In Which The Warlock Contemplates the Worst...

As I've mentioned in my effusive praise for Play Dirty, I take great pride in being a "Wickian" GM.    My players appreciate a bit of sadism on my part, as I do my best to continually challenge their intellects, their characters' morality, and their own ability to cope with trying circumstances.  And, I've got to say, there's a ton of enjoyment in making my players rack their brains on a situation that really pushes their comfort zone as players.

Mary Ellen, perhaps?
This cosplayer did a fantastic job!

A few weeks ago, my Friday night Deadlands group was on the receiving end of such a 'rude awakening', as they've found themselves in the crossfire between rival Chinese-immigrant gangs in The Flood.  Taking up the the mantle of Big Ears Tam's champion in an underground martial arts tournament, ChaoticFred's "scrapper" mowed her way through the competition--literally!  As in, with a bionic buzz-saw arm!  But, as Mary Ellen Hardigan ripped her way through her final opponent, her traveling companions were aghast--that kung-fu fighter was the very leader of the 37th Chamber, with whom the posse wrangled a peace treaty several sessions earlier!

While the posse's new doctor companion was able to save the martial artist's life, he neglected to realize exactly what Big Ears Tam would do to someone who attempted to take out his prize-fighter...and that's even worse!  Needless to say, things didn't exactly end well for that fighter!

A great resource for more
"Dread Possibilities!

What really gets my attention, though, is when gamebooks facilitate this sort of GMing, providing possibilities to really challenge players, pushing even the most experienced, jaded gamer into action.  In 3.5e D&D's heyday, the Ravenloft books (by White Wolf-subsidiary Sword and Sorcery Publishing) did a spectaculary job of this.  In their setting material, the authors included several sidebars noted as the "Dread Possibility," each of which detailed the worst possible result for whatever plot element was being discussed. 

The "Dread Possibilities" ranged from noted monster hunters going mad from lycanthropy, to patrons being allied with shadowy cults, to a noted wizard falling in love with a noted (and thoroughly evil) noblewoman.  In all cases, though, these ideas push players to their utmost and, used in moderation, make for stories that no player will ever forget.

So, long story short, I 'appropriated' the idea.  As I've begun making my way through the final stretch of Cold Steel Wardens, the majority of my time has been focused on my setting--an amalgam of Iron Age cities that I'm tentatively calling Greensburg.  And, sure enough, I've included my own sidebars:  "The Lights Go Out..."

Here's a sample section, from my information on Greensburg University Medical System, the area's premier medical provider...

The Lights Go Out…--Greensburg University Medical

So, the rumors are true.  An underground union has emerged at Greensburg University Medical, and a massive walkout is in the works.  The union is being led by an angry young janitor named Mark Holp, who has worked at Miatanka Hospital for 6 years.  If the walkout and strike go as planned, GUM will be crippled, as nearly 1/3 to ½ of their workforce simply leaves.

What no one knows—not even Mark Holp himself—is that the would-be union leader is a metahuman, with a latent genetic anomaly allowing him to control light.  Holp has been present at several “unexplained incidents” that were a product of his untrained, uncontrolled mutant ability.  Triggered by intense emotions, these incidents have grown in frequency over the past few months, as Holp’s frustrations with GUM have reached a boiling point.

As such, the Heroes could face not one but two meltdowns—the utter disassembly of Greensburg’s premier health network, but also the emergence of a powerful metahuman with a grudge to pick against his employers.  And, the longer it takes to get the fledgling union to the table with the GUM executives, the more lives are lost as Holp attempts to gain control of his out of control powers.

In Which The Warlock Has a Showdown with Destiny...

In my recent defense of John Wick's "Play Dirty", I mentioned the idea of the "heroic destiny"--the premise that, given a character in a role-playing game, said character should be challenged with great tribulation so that they can evolve, meet that challenge, and emerge with a sense of victory.

It's been my experience that, while this is a great (and admirable!) aim, it's very hard to achieve at times. There are a lot of victories in gaming that tend to feel hollow or empty. Players can come away from many combats saying "Oh, I guess I'm down a healing surge or two" (or, insert other HP-tracking method here), with other encounters following suit. Players are often expected to succeed, one way or another, with actual setbacks coming few and far between.

