Two sessions in and I have a lot less worries about opportunities. Here’s a recap.
Situation
PCs are a Cult crew who are trying to secure their home turf in Silkshore. The Fog Hounds and The Vultures are at war. The Lampblacks are trying to make a profit off it, and The Gondoliers are trying to avoid ruin.
Questions
Who will control the waterways?
Will Bazso Baz figure out a way to turn a profit?
Will The Gondoliers cooperate with the criminal/occult underworld?
I started the session off by letting them know of some opportunities:
1.) Their forgotten god Axia was angry with them. The sacrifices had been pitiful lately and Axia required high quality sacrifices. [Privately I know of 3 candidates… Bazso Baz, The leader of the Vultures, or a Gondolier]
2.) Bazso wanted to run a sting operation on The Vultures.
3.) The Gondoliers were asking around for some help with a spirit well in Charhollow
Play
The PCs decided to hear Bazso out and drove a hard bargain to get better pay. As they were doing legwork setting up for their score, the Whisper sent out the cult’s adepts to see if they can find a worthy sacrifice. The PCs work on setting up their score and head back to the HQ to finalize their plan. I roll a fortune roll to see how the adepts have done… [tier 0 cult with elite adepts = 1d] Oh look… a 6!?
The Twist
I think over who these adepts could of possibly nabbed and it hits me. They’ve kidnapped a Gondolier. No one would think of raising a hand against them so of course that’s why its worked this one time. The cult then discusses whether or not to go through with the sacrifice. Most are for it and the hold outs just want to make sure to pin the responsibility on someone else. The cults decided to pin the murder on The Fog Hounds…
The Score
The Cutter and the Whisper go hunting for a patsy. They fail the roll and stumble in through the skylight of a Fog Hound having dinner with his family. There’s a scuffle but he’s secure. The Leech takes the gondolier boat which was sitting outside of HQ and tries to make a convincing scene to convince the gondoliers the Fog Hounds did it. Then the Slide heads to the Gondoliers and tells a hell of a lie. Rolls sway and gets a 6… Well that’s taken care of so that just leaves the Sacrifice.
The Sacrifice
“Ritual combat against the anointed one” The Cutter and the Gondolier do hand to hand combat. Of course the Gondolier cheats and tries to use magic and summon a ghost. The Whisper is there to shut that down. There’s some screaming, a bottle of lightning is opened, and someone’s throat was ripped out (gondolier’s) It was a hell of a session.
Debrief
I feel pretty good that the players will take things into their own hands. I think having a situation map showing the scenario helped. It was a first very culty score. I guess my only question would be… Can anyone figure where I should of used an engagement roll? It probably would of been the negotiation with the Gondoliers but that didn’t feel like a score as much as a single action roll. Could of set up a clock but didn’t have the wherewithal to present a NPC poking at PC lies and I wanted to get to the sacrificial fight.
The score is pinning the disappearance of the gondolier on someone else.
Engagement roll option 1: Hunting for the patsy
Engagement roll option 2: Deceiving the Gondoliers
What I didn’t get from your description is if securing the Fog Hound setup the Slide’s positioning/effect? (I would hope the so, because otherwise why did securing the Fog Hound need to occur at all). Hunting for the patsy could have been a flashback before the Gondoliers meeting too…
The original plan was to do an engagement roll for meeting with the gondoliers. They were exploiting a weakness, and had a bold plan. They were looking over their friends trying to see who had a contact that could help. The Cutter was friends with a serial killer so the crew decided to ask if she had any Fog Hound trophies we could borrow to incriminate the Fog Hounds. Mercy, the serial killer, didn’t but offered to help the crew acquire one. It sort of snow balled from there.
With the Leech also doing some faux wrecking, I set up the Slide as in a controlled position with great effect. At that point an engagement roll might of felt like it robbed all their set up.
Looking back over it I think the engagement roll might of been the Adepts fortune roll. From there they were in the mix and had to find their way out.
A lot more screentime was given to the sacrificial fight which match the tables mood. They were hungry for some bloodletting at that point.
IMO engagement roll is useful to bring the action. Seems that you had that without and engagement roll, which is fine I guess.