This list collects Actual Plays of pen and paper roleplaying games session that actually were entertaining for me to listen to.
The Dark Eye - Im Spinnenwald (Spider Forest)
This game literally takes 15 two hour sessions to take off, but once it it starts following the adventure, it gets fun. I link to that specific session.
Showing posts with label Actual Play. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Actual Play. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Sunday, October 18, 2015
Savage Synnibarr Space
Between the first Synnibarr adventure that turned into a 12.5 sessions mini campaign on the alchemist Durana's plan and the Agent-Nelson/Cloudpuncher campaign, there was an intermezzo in space - with the spaceship discovered under water.
The space adventures were supposed to be continue further, but I dropped the campaign after three sessions, because I got the impression that the players were too powerful.
Admittedly that was more an issue of me being scared to power up the NPCs enough, but I still had issues, as a normal space opera setting can't compete with the power level of Synnibarr.
Anyways: I never did a write up of the game and this should be a start.
We played 4.5 sessions. (Like in the "1st season" the final session was too long to fit into one evening or afternoon and had to be continued another day.)
In my 2013 gaming calendar the sessions can be found under the following names:
The space adventures were supposed to be continue further, but I dropped the campaign after three sessions, because I got the impression that the players were too powerful.
Admittedly that was more an issue of me being scared to power up the NPCs enough, but I still had issues, as a normal space opera setting can't compete with the power level of Synnibarr.
Anyways: I never did a write up of the game and this should be a start.
We played 4.5 sessions. (Like in the "1st season" the final session was too long to fit into one evening or afternoon and had to be continued another day.)
In my 2013 gaming calendar the sessions can be found under the following names:
- The Home Space Express
- Spacestation V
- 2 teams of Slavers
- Through the DarkTek Office to the Vault
- The Taker: Grenades & Eyeballs
This is what happened as far as I can remember. I used my private GM notes for the summary.
The group leaves the Synnibarr on the spaceship they found under water
Next: Back on Synnibarr: Ninjas in the rooftop lounge
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Savage Synnibarr: Cloudpuncher's House
Leaving the airships and Clam Island behind, the group makes a 6 day trip with Airy's solid illusion submarine near Ship's Home, the giants' capital. Airy stays awake all that time, but is able to handle it with his mushrooms.
Gorogoroth, Dita, Trush and Douro walk along the cliffs near the coast towards Ship's Home. At one time they encounter an Giant airship patrol, but Trush turns into a giant flying stingray and covers view on the others with his wide body.
That way they make it to the city before the evening. They end up at a gate at the city wall where two drunk giant guards are on watch. Trush turns into a giant baby in a wheeled cradle and the group comes up with the story that they found the baby in a human city and want to return it to the giants. After being suspicious for a short time, the guards see them as heroes (Adventure Card) and let them pass, telling them about the way to the orphanage of Ship's Home.
While the rest of the group goes there, the invisible Gorgoroth follows Dita's instruction to look for the Cloudpuncher's house and to retrieve the book. Gorogoroth actually can smell from outside that there are two giant women in the living room in the ground floor while upstairs there are many weird and exotic objects.
He decides to fly intangible to the upper floor and lands inside a small room - at least for giants. Next to a small desk and a chair, a giant sized chest is the most outstanding object in the room. He puts his intangible head inside and can smell gold as well as a sleeping creature - an elvome. Elvomes are a cross between an elf and a gnome: 3 feet tall creatures that look like an overweight Yoda, who possess some magical abilities.
Gorgoroth decides to use his mind control on the elvome and is finally able to take him over. He makes the creature explain him telepathically that the chest is his home and that Cloudpuncher took the chest here seven years ago. The elvome's name is Chubbga and he has seen his chest change owner multiple times.
Gorgoroth asks the Chubbga to open the chest and elvome uses some telekinetic powers to open the look and come outside. Under Gorgoroth control he explains that he did not notice too much about the Cloudpuncher and his house, but that he knows where the giant captain was writing in his business journal: in another room on the upper floor. The elvome also explains that he has a magic dagger that turns people into golden figurines if they are stabbed with it. Gorgoroth commands him to take the two golden figurines from the chest with him.
In the meantime the rest of the group has reached the orphanage - at dusk. Some kids playing in front of that building notice them and a girl from the group falls for the cute giant baby. She tells them to bring it in the orphanage where an old nurse tells that the orphanage can take care of the baby, but that Dita and Douro better contact the authorities the next day, so that the parents can be found. For that night they can stay at the orphanage as there are enough cribs the humas can easily fit in.
Gorgoroth in the meantime let the elvome unlock the door to Cloudpuncher's study room telekinetically. He enters the big room that is filled with many weird objects from all corners of Synnibarr. The chameleon drake is greeted upon entering by a stuffed parrot that strangely talks to him in a shrill voice. Despite the danger of the two women downstairs hearing something, Gorgoroth decides to leave the door of the room open.
The parrot greets him and gives him advice first to clean the mirror in the room, then to take a red shield with a skull from the wall and finally to drink a potion that he found in the room. After hesitating for some moments, Gorgoroth follows the advice, as the parrot is not able to tell anything about the location of the book.Before that he tell the elvome to shut the door as the voice of the parrot is getting louder and louder, and could be noticed by the women downstairs.
Golgoroth examines the mirror and sees that its surface is dimmed by some grey film. He starts cleaning the mirror while being invisible with a cloths that is hanging over the mirror's corner. But only seconds after he starts, the mirror shatters in thousands of shards. Gorgoroth's scale skin is strong enough to withstand and harm from the sharts, but he can only rejoice for seconds, as he feels some presence making its way through from the back of the mirror, some evil presence...
He realizes that this is a mirror demon version of himself. And there is no doubt that his demon form posses the same powers as the adventurer chameleon drake. While Gorgoroth is able to withstand the mirror demon's first trial to possess him. Instead he runs to the wall and rips off the red shield with the skull on it, hanging there, that the parrot mentioned.
He feels that this skull shield has special powers: the ability to turn an opponent into dust, if they fail an attack. Before he can achieve more with this logic, his demonic doppelganger takes control over him and commands him to stay invisible in one corner of the room.
Douro and Dita decide in the meantime that they want to check out Cloudpuncher's house themselves. They take along Trush who is still in his giant toddler form and walks with them over to the house. There he knocks while the humans stay behind him.
Together they explain that the fake baby is Cloudpuncher's child. For some reason the old and young woman take them serious and ask them to enter the room. Trush is able to convince the giant girl into breast feeding him.
Dita takes telepathic contact with Cloudpuncher's ghost in her ghost lamp and asks him about the house. He warns her about the mirror.
Next: Cloudpuncher's Secret Chamber
Gorogoroth, Dita, Trush and Douro walk along the cliffs near the coast towards Ship's Home. At one time they encounter an Giant airship patrol, but Trush turns into a giant flying stingray and covers view on the others with his wide body.
That way they make it to the city before the evening. They end up at a gate at the city wall where two drunk giant guards are on watch. Trush turns into a giant baby in a wheeled cradle and the group comes up with the story that they found the baby in a human city and want to return it to the giants. After being suspicious for a short time, the guards see them as heroes (Adventure Card) and let them pass, telling them about the way to the orphanage of Ship's Home.
While the rest of the group goes there, the invisible Gorgoroth follows Dita's instruction to look for the Cloudpuncher's house and to retrieve the book. Gorogoroth actually can smell from outside that there are two giant women in the living room in the ground floor while upstairs there are many weird and exotic objects.
He decides to fly intangible to the upper floor and lands inside a small room - at least for giants. Next to a small desk and a chair, a giant sized chest is the most outstanding object in the room. He puts his intangible head inside and can smell gold as well as a sleeping creature - an elvome. Elvomes are a cross between an elf and a gnome: 3 feet tall creatures that look like an overweight Yoda, who possess some magical abilities.
Gorgoroth decides to use his mind control on the elvome and is finally able to take him over. He makes the creature explain him telepathically that the chest is his home and that Cloudpuncher took the chest here seven years ago. The elvome's name is Chubbga and he has seen his chest change owner multiple times.
Gorgoroth asks the Chubbga to open the chest and elvome uses some telekinetic powers to open the look and come outside. Under Gorgoroth control he explains that he did not notice too much about the Cloudpuncher and his house, but that he knows where the giant captain was writing in his business journal: in another room on the upper floor. The elvome also explains that he has a magic dagger that turns people into golden figurines if they are stabbed with it. Gorgoroth commands him to take the two golden figurines from the chest with him.
In the meantime the rest of the group has reached the orphanage - at dusk. Some kids playing in front of that building notice them and a girl from the group falls for the cute giant baby. She tells them to bring it in the orphanage where an old nurse tells that the orphanage can take care of the baby, but that Dita and Douro better contact the authorities the next day, so that the parents can be found. For that night they can stay at the orphanage as there are enough cribs the humas can easily fit in.
Gorgoroth in the meantime let the elvome unlock the door to Cloudpuncher's study room telekinetically. He enters the big room that is filled with many weird objects from all corners of Synnibarr. The chameleon drake is greeted upon entering by a stuffed parrot that strangely talks to him in a shrill voice. Despite the danger of the two women downstairs hearing something, Gorgoroth decides to leave the door of the room open.
The parrot greets him and gives him advice first to clean the mirror in the room, then to take a red shield with a skull from the wall and finally to drink a potion that he found in the room. After hesitating for some moments, Gorgoroth follows the advice, as the parrot is not able to tell anything about the location of the book.
Golgoroth examines the mirror and sees that its surface is dimmed by some grey film. He starts cleaning the mirror while being invisible with a cloths that is hanging over the mirror's corner. But only seconds after he starts, the mirror shatters in thousands of shards. Gorgoroth's scale skin is strong enough to withstand and harm from the sharts, but he can only rejoice for seconds, as he feels some presence making its way through from the back of the mirror, some evil presence...
