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The Hopefuls: Episode 6 – Homecoming
By Corvus | June 22, 2009
I’ve missed a few episodes, but the hopefuls have spent a year in training and learned some interesting things about their capabilities. Lucy undertook a psionics career path, which requires her to overtly study espionage while simultaneously covertly training on mind reading, suggestion, etc. The dual-layered course work seems to be rewarding, but also to be aging her prematurely. Tirrah learned that she had extraordinary potential for magic and was encouraged to train to be a Vae (energy) Witch. Vae witches work directly with Source energy, specifically Will. As Paula, the Witch General in charge of the proj… er, training, was first a Vitae (life) Witch, she was unable to teach Vae magic and arranged for a special, non-army-approved, teacher for Tirrah–a ghostlike spirit warrior from the deserts of a distant continent. Finally, Marcus learned that he has the capacity to physically transform his body, shifting the strength of his earth (strength) and air (agility) conduits.
This latter discovery caused some problems for the special training program, as three potential slayers had been assigned to the training program, overriding Paula’s wishes. Keeping the true nature of the Hopefuls seems important to her, and Marcus’ transformation is rather obvious, so the training gets shut down for the summer while Paula returns to HQ and tries to make new arrangements.
And then there was a crazy, campaign-spanning, dream that encompassed two sessions.
This episode opens with the trio’s plane touching down on the tarmac, followed by family reunions. Tirrah’s mother warns her of the sinister plans of a group from their home country called The Sisterhood. They have, she believes, designs on Tirrah and would not be above kidnapping to achieve them. “Be prepared to do whatever you need to in order to stay free of them,” she told Tirrah, “I will handle the legal repercussions. You are, after all, a diplomat’s daughter.”
Lucy’s parents, both highly placed civil servants, seem quite nervous at their daughter’s sudden and unexpected return. Lucy is able to assuage their fears and it isn’t long before her mother is commenting on how grown up she looks and her father suggesting she find a part time job for the summer.
Marcus’s is met by Aiden, his second dad. Aiden tells him that his birth-father, Patrick, is out of the country on business, but later, over a private dinner in a restaurant he asked the owner to close for the evening, he tells Marcus that Patrick is laying low and explains the family business–they import illegal demonic artifacts. He invites Marcus to work for them over the summer, as they are a bit short handed with some recent personnel issues and Patrick out of the country.
Both Lucy and Tirrah’s secret instructors have followed them home to continue their training. Tirrah and Lucy discover that the City Hall looks very different when viewed from the Vae Realm, and all three start getting an idea of their individual, and disparate, economic realities.
And with the stage set for the summer, it was time to introduce their new instructor–Traz. Traz is one of the oldest NPCs I continue to use on a regular basis. She is enigmatic, and more than a little dangerous. She once was a vampire, became an arch angel for a time, and now works at mysterious purpose for being,or beings, unknown. For the purposes of this campaign, she is filling the role of a female Spike. She has volunteered to help the hopefuls fight less like they, “learned to fight a the Arthur Murray school of getting your arse handed to you.” She also showed them the prophecy they feature in, stealing a copy of her “boss’s” desk at Canid, Capra, and Cervid.
This was our first attempt at trying out the new Rev03 combat system, which does away with measures and three-counts, stacked actions, and pre-calling actions, etc. The system is meant to both be more fluid and to give more control over the combat to all the storytellers.
Several issues came to light as we had our first combat at the end of a looong session. We were all a bit brain-fried going into it, but it turned out to be a really good test with some great things coming out of it.
The main issue is that while I felt the timings of the combat system worked as I intended [1], it was a completely opaque, and more than a little baffling, process to the rest of the table. The second issue is that the storytellers weren’t sure of how much control over the combat they could really take [2] and had varying levels of ability to picture the combat in the first place. The third issue is that the practical combat-potential of psionics and Vae magic hasn’t been well explored within the story so far.
After the episode concluded, we talked at length about the system, tossing ideas back and forth that would solve he big issue–transparency, clarity, and storyteller involvement. We came up with a solution that subtly refines the rules and aligns its implementation with the tokenized approach of the rest of the system. Each storyteller will now have a Challenge Track which allows them to quickly assess combat timings and work together better during combat.
Then, while playing with the design of the challenge track, I decided to add some quantification of die results so that storytellers have some clear guidance when describing the effects the effects of their actions.
The solution to the final issue is quite simple and each session will now begin with a sparring session and I’ll likely do more inter-session talking about the use of psionics and magic with the appropriate players as well.
[1] I’ll be writing up the next two Rev03 posts and discussing the system in more depth after I do a further testing later this week.[return]
[2] My intent is to have each storyteller describe, not only their action, but the effect their action has on their opponent, thereby setting the stage for their next move. In other words–all the storytellers choreograph the combat together. [return]
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