Glow in the Dark Relics Playtest 1

Glow in the Dark Relics Playtest 1

Despite catch-up character creation eating into our session time (doesn’t it always take longer than you think it will?), we had a successful Relics playtest with Matt Schwaninger, Thomas Berton, Jason Eley, and Logan Shoup playing a Driver, Shark, Leftover, and Junker respectively. Their settlement was the Leftover Nestor Carlisle‘s spaceship crash site in an overgrown, mutated park in the middle of the Boneyard.

From my first playtest (Shepherds), I learned how much better it is to have a starting situation that comes from internal pressure, ie. “You are out of damn near everything” rather than being approached by some questgiver* whom the players might not engage with. The tribe decided to raid the Monarchs’ (bug and plant mutants in the Boneyard) drug stockpile so they’d have goods to trade with Hightower (a +1 faction that ostensibly controlled the surrounding territory) for food.

One of their settlement’s farmer-scavs was once a slave for the Monarchs, and provided exceptional info. The tribe took Rooster’s custom ride, “Layla” (a Mustang-esque dualie) into the old metro tunnels, approaching the Monarchs’ lair near where they kept their slave pens. A risky engagement roll resulted in an “All The Guards!” clock being ticked and a mediocre force of guards in the underground itself. Time was an issue, but the tribe had avoided the bulk of the plant- and bug-people topside.

A flurry of rolls after that saw one thorn-man burned to death by Torch the Junker and another locust-mutant crushed under Layla’s wheels. We had to call it there, but we’ll be back to finish up this run.

I had a great time finding out about this new tribe of survivors. I’m curious as to whether a Shark (mainly a social playbook) and a Driver (well, driving-focused, naturally) can both be effective on the same run, or if we’ll see one waxing as one wanes depending on the type of score the tribe chooses.

It should also be fun to see Tuesday Grace the Shark contend with Torch, because Tuesday’s built her whole background on a web of lies about being an engineer and having all this technical knowledge so she can pass herself off as important. Will Torch expose her comrade? Will she even care?

Also wanted to touch on the survivors’ Taboos for a moment. In Glow in the Dark, you have a background and a taboo, something that you won’t do or a moral code that sets you apart from the largely amoral rank and file of the wasteland. You also mark XP if following (or breaking!) your taboo causes you trouble. I’m toying with the idea of having a set list as the playbooks develop, but at this point in development it’s been more freeform.

Rooster the Driver won’t break an oath. Simple, solid, and easy to bring it into play yourself.

Torch the Junker won’t put out a fire. This is maybe a little more suited for a Trauma (and would be a fine embellishment on a future Unstable or the like), but for now it seems pretty ripe for drama, especially since she just burned a plant-man to death in an enclosed space.

Tuesday the Shark will not abide senseless suffering. She’d give a parched man a drink or shoot him, but she wouldn’t leave him. I think it’ll be cool to see how the nuances of this play out when you get into situations like the Monarchs keeping slaves.

Nestor the Leftover won’t tolerate barbarism. Again, the boundaries of this are proving pretty interesting. Burning a plant-man didn’t seem barbaric, and led into us learning that Nestor’s got a dose of that sci-fi racism against mutant abominations.

* Baszo’s offer in the BitD quickstart averts this, as choosing to not engage in such a charged situation is still making a dramatic choice.

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