Author Topic: AToW One Shot Idea  (Read 4308 times)

E. Icaza

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AToW One Shot Idea
« on: 11 July 2016, 09:08:42 »
So, my current tabletop group's game is winding down and there has been discussion on what to play next.  The group has five players and three of us have expressed an interest in running something.  So, the decision is to do a one-shot of each of the game systems to help people make up their minds.  One of the front runners is ShadowRun, which I'm not a big fan of, but the guy who is interested in running it is a good friend and I suspect he can make it interesting to me.  Another of the contenders is D&D 5E, which I do like, although I'm not a fan of the guy who wants to run it's GM style.  He tends to be very "railroady" as he's an aspiring author and past games have felt like we're just there to be "expositioned at" and he gets upset when we do something "outside the plot".

I threw my hat into the ring with AToW, but there was some concern that it was too complex and too mech-centric.  I had one player already hooked as soon as I said "BattleTech RPG", but the others aren't as sure for the reasons I stated above.  So, although we'll probably end up playing ShadowRun, below is my pitch for a one-shot.  I took the group's consensus as to which House they'd prefer and it was 3 in favor of Kurita and 1 for Davion.  Did I mention that the game we were just wrapping up is Legend of the Five Rings?  ;)

The adventure is set on a backwater world in the Pesht District and will take place in some sizeable city.  People from the lower rungs (Unproductives and the lower ranking Workers) have been turning up murdered in the slums.  There have been some rumblings about "ritual sacrifice" and a "Shining Trapezohedron".  Somehow or another, some fringe religious group called the Church of Starry Wisdom may be involved.  Since they're the lowest of Combine society, most folks don't care, the exceptions are the pre-gens of course.  Here's what I've got so far...

*Friendly Persuader who patrols the neighborhood and either cares about his duty or just wants to make a good bust and get promoted.
*Yakuza ganger who has his territory in the neighborhood and either cares about his duty or just wants to make a good show and get promoted.
*ISF agent who is a assigned to find out what's going on.  The ISF has dealt with this before.  See p. 111 of Handbook: House Kurita.
*Scholar and researcher who has heard that some sort of esoteric knowledge is in play and is interested in finding out
*Former cult member who got out when he realized something odd was going on and before getting too deep into the conspiracy.

So, yeah it's Call of Cthulhu meets Battletech.  :)

I'd like at least two other ideas for pre-gens.  I'll only have four players, but I wanted to give them more than four archetypes to play with if possible, but avoiding Mechwarriors, since one of the groups concerns is that even the RPG is all about 'Mech combat.  I was thinking a BA trooper (the image of someone in a Void suit fighting against a Haunter in the Dark is pretty badass IMO) or maybe just a standard infantry soldier, but I wasn't sure.

Any comments or feedback is appreciated. 
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Maelwys

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #1 on: 11 July 2016, 11:32:20 »
I would think the big issue would be getting the various PCs to work together such a diverse background. You might have to push them to be a bit more liberal on prejudices :)

It seems like a good start though. As for taking a BA trooper, I'd probably balance it against how often he's actually going to get a chance to use the suit.

hive_angel

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #2 on: 11 July 2016, 11:40:40 »
I have toying with the idea for a short style adventure set in the Battletech universe. It would require four players who are all mechwarriors, but they all posses other more valuable skillsets when combined in meeting and RPing is the only way to accomplish the adventure.

I could offer more if this interests you.
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E. Icaza

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #3 on: 11 July 2016, 12:10:41 »
I would think the big issue would be getting the various PCs to work together such a diverse background. You might have to push them to be a bit more liberal on prejudices :)

It seems like a good start though. As for taking a BA trooper, I'd probably balance it against how often he's actually going to get a chance to use the suit.

That won't be a problem with my players.  I've long since given up trying to keep them in suspense about working together.  In the absence of my prodding, they'll find some way to know each other or get together.

[A band of heavily armed murder-hobos adventurers wanders along the road, encountering an equally heavily armed, crazy-eyed Half-Orc Rogue with weapons drawn and covered in blood wearing a necklace of fresh goblin ears.]

