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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: adgramaine on October 16, 2010, 03:48:21 PM
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So, I have some local gamers wanting me to run Call of Cthulhu, and I think I want to use DFRPG's Fate rules to facilitate this. My primary concern is Sanity/Mental Stress: In CoC, Sanity hits are unavoidable. Does it match up evenly enough (in your opinions) to Mental Consequences or would Sanity be better measured by Sanity Stress. I'm afraid that if I were to run it 'as is', it may be too easy to start sliding out of one's mind.
Thought? Concerns? Feedback?
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Use something like the Hunger stress track for sanity. That way, even the small hits will tend to stick with you, but you'll last a little bit longer than if you just had to take consequences.
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There's another Cthulhu system out there (that's very good in its own right - I can't recommend it highly enough) called Trail of Cthulhu. The way it handles things is by having two separate attributes - Sanity and Stability. Stability is how normally you relate to everyone around you. Sanity represents your understanding of the way the universe really works and your exposure to the more alien concepts. This was designed to get round one of the nonsensical things about the original Call of Cthulhu rules - namely that to be a cultist you must have 0 Sanity, but at 0 Sanity you are a dribbling idiot with no ability to do even simple tasks, let alone complicated magical spells. For the most part interaction with the supernatural causes loss of stability. If the thing you're exposed to is mythos related and you fail your Stability check you not only lose Stability, but also an amount of Sanity.
Stability can be regained, by rest, by therapy, by beating the bad things and by exceptional performance on a skill. Sanity never recovers. When it's gone, it's gone. Generally speaking if you have more than 8 points in either you are doing well.
If you allow most of the minor encounters to be based off mental stress and save the Sanity track for the really serious ones that should give your characters a little more longevity. And I'd go with Luminos's idea of making Sanity work like a Hunger track.
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Just for another option, if you like the Savage Worlds system, Realms of Cthulhu is pretty fun. It gives you options on how to run it and keep it gritty or pulpy as you desire, and the small adventure I have played in it was a blast.
Not sure about it for the Dresden rules, but if I was going to have to, I would do something like the hunger stress track rules for sanity, as represented, though you will have to decide how you take sanity stress to begin with. The Discipline roll to overcome it at the end probably makes sense. One recommendation, lifted from the aforementioned Realms of Cthulhu: When the sanity stress track causes them to take a consequence/insanity, keep it separate from the rest instead of having it take up an available consequence, and then reset the stress track. They now have an insanity. When they take another consequence, they have another insanity, or ramp up the first one.
If they are ever taken out from too much stress/lack of available consequences, then they are stark, raving mad/full on cultist, and no longer playable, at least not without a LOT of time in an asylum.
The real question is, how lethal do you want the system to be? Cause the usual answer in Cthulhu games ranges from, "very," all the way too, "how on earth did you even get to the table??"
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I usually run my CoC games towards "how on earth did you even get to the table??' Dangerous from word 'Go'. I've looked through Realms of Cthulhu, but I can only buy some many books at one time... :D
I think we're all in agreement that the Stress track might be best. I'll start fooling around with that today. I'll let you guys know how tomorrow goes.
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I'm afraid that if I were to run it 'as is', it may be too easy to start sliding out of one's mind.
No. In my experience fate is a much more heroic and lenient system compared to CoC. If these are hardcore CoC players then they will expect nothing less than total brutality. It's part of the genera.
My advice:
Put a low cap on stress related skills- stress tracks should be short. CoC has a very different pace compared to Dresden. If you get hurt you need medical attention. To bad the doctor is a cultist.
Give players the option to clear out serious mental consequences by making them permanent aspects. That way players can stack up on loads of fun phobias and delusions. Embrace the insanity.
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No, these guys are from the Delta Green side of things. So I think allowing 3 Stress should be sufficient. Believe me, brutality and terror are already par for course. No one likes to come to my games without three characters already made. I just really want to try the Dresden-esque creation process, as well as phase aspects and Fate points. I think I will use the suggestion of clearing out mental consequences by taking permanent Aspects - I like that a lot.
