[Universalis] A first session
aya_aschmahr:
Yeah, yeah. I know Universalis is "old" - I mean... 2002.... on the net that's like....ages ago? But nevertheless I wanted to try it, because I have never done anything like it before. All I know, and all my friends know are classical RPGs. We usually play D&D.
Last weekend we did it. After one week of waiting and shivering, because I was so unsure if something like Universalis would work, COULD work, if the players would accept it, we finally tried it.
We, that was 5 people, 4 men, 1 woman. Me (Bernd), Stefan, Carina, Carsten and Jan. As I already said, we usually play D&D - I am GM in a Midnight Campaign (a dark fantasy setting for D&D) - and at least Carsten and Carina have very little experience with RPGs in general. Carina is a GM and staff member in some online RPG stuff, but that also is somewhat different from our usualy pen and paper RPG. Maybe that's good. Less experience also means less fixed opinions on how an RPG should work.
Most of the people are not much older than 20 years, I'm 30, Stefan is the oldest and probably most experiences player, but also the most sceptical. He jsut couldn't imagine, that something like Universalis would be fun at all. He couldn't grasp some of the concepts I tried to explain to him a few days before we played and was very unsure if Universalis could work.
We cooked a bit, and then it was was 8pm, and we started. Our time frame allowed us to carry on 'till midnight, a good 4 hours. That should do for a first try, without forcing too much on the players. Perfect. I did prepare ahead of time of course. I didn't prepare a story, I knew that wasn't necessarry, but I got some stuff we might need. Since Universalis uses a limited resource to allocate the right to tell the story or control components, we would need Coins in some form. Coins? Oh right! They sell poker sets everywhere these days. I guess about 200 chips would be enough for the moment and thus bought one. Wasn't expensive either. And if the idea of Universalis would fail, we would have an alternative now.
Although Universalis had me hooked the first moment I saw it, I was still very unsure.
I also got some tabs to write "moveable components" on and a scratchpad. Somehow one has to keep these bits and pieces of information organized.
Okay, ready to rock'n'roll!
First I explain the others how things work in Universalis. I had a play aid printed out for everyone and we quickly went through the basic concepts. There are no questions so far, things are starting off pretty well. Then we started bulding the Tenets, so all know, what our story will evolve around.
We took turns, everyone introduced one tenet at a time, sometimes we skipped players who had no ideas yet, but everyone contributed. Let's see what we got, it was quite a number:
Tenets
Dark Futuresupernatural elementsLow Tech
Whoa, whoa! Hold it right there! Low Tech? Stefan introduced it, and already three people, including me, were ready to Challenge this decision. But before we actually got into bidding Coins for and against this, we tried to compromise. A wild discussion erupted over the table, but it didn't take long for us to work out a compromise: We defined Low Tech a bit clearer. First, Low Tech was not true for everyone, the leading classes would have access to things we couldn't even imagine. The normal people were stuck with technology, which would roughly resemble the 1970s or 1960s. So this issue was solved, without Coins being paid, and everyone was happy. Including Stefan!
On we went, as I said, we had quite a few Tenets.
Tenets
SlavesApocalypse long agothere is hope (I wanted to avoid a too much whiny mood)A resistance movementspatial division (not all parts of the world affected by "apocalypse", we speculate it might be Africa that got spared)religious zealots rulebio-engineeringMonarch: Popespace travelfirst contact (Aliens)part of the technology incomprehensible
What I like about this part is, that by phrasing things in certain ways, you leave room to speculation. I don't stay, why the technology might be incomprehensible. Maybe the rules by which it works has been forgotten. Maybe our laws of nature and science doesn't really apply.
We're not really done with the Tenets yet:
Tenets
Megacoorporationfaschist behaviour of churchNO Comedy
The last point probably was not neccessary with all the Tenets we established, but if for whatever reason a player would drift off too far, now we have a fact, to bring him back on track. No one knows what the other players will do. I like this about Universalis!
Well, that's quite a lot, isn't it? Still it leaves enough room to fill this world with life. I don't think this number of Tenets is unreasonable for 5 players. It was nice to see the synergies, once the first ideas appeared. Very much of the Tenets describe a comic I read: YIU, but no one else but me knows this comic. The first Ideas carved a path, which much of the later ideas would follow. The tenets formed amazingly smooth and everyone has some kind of picture of the world now.
In the next post I will describe how the first scene was formed.
aya_aschmahr:
The story begins: We bid for the first scene. I go through explaining the mechanism of bidding again, and how the coins may be used in that scene. Everyone understands the basic idea. The more ideas you have, the more you can dare to bid.
