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| Alison Wright, as seen in the handout art for this session. |
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| Kade from the "Secret" handout |
The session handout
(starting with session 5, I started taking the time to draft up proper handouts for the group, little short story formatted booklets that served to bring the PC's up to speed without having to make them sit through lengthy monolog sessions)Yesterday, the City burned, a Junior high school was burnt to the ground, gun fire erupted in the streets for the second time in a month, and a night club exploded, the Media is eating this up as there known to do.
But for Alison Wright, this might as well be 1000 miles away, she's being escorted to a prison cell, she just had a bland dinner, alone, for a lot of the people in this place would want her dead, so there making her eat in isolation. She's being lead by to her cell by a squad of UGN Strikehounds... like she could escape.
But she's also being given escort as well by a long time friend, Kade Burken, the man in charge of this place... this prison.
"Alison I want you to understand, I can't change what's going to happen, but when the time comes, I'll promise you it'll be painless okay?" Kade says to her, not as the warden of the prison, but as a friend who might be having his last real conversation with his old friend.
"So in 2 days time then..."
"I'm sorry, you know this is how it has to be" he stops looking at Alison "Do what you need to do you prepare yourself, make your peace with god, strengthen your resolve for what's to come"
Alison is escorted into the cell, the titanium bars close behind her, specialty reinforced to keep an Overed from breaking out, and wasted on her. She sits on the bench solemnly looking out the bars, in two days...
"So what are you in for?" a male voice from the next cell asked her.
"I... I'm guilty of treason against the UGN, and aiding False Hearts terrorists"
"Ouch, well sounds like you get something nice than a .50 caliber firing squad and a flamethrower disposal at least"
Alison cringes thinking of it. It's true of course but....
"Anyways, my very temporally neighbor, it's nice to meet you, my name is Max Harington, Soon to be former member of Xenos"
Ramblings and rantings
So session 5 was both me at my most clever, and me at my most un-clever, the idea of the PC's having to basically, for the session, go rogue and try to save one of the NPC loises was really good in my head, it added allot of shades of gray I was feeling like the game still needed, and I had this awesome plot thread handed to me. I had to run this.I personally feel like it was mishandled though, I didn't walk away from the session feeling like I did this perfectly, there are more than a handful of sessions that I mishandle in running this game, but this was one the I still kinda feel like, had a bit of a cop out for an ending which I'll get into later.
So the lesson for this session really is the importance of handouts, I mean those are super usefull for getting a game going, and I get pretty wordy in a few of the later ones, but it sets a gloriously mood every time, the above handout set the urgency of the session brilliantly.
and that really is one thing I get right, building tension, I mean there trying to infiltrate a prison, and while they do succeeded in the end, it was tense as hell considering the party could of been taken down at any point.
Also with two new Players this session, there was even a bit of mistrust, as we have three illegals about to break into a prison, and they have two Xenos agents, who don't trust them, and are outright using them, to help.
That really kinda leads to a point I've been meaning to make, I've ran a few games that completely fell apart, or just constantly hit flat because the players wouldn't become invested at all in the story.I had a Adeptus Evangelion game, that holy shit, I wonder why I bothered, because I couldn't coax role play out of the group if I had a gun to there head.
And I want to thank my players for this, Because my god these people are a joy to GM for, they bring there A games each and every week, and that has really contributed to the longevity of the campaign itself.
I confess I'm honestly a bit sad that the game is ending in a few weeks, but I digress.
The "Secret" Handout
((So this was one of the clever parts of the session, I actually had two handouts, I specifically flagged where this came into play where I linked the players to this handout, because it completly shifts the tone of the session right on the spot.))
Yesterday, the City burned, a Junior high school was burnt to the
ground, gun fire erupted in the streets for the second time in a month,
and a night club exploded, the Media is eating this up as there known
to do.
But for Alison Wright, this might as well be 1000 miles away, she's being escorted to a prison cell as part of a clever plan put out by Kade, she just had a bland dinner because you can't exactly get take out in a place like this, alone, for a lot of the people in this place would want her dead not that she would blame them, she is still a member of the UGN intelligence bureau after all, so there making her eat in isolation. She's being lead by to her cell by a squad of UGN Strikehounds... like she could escape, but that's all part of the plan after all.
