Flashpoint: Twin Galleys

The players of Proteus and Lhye got together with me on Friday night to steal a couple of galleys so that they can rescue more slaves from the Okeno Slaver Hulk docked outside of Okeno.  When the wind was starting to pick up after the calm, the two of them took their rowboat with Lenny, Lieutenant Marxus and two other sailors to a fishing town that had a small wooden fort and a couple of medium sized slave galleys (fitting about 32 men on the 8 oars at either side).  They silently cruised up below the docks where a gnoll and a Katapesh person were in conversation.

Proteus knew that as an aquatic creature his random appearance is less likely to sound an alarm then a stealthy human or other landlover simply drew himself up onto the docks.  Most people are superstitious about immediately attacking aquatic humanoids as they not only are likely to be peaceful (unless they're ugly-looking, in which case they're likely to be evil) but for all you know they have a battalion just out of sight below the water and have sent an emissary to talk to you.

Still, Proteus wasn't taking any chances so he used Perform Oratory and his Fascinate bardic ability to blarney them into a quiet stupor.  Lhye rose up from the rowboat like a disturbing infernal specter and stepped up onto the docks quietly behind them.  Proteus cast Beguiling Gift to give a potion of Hold Person to one of them.  Seeing his friend slump to the deck from the liquor roused the gnoll somewhat and when Lhye cast Sleep on the gnoll he snapped out of his confusion.  Proteus and Lhye won the Initiative, however, and Proteus struck him dead with a single piercing strike of his blood crystal trident.  Then the two did a coup de grace on the guard.

They tied their row boat to the galley and slowly and painfully rowed the galley back to their ship where they tied it behind the sloop.  Then they returned for the second galley and hurried off as fast as they could go.

Now they can beat in tight quarters about 120 extra people on their sloop and 100 on the galleys if they filled them close to overflowing.  With the wind behind them, they could be on their way home to Andoren within four or so days (though the burden would slow them down) but the galleys would need to row the way and thus would likely take about six days (still possible).

Lhye is desperately keen to liberate all 450 slaves from the hulk for fear of Okeno reliation against the survivors plus he's not eager to save only a couple hundred and have the others beg for freedom.  Proteus, on the other hand, would be happy enough to simply purchase or steal their own crew members back but is happy to rescue what he can and perhaps leave the other slaves mutinous on the hulk as a good way to cover their backs.  He is Neutral, after all, and it's a heroic and kindly action to save what they can anyhow.

Lhye's sudden pangs of conscience are a wee bit more ambitious, however.

It'll be interesting to see if they pull it off and whether the others buy into that ambition.  It won't be easy but it surely would make them a household name if they succeed.

Skill Under The Spotlight: Investigation

The Investigation skill has a fair few obvious uses so this one is often not so tricky to put into into the game or remember to use.  The best rule of thumb for it is whether a private investigator or police officer would be handy in this kind of situation.  If they would be, odds are there's some sort of investigating to do.  Be aware, though, that some Storytellers won't allow you to "Roll X to complete the plot" so while you'll get a bunch of clues, hints, and possibly some suggested leads, don't be surprised if it stops well short of solving everything.

Often you can also get more traction with your Storyteller if you suggest possible things to investigate rather than "Rolling X to investigate the house".  If you're in a murdered house you could mention that you're looking for tire tracks in the dirt driveway, entrance and exit points (jemmied windows, broken glass), or for mail, diaries, and medicine (medicine can give strong clues as to the state of the owner's mind).  It's worthwhile doing this as it lets the Storyteller know you're putting in extra effort (and they often like to reward effort) and also because they might not have thought of those possible clues and will work it in later on.  Keep it wide and keep it open.

Some possible specialties include: crime scenes, forensics, interviews, leads, research, laws, prints, blood spatter, interview procedure, clue maps.

So what can you do with this skill?