Stefan wins the first scene. Good, our sceptic begins then. So far he has embraced the ideas driving Universalis and we have no problems. Maybe it's good that he can be so active at this point in the story. He doesn't know quite what to do yet, so I explain quickly, what framing a scene is about. What bugged Stefan most is, that other people would gain control over "his" characters. He was pretty sure that when all people work together for a story, only chaos would break out.
I am happy that I didn't refer to Universalis as an RPG. Maybe that prevented makign false assumptions about the game.
So Stefan starts out by giving us a camp with captives. There's a lot of flavour in his description, like loudspeaker to control the camp, unnamed captives, which scutter about, doing seemingly mindless work. Not simply flavour however are 2 solders in front of the camp, and a big car parked near the entry. Stefan also gives us the captive Frank#23, by now a simple captive with a name (okay - not so simple). The captive is called to the commander of the camp.
Stefan realizes how fast Coins vanish. Everyone is afraid of this fact and think this might not work right. I'm quite unsure myself. We didn't yet experiences the power of Complications though. Still we go one. It's Carsten's turn now.
Carsten takes over and we learn that inside the commanders office, it's quite dark. A desk-light illuminates the commander, a somewhat fat person (clichee? We don't mind that). A bit to the side sits a man in a black suit, with glasses and a suitcase. Later we learn that this guy is called Mr. Smith.
I like the dynamics. (Huh? Dynamics? What is the guy talking about?) It was never said, that the soldiers outside the camp or the car belong to Mr. Smith, but already ideas form in that way. At least I would make a connection there, but... it's not worth spending coins to interrupt, yet.
We all suspect that the camp belong to the church which rules the world, but the camp and Mr. Smith could as well be part of this mysterious Megacorporation that must exist somewhere in this world. It's nice how you can leave things in the dark by simply not saying them. It's of course also a danger. If you want something be known and not changed later on, you best pay for it while you have the chance. Otherwise it isn't a fact.
Frank#23 enters the office, and Carsten ends his turn.
Through Carina we learn of Natalya#9, another captive, who tries to catcha glimpse of what's happening in the office. Natalya only watches, and looks very concerned.
Carina doesn't pay for the last bit, so that Natalya is concerned is not a fact, but only flavour. This is important later in the story. Maybe it would have been better, looking back, if things went a little different. We are still elarning though, what spending Coins means, and when best to spend them and when not.
We also didn't yet fully embrace some of the mechanisms of Universalis. We should have "cut" in between the scenes with Frank in the office and Natalya outside. There's a change of place and the two situations are distinct, even though they are connected to each other. These two parts of the story sound like distinct scenes to me. I know that now, but when we did it, we didn't think of this yet. The effect of not cutting so far, is interesting though: People are running low on Coins. Things will have to get interesting soon, because the best way to gain Coins are Complications.
And so it happens:
I think it's Jan's turn now. Jan takes control of Mr. Smith. Mr. Smith pulls a box from his suitcase, which he tries to put on Frank's hand. Frank is controlled by a different player and so our first complication starts!
Frank carries a stone in one of his pockets. Yes, the guards never searched him. Mr. Smith on the other hand is a tough guy - as the conflict builds traits are bought and we learn a bit more about the two characters. I didn't think about it that way, but because you actually get your Coins refunded in a conflict, it's a good way not only to build tension, but also to drive the story onward and define relevant aspects.
Frank is controlled by Carsten, Mr. Smith is controlled by Jan, I take control of the guards, which so far were not described into the conflict. They are simply soldiers (x2) and thus gain 2 dice. In the end, the pools on both sides of the conflict are equal, and indeed it doesn't matter for the story, if Frank#23 succeeds or not. One way or the other, the story will continue.
We roll dice, Frank wins, and doesn't only destroy the box, but he hits Mr. Smith, injuring him and destroying the box. As the box shatters on the ground, black smoke fills the office.
And players win Coins.
(to be continued)
aya_aschmahr:
Oh, that conflict was an eye-opener. Suddenly players look for conflicts everywhere. We realize hwo you don't only gain Coins and define Traits more easily, with the pressure of a conflict. You also hold your breath as you don't know, how the story will go on. And defining traits and facts for components you don't control? That's fun!
Back to the scene:
In the camp, Natalya#9 spreads unrest among the workers as black smoke drifts out of the building where the commander's office sits. A supervisor struggles for control and fights to restore order. More Complications and all players want to join in. Once I have to calm them down a bit, as I want to prevent subconflicts. I think they take away the focus, because in a Complication the storytelling focuses on just that complication. I don't want that focus to be dilluted. We still take turns clockwise, there are no interruptions yet.
Things are really exciting, as no one knows if the captives will rebel, if Frank and Natalya will flee or if order is restored and everyone will be subdued.
Well, Frank and Natalya manage to escape.
