The Meldan Family Tomb (Play Report)

This report may be a bit incoherent. I waited too long to write it.

We love a dungeon. Last week bue offered to run a quick one for me and our friend J. after dinner. I was excited to crawl because I don’t get to do it as often as I’d like to. 

We used FMC Basic to roll up Xavier Bert the Expert and Willem the Fighter. The referee was so kind as to provide us with a mercenary named Orcus Porcus, who brought an axe. 

Our characters had heard that there was some trouble with the living dead in the tomb of the noble family Meldan. A 500 gp reward was promised to whoever dealt with the troubles and rescued the missing guards, previously sent to deal with the affair. This was more than enough incentive for X. Bert and Willem.

We entered from the south, where we encountered the statue of a Meldan patriarch who seemed to have had a fondness for cats. Moving westward, we came across burial niches left and right. But many of the corpses were covered in red-blue coral-like growths. This rang some alarm bells. Fearing they were infectious and dangerous, we moved along after some light poking.

Faced with the choice between moving through a curtain of the alien corals or opening a heavy door, we chose the latter. A very irritated aristocrat was on the other side of it. He looked to be in the process of sticking bronze needles into a rabid, growth-covered corpse. Two silent giants decorated with bronze pins stood guard behind him. Assuming that this party would prefer to remain private, X. Bert shut the door only to be called upon by the disturbed academic. He shouted something along the lines of “Who are you? Get back here!”

 

X. Bert's map of the tomb.

 

Thus we joined the man of presumably Meldan heritage for some discourse. He ordered us to get rid of the infection that was taking over his servants and in return offered us the contents of his family tomb. Valuing our lives and seeing a chance for profitable enterprise, we agreed.

We returned to the entry as we did not like the idea of moving through the curtain. At the east end of the corridor, we were met with a door as well as a portcullis. The latter did not open, and we chose the door to the north. Before we got to open it, there was a brief encounter with a mute giant who presumably was in the service of the Meldan necromancer. The large corpse left us be and continued its patrol. 

Behind the door to the north, there was a group of almost dead guardsmen. They had been severely decimated by some creatures. The survivors did not even entertain the notion to stay and bolted as soon as we arrived. We pilfered their fallen comrades, which caused some noise. This attracted a group of growth-covered bodies. Lucky for us, the guards had left some fortifications we were able to use to our advantage. Slaying the creatures made us overly confident. It also made me forget about the tapestries on the walls the referee had pointed out several times…

We moved further north and came across stalagmite-like growths. Crossing the affected zone, we eventually came to another burial chamber where there were four giants lying on stone slabs holding big two-handed swords. They started to move, and not 5 minutes later, Wllem and Orcus were dead. X. Bert ran for his life without treasure or fame.

The session was a success because we spent two hours playing as friends and had fun.

The session was a failure because we messed up quite a bit as characters. We didn’t play as smart as we should have, forgot to look for secret doors, and decided to face the giant undead in battle. 

I thought about writing up a post about failing as a player, but that seems like too much work and unnecessarily tough on ourselves. Sometimes you are tired, and sometimes you forget how to play the play style you adore. You can’t expect to pull off a big scheme every session. Still, this served as a reminder that playing well isn’t as easy as it sometimes seems from behind the referee screen. 

 

Agrippa von Netteshârn, a radical optimist (Shifty Louts Play Report)

[report for a session of shifty louts refereed by jay_zero]

The rambling of Agrippa von Netteshârn as transcribed by the guardsmen that arrested him.

„It was a nice morning. The sun had just risen, and the songbirds were in love. This flowery display by nature herself drove me underground. There, within the tomb filled with miniature bones, I made new friends: Hindy, Akos, and Kenny. They had just parted ways with a group of rather grumpy mummies. Eager to avoid more awkward encounters with the local populace, we moved on. Somewhere along the way I was gifted three bottles by an impoverished noble—he lacked flesh and skin—but still we toasted to his health, emptying one of the liquids. One or two doors later we were greeted by an old acquaintance, visibly upset by the fact that I had transmuted a door into glass. In the mood for more pranks, we hid in a hole and crawled, leaving the ghost of friendship past dazed and confused. The true prank was delivered by the universe that day; the tunnel behind the hole led back to where our bond of camaraderie was first forged. Nonetheless, we remained a joyful band. We made our way back to the tunnel we expected to lead us into the sunlight. And there it was, the beautiful melody of the brightest day. Only then did we realise the disturbance. A pack of vicious guard dogs, legionnaires I would name them, loitered in a tomb. One last jest was required of us. A tossed bottle, some nervous coughs, and sixteen bleeding eyes later, serenity prevailed.“

From the pages of "Noble Metals – A Synthetic Strategy for Success" (SUPER ADVENTURE 2: Morning Party Play Report)

A play report for Mr. Mann's Super Adventure game 

A preview of Uale Xerive's upcoming publication, Noble Metals – A Synthetic Strategy for Success, that was delivered to the soulless subscribers of their Pyramideon™ service. 

