Morgan's 2014 Square One RPG Day

Sunday, 24 Aug 2014 11am - 6pm (game ended at about 3:30pm)

GM: Mike "Aniki" Montesa
System: The Mountain Witch
Number of Players: 5
Characters: Created at the table

The icy peak of Mt. Fuji looms overhead, concealing a dark terror so great no one has ever attempted to confront it. Yet you have come.

More money than you ever dreamed of was laid at your feet if you would undertake the task that is sure to lead to your death. Yet you have come.

You are a ronin and you have your secrets. So do your companions.

You cannot trust them, but without them you will surely fail. Yet you have come.

Courage. Fear. Trust. Betrayal. All will be revealed when you face...

THE MOUNTAIN WITCH

Grab a seat in this classic storytelling game of doomed ronin going to meet their dark fates. It’s The Seven Samurai crossed with Resevoir Dogs in a full throttle session of this legendary game! No experience necessary, just bring your Awesome!

It was an interesting game, more because of the GM and players than the system.  When you want to accomplish something, you roll 1d6 and the GM rolls 1d6, tie goes to the GM.  The delta determines the degree of success.  Other players, whether in the scene or not can help or hinder based on available trust points.  They can also take over the narration for a trust point, but the outcome will remain the same.

So, basically, if you trust someone and give them a point, they can during your scenes, spend a trust point to help you and add 1d6.  If someone you trust betrays you, then each point they spend can subtract from your die roll or add to your enemy's.

If you want to duel someone, you then get no help from companions and both sides roll 1d6 and keep it hidden.  They then decide to either "hold" or "charge".  If one of the two players declare "charge" then the d6s are revealed and totalled up and compared.  If they both decide to "hold" then, they roll another 1d6 that is hidden.  On the 3rd 1d6, it becomes an automatic "charge."  This is to replicate samurai duels where it is all about honor and nobody can interfere.

The most innovative part was that we were given random hidden agendas and even the GM doesn't know what they are.  One card was a Traitor card.  But since there are 5 players and 6 agenda cards, it may or may not be in play.  So, during play, each player is allowed to narrate some scenes and those scenes help the other players figure out each other's hidden agendas.  The GM is also in the dark and he gives players opportunities to show who they are.

At one point the GM started a scene where one player was approached as if he was the traitor, but the PC reacted aggressively towards the insinuation that he was the traitor.  What was cool was that even though the GM guessed wrong, it created more paranoia among the players.

It was a fun game.  I'd definitely play it again.

Here was my character:

Morgan's KublaCon 2014 Excellent Adventures

This year the shuffler was bad to me.

Numerous people were complaining about shuffler problems and the late hours that some games ran to.  The only two games the shuffler gave me was Gil's game and Todd F's game, but I was in Gil's game until 4am and I missed Todd's 9am game -- due to oversleeping, I woke up at 9:15am.   So, those two first choices destroyed any chance of me getting into any games for the rest of the convention.

But I was able to crash two games and overall, I had a Great KublaCon.  I played in three excellent games: Badger's, Gil's, and Dovi's.  The Paranoia game I ran turned out incredibly funny and I had a great time running it -- I killed about 49 clones.

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Badger McInnes's (Altered) Resonance (Delta Green)
FRI, 6 PM - 12 AM     6 Players   

The howl of a bitter wind outside that fail to mask the screaming in...German?...coming front of you. A victrola leadenly plays music in the bathroom. Blood mixed with snow. Smell of a fire. A gun in your hands, but you don't know why, or where you are...

(Altered Resonance) takes place in the Black Forest Mountain range in Germany during World War II. The scenario begins in media res, with the player character's memories wiped. Who you are, what your mission is, and who you can ultimately trust will be revealed through the course of the scenario.

This game was pretty simple plot-wise, but the situation and player interaction made this interesting.  The gimmick in this game which was well done is that you don't remember who you are and our character sheets were mainly blank.  I've played in three other games with this gimmick and this was one of the better ones.  Two games I've commented on which had amnesia gimmicks were Jeff Yin's The River Belle and Gil's The Day the Whole World Went Away. As the game progressed, Badger handed out progressively filled out character sheets.

I liked the tension at the beginning when we didn't know who we were and what we were supposed to do.  Once we knew what our mission was, the game played out pretty predictably.  Still, a very good game.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

The first thing Badger did which was great was that he handed out character sheets with most of it fuzzed out like an out of focus camera.  It immediately set the mood.  It had WOW factor.

We also started us in media res.  We stood in a room with some dead and injured German soldiers.  In front of us was a German officer carrying a sub-machine gun and demanding something in German.  We asked a couple of questions about the scene to figure out what was going on.  I carried a sub-machine gun also.  I asked if my gun was warm, as if recently fired.  It was, so I shot the German dead.

We searched the house we were in and the surrounding grounds.  We found clues and an underground experimental facility.  A test subject had escaped.  This whole act was fraught with tension and dread as we found more and more strange things as we explored the house.

Once we left the house with our clues and loot (German lab equipment), our memories started to come back and Badger gave us our final character sheet which had all the stats filled out, extensive backgrounds, and a copy of our orders.

We were supposed to find the test subject and take him back with us.  We followed his trail to the nearby town and discovered that he was fazing through dimensions.

At the town, we located the test subject, fought some Germans, and escaped.