Secure a crime scene (Wits + Investigation)
Search for footprints (Wits + Investigation)
Compare prints to shoes (Wits + Investigation)
Compare fabric and hair (Wits + Investigation)
Ask the right questions to a suspect in accordance with police procedure (Manipulation + Investigation)
 Preserve the chain of evidence (Intelligence + Investigation)
Discover and lift fingerprints (Intelligence + Investigation)
Know what forensic scientists can do (Intelligence + Investigation)
Take crime scene photographs in accordance with proper procedure (Intelligence + Investigation)
Discover links between evidence (Intelligence + Investigation)
Brainstorm different avenues of investigation (Intelligence OR Wits + Investigation)
Search through a person's trash for clues to their lives (Wits + Investigation)
Examine injuries for a vague understanding of the cause (Intelligence + Investigation)
Apply human investigative strategies to occult phenomenon (Wits + Investigation)
Identify diagnostic equipment (Intelligence + Investigation)
Discredit evidence (Intelligence OR Manipulation + Investigation)
Call testimony into question (Intelligence OR Manipulation + Investigation)
Scramble witness memories the mundane way (Manipulation + Investigation)
Construct a map of events (Intelligence + Investigation)
Determine is a suspect's story matches the evidence-based timeline (Intelligence + Investigation)
Figure out ways of dealing with being investigated (Wits + Investigation)

You can find the core article with all of the other likely links over here.

Game Translation: Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age 2 follows the story of Hawke, a human whose gender varies depending on the player's whims, who will become the famous Champion of Kirkwall after arriving as a refugee and suffering a number of grevious personal losses.  This is a tale of epic proportions ranging from terrible tragedies to wonderful vistas ... well, its more about terrible tragedies in the tradition of the gritty fantasies.

Running Dragon Age 2 in a roleplaying game can easily be summed up: use Pathfinder or Dungeons & Dragons in a rich campaign setting.

Oh, you want more?

Well, there's a few main things to a game like Dragon Age 2.  Identify your themes and stick close to them, interweaving them throughout your story.  In the case of Dragon Age 2, the themes are segregation and racism - their causes, benefits and flaws.  There's also a strong thread of disease and contamination in both this game and the first one - Lyrium, Darkspawn taint, Mages letting in demons and becoming abominations.

On that note, its important to really introduce that whole 'Magic has a downside' theme that is more prevalent in books than roleplaying games these days.  In the game world, mages must be rigorously trained and controlled lest they succumb to the whispers of demons in their dreams that wish to get a foothold in their minds in order to take on their bodies.  Even those who've undergone the training also sometimes fail the 'test' where they must survive a trip through the dreamlands (referred to in-world as the Fade).

How would you incorporate this in a roleplaying game?  Pretty easily unless you want to throw the risk at the players again (which is not recommended outside of games built for it like Dark Heresy).  You could just throw in a few sub-plots where an untrained mage goes nuts and starts casting their spells willy nilly.  Or they use too much power and are 'possessed' by a demon and become an abomination where you simply replace their statistics with those of a monster.

If you want it to be a risk for player mages as well then you have the issue of balancing the chance of it against the worth of actually playing in that class.  I'd suggest either ruling out all PC mages, making PC mages immune for some reason, or allowing PC mages to have survived some sort of training which means that you can dangle it in front of them as a temptation but never allow them to grasp it (lest they lose their character).  You could build in elements of partial possessions and what-not but you'll need to start looking at Templates and House Rules and that can be tricky and often requires a lot of tinkering to get it to really work.

A rich campaign world is very important if you're going for the Dragon Age feel.  There needs to be a lot of complexity and interaction between the various factions and the cultures need to feel distinct.  World building is far too big a concept to go into in this article so I suggest you Google fantasy world building or head on down to your local library for any How To Write Fantasy books.

Darkspawn aren't as big a thing in this game, which makes sense considering that your various party members aren't immune to the taint (except for one), but they're still an important Always Evil race that adds a particularly malevolent twist to the world.  If they bite you, you get tainted and slowly become a Darkspawn unless you have a very strong constitution and are tainted through a specially made Warden's potion.  The process of transformation is very painful, by the way.

Different standards of beauty?  Nah, all those women meet my standards.

A progressive corruption like the Darkspawn taint shouldn't be too hard to cobble together once you have the main themes down.  You need to figure out what causes the taint, what the taint does to a person, and then figure out house rules to reflect them.  In Pathfinder, it might be an ability score drain that turns you into a Darkspawn (most likely through a Template though it could be that your statistics are replaced with that of the monster as is generally the case with undead).  In the World of Darkness it might just be a time limit where you gain progressive penalties.

It gets trickier if there's an upside to such a corruption such as if you gain greater strength or resilience but are slowly but surely becoming a monster.  Still, such a thing can normally be represented by a bonus to some physical attributes that slowly accumulates over time.  I wouldn't give them any special abilities due to the Taint until its won them over but that's just me.  You might want to show them fully transforming into something wicked and powerful or you might want to represent something that simple attribute buffs just won't do.

