Actual Play Recap - Numenera Fiasco Playset - Playtest #2

Hi folks, instead of a story seed today I have an actual play recap for you. I hope you enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last week I had +Craig Stokes  and +Scott Robinson join me in a Google Hangout to playtest my in-works Numenera Fiasco playset. The following is a brief recap of this second playtest session; to read the first go here.

Dramatis Personae:

• Gartho - an assassin down on his luck, he uses an artifact to access the datasphere and gets a job hunting down a robot with green eyes from a data-being known as Medda
• Philan - a rival of Gartho's with a blue head, his "brother" is a robot with green eyes, Philan once killed a target of Gartho's, he is motivated to destroy numenera that might harm his brother
• Logan - an AI in a robot body with glowing green eyes who was "raised" with Philan, at the start of the story he is hiding out in ruins outside of Nihliesh in a chamber full of malfunctioning robots, when the facility becomes unsafe he flees and becomes target for Gartho

Act 1

Scene 1:

Gartho, down on his luck and looking for work, delves into the datasphere using an artifact. His attempts cause him to contact a data-being (god?) calling itself Medda by accident. Medda hires him for a job to retrieve a packet of data from a robot with glowing green eyes.

Scene 2:

Philan finds Logan in a chamber full of malfunctioning robots in some ruins outside of Nihliesh, and attempts to convince his “brother” he is in danger. Logan admits to gleaning many facts from the data sphere but does not know why people would be looking for him aside from knowledge of a mutagen. Unconvinced Logan refuses to leave.

Scene 3:

Later, Philan and Logan are repairing some of the robots when explosions rock the ruins. They attempt to flee and end up in the wilderness. The ruins are in shambles and the army of robots damaged or destroyed. They head to Nihliesh as their only alternative.

Scene 4:

Gartho hunts for a stun cypher in Nihliesh to help him capture the robot with glowing green eyes. While talking with a contact he spies Philan in the same market area. The broker agrees to get the device for Gartho for two purses full of shins.

Scene 5:

Philan attempts to smuggle Logan into Nihliesh, which is not friendly to AI of any kind. Unfortunately while trying to produce documentation the wrappings hiding Logan’s nature fall away and the guards try to halt them. In the confusion Logan and Philan are able to get onto the lift to the city, though not unnoticed.

Scene 6:

Immediately after Logan and Philan reach the top of the lift they flee the guards. Logan uses a cypher to knock out two guards but a third pursues them doggedly.  They duck into a safehouse where they hide successfully from his search

TILT - Mayhem - magnificent self destruction

Act 2

Scene 1:

In the safe house Logan begins to malfunction, claiming to be intruded by something in the data sphere. His eyes suddenly go red and some kind of weapon begins to power up. Philan tries to help but the hacked AI fired a beam of red energy that kills a bystander, as Philan flees.

Scene 2:

Shortly after Philan runs into Gartho in the street. The two argue about the prior contract and Philan asks Gartho if he took a contract on his brother. Gartho says no, unaware that the robot he seeks is in fact Philan's brother. Philan's attempts to call him off his job but instead makes Gartho aware that his target is in the city. Gartho pushes Philan out into the market and goes to confront the robot.

Scene 3:

Gartho connects to the data sphere seeking information about Logan's location.  He is connected to Medda who assures him that target is close and he will be handsomely rewarded.

Scene 4:

Logan corners Philan in the bowels of Nihliesh at the same time as a group of guards. The guards try to intervene but Logan, still apparently malfunctioning, kills one and attempts to kill another. Philan nobly interposes himself between Logan and the guard. Regaining some measure of control Logan begs Philan to flee, knowing that he is losing himself, and his only recourse it to self destruct. Philan refuses knowing that Logan can control himself, but as they argue it becomes clear that Logan is dead set to destroy himself. Philan is forced to leave Logan to his fate. The robot explodes, apparently destroyed.

Scene 5:

Flashback - Philan and Logan in their childhood. Philan and Logan argue about who gets to explore a ruin first. As they get angry Logan's eyes begin to flash red. Philan runs telling his brother that since only he knows where the ruins are he will be first, but logan intercepts him with a force field knocking his brother out. The red eyed Logan regains control before killing his brother with an energy weapon, and awakens his brother.

Scene 6:

Gartho finds Philan shortly after his brother's explosive demise, and demands to know where Logan is. The two argue and Gartho learns that Logan destroyed himself.  His job ruined, Gartho tries to attack Philan but finds his rival is a only a hologram, who taunts him, "I'm always two steps ahead!"

Aftermath

The aftermath is a series of very short scenes that show what happens to each character afterwards.

Gartho becomes obsessed with killing Philan and descends into madness as he seeks revenge.

Philan, now a broken man, wanders back to the ruins where he found Logan in the days prior to his death. 

Logan's consciousness awakens in the data sphere as a program meant to drive users insane. 

Gartho tormented by the data-being Logan has become, tries and fails repeatedly to locate and kill Philan.  

An older Philan sitting in the same ruins where he found Logan years before is tinkering with a robot.