One of the highlights was that in my packet was a small handwritten note that said there was a traitor in our midst.  From my background, I found that I only trusted two of the PCs and from a process of elimination, figured it was either of two PCs and most likely the one played by Dovi (which was funny because what made me suspicious was something Dovi did before he knew he was the traitor -- but he acted in that manner because Badger was handing us back fragments of our memories, small slips of paper with sentence fragments from our complete backgrounds, which Dovi acted on).  I called over my commanding officer who I trusted and told him about the note and who it might be.  We decided to do nothing and just watch the two PCs closely.

We'll at one point, the Lieutenant, the test subject, and one of the PCs phased out.  When they returned, they were struggling to kill each other.  The other players didn't know what was going on, but I shouted, "Lousy, Krout spy!" and attacked the PC fighting the Lieutenant.  I got lucky and rolled an impale and actually did enough damage with my k-bar to kill Dovi's character.

Another good touch was that some of the Germans had exploded heads.  We also experienced a precursor to this when we were near the test subject.  This left us in a dilemma as to what to do as our horrible sinus headaches grew in power and frequency.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Damon Gregory's SOS ISS Icarus (BRP)
SAT, 10 AM -  4 PM      6 Players   

ATTENTION! Incoming Distress Call: 'Urgent assistance is *bzzzt*ed! There are *bzzzzt*! HURRY! *bzzzzzt*'

You are a member of the First Responder team 'Hamilton's Heroes' who patrol the outer rings of the Sol System. 8 hours and 45 minutes ago your team received a Code 3, location is under attack, distress call from the ISS Icarus. The Icarus, a research and development station, lies between Uranus and Neptune. It's remote location generally keeps it out of harms way, so this call can mean just one thing, Pirates. A rare occurrence this far out, true, but there is money to be made in new technology on the black market and the Icarus is known to be working on some bleeding edge tech. As the team prepares for boarding, a thought, unspoken but shared by all, quiets the ship, please let there be survivors...this time.

Emphasis on roleplaying and quick thinking rather than gunplay. This scenario borrows elements from Delta Green, and involves adult themes. Mature players only.

This was an interesting game, but slow in a few parts.  Damon had great props.  My Carnival Magic game and Frank's Calling All Stations!!! This is Attu!!! were also in this vein of a distress call out in nowhere.

I loved how Damon had what initially looked like generic corridor map strips which folded out and became what was on the right or left of the corridor -- as we explored.  Neat.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

The character sheets were really cool; They were printed on clear plastic sheets with two corners cut off a la Battlestar Galactica.

One other neat prop was a found datapad that was face down, when flipped over you'd find a bloody handprint on top of the display (a plastic Halloween sticky).  And information was actually on the datapad that the players can read.

One problem I had with the game was that the space station was mostly empty except for one section.  So, we spent a lot of time searching and finding nothing.  Damon spent a lot of effort building out the space station and making transforming maps, but they mostly contained nothing.  If they contained some clues, then that would have helped with the pace, but after the Nth time of finding nothing, the sense of dread completely drained.  At one point my character just went to the mess hall and started to eat grape popsicles  -- only to throw it up in my space suit when we ran into a heap of dead bodies.

We found a Stargate that opened up into a medieval setting.  We were then tasked to find the missing head scientist from the space station.  We were then faced with being stranded on a medieval planet as we tried to complete our mission.

One funny bit, when we entered a castle to speak to the king, we met him plus two women standing behind him.  One was a missing security officer from the space station, the other was the unworldly beautiful daughter of the king.  Earlier in the game, Chris O. was randomly shooting things such as one of the horses we found.  When we entered the castle and Damon described the three, Chris shouted out, "I shoot her."  He didn't roll any dice and Damon didn't ask him to roll any dice, so we assumed he was joking.  Well, at the end of the game, the big bad guy was the king's daughter.  Go figure.  Chris O. is crazy like a fox.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Gil Trevizo's China Marines (Godlike)    
SAT, 8 PM - 4 AM    6 Players

Shanghai 1941: As news breaks of the attack on Pearl Harbor, a group of US Marines are pulled off their departing boat and 'volunteered' for a special mission: liberate the families of Chinese superhuman Talents that are being held by the Japanese to make the Talents fight for the Empire. Mature themes.

I'm not sure if the second edition fixes some problems with Godlike or Gil's hacks fixes problems with Godlike.  Several changes made the game more reasonable.  Gil's requirement that most talent skills requires a will point spend made the Godlike skills more reasonable. 

My main issue with using Godlike at a convention is that it takes too much time to explain the system.  Gil took about an hour explaining the system.

Lots of maps, props, and attention to detail makes Gil's game great.  His descriptions are full of telling detail.  He takes simple die rolls and converts them into effective and sometimes poetic imagery during the game.

The game ran to 4am and all the players were still at the table at the end -- and awake.

Yes, it was that good.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

My favorite part of this game was the beginning when the players started a bar fight.  The complexity of the scene was great.  NPCs were making a deal with stolen artifacts -- which eventually involved some PCs.  Two PCs were brought here for their last hurrah.  I found my gal was dancing with an enlisted man -- a PC.  This all wound up in a giant bar fight.