In the end, it's up to you.

A campaign based around Dragon Age 2, or including elements of it, should appeal to Explorers less than the original game because this one is far more on rails and you've only got a set area to explore.  Having said that, urban exploration still has a lot of value to it and so long as you allow the place to open up a little and ensure that the different areas don't blend together you should have them in the palm of your hand.  Tacticians will enjoy the different range of skills and abilities the group brings to the party as it has a very Dungeons & Dragons-style group of healers, fighters, mages, and rogues, and Tacticians can often get a lot of mileage out of setting up the right cascade of effects so long as the other players are willing to listen.  Action Heroes will enjoy the high-stakes drama of an adventure that sees to major power players (Templars and Mages) at each other's throats.  They'll get to feel super-important in the non-action elements and powerful in the action spots. 

Investigators can get a kick out of any of the quests that require a bit of clue combing or lead following.  Pose a question to them, in this case a conspiracy, and give them a chance to find the solution and they'll be a happy chappy.  Unfortunately, they may get a bit bored during the spaces in between that don't seem to advance their investigations (such as random thug bashing).  Communicators will love the colourful characters and the chance to explore different cultures in an urban game but may resist being moved on too quickly.  If everyone is enjoying a cultural exchange or a particular NPC, let them engage with it a little bit longer than you normally would before moving things along to balance the combat and action segments for them.

You can find the trailer for the game over here. If you'd like to read the sort of tropes that Dragon Age 2 used, you can find them here.

If you want to read a more complex article on building a game system from the ground up to deal with this sort of game, read Dan H's articles that kick off over here.

For the next Game Translation, you have a choice of these: Left for Dead, Half Life 2, Project Zero, Gears of War, Dracula: Origins, Realms of the Haunting, Silent Hill: Downpour, Castlevania 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, In Cold Blood, and pretty much any survival horror or horror game. If no one picks anything by next week, it'll be the latest Silent Hill game as I've gone against my own advice and started playing Downpour. 

If you want to see the list of games I've done thus far, you can find the Game Translation series starter over here.

Flashpoint: Downtime

One of the players rocked up late and then we waited for another player who had a trip interstate that we had forgotten about and so by the time we got around to starting the game, there wasn't much time left and we only had 3/5 of the players.  One of the missing players was one who was quite keen on the next mission objective (free their old crew members from the prison hulk).  So instead we just looked at downtiming it.

Day One: A strong south easterly kept trying to buffet them back but they reefed the two smaller square sails and let the lateen rigging do what it does best as they tacked across the wind near the Osirini coastline.  Lhye crafted some potions of Cure Light Wounds.  Lunjun masterworked his gun to remove its broken condition.  Archer presumably did the same.  Proteus tried to teach the rather sullen, unmotivated, and slightly mutinous crew the basics as did Second Lieutenant Marxus (NPC).  Presumably, Lenny just tried to help keep them in line.

Day Two: The strong, dry south easterly became stronger still so that they even need to reef the lateen rigging.  They have to move away from the coast and tack east so that they don't end up on a lee shore (with the wind driving them towards the shallows).  The water buffeting them on the port side of the bow means the ship jerks up and sideways in a horrible corkscrewing motion rather than a smooth roll or anything else.  Poor Lhye has to stay on deck despite not having the guts for this as he's one of the few with actual sailing skill (one of 15, in fact).  They can't make any real distance due to the dry storm and their inexperienced crew - most of which spend their time below decks puking.  A half-orc who has no sailing experience nonetheless makes herself useful by running across the canting deck and grabbing the ordinary sailors and their inexperienced seaman assistants when it looks like they might go overboard.  Proteus uses his Bardic Performance to calm the sea around them somewhat (providing a +4 bonus to all within 30 feet of him) for a couple hours.  This dry storm lasts for about 11 hours before blowing itself out.

Day Three: The wind starts to die down and become quite gentle.  Lunjun does some forgery alongside Haylei (as part of her lessons) and is quite successful but he hasn't got the right paper or wax.  He realises he needs a forger's kit.  The crew are quite anxious from yesterday's windy performance and are far more motivated to know how to do their jobs so that they can survive a storm.