Party:  "Hello stranger!  What brings you to wandering on the road?"
Half-Orc Rogue:  "I'm looking for adventure!" <Licks blood off of his blade and then replaces the poison on it.>
Party:  [OOC:  He's "X's" new Character right?]
GM/Me:  <Sigh> "Yes."
Party:  "You seem totally trustworthy!  Feel free to join us!  Since you're new, you'll have to take the middle watch!"

Other than that, they're actually pretty good roleplayers to be honest.  And this isn't them with every encounter either, as they'll examine every NPC with a microscope to make sure he's not screwing them over.  They do a good job with non Murder-Hobo characters too, but their blind spot is other party members.
« Last Edit: 11 July 2016, 12:22:17 by E. Icaza »
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E. Icaza

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #4 on: 11 July 2016, 12:21:33 »
I have toying with the idea for a short style adventure set in the Battletech universe. It would require four players who are all mechwarriors, but they all posses other more valuable skillsets when combined in meeting and RPing is the only way to accomplish the adventure.

I could offer more if this interests you.

Sure!  My past BT RPGs have turned out pretty well overall but, other than one set in DA/AoD that became much more of a "Lords & Ladies Power Broker" game and another one-shot, they've all been 'Mech-centric. 

The other one-shot was everyone was passengers on a DropShip hijacked by pirates.  I don't want to run that one again since one of my current players was in that one.
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skiltao

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #5 on: 11 July 2016, 15:26:32 »
The Friendly Persuader and the Yakuza Ganger work the same neighborhood, so they may have a working relationship already; them or the ISF agent should be able to force the scholar and ex-cultist to stay on task. I imagine whoever of the four PCs has the highest status would be the one organizing this expedition.

The ISF player could use one of the spare pre-gens as a cover identity (for use against NPCs rather than the other PCs, unless you're giving them all secret objectives).

Depending on how much machinery and technology will be in the environs, I'd consider making the ex-cultist a mechanic or programmer or something else that interacts with the technofutureness of BattleTech. (Potentially also the sarariman and troubleshooter below, though to different extents and with different focuses.)

More pre-gen ideas:

*Sarariman who has lost either a valued family member or a business associate vital to his career (maybe both (maybe the same person), and probably of higher status than him).
*Shinto Priest of the area who either cares about his flock or just wants to kick the new religion off his turf.
*Bodyguard or troubleshooter for the CEO whose workers live in the neighborhood, and either cares about his duty or wants to make a good show etc (or use the opportunity to settle grudges).
*Retired Samurai and big game hunter who's either heard of the Haunter or enjoys the opportunity to legally hunt people. (Could have a battlesuit in his truck.)

Once the players have located or identified a big enough target, the Friendly Persuader, Yakuza ganger, and corporate security guy could probably call in a few squads of muscle each, though not at the same time - a weaker group would probably refuse or withdraw when a stronger group is in the area. The ISF agent should be able to call on the garrison; maybe make a chart of threats and appropriate forces to call in, with an increasing chance of "being invited onward" (roll for seppeku) when calling in too much force (make 'Mechs reachable but risky).

A battlesuit makes sense for this final slaughter phase, but I don't think it's plausible for the investigative phase; it'd scare off or obliterate leads or, if unmanned, could be captured by cultists and turned against the players. I suppose it could be an asset as they close in, tracking thermal signatures or monitoring communication and other suchlike. The suit could replace one of the "back up" forces I mentioned earlier.

Instead of a battlesuit you could make civilian exo-skeletons part of a location. They're more common and easier to operate, which opens them up to a wider variety of characters. (Regular firefights would no longer be an auto-win, though, which may have an effect on adventure length; I don't know how much violence you expect during the investigative phase. At least you'll have spare pre-gens in case a PC dies.)

I'm trying to think of little things that would make "adventure in sci-fi slum with Cthulhu weirdness" feel more like BattleTech than like ShadowRun. Maybe give the ISF agent and the scholar a scene with clues during the system transit / jump* / system transit / arrival at the spaceport; for anyone not local to the target neighborhood, start with an incident at a facility out in the unterraformed or radioactive wastes or something; then maybe meet up with the local PCs at a neighborhood site related to whatever the planet imports from or exports to the interstellar community. Have the sacrifices be conducted using a big piece of adapted/misused lostech machinery.

