Actual Play: The Ghost of Raymond Chandler and the Paradox of Choice

[FishStampede]

No real spoilers, but my players don't really want to read my slightly snarky recap, do they?




So, I built my first session around three characters. I had them all planned out, and had the others slotted in as "will show up where needed." So, naturally, all three of them cancelled, and I was stuck with two players and no plans for them. Lesson learned.

With two incredibly disappointed and disheartened players, I decided to run a semi-canon combat test just to get things running. I actually had a plan for this scene to happen much later, but I ran it as a cold open just to get everyone involved. As Raymond Chandler said, if things are dull, send in thugs with guns and figure out why they're there later. Well, Raven Mockers are close to thugs with guns. So we had an Autumn Knight baker wrapping up a day at her bakery when suddenly three naked old people with bird feathers decided to jump her for reasons I will have to figure out eventually.

The scene was a cramped and dark alley. I decided to compel one of her aspects to let the Raven Mockers get the jump on her. I was moderately afraid when the thing rolled a 5 shift damage against her right out the gate. Yeesh. So she took a consequence of "Tis but a scratch" and then it took a while to explain that 3 stress does not mean you mark off all 3 boxes. That player has experience with D&D only, so I decided to focus on her more than the other player since she needed more explanation to get into the feel of this.

Next it was her turn, so I asked what she wanted to do. She asked what could she do. I answered anything, what do you want to do? This went on for a while until it reached Countdown to Final Crisis-levels of absurdity. Eventually I started throwing out suggestions and she decided to do a block, using her Sponsored Magic to summon a shield of wind around herself to protect from attacks. Progress was made.

The Raven Mockers are actually pretty balls when it comes to a straight-up fight, so now things were more even. It couldn't get through her shield and was sent aside by the wind, so I gave helpful suggestions on how to handle it. She stabbed it with a knife that she had as an aspect, and did some pretty good damage. I decided not to use mook rules since this was just a test, and let it take a consequence of "pinned" as she ran its shoulder through and against the wall. However, it's cry drew the attention of the others who were searching for her.

Next I decided to bring in the other player. He is a bit more systems-savvy and playing a wereraven. Perfect for dealing with Raven Mockers. I gotta give him props, what he managed to do in bird form was damn impressive. He distracted the first add to arrive by using a maneuver to give it an aspect of "What just hit me?" as he intercepted its dive and sent it crashing into garbage cans. It threw it off immediately with an Alertness roll, but that still took it out for one round.

The other Raven Mocker managed to tag the Knight's consequence by grabbing her injured side in order to apply an aspect of "Disarmed" to her and take her knife. This led to another argument because she assumed that would be two actions. I eventually explained, carefully, that it was not in fact two actions because it did no damage and the end result was it was still Pinned by her knife, just she was no longer holding it.

She was rather upset by this, particularly the interaction of the Pinned Consequence on it, and the Disarmed aspect on her. I explained that she could in fact still tag that Pinned for free, she just had to be creative. After successful negotiation, she used her Autumn Winds to spin it around, slam it against the wall, and tag the aspect in order to drive the knife clean through. Awesome.

So back to the wereraven, he used his Deceit to apply an aspect of Hot Pursuit to the Mocker he hit earlier, and the two were off into the sky. I realized at this point I forgot to create zones for the sky above this alley, but I think I managed to *sunglasses* wing it. YEAAAAAAHH

The Raven Mocker fighting the Knight turned itself towards her and tried to enact what I had originally planned. It rolled Fists to try to grab a bit of her hair...and whiffed. Seriously, it was a -3 and a blank. It just totally botched that one and might as well have been trying to hit the moon. The one on the wereraven managed to do the exact opposite and hit him for four stress! Until we looked into it and realized that with the wereraven's Inhuman Speed and Diminutive Size he actually only hit for two. The wereraven took it like a trooper and the Raven Mocker managed to overtake him briefly.

The Knight didn't realize what the Raven Mocker was up to, and decided to just torch the bastard. She summoned up an extra shift of power, using the last of her Mental Stress track and summoned up a flurry of autumn leaves. They settled around the raven, and then, after a beat, all burst into flames. I barely had to prod at all, so she seems to be getting the hang of it. The raven was toast, and I changed the previous "Dimly Lit" aspect to "Brightly Lit and Smells Like Chicken."

Back to the pursuit, the wereraven used an Assess to determine an aspect of the Raven Mocker. He wanted to know how maneuverable it was, and I have "Big Black Bird of Death." so I decided that meant it was kinda clumsy in the air, at least compared to the inhumanly quick wereraven. I decided he gets a free tag for that, but that was the extent of his actions.