Lhye is the ship's doctor and therefore also kind of the ship's priest and he does a Calistrian sermon to the gathered crewmembers (they all come, out of curiosity more than anything) about how this ship was a slaver hunter and that by helping this ship they help gain vengeance on those they despise.  Proteus' monkey familiar assists and rolls a natural 20 on a Perform Oratory roll (I allowed Perform Oratory as I imagined his body language, positioning, and appropriate nattering was about right).  The crew were suitably impressed.

Day Four: They are almost becalmed.  The lateen rigging catches what little wind there is and provides some very slight forward momentum.  The hot, dry air irritates Proteus and while he's okay at keeping folk motivated he just can't keep a tune and when he sings sea shanties he throws everyone off their rhythm.  When he goes into the ocean for a dip, he's approached by a beautiful female Triton.

"Hello," says Proteus in Aquan.

She gives a slight smile as she approaches him, cups his cheek, and places a shell necklace around his neck.  It reads as nonmagical to Detect Magic.

"Thank you for tha...."

The Triton swims away.

Proteus tries to roll a Knowledge Local to figure out what that was all about but botches his roll and thinks it was some sort of mating ritual that he failed.  Each shell is intricately carved like scrimshaw (but more delicately done or else it would have broken the shell) with the image of a ship - most of which are from different nations ranging from Ustalavic to Chelish to Shackles.  Lunjun starts decoding the tablets (post them up later) and gets thoroughly excited by the range of necromantic spells he gets to learn as he'd never think to learn them if they weren't directly in front of him.

The tiefling with the black teeth, nails, and eyes propositions Lhye: "Want a screw for a silver?" 

Lhye botched a Sense Motive check (player figured she might be as dodgy as the Aasimar).  I polled the other players for a good mistake and Proteus' player suggested that he took it literally.  So he says: "Nah, we have carpenters for that."

Proteus overhears this and says to her: "He likes the carpenters' tools better."
She snickers at that and propositions him.

He says: "Nah, you won't want the silver after that."

She winks.  "Bet you can't convince me of that."

So, of course, they use Lhye's room in the infirmary.  We're terrible people and find the whole thing funny so I get him to make a few rolls to convince her to give it up for free but she rolls a 20 on her Will Save and so gives it to him for half price and the next one for free.  Proteus pays the full silver anyway.

She propositions Lunjun who responds with: "I'm busy" as he's currently learning spells.

Haylei, the little midshipman, finds out about this (though not about the First Mate's part in it) and marches after the tiefling.  "Oi!  This is an Andoren ship and I won't have prostituting on an Andoren ship.  D'we need to segregate ya?"

Day Five: They are still almost becalmed.  They notice a silk merchant ship, fat with loot and waddling in the water, in a merchant galleon and Proteus and Lhye hatch a plan.  They need more ship room if they're going to take out a prison hulk's worth of guards.  Proteus is much better at keeping people motivated and in the rhythm or learning the ropes (literally).  Lunjun learns the rest of his spells.  The next session will likely begin with them taking over that galleon.

Day Six: A moderate south easterly.  Lunjun teaches Haylei Common and navigation.  Proteus teaches the crew.  Lhye cooks and heals the odd scrape and bruise - gets a lot of interest from the crewmembers on that account.

Day Seven: As before.  The only difference being that Lhye's familiar is attacked by a rat.  Lhye gives his cat the Burning Gaze spell and the cat immolates the rat.  Proteus tells Lhye off and Lhye simply says: "I'll have a talk to him (the cat) and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Day Eight: A calmer south easterly.  Their destination is in sight.



During all of these days, Proteus also fishes off the side of the ship with this long line of hooks.  Well, on all of the non-stormy days.

Dystopic: Return To The Mall

Most of the players hadn't caught up with each other for ages so even after we were all there we spent some time simply catching up.  In the end we played for two and a half hours which just goes to show how much catch up time we had as its our Friday night game and therefore the one that can theoretically go for five hours.  Those two and a half hours were further reduced by heaps of chit chatting and I found it difficult to keep people's attention.  I think I need to bring my bell to the table.  Its quite a monstrous sound and should classically condition us into staying on track!

Having said that, it is an ugly sound and I anticipate having the bell used on me if I bring it out so I'm not too sure about it....  I might have to get us to put our heads together on a good tactic.  Last session was particularly bad, this is true, but while I don't mind if it takes us awhile to get into the game, it is annoying to only be able to talk to two of the five players at a time like last session as it means having to re-explain the situation, do recaps, or simply hold my thoughts for the five - ten minutes for people to get back on track. 