My character was HP Lovecraft.  A xenophobic man from Providence, RI.  He had paid the madame of the bar to make one of the girls exclusively his.  The girl "Ming-mei" was now pregnant with his baby.  He's also married to a woman back at home.  He pays the girl to whip him as he sings the Marine Corp Hymn.  Yeah, it's that messed up.

At the beginning, I could tell the other characters didn't like my character (and they should have since I wasn't supposed to be likeable), but as we played and more and more of my secrets leaked out, I found that they seemed more sympathetic.  I really liked that.  From detested to not-that-bad.

After the bar fight, we were sent to save some Chinese hostages at a Japanese internment camp.  The camp held family members of Chinese talents (supermen) to be used as leverage.  Gil was brilliant, he showed the characters newsreels of the Chinese talents and why the US must "save" the family members, so the Japanese can't use them against the US.  But by also showing us their talents, the Zed can also nullify their talents without going in blind.

I used this opportunity to give money to "Ming-mei" and a letter from me explaining that she was one of the family members of the talents, so I could smuggle her out of China with me.  I also give her instructions to meet me at our mission pickup point.  Yeah, I was breaking major military rules and potentially letting the enemy know of our plans.

We saved the family members, but due to the chaos of war, we wound up having to cross China and escape through Russia.  During our escape, the Chinese Talents were sent against us -- being told by the Japanese that we were kidnapping them.  So, this was a great dilemma.  Do we kill the talents we're trying to turn to our side?  Do we let the Japanese take back the relatives?  Well, we wound up killing some of the talents and recruited some of them.

In the end, I got "Ming-mei" out of China.  In the epilogue, I continued to fight as a Marine and I sent money to both my wives -- an audible gasp from the other players as they didn't know I was already married, surprise, you bastards, surprise -- and in the end, I went crazy and got sent back to state-side to an insane asylum in Providence where I wrote nightmare stories about whips, tentacles, and half-breed children as therapy.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Dovi Anderson's Kellian's Fist (Fate Core - Star Wars)   
SUN, 8 PM - 2 AM     5 Players    

For years, you and your companions have honed your unique abilities on a harsh planet bathed in the light of a remote saphire star. Your master's vision has been singular and focused: to hide you from the Empire until such a time that your powers prove strong enough to deliver a mighty blow against it. (A prequel-free Star Wars Graphic Novel, mature minded players preferred).

Dovi has gotten really good with making his games more and more cinematic.  He shows us things happening off screen like a movie and he also does great Star Wars alien dialog and R2 whistling (which is totally amazing to me as I can't whistle at all).

Todd F. also makes his game cinematic by skipping from scene to scene and only highlighting key scenes.  Dovi also does this, but I think Dovi gives players more freedom of choice.  Todd's games are more scripted since he chooses the scenes whereas Dovi's scenes feel more organic and based on player choice.  Todd runs 4 hour games and his games are very tight.  Dovi's games are longer and maybe that is what gives us more time to play with things and make it seem more like a collaboration between Players and GM.

The character I picked was way different from the standard light saber wielding Star Wars character and I deliberately went way out of the norm just to see whether I could work with it.  It turned out great.  Of the three great games I played at KublaCon, this one edged out the other ones as my favorite.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

Dovi gave us male/female choices for each of the characters except for the one I picked; I picked an Ithorian Priest.  I decided I would be a pacifist.  Yeah, a pacifist in a Star Wars game with light sabers.

Each character was along the spectrum of good and evil.  A slightly dark jedi, a light jedi with doubts, a jedi that doesn't follow light or dark, a techno-jedi-cyborg, and my Ithorian Priest.  One of the themes in the game was teamwork which we had continually failed at.

Dovi gave us a page of questions to answer about our characters and their relationship with other characters.  I decided I was a pacifist and that all life was precious.  Ithor was a holy planet and Ithorians do not touch its surface.  I was allowed to do so and I was asked what vision I had seen.  I decided that I saw "The Doom of Ithor" by the hands of the Empire and that I had joined Kellian to save Ithor.

I had strong Telekinesis skills, Force Shield, Force Healing, and Force Sight.  So I was basically a protector and healer.  My Bafforr staff could be used to block light sabers.

The game starts with three Sith approaching our planet.  We find that Kellian had gone missing and that he had disabled all our means of travel -- in order to protect us from the Sith.  But we fixed the equipment and went looking for him anyway.

In another cut away scene, we see Kellian give himself up -- and one of the Sith cuts both of his hands off.  Kellian is hoping to leave the planet without revealing our presence.  But we catch up with the Sith as they are departing the planet and one of the Sith break off to take care of us.  We team up and eventually beat him.  The other Sith leave with Kellian.  As the Sith lay dying, I try to heal him.  My Bafforr staff consisted of a living entwined tendrils of a plant.  When I heal, the tendrils unwind and reach out to heal.  The Sith snatched the vines and withered them, cursed me, and then died.

We then find gifts from Kellian.  I found seeds from Ithor and healing water from Ithor.  The water healed my staff.  Before we left our hideout, Kellian told us to destroy the base, but I had an Ithorian ecosystem in my room, so I hurt myself in order to sink the room into the depths as the rest of the crew prepped for blowing up the base.

Using the force, I can see through Kellian's eyes and found him being held and tortured by the Emperor.

During our journey, each character fought with their choices: of whether to go towards the light or dark, whether their philosophy was correct or wrong.  Our characters grew during the adventure.

