The #CopperheadCounty Best Brands Heist
Myself, Adam Maunz, and Tyler Ellis, playing as the Hunnicutt family, set the bar low for future quiet criminal operations in Patterson, TN. Our second score for Jason Eley’s modern southern crime hack saw the Hunnicutt brothers Zeke (the Stringer) and Earl (the Cleaner) robbing a “Best Brands” big box store the week of its grand opening. Their loose cannon uncle, Eustace (the Mover), was unfortunately present as well.
Things actually started off really smoothly. We got a six on engagement, and kept that controlled position through Eustace and Zeke’s moderately-stealthy nighttime jaunt to the rear of the store while Earl kept lookout. This was a tricky choice, since Earl, as a Cleaner, is good at sneaking and lookout, but we decided Zeke’s teamwork abilities would be best served bolstering Eustace’s mediocre thievery since neither of the other two were good at spotting trouble.
Steve Satterfield, MVP
Things went south when Earl spotted one of the strip mall security carts rolling his way. He decided to hide and things went from risky to desperate. Earl was rolling 2+ dice on all his stuff here. Hiding, ambushing, fighting, this was definitely in his wheelhouse, but the dice were just not with him. Steve the security guard was going to spot him. Earl decided to act first and tried to taser the guard. No dice. Steve called for backup. Earl tried to just shoot the guy. Pope of Nope. Steve clubbed Earl in the head as their desperate struggle alerted Zeke and Eustace, dealing level 3 harm to the Hunnicutt sibling.
Something to note here – desperate situations are friggin’ desperate in Jason’s games. I’m actually not positive if it’s how he personally tunes his session or if it’s in the CC rules, but you can’t resist consequences from desperate stuff (edit: This is unpacked more in the comments). Shit got real when Steve clubbed Earl.
We All Float Down in Traumatown
We were all really high on stress from trying to keep things under control in the first half of this score, but like the intro to Heat, when you can’t stay quiet anymore, you’ve gotta commit. Zeke had a special ability And Knock Em’ Down, where actions following a setup action can push for free. With Zeke guiding Eustace, the mad uncle cashed in the free push for effect (they’d need great effect to slam through the shuttered facade and still hit Steve with enough force to put him down) and then pushed himself for a bonus die, which trauma’d him out. I chose Vicious, because in my head Eustace is a human trash fire and hopefully lives long enough to drag his family to hell with him. The dice gods relented and allowed a six to come forth.
Eustace hotwired the forklift in the Best Brands stockroom and charged through the store, crashing through the facade and catching Steve in the mouth with the forks’ edge.
Something else to note: I wouldn’t have minded dropping out of the scene at this point. Eustace took a trauma, after all, but Jason floated the idea of possibly having trauma work more like this other game Monsterhearts (I think some people might have heard of it) – essentially when you trauma out, you can still take part in actions but you must embody your new trauma. This was like a birthday present for me. Opportunities to be more vicious? Yes please. Now, on a subtler mechanical level, staying in play actually means you can burn through your stress and screw yourself over even faster, so it’s not like Jason’s being nothing but nice here. Still, birthday present.
Bad People Making Bad Life Choices
Did we have to shoot Steve’s backup? No, poor Kirk King didn’t have to die in a bullet-riddled golf cart. We could’ve used Steve’s walkie-talkie to intimidate the guy to stand down or just run for it. He was in a golf cart, for chrissakes. Again, the dice wanted blood and granted us a six on a team Fight action.
Did we have to set the Best Brands on fire to cover our tracks and destroy any video evidence? No, but we were pressed for time, Earl was hurt, and it was the most vicious, direct solution.
Did we have to burn our bridges (and Claim opportunity) with our fence, Rich Sturges? No, but people got XP triggers to feed, man. Gameplay-wise, this is probably going to steer us towards drugs, guns, and gang violence and away from “cleaner” options like straight-up theft. Still, two men died over smartphones that night that didn’t need to. Is this the first step onto a slippery slope for the Hunnicutts or is this looking out over the cliff and stepping back?
The other guys can chime in of course, but for my part I had a great time being a bad person yet having Eustace’s descent into violence come from his nephew getting wrecked so hard. Still, in the faux TV show of our game, Eustace would definitely be the “obvious creep” character. Zeke doesn’t feel like he’s tainted in the same way, and Earl at least tries to act like a proper corrupt cop.
#CopperheadCounty
https://plus.google.com/u/0/+JasonEley/posts/5dWczqMsZ3X
I am losing it. Great story.
I thought I remembered you adjudicating desperate rolls the same way in Glow in the Dark! I take a 1-3 desperate result literally and have the shit happen. I wouldn’t write it as a hard rule, but imo it is the spirit of the game. By that point Earl had utterly goofed two desperate actions and he deserved it.
My Traumatic Episode idea is something I thought of recently and hadn’t actually written out. I have never been overfond of dropping out when you take Trauma and I thought a Monsterhearts-Darkest-Self situation where you somewhat lose control of your actions, or have to act in a prescribed way, could be fun. I think it was fun!
It was a very interesting story development that the first lethal intent of the game was taken by Earl, not Eustace. Earl is a cop! But at that point, we had established he was not wearing a mask, and he had already fired a taser at Steve and blown the chance to bluff his way out of it (THE ENTIRE REASON YOU HAD SECURITY GUARD DISGUISES). He was fucked! Ain’t no such things as halfway crooks.
I get what you’re saying about what I’ve done in Glow. As long as it’s something you can resist, I try to let people resist if they want (and sometimes there’s not really a way to resist). Don’t take my writeup as a criticism – I personally like APs that point out GMing decisions like that when they happen. You had reinforcement for it, like you say. Jumping down to desperate is going to be a significant choice, and I’ve seen APs (and run more than my share) where it sometimes doesn’t feel like it has teeth. Also, I’m betting if Tyler really, really wanted to resist it, you’ve got the hardcore resistance rule to make it painful stress-wise and the option to only downgrade the intensity rather than soaking the whole thing.
The fun thing about Earl taking the first shot is that nobody else even needs to know. We were round back. And stats-wise, Tyler was making the right choices, the dice just weren’t having it.
WRT Trauma/Darkest Self, I liked it, but I got to play with it so of course I would like it. 🙂 I think it happened at an opportune moment in the session too.
I love the Darkest Self mechanic. It’s a good fit for Blades trauma. Nice.
John Harper Thanks John! It’s definitely going into the next draft now.