suspect this might change to a more Evocation-based caster), with the trouble Haunted By His Past. He was the former apprentice of Morgan, and is rattled by the constant violence he's exposed to, in both of his careers as a soldier in Desert Storm and a Warden. Other aspects include Rebellious Heir of the Whitfields (his upper-class WASP family), Fights for the Little Guy, Summer Hatin' and Band of Brothers. Superb Lore, Great Conviction, Discipline, and Resources. Sadly, does not have a Warden sword, bu the does favor a semi-automatic rifle.

The second character is a little outside the archetypes, with the high concept Unkneeling Coinbearer. Temperance Smith's story is that she killed a Denarian and picked up the blackened coin without fully realizing what it was; now she uses the powers of the coin to turn into a scorpion monster and fight against all the tyranny in the world. Trouble is "They're Out to Get Me; other aspects are Daddy's Paramilitary Princess, Strength Through Adversity, Whispers in the Dark, and "Some People Have Rigged the Enemy Base With Explosives." Her powers are Inhuman Strength, Claws, and Superhuman Toughness while in her Monstrous Scorpion form, with two Mortal Stunts, one increasing her ability to take Social Consequences, the other boosting her ability to use Demolition explosives. Great skills are Discipline, Fists, and Alertness.

I added in a third character, an NPC, but the guy I would be playing if I could, Jack Ellis (based off the incomparable Jack Burton of Big Trouble in Little China fame). A Pure Mortal with the High Aspect of Unwitting Sidekick, and the trouble In Way Over His Head. Works as a car mechanic, and while we were fleshing out New Orleans, we discovered that he also created and leads the citizen's vigilante group called the Privateers.

So with character creation done, we decided to start the first adventure with a fight scene. As the PCs were leaving the Speakeasy, Accorded Neutral Ground, an old sedan pulled up to the parking lot where John parked his classic Rolls-Royce (Temper just rides a bicycle), and out steps two Red Court Vampires. The Red Court has a significant presence in New Orleans, with two separate factions vying for control of the city. Interestingly, in my world, the Wizards have arranged a cease-fire with the vampires after significant losses on both sides. While it's a very uneasy peace, no one expected two vamps with Uzis to start trying to gun down NO's only Wizard. And the fight was on.

Temper used maneuvers to get cover immediately, while Whitfield stood out in the open and tried to Hex their submachine guns. Damn, those rules are incredibly complicated. We read the rules for a little bit, before we just decided to use an Evocation spell as a maneuver to put the Jammed tag on their guns. Anyways, however we did, one of their guns jammed, so that vampire moved in to melee. Temperance and the other vampire continued to exchange gunfire rather ineffectually. Whitfield used Thaumaturgy to create an instant Ward against the vampire attacking him (which you can't do). Then we had a few more rounds where the they were all attacking, Temperance using her pistol, the vampires using a combination of guns and claws. Then the Warden called down an Evocation to fry a vampire with Lightning, inflicting 8 Physical Stress on Mr. Vampire (ouch)!

Here's where I screwed up. He had already taken a gut shot courtesy of Temper (a moderate Consequence, among other things); I should have just Taken Him Out. Unfortunately, I just gave him the Severe Consequence Extra Crispy, and he continued to fight. It took three or four more rounds of combat to kill the now berserk vamp, while the other one drove away after he saw which way the fight was going. The PCs picked up a Mild Consequence each, and the Warden got a Moderate Physical One, Cracked Ribs IIRC. As the GM, it was my job to take out the nameless schmuck when it was dramatically appropriate, instead of just laying down condition after condition.

So now the question if why the RC vamps would risk violating the cease fire, and figure out what's going on. I'm still having trouble figuring out when to give Fate Points to my PCs as well; in retrospect, I should have handed one to the Warden when the vamps came gunning for him, right?

« Last Edit: June 16, 2010, 09:18:34 AM by mroehler »

Offline Mal_Luck

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1381
  • The Trope Master
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: City/Character Creation Report + Our First Fight
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2010, 07:50:38 AM »
So is Temperance's Denarian letting her use it's powers to corrupt her enough to take her over completely?

