New Free Casefile: Evil Acts!

[Richard_Chilton]

It's been mentioned elsewhere, but I thought this deserved its own thread:
http://www.dresdenfilesrpg.com/2011/09/06/new-free-casefile-evil-acts/

Is a new case file.  No, I haven't looked at it yet - but odds are it's a good one.

Maybe we should have sticky that lists all the case files?

Richard

[chadu]

Also, you can see some "DVD extras" for Evil Acts over here:

http://chadu.livejournal.com/788733.html

[Richard_Chilton]

They worry about page counts on free PDFs?

Weird... But that stuff does add to the document.

And it's good.  The only nitpick I can make is when they give sample questions for the characters the characters are listed only by first name but refer to other characters by last name.

EG:
Jean, who are you currently defending Prospero and Miranda from? (Does not have to connect with Frost’s answer.)

"Frost" doesn't get asked a question - but Taylor (as in Taylor Frost) is.


Of course this is after they introduce the characters (giving full names and a line long summary) so it's just a minor thing.

Richard

[Ubbi]

Also, you can see some "DVD extras" for Evil Acts over here:

http://chadu.livejournal.com/788733.html

Hey Chad.  This is Tate.  The poor schlub who wrote the original manuscript.  It's great to see how you took my original fever-filled ramblings and actually made them coherent.  Great job on making something that I mostly had written down on napkins and food wrappers into something that actually works.

[chadu]

Hey Chad.  This is Tate.  The poor schlub who wrote the original manuscript.  It's great to see how you took my original fever-filled ramblings and actually made them coherent.  Great job on making something that I mostly had written down on napkins and food wrappers into something that actually works.

Tate Ricker, people. Give him some respect and love! WHOO!

(Major fist-bump, dude!  )

Your core ideas + my pedantic English major lit-crit crap = (maybe) something interesting and fun for people to roleplay with!

If you wanna, contribute here or on my linked (above) LJ post on "DVD extras" on your process, play, construction, and experience -- that could give different groups different play-style approaches to this casefile. (Note that we've already seen people posting -- positively! -- about the version you ran last year.)

Hey, you and I could even have a dialogue over the different drafts, if you're interested in that.

For example, your original draft is much more con-slot constructed; the draft I did is more amorphous. Draft 1 would give a satisfying play-thru in 4 hrs; draft 2 might play-thru (satisfying or unsatisfying; nothing is assured) from anywhere from about 2 hrs to 6.

So, it sounds like we could talk about pacing and stuff like that. If you want to, cool; if not, cool.

[Sanctaphrax]

Read it, liked it.

Finally realized that the casefiles use the same naming convention as the Dresden novels. Feel a bit dumb for not realizing earlier.

DVD extras are great. Would appreciate more of the sort, there are a lot of intriguing loose ends in this casefile.

Have a fair number of nitpicks, but don't want to intrude. Are you guys looking for critiques?

[Rubycon]

I like "Evil Acts" a lot. In my humble opinion, it is the best of the free downloadable adventures and I will integrate it in my campaign.
I also like the DVD extras, they help me a lot. I just began to read "The Tempest" and getting some inspiration is great!

[Doc Chaos]

There is a small... error? inconsistency? in Alex Cross char sheet/description. In the char sheet it says "Incite Emotion: Desire", but in the description it is (as I assume, correctly) labelled "Incite Emotion: Inspiration".

Other than that, awesome work. Again. I truly wish there were more companies like Evil Hat.

[chadu]

Have a fair number of nitpicks, but don't want to intrude. Are you guys looking for critiques?

Feel free... It's the Internet!

Note that I personally am only going to be so-so on discussing nuts and bolts mechanics, except the weird tweaks I threw in that got vetted (Sycorax's slowly expanding whammy and the 1dF NPC vs. NPC quicky resolution).

[Ubbi]

Tate Ricker, people. Give him some respect and love! WHOO!

(Major fist-bump, dude!  )

Your core ideas + my pedantic English major lit-crit crap = (maybe) something interesting and fun for people to roleplay with!

If you wanna, contribute here or on my linked (above) LJ post on "DVD extras" on your process, play, construction, and experience -- that could give different groups different play-style approaches to this casefile. (Note that we've already seen people posting -- positively! -- about the version you ran last year.)

