Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Crazy Street Preacher II

Scene 2: Gary goes to the shelter for homeless people, to have some dinner and to sleep. Scene as expected.

How many other homeless people come to the shelter that night (d10) 5
Is among them anybody that Gary knows and keeps in touch with? Extreme no.
There is no one from the usual group that night. Gary was sure that he sees these five people for the first time.

What about stuff? At least they are familiar to Gary, right? No! Even the people serving food are the new one!

Gary took the meal, found a place near the exit and with his back to the wall. He decided only to pretend to eat, but not to take a bite until everything explains itself. It was all too suspicious, and Gary wanted to avoid getting poisoned or drugged. He kept a watchful eye at homeless people and at stuff alike, waiting to see what will happen. Did he notice anything strange? Extreme yes! 2 things. What?
Transform intrigues and Oppress attention.
One of the homeless people passed by Gary, whispering: “Act normally. Do not stare like that, since we have to be shore that there are no intruders among us tonight…. Welcome to the society!”

As the time was passing and nothing happened, Gary felt a little bit relaxed, so he got himself comfortable in the corner, and closed his eyes just for a minute. He didn’t even notice when he fell asleep.
Did something wake him up in the middle of the night? Extreme yes! What:
Judge art and recruit travel.
Sudden noise waked Gary from his sleep. Somebody brought several small modern looking paintings into the shelter. Using highly academic language, homeless people were arguing which one of them is the best. The worlds felt strange coming from the people dressed in paper and rugs. Finally, the Buddhist monk well known to Gary entered the crowd, stopped the discussion and proclaimed the one representing human figure build from circles in different shades of blue to be the most appropriate one. He removed the painting from its frame, rolled it and gave it to Gary.
“Take this object of art”, monk said. “It needs to be transported to the Modern Art Gallery in the small community of Waseldorf around 100 kilometers from here. It has to be delivered within 3 days, and you can only travel by foot, so you will have to walk more than 30 kilometers daily. While walking, meditate over the content of this work of art. This will be your spiritual journey. Once in Waseldorf, you will know what to do. You have to leave early in the morning, so now go back to sleep. You will need all the strength you can get.

End of scene 2. Gary was not in control, so CF rises to 7.

Threads:
Find more about the cult Gary joined.
Take the paintings to the Modern Art Gallery in Wasesldorf, traveling only by foot.

Friday, October 14, 2011

Cursed Mansion II

7:40 pm As he entered the next room, Peter stopped, stunned form fear, for terrible squid faced monster moved in his direction! But he quickly remembered that there are no such things as squid faced monsters! It was just a big ugly statue left in this room for unknown purpose…

Game mechanic: cards for this room are Fear and Cthulhu. So, this will be the action scene, and I have to oppose the room with what I have in my hand. Both room cards are with Time keyword, but this early in the game they are still 1d6+0. I used Faith (atheism) +2 (my hero does not believe in things like Cthulhu) and Alert +1 to see what really happens. I have beaten the room easily, so I decided that Cthulhu is just a statue. The statue can’t move so I will leave it as permanent thing in this room. Action scene takes no time. I could now investigate Cthulhu statue further if I want to, but my goal is to survive, so I decided to leave this room as soon as possible, and never to return there :)

7:45 pm In east wing of the house Peter detected stairs leading up. Stairway was richly decorated, and in the time past owners of the house probably used them to impress their guests. Now, left to the hand of time, stairs have become noisy and it would be impossible to use them quietly.

Game mechanic: Passive scene, I used additional 15 min to learn all this.

8:05 pm Next room hosted stairs down and an old radio beside it. Peter tried to switch radio on, but he couldn’t. It looks like it is broken beyond repair.

Game mechanics: Cards are Stairs down and Radio. This is another passive scene. I tried to beat the radio card with my Engineering skill, but I lost, so I decided that radio can’t be used for anything. I used another 15 min on this.

8:25 pm This room had some broken floor tiles, holes deep enough for man to step into them, fall and maybe break is leg. But Peter was alert walking through the unknown house, so he managed to avoid them.