He realizes that this is a mirror demon version of himself. And there is no doubt that his demon form posses the same powers as the adventurer chameleon drake. While Gorgoroth is able to withstand the mirror demon's first trial to possess him. Instead he runs to the wall and rips off the red shield with the skull on it, hanging there, that the parrot mentioned.
He feels that this skull shield has special powers: the ability to turn an opponent into dust, if they fail an attack. Before he can achieve more with this logic, his demonic doppelganger takes control over him and commands him to stay invisible in one corner of the room.
Douro and Dita decide in the meantime that they want to check out Cloudpuncher's house themselves. They take along Trush who is still in his giant toddler form and walks with them over to the house. There he knocks while the humans stay behind him.
Together they explain that the fake baby is Cloudpuncher's child. For some reason the old and young woman take them serious and ask them to enter the room. Trush is able to convince the giant girl into breast feeding him.
Dita takes telepathic contact with Cloudpuncher's ghost in her ghost lamp and asks him about the house. He warns her about the mirror.
Next: Cloudpuncher's Secret Chamber
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Savage Synnibarr: Attack of the Giant Airships
After taking care of Cloudpuncher's remains, Douro decides to check back inside the Temple of Yanak. On the way through the gate he is attacked by two fire clams, but he is able to switch on his Tiger Fire before their flames can hit him and is therefore immune to the fire damage.
Inside he collects all the money covering the floor of the lower floor. He splits the 100.000$ in gold coins between everyone. He also wants to save Kylie, but decides to wait for 24 hours until Dita is not fatigued any longer (from healing herself), because she can use her telekinetic power to move the mage warrior out of Yanak's gaze.
In the meantime Gorgoroth realizes that the Storm Sphere he took as treasure from the Temple is actually an sentient being which - surprisingly - has powers related to storms. He telepathically probes the Sphere and notices that it is in a state of dreaming, but decides not to go any deeper.
The rest of the crew rests for 24 hours in Airy's submarine. But just as they want to return to the temple, Gorgoroth smells a taste of fuel he did not notice before: Seconds later three airships break out of the clouds above the island.
Gorgorth, invisible and intangible, flies up to figure out what are the intentions of the ships' crews. He realizes fast that they are slavers who came here for the same emergency signal, that lured Cloudpuncher in.
Trush takes robot bird form to attack one of the airships. Despite enemy fire he creates a laser peak from his laser sword and damages the hull of one of the three airships. Gas is streaming out, and the zeppelin starts to sink slowly.
Dita in the meantime is focused on getting the submarine to the sea together with Airy. Gorgoroth uses his mind control powers to take over the gunners of the other two airships, making them fire on each other. Another airship's hull is broken. But his decision to let the mind control slip off the Winged Lion, takes him to a dangerous place: the Lion who was plotting revenge all the time uses the first opportunity to slam the invisible Chameleon Drake into the razor clam covered ground with telekinesis. Thanks to his tough drake skin, Gorgoroth is able to soak the damage, but he realizes that the psionic lion can see him even when being invisible.
In the meantime Douro shoots fire from a distance, but he is not as powerful as in melee, and despite multiple attacks misses the do break any of the hulls.
Trush has less of an issue with his laser peak from nearby and damages the hull of the last airship.
Dita has the submarine prepared to leave by now and, telepathically urges everyone to stop fighting. They follow her request and get inside right away. Seconds later the submarine is underwater and on it's way to the giants' city, Ship's Home.
The Winged Lion telepathically reaches out to Gorgoroth and - in what is supposed to be an intimidating threat - tells the Chameleon Drake that he will never be forgiven for the suicide forced onto the Lion's partner for centuries. Instead the Lion promises a brutal revenge and the painful death of Gorgoroth. But the Chameleon Drake is neither scared nor impressed and shakes the threat off with laughter.
The telepathic contact breaks off as the Orange Submarine has gone too far and too deep.
Inside he collects all the money covering the floor of the lower floor. He splits the 100.000$ in gold coins between everyone. He also wants to save Kylie, but decides to wait for 24 hours until Dita is not fatigued any longer (from healing herself), because she can use her telekinetic power to move the mage warrior out of Yanak's gaze.
In the meantime Gorgoroth realizes that the Storm Sphere he took as treasure from the Temple is actually an sentient being which - surprisingly - has powers related to storms. He telepathically probes the Sphere and notices that it is in a state of dreaming, but decides not to go any deeper.
The rest of the crew rests for 24 hours in Airy's submarine. But just as they want to return to the temple, Gorgoroth smells a taste of fuel he did not notice before: Seconds later three airships break out of the clouds above the island.
Gorgorth, invisible and intangible, flies up to figure out what are the intentions of the ships' crews. He realizes fast that they are slavers who came here for the same emergency signal, that lured Cloudpuncher in.
Trush takes robot bird form to attack one of the airships. Despite enemy fire he creates a laser peak from his laser sword and damages the hull of one of the three airships. Gas is streaming out, and the zeppelin starts to sink slowly.
Dita in the meantime is focused on getting the submarine to the sea together with Airy. Gorgoroth uses his mind control powers to take over the gunners of the other two airships, making them fire on each other. Another airship's hull is broken. But his decision to let the mind control slip off the Winged Lion, takes him to a dangerous place: the Lion who was plotting revenge all the time uses the first opportunity to slam the invisible Chameleon Drake into the razor clam covered ground with telekinesis. Thanks to his tough drake skin, Gorgoroth is able to soak the damage, but he realizes that the psionic lion can see him even when being invisible.
In the meantime Douro shoots fire from a distance, but he is not as powerful as in melee, and despite multiple attacks misses the do break any of the hulls.
Trush has less of an issue with his laser peak from nearby and damages the hull of the last airship.
Dita has the submarine prepared to leave by now and, telepathically urges everyone to stop fighting. They follow her request and get inside right away. Seconds later the submarine is underwater and on it's way to the giants' city, Ship's Home.
The Winged Lion telepathically reaches out to Gorgoroth and - in what is supposed to be an intimidating threat - tells the Chameleon Drake that he will never be forgiven for the suicide forced onto the Lion's partner for centuries. Instead the Lion promises a brutal revenge and the painful death of Gorgoroth. But the Chameleon Drake is neither scared nor impressed and shakes the threat off with laughter.
The telepathic contact breaks off as the Orange Submarine has gone too far and too deep.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Savage Synnibarr: Cloudpuncher and the Fight for Loot
The groups escapes with the Airy's submarine from the temple. They have a look at the remains of the destroyed airship which is under the water now and spots 5 burnt giant corpses.
Dita scans the area for ghosts and there is actually one around: one of the dead giants did not go to the afterworld. She starts a conversation with him and figures out soon that it actually is the ghost of Captain Cloudpuncher, the slaver who took her brother. Dita is upset because it seems she will not be able to get her revenge, as he is dead already.
He tells her that he came to the island 4 days ago, because he received a distress signal and was hoping to make slaves out of whoever was needing help. But when his airship showed up, 4 apelike creatures took the mighty airship down with a powerful attack. Him and the four remaining crew members died in the blast.
He lost everyone else some time before in a mutiny, where he killed every other crew member, but he had no slaves on board as he is used to sell them as fast.
Dita asks him if he know who she is, and while before he did not even consider that option, he finally seems to remember her face. He mentions while for her this most have been the most important day of his life, for him it was just another day. But he calls himself a "lover of slaves, a connoisseur" and tells Dita that he could have shot her in the back when she was fleeing, after he took her brother and stabbed her mother, but that he was not this kind of guy.
She asks if he knows what happens to her brother, and he says that he must sold him fast, like always, but that he has a complete log of all the slaves he ever bought in his house in Ships' Home, the harbour town of giants.
She wants to banish him in her lamp, but Cloudpuncher resists. She tries to convince him to get in there, but he says he would prefer to be hosted in her body, if she really wants him leave the remains of his ship of 40 years. In the end Dita convinces him to join her in the lamp instead.
Trush has a look, if there is any loot in the meantime and actually is able to find a locked safe. With the 2nd of two mighty strikes of his laser sword he is actually able to take the top of the safe off.
He finds a big Midnight Sunstone in there, when he wants to examine the other objects, Dita decides it is her turn now to grab something. Trush hits her with the hilt of his laser sword skillfully and wounds her.
She is able to fight back, despite the damage and uses Chi Shout on Trush, damaging him as well. She grabs 2 gloves out of the safe: a black one that gives or increases telekinetic powers and a red one, that lets the wearer reach with her arm into an unkown dimension.
Trush is able to repair himself while they worse injured Dita is able to use her Golden Hand healing power on herself.
Trush uses his mind control powers on Dita and forces her to be happy. This is not an easy task as it is against her will, because she is vengeful, but he succeeds.
The two decide that it is the best option to go to Ships' Home to find the business book of Cloudpuncher in his house.
Next: Attack of the Giant Airships
Dita scans the area for ghosts and there is actually one around: one of the dead giants did not go to the afterworld. She starts a conversation with him and figures out soon that it actually is the ghost of Captain Cloudpuncher, the slaver who took her brother. Dita is upset because it seems she will not be able to get her revenge, as he is dead already.
He tells her that he came to the island 4 days ago, because he received a distress signal and was hoping to make slaves out of whoever was needing help. But when his airship showed up, 4 apelike creatures took the mighty airship down with a powerful attack. Him and the four remaining crew members died in the blast.
He lost everyone else some time before in a mutiny, where he killed every other crew member, but he had no slaves on board as he is used to sell them as fast.
Dita asks him if he know who she is, and while before he did not even consider that option, he finally seems to remember her face. He mentions while for her this most have been the most important day of his life, for him it was just another day. But he calls himself a "lover of slaves, a connoisseur" and tells Dita that he could have shot her in the back when she was fleeing, after he took her brother and stabbed her mother, but that he was not this kind of guy.