Success is simple. That is the secret. – Uale Xerive

Uale Xerive, the notable and respected Cogflower Demon Hunter Necromancer of the Ultraviolent Grasslands, was once but a simple legume farmer. Now they are the richest machine mind far and wide. 

One essential skill every ambitious business bot must pick up is market evaluation. If the market does not provide the opportunities you seek, do not grind but expand your mind. This is a metaphor. Expanding your mind means expanding your market.

Thus, when Uale Xerive, the author of this work, recognized the lack of profit coming from the crystal trade, they did not whine about the invisible hand's failure but looked for new opportunities.

Uale Xerive entered the real estate market. 

With real estate in the Porcelaine City being manipulated by degenerous socialcyst nobles, Uale Xerive looked to the tax haven Blip in the Spokelands. Financial success did not present itself freely. There are no handouts. But Uale Xerive, the creator of the Noble Metal's Academy for Ambition and Accumulation, was well networked. 

Overhearing a “Writ of Request or Removal of Owners of a Private Residence And/Or Domicile Within Jurisdiction of the Association's Theater of Operation”, Uale Xerive founded a start-up and gathered a small team of talent and interns. The writ read:

 First person to kill Pyrrha Les-Arsahnist = NewOwner();
Before NewOwner(): 
    for all Property in Domiciile:
        Property.Update("Up For Grabs!");

[TO MY IMBECILE ASSISTANT JEREMY. PLEASE REWRITE THIS PART BEFORE RELEASE TO THE SUCKERS THAT READ MY EXPENSIVE BLOG. MAKE IT MORE GENIUS AND LESS LIKE I GOT LUCKY!!]

Initial shareholders of this hostile takeover were COO Snakeskin Strutta, CFO Gryndwel, CTO The Marquis, Senior Member of the Board Ludwig Lazarus, and CEO Uale Xerive. Added as unpaid interns were Steve, Pinball Pete, and The Magician.

Upon arrival on the property, the wolf pack found it to be protected by a wall. Steve was sent to find an entry and opened the wall using his diamond portfolio. Inside, the shareholders decided on a top-to-bottom approach. COO Snakeskin leveraged the side of the volcano and opened a path forward through the balcony into the bedroom of the estate.

Inside, CEO Uale Xerive, author of this book and leader in market excellency education, proposed to circle back to open a door where the pyromancer Pyrroah was found to be violating coporate policies on political literature, a firable offense. She was successfully dismissed by Senior Member of the Board Lazarus deploying the Lightning Technique (TM).

This ended the acquisitions phase and led to several steps of revolutionary ideating. The estate was stripped for parts to be left to the vultures of Blip, who have not gotten the memo about the dire state of their market. In addition, the organization was successfully downsized to improve profit margins. The trimming of the fat led to the permanent termination of the grease wizard known as The Magician. After a thorough performance review, the interns Steve and Pinball Pete were let go to find more suitable positions in the afterlife. The legacy hires of the pyromancers estate were kept to keep the competition confused.

Having made hay, the shareholders pulled the plug, sold the shares, and went their separate ways. 

This is how Uale Xerive came into the possession of the following assets [Jeremy, add the changes I have noted in red]:

- 46’740'000 gp.
- Dragon Slayer Bastard Sword +20
- Shield +100
- Plate Mail +100 (elf size)
- 3 sentient platinum metal weiner dogs Sir Lugnut, Sir Cuthbert, Sir Wrench  

 

Dogs on the Isle: The Deeds of Diago (Play Report)

[played in olliedog's wolves upon the coast game on the gay beholder server]

The following is an excerpt from the Deeds of the Diago as he imagines they will be told by the people of Castille. Factual inaccuracies may be attributed to Diago’s sick fantasies.

