The Forge Archives

Here is a transcript of the Universalis session I ran on Friday, I will post some of my thoughts about it a bit later, in another post.

Players:
Nenad
Adam
Garrick
D@vid (Joined later)

Tenents:

Rules:
A player can take over control of a component at no cost, if the controlling player agrees (the controlling player is assumed to agree, unless he says something) – Introduced to simply acknowledge what was already happening
At the beginning of each scene, every player gets six coins (we started with two, since we thought of this as a demo, but we changed it as we got more involved with the story)
Instead of using a swearword, the player must come up with a new word
Words so far:
Zof – piss
Herdplurd – Bullshit
Snod – Fuck
At the beginning of each session, every player starts with sixteen coins

Setting:
A desert planet (not Dune!)
Steampunk Technology (the game ended up feeling like  a mix of steampunk, cyberpunk and Western)
More advanced technology used to exist, but a cataclysm of some sort occurred in the distant past , and humanity has only been able to rebuild to the staempunk-style technology. Old tech still exists (it ended up playing a large part in the story)
It has been the middle of the night over the whole world since the last cataclysm
The only light comes from the planet's two moons: Romulus and Remus

The Story so far:
As the story starts, we see a researcher who is receiving data for analysis from The Departement of Interstellar Studies.
The Researcher
Does not have a name (name held back on purpose)
Cheeky
Colourfull
Hot
Works Alone
Athletic
Does not know her family history
Had Poor parents
Has a history of heroism in her family
Owns a PVC suit (see later)
Did not know her PVC suit's abilities


The Departement of Interstellar Studies
Housed in a looming, dilapidated building
No contact with anyone outside the planet since the cataclysm
Only a skeleton Crew left
Illuminated by Gaslight

She notices some discrepancies in the data, and after confirming it with the DIS, she realises that the data indicates that the magnetic field of the planet will reverse itself, thus causing a second cataclysm.

She then jumps into her steamcoach, and drives off.

The scene than changes to a chamber in the unknown location, where six cultists stand chanting around a table. The table has a shining jewel in the centre of it, and on the edge two concentric circles revolve in oppposite directions. The table has  a map of the planet engraved on it. This takes place in a cave with stell walls, engraved with what they think of as runic markings, but look more like military code.

Having left here home city of Steel Cross, our heroine now arrives at a train station in Starpoint.
Starpoint
DIS has their HQ here

Starpoint Station
Enormous
Dilapidated
Rundown sign saying "Starpoint Station"

She heads to the DIS HQ, where she goes to the office of Jack Bauer to speak to him about the threat that she discovered. He refuses to take her seriously, and she storms out of his office.

Jack Bauer PhD
Scientist
Head of DIS
Long Mane of White Hair
Goggles
White Coat
Always keeps his coat claepd and closed, and it is always clean, no matter what
Keeps the ears of his victims inside the coat
Feels disdain for the heroine
Knows about the cataclysm
Leader of the cult
Owns the wire mesh glove (see later)
Smokes Sigfield and Manchester (S&M) cigarettes, which he impregnates with a  liquid psychodelic, which gives him an entirelly warped perception of the world

After our heroine leaves, he waits for a bit, before heading to the telegraph room, where he tells the technician to 'take care of the girl', and starts sending a message once the technician has left.

The Technician
Fresh initiate of the cult
Dagger

As our heroine is walking down the road, the technician, seizes her from behind, and attempts to stab her with the dagger.

In the meantime, the cult in the chamber completes their chant, the table sinks into the floor, leaving the jewel on a pedestal, and the two rotating circles stop, and the jewel starts getting brighter.
At that moment, a new star appears in the sky, and old tech starts activating all around the planet. Including our heroine's suit. The suit starts glowing with a pattern, just as the cultist attempts to stab her.

PVC Suit
Becomes as hard as chainmail when necessary
Can heal the wearer
Keeps the wearer at a comfotbale temperature
Can take 'jewels' which contain programs which enable it to do other things
Heroine's family heirloom

Jewel rule: The same effect will never happen twice. The suit can chose which jewels it accepts and when it activates them. Also, the power activated will never be completellyright for the situation.