She asks if he knows what happens to her brother, and he says that he must sold him fast, like always, but that he has a complete log of all the slaves he ever bought in his house in Ships' Home, the harbour town of giants.
She wants to banish him in her lamp, but Cloudpuncher resists. She tries to convince him to get in there, but he says he would prefer to be hosted in her body, if she really wants him leave the remains of his ship of 40 years. In the end Dita convinces him to join her in the lamp instead.
Trush has a look, if there is any loot in the meantime and actually is able to find a locked safe. With the 2nd of two mighty strikes of his laser sword he is actually able to take the top of the safe off.
He finds a big Midnight Sunstone in there, when he wants to examine the other objects, Dita decides it is her turn now to grab something. Trush hits her with the hilt of his laser sword skillfully and wounds her.
She is able to fight back, despite the damage and uses Chi Shout on Trush, damaging him as well. She grabs 2 gloves out of the safe: a black one that gives or increases telekinetic powers and a red one, that lets the wearer reach with her arm into an unkown dimension.
Trush is able to repair himself while they worse injured Dita is able to use her Golden Hand healing power on herself.
Trush uses his mind control powers on Dita and forces her to be happy. This is not an easy task as it is against her will, because she is vengeful, but he succeeds.
The two decide that it is the best option to go to Ships' Home to find the business book of Cloudpuncher in his house.
Next: Attack of the Giant Airships
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Savage Synnibarr: Yanak Statues and Winged Lions
After awaking Kylie, the Mage Warrior, frozen for 10,000 years, and getting information out of her, Airy, the Shadow Master, teleports in, thanks to his teleport disk, that he left with the group.
The adventurers decide to the take the elevator to the lower floor, where Kylie says, that the entrance to this Temple of Yanak, that resided on a mountain back then when she entered it, orginally was. She only wants to use the elevator together with her Giant Firefly, but the groups mind controls her again and Gorgoroth together with Airy take her to the lower floor.
They find eight statues of Yanak there, that are floating through the air, while changing from young embryos to old men gradually, before dissolving and reappearing somewhere else in the room. Only a small fraction of the room is not in their field of sight at any time and it takes Smarts and Agility to uncover those moving spots of free floating time and to stay in thhere.
Two shamans that seem to have been frozen in time while running with blasters must have had less luck and are "stored" in a part of the hall that is never outside the stare of the statues. Next to those, the adventures notice windows that have been overgrown by clams on the outside, as well as an archway to the outside that is overgrown as well. Additionally there is an big opening in the ground. Even that opening overgrown with shells of clams, but those have seemingly died a long time ago, as no water can enter the Temple.
Gorgoroth sends the mind controlled Kylie ahead and she falls victim to Yanak's Gaze again. Gorgoroth himself decides to sit down on the floor and to pray and meditate.
Trush and Douro come down the elevator with the firefly in the meantime. Airy finally realizes he can just teleport through the hall, after having figured out the blind angles of the statues' gaze. He gives instructions to everyone and they make their way to the corners of the room.
Trush is able to access his long lost data bank on religious knowledge and figures out more details on the temple: it was considered lost many centuries ago. According to legends it was built on the mountain Hull. Supposedly it contains not only 10 Yanak statues, but also a key to the prison that holds Yanak in Limbo.
This key should be in the lowest level.
Douro decides to shoot through the clams on the ground with this Tiger Fire and really breaks an opening in the clam layer. He jumps in. The others follow him - including the mind controlled firefly.
As Douro and Airy reach the lowest floor first, they notice a lot of coins all over the ground - probably worth around 100,000$. Next to that a floating huge key and a big red sphere float over the ground - in the gaze of another Yanak statue.
But there are also two Winged Lions waiting for the intruders. They want to telekinetically push Douro and Airy in the field of view of this standing statue, but Douro is really fast. He charges one of the Lions and with a mighty Fire Strike heavily injuries one of the psionic lions. Even the psionic shield can't save the creatue and it is heavily wounded. With his last power the lion can telekinetically push Douro into the gaze of the Yanak statue, freezing him.
Airy is able to withstand the telekinetic power of the second Winged Lion thanks to his strong will. He creates a solid illusion that blocks Yanak's Gaze on Douro and frees the Golden Tiger.
Gorgoroth, who just entered, is able to hypnotize both of the lions. With them under his control, the battle is won. He is able order the heavily wounded lion to kill himself with his claws, by making him cut his own throat.
He makes the second one explain the situation: the two Winged Lions arrived in the abandoned temple hundreds of year ago and started to use it as a homebase for raids.
Trush takes the key to Yanak's prison, Gorgoroth the sphere. He orders the lions to destroy the statue, but even their mighty fireballs are not strong enough to harm it.
Therefore they return upstairs with the sphere and the key. Douro punches the clam overgrown archway and is able to break it open. In the same moment water starts streaming in through the newly created opening, because the ebb is over and the sea level has risen.
To protect the group Airy uses a sold illusion to create an orange submarine.
Next: Cloudpuncher and the Fight for Loot
The adventurers decide to the take the elevator to the lower floor, where Kylie says, that the entrance to this Temple of Yanak, that resided on a mountain back then when she entered it, orginally was. She only wants to use the elevator together with her Giant Firefly, but the groups mind controls her again and Gorgoroth together with Airy take her to the lower floor.
They find eight statues of Yanak there, that are floating through the air, while changing from young embryos to old men gradually, before dissolving and reappearing somewhere else in the room. Only a small fraction of the room is not in their field of sight at any time and it takes Smarts and Agility to uncover those moving spots of free floating time and to stay in thhere.
Two shamans that seem to have been frozen in time while running with blasters must have had less luck and are "stored" in a part of the hall that is never outside the stare of the statues. Next to those, the adventures notice windows that have been overgrown by clams on the outside, as well as an archway to the outside that is overgrown as well. Additionally there is an big opening in the ground. Even that opening overgrown with shells of clams, but those have seemingly died a long time ago, as no water can enter the Temple.
Gorgoroth sends the mind controlled Kylie ahead and she falls victim to Yanak's Gaze again. Gorgoroth himself decides to sit down on the floor and to pray and meditate.
Trush and Douro come down the elevator with the firefly in the meantime. Airy finally realizes he can just teleport through the hall, after having figured out the blind angles of the statues' gaze. He gives instructions to everyone and they make their way to the corners of the room.
Trush is able to access his long lost data bank on religious knowledge and figures out more details on the temple: it was considered lost many centuries ago. According to legends it was built on the mountain Hull. Supposedly it contains not only 10 Yanak statues, but also a key to the prison that holds Yanak in Limbo.
This key should be in the lowest level.
Douro decides to shoot through the clams on the ground with this Tiger Fire and really breaks an opening in the clam layer. He jumps in. The others follow him - including the mind controlled firefly.
As Douro and Airy reach the lowest floor first, they notice a lot of coins all over the ground - probably worth around 100,000$. Next to that a floating huge key and a big red sphere float over the ground - in the gaze of another Yanak statue.
But there are also two Winged Lions waiting for the intruders. They want to telekinetically push Douro and Airy in the field of view of this standing statue, but Douro is really fast. He charges one of the Lions and with a mighty Fire Strike heavily injuries one of the psionic lions. Even the psionic shield can't save the creatue and it is heavily wounded. With his last power the lion can telekinetically push Douro into the gaze of the Yanak statue, freezing him.
Airy is able to withstand the telekinetic power of the second Winged Lion thanks to his strong will. He creates a solid illusion that blocks Yanak's Gaze on Douro and frees the Golden Tiger.
Gorgoroth, who just entered, is able to hypnotize both of the lions. With them under his control, the battle is won. He is able order the heavily wounded lion to kill himself with his claws, by making him cut his own throat.
He makes the second one explain the situation: the two Winged Lions arrived in the abandoned temple hundreds of year ago and started to use it as a homebase for raids.
Trush takes the key to Yanak's prison, Gorgoroth the sphere. He orders the lions to destroy the statue, but even their mighty fireballs are not strong enough to harm it.
Therefore they return upstairs with the sphere and the key. Douro punches the clam overgrown archway and is able to break it open. In the same moment water starts streaming in through the newly created opening, because the ebb is over and the sea level has risen.
To protect the group Airy uses a sold illusion to create an orange submarine.
Next: Cloudpuncher and the Fight for Loot
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Savage Synnibarr: Yanak's Temple on Clam Island
Gorgoroth, the Chameleon Drake, and Douro, the Golden Tiger, return to to the Excelsior Hotel while the other adventurers still have breakfast.
Agent Nelson is ready to send them on their next mission: Captain Cloudpuncher the men responsible for the slave ride on amazon Dita's village has been found. His airship crashed in a place called Clam Island. Agent Nelson uses his recorder/flute to teleport the three plus the cyborg Trush to the island.
Shadow Master Airy is still out shopping for mushrooms, while ninja Rolf Choke never returned from his pegasus ride the night before.
The 4 adventurers arrive on a plain covered with Razor Clams and remains of water. It seems that the current ebb made the water retreat from the plain. The are on a trail that leads one side to the wreck of a Giant's airship. Gorgoroth can smell rotting bodies there. On the other side there is a small, white marble temple on a tall pillar of stone, that is overgrown by clams.
The adventurers notice that a werestorm is coming. A werestorm is canceling all power sources. They decide to fly up to the temple for protection. Trush is in Chameleon Drake shape and able to carry up Douro and Dita up there. Gorgoroth is able to fly on his own. On the way up some of the clams on the pillar open up and shoot burts of flames at them. But the Trush and Gorgoroth are able to dodge.
Up between the temple columns they notice 5 pools of acid. By analyzing the columns of the pillars, the group figures out that this must be a temple of Yanak, the insane God of Time, who accidentally looks similar to Agent Nelson.
