After Action Review: Magical Spokane's First Session

[Lanodantheon]

Since the devs have been asking for reports of actual play, I'd thought I'd share my group's first session, which was also the debut(for us at least) of Magical Spokane, Washington.

The People:

The GM: Myself.  No experience in FATE.

The Players: 4 Veteran Role-players. No Experience in FATE

1 of us had not read the books, but got what they were about and why the were cool. He was playing because the system + setting sounded neat. 2 of us (myself and my brother) devour the books. 2 of us started reading the books recently and can't put them down (One of my players doesn't read, but he can't put down Dresden)

Dramatis Personae (In no particular order):

1. The Negotiator (complete with Big O and Samuel L. Jackson jokes): Pure Mortal Lawyer turned Metaphysical Stock Broker for the supernatural. He is a Freeholding Lord, Owner of The Blue Moon Tavern(Accorded Neutral Territory) and features the Aspect, Bargaining is a Science.

2. Edgar Poe, Pure Mortal Spokane Cop on the Gang Task Force. He had 2 aspects that ended up being licenses to print FATE points and for moments of dramatic convenience: Unbeliever and Right Place, Right Time.

3. The Dark Disciple of Lancelot: An abducted Semi-Demi-Hemi Son of Thor Zeus, he is an item wanted by the entire supernatural community. The Summer has tried to buy him by creating a Sidhe specifically to be his one true love. Their marriage makes for the much compelled and invoked, My Love is a Seelie.

4. Puck: Changling Trickster of the Summer Court. A paper thin, weak muscled physical combatant, this guys was also a Social Combat Abrams Tank. He had Glamours and featured the Aspects of Glamourous Life of the Partay, Native of Two Worlds and We Don't Need No Winter, Let The Motherf&#$!@ Burn!

The pre-game:


We had spent most of the previous night (About 3 hours total) making characters. The next day, we had to spend an hour double checking characters, and making a new one for someone who be there the day before. I flexed my INTJ brainstorming muscles and helped create The Negotiator Phase-by-Phase with nothing but his High-Concept to build on and the throwing of ideas out there.

Tip to our people also new to FATE: READ THE RULES. Many of us, including myself, did not read the rules well enough. I'll get to that in a minute.


The Game's Setting:

We used mostly what had been posted in the Spokane Game thread for our City Creation. We then went location by location of places we know we wanted to go and made up a few location cards.

Tip to other gamers: If you have a computer with internet access in easy reach and you are playing in a Real City, keep a Firefox tab open to Google Maps. Especially Street View. We should have done this(it even says so in the book) but we didn't.


The Game Itself:

WE are a group that normally Roll-plays collections of stats on character sheets and has fun between digressions into talking about WoW. Normal play time: 5-6 hours on average (only 75% of that time is Roll-playing)

The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game made us Roleplay our characters for 10 hours straight without digressing (except for food).

Ho....Ly.....S%$#!!!!!!!! That's never happened before.

1) Between the 4 of us, we've been exposed to over 30 RPG systems. Of all of them, FATE was by far one of the easiest and simplest to learn and get used to....but it still kicked our asses.

a) Because we idiots did not read the rules well enough, no one used assessments, invocations, tags or the placing of temporary aspects very well.

b) New players who want to play Supernatural Characters greatly underestimate and overlook Mortal Stunts. The Dark Disciple's many powers made him do freaky things but none of that compared to Sgt. Poe's Tough as Nails, which saved his ass more than all of those powers.

2) We did not realize how important Aspects are until I tried like hell to compel a few to keep the economy going.

a) The Dark Disciple had a few too many aspect that were impossible to relate to the adventure I was running as did Puck.

b) I got called out a lot for Weak Compels, but it ended up that the pure mortals ended up with more Fate Points than they could spend.

c) when a few of the players finally got a handle on aspects, it got cool.
example: Puck had found out about this...festival of tricksters taking place in the area on April 1st and that someone was setting traps for the Little Folk who normally win every time. He decided to negotiate with Skywalk Little Folk's Leader, The Sky King to help them out. Knowing that The Sky King wears Teddy Bears as Armor, Puck bought a new one to place an aspect, A Gift Fit For A King onto the scene. It was a Fate point for Dramatic convenience well spent. He made an assessment to find out if The Sky King had an aspect like, Can't Resist a Good Prank. I decided that was true and the duel of negotiation began. Social is just like physical combat; same rules, same use of aspects, same placing of temporary aspects, same assessments, same everything. The difference are the skills used and the stress track affected. It was epic.

d) When you make characters on the fly using a single aspect and then adding more as you go, you get throw-away characters with a lot of depth that become staples of the campaign very quickly. The Sky King was made off the cuff by 3 of us over the span of a few minutes. Now he's a staple of our world.

3) If you're going to keep track of Fate points, use Poker chips. It gets new players to understand their importance immediately, and if you have a full set, you can color code them to players.

