[DFRPG] Occult Toronto
Erik Weissengruber:
Last week's session illustrated the interaction between the resolution mechanics, and their ties to the Dresden setting.
Player uses Rapport to win a photo of missing girl from the mother who is concerned. This was gained with a dice roll. Moreover, it provided a tag "long hair hanging down" applicable to the missing girl.
My description of a girl with hear down was extemporized Color.
When the players homed in on the missing person, I decided that the girl was indeed wearing her hair down. She was much older now and her loose hair was her way of declaring that she was a "freeer" or "more natural" person. It just seemed to fit. Perhaps FATE being an "echo chamber" or player inputs had something to do with this non-causal echo of a descriptive tag from one part of the session in a later.
2nd Player later tags that aspect to get a bouns on a Stealth roll to climb up said girl's hair and try to talk her out of her weird allegiance to a bunch of goblins.
Weird girl flees from goblins only to end up on a bridge that was the domain of a Troll who likes to eat naughty girls [did not catch Freudian slip until too late!]. The Stealth maven was carried along with the running of the girl and ended up, by the logic of cauality, near both the troll and the girl.
The Dresden setting and the rules meet in one important domain: the absolute restrictions imposed on Fey and magical characters. In keeping with fairytales, fey operate according to very strict rules. When I made up the rule "when you give into a goblin's invitation to wickedness, you are turned into one" it provided a certain tension to the rescue. The girl had to be convinced or otherwise prevented from completing that third act. And by improvising that bit of goblin lore I put myself in the position of then having to think up a 3rd act for the goblins to propose. Shooting one of the PCs was a perfect act for that situation.
The idea of an iron-clad rule not subject to Fortune came up again with the Troll. I phrased the rule as "when a child's parents curse her, she is the troll's legitimate prey, and no fey or Unseelie-accord following magician can interfere." I believe that I meant to say "parent" but the players called me on the specific letter of the law I had enunciated and pointed out that the girl's mother had confessed great love for her child. The troll could not claim immunity under the accords and was then open for a whupping.
The DFRPG bolts the setting's logic into the rule framework. The players applied that rule Karmically and compelled (in the common meaning of the verb) the NPCs behaviour.
When I suggested that the troll's powers were greatly enhanced by being on his home bridge and the snotty bugger dared the PCs to approach him, one of the PCs took him at his word. Literally. When we resolved that I had, in essence, said that no-one could take the girl from him so long as he was on the bridge, the 3rd PC then contrived a spell to vault the goon off of the brigde. He was compelled by the power of his words to release her (and by the presence of the valley's werewolf wardens).
The in-game convention of introducing beings who must be true to their words, absolutely, allows the robust application of Karma in a fictionally-appropriate manner.
If the phrase "good role-playing" means attention to the fiction and all of its logical and causal relationships, this was a night of good role-playing. Perhaps "good role-playing" just means applying fully the Karma, Fortune, and Drama mechanisms embedded in the game itself, in addition to committing to the consistency of the unfolding fiction.
Roger:
Sounds like something straight out of a DF book, so that's good to hear.
Any interesting Compels of PC Aspects?
Erik Weissengruber:
In a previous session, 1 of our players commented that she liked the system but wasn't sure if she knew all of its bits.
So I decided to set up a teaching session where all of the game options would be laid out, including GM-side decisions. So I was exposing the rules-guided GM prep I have been doing.
The one thing we didn't get to was using compels to limit other characters' courses of action.
The overal result: a greater awareness of the Aspects at play but no direct compels of those City Sheet Aspects. (Fer instance: the "Nature Rules Here" Aspect for the Toronto ravines was quoted or rephrased by both GM and players. But beyond that "echo chamber" effect, I don't know how inspiring or motivating they were.
And the end of the session, a Minor Milestone had been reached. The "Nature Rules Aspect" had been transformed from a Threat to a Theme (and checked off on the city management sheet).