While everyone else gets up to the marble dome roof of the temple to be protected from the werestorm, Gorgoroth starts praying and meditating between the pools. Moments later a giant amoebae slides out of the pool and starts engulfing him. He continues praying and the giant amoeba drags him into the acid pool, taking him - protected by its membran - to the ground of the pool where there is an entrance to the temple's interior.
Gorgoroth finds himself in a room whose outer walls look like a lava lamp: the acid pools with some giant amoebae floating in them. In the centre of the room a female mage-warrior is floating on her giant firefly mount, frozen in time. A small statue of Yanak is staring at her.
In the meantime the other three adventurers follows Gorgoroth's example and are also carried inside the temple by amoebae. The realize that the best way of waking up the mage-warrior would be deactivating the stare of the statue. But when Trush turns into a mirror with legs and walks in front of the statue, he is also frozen.
Dita looks for ghosts in the acid lava dome and really finds the ghost of a dwarf. He seems to be insane, tries to smash his head against the untouchable walls and cries. He tells that he has been here for centuries and that he was killed by lions. He tries to grab Dita's legs in desperation, but is not even able to do that. Dita decided to release him from his suffering and leads him to the light.
The group decides that pure force is probably a better strategy. Douro is not strong enough to smash the Yanak statue despite his Tiger Fire. Dita has more success. She unleashed the strongest Chi Shout she has done so far and smashed the statue despite being supported by God Power.
The same moment the wings of the firefly start to flap again and the mage-warrior awakes. Before she really can start to communicate with anyone, Trush takes mental control over her. He realizes that she is an adventurer from Terra with a pure golden aura. She tells that her name is Kylie Kirrow and she came here to chase down an evil Priest of Yanaka, by the name of P.M. Nelson, who was in search of immortality. During the conversation the group realizes that she must have been caught in the stasis field for 10,000 years.
Next: Yanak Statues and Winged Lions
Agent Nelson is ready to send them on their next mission: Captain Cloudpuncher the men responsible for the slave ride on amazon Dita's village has been found. His airship crashed in a place called Clam Island. Agent Nelson uses his recorder/flute to teleport the three plus the cyborg Trush to the island.
Shadow Master Airy is still out shopping for mushrooms, while ninja Rolf Choke never returned from his pegasus ride the night before.
The 4 adventurers arrive on a plain covered with Razor Clams and remains of water. It seems that the current ebb made the water retreat from the plain. The are on a trail that leads one side to the wreck of a Giant's airship. Gorgoroth can smell rotting bodies there. On the other side there is a small, white marble temple on a tall pillar of stone, that is overgrown by clams.
The adventurers notice that a werestorm is coming. A werestorm is canceling all power sources. They decide to fly up to the temple for protection. Trush is in Chameleon Drake shape and able to carry up Douro and Dita up there. Gorgoroth is able to fly on his own. On the way up some of the clams on the pillar open up and shoot burts of flames at them. But the Trush and Gorgoroth are able to dodge.
Up between the temple columns they notice 5 pools of acid. By analyzing the columns of the pillars, the group figures out that this must be a temple of Yanak, the insane God of Time, who accidentally looks similar to Agent Nelson.
While everyone else gets up to the marble dome roof of the temple to be protected from the werestorm, Gorgoroth starts praying and meditating between the pools. Moments later a giant amoebae slides out of the pool and starts engulfing him. He continues praying and the giant amoeba drags him into the acid pool, taking him - protected by its membran - to the ground of the pool where there is an entrance to the temple's interior.
Gorgoroth finds himself in a room whose outer walls look like a lava lamp: the acid pools with some giant amoebae floating in them. In the centre of the room a female mage-warrior is floating on her giant firefly mount, frozen in time. A small statue of Yanak is staring at her.
In the meantime the other three adventurers follows Gorgoroth's example and are also carried inside the temple by amoebae. The realize that the best way of waking up the mage-warrior would be deactivating the stare of the statue. But when Trush turns into a mirror with legs and walks in front of the statue, he is also frozen.
Dita looks for ghosts in the acid lava dome and really finds the ghost of a dwarf. He seems to be insane, tries to smash his head against the untouchable walls and cries. He tells that he has been here for centuries and that he was killed by lions. He tries to grab Dita's legs in desperation, but is not even able to do that. Dita decided to release him from his suffering and leads him to the light.
The group decides that pure force is probably a better strategy. Douro is not strong enough to smash the Yanak statue despite his Tiger Fire. Dita has more success. She unleashed the strongest Chi Shout she has done so far and smashed the statue despite being supported by God Power.
The same moment the wings of the firefly start to flap again and the mage-warrior awakes. Before she really can start to communicate with anyone, Trush takes mental control over her. He realizes that she is an adventurer from Terra with a pure golden aura. She tells that her name is Kylie Kirrow and she came here to chase down an evil Priest of Yanaka, by the name of P.M. Nelson, who was in search of immortality. During the conversation the group realizes that she must have been caught in the stasis field for 10,000 years.
Next: Yanak Statues and Winged Lions
Thursday, June 5, 2014
PtA: The Dickinsons: Ciaran saves the house (Episode 4)
Scene 1: Ciaran is still locked in the trunk of the car. Noone is able to open it.
Scene 2: The family drives the car to Anthony's house. But instead of Anthony an Italian, named Antonio, that looks a lot like Anthony, opens and helps the family with a metal cutter to open the trunk. Britney flirts with him and ask for help against the porn ring. He is interested, but Dick drags Britney in the car. She writes her phone number with lipstick against the window.
One question remains: is Anthony schizophrenic or is Antonio someone else?
Scene 3: The family gathers in the house. There is a fight between Dick and Jennifer. Dick tells that he will travel without his wife. And she actually supports him. Jackie O. gets super mental from prospect of the trip and it seems quite likely that he did consume amphetamines. Ciaran is able to stop him. Dick tells the family that he will go with his male kids and that Jennifer has to be out of the house by the time he returns. She asks him for money, but he denies.
Scene 4: The Dickinsons gather at the airport for the trip to start. There is another fight between Dick and Jennifer. She wants to get him back and is willing to drag him off to the toilets. He tells her to let him be and best kill herself. She really takes his advice serious and tells that she plans a drug part in the house that will only leave ruins and that she wants to kill herself via overdose during the party.
Scene 5: Ciaran and Jennifer are in the living room. She thinks about making the phone calls to get the party started, when Ciaran confronts her. He tells her to relax and that he wants to help her and that he will do everything to get a connection between them. Jennifer feels provoked by that and tells him that he should shoot up, if he is really serious, because otherwise he would never understand and that is just pretending to sacrifice something for her.
Exactly that moment Alex, Jennifer's dealer, walks in with a group of thugs. Alex wants the money she owes him, she tries to convince him that smashing the house in a great party would be worth her debt.
About the same time Anthony shows up. Ciaran is able to convince Alex together with Anthony that they should take Jennifer out of the house and make her pay the money back herself. Ciaran succeeds with Anthony's help and the thugs drag Jennifer out of the house.
Scene 2: The family drives the car to Anthony's house. But instead of Anthony an Italian, named Antonio, that looks a lot like Anthony, opens and helps the family with a metal cutter to open the trunk. Britney flirts with him and ask for help against the porn ring. He is interested, but Dick drags Britney in the car. She writes her phone number with lipstick against the window.
One question remains: is Anthony schizophrenic or is Antonio someone else?
Scene 3: The family gathers in the house. There is a fight between Dick and Jennifer. Dick tells that he will travel without his wife. And she actually supports him. Jackie O. gets super mental from prospect of the trip and it seems quite likely that he did consume amphetamines. Ciaran is able to stop him. Dick tells the family that he will go with his male kids and that Jennifer has to be out of the house by the time he returns. She asks him for money, but he denies.
Scene 4: The Dickinsons gather at the airport for the trip to start. There is another fight between Dick and Jennifer. She wants to get him back and is willing to drag him off to the toilets. He tells her to let him be and best kill herself. She really takes his advice serious and tells that she plans a drug part in the house that will only leave ruins and that she wants to kill herself via overdose during the party.
Scene 5: Ciaran and Jennifer are in the living room. She thinks about making the phone calls to get the party started, when Ciaran confronts her. He tells her to relax and that he wants to help her and that he will do everything to get a connection between them. Jennifer feels provoked by that and tells him that he should shoot up, if he is really serious, because otherwise he would never understand and that is just pretending to sacrifice something for her.
Exactly that moment Alex, Jennifer's dealer, walks in with a group of thugs. Alex wants the money she owes him, she tries to convince him that smashing the house in a great party would be worth her debt.
About the same time Anthony shows up. Ciaran is able to convince Alex together with Anthony that they should take Jennifer out of the house and make her pay the money back herself. Ciaran succeeds with Anthony's help and the thugs drag Jennifer out of the house.
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
PtA: The Dickinsons: Grandma's Day Out (Episode 3)
Scene 1: Krishna comes to the house to summon grandmother's dead husband (Dino or Aleister) via ouija board. It really seems that a ghost is possessing various family members and when grandma asks how he died, he replies that he drowned in the sea and that one of the people in the room was present. When asked who it was, the possessed Britney points at grandma.
Scene 2: Britney has to buy dope for her mother, Jennifer, as she promised in the last episode. She goes to the squat where the rehearsal room is and after encountering some punks meets Alex, Jennifer's dealer and band mate. Jennifer calls in a few times, triggering Britney's Cry Me A River ringtone, but the girl gets Alex on her side and instead of the heroin, he gives some other pack as present. Ciaran listens in on Jennifer on the phone and figures out what is going on.
Scene 3: Britney leaves her purse on the couch back home and Jackie O. finds the pack and puts it in grandma's medicine storage. Grandma takes it shortly after. It seems to be amphetamines and she is able to get out of her wheelchair with it and gets Ciaran's scooter from in front of house, riding off.