 

Legend has cast a deep shadow over the history of this brave hero, to such an extent that his very existence has been questioned; there is, however, no reason to doubt his exploits. History paints him as a freebooter, an unprincipled adventurer, and a greedy grave robber. This description is accurate.

 

…

 

At the age of fifteen, Diago was chased from his homeland by a mob of angry cattle herders. He made his way to Ruislip and joined a band of merry reavers, a lively but wretched bunch. Ivan, Daithi, Vaast, Foot 2Man, Llwd, Odela, Osric, and Oddbjørn were their names. The lack of coin weighed heavily on their souls.

 

So the band left the village of Killucan for the city of Blulach. There was some talk of druids, but none of it concerned Diago. He had his mind set on the coins waiting for him in Blulach. On its way north, the war band came across a river with stone men sitting on its bed. An offer of water appeased the miserable creatures and so they posed an obstacle no more. 

 

In Blulach, Diago was disappointed to learn that his new family was looking for work and gambling to fill their pockets. 
Deeming these efforts foolish, Diago boasted, “I WILL CRACK OPEN THE MAUSOLEUM OF LORD GLAS’ BELOVED MOTHER AND LEAVE NOTHING BUT BONES!”

 

Then Diago set a fire near the grave to serve as a little distraction and swiftly moved to enter the deceased lady’s resting place. He swiped what he could and placed a single candle on the sarcophagus to condole the dead noble for her financial losses. A moment later, Diago was making his way to the gates, his pockets filled with 500 silver pieces worth of spoils.

 

The next morning, he rejoined his party only to learn that they had lost their silvers gambling and that Osric had been thrown into the dungeons. Another 60 silvers were lost to free the delinquent from hard labor, and the band set out again.

 

In Killucan, the party talked itself into bringing the sad boy Ultan to meet with the stone men. But this endeavor turned out to be idiotic, as the band was ambushed by a horde of gruesome oremen on the way. They fled, eager not to be skinned by the Fomorians.

 

... 

 

And so Diago was forced to return to Blulach again where more graves would wait for him. 

 

 

Diago if he made it to an old age. 

Deep Lake, 2004: Ravi's email (Play Report)

Recently there was some talk about the Brindlewood game Public Access on a discord server and we all agreed that the theme was cool but didn't want to play an investigation game where there is no actual investigation. In Brindlewood games players make up the truth because the game isn't about solving mysteries but generating or emulating a narrative. That's cool but not the kind of game I want to play. 

RQ took this as a challenge to run a game of a "Public Access but there is an actual mystery to solve" using something that loosely resembles 24xx. We didn't get very far with solving any mysteries but the vibe was definitely there and we'll see where we get to in further sessions.

I wrote an in-character play report that looks like an email from 2004. I don't know how readable it is but who is reading this anyway? I think if you click on it it's easier.

 

this is a 90% accurate reconstruction of the historic outlook express

 

 

THE TOO MANY CONANS PUBLIC DOMAIN TIME HEIST SQUAD - The Game

I had a silly idea while yapping on a discord server. During a car ride I turned it into a game. 

Here it is. 

(Also on my itch.)

The Public Domain is beautiful. But it needs to be expanded. 

That's where you come in!

You are a Conan. You are part of an elite strike force. You are THE TOO MANY CONANS PUBLIC DOMAIN TIME HEIST SQUAD.

Your mission is to plant copyrighted creations in the past to make them old enough for the public domain. Be subtle and make it believable. Even the archaeologists need to be fooled. 

Succeed at any cost!

(To the lawyers: This is a parody. Fair use baby!) 

 

How I ran Gradient Descent as a Black Box (or Diegetic vs. Narrative Logic)

My black box campaign for Luke Gearing's Gradient Descent recently wrapped up. I didn't plan on it ending before the end of the year, but things happen, and sometimes godlike AI systems trigger nuclear warheads. You can read up on the butterfly dream campaign here. Running it for thirteen weeks was a lot of fun. I promised my players I'd shine a light into the black box after the campaign ended. I will try to do this in this post but I am also using it as an excuse to write down some other thoughts on the experience.

This is how it ended?!

Diegetic Primacy

Having read blogs on different playstyles that focus on the way they engage with how abstraction is employed in their games got me wanting to try something new myself. I will admit that I still don't know how my approach actually lines up with the different labels (link to the FKR blogs here).