But she's also being given escort as well by a long time friend and commanding officer, Kade Burken, the man in charge of this place... this prison.
"So were going to use this plan of yours to confirm that my husband has ties to the False hearts then?" asked Alison
"While we could of just brought him in for arrest and interrogation, high command felt this would be the perfect way to see if our new misinformation tactics are working at the same time" Kade said sternly
"We still don't know if Hyde's information was solid, we still didn't trust her enough with any really important tasks she she could have been a sleeper for the FH, and the fact she's failed to check in could mean she fliped back to there side, or she was killed by FH agents, there's allot at stake here Alison"
Alison asked bluntly "So if my husband shows up, then the false information we leaked about my execution will have reached the FH, who gave the information to my husband, this will confirm his connection, and then your going to kill him and anyone who comes with him as the enemy.
"Alison I want you to understand, I can't change what's going to happen, but when the time comes, I'll promise you it'll be painless for John okay?" Kade says to her, not as Her superior officer, but as a friend who might be having his last real conversation with his old friend.
"So in 2 days time then..."
"I'm sorry, you know this is how it has to be" he stops looking at Alison "Do what you need to do you prepare yourself, make your peace with god, strengthen your resolve for what's to come"
Alison is escorted into the cell, the titanium bars close behind her, they do have to keep up appearances after all, specialty reinforced to keep an Overed from breaking out, and wasted on her. She sits on the bench solemnly looking out the bars, in two days...
"So what are you in for?" a male voice from the next cell asked her.
"I... I'm guilty of treason against the UGN, and aiding False Hearts terrorists"
"Ouch, well sounds like you get something nice than a .50 caliber firing squad and a flamethrower disposal at least"
Alison cringes thinking of it. It's true of course but....
"Anyways, my very temporaly neighbor, it's nice to meet you, my name is Max Harington, Soon to be former member of Xenos"
But for Alison Wright, this might as well be 1000 miles away, she's being escorted to a prison cell as part of a clever plan put out by Kade, she just had a bland dinner because you can't exactly get take out in a place like this, alone, for a lot of the people in this place would want her dead not that she would blame them, she is still a member of the UGN intelligence bureau after all, so there making her eat in isolation. She's being lead by to her cell by a squad of UGN Strikehounds... like she could escape, but that's all part of the plan after all.
But she's also being given escort as well by a long time friend and commanding officer, Kade Burken, the man in charge of this place... this prison.
"So were going to use this plan of yours to confirm that my husband has ties to the False hearts then?" asked Alison
"While we could of just brought him in for arrest and interrogation, high command felt this would be the perfect way to see if our new misinformation tactics are working at the same time" Kade said sternly
"We still don't know if Hyde's information was solid, we still didn't trust her enough with any really important tasks she she could have been a sleeper for the FH, and the fact she's failed to check in could mean she fliped back to there side, or she was killed by FH agents, there's allot at stake here Alison"
Alison asked bluntly "So if my husband shows up, then the false information we leaked about my execution will have reached the FH, who gave the information to my husband, this will confirm his connection, and then your going to kill him and anyone who comes with him as the enemy.
"Alison I want you to understand, I can't change what's going to happen, but when the time comes, I'll promise you it'll be painless for John okay?" Kade says to her, not as Her superior officer, but as a friend who might be having his last real conversation with his old friend.
"So in 2 days time then..."
"I'm sorry, you know this is how it has to be" he stops looking at Alison "Do what you need to do you prepare yourself, make your peace with god, strengthen your resolve for what's to come"
Alison is escorted into the cell, the titanium bars close behind her, they do have to keep up appearances after all, specialty reinforced to keep an Overed from breaking out, and wasted on her. She sits on the bench solemnly looking out the bars, in two days...
"So what are you in for?" a male voice from the next cell asked her.
"I... I'm guilty of treason against the UGN, and aiding False Hearts terrorists"
"Ouch, well sounds like you get something nice than a .50 caliber firing squad and a flamethrower disposal at least"
Alison cringes thinking of it. It's true of course but....
"Anyways, my very temporaly neighbor, it's nice to meet you, my name is Max Harington, Soon to be former member of Xenos"
New players and NPC's introduced in this scenario
Buckle up because there was a few new faces this session
We didn't play up the Xenos angle nearly as much as I probably should have and we didn't introduce much of her past till late in the game, but she still carries a hell of a plot arc throughout the campaign between strained relationships with many of the NPC's and one of the, I guess dubious as one player would put it, romances. But that's not for much later. She goes into battle armed with Salmandra and Chimera powers, and often takes some Raven light aspects.