As the girl tries to dodge out of the way of her attackers knife, whe manages to nick here ear. Then a figure walks out of a nearby alley: Zodiac

Zodiac
Mystery Man
Hulking
Wears a cowboy hat and duster
Has huge guns (x2)
Call the guns 'the twins'
Street Brawler
Insists on fair fights
Cool, calm and collected at all times
Has zodiac symbols on all his equipement
The twins – Gemini in the handles
Coat – Scorpio on the back
Hat – Saggitatius
Belt buckle – Taurus
On the run from Silver City
Has a contact in Silver City
Does not recoginse Skaz (once again, this trait will become clear later)

As he walks out of the alley, he shoots the ear of the technician, and says
"An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, an ear for an ear... Shall we continue?"

The technician runs away, and the heroine's suit extends to heal her injured ear. She is shocked by this, as is Zodiac. Zodiac than picks her up, and carries her off into the alley.

Soon after, in Jack Bauer's office, Jack berates the technician for failing him. As he does so, he puts on the wire-mesh glove, which melds to his skin, and becomes razor sharp. Monofilaments extend from it into the poor hapless technician, tying themselves into loops, so that Jack shreds him with a single pull on the glove. Although blood sprays the whole room, Jack's coat remains perfectly clean.
The technician's head remains untouched through all this, and Jack picks it up, only then noticing the missing ear. He then wrenches off the other one, and opens his coat, revealing a full collection of ears on hooks inside the coat. He adds his new trophy to the collection.

The Wire Mesh Glove
Razor edges
Controlled Monofilament wire

One month later, a mile above the city of Steel Cross, an onithopter appears, made out steel and wood, and trailing smoke, as it heads for a crash.

The street below is filled with people, and a couple below it notices a screw fall on them, and looks up to see what is happening, and notices the ornithopter. As other people notice it, a brief panic ensues. The heroine looks out of the window of one of the building near the square, where she atays with Zodiac. The two of them come outside, and Zodiac notices that the pilot of the ornithopter seems unconcious, and that the ornithopter is of miner design.

Miners
Hunters for old tech
Mostly live on the opposite side of the planet

The ornithopter crashes in the middle of the square, and as it does so, a wave of silence washes over the crows surrounding the square. The pilot, still alive lets some jewels fall out of his hand.

Seeing that the pilot is still alive, although he is covered in cuts, Zodiac and the heroine carry him up to her appartement.

The pilot (Otto, although everyone calls him simply 'Kid')
Sidekick
Full of cuts
Annoying
Miner
Idolises Zodiac

In the appartement, over a cup of hot soup, the kid explains to the girl that he has hear an old miner tell tales of the lightbringer, who will rekindle the old magic. He saw that a sensor had become active, which has been said to lead to the lightbringer. He used the device to find her, but it was destroyed in the crash. Zodiac, gettind tired of the herdplurd, walks out.

Old Miner
Completelly Snodded up in the head
Drinks
Talks in rhyme
Knows what's going on

The girl asks the kid about the jewels, and he tells her that she does not know what they are for, but that the old man claimed that they were important. While examining them, the girl finds that one of them clips into the suit, causing her to grow wings, which then start flapping rapidly, blowing the kid and things in the room out of the window. The wings revert once she removes the jewel.The kid is left hanging of a flagpole outside.

The jewels
Clip onto the suit
Provide programs for it

Wing Jewel
The rate at which the wings flap depends on the users heartbeat

In the meantime, Jack's office is a complete mess, looking like somebody has really thrown a tantrum inside it. Jack walks in, looking very zoffed off. He hears a beep, and after digging in the layers of papers he uncovers a beeping tracker. He gets onto the telegraph key he has recently installed in his office, and starts sending a message.

In the mean time, our heroes have started on a trip to Silver City, by stage coach, in order to find the old miner that the kid told them about.

Silver City
Largest trading city on the planet

Mayor of Silver City
Hates Zodiac with a passion
Complete bastard

During the past month, the cult has increased their recruiting activities, sending some of its members to act as bandits, and helping to get more converts to the cult withtheir promise of law and order.