So, we head to the Emperor's Palace and get into the boss fight with the Emperor.  We also find out that one of the PCs was the Emperor's clone, raised in secret and that there are multitudes of Emperor clones -- babies, adolescents, and teenagers in tubes, being tortured into the Emperor's image.

During the boss fight, one of the Jedi convinces one of the two remaining Sith to sit out of the fight.  When the Emperor noticed that, he force choked her.  As the fight was going on, I went and healed the force choked Sith, who then decided to join the fight against the Emperor.

In the end, we beat the Emperor.

In the epilogue, we were asked what we would do.  I decided to find a lifeless moon and plant the seeds and use the water from Ithor to make Ithor 2.  I also took the Emperor clones with me to tend the plants and I would teach them and make them all pacifists.  And I got a shower of fate chips for that.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Morgan Hua's Tomb of Paranoia (Paranoia)
MON 9 AM - 3 PM     6 Players

Tomb of Horrors vs Paranoia. I’ll be running Tomb of Horrors, but we’ll be sending in clones from Paranoia.

Welcome troubleshooters, The Computer has found an anomaly. You will be outfitted to explore a strange region in Alpha Complex -- most likely the headquarters of Commie Mutant Traitors. Due to the dangerous nature of this threat, you have been granted more than your standard allotment of clones.

I was surprised, when I showed up at 8:50am, there were already 5 people in the room waiting for my game.  When the game started, I had my 6 players.  These were really dedicated gamers or there wasn't anything else open on Monday morning at 9am.

The whole idea behind this was that The Tomb of Horrors was a meat grinder, but with infinite clones, it doesn't matter and I thought it would be really funny as what is needed to defeat the Tomb are various magics which the players don't have.

I was surprised, the players actually finished the module in 6 hours and defeated the Demi-Lich Acererak.  Go figure.

The players were laughing throughout and I even got one player to lead the others in song.  The game was amazingly fun.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

At the briefing room, I tell them that Surveillance-bots had discovered a strange place and that the team was to disguise themselves to infiltrate the Commie Mutant Traitor HQ and to destroy it.  I handed out cardboard armor covered in tin foil, faux-chainmail made of syntha-wool, night gowns with stars and moons and floppy hat, faux-leather cloth, a large diaper, and pointy ears with green tights.  Swords and other weapons made of Styrofoam and rubber were also handed out.

I did give them a Destruct-O-bot which looked like an R2 unit with a large faceplate with the digital number 10 glowing in red letters.  The number does count down pretty quickly unless there's player intervention.  Only later does the Computer deliver a Clone-O-matic to them.  The Clone-O-matic looks like a giant Slurpee machine with a knob with their names on it.  It only dispenses a goopy clone when a player dies and then the replacement clone steps out of the goo.

In this game, one of the players actually programmed the Clone-O-matic to only dispense him.  When a player died, he/she was replaced with another clone of that player.  Pretty clever.

Then we got full on multiple clones vs other PCs as each death converted a PC into that clone model.  When they discovered that their lasers couldn't hurt each other, they picked up swords (from defeated monsters) and started hacking each other to death.

One of the fun bits was when a PC got cursed with levitation and then got teleported outside, and then proceeded to float way up into the sky and died of asphyxiation.

In the end, the players tried to attack Acererak and got their souls sucked into the skull, when that happens, no clones are dispensed.  Once the players figured that out, they resumed the countdown on the Destruct-O-bot and blew up the tomb and themselves.  Once that happened, they were all dispensed from the Clone-O-matic again.  A full team of the same character.

Satisfied that their mission was complete, but without proof, they decided to abandon Alpha Complex and to never return.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Sean Nittner's Under the House of Three Squires (Torchbearer)
SUN 4 PM - 6 PM     3 Players

I arrived at KublaCon on Sunday and didn't get into any games (other than the one I overslept for), so Sean was nice enough to take us to the 9th floor and run Torchbearer for a number of us.  The game was incredibly crunchy.  We had to keep track of every resource such as torches (which only burn for 2 turns), spikes, food, water, etc.

You also get hungry very fast and even bags of gold doesn't buy you much in the town with its inflated prices.

We got lucky and escaped with 4 barrels of fine ale, a Pomerano, and a scroll with magic spells on it.

My favorite bit was that my "Cleric" had sticky fingers and a lock pick set.  He likes to give final unction as he filches everything off your dead body. He actually has Turn Undead. Go figure.

It was interesting, but it wasn't my cup of tea.

Morgan's Dead of Winter 2013 Adventures

Dead of Winter was held again at the Carey House in Placerville.  I found that the Foresthill Bridge is the tallest bridge in California and is a few miles from Placerville.  One plan was to go early and do a little bit of site seeing, but due to work schedules and such, I decided to go after work and carpool with Jack Y. and Shannon M.  Maybe next year?

On Saturday morning, I met a few people who are guests of the Cary House each year.  One guy belonged to a group of tree researchers who measure the trees in the Placerville area annually -- who would have guessed that was a job.  Another guy visited each year but I didn't ask what he did because he had an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of Placerville.  He told me that the new owners of the Cary House was better at increasing the occupancy rate, so it'll probably be full all the time.

