The I’m on a Boat Caper ended with the Dead Setters in control of the Colossus, Lord Strangford’s largest and newest leviathan-hunting vessel, and with Richter (Spider) as the newly “elected” magistrate of Crow’s Foot.
Strangford’s control over his leviathan hunting business dropped to Weak as his peers distanced themselves from the scandal he’d invited upon himself. Because the Dead Setters’ lair has remained so well hidden, Strangford resorted to appointing Richter to public office to make him visible. It all completely backfired, of course, when the duelist (Roethe Kinclaith) Strangford arranged to kill the new magistrate at the Colossus’ launch party turned out to be a sometimes-ally of the Setters. Then, after the party, undercover Bluecoats attempted to drive Richter’s carriage into the canal and drown him. That didn’t take either, as apparently as a result of too much contact with leviathan blood combined with a Ghost Contract with Ahazu the demon, Richter picked up the Tempest power and Harry Pottered his way out of the deathtrap.
On the boat, the rest of the crew and their new cohort of Rovers, led by Captain Minos (a former leviathan hunter himself), struggled to take control of the Colossus on its maiden voyage. The PCs smuggled themselves onto the boat in barrels and crates, dwarf-style. Setarra the water demon, who was in concert with Lord Scurlock and “on loan” of sorts to Lord Strangford in order to keep the vessel’s prototype Sparkwright electroplasm reactor running, tried to drown them then and there but was rebuffed with a crit from Teatime (Whisper).
After that, it was fire and blood. Rook (Cutter) led the rovers to the upper decks where he singlehandedly fought and destroyed a hull-powered waldo, a giant hydraulic crane arm for harvesting leviathan flesh and blood. A second such drone arm gave him more trouble, almost tossing the cutter into the Void Sea along with a section of the deck. Meanwhile, Deemo (Leech) had her hands full repairing the reactor after a hapless engineer got thrown into it. Strangford’s whisper, Miss Sprunk, went up against Raven (Hound) and lost her boots. Also her life, but the image of Raven looting Sprunk’s quality footwear as the whisper bled out below decks was a high water mark (ahem) for this nautical adventure.
The Colossus’ captain Rackson surrendered after doing her best to sabotage the vessel’s bridge. The Dead Setters’ rovers took quite a few losses, leaving them Impaired. No PCs took any harm, although there was a lot of stress spent. Lots of sixes in our first session saw the crew wedge themselves firmly into the score before the second session’s luck turned against them somewhat. Still not enough to cause serious problems in the moment. The high-profile nature of the job did leave the Dead Setters with 3/9 Heat and Wanted 3.
Good Stuff:
I think this score was big and complex enough that everyone got spotlight time. We had steampunk gadgetry, straight-up fighting, magic, stealth, and all juxtaposed with a high society party.
I think everyone got into how weird I was making the Colossus. It’s the Red-October-crossed-with-Titanic of leviathan hunting ships. I think calling the engine a reactor was appropriate. The bowels of the ship blurred somewhat between pipes and steam and actual bowels and pulsating, breathing tissue. Hull bodies built right into the deck like drone arms. A Big Daddy-inspired first mate (critted immediately by Rook).
Mechanical Stuff:
This session also saw my first attempts at multiple consequences. Miss Sprunk had warded a ship corridor and when Raven tripped the ward, she had to resist the damaging ward as well as Sprunk trying to shut the door and trap her inside the corridor. Likewise, Rook had to resist damage from the drone arm at one point as well as being pinned by it.
These are experienced characters and they have the dice to handle this stuff, but throwing these extra dangers into the mix made our second part of the score feel more dramatic and dangerous.
Funny Stuff:
The Bluecoats’ deathtrap for Richter. It was pretty great. Under the (completely true) pretense of Strangford possibly trying to kill Richter, some undercover Bluecoats got him into a carriage and then simply drove it into the canal, then waited around with shotguns in case he got out.
They had no idea he had JUST taken Tempest as a Veteran advance. A little magic to blow the door lock and some fog to conceal his exit from the canal, and Richter easily took down the cops because he also took Not to be Trifled With as a previous Veteran ability.
Questions:
You don’t roll anything for Tempest, do you? You pay the stress and the stuff happens, right? Can you resist the stress that you’re paying? I would think no, especially if there’s no other roll involved. It seems like a straightforward pay for effect mechanic but I’m curious if I’m interpreting it correctly.
What does Wanted 3 look like? How are you guys generally using Wanted in your games?
#heestcomplete
(We all wore silly hats this time)
Have you seen their escalating Wanted Level having a noticeable effect on Entanglements? Are they getting the ‘Bluecoats fuck up your shit’ results more often?
Nope! They’re usually at high Heat before downtime, regardless of Wanted level, so although they can Reduce Heat a bit, they’re getting the “bad” entanglements nearly all the time. Also, often their entanglements are lessened right when they roll over a Wanted level because the total will be less than Heat alone.
That’s the way I handle Tempest. The book doesn’t say anything about an action roll, though I think I made my Whisper roll something when he tried to strike a guy with lightning. Maybe it wasa fortune roll? Can’t remember.
And I don’t think the stress cost for the ability is a consequence, and besides, taking 6 stress for an ability and then resisting out down to 0 (or taking 1 stress to make some wind and botching the resist roll to take 5) seems bad.
This score sounds amazing, by the way. Lots of awesome stuff going on, and player badassery. And it’s a great write-up as well.
Thanks for the advice Steven Dodds. I agree about tempest stress NOT being a consequence, but wanted to make sure. I could see requiring an action to strike someone with lightning. Pay the stress cost to have access to that lightning, but striking someone with it would maybe be hunt or finesse or skirmish or the old standby of attune.
I’m torn on that one, because I feel that if you pay the cost, you should get the effect you want (death by lightning). But at the same time, some stress for a guaranteed kill seems like it could get out of hand. I’d definitely ask my Whisper how he felt about that first.
I like the fortune roll angle just to see if he’s all the way lightninged-to-death, or if there was collateral damage of some kind, or the like. Just depends on the feel your table wants. Haha, but your spider has it? That spider sounds awesome and terrifying.
What if you handled Tempest by considering that the PC still rolls the action, but pays the stress cost for the effect? It would be similar to pushing yourself to add an effect level to your action, but instead paying a cost to achieve a supernatural effect not otherwise available.
I’m going to read the session report after some sleep, as I just got home from running my own session, but I am in awe of your hat. I want it.
Thanks! My daughter won it at a carnival.