Back at Wittenberg, when I was still an undergrad, one of my fellow Dirty GM's--Callon, by name--really managed to flip this on its head. I had been playing Maxwell Craedon, a 6'6" mountain of a Fighter/Paladin, but more so...I (as a player) had been trying to play Maxwell as a Lawful Good character. That's definitely a difficult thing for me!

Session after session, game after game, Callon managed to challenge my assumptions in-game about good and evil, law and freedom. What's more, he didn't pull any punches in doing so. The villains he created were unabashedly evil and unafraid to take advantage of both player and character hang-ups and weaknesses.

The resolution of Maxwell's quest--a search for The Dark Tower, straight out of Stephen King's storied septuplet--was made all the sweeter for these tribulations. Maxwell became an exarch of his deity, acting as a force for justice across the planes.

It's been a long while since I had found such a fitting end--a heroic destiny--for a character in game. Much of that's been due to the fact that I've been GMing most of the games I've been involved in over the past few years, but even when playing, games either devolved into a series of continual speed-bumps or were so drenched in failure that mere survival was considered victory (Pyramid of Shadows, anyone?!). Luckily for me, another GM has managed to pull off the 'heroic end' particularly well.

Kat--another devotee of John Wick's--has been running her weekly Marrakesh games with a decidedly schizophrenic group. My ranger-mariner, Ishmael, had all but turned into a terrorist, destroying Narbonne warehouses and the like in an attempt to drive them from Marrakesh. After a disastrous encounter with other members of the native resistance, Ishmael was all but set on a suicide mission to destroy two Narbonne warships in the Marrakeshi harbor. His background had sat idle for many sessions, with little resolution of his mysterious shipwreck or the reappearance of his comrades. Ishmael's party was starkly divided over his actions...

But at the end, all was tied together. In a short session with Colt's swordmage, Sayyid, Ishmael found himself back aboard a ghostly, corrupted version of the Fleur de Tempete, fighting his old crew-members and drifting between alternate realities. This culminated in a massive sea battle as two versions of the Fleur de Tempete drifted together, each fighting the kraken that would send it to its doom.

By the end, Ishmael had found redemption. He had saved his crew and avoided the curse that his captain had laid over the ship. And more, he did so by relying on his comrades--Sayyid proved invaluable in stopping the captain. As the alternate realities merged, Ishmael disappeared into the void, ready for a new adventure.

That, friends and neighbors, was a heroic end. After challenge after massive challenge, I (both in-game and out) felt satisfied. That, above all, was the essence of El Willy's "big win". Here's for more games like it!

And now? Well, continuing in Kat's campaign means bringing in a new character: the tiefling summoner Sular Etani Mahalesh. Expect a character background up next week. Plus, we're heading out for our one-day survey of GenCon on Sunday--and, with it, Keith Baker's Eberron game!--so expect some observations and pics from there in our next entry.

Game on, brothers and sisters!

In Which The Warlock Sets His Watch...

So, when Kat sent me John Wick's Play Dirty, I knew that I had a gem on my hands. Little did I know how useful it would really come into play until this last session of our weekly "The Tear of Ioun" 4e game.

This session was special for me, because it marked the PC's trial. As I'd mentioned a few entries ago, my lovely players ended up killing a few of the Harrowfolk on their way to the Forlorn Tower, then being arrested on both murder charges and for crimes against the state. Killing the Harrowfolk meant breaking a 30 year old peace treaty between Wellspring and the surrounding Harrowfolk tribes, leading directly to war.

So, as the PCs were arraigned and met with their "Silent Advocate", Alderman Cylus, I went into lengthy detail as to how the trial was to proceed. The Tribunal of Five--Wellspring's judicial body--would hear three series of arguments from both the prosecution and the defense: The Trials of Character, Deeds, and Motive. Witnesses were called alternately, with cross-examination optional.

With no hesitation, the party dropped into full role-play. Witnesses were called, arguments were made...

...and I placed twenty black poker chips in the center of the table.

Eyes got wide. "What are you doing, Andy?" they asked. I didn't reply.

You see, in Play Dirty, Wick describes something that he calls The Armageddon Clock. Premise is that the party is on a timer, only they don't know how long they have. All they know is that when those chips run out, the GM smiles...and bad things happen.

The trial continued for nearly an hour-and-a-half in real-time. Every so often, I'd simply reach over my GM screen and pick up a chip or two. When I pulled three off of the stack in one go, Will (our runepriest) looked at me in abject terror. I just smiled.