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No one likes to come to my games without three characters already made.
With that rate of mortality, using anything other than the 'on the fly' creation rules for Dresden would seem a complete waste of time. The level of detail in Dresden character creation really demands better character longevity. For normal Call of Cthulhu the character is frankly just a set of percentages waiting to be put through a shredder, the full Dresden Files creation process requires a lot more commitment to the character. Bear that in mind when setting the lethality of your Sanity rules.
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No, these guys are from the Delta Green side of things. So I think allowing 3 Stress should be sufficient. Believe me, brutality and terror are already par for course. No one likes to come to my games without three characters already made. I just really want to try the Dresden-esque creation process, as well as phase aspects and Fate points. I think I will use the suggestion of clearing out mental consequences by taking permanent Aspects - I like that a lot.
Oooooh, it's been a while sense I last played me some Delta Green. You guys have fun for me ;D
Please do work on the insanity mechanic. I'm thinking it will need a bit of tweaking for a proper Cthulhu feel, but my hope is that giving players a bit of control will create a dynamic where they can chose to either fight the insanity (keep short term consequences, take the risk of filling all consequences and going off the deep end) or embrace the madness (Take an insanity aspect, increase overall chance of survival). One kind of character would stay generally sane, until they go out in a blaze of mad fiery glory, and the other character could last an entire campaign, but by the end would be a total dysfunctional wreck.
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I think the Fate points are going to curb the lethality at least somewhat. Plus, I am expecting group Aspects like "MOUT Training, Airborne Ranger", etc. We'll get started in just a few hours. I think things are about to get interesting.... 8)
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I'll go against the current here and say you don't really need a new stress track to represent CoC. Just add the following stunts and powers to monsters in your game;
[-1] Unnatural Presence Your presence is unsettling to mortal beings. Move the "first impressions" trapping to your intimidate skill. Success against them applies fear/madness aspects. (stunt)
[-1] Living Nightmare As per living dead, only you are a nightmarish creature instead of undead. (power)
[-1] Cloak of Terror Your unnatural presence (see above) can be a mental attack instead of applying aspects. You get +2 to intimidate checks. (power)
[-1] Eldritch Horror Against humans - or creatures limited to a mortal's mental ability and reason - you are utterly alien. +2 to intimidate and +2 to deceit checks. (power, maybe stunt)
Use that and assign Mythos creatures a suitable Intimidate rating. The average human could, maybe, have a discipline of Fair and 2-3 mental (or social) stress. Let's see what happens when they encounter various Mythos creatures;
1) Mythos Zombie. Fair Intimidate, Unnatural Presence, Living Nightmare. Average human takes a fear-related aspect outright, maybe even a sticky aspect. Facing more than a couple of them? They'd run screaming.
2) Deep One, Fair Intimidate, Cloak of Terror. Average human takes a fear-related aspect or 2 mental or social stress. Facing a few Deep Ones is a good way to acheive a social or mental takeout... just from meeting them. And mental or social takeout can mean dying from fright, becoming insane or catatonic or whatever.
3) Shoggoth. Great Intimidate, Unnatural Presence, Living Nightmare, Cloak of Terror. Average human is taken out immediately from the Shoggoth's "first impression" of +8 intimidate mental attack. Even submerged characters with high discipline get stress and could easily take consequences too.
4) Cthulhu. Legendary Intimidate, Unnatural Presence, Living Nightmare, Cloak of Terror, Eldritch Horror. Average "first impression" upon seeing him is a +14 madness attack. Submerged characters can be taken out on an unlucky roll and even with maxed discipline still take serious consequences. And even if you don't die from just seeing him, he is a supernatural heavyweight. You die.
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I don't know if Eldritch Horror is numerically high enough for some of the big boys on that block. You may need several ramp up options. EH +2, +4, +6...