Another whiff, but barely from the Mocker attacking him. I had the third Mocker join the fight and thanks to its badass stealth it managed to snag a bit of the Autumn Knight's hair. She turned and, not wanting to risk the Consequences of further mental stress swung her knife. It was her turn to whiff.

Next the wereraven managed the epic win of the night. He made a Deceit roll to get it to slam into a wall, invoked his aspect of Trickster's Chosen, and tagged the other two aspects all at once. I treated it as a Weapon 0 attack, but with the combination of Trickster's Chosen, its Big Black Bird of Doom aspect, and the Hot Pursuit maneuver, he managed an astounding 11 shifts of damage. I didn't even bother applying consequences, though I guess I technically could have. It just seemed cheap after that. It managed to sucessfully break its own fool neck slamming facefirst into a wall and I described its death with the old joke of the bug's last thoughts at the windshield.

Sadly, they thought I was just making a random joke and not narrating its death. They looked so expectant. Tough crowd.

The remaining Raven Mocker, with the Autumn Knight's hair, took off effectively sprinting straight up. I decided it made it over 20 feet before the Knight got her turn. With few other options, she called upon her power once more. I gave her the option of taking either a moderate consequence (as her mild was already filled) or taking a point of Debt. Oh that fool, she took the debt. I will remember this.

So she cast the spell and, after some negotiation of its actual effect, she did a block on it against flying. I guess it didn't think its cunning plan all the way through. As its feathers molted into autumn leaves, it plummetted to the ground, and I had to pause to look up the falling rules. Well, that's interesting. I managed to roll a grand total of 1 on its athletics check to catch itself. 9 shifts of damage was, I guess, technically survivable if I wasn't using mook rules. But like with the other one, I decided it was better to train my players to be clever so I mookified it for these purposes. It splatted on the ground.

With no Fate points left, I decided the most interesting course of action would now be to Compel the wereraven. He has a Trouble of "ooh, shiny!" so I decided he really liked her knife. He swooped in and tried to carry it away, but that was to no avail. A very brief exchange occurred before he outwitted my compel, conceded, and took a consequence. She threw the actual raven into a pile of garbage, and he took a consequence of "smells like garbage." It was only really Mild, maybe Moderate if it was particularly fragrant, but since this was a fairly weak conflict to begin with I just gave him the consequence and didn't give him the fate point for cashing out. He then returned to human form and explained himself, and the two of them decided to figure out just what the heck those things were. Oh, and get him some pants.

After that, me and the Knight's player managed to figure out a couple Focus items she needed to shore up her weaknesses. Hopefully knowing that she is better at fire for offense and wind for defense will help her out in the future. I also think I need to better incorporate ALL the players so if someone misses a game, it's not so crippling to my plans. Still, sending in the bird-ninjas managed to at least make for an interesting fight. It took longer than it should have, but likely it will get easier in the future once we're all more familiar with it.

So, in conclusion, I found pretty much both the flaws and the benefits of the system. It's very flexible, but that in itself can also be hindering. The wereraven's player managed to take pretty good advantage of the Aspects system to destroy an enemy without even using a combat skill. The Autumn Knight was often paralyzed by the idea that she could do anything if she tried hard enough. I think she was looking for a spell list. Towards the end she seemed to get the hang of it and I really liked her use of blocks at the end. I'm sure I personally made some systems errors which someone will helpfully point out. To be fair, I've never played the system. I'm trying to go straight to GM without being player first, so there's bound to be some hiccups.

Also, I now need to figure out why the Raven Mockers were there, when for reasons too complex to discuss, they should not have been. That can be dealt with next wee,

[admiralducksauce]

I don't know how jumbled the actual session was, but reading it over, it seems like it went pretty smoothly except for the hiccups you highlighted.

Throwing a magic user new to the system into DFRPG cold probably would result in just what you experienced. I doubt your "she's looking for a spell list" issue will last long. Either she'll come around to the idea of doing what you want, or she'll figure out a set of effects that work and she'll have, in essence, her own spell list. Problem solved! I love the "leaves gently float down around the target - and BURN THEM!" spell.

I think I managed to *sunglasses* wing it.

You get golf claps for that one. 

Seriously, it was a -3 and a blank. It just totally botched that one and might as well have been trying to hit the moon.

That happens to me all the time. </Indy>  You get a bad guy perfectly lined up to really raise the threat against the PCs or to accomplish some kind of evil objective, and the dice just screw you. Have you tried using uglier dice? They seem to roll better.

Also, I now need to figure out why the Raven Mockers were there, when for reasons too complex to discuss, they should not have been. That can be dealt with next wee,

Simple leverage. The Raven guys found out where the Knight was (maybe someone from her backstory hired the mockers?) and wanted to get their hooks in / have a killswitch before she really came into her power (ie, learned the setting and the rules). Of course, the good guys don't have any survivors to question so you don't even need to know why for next week. You just need to know who.