8:30 pm Empty room. Words “KILL HIM!” written with red paint at one of the walls.

8:35 pm Dressing room for garden works and play. Old working suites in the closet, big umbrella and some garden chairs in the corner….

8:45 pm Empty hallway, decorated with paintings of nature and country life.

8:50 Peter detected some kind of control room, that seems to have electronic access to many things in various parts of the house. This room is in much better shape than the rest of the mansion, as if somebody have used it recently. Some switches on the control table have labels next to them with texts like “Scare the curious outside”, “for when they enter the house” or “for these in the basement”. Used 15. minutes.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Crazy street preacher part 1

I happen to be on a business trip in Italy, so I am unable to play anything but Mythic, the game I always carry with me :)
So here is some result, but first
Disclaimer: this story has adult content and it is not suitable for young people. The ideas and views that appear in the game do not represent my personal views and opinions. I am only role-playing the game in the way Mythic rolls it, using some stereotypes that can be heard in the world we live in.

I decided to play a Mythic adventure, starting from zero. I started with the chaos factor of 5.
In the beginning I decided to generate a hero using UNE. Here is the result:
Prying scientist, motivated to Aid magic, attend zeal and proclaim deprivation.
OK. So Geri is a cult member wannabe of the worst kind. Not only that he believes in supernatural, but he claims that he knows scientific evidence for everything from ghosts to UFOs. He constantly tries to convince others with his “evidence”.
He was accidentally able to read some books about Buddhism, and he started to be a strong supporter of eastern philosophy and religion.
Although he comes from the middle class family, he refused to take any kind of job, left his parents house and started living as homeless street preacher bugging the people that walk the city.

Now that I have my hero, I would like to know what happened to him. Excitement masses. What about? Mistrust expectations.
Good. So, the economical crisis is over, right? Well, think again. Governments continue to pressure politics of savings. It is easy for them to say, but are they ever thinking about working class, who finds harder and harder to mach ends meet? And to demonstrate their un-satisfaction, unions invited people to the streets.

Geri joined them, of course, seeing opportunity to preach to the masses. But will anyone listen to him? Unlikely: No. People are to occupied shouting and protesting to pay attention to the street preacher.
So, Geri decided to try to sneak among the union representatives, climb at the improvised speaking stand, steal the microphone and use it to talk to the masses. Can he make it? Very unlikely: No but (I am using alternative fate chart with conditional yes and conditional no answers. Chart can be found here) he will find one person who will listen to him! Who?
UNE: Refined monk, motivated to secure force, teach racism and inform about ghosts.
Before Geri could climb to the stand, somebody grabbed him from behind and pulled him into the side street. When he finally managed to release himself from the grip, Geri noticed that his capturer was a white man, neat, clean and intellectually looking, with shaved head and dressed in the robe of the Buddhist monk.

I have heard you preaching, said the monk, and I see that we have the same ideas. I happen to know that there are others like us. So, we will create an organization with goal to change the world. We want to create a paradise on earth, but before that, we have to clean the Earth from all that is not pure. Our governments are week, they are unable to control economy, or deal with the terrorist threat. The change is necessary, and it is our time to act. For this, we have the blessing of our ancestors. The ghosts of great people from the past, huge leader of men and fathers of their nations all of them, are willing to lead us and help us achieve our goal. All I need to know is are you with us?

Geri accepted the offer to join the cult with gratitude.

Will the monk ask Geri to attend some secret meeting? Likely: No.
You are one of us now, said monk. When the time comes to act, I will contact you. Until then, carry on your mission the way you did so far…

Geri was not in control, so CF rises to 6.
NPC List
Mysterious monk.
Thread
Learn more about the cult Geri joined.

Monday, October 3, 2011

Cursed Mansion

My 6d6 solo game is progressing slowly, so I decided to post first part of it, and to write it down as I go. So, here it is!