Jennifer notices something is going on, but she is not able to figure out that Britney tricked her. At the same time Dick, is not able to hide the fact from her that grandma is on drugs. Britney tells Dick that her mother was asking her to get drugs, despite her promising to stop.
Scene 4: Ciaran, Britney and Dick look for grandma with the family car. They find her a few blocks away, stuck in the mud, but still speeding along. Ciaran is able to take the keys away from her, but in the following struggle, she locks him in the trunk with the car and scooter keys. The family takes grandma in the car and hearing Ciaran pegging to be let out of the trunk, Britney tries to open the lock with a kick.
Next: Ciaran Saves the House
Scene 2: Britney has to buy dope for her mother, Jennifer, as she promised in the last episode. She goes to the squat where the rehearsal room is and after encountering some punks meets Alex, Jennifer's dealer and band mate. Jennifer calls in a few times, triggering Britney's Cry Me A River ringtone, but the girl gets Alex on her side and instead of the heroin, he gives some other pack as present. Ciaran listens in on Jennifer on the phone and figures out what is going on.
Scene 3: Britney leaves her purse on the couch back home and Jackie O. finds the pack and puts it in grandma's medicine storage. Grandma takes it shortly after. It seems to be amphetamines and she is able to get out of her wheelchair with it and gets Ciaran's scooter from in front of house, riding off.
Jennifer notices something is going on, but she is not able to figure out that Britney tricked her. At the same time Dick, is not able to hide the fact from her that grandma is on drugs. Britney tells Dick that her mother was asking her to get drugs, despite her promising to stop.
Scene 4: Ciaran, Britney and Dick look for grandma with the family car. They find her a few blocks away, stuck in the mud, but still speeding along. Ciaran is able to take the keys away from her, but in the following struggle, she locks him in the trunk with the car and scooter keys. The family takes grandma in the car and hearing Ciaran pegging to be let out of the trunk, Britney tries to open the lock with a kick.
Next: Ciaran Saves the House
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
PtA: The Dickinsons: The Vacation Promise (Episode 2)
Scene 1: Jennifer, Ciaran, Jarmaine, Jacky O and Britney go to another town by car. Jennifer wants to make it to the Voice audition there. They see Dick leave the job centre there. Jennifer is able to steer the car into him, breaking his leg. Jarmaine gives her a black eye in the struggle.
Scene 2: Dick ends up in the hospital. When the family comes to visit, a police officer and Shantel, the school nurse, are in the room. Another fight engulfs. Jennifer convinces Dick to tell Shantel off and threatens her to never return to Blackpool. Jacky O. beats her up with a crutch while the police officer pretends nothing happened.
Next: Grandma's Day Out
Scene 2: Dick ends up in the hospital. When the family comes to visit, a police officer and Shantel, the school nurse, are in the room. Another fight engulfs. Jennifer convinces Dick to tell Shantel off and threatens her to never return to Blackpool. Jacky O. beats her up with a crutch while the police officer pretends nothing happened.
Scene 3: Dick and Jennifer are finally back together for a romantic dinner. She makes him promise to get rid of all the kids - by going on vacation without them. She promises him to go cold turkey the same night to save the relationship, because she hopes, they will never return to Blackpool anyways.
Scene 4: Dick talks to the rest of the family to find a baby sitter for the time of the trip. He wants Charmaine to do the job, but Britney forces herself in the foreground. She hopes by being a good baby sitter, she can convince everyone that she can be a good mother. At the same time Jacky O. gets a promise out of Dick to take him along for the vacation.
Scene 5: Jennifer is suffering withdrawal in the bedroom. Britney comes in and tells the truth about the trip, and Dick's broken promise. But Jennifer has other issues: she convinces Britney to bring her dope from Alex, her dealer and keyboarder, for a last time, so that she stop for good.
Scene 6: Ciaran and Charmaine take the kids to the beach. Anthony, Ciaran's infamous friend shows up as well to get Jacky O. for a job. But Ciaran wants to hook him up with Charmaine. Charmaine takes care of him, but leaves him naked and humiliated on the beach afterwards. He runs of without talking to Jacky O.
Scene 7: Stephen, Dick's social worker friend shows up in the house for some tough love. Jennifer makes it clear, that she expects Dick to get the contradicting promises to her and Jacky O. sorted out. Dick tells Stephen that he has to do the vacation to Jersey for one week to sucessfully get Jennifer over her addiction and that there is a boarding school where Jacky O. would get a chance, he will not have in Blackpool. Stephen buys in and gives him the week. His broken leg should actually make it easier for Dick to get a job, Stephen tells, because there are special quotas for handicapped people.Next: Grandma's Day Out
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
PtA: The Dickinsons: Britney's Decision (Episode 1)
Scene 1: Britney talks to Chaimaine in the latter's room. Charmaine wants to convince her not to have the baby because of what the birth did to her body and somehow she gets doubts into Britney, but at the same time Charmaine feels a strong connection to Britney.
Scene 2: Ciaran tries to convince the scooter gang in the corner pub to help him with his scooter robbery, but accidently gives him a champagne bottle filled with bad stuff. The bike gang leader throws up and Ciaran has to flee. Jacky O. is able to steal one of their scooters with help of shop owner Krishna.
Scene 3: Jacky O. tries to convince Charmaine in the hair salon to give him access to illegal stuff from the money from the scooter. He is able to film his father Dick in the stall with the school nurse, Shantel. He is able to run off. Grandma has incontinence issues and in the end the whole family helps her.
Scene 4: Ciaran drives grandma and Britney somewhere. The biker gang shows up and threatens him and offends the family. Ciaran is able to scare them off by mentioning his friend Anthony and playing a tough guy. They really leave, but tell that one day they will get him, when he is a alone. At the same time a biker called Mickey convinces Britney to ride of with her. (She explains to herself that she can protect her family this way.)
Scene 5: Dick goes to Jennifer's rehearsal room, where she lies on the floor wasted. He wants to convince her to come back, but Britney comes in with the video from Jacky's cell phone. As she shows it to Jennifer, Dick's arguments are destroyed, but he also gets more angry.
Scene 6: A flashback to before Scene 5: Mickey takes Britney too an empty storehouse. He wants to convince her to get into the movie business, because she is special and could make 3000 bucks a week. At first she is unsure, but in the end she gives in.
Next: The Vacation Promise
Scene 2: Ciaran tries to convince the scooter gang in the corner pub to help him with his scooter robbery, but accidently gives him a champagne bottle filled with bad stuff. The bike gang leader throws up and Ciaran has to flee. Jacky O. is able to steal one of their scooters with help of shop owner Krishna.
Scene 3: Jacky O. tries to convince Charmaine in the hair salon to give him access to illegal stuff from the money from the scooter. He is able to film his father Dick in the stall with the school nurse, Shantel. He is able to run off. Grandma has incontinence issues and in the end the whole family helps her.
Scene 4: Ciaran drives grandma and Britney somewhere. The biker gang shows up and threatens him and offends the family. Ciaran is able to scare them off by mentioning his friend Anthony and playing a tough guy. They really leave, but tell that one day they will get him, when he is a alone. At the same time a biker called Mickey convinces Britney to ride of with her. (She explains to herself that she can protect her family this way.)
Scene 5: Dick goes to Jennifer's rehearsal room, where she lies on the floor wasted. He wants to convince her to come back, but Britney comes in with the video from Jacky's cell phone. As she shows it to Jennifer, Dick's arguments are destroyed, but he also gets more angry.
Scene 6: A flashback to before Scene 5: Mickey takes Britney too an empty storehouse. He wants to convince her to get into the movie business, because she is special and could make 3000 bucks a week. At first she is unsure, but in the end she gives in.
Next: The Vacation Promise
Friday, January 14, 2011
Gamma World: The Church of the Minute
Flamer, telekinetic pyrokinetic, Smush, Giant Yeti, and Obsat, telekinetic engineered human, are chased all independently by cannibal biker tribes and run off in the Glowing Desert of the North. There they nearly die of thurst, but are safed by a yellow blob farmer named Bryant.
He takes them to his farm and gets them back to health. He has three mutant brother farmhands and her sister, a maid called Annabella, there. After they wake up, he asks them what they can do to pay back their debts. Flamer hands over 2 of his 3 horses, while the other 2 want to help fixing stuff at the farm.
Bryant is not really convinced about that latter two offers and tells them, they should better look for the priest of the Church of the Minute down south beyond the Rovin mountain range. Normally the priest would always come and bless the fields with the sacred cogs. But he did not appear this year.
The groups agrees that they are willing to do that and Annabella is especially in love with Smush. Bryant tells Obsat, that actually she should marry him, because he is a true inbred human, while they have a party at night and stuff is going on behind the barn between Annabella and Smush. He his actually created a bracelet out of a tent hering for her. The farmhands are not to happy about the romance, but the next morning, the three strangers travel South anyways to find the priest.
On the way through the Rovin mountain range, they encounter a tower, as Bryant has told them. The blob gave them a present for Old Zed, the keeper of the tower. In front of the tower they are suprised by a Porker. Smush asks the pig creature, if he is Zed, and the creature pretends inconvincingly that he is.
When the porker wants to open the gate to play the role, a badder, a mutant badger, appears from behind a rock, aims at the characters and tells the porker not to open.
A second porker wakes up behind another rock and a fight engulfs, in which the porkers are roasted to death by Flamer, Smush falls into a radioactive crater and nearly drowns there and Obsat throws radioactive goo at the badder. In the end the badger gives up and admits that they are from the Bazooka gang and haven raided the tower.
He takes them to his farm and gets them back to health. He has three mutant brother farmhands and her sister, a maid called Annabella, there. After they wake up, he asks them what they can do to pay back their debts. Flamer hands over 2 of his 3 horses, while the other 2 want to help fixing stuff at the farm.
