A player perspective on the evening, and some text for those who aren't so keen to sit down for a while and listen...
We did our first (turns out one wasn't enough!) City Generation session a couple of nights ago, and it went really well. What we found was that the initial business of overarching Themes and Threats was kind of vague, what really nailed down what was going on for us was determining the layout of the various supernatural and mortal power groups. That really made things come alive for us, and we're going to go back over the first part again in session two (in a week's time).
The lay of the land is thus:
- Bristol is a supernatural nexus and transit point, it's where a lot of things come into Britain and is thus of particular importance.
- The balance of power and de facto rulers of the city rests with a coven of three hags. They arrived at their present dominance by striking at the original Fae overlord (they were a Summer or Winter Court noble) when he was weak and stealing his power base. They hold the centre and ensure that no other group gets powerful enough to challenge them. They're the reason none of the established groups in the Dresdenverse are in charge here, and why they all have a presence there. They were our own invention and tie quite deeply into a lot of British and European folklore. Individually they are powerful, acting in concert they are nigh-invincible. No one messes with them. They also have a deal with the White Council that the wizards don't touch anything in their city. They run the "flesh trade" in Bristol; prostitution, muscle, humans-for-food, drugs; they're a Theme because they like a nice, balanced, status quo where they are in charge and their operations continue to prosper.
- The established vampire group co-operating with the coven is the White Court, specifically House Skavis. We have a White Court PC from a different house who is a constant irritation to them. She isn't sanctioned by them to operate in the city, so they're incessantly working to get her operations shut down and drive her out. We didn't really develop them a huge amount besides that.
- There is a Red Court "insurgency" going on, they're buying up property and expanding their population, and are a Threat to the city. They've been digging deep under the city and may have found things that should have stayed buried (like a certain silver Roman coin...).
- The Fae are not under either Court here, there are lots of fiefdoms out in the countryside and beyond, but they swear to their own lords and rulers, not to the Queens. The hags displaced the original Lord, and the native Fae were happy to be free of the yoke of the Courts and so went along with the change. Mostly this stems from our dissatisfaction with the idea of the Fae so neatly divided into Seelie, Unseelie and barely mentioned Wyldfae. Instead all of Britain is Wyld, with only agents of Summer and Winter no doubt trying to re-establish control here. The city itself hosts an urban collective of "industrial" Fae, some of whom are dabbling in dangerous and heretical developments with iron. They run an underground railway which also runs into the Nevernever.
- As above, the White Council are not active in the city itself by agreement. They have all sorts of holdings and interests in the southwest, Glastonbury Tor, Stonehenge, Avebury and so on that are frankly more important than a mortal city. Our wizard PC is the sole wizard in the city and isn't connected to the White Council (not any more).
- The river spirit/goddess Avona resides here, her moods moving back and forth with the tides. There's a manic-depressive giant, Vincent, who once vied with his brother for her affections. He inspired the architect Brunel to build the bridge and the urban Fae treat him like a distant god who has secrets of artifice they wish to learn. He sees them as annoying groupies who won't leave him alone to brood.
- There's also a powerful earth spirit who lives under Temple Meads railway station, who is in opposition to Avona and often to the urban Fae too. Still need to define that more, it connects to another of the PCs.
- Arcane knowledge and such is centred around a bookshop with a genius loci that ensures it always has a mortal mouthpiece/guardian to act as the broker of information in the city. Most groups see it as in their interests not to mess with the owner since they could get blacklisted. Besides which, killing the owner just results in the loci selecting a new one to replace them. Not that that is much comfort to whomever the current owner is. That said, it does invest them with a load of magic knowledge and a measure of magical power in order to ensure they have the means to protect themselves and remain useful to the supernatural community at large. Though they are by necessity strictly neutral (which also serves the hags agenda).
- There's a growing weirdness with spiritual dead-zones around the city. Places where there are no ghosts and they choose to avoid. Bristol is old and so has a lot of ghosts, but the Blitz wrecked the thresholds and safe places for the dead.
It did take a while (we had four hours), but it was all useful stuff; what we reasoned was that given this is going to be our main game which may last a couple of years of weekly sessions (with break games at regular intervals), then it's worth spending the time getting on the same page. It was an interesting exercise to run through, and I can see the merit of generating the location first so that you can see how to tie your characters into it. We made a start on the character's Aspects, got through High Concept, Trouble, Background and Rising Conflict. That was enough really, it was late and we wanted to be fresh to finish off Aspects.
We also had a quick stab at Skills and Powers, ultimately they're less important to do together as contrasted to the Aspects. We've arrived at the following group (this is a Chest-Deep game):
- A Champion of God - who is a former researcher and professor of philosophy at Bristol Uni. He's only recently come to the supernatural world, after losing his wife to the Red Court's predations. He's the protector of a sanctuary on the site of a bombed-out church which is a spiritual "safe zone" clear of ghosts. He's around 45, but kept in good shape by a wide range of university sports and martial arts that he's played over the years. He's a devout Christian and thoroughly decent man (who DOESN'T use guns -that's an in-joke for our group).
- A White Court Vampire - an Italian of house Stefani who feed on greed, she's the leading light of a new philosophy of "sustainable" feeding and looking at humans as something other than cattle. She may have been Karl Marx's muse when he was writing Das Kapital (stealing his greed to keep his mind clear) which gives an idea of her age, and has her own Communist ideals developed over the centuries. She runs an underground gambling den that caters only to those rich enough not to be harmed by their losses, as well as supernatural players. It's been shut down a number of times before, but she always manages to re-open it again. Her activities are contrary, unsanctioned and in opposition to the established White Court presence in Bristol (House Skavis).
- A Wizard - a Frenchman who used to be a spy, infiltrator and general black bag man for the White Council. Specialises in Veils, illusions, impersonation and stealth. Tired of all the machinations and screwed over one too many times, he's retired from the politics and formal service. Reason he came to Bristol is twofold; firstly, he has a water affinity due to his heritage (linked to the Merovingians) and Bath has some interesting links to the river goddess Avona. Secondly, the city itself is off-limits to the White Council. They have more significant supernatural concerns in the wider south-west and more importantly have an agreement with the coven of hags who run the city to keep away.
- An Emissary of Power - A former royal bodyguard (police officer serving in SO14), she lost her partner (who was also her lover) in an operation that went badly wrong. Her principal survived, but only because she chose duty over love. Her downward spiral ended in a suicide attempt which resulted in the earth spirit who lives under Temple Meads railway station snatching her away to its sanctum and offering her a job as its guardian and representative. She sees herself as a protector and arbiter of the power she keeps, which is obviously tied thematically to the earth.
- A Scion (Changeling) - One of Vlad Drakul's by-blows who ended up as a Mamluk slave-soldier in Egypt in the late 17th century. Fought against Napoleon in Egypt, then served under him in the Russian campaign. With the fall of the Sultanate of Cairo, his magical bonds were severed, unleashing him on a self-directed murder-spree across Europe, the Middle East and Asia. His carnage was stopped by a Knight of the Cross in the Himalayas, and had him at mercy. But in the fateful moment when he could have ended him, the wielder of Esperacchius chose to spare his life and give him another chance. Thus began his redemption mission, trying to make up for the various evils he'd done in his life (and there had been many in the centuries leading up to that meeting in the 1830s). He's basically a vigilante who takes up any seemingly hopeless cause, especially if it involves things that can be stomped.
And that is our intrepid group of troublemakers, er, PCs. Looking forward to the final prep session when we nail down their remaining Aspects and finalise other bits. So far, though, awesome.