*Heck, what better time for Lovecraftian madness.
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massey

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #6 on: 11 July 2016, 16:00:14 »
That won't be a problem with my players.  I've long since given up trying to keep them in suspense about working together.  In the absence of my prodding, they'll find some way to know each other or get together.

[A band of heavily armed murder-hobos adventurers wanders along the road, encountering an equally heavily armed, crazy-eyed Half-Orc Rogue with weapons drawn and covered in blood wearing a necklace of fresh goblin ears.]

Party:  "Hello stranger!  What brings you to wandering on the road?"
Half-Orc Rogue:  "I'm looking for adventure!" <Licks blood off of his blade and then replaces the poison on it.>
Party:  [OOC:  He's "X's" new Character right?]
GM/Me:  <Sigh> "Yes."
Party:  "You seem totally trustworthy!  Feel free to join us!  Since you're new, you'll have to take the middle watch!"

Other than that, they're actually pretty good roleplayers to be honest.  And this isn't them with every encounter either, as they'll examine every NPC with a microscope to make sure he's not screwing them over.  They do a good job with non Murder-Hobo characters too, but their blind spot is other party members.

That's actually much better than the alternative.  We've had far too many groups where the players trusted PCs least of all.  Actually, sometimes they had pretty good reason for that.  But too often you'd get players who looked for reasons to distrust the new character, to the point of shooting in the dark in hopes of hitting them.  "Bob, your character approaches the campsite.  You see a group of people gathered around it having dinner.  Group, you guys hear footsteps approaching."  "I cast Fireball!"

We once had a GM finally say "this man appears, there is a large, neon sign floating above his head that says 'this is a PC, you should trust him and invite him to join your group'".

carmachu

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #7 on: 11 July 2016, 17:41:05 »
It's extremely funny that they're worried ATOW is too complex but are going to also try shadowrun. That's not a simple game......

Sir Chaos

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #8 on: 11 July 2016, 17:41:35 »
More pre-gen ideas:
Young Noble: Brought up on samurai ideals, honor, duty, believes himself to be the Kurita equivalent of the Knight In Shining Armor; when he hears about people getting murdered, he decides it is his duty as a samurai to protect civilians from this threat, whatever it may be. I´m imagining this guy as a recent Sun Zhang graduate, well-trained but wet behind the ears, with lots of haughty idealism and very little life experience.
Dispossessed MechWarrior: Lost his ´Mech and his will to live, and is now looking for a proper way to die by someone else´s (figurative) blade rather than his own... possibly because his own blade is already in the pawn shop somewhere.
Visiting Spacer: Member of a dropship crew, probably a free trader; someone he knows in the city, perhaps a woman he´s keeping there or the guy buying his smuggled Solaris VII holovids, winds up murdered, he´s taking this personally and decides to investigate.
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Diamondshark

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #9 on: 11 July 2016, 17:45:36 »
They do a good job with non Murder-Hobo characters too, but their blind spot is other party members.

This is kinda off-topic, but you should look up and introduce your group to Paranoia in that case--that blind spot will cause complete and absolute mayhem under that system.
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Archangel

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #10 on: 11 July 2016, 20:50:27 »
Visiting Spacer: Member of a dropship crew, probably a free trader; someone he knows in the city, perhaps a woman he´s keeping there or the guy buying his smuggled Solaris VII holovids, winds up murdered, he´s taking this personally and decides to investigate.

Visiting Spacer Smuggler from the Federated Suns for the Davion player  ;).

Other potential pre-gen characters:
-A member of the Saurimat from Arkab hunting for a renegade member who joined the cult and is now their lead enforcer/assassin and is training the cults elite fighters/guard/warriors/whatever
-A member of the Tosei-kai (Korean gangs) who is working for/friends with the yakuza player
-A (dates permitting) Nova Cat whose vision quest brought him to Pesht.
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E. Icaza

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #11 on: 12 July 2016, 07:49:49 »
Thanks for all of the great ideas and feedback!

And the irony of wanting to play SR5, but avoiding AToW because it's "too complex" is not lost on me.
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hive_angel

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #12 on: 12 July 2016, 13:14:01 »
Reading your original thoughts and other's thoughts I can see how using the little idea I have could easily fit your request. It could fit ATOW easily.