For the Fate Points, my suggestion would be to reread the Aspects chapter. I probably would have given a compel to the Wizard when the RC came a gunning.
DV Mal_Luck v1.2 YR3 FR1 BK++++ RP++++ JB TH(+++) WG(-) CL SW(+) BC(++) MC(--) SH [Molly+++ Murphy++]

Offline luminos

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1234
  • Um... Hello?
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: City/Character Creation Report + Our First Fight
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2010, 09:08:46 AM »
I would have given the warden a fate point, but it wasn't strictly necessary in that circumstance.  You give a fate point to a player whenever you compel one of their aspects to make life more difficult for them (or when a player self-compels).  You should generally try to put the characters in situations where you can get some interesting compels on them, so that their fate points don't run out too quickly.  Just remember, a player can refuse a compel by paying a fate point, so don't treat compels as a way to push the PCs onto a pre-built plot path.

So, to get back to the scenario with the RC vamps attacking the wizard:  I'd give the wizard a compel (with the attendant fate point) on his high concept aspect, because the Vamps attacked him for being the cities warden (and I'd pray that the player doesn't refuse it, because it would be a pretty boring campaign if the warden got to go home in peace and do nothing).  Then I'd compel Temperance's They're out to get me aspect to give her a fate point if she jumped into the fight because she falsely believed the vamps were gunning for her.

As to the problem of how many consequences you let the NPC's take:  It is generally a good idea to let the number of consequences they take be proportional to how large of a role they play in the story.  So for unnamed characters, you let them take a minor consequence at most, and the have them taken out or concede (which would be running away in this instance) once they take stress beyond their boxes.  For named characters that aren't central to the story, have only able to take a moderate and a minor consequence before needing to concede or be taken out.   Then when your characters face down one of the Big Bads or one of the top lieutenants, you can make the NPC take whatever consequences he can to stay in the fight and try to beat the heroes.
Lawful Chaotic

Offline Archmage_Cowl

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 521
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: City/Character Creation Report + Our First Fight
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2010, 07:38:03 PM »
i totally agree with the above posters idea on how many consequences to give opponents. Also if your having trouble with compels tell your players how they work and let them try to keep track of when they do stuff "in character" that causes them problems i tried that in my first session and its worked so far.

Also
"Some People Have Rigged the Enemy Base With Explosives."
Thats a tf2 quote right? lol ;D
"I who stand in the full light of the heavens, command thee, who opens the gates to hell. Come forth Divine Lightning! This ends now! Indignation!" Jade Curtis Tales of the abyss

Offline Victim

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: City/Character Creation Report + Our First Fight
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2010, 09:48:29 PM »
So is Temperance's Denarian letting her use it's powers to corrupt her enough to take her over completely?

Probably.  

However, Denarians supposedly thrive on suffering and fear.  A campaign to explode or otherwise kill monsters - especially monsters that tend to attach themselves to high places in mortal society, like Red and White vamps - might further its aims as a byproduct.  It might not have to do anything besides nudge a bit more towards paranoia and violence.

------------------

The end of the fight was prolonged for more reasons than just consequences dragging it out though.  First of all, Whitfield wasn't carrying a gun, and didn't have fists or weapons.  He took some backlash as mental stress (and took a minor physical consequence early), so his evocation juice ran out swiftly.  He wasn't packing heat and had neither weapons or fists, so he had no attacks at the end.  I had some bad defense rolls, so I was burning the free tags from John's maneuvers and the vampire's consequences to boost dodges instead of improving a hit by 2 more damage.

Also, Temper didn't turn into a horrible scorpion-person-thing that had +4 Weapon 3 attacks and Armor 2.  That would have done damage faster, and let me save free tags for offense since Supernatural Toughness would have meant less need to dodge.  Maybe not using her powers to avoid corruption and dependency would have been worth a Compel?

Finally, I'm kind of glad the fight went like that.  I was pretty worried about taking any consequence besides mild.  It was enlightening to see exactly how tough someone could be when going all out.  I wouldn't want every enemy to fight like that, but it was good to learn how of a difference it could make.  You can get a lot of variation in enemy threat from the same stat block just from increasing their willingness to concede or take consequences.  It'd kind of suck to be used to fighting 'wimpy' vampires who get taken out easily and then caught off guard by how damage they can potentially take later.

Quote
Thats a tf2 quote right? lol

I think it was in Homestar Runner first.

Quote
Then I'd compel Temperance's They're out to get me aspect to give her a fate point if she jumped into the fight because she falsely believed the vamps were gunning for her.