Great fun! For the story as a complete thing, it would not have been relevant if Natalya and Frank would escape, if they are separated or flee together. The story could continue nontheless. This is very exciting.
So, in the end Natalya and Frank manage to get away. Frank and Mr. Smith clash as they steal his car, Frank carries a heavy injury in the process, but manages to escape. They also get hold of the suitcase of Mr. Smith.
There we have a trait changed into a component of its own. I never explained the rules for that, but it's accepted right away and the cost appears logical to everyone. Wonderful.
aya_aschmahr:
We continue:
The fleeing captives end up in a forest. We learn a bit about Natalya, as they try to make camp. She knows how to survive in the woods. Both them are hungry. Frank has a borken jaw from his fight with Mr. Smith. The importance of Natalya and Frank rises.
So Frank tries to hunt, finds a cottage with food, so the fire they made stay unused, as does the cottage, because we have soldiers searching for them, but they don't make it because...
Okay. You get the drift. No one knows what to do with the scene, but the scene framer also doesn't end it. It's not good, when no one has a good concept of where things should go. I do not think this is ta really bad thing. I've seen this happen in conventional RPGs a lot, too, when players simply don't find the clue they need or don't know what do with it.
We are jumping between the search troup and the fleeing captives without building new scenes. At one time I mention that it would be better to do so, and as we start doing it, things run better again. Scene bidding and framing restores focus and restores Coins. People are less afraid to try things out. Good. Also, if you frame a scene, you wanna do something with it. That also helps focus. We lose our fear of starting scenes and of ending scenes. Especially in short scenes, if you bid too much, you really have to see how you'd spend your coins.
The captives reach a river, find an improvised raft, and escape with it. The raft falls apart in the rising current of the river (Complication between the characters and the river), but of course Frank and Natalya make it.
The search troup talk about how no one returns who reaches that river. They are afraid. B-Movie? I don't care!
Still, no one has the right idea to continue here, so I claim the next scene and do something different. Something I usually can't do in a normal RPG. It was quite costly with 8 Coins, still I know what I wanna do. We jump into what seems like a HQ or intelligence central of the "percieved enemy". There is a big round room with computers everywhere. From the far end from where we watch we zoom in on a man with stern looks and a metal hand. I also give him a name, as he picks up a phone and learn about Frank's escape. Natalya seemingly doesn't matter here. Interruptions happen now during this scene, as the other players are hooked on the idea of simply jumping into the other side and trying something out. Control of the Inquisitor and the setting changes from here to there. We're not simply taking turns anymore. A whole new perception of the game rises. Still, the whole thing does not tumble into chaos. The established facts are considered by all players and thus we're all driving on the same track. We just don't know where we're heading yet.
We have to end our game here. After roughly 5 scenes.
(one more post coming up)
aya_aschmahr:
My thoughts?
Wow. I am amazed. It works and it works like Ralf Mazza describes it! I really didn't think that it would work so well! It works best, when someone creates a scene and all people know what to do with a scene. There are weaknesses, when someone starts a scene, without a good idea and no one else knows what to do with the scene either. When the scene-framer also doesn't want to end the scene, things can grind to a halt. Ending the scene helps a lot. Sooner or later an idea will come how to deal with the situation, and as we have seen so far, ideas arise tend to arise sooner.
A little talent to organize stuff is needed. Universalis doesn't play more smoothly than a normal RPG, there are interruptions as actions and traits are quickly discussed and noted down. However, in my eyes, all the mechanisms and interruptions further the story, and I can't say that for too many RPGs.
At the start all have to learn what best to spend Coins for. I think we have to be somewhat more restrictive on what is flavour and what needs to be paid for. There's really no issue with too few Coins, especially once you grasp the power of Complications. And the pressure and focus of Complications defines facts more easily and drives the story onward. One solution to a number or problems - well actually to ONE problem: How do we drive the story. I love it.
I think we can still do a lot mroe with Complications. Usually our Complications have been of physical nature, mostly combat. Once we get past this idea, there's a lot more we can do. And usually it doesn't matter so much for the players, if a Complication is won or lost by one side. The story will continue one way or the other. That's not to say Complications don't matter storywise. Of course they do! Amazing how powerful this mechanism is.
I really like to continue this experience. Maybe I even can get new players to try this out. We'll see.
Even our sceptic, Stefan, said it was fun in the end. Great. And even our inexperienced players had a lot of impact on the story. Yes, everyone took part.
There are some issues with people winning too many conflicts, which can imbalance the storytelling, I'll have to see if this occurs. Jan is very good at Complications and gaining Coins and using them. At the moment that is not really a problem, but I could see this happen. I'll deal with the problem, once I see it happen.
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