Interesting tidbits about Placerville (could be true or this guy is a real good spinner of tales):
1.  The hanged man was taken by a couple of kids as a prank.  They cut him down and hid him, but the hanged man was found.  The kids had climbed up the scaffolding around the renovations, but to prevent possible injury in the future, the hanged man has been put away.  Unfortunately, a lot of tourists come by to take a photo of the hanged man and they'll be disappointed.
2.  There are about 1500 historical markers around town.
3.  Here's the story of hanging as told to me (but different from the official history):  Four men lost their money gambling and decided in the evening to rob the owner of the hotel they were staying at.  In the morning, a posse caught 3 of the 4 men.  The 4th man got away.  They held a trial out in the open with the towns folk and it was presided by Judge Lynch.  The sentence was something like 39 lashings each. After they were bleeding and lying on the ground, a sheriff from a different town dropped by and said that the 3 men were wanted for murder.  Another swift trial occurred and they were found guilty and were hung on one of the only trees in town.  Not long after, the tree was chopped down to expand the building next door.  The original stump from the old tree remains in the cellar of "The Hangman’s Tree" tavern on Historic Main Street.  At one time it was covered in glass to show case the stump.
4.  The 3 hanged men were buried near the freeway and there's a marker there.
5.  Ancient pilings have been found around Placerville.
6.  Another hanging happened in Placerville.  One man accused another man of cheating and the accusee pulled out a knife and stabbed the accuser.  The accuser died.  The murderer was found guilty.  Further outside of town was another tree.  The murderer offered to save them the trouble and to climb the tree and hang himself, but the town refused and hung him instead.
7.  Nearby was a community of Japanese samurai.  A trader brought a clan of Japanese samurai to the area to escape the Japanese civil war.  They brought with them silk worms and plants for the silk worms.  Unfortunately a drought killed all the plants.  The ship captain who had brought them here promised to return to Japan and return with more plants.  He never returned.  Each day, a young Japanese girl stood on a hill each day to watch for the returning ship that never came.  Either the captain had a mishap or lied and never intended to go to Japan again and just left the area.  In the Placerville museum are some artifacts from this Japanese colony.

So much for Placerville, onto the games of Dead of Winter.

Overall, I had a really good experience, almost rivaling the first year at DoW.  Having the bathrooms locked at 10pm isn't the same as a missing urinal at the Brookdale Lodge, but we have to make due with what we have.

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Saturday, December 14, 11AM – 5PM
Game System: Call of Cthulhu 6^th edition
Scenario Title: Upton Abbey
GM: Gil Trevizo
Variations: None
Power Level: Incompetent Upper Class Twats and Sniveling Lower Class Morons
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided: Yes.
Description: The manor house is in an uproar as the Earl of Groantham invites his new heir presumptive, the callow Mr. Crowley, to a weekend of shooting and dining, where he might vie for the hand of his eldest daughter Mary and thus secure the shaky family fortune… but the arrival of a strange Turkish diplomat and the revival of long-dead customs brings a darker chaos for those that serve Upton Abbey.

I had a great time playing in this game.  This was my favorite game at DoW, it only beat out Matt Garu's game The Block by an insignificant margin.  Definitely a game for those who are fans of Downton Abbey.  We play all the servants of Upton Abbey and the Upper Class characters are all NPCs.

I decided that since the Family was going to be evil, I didn't want to play any of the evil Machiavellian characters (O'Brien or Thomas) -- evil vs evil isn't that fun.  The good characters (Bates or Anna) were not that interesting to me either. So, I decided I wanted to play Daisy, dumber than cardboard and the ability to make horrible mistakes without being accused of plotting.

My favorite part of the character sheet was the back:

My favorite bit from the sheet:  "Thomas is dreamy. (...) Mrs. Fatmore claims that Thomas is a Sodomite but you know he's really from Manchester.  You want to have his babies."

Gil gave out prizes too and I won this.

One of the cool things Gil did that worked really well was that he let you burn San points to flip-flop a percentile die roll (1d6 san loss) or re-roll a die roll (1d20 san loss).  This represented your character becoming unstably obsessive with succeeding.

It was great fun, I think we went through the whole first season of Downton Abbey in the 6 hours of play.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

We were told that we're the new staff.  Last Christmas, all the staff died in a fire except for Miss O'Brien who was sent away during the fatal event.  So that didn't bode well for us.  Metagame-wise, we knew we were on the chopping block as Christmas was upon us and the Family were evil cultists.

The towers and 3rd floor of the Upton Abbey were locked off and off limits to the Staff due to safety concerns from the previous year's fire.  Of course, due to curiosity, most staff would go to the off limits area given the opportunity.

My favorite game bits:

The Crowley's automobile crashing into the staff and catching on fire.  Daisy caught on fire and Gwen (played by June G.), tried to put the fire out with a bucket of water, but critically failed and nailed Daisy with the bucket, so Daisy decided it was safer under the burning car which could blow up at any moment.  Gwen was nice enough to pull Daisy out from under the car before it blew up.

Thomas (played by Karen T.) sneaking into Mr Pamuk's room (NPC) and having Turkish sex.

Mr Bates (played by Frank F.) discovering the Librarian.