4) The devs have written that combat sucks, that you should be terrified of it the way Harry is. I told my players this. They went in like it was 4th Ed. D&D, every man for himself tank & spank. Guess what happened?

a) My Big Bad Wolves showed that even Inhuman Strength and Speed is to be feared. In an apartment building, after taking out 1 with a cold iron bullet to the head, Sgt. Poe took cover and ambushed the second. Good call. He shot the BBW's buddy and nailed the serious consequence One-Eyed Wolf and forever labeled him Anubis when I described the shot as taking off the head of his Skin-Suit. Anubis took cover, his two buddies went into the laundry room next door. Next exchange: the BBWs teamed up their strength and threw a Washing Machine through the wall a Sgt. Poe. He took 2 mild consequences (thank you Tough as Nails). He got taken out after taking another mild and moderate after the next exchange when the BBWs rammed him with the Dryer and kicked him out the hole in the wall, onto his patrol car. It was epic...

Unfortunately, Real Life happens, I will edit this post or reply to the thread to continue my report of our experiences.

EDIT: Bolded a few things for easier reading. COrrected the Grandcester of the Dark Disciple.

[SoulCatcher78]

"Tank and Spank"...consider that one yoinked!

Sounds like a great time.  I've got a couple of questions for you:

How much character tweaking do you see before your second session (now that they seem to have a better handle on how aspects will relate to the game)?

Was your lack of spell caster types (as in pyromancers, etc) done due to power level or because the magic system is different from what you're used to?

With everyone familiar  (at least to some extent) with the city did you run into any of the "but that's not there" issue?

[Lanodantheon]

How much character tweaking do you see before your second session (now that they seem to have a better handle on how aspects will relate to the game)?

Every character needs a second pass.

The Dark Disciple of Lancelot needs every aspect reexamined. He also underestimated the power of Mortal Stunts until he saw "Tough As Nails" in Action.

Sgt. Poe is well off, but his skills need to be redone because he had a high Drive as opposed to high Athletics for what the player wanted his character to do. His High Concept of Joe Detective is going to change to Celebrity Detective though. Especially since he has a higher Investigation than Murphy...

Puck is being completely reworked because of how his player discovered the true nature of his character. Puck has a Counterpart in Winter, if they both made the choice to become Mortal, they'd be a perfect match, until then they love to hate each other. This was reflected in his Trouble, Opposites Attract. Now it will be reflected as, My Winter Counterpart Has a Nice Ass.

The Negotiator was the best character design-wise. The only downside to him was that A) his player hadn't read the books and B) is a min-maxer extraordinaire(truth, not a put-down, even he admits it) still stuck in D&D mode. If the NEgotiator had identified himself, Poe wouldn't have be kicked out the hole in the wall.

Was your lack of spell caster types (as in pyromancers, etc) done due to power level or because the magic system is different from what you're used to?

That came about because of 3 factors:

1) I mentioned that it would be a good idea for only people who have read the Dresden Files to play spellcasters. ALthough we still need to learn the Spellcasting rules, people who haven't read the books can't have those leaps of imagination needed to do everything that is possible with Evocation and/or Thaumaturgy. The refresh would go to waste with someone going, *Huff* "I can't do anything..." *Puff*

2)  Puck actually had Seelie Magic, but it didn't really fit the character. It didn't help that his player didn't read all the spellcasting rules or frequent this forum (despite being a Forum troll) to find out about Focus items, enchanted items, rotes and whether or not Seelie Magic granted them.

3) No one felt like giving Wizard, Sorceror or Focused Practitioner a try.

Next time we will though.

With everyone familiar  (at least to some extent) with the city did you run into any of the "but that's not there" issue?

Nope, everyone understood that issue right out of the gate. Everyone's lived in the Spokane Area for years, so during City Creation I found out about places I didn't know Spokane had.

Next time we are running with Google Maps Street View open in a tab during play.

[Mal_Luck]

My Winter Counterpart Has a Nice Ass

Best. Aspect. Ever. Of all Time.

[mastetwindu46q]

Best. Aspect. Ever. Of all Time.

I. Totally. Agree.

[Deadmanwalking]

2)  Puck actually had Seelie Magic, but it didn't really fit the character. It didn't help that his player didn't read all the spellcasting rules or frequent this forum (despite being a Forum troll) to find out about Focus items, enchanted items, rotes and whether or not Seelie Magic granted them.

Yes, it does. See the following thread and those linked to in it:

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,17085.0.html

[Lanodantheon]

Continuing my tale of Magical Spokane's first outing.

The Game Itself:

4) The devs have written that combat sucks, that you should be terrified of it the way Harry is. I told my players this. They went in like it was 4th Ed. D&D, every man for himself tank & spank. Guess what happened?

b) When the first combat ended, the first words out of a player's mouth was, "Combat Sucks! This isn't D&D! This is Cyberpunk!"
The second set of words, "We're going to have to work together next time!"
Third, "Right, I'll be ready for those baddies next time."
Me: "Duh....I told you guys this, but you didn't believe me. "

Everyone now looks at me like they've been stupid for the past hour.

c) I wish the first book had more examples of Consequences at all levels. I could only think of so many on my own, but the book is already 400+ pages long.

d)  Tip to other new players: Remind your players that there is more than just physical combat and that it's okay to do so.