1 thing I did was to pass cards representing the fundamental steps of preparation that I had made. And here they are
1) High Level Decision Making
City-Wide Theme/Threat
IDEA
Toronto was smug and self-satisfied but now there is a lot of anger, apprehension, and uncertainty
ASPECT
"The city that works worked" [a take on one of the city's nicknames]
FACES
Name: McCoy, McCoy, Mc Coy
Concept: Hive-mind law firm, part of the mayor's new order
Name: Black Circle
Concept: Anarchist trouble makers
Aside from representatives of McCoy, McCoy, and McCoy menaced a PC but the idea or feeling never really made a concrete appearance. Towards the end, I had to improvise a motivation for the werewolves offering a deal to heal up one of the NPCs. So, let us assume that the people pushing to make Toronto "work" they way they want were ticking off the wolfies. The injured PC was told to bring the wolfies the head of a Toronto cop, part of the new order being put into effect by Mc3, who had been getting up in their face. So: when trying to create a coherent fiction, I drew upon the content of the Aspect but I can't think of any aspect where it drove play.
2) Scenario's Setting
City Locations
NAME
Parks and forests all along the Don & Humber valleys' river systems.
IDEA
Nature took this place in an explosion of violence and has no intention of giving it back.
ASPECT
"Nature Rules Here"
DESCRIPTION
Hurricane floods ripped through the city 60 years ago. The city never resumed development down here -- until now. Some parts are very neat and orderly, some are abandoned 19thc. buildings and businesses, some are heavily wooded.
THEME OR THREAT?
Set up as a Threat, but chaged to Theme as a result of players' activities
FACES
Name: Mr and Mrs. Hunter
Concept: Werewolf guardians. But at the end of the session it was resolved that they were no immediate threat to Toronto's mortals.
3) Relevant Characters from the City Sheet
NAME
Mr. and Ms. Hunter
ARE THE FACE OF
The ravines
WITH THE HIGH CONCEPT
Werewolf wardes of the ravines' fey & monsters
AND WITH THE MOTIVATION
"Keep this place free for us to run wild"
WITH THESE RELATIONSHIPS
* Cart (a homeless guy roaming the Toronto Islands and sometimes the ravines)
* The Fey discontent
Sigh. I keep making up new monsters instead of drawing from the bank of NPCs generated in city creation. Must stop.
4) Scenario Notes
The rules ask GMs to set up a network of tension. This wasn't quite the same as a relationship map. Did players try to bring their play in line with this diagram? I dunno. Was this attempt at No-Illusion play actually enforce some kinda "go with the GM" illusionism?
http://occulttorontodresdenfiles.wikia.com/index.php?title=Occult_Toronto_Wiki&image=Scenario3-jpg
And given the rules-instructorly intention I did not play up the tension. But what is the "tension"? Are players supposed to know that they are expected to play up some tension?
Erik Weissengruber:
Quote from: Roger on March 14, 2011, 09:52:43 AM
Sounds like something straight out of a DF book, so that's good to hear.
Any interesting Compels of PC Aspects?
It's a direct ripoff of one of the short stories.
This was a teaching session. I just said, "Look, you are an "Overhelper" which explains why are on the lip of this valley. Here is your Fate Point."
Erik Weissengruber:
Last Wednesday I ran DFRPG without prep, having thought that we were trying another game that day.
The diagram relating the various Aspects to each other allowed me to improvise a session rather handily.
And the reiteration of last session's key aspects helped provide continuity to our campaign, despite the 2 week hiatus.
Again, the compells were largely of the "Hey, here is an aspect I am using for tonight's complications" "Oh K, I won't pay to deny it" type. The use of Fate Points seems to formalize the commonly accepted contract for play: GM will propose ideas and players are expected to go along with them without complaining.
But the city-creation prep gave me deep background and the diagram of linked aspects gave me conduits through which I could channel some challenges towards the players.
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