Hey, you and I could even have a dialogue over the different drafts, if you're interested in that.

For example, your original draft is much more con-slot constructed; the draft I did is more amorphous. Draft 1 would give a satisfying play-thru in 4 hrs; draft 2 might play-thru (satisfying or unsatisfying; nothing is assured) from anywhere from about 2 hrs to 6.

So, it sounds like we could talk about pacing and stuff like that. If you want to, cool; if not, cool.

Chad,

I'm all for discussing the process the case file went through. I enjoyed creating and running it for the con and then attempting to flesh it out for you guys.  I'm not a writer by any means and would love to hear more of your process of expanding and tweaking my ideas.  Along with any suggestions you have for how to better plot out a story line.

[chadu]

I'm all for discussing the process the case file went through. I enjoyed creating and running it for the con and then attempting to flesh it out for you guys.  I'm not a writer by any means and would love to hear more of your process of expanding and tweaking my ideas.  Along with any suggestions you have for how to better plot out a story line.

Cool. If folks want to see some "behind the scenes" discussion of how the RPG sausage gets made, here's your chance!

I will be tagging all material from or developed for the published version of the casefile with SPOILER tags, just in case.

Okay! Tate's original version of the casefile is quite different than the published one. It's more up-front investigative, over three or four scenes, where all the various clues eventually lead the PCs to the performance/ritual. Looks to work pretty well in that regard. Also, proto-Prospero is a sorcerer and worshipper of proto-Sycorax (a plague demon), and is purposefully trying to summon her.

The published version's set-up is different (see below).

Let me ask you a few questions:

• Where did you get your basic ideas for the casefile's plot?
• How did you select/develop NPCs and PCs?
• How did you arrange your scenes?
• How did it play at the con -- what worked really well in it and what didn't work as well?

From my end, here's some non-spoiler ideas I had when I heard about the first draft.

The plot had to do with The Tempest, and I:

• Was jazzed by that.
• Expected a strong influence by the text of the play upon the casefile (on themes, plot, characters, and "color").
• Expected some theater-related interesting bits of blocking, business, terminology, etc.
• Started wondering how The Tempest translates in the Dresdenverse.

I think everyone reading can agree you'd get all that from the casefile's blurb, right?

Okay, let's go to SPOILERTOWN...

(click to show/hide)

Here's some stuff that hit me as I read the first draft:

• Shakespeare-nerd alert: We barely have any examples of Billy Shakes's handwriting. An entire play in his hand would be absolutely priceless/impossible/something people would murder small cities over.
• English-nerd alert: A couple...
  
  • Prospero worshipping Sycorax seems off, given their characterization in the play. (There's a reason the casefile recommends checking out Wikipedia on this.)
  • The characterization of proto-Sycorax as a demon of disease is odd, because in the play she's a powerful chaotic witch (exiled to the island for that reason).
  • In the play, Prospero uses magic to restore his place in the world (with little destruction or harm), then lays magic down; in the first draft of the casefile, proto-Prospero uses magic to destroy and harm to get a leg up on his place in the world; these themes seemed to jar.
  • There didn't seem to be any taking advantage of the theater setting, and there were some dangling plot threads on how proto-Prospero could pull this "one night only" performance as an out-of-towner -- mostly involving the scope of the thing, and the sheer number of people that'd have to be mind-whammied to pull it off.
• Gamer-nerd alert: A couple...
  
  • It was tough for me to imagine the PCs working together, other than by meta-fiat ("you all went to high school together...").
  • I was having problems seeing how PCs would connect the clues from A to B to C.
  • The actual performance of the ritual seemed to be a lot of the GM reading boxed text to the players.

Now, I want to be perfectly clear: the first draft was a perfectly serviceable and entertaining investigative RPG scenario.

But it didn't feel to me like it could be all it could be, especially as regards Shakespearean drama, The Tempest, and the Dresdenverse.

I asked Fred if I could take a whack at doing just that, and he agreed.