Peter needed the money. That why he accepted the challenge of the old countess. 10.000 USD for anyone who spends the night in the cursed mansion seemed like the easy money at first…

Game mechanics: The goal of this adventure is to survive the night in cursed house. I used the blueprints of Andrew Carnegie House I found on internet as the map of the mansion.
To achieve the tension, some cards in the opposition deck received Time keyword. These cards will be 1d6+0 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm and later from 6:00 am to 7:00 am, 1d6+1 from 9 to 11 pm and from 5 to 6 am, 1d6+2 from 11 pm to 1 am and from 3 am to 5 am and 1d6+3 from 1 to 3 am. This way, adventure will be more and more dangerous as night progresses until the which hour, and then the tension will slowly lower till morning.
7:00 pm As soon as Peter entered the mansion, door closed and locked behind him. It felt strange, since he was shore that he came here alone. But then he decided not to pay attention. It must have been someone playing practical jokes, or maybe just the wind closed the door… There are several other doors in this house, and if they are all locked, one can always break the window…

Game mechanics: I created this investigator using 70 points worth of cards. Since he has to survive one night inside the house, there will be no healing in this game, so I decided to give him more life cards then it is usual for a standard game. Life cards: Faith (Atheism) +2, Problem Solving +2, Quick Wits +1, Memory, Will Power, Self-Confidence. Skills: Gather Information +2, Alert +1, Search, Engineering. Knowledge: Natural Philosophy +2, Culture, History. Pistol, 9mm.

7:05 Leaving the entrance hall, Peter entered the main corridor of the building. Corridor was empty aside for the old, mice eaten sofa in one corner.

Game mechanics: In this solo game, I decided to use different movement system then in original 6D6. Instead of squares, I will use room as unit movement. So using walk speed, my character will move into new, previously unexplored room in 5 min time. This represents opening doors and investigator looking around to see where he is, remembering position in the house, etc.

7:10 From main corridor, wide stairway lead to the back yard. Mist was slowly gathering outside, but one could still see through it. On the other end of the yard, city was still busy. One more reason to forget the locked front door…

Game mechanics: Whenever investigator enters new room, two cards are drawn from opposition deck. In this case, cards drawn were Liberty and Mist. I interpreted them as if investigator is free to leave the mansion through misty back yard. Then I checked how thick the mist is, using Alert skill (1d6+1) and rolling against Mist card (1d6+0 in this early hour). I was victorious at the roll on so mist is scarce and can be seen through. Mist card can be seen as object, so mist stays in this “room” permanently and will be there the next time investigator enters back yard.

7:20 Peter returned to the main corridor, that was still as empty as before.

Game mechanics: Whenever investigator enters a room he has already visited, he has to roll against room resistance (set to 1d6+0) to see if anything changed there from his last visit. Investigator will roll 1d6+3 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm and later from 6:00 am to 7:00 am, 1d6+2 from 9 to 11 pm and from 5 to 6 am, 1d6+1 from 11 pm to 1 am and from 3 am to 5 am and 1d6+0 from 1 to 3 am. If he beat the room resistance, nothing changed. But if he lose roll on, he has to draw number of cards equal to the number of pips he lost by. For example, if room would roll 5 and investigator 3, investigator will draw 2 new cards, that will combine with the ones already existing in the room to picture the new situation. Investigator can move through 3 previously explored rooms in 5 min time, but has to roll for each of them.

7:25 Next room our hero entered seemed to be a study (persecute investment). He spent some time looking through the papers and discovered that last owner of this house neglected his business. Instead, he lost all his money betting on sport events.

Game mechanics: once I determined that this room is study, I was shore that this is narrative event, so that I can use all cards I have, with the restriction that each card used that was not in the pool at the moment my hero entered a room costs 5min of time. Using cards from the pool cost nothing.
In this case I used my
Search and Gather Information +2 from the remaining cards (spending 10 minutes) and tried to beat the room (persecute investment, total 2d6+0). I rolled 11 against room's 7, winning by 4. Therefore I was able to take 4 new cards that will further explain the room. I got neglect, riches, abuse, competition. Using common sense and knowing that this room is a study, I interpreted them as mentioned above.