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Hey, random thought but you could always use something like the lawbreaker power to denote permanent sanity damage. Then they become an NPC when they go off the deep end.
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Mortal humans, even world-class in mental health and resilience, don't go higher than Superb (+5) discipline. Something with all those 4 stunts and legendary intimidate - which would be at the low end of supernatural heavyweight - has a +14 horrific first impression. That's 9 mental or social stress, which means serious consequences even for the most powerful mortals.
Anything higher than low-end supernatural heavyweight simply doesn't have stats in DFRPG. So what would be the point of higher levels of Eldritch Horror?
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I'm really curious to see how this game went!
Don't forget to post a report, adgramaine! :)
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Wow! Things went a lot better than I had ever expected! It's taken me a bit to type up everyone's characters and whatnots, but here we go...
It Came from Cthulhu
Character Creation: By The Book
Submerged; 10 Refresh; 35 Skill Points
Musts: at least 1 group Phase Aspect
Sanity:
starts at 2
add in ½ bonus from Conviction and Discipline
can go over 4
The Players:
SSG Marc G. Lawerson
High Concept: “Who's in Charge Here?!”
Trouble: “Its Coming to Get Me”
Background Aspect: “It Got my Sister”
Rising Conflict: “Can't Sleep, It's Gonna Eat Me”
Story, Phase Three: Group Aspect “It Never Rains is Dhahran”
Story, Phase Four: “Call the Thunder Upon Ur”
Story, Phase Five: “Something in the Shadows”
Skills: Superb (+5) – Guns, Discipline; Great (+4) – Athletics, Endurance; Good (+3) – Fists, Might; Fair (+2) – Survival, Contacts; Average (+1) – Presense, Weapons, Intimidation, Alertness, Stealth
Stunts: Paranoid? Probably; Unshakeable, Fast Reload, Tireless, Leadership
Stress:
Physical OOOO
Mental OO
Social OOO
Sanity OOO
Refresh: 5+2 (pure human)
SGT Jeffrey F. Phillips
High Concept: “I'd Rather Have a Desk Job”
Trouble: “Too Good at My Job”
Background Aspect: “Straight out of High School”
Rising Conflict: “If the Kids Die, It's On Me”
Story, Phase Three: Group Aspect “It Never Rains is Dhahran”
Story, Phase Four: “TH3 Reputation”
Story, Phase Five: “I've Got You Covered”
Skills: Superb (+5) – Guns, Conviction; Great (+4) – Discipline, Endurance; Good (+3) – Athletics, Alertness; Fair (+2) – Survival, Presense; Average (+1) – Scholarship, Rapport, Empathy, Fists, Stealth
Stunts: Person of Conviction, Resilient Self-Image, Calm Blue Ocean, No Pain No Gain, Fast Reload, Listening
Stress:
Physical OOOO; +1 mild
Mental OOOO;+1 mild
Social OOOO
Sanity OOOO
Refresh: 4+2 (pure human)
SGT Maxwell C. Hauser
High Concept: “Terror of Terrors”
Trouble: “Anger Issues”
Background Aspect: “Only Survivor”
Rising Conflict: “Humvee vs. Deep One”
Story, Phase Three: Group Aspect “It Never Rains is Dhahran”
Story, Phase Four: “I'm Not Scared, but You Should Be”
Story, Phase Five: “I'll Take You All On!”
Skills: Superb (+5) – Guns, Fists; Great (+4) – Athletics, Intimidation; Good (+3) – Alertness, Might; Fair (+2) – Endurance, Driving; Average (+1) – Presense, Weapons, Conviction, Discipline, Stealth
Stunts: Unshakeable, Tireless, Shake the Tail, Driving Shotgun (less penalty when shooting from moving target), Rule with Fear, Interrogator, Subtle Menace
Stress:
Physical OOO
Mental OOO
Social OOO
Sanity OOO
Refresh: 3+2 (pure human)
SPC David Q. Norris
High Concept: “Super Patriot”
Trouble: “FNG”
Background Aspect: “Good 'Ol Boy”
Rising Conflict: “I've Seen the Colour”
Story, Phase Three: Group Aspect “It Never Rains is Dhahran”
Story, Phase Four: “I AM The Bolshevik Muppet!”