Here is my take on your pregens.

Friendly Persuader - (Fallen Kurita Official)  His face is well known. Once the Man of the people and Hand of the people, now he has been shown the back hand of the people.

*Yakuza Ganger - (Ghost Regiment Protocol) His territory is the neighborhood and the neighborhood is his show.

*ISF Agent - Is assigned to what's going on.  Mastermind to everything that must happen as well as having authority to do so. Must prove to the others he is not full of himself and they are not full of themselves. (GM controlled)

*Scholar and Researcher - (Assassin, not swords in space BS, a proven modern day worshipper of death) Knowledge is power in right or wrong hands. Knowledge of death and destruction, small an mass, silent and soundly. He knows too much and was caught with too much. Being guilty by coincidence is largely debatable, but his presence of mind scares those around him.

*Former Cult Member - (MechWarrior, failure of the Bushido code, perhaps, like realized it was useless and acted so) Guilty and reformed, yet un-forgiven.

Using the idea I had plus your pregens idea really makes me wish I had four players ready to go at a small scale adventure.
« Last Edit: 12 July 2016, 13:18:45 by hive_angel »
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PurpleDragon

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #13 on: 12 July 2016, 14:28:54 »
I have run one on several occasions where a merc and his company (yes it was 'mech centric, but bear with me) was hired to investigate enemy activity on an otherwise abandoned world near or in the periphery.  A pilot had been downed when there was supposed to be no OPFOR present.  Since she was an aerospace pilot and the daughter to a very important (insert title here), All expenses would be covered in her recovery. 

Planet is very big, barren, desert-like.  Normal G.  Some water present.  This was a search and rescue mission. 

During planetary ops, while scouting, players come across a large, mostly buried, man made structure.  Investigation turns out to be a Potemkin class cruiser that had mis-jumped at about the time of the exodus.  Only survivors currently present were the ancestors of the giant, near sentient, insect like creatures (GURPS Space Bestiary: Green Tikittit. Blue Tikittit(Leader). Blue Tikittit (Brain).  Blue Tikittit (Warrior- "Crusher") Blue Tikittit (Warrior- "Ripper").    Blue Tikittit (Warrior- "Lancer"). ) that were the cause of the mis-jump.  Oh, and one downed pilot they, the bugs, were doing their best to heal/protect from all enemies both known and unknown. 

These creatures are neat in that they communicate via a laser light show that is picked up by organic "sensors" the bugs have as part of their growth.  They continue growing through the duration of their lives.  Their shell cracks open and they secrete a form of "blood" that then mixes with the surrounding sand and then forms into a hardened shell.  Because of this, they can be slowly "molded" into whatever type of living tool or weapon the Brain thinks it needs.  For example, the workers could include a walking table, a lifter, or even one with multiple arms (think maintenance droid from Star Wars).  Only one Brain per hive.  If second Brain is born, it is run out of the nest with several workers and soldiers of its own to form another hive.  If two hives grow until they are overlapping, war.  resulting dead bodies then turn into a large plant that is basically a tall stem with a red bulbous liquid filled gem at the top.  This is their food, which two hives will fight over, rinse, repeat.  The two, the plant and the bugs, are symbiotic.  Neither can survive without the other. 

On each occasion I ran this I changed something about it.  In one, the bugs were openly hostile.  In another they were openly friendly (by their terms).  In yet another the players were caught in the middle of two warring hives. 

This was always run as a pre-Clan invasion era. 
« Last Edit: 12 July 2016, 14:31:34 by PurpleDragon »
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skiltao

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #14 on: 15 July 2016, 13:51:34 »
And the irony of wanting to play SR5, but avoiding AToW because it's "too complex" is not lost on me.

If your group does end up choosing AToW, you might want to consider making them a team of scouts (spies) attached to a 'Mech unit. It keeps the "BattleTech" elements present but in the background, and should provide a reliable quest structure of
-infiltrate target world / site of interest
-identify defending forces & targets of opportunity
-sabotage defenses
-'Mech unit arrives for raid / assault
-support 'Mech unit or pursue simultaneous objective
-extract
which is more or less analogous to a shadowrun, and (if any of the players find chargen too daunting) should accommodate the pregens from your one-shot without too much trouble.
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E. Icaza

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #15 on: 16 July 2016, 09:31:15 »
Thanks for all of the feedback and ideas!

