I said I was going to leave an AP days ago, and completely forgot. The weekend has been busy (and no, sadly, not at #origins ).
It started, as these things do, with a reading of the inspirations. We then shuffled around playbooks, I loaded up a playlist inspired by the Neko Case song and the True Detective theme, and we set to work making characters.
We ended up with Dekker the Cutter (Thomas Demkey), Tryst the Slide (Delbert Saunders), Weaver the Whisper (Joey Tyne), and Sparrow the Lurk (Nathan Porter). Their gang of thieves, the Minutemen, are based out of an old clock tower. They keep the clock running, having secretly taken over from the old maintenance crew, and the Duskwall officials are happy to save on the costs.
It was in crew creation that we hit our first snag. The turf chart is pretty sweet, but it comes at the cost of the faction chart and the ward boss info, so we printed out the old version, and the team used both, which I suppose may end up being the end result anyway. It’s also unclear if crew effects are still a thing.
We then jump to Bazso Baz’s office, and once the crew confirm that they aren’t there to kill him on behalf of the Red Sashes (who they hate; who, in fact, every one of my playtest groups have instinctively hated, somehow), they hear him out, and accept the job: go rob the Red Sash vault.
They start to chat about where the vault is located. I have no idea how Gather Information works. Is it a roll? A simple action? Doesn’t matter ultimately, because the group tells me that the vault is in the Red Sash headquarters (their temple/training grounds), and we move to planning.
They agree that this is an infiltration plan, though they consider running a deception or occult setup. They decide to go with it, and start to discuss various elements. I stop them, and remind them that their characters have made the plan, and they just need to tell me the entry point. They do: sewer tunnels.
This handily tells me a few things about our Duskwall: it has canals, but it’s not like Venice; it has enough solid ground underneath the city to sustain proper sewers. Probably more like the broad, reinforced banks of the Seine, then. Cool. Since the crew has a bad rep with the Gondoliers, but good with the Cabbies, that allows me to start thinking about what kind of trouble might get stirred up in the future between them.
They roll Engagement and ace it. No complications.
Into the sewers they go, and I decide on the fly that there are primitive magical wards (4), decent guards (6), and confusing navigation (8) to overcome. They approach the rusty outflow grate and there is a setup roll from Sparrow, using secure, then an *attune* roll by Weaver to overpower the wards. Reading the Infiltrator ability now, I realize we used it wrong, but we treated it as bumping up Weaver’s effect by 2, allowing him to easily overcome the wards, though not without a complication: one of the weird wild spirits of the area takes notice. I add a little countdown for “ghosts” at 6, and make a note to start foreshadowing it.
Next, Dekker rolled discern to figure out the scrawled, hand-drawn map of their route (which of course they drew or acquired beforehand; I suppose a flashback action of supply would have made sense, but the map wasn’t worth any bonuses) and they get a 4. It’s not entirely clear who picks from the bad outcomes, but it’s implied that the GM picks. I give them success, but put them into a desperate position.
A rickety wooden bridge that they were meant to cross has rotted away, leaving them twelve feet of fast-moving sewage outflow away from where they need to be. Thing don’t look good. Here’s where we had a bit more confusion.
The crew ultimately decided to roll a teamwork action, with Sparrow leading. He’s rolling prowl, to acrobatically maneuver his way across some pipes to the other side with a rope in tow that he can secure for the rest of them. The rules-as-written seem to imply that everyone else who wants to benefit from the outcome also needs to roll prowl, but not all of them even have that action. Does that mean they just don’t roll? They can benefit from the outcome, but don’t add dice or risk? They can benefit, but only if they “roll” their non-die? Do they have to spend stress to push? I made the call that they could all roll teamwork using whatever action they could justify. Probably what I ought to have done was allow everyone to make individual setup actions. That does seem to leave leading a group action as a less-valuable choice.
Dekker handled rope, securing it; Tryst commanded, to ensure everyone was working together; I don’t remember what Weaver did.
Everyone rolled decently well, but the best they managed was a 5. Sparrow was in trouble. I chose harm. Dekker chose to face the danger for him, as backup. I’m not 100% sure if this is allowed, since Dekker was participating in the teamwork action, but it made sense in context. One of the rotten wooden pilings that had supported the bridge was also supporting the crew’s rope, and when it broke, the Cutter used his own strength to keep the line taut. He rolled well, took a few stress, and we moved along.
All of that was still in the context of waiting for Sparrow to make a secure action to navigate through the tunnels, having been set-up by Dekker. He succeeded, and they arrived at a ladder, leading up into the Red Sashes’ courtyard.
Tryst disguises himself as a Red Sash initiate, and climbs out, using deceive. He heads over to start chatting up anyone who is up and about in the courtyard. I add another countdown clock called “alertness” and set it at 4. I mark off one section for good measure. Weaver then calls up his friend Hoxan using attune, and sends the rogue spirit off to pester anyone who might be in the watchtowers with minor poltergeist effects (this ticks “ghosts” down one more segment as a complication). Dekker stands watch with discern and Sparrow prowls his way to the Red Sash vault. Again, I treated this as a mixed-action teamwork roll with Sparrow leading, though probably a series of setups would have been the right call.
The vault has a single guard on it, but Tryst says he’s walking right up to her and blowing a handful of trance powder in her face, so she slips into dreams.
It’s starting to get late, so I draw a 4-segment clock for the vault, and let them have at it with attune to dispel any magical protection and secure to crack it open. Inside, they have treasure galore, including the ceremonial sword that the Red Sashes use for their induction rituals. Oops. Should’ve had more security, Sashes! The crew cleans them out.
Weaver then uses Tempest to generate a huge fog bank (magnitude 6… which means what, exactly?) and I rule that it’s enough to thoroughly cover their escape, and they go home and count their loot.
Heat generated is pretty minimal (2), and they fill their 4-coin vault They actually have one spare coin, but they spend it calming down the Skovlander Refugees as a result of rolling a Rivals result on Entanglements. See, the Sashes were going to hire the Refugees as muscle, but suddenly found themselves without the means, so the Refugees were causing trouble in territory the Minutemen wanted for themselves. It costs 1 coin to calm that down.
They roll for their various Vices, and get a variety of results. Weaver chooses to overindulge at whatever weird party the vampire Scurlock takes him to (Weaver’s player decides that vampires have been infected by these massive eels that live inside them in a symbiotic relationship. I later decide to step that up a bit and say that their digestive system is replaced entirely by these parasites, and that the vampire’s tongue is replaced by the parasite’s mouth, like a Cymothoa exigua).
From there, they get their next lead: Scurlock wants them to infiltrate a Noble’s wine cellar and make off with a rare demon-blood-infused vintage. Groovy.
I haven’t yet advanced any faction clocks or finished the downtime actions, because it was getting late. I’m going to try to push someone into starting a project.
So, as stated, that’s how things are going for us. I mostly feel like the rules work, though we could have used some clarifications about different elements. We didn’t use the harm rules at all because of being able to face the danger. I like the way you no longer have to roll separately for action and effect; I think that bogged things down a bit before, especially if you ended up with mixed results on the action roll. I’m a little concerned about the world getting too big, as I start adding dozens of faction clocks and maybe even campaign clocks, but I suppose the whole “only advance the ones you’re interested in” thing works out alright.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and I’d love to hear your feedback.