The latter option is particularly aggravating as I normally end up in trouble for not getting it back on track!

Players: "Chit chat chit chat chit."

*ST waits patiently*

Player: "Er, ST, its 9.50pm, shouldn't we be doing something by now?"

ST: "Erm....  Screw you guys?"

Don't worry.  That didn't happen this time as we were all well aware that we hadn't seen each other in awhile and needed some good old-fashioned chits chats.  Reading this you might be forgiven for thinking that I'm cross but I'm actually not.  It was a good night and a relatively rare event but such things can easily become a habit so that's why I'm having a cheerful rant (we all need one sometimes), bit of gossip about my players (hi, guys!), and a miniature brainstorm about it.  If you've got any ideas, let me know.

So anyway, what *did* happen?

We roleplayed what happened when everyone else passed out and went into the dreamscapes, leaving Leningrad behind.  Leningrad saw London glide down into the dirt.  He noticed Tokyo fall asleep.  Then Miami collapses next to him.  He goes off to ask the pilot what was going on and Nomad 6 passes out at the controls as he was turning the dropship around to go fetch London.  There's a stack of rock in the way of the turning cycle.  Leningrad removes Nomad 6 from behind the controls.  Then he hesitates.  Should he jump out with Tokyo (whom he can carry)?  But the dropship is lifted on these blue-heat-looking pads and he's worried he'll get burned up if they pass over him (this form of propulsion actually doesn't produce a scorching heat beyond a few feet because science! but he doesn't know this).

Leningrad also realises that the woman and little girl are gone.  Ghosts, perhaps?

The dropship turns toward the stack of rocks and there's a few rough beeps before it turns in the opposite direction and starts to complete a turning circle to the right.  *beep beep beep*  It auto-adjusts and swings the other way.  Rinse and repeat.  Thank Lucifer for auto-pilot.

So anyway, Leningrad gets behind the joystick as well and looks for an Eject button.  There is one but the seat is bolted to the dropship and there's no parachute (this model of dropship had a very hair trigger Eject button and being ejected into a radioactive dust storm is generally more dangerous than riding out a controlled crash so Nomad 6 got rid of it).  Panicky now, Leningrad tries a red button that is up above the windshield and the radio comes on (country and western). 

Then he tries one of a column of six red buttons and finds a sudden blast of propulsion sends it up and to the left.  The next one down does the same but toward the right.  They're basically strafe keys.  Up-left, Up-right, Hard Left, Hard Right, Down-left, Down-right.

Then he tries the red button on the side of the joystick, finding that he has to squeeze the left side of the joystick to be able to push in the red button, and that is basically the turbo charge and he experiences some near G-Forces.

Leningrad is thoroughly sick of the damn dropship by now so he grabs Tokyo and gets up through the ceiling hatch and clings to the roof (the drop ship is now once again moving at about 25 miles per hour so its uncomfortable but certainly possible - their altitude is only about 80 feet off the ground as well).

Nomad 6 and Miami wake up.  They have a short conversation about the mall.  Then Leningrad and Tokyo re-enter the dropship.  London picks himself out of the dirt and flies toward them.  Nomad 6 heads toward him then hovers briefly so London can get inside.  Nomad 6 explains the plan to go and pick up the kid at the mall, presuming it still exists.

They all strap into their seats and use the oxygen masks while Nomad 6 turbo-thrusts all the way to Dallas - which uses up a fair chunk of fuel but they have more fuel than time to spare.  Tokyo has dealt with these kinds of speeds before but after awhile even she starts feeling uncomfortable because it normally doesn't last so long.  Leningrad, London and Miami all feel god awful through this.  Heck, Leningrad didn't even know these things existed because his host *died* in 2029 which was three years after the Nuclear War triggered by the collapse of the Masquerade.

They reach Dallas which is shrouded in mist and they cross through the large dried out lake which is cratered here and there.  Its also honey combed with Critterbug tunnels that have mounds up around them from the Critterbugs' hardened spit.  They can hear the loud drone of their wings.  They reach the ledge where the boy hit.  Leningrad grabs Tokyo and jumps the eight feet (using a touch of Fundament) to the ledge.  London grabs Miami and does the same though he uses his wings (and brings his Halo back on as well, just in case).