Thomas and Miss O'Brian (played by Jim  M.) knocking Mrs. Fatmore (NPC) unconscious and leaving her face down on the burning stove.  Then when Daisy finds her and wakes her up, Mrs. Fatmore says, "Grab a knife, Daisy, we got some killing to do."  We head up into the tower and confront Miss O'Brian and Thomas and Daisy critically fails with the kitchen knife and it shatters.  And when Mrs. Fatmore gets murdered by Miss O'Brian and Thomas, Daisy runs into the kitchen and grabs a frying pan and huddles in a corner.  Thomas then convinces Daisy to look for a Canopic Urn.  She finds the dust markings of one (with critical success) that used to be in Lord Groantham's dresser (stolen by Mr Bates), so she tells Thomas she found it in the dresser.  "Daisy!" was Thomas's comment when he found the empty dresser.

The Fox hunt and asking volunteers to wear the Fox fur.  Sheer genius, Gil.

Daisy trying food for Mr Pamuk and going unconscious and when later when all the players were asked if they would eat the Christmas dinner, Daisy said, "Yes, of course, she's the cook; she has to taste everything." And she fell unconscious as she was trying to clean the blood off of the Fox fur.

Daisy waking up in the field ready for sacrifice and asking Lord Groantham (NPC) if it was alright if she returned to the Abbey and got the Fox fur for him as she was supposed to.  "Sure," he said, "If you're coming back."  "Yes, mi Lord."  And Daisy came back with it.  "Now lay down," ordered Lord Groantham.  "But it's cold and damp."  "Well, put on the cloak, then."  "Ok."

The final fight where the Staff kills the Family. 

Daisy got to brain the Dowager Countess with a frying pan, repeatedly.

Gil gave out two cups and a Downton Abbey reusable shopping bag as prizes. I got the cup for going insane first.  Thanks, Gil. It was a great game.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Saturday, December 14, 7PM – 1AM
Game System: Unknown Armies.
Scenario Title: Night Shift
GM: Duane O’Brien
Variations: Some House Rules
Power Level: Regular Joes
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided: Yes.
Description: Normally the night shift at this institution is pretty quiet. Occasionally the police will bring someone over for an involuntary hold, but for the most part nothing really happens. But tonight, a series of unexplained attacks will leave everyone praying for the dawn.
 We're all staff at a mental institution, except for one PC that was a patient.  To help determine which players played which character, Duane showed us ink blots and asked us what we saw.

I got to play the doctor and select the patients and their disorders.  The time period was late 1800's.  So, knowing some history of that time period, I picked some pretty unacceptable diagnoses (by our standards).  My favorite was the woman who was "1/8 Black who claimed that she was White" -- yeah, WTF.  And we're going to try to cure her by making her accept that she's Black.

I've been in a couple of Duane's games and they're always excellent.  Most of them are epic in scale; this time this game was more of a locked room mystery and very different in flavor.

I did enjoy the game, but it wasn't on the same epic scope as some of his other games.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

The game starts with police bringing in a new temporary patient.

At first, I tried to get some background info on the patient, but we soon learned that due to lack of technology, and long traveling distances, that this was a locked room mystery.  Without access to external information, our only avenue of investigation was the new patient.

Back then, you used to look at a person's teeth to determine how healthy they were.  They do that with horses.  The patient spoke oddly and I tried to get him to show me his teeth, but he refused.

We soon learned that Tooth Fairies were collecting people's teeth and leaving behind strange coins.  Duane had great props: A bag of bloody teeth, various foreign coins, and great vintage photographs.

In the end, we learned that we had to nail 32 teeth (per person) around window and door frames to keep out the Hungry Mouths.  After being eaten by the Hungry Mouths, you turn into a Tooth Fairy.

At dawn, you're safe to leave your warded cell.

In the end, Skyler W. took over a patient's protected cell and left the patient out to die.  Chris O. got eaten while trying to save that patient and was turned into a Tooth Fairy.  Shannon M. who tagged along with Chris somehow just walked out of the institute after Chris died horribly.   Badger M. and Karen T. killed a Tooth Fairy and used it's loot of teeth to ward a cell.  I was graciously invited to spend the night in safety with them.

I had already decided to resign my post as the institute's head doctor (during a bout of insanity).  In the morning, I left.  Badger and Karen were dedicated enough to stay and when the police arrived, they got into trouble.

I escaped to the West and became a dentist.  My #1 recommendation?  Extraction.  My log cabin has teeth studded windows and door frames.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Sunday, December 15, 11AM – 5PM
Game System: The Veil (Diceless/Narrative)
Scenario Title: The Block
GM: Matthew Grau
Variations: Base-Level Convicted Felons
Power Level: Mortal Humans
Number of Players: 6
Characters Provided: Yes
Description: You’re just trying to do your time. Felons don’t have it easy at San Quentin. Yeah, they built on so that you and your fellow cons weren’t living on top of each other. Yeah, they built that new medical facility. That when things got weird – weirder than the usual race fights, gang BS, and crap from the CO’s. Word on the block is that they’ve opened up one of the oldest wings again, trying to renovate it. They say that place has been closed down for more than a hundred years. Nothing feels right in prison, but something that really ain’t right seems like it’s coming.

Matt had great maps and info about San Quentin.  We were all inmates in San Quentin.  

This was my character sheet:

I had a really good time being a depraved homicidal Mexican Gang Hitman.   One of the other choices was someone that looked like a serial killer.  That was my other choice, but Jill S. took that character.  Well, after seeing Jill in action, I bow to her genius.  I don't think I could have played the serial killer as masterful as she did.  She was an artist.  It was great seeing her in action.