Bryant is not really convinced about that latter two offers and tells them, they should better look for the priest of the Church of the Minute down south beyond the Rovin mountain range. Normally the priest would always come and bless the fields with the sacred cogs. But he did not appear this year.
The groups agrees that they are willing to do that and Annabella is especially in love with Smush. Bryant tells Obsat, that actually she should marry him, because he is a true inbred human, while they have a party at night and stuff is going on behind the barn between Annabella and Smush. He his actually created a bracelet out of a tent hering for her. The farmhands are not to happy about the romance, but the next morning, the three strangers travel South anyways to find the priest.
On the way through the Rovin mountain range, they encounter a tower, as Bryant has told them. The blob gave them a present for Old Zed, the keeper of the tower. In front of the tower they are suprised by a Porker. Smush asks the pig creature, if he is Zed, and the creature pretends inconvincingly that he is.
When the porker wants to open the gate to play the role, a badder, a mutant badger, appears from behind a rock, aims at the characters and tells the porker not to open.
A second porker wakes up behind another rock and a fight engulfs, in which the porkers are roasted to death by Flamer, Smush falls into a radioactive crater and nearly drowns there and Obsat throws radioactive goo at the badder. In the end the badger gives up and admits that they are from the Bazooka gang and haven raided the tower.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
PtA Hell Pilot (Primetime Adventures)
These are the 4 player characters from our 2009 PtA (Primetime Adventures) pilot. We did not get a name for the show yet, but I gave it the working title Hell. It's about 2 demons and 2 tormented souls that are sent on missions by their boss Uloroth. The vision of Hell we portray is more or less a satire of everyday office life.
Zxharakator
Concept: Evil god turned toy
Edges: Trickster + Cuteness
Connections: Cult of me
Personal set: Shrine
Nemesis: Marilyn de Rossi
Issue: Being a toy/ cute
[Fanmail after pilot: 1]
Helmut the Bear
Concept: cynical sadist - fallen angel
Edges: Aggressive + Pyromaniac
Connections: Nero's ghost
Personal set: kindergarten
Nemesis: The Society
Issue: kids love to pick on me
[Fanmail after pilot: 1]
Jack
Concept: dual personality serial killer: polite and calm or savage
Edges: Serial Killer + Dual Personality
Connections: child - psycho killer to be in training
Personal set: houses on earth
Nemesis: The Society - holy demon hunters
Issue: Not fully controlling wild site
(Fanmail after pilot: 2)
Ushi
Concept: humanoid cat with cow head (from hell)
Edges: cat + receptionist/ secretary
Connections: big boss
Personal set: hair loss centre; nice treatment, personal assistent
Nemesis: Marilyn de Rossi
Issue: Rossi and her gang making fun of me + her getting her hands on me
(Fanmail after pilot: -)
What happend in the session?
The 4 working were called by there boss Uloroth to come up with a special mission, to boost their little piece of hell's reputation. Jack, a former business man, had the idea to get his former publicist involved.
So Uloroth sent them up to New York City. It was helloween and when they encountered some kids walking around, Ushi and Helmut could not hold back and started attacking. One kid was run over by a car and when people gathered to help the kid, Helmut pretended wanting to do First Aid. But nobody trusted the guy looking like a Furrie, especially when nearly breaking the kid's arm.
In the end the people mocked him and drove him away and they were convinced that there was still hope in NYC when a people worked together to save a kid. The demons could not stand the smell of goodness and had to leave the scene.
Failure.
Uloroth returned them to hell, but said to give them a second chance.
This time they were teleported right in front of the skyscraper George McCullan, the publicist, had his office in.
Still downstairs they had a discussion with a receptionist, who answered to Jack, while the 2 furries and the toy were going on each others neck.
Proposed working title:
Our little piece of Hell
Zxharakator
Concept: Evil god turned toy
Edges: Trickster + Cuteness
Connections: Cult of me
Personal set: Shrine
Nemesis: Marilyn de Rossi
Issue: Being a toy/ cute
[Fanmail after pilot: 1]
Helmut the Bear
Concept: cynical sadist - fallen angel
Edges: Aggressive + Pyromaniac
Connections: Nero's ghost
Personal set: kindergarten
Nemesis: The Society
Issue: kids love to pick on me
[Fanmail after pilot: 1]
Jack
Concept: dual personality serial killer: polite and calm or savage
Edges: Serial Killer + Dual Personality
Connections: child - psycho killer to be in training
Personal set: houses on earth
Nemesis: The Society - holy demon hunters
Issue: Not fully controlling wild site
(Fanmail after pilot: 2)
Ushi
Concept: humanoid cat with cow head (from hell)
Edges: cat + receptionist/ secretary
Connections: big boss
Personal set: hair loss centre; nice treatment, personal assistent
Nemesis: Marilyn de Rossi
Issue: Rossi and her gang making fun of me + her getting her hands on me
(Fanmail after pilot: -)
What happend in the session?
The 4 working were called by there boss Uloroth to come up with a special mission, to boost their little piece of hell's reputation. Jack, a former business man, had the idea to get his former publicist involved.
So Uloroth sent them up to New York City. It was helloween and when they encountered some kids walking around, Ushi and Helmut could not hold back and started attacking. One kid was run over by a car and when people gathered to help the kid, Helmut pretended wanting to do First Aid. But nobody trusted the guy looking like a Furrie, especially when nearly breaking the kid's arm.
In the end the people mocked him and drove him away and they were convinced that there was still hope in NYC when a people worked together to save a kid. The demons could not stand the smell of goodness and had to leave the scene.
Failure.
Uloroth returned them to hell, but said to give them a second chance.
This time they were teleported right in front of the skyscraper George McCullan, the publicist, had his office in.
Still downstairs they had a discussion with a receptionist, who answered to Jack, while the 2 furries and the toy were going on each others neck.
Proposed working title:
Our little piece of Hell
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Synnibarr Actual Play
I was finally able to run my Synnibarr one shot.
I had created the chars for the 3 players, following their basic character concept description.
I got a "pretty fairy that throws bombs" by a casual gamer girl (And),
a samurai with laser sword and a werman that actually is a cyborg in wereman decoy and absorption powers. Those 2 were played by guys (Ser and Vla) from my regular gaming group.
The fairy named Sprinkle had the master mutation Super Speed (which equals Mach-1), because that also gave her great armor. Otherwise she would have been stomped quiet easily.
Follow the link to find the one shot Synnibarr character sheets as pdfs!
The adventure was set on a small volcanic island (as you can read in earlier blog posts). I sketched a small cave map on a single A4 piece of paper and wrote down some NPC and location details on the back, as well as a few notes of rules summary.
You can see the scanned pages here:
These notes actually would have been enough for two sessions (or a long 6 to 7 hours one).
The adventurer started with the PCs arriving in the only harbour village of the island. It was noon and from the ship bringing them there (I did not detail that at all) they could see a single volcano rising from the sea. Its slopes were covered in jungle and some fog was covering that area. Around the volcano flocks of flying deer were circling. What would Synnibarr be without this kind of stuff?
Obviously there was steam coming out of the volcano.
The harbour village (I never introduced its name "Winterhaven" because it is quite nonsensical for a tropic village, but actually it was a reference to D&D4's KotS) was mainly constructed out of stone houses with straw roofs and obviously there was an inn next to the harbour square.
I came up spontaneously with the idea that only a few old people were outside the building at noon. The characters were supposed to find their contact person Dusk in the village.
The casual game girl playing the fairy started intimidating people to get information where Duke was and when they could not really help, she started to attack them.
The talking raccoon who was hanging out in the inn and should have been their contact person, noticed that and prepared her bazooka to save the villagers. In the following fight the fairy/flygirl dodged the bazooka shell and was actually able to alter its direction to fire back at the inn. A bomb later the inn was aflame and the fire was nearly starting to affect other buildings.
The other two player character had in the meantime examined the mansion of the mayor and found a part of a robot there that had "Dusk" engraved in it. When they returned to the village they were able to stop the fire from spreading.
The most important rule part I did not really use was the multiple attacks each round. In the end I skipped the phases and let everyone act following their advantage bonus. The super speed fairy could act first when she wanted to use her 5 actions.
I did not want to take the pace out of the action by calculating who could act when. Although it would have made players loose their proactive play style. Who had an idea could normally act right away.
What was obviously confusing was the roll-under, roll-over mess for different actions - especially, because some roll-over skills are stated in percentages and I accidently marked other roll under stuff as +xx.
Generally the system was quite fast though.
One problem was the scaling. A lesser (= level 5-10) monster like a Gremlin can easily kill a level 1 character with one hit.
When I our time was nearly over, I dropped a hint and the players finally moved all up to the top of the volcano. For whatever reason-even though there was little time left-(actually it was because I wanted the wandering being risky), I rolled a random encounter. It turned out that they encountered "Rock Weird" (p.433). This is a fog creating 6m tall creature that I image as a whale like thing camouflaged as huge rock. While the rule book stats that it leaps up and unfolds a huge mouth, I misinterpreted that-reading over it fast-as a more Sarlacc like creature. So it swallowed the wereman who was walking over the trap door like mouth. The Rock Weird jumped up only after swallowing him and the fairy following the wereman in the maw to help him. I changed the 6 meter vertical jump to one that hurled the creature with its prey (and the other PCs standing on top) hundreds of meters in the air - right up to the cloud of the Gremlin "final boss".
I also ruled that there was acid inside the Rock Weird, but can't find that info in the creature description. So I must have made that up on the spot.
I described flying deer flying away in panic when the Rock Weird thundered by - up to a "hard" cloud. This was the place were the Gremlin kept the 2 baby raccoons. They were supposed to be the McGuffins by the contact person, but it played out different now.
The samurai still standing on the "flying" Rock Weird was able to split this creature with one amazing slash of his katana and saving his comrades.