Story, Phase Five: “If I Only Had a Lighter....”
Skills: Superb (+5) – Craftsmanship, Discipline; Great (+4) – Guns, Conviction; Good (+3) – Alertness, Athletics; Fair (+2) – Stealth, Weapons; Average (+1) – Empathy, Rapport, Endurance, Investigation, Contacts
Stunts: Demolitions Training, Jury-Rigger, Good Arm, Swift and Silent
Stress:
Physical OOO
Mental OOOO
Social OO
Sanity OOO
Refresh: 6+2 (pure human)
SPC Michael Fallon
High Concept: “I Make This Uniform Look Good!”
Trouble: “Maybe I am Too-Good Looking...”
Background Aspect: “One-Liner Trivia”
Rising Conflict: “'Shoggoth' is a Funny Sounding Word”
Story, Phase Three: Group Aspect “It Never Rains is Dhahran”
Story, Phase Four: “I'm Not Into Deep Ones”
Story, Phase Five: “I Never go Anywhere Without Protection!”
Skills: Superb (+5) – Presense, Rapport; Great (+4) – Guns, Endurance; Good (+3) – Alertness, Stealth; Fair (+2) – Athletics, Discipline; Average (+1) – Empathy, Conviction, Fists, Investigation, Contacts
Stunts: Sex Appeal, Best Foot Forward, Personal Magnetism, Fleet of Foot, Too Fast to Hit, On My Toes, Hand-Eye Coordination
Stress:
Physical OOOO
Mental OOO
Social OOOO
Sanity OOO
Refresh: 3+2 (pure human)
2LT Christopher Perry
High Concept: “Butterbar Badass”
Trouble: “Gunslinger Rep”
Background Aspect: “Small Town SWAT”
Rising Conflict: “Fort Polk Owes Me”
Story, Phase Three: Group Aspect “It Never Rains is Dhahran”
Story, Phase Four: “There's Something you Don't See Everyday”
Story, Phase Five: “Finding Serenity in a 7.62 Round”
Skills: Superb (+5) – Guns, Weapons; Great (+4) – Athletics, Endurance; Good (+3) – Alertness, Discipline; Fair (+2) – Fists, Discipline; Average (+1) – Presense, Conviction, Intimidation, Investigation, Lore
Stunts: Leadership, Pin Them Down, Target Rich Environment, Hand-Eye Coordination, Too Fast to Hit, Corner of My Eye, Finely Tuned Third Eye
Stress:
Physical OOOO
Mental OOO
Social OOO
Sanity OOO
Refresh: 3+2 (pure human)
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Is the group intended to be pure mortal? Generally speaking, pure mortals are weaker in the short term than supernaturals. Even a submerged pure mortal is going to have problems against a lowly ghoul of he's not prepared. And ghouls are some of the weaker supernaturals around. Something like a tentacled horror (or a shoggoth) is gonna rip through a group of unprepared mortals with ease.
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Is the group intended to be pure mortal? Generally speaking, pure mortals are weaker in the short term than supernaturals. Even a submerged pure mortal is going to have problems against a lowly ghoul of he's not prepared. And ghouls are some of the weaker supernaturals around. Something like a tentacled horror (or a shoggoth) is gonna rip through a group of unprepared mortals with ease.
That sounds exactly appropriate to me...
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The guys wanted to do character creation By The Book, but we breezed through it. They loved working up to Aspects and kept laughing about how all this work wouldn't pay off once the dice started to roll. The favorite at the table for the night was SPC Fallon. Personally, I thought he was based off of Carlos, but none of these guys have ever read Dresden....