Maya, as played by Nisu is a kinda Naive, generally innocent, Moth based Renegade being, She kinda goes through the hardest arc of all the players in game, again I don't want to go into details, Maya also probably has the least amount of character growth of everyone due to the player missing quite a large number of sessions.
Alison Wright is the NPC lois wife of John Wright, for the first 4 sessions she kinda has a damsel in distress role due to the actions of Kendall getting her arrested, as we learned in this session she was an unwilling(?) pawn in her superior officer's scheme to try and out John and the others as FH agents.
As time passes on she starts to take on the sort of "Operator" role, and was the one who hands out missions to the party when missions needed to be handed out, which was, off the top of my head not as ofter as one would think.
Max the NPC in distress to motivate Maya and Sam this session, really grows to be a full character, he had been allways kinda played as a sort of thrill seeker and adreline junkie, he also evolves quite a bit into a sort of "Father" roll for Sam and Maya, but more on that another time.
Kade, or Cade, as the spelling kept changing over the course of the game, mostly because I stopped trying to correct my players, kinda ends up being the bastard of the game, every encounter with him was in a situation where he controlled the situation, like he was so damn good at his job, that he never not had most of the cards, he would always try to come off reasonable, and made a few compromises over the sessions. But, once again, I'll go into that later.
Deshaun is the last NPC introduced this session and really dosen't get much use during the campaign outside of being a sort of Morality pet for Jordan, and had few notable traits besides being a musician and being gay, we don't play up either aspect of the character and honestly he's played as the friend who dosen't pop up often. It's kind of a shame as I feel like we could have done more with him.
The post session write up
(This session had particularly verbose notes, probably because so much happened in such a tight limit of time.) | ||
| Post session write up art |
Hand out was read to the players
Alvin had a heart to heart with a very concerned Sarah, Promises of looking out for each other were made, Alvin picked up the Lois "A reason to smile", the conversation is tense, and it seems that Sarah knows, or suspects at least, more than she lets on.
Jordan had a sit down meal with Deshaun, a friend who was injured in an training accident, during the sit down, they talked, Deshaun mentioned after discussing Jordan giving Deshaun art tips, his date for the day with a male class made named tony, Deshaun expressed that the town needs a
hero causing Jordan to pick up the lois "The hero this town needs"
Starman and Maya meanwhile learned that there long time friend Max was captured by the UGN and was being held captive in some kind of UGN Death camp., the idea of approaching John to hire him to help out came to mind. they gain the Lois "Battle sisters" with each other.
John woke up alone again, To a call from Katrina, she revealed that she found his wife, but she's was probbly a dead woman for giving him this information. He knows he has Two days to save his wife, or she's dead. He sets out gathering up the rest of the party he gains the loi "Earn my wife’s trust back"
John gathered Jordan and Alvin to there usual diner to discuss the break out plan, when Maya and Starman, just discussing trying to discuss how to approach John directly see him, and approach him, it's quickly established there all Overeds, the sneak into a nearby ally to discus there motives.
In the ally, Jordan and Alvin got in a rather comical tussle while Maya and Sam explained what Xeno's and Renegade beings are to John, plans were made to break out Alison and max. Later on, they managed to get UGN disguises for 4 of the team and a large truck to ride there, in, they discussed the plan once they got there, they got in the gate, but the plan fell apart when John spilled the beings when he was about to be shot via firing squad, the battle started with two gate guards and the firing squads.
Once the team managed to stop them, they made there way inside of the warehouse where they discovered that allot of the materials saved here are used for taking the lives of Overed prisoners.
With hesitation and the expectation that the may not walk out of the prison alive, they moved forward. in the Prison they found Max inside of a Cell, who revealed that Alison was already taken to the Execution chamber.
Although there was a pressure to just kick the damn door off the hinges, there was a fear of what would be found, what they found was unexpected.
It was actually revealed that Alison and Kade were in fact partners in a plot to test new disinformation techniques and to try to "expose" John's FH connections. it seemed that all was lost, but an impassioned speech by john, caused his wife to turn on Kade and hold him at gunpoint to explain her position, that despite everything he may have done to that point, that the fact that he risked everything to come save her, was more important.