So, what I did in my rewrite of the casefile was something along these lines:

• Rethought the themes and plot to parallel the play.
• Pondered how the play's themes and plot resonate with the themes and plot of the Dresdenverse.
• Cleaned-up some rules and setting inconsistencies between the draft and the DFRPG.
• Rethought the NPCs' motivations, history, and details.
• Rethought the PCs' motivations, history, and details.
• Did some NPC/PC switcheroo-ing.
• Changed the basic concept of the scenario from meta-fiat ("we're all investigating...") to in-character-fiat ("we're all putting on a show...").
• Shifted the focus from investigation to interaction (the Unknown Armies one-shot Jailbreak was an inspiration here).
• Made sure there was a shared (between the PCs) inciting action for each scene in the scenario.
• Considered as many likely end-states for each scene in the scenario as possible, and tried to support them.
• Added some theater-style details to represent the work necessary to pull off a show and center the scenario (yay, Aristotelian Unities! -- though that of time got muffed).
• Added some drama-focused rules tweaks and suggestions.
• Filled in plot holes caused by all of my above actions.
• Sent it to my editors for editing, proofing, statblocking, and heartache.
• Lather, rinse, repeat on that last step a couple times.
• My editor sends casefile to layout.
• Publication!

I'm happy to go into more detail on any of the above alterations.

So, yeah.

I'll be interested to hear how this version plays "in the wild."



[/list]

[iago]

There is a small... error? inconsistency? in Alex Cross char sheet/description. In the char sheet it says "Incite Emotion: Desire", but in the description it is (as I assume, correctly) labelled "Incite Emotion: Inspiration".

Other than that, awesome work. Again. I truly wish there were more companies like Evil Hat.

Yep, that's a goof, sorry about that. I'll put it in the list of things that should be tweaked -- I don't want to upload a new version every time I change a single thing, so i'm gonna let it ride for a few days.

[chadu]

They worry about page counts on free PDFs?

Weird... But that stuff does add to the document.

Not to speak for Fred, but only for myself as a nano-publisher, it makes sense to worry more about wordcount/pagecounts on a free PDF: it's taking up resources (writers, artists, editors, layout artists, publishers, money, time, sweat, etc.) for no direct revenue.

There's a good argument that free material can generate intangible assets like goodwill and "free" advertising (and I agree with that argument!), but measuring the actual bottom-line impact of intangibles is 90% a gut-feeling process.

Does that make sense?

[Ubbi]

Cool. If folks want to see some "behind the scenes" discussion of how the RPG sausage gets made, here's your chance!

I will be tagging all material from or developed for the published version of the casefile with SPOILER tags, just in case.

Okay! Tate's original version of the casefile is quite different than the published one. It's more up-front investigative, over three or four scenes, where all the various clues eventually lead the PCs to the performance/ritual. Looks to work pretty well in that regard. Also, proto-Prospero is a sorcerer and worshipper of proto-Sycorax (a plague demon), and is purposefully trying to summon her.

The published version's set-up is different (see below).

Oddly enough, the original adventure, which I ran at Origin's for the DFRPG release, was closer to the final published version than the final draft I turned in.  I'll come back to that.

As some of what's listed could be construed as spoilerish, we'll continue with the spoiler alert.

(click to show/hide)

Where did you get your basic ideas for the casefile's plot?   When I volunteered to write up an adventure, I started with the idea of how to do a good 3-4 hour game.  I needed to work past my flaws and think ahead.  I run very free form games and let the players drive the plot and pacing.  To me, this meant reining it in and doing a closed-system game.  The PC's needed to be limited in the amount of space they had to work with and given a set amount of time.

I game with theater nerds. Two have degrees in theater, a third is a set designer.  Discussing things with them, it hit on me to place it in a theater.  Not my forte (my degree is in video production) but I'd have enough help to give me an idea on how a theater works.  From there, it was an extremely tiny leap to using Shakespeare.  I wanted to avoid either the MacBeth or Hamlet cliché, so I took a look at the Tempest.  It was perfect.

Once I chose the Tempest, things flowed for me.  I decided that the play was a metaphor for the truth about Sycorax.  It was so well written though that it established a link between the play and Sycorax.  In the con version, Sycorax was an outsider.  A force of nature so far beyond the scope of man that should it be summoned, it would put the world in danger.  This made the con game an all or nothing, life and death game.  Perfect for a 4 hour game.


How did you select/develop NPCs and Pcs?  The NPCs came from again reading the play.  Originally, I just used the names of the characters as place holders, but over time I just liked that the villain truly saw himself as Prospero and his apprentice as Miranda.