Next they landed on the solid cloud of the Gremlin, which hovered over the lava lake of the vulcano. After some short interaction, the Gremlin slashed at the samurai and killed him with one hit. This I mentioned above already. If this would not have been a one shot and we were already over time, I would have probably changed the result, but in this case I was happy I had one less player to worry about.
The fairy went all suicide bomber and blew herself up next to the Gremlin. The monster survived that though, while the fairy was annihilated. Game over in any other system, but the Fairy had a minimal chance for a God roll success - the direct intervention of her deity.
And guess what: the player was able to pull that roll off - despite the less than 5% chance.
So I decided that the a huge golden shining flyhead would pop up in the sky and reassemble his flygirl follower. Somehow the Gremlin was nearly pushed off the cloud in the following chaos.
And that was the moment when the wereman followed up and finally pushed down the creature in the volcano. Would have been a happy end somehow, but the fairy decided that she had to kill the baby racoons. All the other players were grossed out, but And gave me exactly what I learned to expect from casual gamer girls: brutal bloodshed. :) She shot the 2 babies and the adventure ended here.
Picture material (added only now):
Volcanic Island
House in Winterhaven
Baby Racoons
I had created the chars for the 3 players, following their basic character concept description.
I got a "pretty fairy that throws bombs" by a casual gamer girl (And),
a samurai with laser sword and a werman that actually is a cyborg in wereman decoy and absorption powers. Those 2 were played by guys (Ser and Vla) from my regular gaming group.
The fairy named Sprinkle had the master mutation Super Speed (which equals Mach-1), because that also gave her great armor. Otherwise she would have been stomped quiet easily.
Follow the link to find the one shot Synnibarr character sheets as pdfs!
The adventure was set on a small volcanic island (as you can read in earlier blog posts). I sketched a small cave map on a single A4 piece of paper and wrote down some NPC and location details on the back, as well as a few notes of rules summary.
You can see the scanned pages here:
 |
These notes actually would have been enough for two sessions (or a long 6 to 7 hours one).
The adventurer started with the PCs arriving in the only harbour village of the island. It was noon and from the ship bringing them there (I did not detail that at all) they could see a single volcano rising from the sea. Its slopes were covered in jungle and some fog was covering that area. Around the volcano flocks of flying deer were circling. What would Synnibarr be without this kind of stuff?
Obviously there was steam coming out of the volcano.
The harbour village (I never introduced its name "Winterhaven" because it is quite nonsensical for a tropic village, but actually it was a reference to D&D4's KotS) was mainly constructed out of stone houses with straw roofs and obviously there was an inn next to the harbour square.
I came up spontaneously with the idea that only a few old people were outside the building at noon. The characters were supposed to find their contact person Dusk in the village.
The casual game girl playing the fairy started intimidating people to get information where Duke was and when they could not really help, she started to attack them.
The talking raccoon who was hanging out in the inn and should have been their contact person, noticed that and prepared her bazooka to save the villagers. In the following fight the fairy/flygirl dodged the bazooka shell and was actually able to alter its direction to fire back at the inn. A bomb later the inn was aflame and the fire was nearly starting to affect other buildings.
The other two player character had in the meantime examined the mansion of the mayor and found a part of a robot there that had "Dusk" engraved in it. When they returned to the village they were able to stop the fire from spreading.
The most important rule part I did not really use was the multiple attacks each round. In the end I skipped the phases and let everyone act following their advantage bonus. The super speed fairy could act first when she wanted to use her 5 actions.
I did not want to take the pace out of the action by calculating who could act when. Although it would have made players loose their proactive play style. Who had an idea could normally act right away.
What was obviously confusing was the roll-under, roll-over mess for different actions - especially, because some roll-over skills are stated in percentages and I accidently marked other roll under stuff as +xx.
Generally the system was quite fast though.
One problem was the scaling. A lesser (= level 5-10) monster like a Gremlin can easily kill a level 1 character with one hit.
When I our time was nearly over, I dropped a hint and the players finally moved all up to the top of the volcano. For whatever reason-even though there was little time left-(actually it was because I wanted the wandering being risky), I rolled a random encounter. It turned out that they encountered "Rock Weird" (p.433). This is a fog creating 6m tall creature that I image as a whale like thing camouflaged as huge rock. While the rule book stats that it leaps up and unfolds a huge mouth, I misinterpreted that-reading over it fast-as a more Sarlacc like creature. So it swallowed the wereman who was walking over the trap door like mouth. The Rock Weird jumped up only after swallowing him and the fairy following the wereman in the maw to help him. I changed the 6 meter vertical jump to one that hurled the creature with its prey (and the other PCs standing on top) hundreds of meters in the air - right up to the cloud of the Gremlin "final boss".
I also ruled that there was acid inside the Rock Weird, but can't find that info in the creature description. So I must have made that up on the spot.
I described flying deer flying away in panic when the Rock Weird thundered by - up to a "hard" cloud. This was the place were the Gremlin kept the 2 baby raccoons. They were supposed to be the McGuffins by the contact person, but it played out different now.
The samurai still standing on the "flying" Rock Weird was able to split this creature with one amazing slash of his katana and saving his comrades.
Next they landed on the solid cloud of the Gremlin, which hovered over the lava lake of the vulcano. After some short interaction, the Gremlin slashed at the samurai and killed him with one hit. This I mentioned above already. If this would not have been a one shot and we were already over time, I would have probably changed the result, but in this case I was happy I had one less player to worry about.
The fairy went all suicide bomber and blew herself up next to the Gremlin. The monster survived that though, while the fairy was annihilated. Game over in any other system, but the Fairy had a minimal chance for a God roll success - the direct intervention of her deity.
And guess what: the player was able to pull that roll off - despite the less than 5% chance.
So I decided that the a huge golden shining flyhead would pop up in the sky and reassemble his flygirl follower. Somehow the Gremlin was nearly pushed off the cloud in the following chaos.
And that was the moment when the wereman followed up and finally pushed down the creature in the volcano. Would have been a happy end somehow, but the fairy decided that she had to kill the baby racoons. All the other players were grossed out, but And gave me exactly what I learned to expect from casual gamer girls: brutal bloodshed. :) She shot the 2 babies and the adventure ended here.
Picture material (added only now):
Volcanic Island
House in Winterhaven
Baby Racoons
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Primetime Adventures Game Report
So we played a spontenous oneshot this evening. We started 10 to 7 and finished 3 hours later.
After discussing on playing something contemporary and 2 of the 4 players coming up with old women as heroes, the other 2 of us vetoed and instead we went for a classic scifi space exploration series. The twist that the ship's captain had between abducted was instantly proposed and excepted.
From that point it was quite fast decided that the player characters would play the doctor, the gearhead and the alien. Further fleshing out brought us a Dougie Houser like doctor and the alien ended up as a shapechanging counsellour with the human cook of the ship as father...
We had it much harder with the name of the series and ended up with the working title "Gilgamesh (Space Putty)".
It seemed to have a Star Trek vibe (which I personaly imagined as Original Series like)
As the director I decided the Pilot Episode would be about the abduction of the captain and the first scene jumped right into that:
1st Scene
The 3 characters are on the bridge with their captain, a mustached Kirk variant in his early 50ies, when suddenly a discus shaped ship appears. The ship's captain, a green skinned woman with little horns and a German accent, tells that the Galactic Federation has decided to take the captain as a hostage.
The same second the captain is frozen in a blue stasis field.
At this point the players reacted the way they were used to from other RPGs. The proposed actions, and I told them that they could just resolve everything they way the wanted, as long as it was not the the conflict of the scene.
The heroes did not achieve anything in the beginning. In the end they got an ultimatum by the green woman to hand over the captain in 30 minutes. Here we had the conflict.
The councellor tried to talk them out of it and failed. Therefore the ultimatum was shortened to 15 minutes. We had not set proper stakes for what would happen in case the character failed. Actually this is not even in the rule book, but proofed to be quite useful to do as we noticed later on.
Then we tried to find the other characters' conflict together by discussing about it, as I was a little clueless myself. In the end we were able to set up that the technician would be able to find out something about the aliens if he succeded. The young doctor would depend on the failure of the gearhead to keep his self consciousness.
They all failed which could have been my fault for spending a little bit too much Budget.
2nd scene
The alien's player decided to go for a flashback: the captain's last brithday party. This was short and sweet: only this character was completely in action. Everyone else was in the scene but not involved. His nemesis (cook father) defined the conflict as he would try to blame failure of the cake on his son/daughter.
The cook's plan failed. The cook was sent off for some time by the captain. And most probably has hard feelings for his child - most fittingly for a nemesis.
Here I remembered the rules wrong, as I let the player build the whole scene till I as producer took over for the conflict. Actually the player was only supposed to decide on Focus, Agenda and Location. But it worked out quite nice and honestly I would have been a little bit overwhelmed doing it alone as I was still struggling with the rules.
What we learned was that if players' want an action based series, they maybe should not base their scenes at a captain's birthday party. ;-) Actually: I could have forced action in there, but the intrique part was more interesting to explore anyways.
3rd scene
A character scene by the player of the gearhead - with his contact.
Another case where the players' were obviously experimenting with the different focus possible by this rule set.
The gearhead and his contact where playing chess. The contact is a young autistic girl. She is somewhat of a genius in a not yet defined way, but mostly just a young girl. In the beginning the agenda was not completely clear here (I have to admit I did not really explain that part to the players). But especially in the beginning it seems fine to have scenes mostly for the color (and obviously to introduce characters which this and the scene before did).
The other characters would walk in. The doctor's player was the first to come up with a conflict. He was kind of jealous for the gearhead. This was already introduced in the first scene. In this case it was because the later one had a friend.