Logan accesses a remote memory of his brother which drives him mad. The madness makes him target family relations, destroying them. 

Many years later Gartho, living in bowels of Nihliesh, has becoming horribly mutated by the chemicals found there. He still wishes he had killed Philan, but can only now live in pain and torment.

Surrounded by a small army or repaired robots, Philan activates a console in the ruins producing a familiar green glow for a moment. The glow turns to red as the robots all focus on Philan with red glowing eyes. 

Logan’s data ghost regains his memories and sanity only to be punished by the data-god Medda by having to watching his brother die repeatedly for all eternity.

Philan turns to the camera his eyes glowing red, and he begins to laugh with the voice of the data-god Medda. 

Fade To Black

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I think this session went really well. The new GM Intrusion mechanic worked well enough, but I think I need to tinker with it a little more. During after-play discussion Craig suggested that I remove cyphers from the Objects table and instead simply give each character one cypher for use during play. I think this is a great suggestion and will be making a simplified cypher table (based on d6s with 36 total options) for use with this playset.

Thanks again to +Craig Stokes and +Scott Robinson  for joining me and providing good ideas and feedback both during play and after. And thanks to +Spazmo Rogue for joining us partway through and playing some NPCs. 

Actual Play Recap - Numenera Fiasco Playset - Playtest #1

I've been a fan of Numenera since its inception, and a fan of Fiasco since +Wil Wheaton featured it on TableTop. Late last year I decided to start working on a play-set for Fiasco based on Numenera.

Last night I had +John Marvin +Andrew Cady and +andrew lyon join me in a Google Hangout to playtest the set.  The following is a brief recap.

• Isem - a Thief with a cypher capable of controlling the Iron Wind. He was looking to get some cash for it from his usual fence, Nojo. Isem is drinking buddies with Rick. - played by me
• Rick - A mutant. Rick and Isem are drinking buddies and had a need to purge mutation between them (that played out as Rick having a mutation and Isem having a cure). Rick was the target of an assassin, Rico. - played by +andrew lyon 
• Rico - An assassin targeting Rick for some killing out at the abhuman village.  Rico was connected to Nojo by his sister who had married Noji and then been killed by him (accidentally). The two were looking to a powerful Numenera to raise the dead woman. - played by +Andrew Cady 
• Nojo - A fence connected to Rico and Isem, by bonds of criminal enterprise and blood. - played by +John Marvin 

Act 1

Scene 1 - Isem visited Nojo looking to sell his powerful and dangerous cypher. Things went well enough with the pair agreeing to a potential 3-way trade for a powerful healing item held by Isem's drinking buddy Rick.

Scene 2 - Rick and Isem share some drinks and agree to trade the iron wind controller for the healing device. A GM Intrusion by John (a mechanic I had not planned on, but which worked well enough to be included for the next playtest) had the bar's waitress evesdropping on the conversation. This set in motion basically all the remaining bad stuff.

Scene 3 - Rico learns from his girlfriend, the waitress, that a mutant named Rick has a powerful healing item.  Rico decided to ambush and steal the item to revive his dead sister. The GF sought the item for her own ends, to revive her dead mother.

Scene 4 - Nojo and Rico plot to steal the healing item and revive their wife & sister (respectively)

The Tilt

DEATH - Right on Time

[we didn't get the best use out of the tilt, but we were running an abbreviated session, so its something to work on next time]

Act 2

Scene 1 - Nojo is visited late at night by Isem who has traded the cypher for the healing item. They agree to a trade for a phasing artifact and Isem leaves to retrieve the goods. Nojo mentions, offhandedly, to tell Rico "never mind" if Isem sees him.

Scene 2 - Rico ambushed Rick trying to steal the healing artifact but learns that Rick has already traded it for the iron wind device, and is not afraid to use it ...

Scene 3 - Flashback - Rick finds out from his girlfriend, who is also Rico's girlfriend, that Rico is coming for him.  He resolves to be ready for the encounter. He does have a powerful weapon now after all.

Scene 4 - The next morning Isem sees the disaster wrought by the unleashed iron wind and goes to investigate.  He finds both Rico and Rick, and after some confusion learns that they have switched bodies thanks to the iron wind. Rick is now mutation free, which is a win ... after a fashion.

The Aftermath

Things generally went poorly for everybody.  

• Isem dies because his phasing suit failed first time out and he was cut in half by a wall
• Rick, now mutation free, loses his GF anyways because she's mad that she cannot revive her mother.
• Rico, loses his GF and has to live his life as a mutant, a thing he had previously abhorred, Death would have been a better fate for him.
• Nojo revived his wife to life, but not to original health. She is also angry at him about the fate of her brother. 

Overall I think the session went well. The players all agreed that the playset made the characters and setting really come through as feeling like Numenera. During after-play discussion we came up with a way to codify the GM intrusion for next time.  The shorter than normal game (usually you play two scenes per person in each act instead of one), generated some odd results, but I think it still felt both like a Fiasco and a Numenera game.  

Thanks again to +Andrew Cady +andrew lyon and +John Marvin for joining me and providing good ideas and feedback both during play and after.