The boy is unconscious but Tokyo heals his right leg (which seemed to have cork screwed under him when he landed).  They return to the dropship quickly when they notice the two ashen footprints on the side of the cliff.  When London looks away from them and looks back, the prints are closer.  They strap in Dallas and Tokyo finishes healing him as Nomad 6 pulls them back up into the air. 

Something screams in the crater, a scream that sounds like metal girders grinding together overlaid over something like trains screeching through a tunnel.  A Critterbug also lands on the side of the dropship but Nomad 6 shakes it off and gets his propulsion gear up next to it and burns it down.  Nomad 6 rises another couple hundred feet when there's another twisted roar and a chunk of corrugated iron flies up and smacks against their windshield.

That worries them.

They head back to base, Station 24-B, which is one of the many American outback stations known to be possible places willing to offer succor to travellers and refugees.  Nomad 6 gets permission to bring the kid in to the station.

The kid asks them for their names and they mention their codenames so he introduces himself as Dallas.  He explains that he was a mutant from Washington.  His society came from a bomb shelter a few dozen miles south of Washington after equipment failure in the shelter and they kept being pushed north by monsters and zombies.  Most of those creatures seem to have dispersed away from Washington and there isn't much there except for craters that have gashed open the underground side of the city.  Dallas mentions great libraries have been revealed there.

Dallas was born top-side and therefore was badly affected by the radiation.  He mentions that he had very little hair and his ears were fused to his head.  The fact he now has a tail doesn't seem like that big a deal in comparison.  He doesn't really remember what happened between Washington and Dallas.

Once they reach Station 24-B, Canterbury comes out with a tray of tea and scones.  A mother cat comes up to her to show Canterbury her kittens one at a time.  They seem only a couple weeks old.  Canterbury acknowledges each kitten in turn.  Then they go inside and have a movie night as a team building exercise showcasing movies from each culture.  Nomad 6 can't read fast enough to keep up with the subtitles.  London has trouble as well so Canterbury puts it on the dubbed versions.

They're to be 'grounded' at the station for the next two days to finish their assimilation into their human hosts.

While there, they mention their Fallen Houses and their human names, generally.  Finally, some of them get drunk, others don't, and they're given rooms.  There are three bedrooms each with a set of bunks to share between them.  A very drunk Dallas wakes up from the breakroom and heads into a bedroom and collapses on a lower bunk.  Miami bunks with him.  Nomad 6 with London.  Tokyo with Leningrad (sorta).  Leningrad takes his mattress and sleeps in the corridor.

And there we are.  A rather cute session.

Leningrad wants to return to the car to see if they are ghosts.  Miami wants to return to his home city to see what's going on there.  Those two issues will likely be the basis of the next session or so.

Canterbury has promised them that at some point they'll be assigned to undertake a mission in Dallas to figure out what's going on with that mall.  Presuming they sign up to the Prometheus super-faction.

Decision Making Techniques Used By Groups

I've been doing a number of courses around leadership and team building so I've started to notice the various vagaries of decision making.  One thing I must admit to being a bit baffled by is the concept of concensus decision making where you aim for an outcome that everyone is all right with rather than coming to a compromise where everyone loses a bit of something.  Unless you're all entirely likeminded, concensus decision making seems to end up a bidding war where people who just don't care as much stop contributing their arguments one by one until the one with the strongest opinion (or ego) is left standing.  That person is often left scratching their heads with a sense of unease that they don't truly have a consensus because most people have, in truth, simply unanimously decided that they just want an outcome and so long as the outcome isn't a terrible one they really don't care anymore.

Now sometimes consensus decision making works out and I'd say it is more often successful in roleplaying games than in other spheres of life.  Everyone airs their opinions and if the most supported option is something even the dissenters can live with then that is the option that will be chosen.  Generally, though, this can take a bit of time and is therefore something I see when the consequences of that decision is high.  In my home city based Demon: the Fallen campaign the players would often spend the first hour coming to a consensus on what they would do and why simply because it was easy for a mis-step in important matters to have hugh complications down the road.

Sometimes decisions are made on shared values or golden rules which tend to create the speedier decisions.  Players often resolve what we should do by the golden rule 'who has the most to lose and is that okay?'  As much as I might love a stealth run through the dungeon, if the clanking paladin has to be left behind on their own in order to do it than unless its a quick exploration they will generally decide against it.  Everyone sort of agrees that leaving out the paladin just isn't worth it according to the team's own values of collaboration and ensuring everyone has some fun.  This is also where players craft their decisions around following plot hooks dangled before them or following certain genre conventions to make the Game Master's job a little bit easier.