Our heroes coach gets waylaid by one of the bandit groups, and as the heroine has a gun in her head, she grabs a handful of jewels, one of which interfaces to the suit. She immeditally gets tuck to ceiling, and all the metal around her gets attracted to the suit, except for the things carried by Zodiac.

Seeing that the thugs have been disarmed, Zodiac puts away his guns, in order to have a fair fight. He knocks everybody in the gang out, with the exception of the leader, who knocks his hat off in the fighting, and tries to run away.

After picking up his hat, and seeing that it got dented in the scuffle, Zodiac, pulls out a gun, and shoots the belt of the feeling bandit, informing him to return to them.

Skaz Morone
Leader of the group of thugs
Recognises Zodiac, and knows about the mayor's hatred of him
Dodgy mothersnodder

Our heroes now continue on their journey to Silver City, with their new captive.

Some background:
After the first cataclysm, a group of scientists was formed to study its causes, and how to avoid another one. Over the centuries, they got corrupted into the cult, which believes that the cataclysm was God's punichment for mankind's use of technology, and they welcome the second coming cataclysm, as God's final justice.

Nenad Ristic

Some of my thoughts on the session (any of the other players, feel free to pitch in, I know for a fact that D@vid posts here regularily):

I love Universalis!

The game started with just myself, Adam and Garrick, but we easilly launched into it, despite the lack of any experience with similar games (all three of us have a lot of experience with more 'traditional' rpgs). We started the game with very few tenents (only three if I remember correctly), which, judging from my reading of the Forge is below average, but it worked for us.

We initially started tha game as a 'demo' session, just to get familiar with it until D@vid arrived, but we loved the story so much, that we decided to continue with it.

We pretty much ignored the control rules, with anyone taking control of any component at any time. This did get a bit chaotic at times, but we had great fun nevertheless.

One issue which I noticed: Adam and Garrick insisted that a scene be explicable in terms of the preceeding ones. I.e. anyone introdusing a scene would have to explain what happened to get to that point... It did force us to add more depth to the setting and the story, but I am not sure whether this really dealt with things the way Universalis intended.

Anyway, we fully plan to continue the story, and cannot wait to find out what happens next!

Nenad Ristic

> d@vid posts here regularily

well, if by "regularly" you mean "irregularly" ;)

it was great to not be unofficially running the game and teaching others, instead I got to focus on just creating fun story bits - the game ran a little more freeform than I'm used to with Uni, but as I pointed out to Nenad, I haven't yet been in game where I used the Control rules correctly

there was some interesting decisions made on when to reveal particular Facts - usually I hate fussing about "how things work" behind the scenes, but felt compelled to add a few tangental explanations as the story progressed - reading now how loose the group started, I'm going to specifically try out minimal tenets in my next game of Uni

I'm very keen on having a further session (tomorrow) based on the same story, as time away from the game has allowed certain thoughts to develop (like why it's always night!) - I'm still not sure about how to find a middle ground between the spontaneous creativity typical of Uni, and some kind of revision/Editor mechanic

> One issue which I noticed: Adam and Garrick insisted that
> a scene be explicable in terms of the preceeding ones.
> I.e. anyone introdusing a scene would have to explain what
> happened to get to that point...

I think this is largely a matter of taste; for me, somewhat born of Forge discussion of scene-framing, I'm happy to cut to the next interesting bit (the ornithopter crashes, we see the boy, new scene: the boy is drinking soup in the heroes' apartment) and assume that the transition happened somehow (and if it's important we can flash back to it)

one lengthy discussion involved me explaining what seemed like a million things (and others buying Facts where they saw fit), just so that I could connect two mini-scenes - we ended up generating a ton of story and backstory in getting there, so it was worthwhile despite how many times I said "but guys, all I want to do..."

That sounds like a great game.

The reversed control rules sound quite functional.  Modifications like that are precisely what I created Rules Gimmicks for.

The insistance on maintaining plausibility and structure is also a good use of Gimmicks to give the game the level of structure desired.  This is an entirely group dial-able setting, and I'm thrilled to see groups work out their own preferences for where to set it.