We generally play very team focused games, and our characters had worked together in a few background stories, so I had her jump in without any prompting.  Besides, I'd figure that a Compel of that aspect might involve her taking cover from the wizard AND the vampires, since he 'obviously' set her up...  A compel for a fairly combative character to help an ally in a fight seems pretty weak.

Offline Jessica

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 314
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: City/Character Creation Report + Our First Fight
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2010, 10:14:58 PM »
I'm not much help for gaming mechanics, but let me know if you need local advice on anything  for the setting. :)

Offline The Overseer

  • Lurker
  • Posts: 2
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: City/Character Creation Report + Our First Fight
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2010, 11:50:49 PM »
"Some People Have Rigged the Enemy Base With Explosives."

Win.
"...I break the silence now because I want the facts known. If I am to be judged by those who come after me, let me be judged by the truth."
Raistlin Majere

Offline mroehler

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 29
    • View Profile
First Real Session
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2010, 08:21:14 AM »
Hey, expert local knowledge on the city is always appreciated :)

We had our first real session of DFRPG today, again with John Whitfield the War Vet Warden and Temperance Smith the Unkneeling Coinbearer. Having survived the attempted hit by the Red Court, the duo got the hell out of Dodge, speeding away in the shot up classic Rolls Royce. They called their buddy Jack Ellis for some help to run the license plate number of the car that the vamp drove away in; he also agreed to help fix up the Rolls Royce. In return, he offers them a pickup truck that's older than Temper and John's ages put together, saying he doesn't trust them with anything nicer. Everyone starts to recover from their Consequences. John calls his old mentor Donald Morgan, warning that the vamps may be on the offensive, and urged caution. Morgan just told him to try not to restart the Wizard/Vamp war.

Meanwhile, Temper returns to her home, gets some sleep, and gets a job from a couple to hook their home with water, gas, electricity, etc. after FEMA rescheduled their activities, giving help to a different neighborhood. Here's where we fill in Temper's final missing Aspect, Stick It To The Man, throwing her a FP, and causing her to investigate. The Vampire Hit started the A Plot, here's the B Plot. She does some digging, meets with a plumber, and finds that the entire neighborhood has been skipped over. Posing as a reporter, she learns that the reassignment of personnel was by the order of Simon Walters (High Concept: Scheming Greedy FEMA SOB, Face of Legacy of Corruption), the head of the FEMA-led reconstruction efforts in New Orleans. She then met up with John for breakfast, and they ate at a Waffle House (for some reason?).

The group then tracked down Maya Stephenson, famous author of the bestselling vampire novels (and the leader of one of the factions of the RC in NO) to her loft apartment in the Warehouse district. Temper waited outside, not wanting to reveal her face to the vamps; John was admitted entry after agreeing not to start any trouble. Her bodyguard was some goth-looking poser with a trenchcoat, sunglasses, and a katana (Damocles lives again!). She offered him some coffee, which he accepted (I thought about having it laced with vamp spit), then she apologized for the attack against him, saying they acted without any consent from her or the RC. Evidently a vampire had been killed by an entropy curse, and some vamps blamed the local wizard; she then told him that he needed to investigate the affair, or else THEY would (and the Council would have no cause to complain). The two interacted for a little bit, and she used Rapport to reveal one of her aspects: Hates the Count (the other big RC vampire leader in NO). In retrospect, this really should have been a full blown social conflict. Oh Well. John left thinking that the Count had something to do with the assault, among other things.

Meanwhile, Temper noticed a man taking pictures of the building from a window across the street. I threw a FP at her to compel Paranoid, suggesting that she get rid of that camera. She climbed up to the roof, broke into the building, and tried to confront the photographer. She failed Stealth, and the PI, one Vince, ended up pointing a gun at her threatening to call the cops. Temper attempted an Intimidate, but failed when he revealed one of his aspects, Licensed Private Eye. Here we had a real social conflict, with the PI eventually winning (and inflicting a Flustered Minor Consequence on Temper), forcing Temper to leave. I tried to Compel her with Whispers in the Dark, the Fallen angel urging her to throw the guy out the window; sadly, she gave up a FP instead :( . When she returned to the truck, she got John to throw a hex onto the entire room, hopefully getting the guy's camera.

John then left with Temper to check out the crime scene where the boiler exploded, killing the vamp. He "dusted for prints" and was able to learn that there was an entropy curse, but not much else. I wasn't really sure how much to give him; I don't think that you can track someone just with the trace of a spell (otherwise BR would have been a much shorter case!). I think maybe I should have revealed more. Oh well.