Sometimes those same rules of 'who cares the most?' or 'who has the most to lose?' leads to a brief hierarchy.  Well, since the group is already trying to find Demi's mother-in-law and she is a private investigator, let's let her take point and lead the group for a bit.  It's not a true hierarchy as it's more the group delegating authority to her which they'll happily revoke if she starts making decisions they really don't agree with.  This may also be used if its explicitly in someone else's sphere of authority.  The Lions Minister is consulted on the best tactical way to assault the enemy and, while others are happy to offer their opinion, the Minister's plan is more than likely going to be followed.

Sometimes the decisions become democratic although since the group is so small it rarely becomes anything as explicit as a show of hands.  When it is used, it's normally casually consulted and then used in a spirit of irritation as other methods of decision making have often been tried and then failed first due to one or more players' strong views on the subject.  "Everyone but you wants to do this so how about you see its not a good idea?"

Sometimes they'll seek defined compromises where they'll make bargains.  If you do this for me, then I'll do that for you.  "I know you want to run and gun but I just got this new sniper rifle.  Please let me snipe him from afar and I'll totally back you up the next time you want to do a frontal assault."

What do you think?  What has your group generally gone with?

Game Translation: Forbidden Siren

Yes, I know this isn't Borderlands 2.  I own it but regrettably all my time at the computer has caused my neck muscles to tighten around the nerves that run down my arms and this causes strange sensations in my arms.  Itchiness, sensations or air bubbles brushing across the skin, and other weirdness that I'd prefer not to have to experience.  The best way to deal with it involves stretching, massages, and getting off my bottom.   The worst way to deal with it is to sit for hours at a computer (which I already do at work) and the desk at home is a lot higher than the chair so computer use there is even worse.  Videogame playing is worse again than most because, naturally, your body tenses up in the adrenaline-fuelled kill-fests.  Lifestyle change is better than just doing little touch ups here and there.

Also, Dishonoured will be released soon and I want to be in a good condition to commit hours to it ... erm, I'm really not good at this whole lifestyle change thing, am I?

Therefore, I've had to make the big decision to avoid videogame playing and too much computer use at least for the next couple weeks and focus on moving more so that my muscles can stop clamping on my nerves.  This doesn't mean I'll stop doing this blog as with my typing speed it doesn't take long to make them and I have a lunch break for a reason, right?  (Probably should be outside but, hey, lifestyle changes are tricky).  So instead I'll do Game Translations on games that I've already played rather than scheduling in ones I plan to play or have only started playing.

So without further ado, Forbidden Siren.

Man, I have a love / hate relationship with that game.  Its a beautiful series of painful little missions where you play one of a number of different characters and try to complete listed objectives.  These characters are generally entirely unarmed or, at the very least, are quite weak.  They're also being tainted by a mysterious red rain that has started in the mountain village of Hanuda in the first game an an island in the second game.  Unfortunately there are enemies called Shibito who can't be killed (knock them down and they get back up again).

This game is truly a survival horror.  The locations are somewhat familiar in an exotic sort of way (at least to my Australian senses) but with a reddish sheen and blood-like puddles.  The protagonists are regular humans who can't take much damage (although they can heal over time due to the effects of the rain that seeps into their wounds).  The enemies are essentially unkillable and will get up again after their own wounds heal.  And its hard.  Devilishly hard.

You have a sightjack ability where you can telepathically see through the eyes and hear through the ears of Shibito about the level within a certain range (it gets grainier the further away they are) but while you can get a sense of the direction of the Shibitio (as you must turn the analog stick to cycle through the mind static to seek out Shibito) you can't detect their location.  In truth, you have to hope they're looking at a landmark so you can judge where they are.  If they're close enough, you can see a little coloured cross that lets you know just where they are but not where they're looking.  This is essential because if the Shibito spot you, you'll be shot down or run down more than likely.  This causes the game to function as a hard-core stealth game where you have to rely on distance or avoiding walking within view of the enemy.

And hard-core it is.  You will die.  Several times.  Often per level.

To make matters worse, you have to re-do the same level with the same character and the enemies in the same places but with a different objective so that you can unlock new stages by following an alternate timeline.