[FishStampede]

Oh yeah, she was definitely getting the hang of it by the end. The other player had spent more time studying the books in detail and had read more of the books, so he started at a little higher level. When she got in the feel, the burning leaves were genius and I hope she rotes it (you can rote sponsored magic, right?). I wonder if she would have been better going for a Wizard or a character with a list of elements. A little more structure does wonders, and Sponsored Magic has very little structure.

Overall though, you are right it went fairly smooth. Once the players started to get the hang of things, they were coming up with good effects and descriptions. I need to brush up on some of the more obscure rules like falling, because it took me a minute to find out just how badly the dewinged Raven Mocker was screwed. I also need to learn how to better explain certain rules concepts since sometimes my attempts at resolving the debates were less than helpful.

All in all, a combat with two sides and five total participants taking around an hour and a half (short session due to cancellations), including rules lookups, arguments over unclear concepts, and moment of back-and-forth over "what can I do/what do you want to do" isn't bad at all. I imagine, had we been more familiar with the system, we could have handled a combat twice as big in half the time. Very fast-paced once you get the ball rolling.

Sadly, due to complicated factors the player is both aware and unaware of (and I know the players browse this forum), your explanation does not work. Still, the last bit I think cuts to the heart of the matter: "Who" is more important than "why." I very well know "who," and "why" can come later. And, now we have a hook in the story for two of the characters I was iffy about. The third character has Guide My Hand, which realy should be entitled "hook my plot." In the immortal words of Father Forthill, "You need a babysitter again, don't you?"

Oh yes, if you want to know about the Raven Mockers, they're at the end of this post: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,33139.0.html

Just don't go there if you're in my campaign, please!

[PapaD]

I don't know about everyone else

But when it comes to make characters with sponsored magic, i have my players build them exactly as if they had taken evocation/thaumaturgy (either, or both, depending on the type of sponsorship chosen) - that way, an evoker still has to pick 3 elements, and still gets a specialisation, even if they are using summer magic - they just have to make sure the stuff they pick fits thematically.

Sponsored magic is essentially discounted evocation/thaumaturgy/both - with the discount being there because of the inherent limits of the sponsors agenda.

[Becq]

Er ... Sponsored Magic is channeling + ritual, not evocation + thaumaturgy.  So they get the equivalent of one element and one theme, with no additional specializations (other than what their sponsored magic grants them) unless thay also buy evocation and/or thaumaturgy.

[FishStampede]

Ah, I see. Thank you. I didn't realize that about Sponsored Magic. I'll have to discuss this with my player now since I've been letting her get away with using various elements instead of just one.

[PapaD]

OK, so, I've just gone back and reread the whole sponsored magic bit, and you're right

However, sponsored magic does allow multiple elements for channeling - its just that all elements have to be related to the sponsor - so autumn magic has to be related to autumn (so, storms, decay etc, so the wind and fire stuff your Autumn knight did could still be viable. The fire coming from Autumn forest fires, cutting back the growth ready for the new growth to come in spring, and of course the wind is easy. You could also justify the use of lightning, rain, hail, or even some entropic stuff.)

The same would apply to Ritual - its not that you are limited to say, wards, or crafting, or summoning etc, but rather that you are limited to effects that you (and the player) can reasonably justify as falling within Autumn's remit. So, a ward against the other fae courts could be allowable, but a ward that also works against vampires, maybe not so.

Obviously, with things like hellfire - the element fire is pretty much inherent in the description.

[UmbraLux]

However, sponsored magic does allow multiple elements for channeling - its just that all elements have to be related to the sponsor

It doesn't allow multiple elements, it uses a nonstandard element.  In your example's case, Autumn.  A fine point perhaps but it will matter when you start adding refinements.

- so autumn magic has to be related to autumn (so, storms, decay etc, so the wind and fire stuff your Autumn knight did could still be viable. The fire coming from Autumn forest fires, cutting back the growth ready for the new growth to come in spring, and of course the wind is easy. You could also justify the use of lightning, rain, hail, or even some entropic stuff.)

Sure...and it's all "Autumn" magic.  To a wizard without fae sponsorship it may look like a mix of Air, Fire, Water, Spirit, and Earth...but the caster doesn't necessarily have any of those. 

[FishStampede]

Ahh, okay. So it's Autumn as her element, she can't take refinements without Evocation, and she should stick to the 3 or so elements of a novice wizard? That actually works rather well and has been developing organically. So far she's been sticking to bitter winds, burning leaves, and water (possibly spirit)-based dissolution attacks. She also threw a pumpkin grenade once in a backstory, but that's awesome and I will let it slide. Pretty much exactly where I expected Autumn to fall in the elemental pentagram.

I'll make another topic about sponsored magic so we can discuss this topic further.