The two then went to the city's foremost non-wizard practioner who happened to run a magic supply shop, Etienne Moiret. High Concept Power Hungry Houngan, a sorcerer who led a group of minor spellcasters (He's totally based on Russel Carson, but with specs in Curses instead). Here we had our first real social combat, with Temper and John up against poor little Etienne by himself. Sadly, it was kind of a drag; everyone had Great Discipline, and no one could do all that much to each other. John did do a great little maneuver by reminding him that he was a reasonable man (unlike some other Wardens), and tagged with Afraid of Donald Morgan (although we pointed out that everyone should have Afraid of Donald Morgan on them by default :)). One funny moment happened when Etienne pointed out how the wizards didn't do jack against the RC until the War, and that most humanity was at war with the vamps by default; Temper then assisted the guy :). However, eventually, Etienne offered a concession: he'd reveal what he knew about who used the entropy curse on the vampire, if the WC would sign on to him being a Freeholding Lord under the Accords. Whitfield agreed, and he learned that it was a woman named Cassie (and that Etienne basically taught her how to throw such a curse, and hooked her up with all the supplies).

John went to the address that Tien gave him. During this time, I think that Temper was attempting to find out why Simon Walters and FEMA was rescheduling their work orders to nicer neighborhoods; she learned that they were being bribed by some shell companies with links to Central and South America. While doing so, however, Temper attracted the attention of Simon Walters (she technically failed her Investigate, but I thought that success + bad consequence was more interesting. More to come on that later.

The house was in a run-down neighborhood battered by Katrina, and a woman answered the door. John introduced himself, and the woman hollered that someone was here to see Cassie. He noticed that a ring of salt, taped to the floor, ran all the way around the house. He also heard a door slam out back, and saw a woman running. They had a short chase scene, but John caught up and then used an Evocation to stop her with Air Magic. (He changed his character to be a lot more Air Evocation focused, instead of Thaumaturgy. Unsurprising.) He interrogated her, playing the nice guy and saying he was just here to help; it turned out she did cast the Entropy Curse, but that she also had Cassandra's Tears (hence her name. heh.) and that she Foresaw the vamp killing her. John pointed out that now all the vampires wanted her dead. It wasn't a real social conflict, but she agreed that next time she would go to him. When he helped her up from the ground, she had a vision about him, and seemed afraid for some reason. (Generic plot foreshadowing).

The two then met back up, compared notes, and then ate at Denny's (again, I don't know why; we joked that John should have the aspect Breakfast is the Most Important Meal of the Day). While they were eating, some Blackwater-esque ex-military commandos showed up and told them that Walters wanted to meet them. They made it clear that there wasn't really room for them to say no. Another social conflict! Joy! Walters first tried to play it nice by invoking his aspect Ex-Tank Commander and pointed out they both served in Desert Storm. No go. Then he tried to Intimidate them to back off, inflicting some stress. Still, not much, given everyone's Disciplines. He mainly ignored Temper, thinking her a bodyguard or detective, although he did try to use his Resources to bribe her, an automatic failure. John responded by creating a small vortex in the center of the room, a small Maneuver that resulted in Walters getting the Mod Consequence Freaked Out. I'm sure they'll find a way to invoke that next adventure too. In the end, John got the advantage, Walters Conceded to tell them stuff, and learned that he was being bribed by some shell companies, actually a man named Jacque St. Germaine (aka the Count, the other RC leader) to delay rebuilding in certain areas. He was curious as to why, so he hired some detectives (including Vince) to spy on St. Germaine and his known associates (like Maya). John and Simon exchanged some threats, then the heroic duo left.

Damn this is long. There's still two Scenes left, including the cliffhanger ending, but I'm gonna post this now. Overall, my impressions were pretty favorable, but social conflicts took WAY too long. There's no weapons or anything, so I guess the real way to do them is to put a billion or so tags on them, then hit your enemy with something big. It's a real pain when your two PCs have average social skills and great Disciplines though. Bleh. I just used Concessions to say "Okay, the other guy's kind of losing, here's some info or something."
« Last Edit: April 24, 2010, 08:36:38 AM by mroehler »

Offline Victim

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 75
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: City/Character Creation Report + Our First Fight
« Reply #8 on: April 24, 2010, 08:33:00 AM »
Right before the building exploded, Temper tells the Warden: "I told you so."