One of the best moments was at the end.  Martin H. wound up in a car chase and gun fight with Jim M., Nik G., and Dovi A. across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Jill and I just drove by, but then Martin decided to hold a innocent girl hostage by dangling her over the water -- that was the last straw and Jill decided that Martin's Skinhead character wasn't a good protege and turned our car around. Jill then saved the girl and dumped Martin's body over the bridge.

Good times.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

This game starts with power getting cut off from our cell block.  After hours with lack of food and water, a few cells popped open.  The chosen few, the PCs and a few NPCs decided this was time for revenge and mayhem.

One of my favorite bits was that I had gotten a shiv from Reese, another Mexican gang member (but not my cartel), if I promised to shiv Jim's character.  I got the shiv, but when Reese saw that I was loose, he said that I didn't need to shiv Jim if I got him free.  Jim and Nik's character got into the control room and wouldn't let us out of the cell block unless I killed Reese, so I went back to Reese's cell and told him I need to whisper to him the secret of getting out. He came up to the cell door and I shiv'ed him good multiple times and told him, "You're free now."  I then cut off one of his tattoos as proof.  That was poetic justice.

The game was pretty simple, just get out of prison.  But it was the situations and character interactions that were a lot of fun.

We had a Mexican hitman (Morgan H.), a white cannibalistic serial killer (Jill S.), a mafioso (Dovi A.), a skin head (Martin H.), a black serial rapist (Jim M.), and a gang banger from the hood (Nik G.).

We ran into the medial ward, the mess hall, the library, the chapel, death row, residence quarters, etc.  We had fights with other inmates, riot police, guards, and the warden.

We had loads of depraved fun.  There was actually a nurse rape/murder scene -- I can't believe we went there -- but we were good enough to keep it tasteful.

In the epilogue:
My character escaped back to Mexico and rejoined his gang, MS-13.  After being seriously injured, he retired as a priest.  Decades later, he wound up giving last rites to Dovi's character.

Jill's character returned to San Quentin as a sadistic prison guard.

Unfortunately, I don't remember epilogues of the other escapees.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===

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Sunday, December 15, 7PM – 1AM
Game System: CoC 7e
Scenario Title: Psychopaths on a Plane
GM: Morgan Hua
Variations: Delta Green and PvP
Power Level: Abnormal People
Number of Players: 5
Characters Provided: Yes.
Description: You’re at 35,000 feet, cruising at 590 mph on Asianic Airline Flight 313, flying across the Pacific Ocean on a Boeing 777.  Your seemingly ordinary flight goes horribly strange and horribly wrong. The inflight meal was a live octopus and a boiled fish head. In the bathroom, your warped reflection winked at you. All the passengers look a bit tense and unhappy. Then your flight gets hijacked. Who will survive Flight 313 on the night of Friday the 13th, 12/13/2013?

I had originally designed the game for six players, but by the time we got to the late session, I was down to 4 players (one of my 5 players volunteered to play in Karen's game) as Karen badly needed a 3rd player for a missing seat. For a PvP game, the more players the better, so having 4 players severely limited the character interactions.

I had 25 character portraits made up of fictional serial and cold blooded killers from various movies.  I emailed my players the portraits and asked them which PCs were they interested in and asked them to fill out a questionnaire.  I used the questionnaire to customize their first character sheets.

I felt the game went ok, but it didn't go great.  Also Jason F.'s die rolls were amazing and I didn't want to penalize the players for great die rolls.  I had assumed the plane would go down and I had another act set up for that eventuality.  But due to good role playing and amazing die rolls, the plane landed safely.

Of course, if I run this again, I got suggestions for how to guarantee that the plane would go down, so we could proceed to the optional last act.

In the spoiler section is a breakdown of how the game was constructed.

=== SPOILER SECTION START ===

The psychopaths:

Every psychopath needed their weapon.  I had a lot of fun getting various weapons through airport security.

Plastic Gun disassembled

Plastic Gun

Credit Card Knife

Ceramic Knife

Garrote Watch

Put in it into a sock and wham-o

Old Straight Razor

A 4 inch blade is legal

Nobody said anything about a 6 inch handle

Good for strangling people

Shoe Knife

The game started with introductions of each PC.  Each PC got to do a quick vignette as the camera goes over their faces in their plane seat.

As an experiment, I decided to hand out bennie points for good scenes or good role playing.  The bennie points could be turned in to burn a luck point.  Each bennie point let you burn one luck point to change a die roll.  The point gains were slow and people horded them for the critical moment of landing the plane.  So, I think this experiment didn't succeed.

The players fell into several camps:  Cthulhu Cult Terrorists, Hastur Cult Anti-Terrorists, Delta Green Agents, and Civilians which may include Air Marshals and off-duty cops.  One player automatically starts off as an Air Marshal (this time it was Shannon M.) and he is armed with

Sig Sauer P250

Glaser Safety Slug, x-section

Glaser Safety Slug

Switch Blade (yes, it's illegal)

Next was seating assignments.  I based it on the character's credit rating.

Boeing 777

If you were a cultist, I gave you spells like Wither Limb and Breath of the Deep.