I've decided to go with the following from the originals:

Friendly Persuader
Yakuza Ganger
Scholar/Researcher
Former Cult Member

The idea to make the ISF agent an NPC who either recruits the group or stumbles across them and uses them to complete his mission was a good one, so that will be his role now.

From the ideas thrown out here, I'll add:

Shinto Priest (I like the idea of a holy man confronting unholy critters from beyond time and space)
Azami Spacer/Merchant  (I'm not sure what a Saurimat is, but I like the idea of maybe some distant descendant of Abd Alhazred stumbling across the cult)

Six should be enough choice I figure, and I'll make 2 copies of each so that they can double up if they like.  I wanted to avoid any Mechwarriors and I love the idea of a Nova Cat on a Visionquest, but my group (with one exception) is pretty "Meh." about the Clans at the best of times, so he stays on the shelf for another day.  As for the Void vs. Haunter of the Dark idea, I'll just say that the ISF agent has a DEST battle armor squad on stand-by for if things get too Lovecraftian.  At that point, the players job will be to stay out of the crossfire.  ;)

Thanks again for the ideas and I'll post up here after I run it to let everyone know how it goes!
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Sir Chaos

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #16 on: 16 July 2016, 12:18:50 »
(I'm not sure what a Saurimat is, but I like the idea of maybe some distant descendant of Abd Alhazred stumbling across the cult)

Now that you mention the Mad Arab - that Azami could be a member, or former member, of a society founded on opposing the followers/imitators of Abd Alhazred.
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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #17 on: 16 July 2016, 20:57:47 »
Azami Spacer/Merchant  (I'm not sure what a Saurimat is, but I like the idea of maybe some distant descendant of Abd Alhazred stumbling across the cult)

The future version of the Assassins (or Hashshashin) that first emerged in the Crusades (One of the two protagonist groups in the Assassin's Creed video game series).  Basically secret holy warriors that fought to protect the Azami people.  They are detailed in the IP2: Jihad Conspiracies sourcebook.

Hassan Ali Khaled was the only survivor of a renegade group that wanted to sell their services to the highest bidder before the mainstream groups wiped them out after failing to convince them to return to the fold.
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E. Icaza

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #18 on: 04 August 2016, 11:38:01 »
We played my AToW one-shot on Monday and it went rather well.  I had four players (although one showed up late) and here are the characters they went with:

Katie Kitsu: A member of the Civilian Guidance Corps assigned to patrol the neighborhood in question.  She hates the job and wants to make a big bust to get promoted to a better neighborhood where she can window shop to while away the boring days on patrol and sees this as her chance.
Robert "Bob" Hida:  Katie's partner in the Civilian Guidance Corps and pretty much her complete opposite.  Bob buys into that whole bushido schtick and sees it as his duty to help and protect the people of the neighborhood.
Rabbi David Isaak Weisenstein:  Professor of Theology and Languages at Tabayama University.  My friend Josh put every Jewish stereotype in a blender and played it as a character and managed to be hilarious without being farcical.
Yuri Konstantinov:   Half Russian Bratva, Half 80s Yakuza and Half 70s Pimp (yeah, that's three-Halves.  Deal with it), Yuri was assigned to find out what's happening in the neighborhood by his oyabun as a punishment duty for being too ambitious, but not very good at being ambitious.

I hadn't told them anything about the game other than that they would be investigating a series of disappearances and ritual killings in a seedy neighborhood and they thought that the idea of a murder mystery set in the BTU was a neat idea. 

I started with our Friendly Persuaders getting chewed out by their superior who was taking a lot of heat from his superiors due to the events in the Harmonious Gardens neighborhood.  The neighborhood was a slum populated by lower-class workers for one of the major industrial firms on Tabayama and nobody cared about the disappearances until the workers started to organize strikes and demonstrations.  Before sending in the riot squads, the CGC decided to make at least a halfway attempt at doing their jobs and the players were heavily pressured to find someone...ANYONE...to pin it on so things would go back to normal.  The only lead they had was the ritualistic nature of the killings (hearts, eyes and tongues removed with nearly surgical skill) and some graffiti left behind at the murder scene which appeared to be in an unknown language.  So, they were ordered to secure the help of a renowned scholar of languages at the local university, thus bringing them into contact with Rabbi Weisenstein.