Kade, was angry but swayed, also swayed by Johns statement that he'll do some work for them in exchange for his wife back, ultimately, Kade gave in and demoted Alison on the spot so she could travel back to the city with them as the teams new handler.
But before the episode could end on a high note, the FH struck while the base was distracted and managed to decimate a fair portion of the base and steal a powerful Renegade crystal, they used the team as a diversion so they could make good on there own goals... where we ended the scenario.
This session also fired off the main plot of the story of this game, the Renegade Crystal becomes a major factor of the rest of the game, from this point, serialization of the game is in full force, and that will be explained in greater detail later.
Next session is a real shake up as it's the first session where we throw out encorachment rules, and just let the PC's take the reigns and role play.
Alvin had a heart to heart with a very concerned Sarah, Promises of looking out for each other were made, Alvin picked up the Lois "A reason to smile", the conversation is tense, and it seems that Sarah knows, or suspects at least, more than she lets on.
Jordan had a sit down meal with Deshaun, a friend who was injured in an training accident, during the sit down, they talked, Deshaun mentioned after discussing Jordan giving Deshaun art tips, his date for the day with a male class made named tony, Deshaun expressed that the town needs a
hero causing Jordan to pick up the lois "The hero this town needs"
Starman and Maya meanwhile learned that there long time friend Max was captured by the UGN and was being held captive in some kind of UGN Death camp., the idea of approaching John to hire him to help out came to mind. they gain the Lois "Battle sisters" with each other.
John woke up alone again, To a call from Katrina, she revealed that she found his wife, but she's was probbly a dead woman for giving him this information. He knows he has Two days to save his wife, or she's dead. He sets out gathering up the rest of the party he gains the loi "Earn my wife’s trust back"
John gathered Jordan and Alvin to there usual diner to discuss the break out plan, when Maya and Starman, just discussing trying to discuss how to approach John directly see him, and approach him, it's quickly established there all Overeds, the sneak into a nearby ally to discus there motives.
In the ally, Jordan and Alvin got in a rather comical tussle while Maya and Sam explained what Xeno's and Renegade beings are to John, plans were made to break out Alison and max. Later on, they managed to get UGN disguises for 4 of the team and a large truck to ride there, in, they discussed the plan once they got there, they got in the gate, but the plan fell apart when John spilled the beings when he was about to be shot via firing squad, the battle started with two gate guards and the firing squads.
Once the team managed to stop them, they made there way inside of the warehouse where they discovered that allot of the materials saved here are used for taking the lives of Overed prisoners.
With hesitation and the expectation that the may not walk out of the prison alive, they moved forward. in the Prison they found Max inside of a Cell, who revealed that Alison was already taken to the Execution chamber.
Although there was a pressure to just kick the damn door off the hinges, there was a fear of what would be found, what they found was unexpected.
It was actually revealed that Alison and Kade were in fact partners in a plot to test new disinformation techniques and to try to "expose" John's FH connections. it seemed that all was lost, but an impassioned speech by john, caused his wife to turn on Kade and hold him at gunpoint to explain her position, that despite everything he may have done to that point, that the fact that he risked everything to come save her, was more important.
Kade, was angry but swayed, also swayed by Johns statement that he'll do some work for them in exchange for his wife back, ultimately, Kade gave in and demoted Alison on the spot so she could travel back to the city with them as the teams new handler.
But before the episode could end on a high note, the FH struck while the base was distracted and managed to decimate a fair portion of the base and steal a powerful Renegade crystal, they used the team as a diversion so they could make good on there own goals... where we ended the scenario.
The Scenario's Impact
Besides this session being where the core players were all introduced, from this point the Players roster would not shift or change again, We introduce several core NPC's, in the Form of Alison and Max, who would each drive the story in a couple different ways, Max in particular, despite not having much in mind for him at first, kinda grows to be part of the core NPC list with Sarah, Alison, and an NPC that comes later on.This session also fired off the main plot of the story of this game, the Renegade Crystal becomes a major factor of the rest of the game, from this point, serialization of the game is in full force, and that will be explained in greater detail later.
Next session is a real shake up as it's the first session where we throw out encorachment rules, and just let the PC's take the reigns and role play.
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