The cutscenes and back history is very interesting and labrynthine as certain elements and reactions only exist in certain timelines and since you play multiple characters few of the protagonists know what is going on so you really kind of have to piece together all of the implications to work out the plot.

So, how would you run this?

Firstly, pick a system where you can have a teensy bit of health compared to the damage you might take.  1st level Pathfinder characters would work.  Just give them Fast Healing 1 to represent the fact that their bodies repair over time.  If you're using something like new World of Darkness than cap the health levels at 7 rather than allowing additional Stamina to increase it as its hard to deal a life threatening amount of damage unless you make the bad guys stupidly powerful.

Sometimes its not always a good idea to help an
old lady cross a darkened street.

Sightjack is a tricky thing to implement.  Its a relatively automatic thing in the game so you could simply have them be able to do it just as they can walk forward or swallow without making a dice roll.  Just have them make a roll to interpret what they see so they can figure out where the enemy is and how best to get around them.  Perhaps a successful roll to understand Sightjack then leads to a bonus to further rolls to avoid the enemy's notice.

The unkillable monsters really add a certain something to Forbidden Siren.  You can knock them down for a time so combat is occasionally worthwhile but they will get back up again.  However, since you can't prevent from simply pulling up any old tree branch rather than waiting for you to give them a weapon, you need to keep it from becoming a game of whack-a-mole by giving the monsters variable regeneration rates (from a round to 10 minutes) or by making the monsters more robust and generally more difficult to reliably bring down.  This is all the more important outside of solo games as several characters automatically have more attacks per round than any single creature.  It might be worth giving the enemy more health rather than a greater damage output as you don't want your player characters constantly dying.

Also give a thought to what you'll do when the players start thinking tactically and try to, say, drop an engine block on an enemy's head so that they can't regenerate around the mulched skull.  You could have it that such a tactic works, that it delays the inevitable, or that it doesn't work at all and the body just twitches out of the way before regrowing the head.  Its up to you and how tactical you choose to make the game.  Since such tactics do sometimes appear in the game (though with generally less permanent effects) it might be worth rewarding their creativity sometimes but finding excuses for it to fail if they do it too often.  For example, a downed Shibito could be rescued by other Shibito who pull the mangled corpse away from the block.

Not sure what to do about the anachronic order and multiple characters.  I suppose you could build, say, ten or so different one-shot adventures for the players to go through and then generate different sets of characters for them to play.  Randomise which adventures they play through but leave the first and last adventures to their respective places so that it starts and ends sensibly enough.  You could pre-generate the characters or, if the players are keen, you could leave it to them to make several.  At the start of each session you could then sit down with them and tell them who they'll be playing as well as where and when they are.  If you do this, you can certainly increase that sense of eerie confusion that really characterises the paranormal where the players don't quite know precisely what's going on but have the feeling that they're close to the answers.

Of course, some players might just find such confusion annoying.

A campaign based around Forbidden Siren, or including elements of it, should appeal to Explorers because the not only does the place mix exotic elements with familiar places (schools, etc.) it also slowly warps them over time (with exotic constructions and other horror elements).  Investigators will either love or hate the complex and rather difficult and obscure plot lines that they would need to unravel to figure out what's going on.  You should have an idea by now whether your players are interested in games that don't have neat solutions.

Tacticians may get into it if you let them plan out their methods of accomplishing objectives without incident but may find it frustrating when their best-laid plans still don't always turn out well.  Action Heroes will find the nearly constant levels of stealth to be frustrating unless they're the sort of player that finds themselves on the edge of their seats in high-risk stealth games.  Most will want to shake up the pacing a bit with some great combat or other action sequences.  Communicators won't find anyone to really talk to about what they're facing other than the other player characters and they'll all probably be too busy to have a lot of time for exploring character growth and the subtle nuances of a character's mind.

You can find the trailer for the game over here. If you'd like to read the sort of tropes that Forbidden Siren used, you can find them here.

For the next Game Translation, you have a choice of these: Left for Dead, Half Life 2, Project Zero, Gears of War, Dracula: Origins, Realms of the Haunting, Dragon Age 2, Castlevania 64, Zelda: Ocarina of Time, In Cold Blood, and pretty much any survival horror or horror game. If no one picks anything by next week, it'll be Dragon Age 2.  As you can see, more of the choices are retro games as I'm going with what I've already played.

If you want to see the list of games I've done thus far, you can find the Game Translation series starter over here.