I introduced my idea for the conflict of the central character: the girl had a crush on the gearhead and wanted to tell him that she loved him. As the player created the stakes he actually only wanted to have a possibility for their friendship to grow stronger, but this now created a risk. If he failed it would take him in a direction he totally would not like, as she was probably pissed at him not wanting a love relationship. (I guess the direction that he falls for her would be a little bit too mean, but possible if the player agreed). This kind of shows that you can be pretty mean to your players if I wanted him to loose the conflict (despite seeing the look on the player's face), he would have lost. But in the end he would have probably just used another scene or even his spotlight episode to fix it.
This left the shapechanger and we agreed together that he was inside the room as a simple object. If he failed he would be seen as spying on them. I don't remember if the shapechanger could get anything positive for himself out of the conflict. I am quite sure it was mostly about learning something about humans and himself.
The conflict played out that the gearhead won, the doctor won and the shapechanger lost.
So the gearhead was able to convince his friend that she just misinterpreted her own feelings, while the doctor was able to pull out of the love thingy he watched, that maybe he was not loved himself by anyone at the moment, but that there was something positive possible - even for him.
I to finish the scene I created a cliffhanger: while we were not really able to put the alien in the scene without removing the focus from the others, I decided that someone collected the CCTV crystal to use it later against the spy. This sounded quite cool: As the scene comes to an end and everyone leaves the camera pulls back and we notice that we have seen all this from a screen. There is a shadowy hand that stops the recording and ejects the memory crystal which shows the shapechanger turning from a desk lamp back into something humanoid.
4th and last scene
Finally a plot scene again, as we run out of time. The aliens beam on board of the ship - they actually look like mermaids - to take along the captain.
The conflict is mainly who is able to find a way to track the aliens and/or look cool despite loosing, as it is already decided that the captain disappears. In the end everyone failed, although one of these failures was not revealed to the players and will play out in the long term (as the player wished).
I also added a cliffhanger which sounded really stupid in the beginning, but with creative input of the players it turned into somethin amazing: The AI tells the characters that the Headquarter contacted them: because of the situation martial law has been declared on the ship. The veterans from the Freedom Wars (20 years ago) as the only one with military ranks will be given command. These are the nemeses of 2 of the characters: the cook and the scientific assistent.
Retrospective:
We had to finish after maybe 2,5 hours of playing (not counting the 30 to 40 minutes of show and character creation). Obviously we did not have time to play until all the budget was used, but learned a lot and created the sketch of a show I am excited about.
In the end we realised that is really best to ask: what does my character win if he wins the conflict and what does he loose, if he looses the conflict?
I also think that you can easily play PtA with only 2 players and on director.
Note: I think, "Captain, my Captain" would be a good title for the series. This was proposed by one of the players, but taken as more of a joke.
One problem we had was the fact that one of the player's wanted to make her successes dependend on those of another player. You can't really pull that off. But this even makes sense as the success should be something the protagonist achieves and not something he watches...
I think the problem was that the player had imagined a rivalry with the gearhead in the classical Bones-Spock way, but everytime the gearhead achieved something interpersonal this was hard to pull off. The problem is probably that the Gearhead is in no way like Spock. But maybe our Dougie Howser will someday realise that actually he has the Spock position in this relationship...
One more thing: the players only started to understand the fan mail concept in the end. I think in the future the Audience Pool won't be overloaded any longer.
After discussing on playing something contemporary and 2 of the 4 players coming up with old women as heroes, the other 2 of us vetoed and instead we went for a classic scifi space exploration series. The twist that the ship's captain had between abducted was instantly proposed and excepted.
From that point it was quite fast decided that the player characters would play the doctor, the gearhead and the alien. Further fleshing out brought us a Dougie Houser like doctor and the alien ended up as a shapechanging counsellour with the human cook of the ship as father...
We had it much harder with the name of the series and ended up with the working title "Gilgamesh (Space Putty)".
It seemed to have a Star Trek vibe (which I personaly imagined as Original Series like)
As the director I decided the Pilot Episode would be about the abduction of the captain and the first scene jumped right into that:
1st Scene
The 3 characters are on the bridge with their captain, a mustached Kirk variant in his early 50ies, when suddenly a discus shaped ship appears. The ship's captain, a green skinned woman with little horns and a German accent, tells that the Galactic Federation has decided to take the captain as a hostage.
The same second the captain is frozen in a blue stasis field.
At this point the players reacted the way they were used to from other RPGs. The proposed actions, and I told them that they could just resolve everything they way the wanted, as long as it was not the the conflict of the scene.
The heroes did not achieve anything in the beginning. In the end they got an ultimatum by the green woman to hand over the captain in 30 minutes. Here we had the conflict.
The councellor tried to talk them out of it and failed. Therefore the ultimatum was shortened to 15 minutes. We had not set proper stakes for what would happen in case the character failed. Actually this is not even in the rule book, but proofed to be quite useful to do as we noticed later on.
Then we tried to find the other characters' conflict together by discussing about it, as I was a little clueless myself. In the end we were able to set up that the technician would be able to find out something about the aliens if he succeded. The young doctor would depend on the failure of the gearhead to keep his self consciousness.
They all failed which could have been my fault for spending a little bit too much Budget.
2nd scene
The alien's player decided to go for a flashback: the captain's last brithday party. This was short and sweet: only this character was completely in action. Everyone else was in the scene but not involved. His nemesis (cook father) defined the conflict as he would try to blame failure of the cake on his son/daughter.
The cook's plan failed. The cook was sent off for some time by the captain. And most probably has hard feelings for his child - most fittingly for a nemesis.
Here I remembered the rules wrong, as I let the player build the whole scene till I as producer took over for the conflict. Actually the player was only supposed to decide on Focus, Agenda and Location. But it worked out quite nice and honestly I would have been a little bit overwhelmed doing it alone as I was still struggling with the rules.
What we learned was that if players' want an action based series, they maybe should not base their scenes at a captain's birthday party. ;-) Actually: I could have forced action in there, but the intrique part was more interesting to explore anyways.
3rd scene
A character scene by the player of the gearhead - with his contact.
Another case where the players' were obviously experimenting with the different focus possible by this rule set.
The gearhead and his contact where playing chess. The contact is a young autistic girl. She is somewhat of a genius in a not yet defined way, but mostly just a young girl. In the beginning the agenda was not completely clear here (I have to admit I did not really explain that part to the players). But especially in the beginning it seems fine to have scenes mostly for the color (and obviously to introduce characters which this and the scene before did).
The other characters would walk in. The doctor's player was the first to come up with a conflict. He was kind of jealous for the gearhead. This was already introduced in the first scene. In this case it was because the later one had a friend.
I introduced my idea for the conflict of the central character: the girl had a crush on the gearhead and wanted to tell him that she loved him. As the player created the stakes he actually only wanted to have a possibility for their friendship to grow stronger, but this now created a risk. If he failed it would take him in a direction he totally would not like, as she was probably pissed at him not wanting a love relationship. (I guess the direction that he falls for her would be a little bit too mean, but possible if the player agreed). This kind of shows that you can be pretty mean to your players if I wanted him to loose the conflict (despite seeing the look on the player's face), he would have lost. But in the end he would have probably just used another scene or even his spotlight episode to fix it.
This left the shapechanger and we agreed together that he was inside the room as a simple object. If he failed he would be seen as spying on them. I don't remember if the shapechanger could get anything positive for himself out of the conflict. I am quite sure it was mostly about learning something about humans and himself.
The conflict played out that the gearhead won, the doctor won and the shapechanger lost.
So the gearhead was able to convince his friend that she just misinterpreted her own feelings, while the doctor was able to pull out of the love thingy he watched, that maybe he was not loved himself by anyone at the moment, but that there was something positive possible - even for him.
I to finish the scene I created a cliffhanger: while we were not really able to put the alien in the scene without removing the focus from the others, I decided that someone collected the CCTV crystal to use it later against the spy. This sounded quite cool: As the scene comes to an end and everyone leaves the camera pulls back and we notice that we have seen all this from a screen. There is a shadowy hand that stops the recording and ejects the memory crystal which shows the shapechanger turning from a desk lamp back into something humanoid.
4th and last scene
Finally a plot scene again, as we run out of time. The aliens beam on board of the ship - they actually look like mermaids - to take along the captain.
The conflict is mainly who is able to find a way to track the aliens and/or look cool despite loosing, as it is already decided that the captain disappears. In the end everyone failed, although one of these failures was not revealed to the players and will play out in the long term (as the player wished).
I also added a cliffhanger which sounded really stupid in the beginning, but with creative input of the players it turned into somethin amazing: The AI tells the characters that the Headquarter contacted them: because of the situation martial law has been declared on the ship. The veterans from the Freedom Wars (20 years ago) as the only one with military ranks will be given command. These are the nemeses of 2 of the characters: the cook and the scientific assistent.
Retrospective:
We had to finish after maybe 2,5 hours of playing (not counting the 30 to 40 minutes of show and character creation). Obviously we did not have time to play until all the budget was used, but learned a lot and created the sketch of a show I am excited about.
In the end we realised that is really best to ask: what does my character win if he wins the conflict and what does he loose, if he looses the conflict?
I also think that you can easily play PtA with only 2 players and on director.
Note: I think, "Captain, my Captain" would be a good title for the series. This was proposed by one of the players, but taken as more of a joke.
One problem we had was the fact that one of the player's wanted to make her successes dependend on those of another player. You can't really pull that off. But this even makes sense as the success should be something the protagonist achieves and not something he watches...
I think the problem was that the player had imagined a rivalry with the gearhead in the classical Bones-Spock way, but everytime the gearhead achieved something interpersonal this was hard to pull off. The problem is probably that the Gearhead is in no way like Spock. But maybe our Dougie Howser will someday realise that actually he has the Spock position in this relationship...
One more thing: the players only started to understand the fan mail concept in the end. I think in the future the Audience Pool won't be overloaded any longer.
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