At last, the last chip was pulled. The party fell silent. I grinned...and slammed the stack of chips down onto the table with all the force of a spiked football. Chips flew everywhere, as I narrated:

"A massive crash echoes through the courtroom as a giant catapult stone, easily the size of a man, smashes through the roof! It splinters beam and tile, crashing to the stone floor where you sit. The people in the gallery panic, screaming out and fleeing for the doors! It appears that the siege has begun...

With the courtroom in chaos, the party was able to flee into the city even as it descended into chaos. However, they did not do so alone! Rather, they escaped with the help of a mysterious stranger--the enigmatic eladrin known as Elladan RedHand. After a brief meeting with Elladan in his possibly-extradimensional hideout, they decided to join up with the eladrin in finding Saint Estelred's ancient laboratory and, with it, the artifact of their desires: The Tear of Ioun.

As such, next time, we start off with a midnight romp through the besieged Wellspring, in the hopes to get to Estelred's ancient laboratory...and an encounter with its current, mind-flaying occupant!

In Which The Warlock Admits His Alignment...

So, as a pseudo-GM's Day present, Kat sent me a copy of a very interesting PDF: John Wick's "Play Dirty".

At first, I had thought it was something along the lines of the eponymous "Book of Erotic Fantasy", released in the midst of the d20 System glut, but I was surprised beyond belief at what I found.

You see, Wick's articles (compiled from a gaming website) enlighten the reader on the glories of being a "Dirty GM". That is to say, a GM that uses his full creative abilities to challenge his players by exploiting their weaknesses and gaming assumptions. He contrasts this with the "Killer GM" which kills characters simply for the sake of killing them.

He then goes on to put forward idea after glorious idea, many of which were taken from his own games (mainly "Champions", "Vampire: The Masquerade" and "Call of Cthulhu"). Of particular note is his NPC, Jefferson Carter...a bastard to crown all other bastards, and a character that any self-respecting player would love to hate.

Wick's articles got me thinking about my own reputation within the Wittenberg gaming community. You see, I have a bit of a stigma as a brutal Game Master. I guess the old adage is to "never get in a car in one of Andy's games", after I had two separate TPKs (all detailed in earlier posts, no less!).

However, I've always strived for ways to challenge my players. From the illithid invasion of Saltmarsh, to the conspiracies of the Emperor's Ship Persephone, I try to keep my players always on their toes. There is, though, one game in which I really pulled the wool out from under the players:

Back at Wittenberg, I ran a game that was something of a crossover between the old 2e setting "Dark Sun" and the historical Crusades. The players took on fantasy roles of Egyptian Muslims, as their king attempted to invade Damascus. As they had proved themselves competent at court and in the field, our heroes were chosen as an advance force to try to infiltrate the city and begin to bring it down from the inside-out.

As such, after sneaking into Damascus, they began to learn about the city's defenses, which were constructed by a certain general, Mal-Erek Tsaron. Attempting to get into his confidence was Nick, playing a psychic warrior. He joined the city guard, immediately getting noticed due to his natural prowess (and the fact that he was around 12th level at the time). The group's mission? Kill Tsaron, so that the city's defenses would be leaderless.

Undoubtedly, the PCs were figuring on only a chance encounter with Tsaron, but I didn't let them off that easy. Tsaron took Nick's character under his wing, quickly promoting him. Within a month, Nick was invited over to Tsaron's home to have dinner with his wife. The entire time, I played Tsaron as a gentle, loving man who loved his country and wanted nothing more than to live in peace. Nick and Tsaron sparred in his practice room. Tsaron gave him an enchanted blade, which he had used in years previous. Tsaron's wife made him dinner.

...and when Nick's character was about to leave, Tsaron's daughter arrived. Oh, did I say his daughter? I meant Nick's love interest from earlier in the campaign. Same person.

Nick's character was invited to stay the night...during which he did the dirty deed. He killed Tsaron and his wife, then messaged the group, which signaled for the sieging army to attack.

The entire role-play took over 3 hours, with nary a dice rolled. Literally, Nick and I went back and forth, with the rest of the group rapt on our words. With each new detail, with each new "nice guy" action that Tsaron took, the group moaned their pain.

In order to take over Damascus, they would have to kill an innocent man. And, more than just innocent, he was a friend.

That's what John Wick is talking about! That's "hitting them where it hurts"! That's gamin'!