Rabbi Weisenstein insists on accompanying them on their investigation and they visit the crime scenes in Harmonious Gardens so that he can get a closer look at the graffiti.  He is able to determine that it is related to some obscure Terran dialect found on the African continent, but can't decipher it, other than to say that it appears to be a warning about some "Shadow Hunter" or something.  The trio canvasses the neighborhood variously talking to and roughing up the inhabitants to find out more info.  My friend Rob was running late, so he decided to take the Yakuza Ganger to make it easier to slip into the game.  They met at a local bar after the Friendly Persuaders had been informed by the locals that someone else was investigating the murders.

Bob and Yuri pretty much decide they hate each other on sight and a firefight almost breaks out in the bar before cooler heads (Rabbi Weisenstein) prevail.  They decide to work together but split up so that they can cover more ground (and so that Bob and Yuri don't kill each other).  Bob and Rabbi Weisenstein continue to gather info from the locals and learn that a strange new religious organization has moved into the neighborhood.  They call themselves the Order of Celestial Oneness and they talk to several of the higher-ups at the nearby factory who know about the cult, but consider them harmless so long as they keep the factory workers docile and diligently working 14 hour days to produce widgets.  Bob notices that they're being followed at this point, but loses track of their shadow in an alleyway after a brief chase.  They learn from a few of the locals that they Order is having a "tent-revival style" meeting at a local park tonight and that the Order teaches elevation of the mind to an enlightened state through mental contact with otherworldly entities that supposedly live in "hyperspace".

Katie and Yuri don't have much luck with their investigation, choosing instead to flirt outrageously with one another.  They decide to nip off for a mid-day rendezvous at a local motel where they proceed to "get to know each other better."  They also completely miss that they are followed, apparently only having eyes for each other. 

When the group meets back up, they share information (well, Bob and the Rabbi do) and decide that the best course of action is to try and infiltrate the tent revival later that night.  Rabbi Weisenstein decides to head back to his office to see if some of the books that he has there can help with translating the graffiti.  He gets back to find that his office has been subtly searched and several books are missing that he needs for the translation work.  He tries to call the rest of the party, only for a mysterious voice on his phone to tell him to meet at the faculty lounge in an hour and to come alone.  Being a PC, he of course contacts the rest of the party and they help him set a trap for the mysterious person. 

At the faculty lounge, he meets up with a guy who identifies himself as "Howard.  Just Howard" and he tells the Rabbi that he wants to know what his interest in the Cult is.  The Rabbi stalls until the party is in position to spring their trap, which they do successfully, knocking Howard unconscious.  Checking his pockets, they realize that he's a member of the ISF and have the requisite sphincter-tightening moment and discuss what to do with him.  After much argument they discard stuffing him into a wood chipper, because Bob is too honorable for that (and they don't know how much his superiors know).  Instead, they revive him and he's understandably pissed, but decides to forgive (not forget) for now if they'll do him a little favor.  Rumor has it that the Cult has some sort of "weird looking stone" that they use as a religious artifact and he'll forgive the whole thing if they'll get it for him.

Figuring they don't have much choice since they just cheesed off a member of the secret police, they decide to do it.  The plan is to attend the tent revival as new converts and then see if they can find out about the stone.  Howard gives Rabbi Weisenstein a transmitter device to use for if they need "backup".  They party attends the tent-revival in disguise as workers and the sermon is mostly a rambling mess about "otherworldly intelligences" and "divine wisdom".  During the revival, they learn that new recruits are required to touch some "sacred stone" which will open their mind to the cosmos.  So, they are brought to the front along with several other new recruits.  When their turn comes up, Rabbi Weisenstein goes first and when he touches the Shining Trapezohedron, I give him a note card with what he sees written out.  I basically gave him a description similar to the ones that they use whenever someone makes a Jump in the BTU.  He nods sagely and says, "Interesting," as he walks away with a dreamy smile. 