Sanity was treated as a Stress Track, and high Discipline and Conviction scores modifying. We worked out an exchange where Sanity damage could be accepted as Social or Mental Stress at the group's agreement, a mild Sanity Consequence could become a moderate Social and so on. Of course, severe Physical Stress (any level of Consequence) might also cause Sanity damage. This was a beautiful thing, because no one took any kind of First Aid skill.
I didn't have the heart to do anything but laugh once all the skill points were spent.
So the squad was sent into Iraq at the behest of some backdoor antiterrorist groups the USA had locked in place. Intel placed a Pathfinder group at a temporary station within the security perimeter of Ali Air Base. Locals were quick to look towards the Ziggurat of Ur. The squad was sent in to have a look around, and try and find the Pathfinders.
SSG Lawerson quickly snared the lead spot from the 2LT, who said he'd rather hang back with the grunts anyway (2LT Perry had hear a local legend of the Ziggurat and wanted to keep eyes on everyone, knowing that the squad had only minimal knowledge and experience with the metaphysical). SSG Lawerson lead the group up the stairs towards the city proper. The LT and SPC Fallon noticed movement along the outer reaches of the walls, though of course when everyone else looked, there was no sign on anything. Upon reaching the apex of the structure, everyone experienced a sharp burst of pain as the psychic nature of Ur made a valiant attempt to frighten the group away. SGT Hauser thought he 'saw' something during the experience, some sort of large shape, almost like a really tall person, reaching out to take his hand.
The player told me that the Sergeant would be continuing forward with his finger on the trigger. I smiled.
The group found a crack in the structure, which they attributed to battle damage from back in '91. They rappelled down and popped chem lights, revealing what looked to be a throne room. They fanned out, and almost immediately they heard scurrying sounds like clicks on stone. SGT Hauser lost his nerve and let fly a dozen or so rounds, screaming something like "I've got more than enough rounds to share!" Everyone rolled their eyes, trying to stay on point and make it obvious that SGT Hauser could have blown their element of surprise (which they never had to begin with, but alas, I digress). SGT Phillips found a secret passageway that reeked of sea salt, and everyone stood around for a few minutes wondering what on earth that could mean. They guessed everything from underground lake to the fact that the region might have been underwater at some time (with kudos going to Perry for the unknowingly correct answer). SPC Norris noticed some brass along this new corridor, so the squad figured the missing soldiers obviously came down this way.
After following the corridor and coming to a stair way, Phillips called for the group to halt, spent Fate on his Aspects "If the Kids Die, It's On Me" and "I've Got You Covered", and Listened, maxing his roll and scoring a Legendary success with NO points in Investigation. So I threw him a big bone and told him that he heard what sounded like two voices further down, each saying one word: I'a and R'lyeh. Perry rolled Lore and got a Great success, so again, I threw them a bone telling him that Perry has heard the word Cthulhu in reference to both these words, and that Cthulhu was some sort of priest.
And bless their hearts - they all played their characters as if they might encounter this priest, a human priest.
They came to a chamber barely lit by irregularly placed torches, three solid columns forming a sort of center, wherein the floor was recessed a few feet. They could make out three forms wearing thick cloaks, Lawerson called out for the others to identify themselves. That's when it got really fun....
The Deep Ones fell out of their robes, launching themselves at the human intruders. Everyone took 2 Sanity Stress. No one balked at it. Rounds were thrown throughout the chamber, Hauser took a nasty hit and collected the "Sliced Open" mild Consequence and 1 Physical Stress. Perry spent some Fate and used his "Serenity" Aspect to take out a Deep One with a solid shot to the head. The group could have done better with invoking Aspects, but they're new at it. I expect things will pick up quick next session.
Once the Deep Ones were slaughtered, they quickly became mounds of disgusting ichor, and everyone reeled from the stench (Fallon screaming out: 'And I thought they smelled bad... on the outside!'). Fallon turned away from the dissipating forms to see more robed shapes coming in from an antechamber that was previously not seen. He raises his M4 and orders the robed figures to stop where they were.