For my game, I wanted to immerse the players and myself in a fictional world and minimize the  abstractions necessary, namely the layers between the players and the fiction. This is actually a bit misleading, as it is all within the realm of abstractions (thinking, imagining, speaking, etc.). In order to avoid philosophical spiraling, let's just say I didn't want to give a rules system primacy over how we engage with the world of the fiction. Isn't it frustrating when the enforcement of rules lessens the feel of logical consistency of a fictional world you are engaging with? That is what drew me to the FKR (fiction first) and black box (no player-facing procedures). 

Thus I committed to the primacy of the diegetic. 

The Aristotelians might not like the way diegesis is employed here, but so be it. I am using it in the way I remember it being used by French philosopher Étienne Souriau as “everything that happens according to the fiction presented and what it implies if one were to consider it true” (translated freely from L'Univers filmique). 

Now what does that mean with regard to my refereeing? I tried to referee and arbitrate the situations and conflicts within the fictional world of play based as much as possible on the in-world diegetic logic. This simply means before rolling any dice or tossing coins to find out the resolution of a situation, I tried to call results based on the diegetic in-world logic. Basically, how would this go if it were real?

I am unsure if this isn't just what the FKR crowd does. Maybe it is actually closer to New Simulationism? 

Anyway, I don't care too much for debating categories and schools of thought. I am more interested in the way my idea of acting as a referee did produce an interesting experience. What made it interesting for me as a referee was a very specific tension between what I'd call the diegetic and the narrative. Because I wanted to arbitrate on what would make sense in a fictional world according to its own rules and not what would make sense in a story. Is this differentiation even possible? Isn't everything always structured narratively? This is where it gets spicy, I think!

I'll try to formulate more thoughts on this, but first, “the how did I end up running it” part.

 

Behind the Screen 

First I threw out all the Mothership rules, and then I took some back. In addition to random encounter rolls (10% chance every room or 10 minutes), I decided to keep the procedures for The Bends; slowly losing your sense of humanity is a core experience of Gradient Descent. I also kept the panic mechanic for the Monarch AI. Initially I thought about doing the same for the player characters Stress and Sanity, but I ended up never using it. 

a very boring sheet for tracking The Bends.

Players generated their characters using a Perchance generator I made, provided them with a short pitch for their PCs, and then put them in a shared Google Sheet character binder.

This is what players started with.

 

Players organized and shared gear within the collective google sheet

 

A part of The Deep.

 

There were no skills or classes, but the backgrounds and players never saw or rolled any dice. However, I did negotiate with them if they argued for something being possible or logical. For their actions, players told me their intent and I told them the outcome. 

As for mapping, we used a Miro board. Players mostly mapped themselves. We talked over Discord voice only, and I put on the same soundtrack every week, eventually using Kenku FM.  

As for arbitrating according to what makes sense in the world? Turns out it isn't easy. As much as I wanted to be a neutral arbiter, I found myself questioning my calls quite often. Could I really decide what makes sense diegetically and rule out that I didn't just follow what would make sense or be cool in a story? 

Of course there were always situations where it seemed clear that this would be a random event anyway (for example, some elevators switch speeds randomly). Those I handled by rolling d10s/1d100 already, which made it easy to use simple percentile roles for additional things. Whenever I wasn't sure, I would ask, How would this go if it were real? I rolled a 1d100 to see how close the outcome would be to a character's intent. Sometimes the roll made me realize that I didn't need it in the first place, and I had no issues with overruling it. The only rolls I followed strictly were those for Bends checks, random encounters, artifacts, etc.

The feedback I got from my players was that they felt immersed to the point that many encounters were quite tense for them, not having any abstractions available to know what it might mean if someone fires their gun at them (as opposed to a playing a game system where you know the relation between your character's HP and an average damage die). 

I think we all had a lot of fun and that makes the whole endeavour a success. 

This is where I'd have to write a philosophy paper...

The question of a possibility of following a diegetic logic instead of a narrative logic still lingers on my mind. I am not concerned if I achieved my initial goal in the campaign, but I am philosophically intrigued by this. Time to actually explore this properly I do not have. This is further complicated by the fact that I haven't fully grasped what narrative logic actually means.

My intuition is that it leads back to the general question on the structure of thinking and the nature of judgments (as in the Kantian sense for “Urteil”). But this is just to namedrop a German.

The question I'd like to explore at some point remains. 

How can I referee a game where things follow the principle of what would make sense in a fictional world according to its own rules and not what would make sense in a story?

If you know, tell me!