Her failed investigation was also sidetracked by her "discovery" that the secret ingredient of Coca Cola was derived from vampire venom.  :)

Offline SoulCatcher78

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 613
    • View Profile
    • dA page
Re: The Big Easy: First Real Session!
« Reply #9 on: April 24, 2010, 11:45:32 AM »
Sounds great so far.  I agree that the social combat aspect of the game sounds like it could drag out if you're not able to use aspects willy nilly.  Would this be like using a manuever in regular combat to speed things up? 

PC1 - I add manuever "prey on your fears of DM" (assumes success)
PC2 - I add manuever "support PC1 with evidence of what will happen with DM" (assumes success)
NPC - Holy crap, I have to defend myself (total defense of +2)
PC1 - going for the kill shot at +4
PC2 - just in case PC1 blows it I can follow up at +4

Would that work to speed things up or am I missing something mechanical?

Offline Moriden

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 357
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: First Real Session!
« Reply #10 on: April 24, 2010, 02:03:43 PM »
Quote
Whitfield used Thaumaturgy to create an instant Ward against the vampire attacking him (which you can't do).

That actually depend son the total complexity of the ward"ritual" and weatherit was equal to or less then the charecters lore +complexity bonuses.
Brian Blacknight

Offline luminos

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1234
  • Um... Hello?
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: First Real Session!
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2010, 02:07:27 PM »
That actually depend son the total complexity of the ward"ritual" and weatherit was equal to or less then the charecters lore +complexity bonuses.

And whether the vampire was willing to wait 15+ minutes for the wizard to finish the ritual.
Lawful Chaotic

Offline Moriden

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 357
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: First Real Session!
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2010, 02:20:25 PM »
Quote
And whether the vampire was willing to wait 15+ minutes for the wizard to finish the ritual.

Its noted that the merlin used a rather large ward in the middle of combat in one of the books, also if you have sponsored magic you can use thaumaturgy at evocation speeds, thirdly it dose not say that if you have enough complexity to combat cast an thaumaturgical ritual that it still takes 15 minutes in fact theirs no mention of specific time frames at all. so the assumption based entirely on the rules mechanics and the supporting evidence of the merlins"combat ward" is that if you can get enough success and have a high enough complexity threshold you can in fact combat cast a ward.
Brian Blacknight

Offline Deadmanwalking

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 3534
    • View Profile
Re: The Big Easy: First Real Session!
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2010, 02:25:36 PM »
The Merlin was in a big battle with armies, it may be assumed he actually did have 15 minutes to work while his people held off the Red Court.

That said, while you're right about the lack of a specific time frame, aside from Sponsored Magic that makes it the GM's call, so it'll depend on your GM whether combat Warding is possible. Personally, I'd probably allow it, but I'm definitely not the only GM out there.

Offline iago

  • The Merlin
  • Posty McPostington
  • *******
  • Posts: 3071
  • I'm the site administrator.
    • View Profile
    • Deadly Fredly
Re: First Real Session
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2010, 03:51:02 PM »
Damn this is long. There's still two Scenes left, including the cliffhanger ending, but I'm gonna post this now. Overall, my impressions were pretty favorable, but social conflicts took WAY too long. There's no weapons or anything, so I guess the real way to do them is to put a billion or so tags on them, then hit your enemy with something big. It's a real pain when your two PCs have average social skills and great Disciplines though. Bleh. I just used Concessions to say "Okay, the other guy's kind of losing, here's some info or something."

I strongly encourage you to have your NPCs be all about stacking up maneuvers in the first several exchanges of a social conflict. Great Discipline won't do much if your opponent's gotten the chance to hit several tags for a big bonus on the roll.

That said, I'm really worried that your PCs are all one-noting their defenses here using only Discipline: are their characters all a bunch of emotionless poker-faced types? Were the attacks all about trying to score mental stress hits (and if so what was the rationale for that)? Because Discipline is about emotional self-control -- making it an edge-case social defense only for particular kinds of attacks -- and about *mental* defense. If you look at the chart on YS120, social defense is much more about Rapport and Empathy (the ones that actually list Social Defense as a trapping).
Fred Hicks
I own the board. If I start talking in my moderator voice, expect the Fist of God to be close on my heels. Red is my Fist of God voice.
www.evilhat.com * www.dresdenfilesrpg.com
Support this site: http://www.jim-butcher.com/store/