The squad could make out five of them, but the shadows suggested their might be a few more, and that it seemed they were carrying something between the whole of the group. Whatever it was, it was placed on the floor and quickly ignored once Lawerson discovered that it was impossible to open. There was a sigil of Dagon upn its top, and it hit Lawerson for a 1 Sanity Stress hit. The new group proclaimed ignorance as to its contents. The lead figure pulled back their hood, revealing a very attractive young woman. Fallon turns on the charm, telling the woman that the squad can get them out of here, but that they need to find the other group of soldiers. She introduces herself as Alliana, and states that she and the others were being used as slaves, occasionally sacrificed to 'dark gods' - Fallon falls for it hook, line and sinker, declaring himself as her protector.
So the squad follows the cultists deeper down. Another quick encounter with Deep Ones, Alliana takes a hit, which infuriates Fallon ('Get away from her, you BITCH!'), Perry takes a huge Sanity hit, leaving him "Scared Shitless", a Moderate Consequence, and with 2 Sanity Stress. The group invoked their shared Aspect and they rally around Perry and scrub the Deep Ones. A few of the cultists took 'friendly fire', and a few died. The Squad followed even deeper, coming to a long rope bridge leading to what looks like a temple of sorts. As they are crossing the bridge, the cultists make a break for the far side, save Alliana, who falls to her face on the bridge making Fallon rush forward just in time to see a flying polyp rise up from the depths. Norris is blown over the edge of the bridge, but Lawerson manages to grab him before he falls away to unseen depths, just barely. Hauser runs out of ammunition and Phillips is launching grenades as fast as his M203 will let him. The polyp vanishes after Fallon got extremely lucky and throwing a TH3 grenade into the foul thing's maw. So the squad believes it dead, as it drifts back down from whence it came. Everyone gathers themselves up and begins to head to the temple, with Perry screaming and babbling about how much he doesn't want to die. Hauser is feeling the urge to throttle the LT by now, and Lawerson is barely keeping things going.
We called game as they approached the monolithic obsidian doors. Alliana says the other soldiers are within, along with the priest Cthulhu...
I hate that I have to wait a week to keep the scenario going.... ;D
Honestly I think the Fate points and the high grade explosives are the only reason they made it as far as they did. Now that their supplies are running low/out, I doubt they'll make it much further, but it promises to be a lot of fun! Mwahahahaha!
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That's what I mean about mortals. A single wizard among them could have far more easily recognized what they were facing (high Lore), used Thaumaturgy to ward the group against Outsiders both physically and mentally and his evocation would have been stronger than explosives. Not to mention he could sense that the "cute girl" was an evil cultlist by soulgazing her.
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That's what I mean about mortals. A single wizard among them could have far more easily recognized what they were facing (high Lore), used Thaumaturgy to ward the group against Outsiders both physically and mentally and his evocation would have been stronger than explosives. Not to mention he could sense that the "cute girl" was an evil cultlist by soulgazing her.
You're applying Dresden Files character types to Cthulhu. Which really doesn't work. Cthulhu is intended to be pure mortals struggling against overwhelming supernatural creatures. Cthulhu magic tends to destroy the caster's sanity when they cast it. If you translated a Dresden Files power wizard to Cthulhu terms, the character would be completely insane, and probably doing far nastier things for power than the nastiest bad guys in the Dresden Files ever have.
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Considering the things warlocks, necromancers and outsider-summoners have done in Dresden Files so far (and considering that dark magic does make you insane), I doubt it.
I mean, I haven't seen anything really bad magic-wise in the Mythos. Just a bunch of insane guys summoning banal incarnations of evil. They are more pitiful than evil. Compare to someone starting two world wars so they can have lots of corspes for their army of undead or killing entire cities so they can eat the souls of the inhabitants and become dark gods...