The Negotiator is a Freeholding Lord, he's a walking City-State. They were fighting Faeries. We were trying to get a handle one combat, sure, but if he had identified himself, the BBWs would have negotiated with him. They wouldn't necessarily ask for Tea and Biscuits, but a social encounter to get them to stop would have been just as fun as physical combat (like it was negotiating with The Sky King) and The Negotiator would have owned. And, Sgt. Poe wouldn't have ended up in the Hospital.

e) Overall, Combat is fun. A week later, Sgt. Poe's player is still talking about almost getting killed by a Washing Machine/Dryer.

5) City Creation in the town you are in is very rewarding.

a) Most of my players hate the town we live in. My primary acid test for the DFRPG was City Creation.

If the DFRPG could turn that perpetual p%$# and vinegar into fun, the game is good....

Conclusion after 1 session? The Game F&$#ing works....

b) Even going outside the city is fun. I decided to let them go into the Nevernever for a little bit. They ended up in a Green Field.

They followed of stone path and encountered a Pile of Straw (My brother abruptly facepalmed and still wants to kick my ass),
then a Pile of Broken Branches,
then (everyone asked at once) a Pile of Shattered Bricks.
They ended up at a house Reinforced Steel Bunker/Bomb Shelter. It was manned by a 500lb. Faerie Pig sporting an Elmer Fudd Rifle. This was a hard compel of Sgt. Poe's Unbeliever, "I am on Morphine....in Sacred Heart....I am tripping Balls..."


6) April Fool's Day Faerie Mischief is fun...

Antics included(These were adlibbed):

A troll got pinned to the Target sign by a giant arrow.

A classroom or two at Gonzaga got warded against mortal flesh just before a test.

A Bar Mitzvah got it's main course replaced with a Hogtied and Glamoured Faerie Pig with an apple in his mouth. When the Glamour went down, the pig went, "Hey!!!!!!" (I am still getting dirty looks for that one.)

Some Sidhe dropped some quarters on the ground in the downtown. A lot of bargains were made that day.....

But, I never got chance though for the Leanansidhe's Protegee to do her musical number.....


The PCs' compels got them to participate with The Sky King's help. They got a thousand Ravens into the house of Sgt. Edgar Poe (After he came home from the hospital), when he ended his house, he had to wade through the media horde in front because of his Media Spotlight aspect and then all 1000 Ravens started to recite, The Raven. The media caught it all on tape. Sgt. Poe blamed his partner, Lenny the Clued-In Conspiracy Theorist. And yes, I stole his partner's name from Mr. Lead System Designer.....
That's all I have to report.

[Bosh]

Ho....Ly.....S%$#!!!!!!!! That's never happened before.

That was exactly how I felt the first time I played Fate. For some groups it doesn't click but when it does, dear god it just changes the way you play completely.

[Arandmoor]

Best. Aspect. Ever. Of all Time.

...thankyou

(I play Puck BTW)

Something I found out...

Glamours are POWERFUL! And yes, powerful deserves to be all caps when being used to describe them. Wow. Just...wow.

In our second fight with the Big Bad Wolves, one of them had a shotgun and was trying to shoot us while his buddy tried to take off Poe's head with his claws. Poe got the drop on the wolf with the gun and used a maneuver to silhouette him with the flashlight on the bottom of his own shotgun and add the tag "Silhouetted" to him. On my turn I dropped my glamoured invisibility to make a deceit-based maneuver with my Glamour power to deceive the wolf with the shotgun into believing that his buddy was one of us (my logic being that in the instant Poe shined the flashlight at him he was blind which gave me an opportunity to mess with his perception of the actors in the environment), and we were his reinforcements tagging him with the aspect "Messed Up IFF".

One of us then compeled that aspect to have him shoot his buddy on his turn instead of us, and the shot ended up taking the other wolf out.

I'm not sure we were doing everything exactly correct, but a fate point was spent and it seemed logical at the time (also, if you've ever read the short story about Ms. Guarde and the Grendelkin, Harry's done something similar before).

[mrsleep]

Wow, making Spokane fun.  I have to buy this game.


Keep posting your after action reports so that I can game vicariously.

[SoulCatcher78]

...thankyou
In our second fight with the Big Bad Wolves, one of them had a shotgun and was trying to shoot us while his buddy tried to take off Poe's head with his claws. Poe got the drop on the wolf with the gun and used a maneuver to silhouette him with the flashlight on the bottom of his own shotgun and add the tag "Silhouetted" to him. On my turn I dropped my glamoured invisibility to make a deceit-based maneuver with my Glamour power to deceive the wolf with the shotgun into believing that his buddy was one of us (my logic being that in the instant Poe shined the flashlight at him he was blind which gave me an opportunity to mess with his perception of the actors in the environment), and we were his reinforcements tagging him with the aspect "Messed Up IFF".

One of us then compeled that aspect to have him shoot his buddy on his turn instead of us, and the shot ended up taking the other wolf out.

This is the thing that I find exciting about the game.  You can build up to an action by using complimentary aspects.  This makes taking on the supernatural a little less frightening for pure mortals and explains why the supernatural world really does fear being outed...enough pitchforks will take down a monster.