Prospero was over the top. Crazy is as crazy does.  Willing to end the world to get what he wanted.  And just powerful enough to pull it off.  I wasn't looking for a tragic, sympathetic foil.

Miranda was his sidekick.  Because of the way the spell worked, once Prospero got started with it, he'd need a magical heavy hitter to watch his back.  The more I thought about her, the more I just realized she was a psychopath who'd do whatever was needed.

Arial (still a sylph) and Caliban (a flesh-masked bridge troll) were perfect as my sympathetic villains.  Creatures of fea, bound to do Prospero's bidding.  I wanted some second guessing with the PCs and using these two gave me that.

The chorus (the three goddesses), were there to just give the more physical PCs something to beat the living crap out of.  They were flesh-masked ghouls in the con version.

As for the PCs themselves.  As this was an introduction to the system and universe, I wanted to have a variety of characters to choose from.  On top of that, I am a fan of the disparate group of people forced to work together genre.  To this end, I came up with the following characters.  An irish mobster with sponsored magic, his pure mortal bodyguard, the shape-changing reporter, the scion of Dionysus actress, the wet behind the ears wizard and the half-demon cop.  I gave each of them reasons to be in the theater and inter-personal relationships to explain why they knew at least one or two other PCs.

Each of these showcased something different in character creation.  And they gave the players motivation to interact with each other, although sometimes not to the betterment of each other.

 
How did you arrange your scenes?   I arranged the scenes according to the acts of the play.  The opening scene was set 10-20 minutes before the curtain rose.  From there, I gave each act of the play/game 30-45 minutes.  I'd then let the players do their thing, with time updates by letting them know what was going on on stage, in the front of the house and in the back of the house.  They could then interact with anyone or thing of their choosing.  By the climax, the players would know that something was definitely amiss and would be working to bring things to a halt.

Additionally, each character had a separate side plot.  Most of these were set to bring them into contact with the other PCs or clues to the bigger plot.

How did it play at the con -- what worked really well in it and what didn't work as well?  How did it play?  Awesome!  And I seriously don't think that's over-stating it.  And it wasn't all me, it was the players as well.  Hell, it was mostly the players.

What worked really well?  The player interaction.  The players really grabbed and ran with their inter-personal relationships.  In most of the games, the cop, mobster, bodyguard and reporter had a great time manipulating and arguing with each other.

The build up to the final fight to stop Prospero also went amazingly well.  As individual hints and clues started to come together, you could see things click in the players heads as they finally realized what was happening.  The big clues were the hexing of any technology in the theater, the overly extravagant “special effects”, the fact that Arial really was flying and Prospero's single-mindedness to seeing the play go perfectly.  The fight itself was fun to watch as well.  By this time, the players had a handle on Aspects and maneuvers and declarations.  One group took the brute force approach and just pummeled Prospero into submission and the other worked an on the fly ritual to counteract Prospero's own ritual. 

What didn't work?   The only thing that really stood out were certain players focusing on specific aspects and ignoring others thereby making their characters one-dimensional.  The game itself otherwise worked.  Of course, I play fast and loose and riff off of what is happening in the moment.

And that is the first manuscript I turned originally turned in.   But, the editor felt it was too narrow and unbelievable.  He thought it should appeal to groups wanting to play their own characters and have the potential to be part of an on-going campaign.  From that advice, I added in a lot more investigating that could happen before the play happens.  I gave the characters more clues to find before the show that would allow them to realize something was up and prepare for it.  I stated up Sycorax and changed her from an outsider to a demon, as that was also suggested.  I added all of that together and that is the version that was passed on to Chad.

In all honesty, I didn't feel as connected to the new stuff.  I didn't feel it was bad but it wasn't what I'd ever had in my head.[/list]

[Ubbi]

Not to speak for Fred, but only for myself as a nano-publisher, it makes sense to worry more about wordcount/pagecounts on a free PDF: it's taking up resources (writers, artists, editors, layout artists, publishers, money, time, sweat, etc.) for no direct revenue.

There's a good argument that free material can generate intangible assets like goodwill and "free" advertising (and I agree with that argument!), but measuring the actual bottom-line impact of intangibles is 90% a gut-feeling process.

Does that make sense?

Knowing how much work you and the other Evil Hatters had to put into this and the fact they got someone to do art, it's entirely reasonable to keep things lean and mean.