Initially strange things would happen like tadpoles in drinks and unusually long bathroom lines (several PCs and NPCs had to assemble their weapons away from prying eyes).  During the meal service, half-eaten fish heads and live octopus arrive with the first class meal.  The cargo hold is actually flooded and live aquatic biological have escaped and contaminated the food service.

Dinner Service

Dinner Service

When a PC enters the cargo hold, he'll discover that it is flooded waist deep.  Once deep into the cargo hold, a shark will attack the PC (Sharks on a plane!).  In the game, Jason F.'s 2nd character missed his spot hidden roll, but the shark missed and Jason plugged the Shark with two shots (one was an impale) from the Air Marshal's gun and killed the shark.  There were other things like Moray Eels and Piranha (I would have used them on other players if they entered the cargo hold too), but Jason did a smart thing and shot a hole through the fuselage to drain out the water.

After the meal service, the Cthulhu Cultists hijack the plane and try to make everyone chant: "Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn" ("In his house at R'lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.")

They are channeling magic points to get a ritual off.   Etched into the ceiling of the cargo hold is a large arcane sigil that channels the magic energy.  Each death also powers the sigil.

Unknown to the Cthulhu Cultists, one of them have been replaced by a Delta Green agent (Jason F's first character).  During the hijacking, Jason actually dispatched the other two hijackers.  But unknown to him, there was an Air Marshal on board and the Air Marshal "took care of business."  Thus one Delta Green agent bites the dust.

I also looked up Air Marshal tactics and info and put it on the Air Marshal's character sheet.  They're trained.

One of the first thing air marshals learn is where not to shoot. The old myth that depressurization by bullet hole is the greatest danger. Normally, this is not the case. The pumps/compressors that keep a cabin pressurized can normally deal with a couple of small bullet holes.

A far greater danger is hitting hydraulic lines or electrical wiring. Which is the reason why, trainees learn where critical systems are located, so a shot may be placed without hitting them. Of course, the most important system to avoid shooting is the pilot or co-pilot. As a result, shot angles and ammunition type must be considered. (Glaser rounds)

Strong marksmanship skills is paramount. The ability to shoot at relatively long range, for example, could be critical should a shot have to be taken down the length of the cabin. Air marshals practice moving down the aisle while maintaining their shooting base so that they can close the distance to a potential threat, but a shot may still be necessary at 25 yards or more.

Tactics Used While Seated

Aircraft seats create problems, it’s difficult to pull yourself out of one. Under the stress of a hijacking, this can be even more difficult. Air marshal must train to take a shot while seated. He/she must also train to take a shot as he levers himself up out of the seat. One tactic is to choose a seat on the aisle and on the left side of the aircraft looking forward if you were right-handed (on the right side if left-handed). This allows you to take a lean-out shot while seated. Much attention and rehearsing of drawing the handgun discreetly from the seated position is just as important as shooting, drawing the handgun undetected is emphasized.

A lone air marshals must be able to engage multiple hijackers quickly. Reportedly, in training, U.S. air marshals must demonstrate the ability to engage three opponents quickly. Since a hijacker might well have grabbed a flight attendant or passenger as a shield, the air marshal must also be capable of making a head shot. Normally, a center-mass shot is preferable as the bullet will more likely stay within the chest cavity. Special ammunition (Glaser round) will, however, minimize the danger of over-penetration.

Monitoring Passengers

Monitoring of passengers prior to boarding and while in flight is another factor in identifying any problems. This skill is an art in not only observation of body language, but also being able to social engineer. In other words being able to socialize with passengers in your surroundings is vital in gaining intelligence. Air marshal emphasizes “we’re not stereotyping, but monitoring behavioral”. Recognizing behavioral that affects public safety is the priority.

Defensive Tactics

Training in non-deadly force is just as important as using a firearm all dictated by the “Force Continuum”. There is a time when the objective is not defending the flight cabin but on subduing an agitated aggressor. Air Marshals receive optimum hours of training on physical controlling a subject utilizing physical apprehension techniques. Defensive tactics includes one man, two man tactics to physically control an individual, also includes:

• Disable an attacker from a seated position
• How to fight from the ground position in an aisle
• How to use different onboards items to subdue and restrain an attacker
• Using seatbelts to restrain an attacker

These are the many skills required to perform air marshal duties. The other side to this profession is the law enforcement side which addresses the logistics and investigative functions.

The pilot will not open the cabin door under any circumstances.  When the players open the cabin door, it will become evident why.  The pilot has killed the co-pilot (a dried out husk) and is flying the plane in an arcane pattern around an island in the pacific.  When they force open the cabin door, the pilot will either fight the players or shoot himself in the head.

During our game, the pilot shot himself, but Jason's 2nd character could fly the plane.  A suggestion was to have a Cultist Bomber take down the plane.  I think that'll work.  The plane will crash on the island (full of cultists).  Luck rolls will determine who gets hurt and who dies in the plane crash.

Boeing 777 Pilot's Cabin

In the game, the players dispatched all the remaining cultists on the plane and then safely landed the plane on Hawaii.  But if the plane is headed for a crash, I have the following images:

We're Crashing

Water Crash Landing

Mountain Crash Landing

On the island are cultists still intent on summoning something real bad.  The players though possibly injured will now have to try to stop the big ritual.

=== SPOILER SECTION END ===