Next up is Bob, who doesn't want to touch the stone, so he decides to play the authority card and whips out his badge and shotgun and tells everyone there that they're under arrest.  Of course the PCs are outnumbered 30:1, so when he fails to cow them, they attack, planning to overwhelm the "false faithful" and sacrifice them to something they call the "Haunter".   A firefight breaks out and Rabbi Weisenstein is badly injured, so he activates the transmitter and calls for help.

"Help" arrives in the form of a squad of DEST troopers in Void suits who proceed to mow down everyone in the vicinity, seemingly not caring if the PCs live or die either.  Bob is killed in the fight with the crowd and Rabbi Weisenstein is knocked unconscious when he's trampled by the crowd fleeing.  Yuri grabs the Trapezohedron (careful not to touch it) and runs for it, planning on trading it to the ISF for assurances that he won't be killed.  Yuri and Katie hold up in an old tenement, hoping to evade the BA when the building starts to shake.  Looking outside, they see a Panther taking out buildings in the neighborhood to eliminate the scattered cult members and realize the jig is up. They hide the Trapezohedron and surrender to the Panther, promising to reveal the idol's location if they're spared.

After interrogation by Howard, they pretty much immediately sell each other out and give up the location of the Trapezohedron and the ISF realizes that they don't really know anything of dangerous import.  So, they're "recruited" by the ISF (In For Life!) and set free.  Katie loses her job with the CGC due to the debacle and Yuri loses several digits, but they both survive.  Katie decides to go to the "dark side" and join the Yakuza as a low-level enforcer, because a girl's gotta eat, right?

Rabbi Weisenstein wakes up in a hospital several days later, his head full of strange knowledge.  Thus the cycle begins again...

---------------------------------

So, the game was pretty well-received and (after a bit of a learning curve) came as a shock to most of them on how much easier it was to play than they thought it was.  Of course, a big part of that was me taking chargen into my own hands.  We have the D&D game this weekend and the ShadowRun 5E game the weekend after that, so we're still working though the game possibilities.  The game ran for a little over four hours and they managed to miss several of the clues:

-The guy following Bob and Rabbi Weisenstein was a local graffiti artist who'd starting having strange dreams and the only way to get them to stop for a time was to "let them out" by graffiti tagging.  He was actually leaving the graffiti "before" the murders happened.
-The murders and disappearances were to secure material to feed the "Haunter" and all occurred during the frequent blackouts in the neighborhood, with the blackouts caused by one of the local officials who was a high-ranking member of the Cult.  The blackouts also took out any local surveillance cameras and the like.  Non-cult members were the targets and the murderer was either doctor who ran a local clinic and was in the cult or the actual Haunter, depending on whether I wanted to go Full Supernatural or not.

Despite that, the plot only really went off the rails when they decided to ambush the ISF agent and when Bob decided to go Judge Dredd and try to arrest 150 people all by his lonesome.  As experienced CoC players, they figured out what was going on when they were speaking to the ISF agent and he mentioned the Cult of Starry Wisdom.  As much as I wanted there to be a fight between a Haunter and a Void suit, I decided to avoid the overtly supernatural.

Also, people familiar with L5R can probably tell it was our last game by Katie and Bob's surnames.  ;)

Katie (also her real name) was voted Worst. Lion. Ever. in that campaign when her character Ikoma Miyori (a Kitsu shugenja with the Ancestor Enemy Flaw) asked "So, how much opium do I have to take before I stop giving a crap that my dead Grandfather keeps yammering in my ear about what I crappy Lion I am?"  :0
« Last Edit: 04 August 2016, 11:43:35 by E. Icaza »
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Tai Dai Cultist

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #19 on: 04 August 2016, 13:28:44 »
Sounds like it was a most outstanding game, bravo.

I'd love to hear how your L5R campaign went before that.. sounds like you have epic gamers in your group.

Maelwys

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #20 on: 04 August 2016, 16:23:00 »
Sounds like a pretty cool game. Glad it all worked out.

skiltao

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Re: AToW One Shot Idea
« Reply #21 on: 11 August 2016, 15:37:16 »
the plot only really went off the rails when they decided to ambush the ISF agent and when Bob decided to go Judge Dredd and try to arrest 150 people all by his lonesome. 

I love this bit. ;D

Thanks for posting the after-action summary, and let us know which system & world your group ends up choosing!
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