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You're applying Dresden Files character types to Cthulhu. Which really doesn't work. Cthulhu is intended to be pure mortals struggling against overwhelming supernatural creatures. Cthulhu magic tends to destroy the caster's sanity when they cast it. If you translated a Dresden Files power wizard to Cthulhu terms, the character would be completely insane, and probably doing far nastier things for power than the nastiest bad guys in the Dresden Files ever have.
Exactly. CoC isn't about power in the hands of the characters, and how they deal with it. It is about the horror that lies beneath reality, and what you might be able to do in order to survive it. CoC wizards tend to be running cults, and usually doing so with a fraction of the power a DFRPG Wizard might ever have....
CoC evil is different from evil in most any other genre. You are right about one thing Belial, CoC mages are usually pitiful. The powers they call upon, however, are not.
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Considering the things warlocks, necromancers and outsider-summoners have done in Dresden Files so far (and considering that dark magic does make you insane), I doubt it.
I mean, I haven't seen anything really bad magic-wise in the Mythos. Just a bunch of insane guys summoning banal incarnations of evil. They are more pitiful than evil. Compare to someone starting two world wars so they can have lots of corspes for their army of undead or killing entire cities so they can eat the souls of the inhabitants and become dark gods...
You're missing the point. In Cthulhu there's no such thing as nice magic. All magic, regardless of it's application makes you insane. The Lawbreaker stuff in Dresden Files is frankly tepid by comparison. And the nastier the stuff you do the worse the insanity becomes. I wasn't saying that the stuff in the cthulhu mythos as Lovecraft wrote it was worse than the stuff the bad guys in the Dresden Files have done - it's not (certainly to modern perceptions), simply because of the era that Lovecraft was writing in. What I was saying is that if you apply Cthulhu style magic to Dresden Style characters you get something that's far far nastier than what's currently there. So someone like Kemmeler would have been far far worse. To be fair I found the necromancers in Dead Beat far too sane and banal.
The key thing to remember about purist style Call of Cthulhu is that the protagonist is generally speaking doomed to failure and worse from the start, surviving (let alone surviving with any sanity intact is a phenomenal success). Where Dresden Files is all about standing up to the big bad and coming through in the end, Cthulhu is generally speaking facing up to the big bad and winding up (at best) in a mental institution, and at worst being stepped on without even slowing the thing down. That may not be your preference for a game, but that's the essential core of Lovecraft's horror stories - the simpe idea that man is completely irrelevant in the grand scale of things.
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Sounds like it was a really fun session!
I have to ask though, I can't find anything in YS about "group aspects" and at one point it seems they all used it at once. Is this a house rule or am I missing something? I notice the Baltimore samples have "The Gang's All Here", but I don't see an easy compel or invocation of that or "It Never Rains is Dhahran".
Anyone want to toss me some enlightenment?
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"The Gang's All Here" could be invoked saying that one of the group is in trouble. For my guys, "It Never Rains is Dhahran" is great because it's essentially like 'it never rains, it pours'. I invoked it twice in the first session, as a fair warning that things were going to get more than a little messy.
We took the group aspect on the example of 'the gang's all here'. Sure the book doesn't come out and say "use this rule for Group Aspects", but during character creation, if you tie two character's together through "Guest Starring", then you are essentially bringing a Group Aspect to bear right there, albeit only between two characters.
It's not a far leap from there to the concept of a fully "group" Aspect.
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if you tie two character's together through "Guest Starring", then you are essentially bringing a Group Aspect to bear right there, albeit only between two characters.
Only if both characters take the same aspect and indeed only if both characters use the same story in the aspect generating section of character creation - the aren't obliged to, just because the story was a defining moment for one character doesn't mean it was for another.
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this all sounds totally awesome
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Monday can't get here quick enough. This next session is a bit less violent, but a whole lot more info searching. I'll post next game no later than Tuesday.