Second session of Fiasco from Bully Pulpit Games, we’d got more of a handle on the rules by this point and the game took much less time to resolve than our previous session:
Tag: one off
Call of the Wyld Hunt: One-shot Changeling game
Actual play video of our one-shot Changeling: the Lost game where a group of escapees from Arcadia go to extreme (and sometimes terminal) lengths to reclaim the lives that were stolen from them:
Sample Changeling NPC – Briarwolves
I’ve spent the last few hours writing up notes on the NPCs for my Changeling one-shot; I don’t want to post too much up at this point (although I do intend to put all the material up via Google Drive links after the game has run) so as not to spoil anything for my players but below is a taster of the sort of notes I’ve been making.
Call of the Wyld Hunt: Pre-genned Characters
I’m preparing for the Changeling: the Lost one-shot that I’m going to be running in a couple of week; in the game the five players are going to be using pre-generated characters, I’ve just finished creating them, anyone interested can find details below:
You were once a promising sports star at NYU, the local newspapers called you the “shining light of the football team”; a small ligament injury caused you to briefly lose your edge but some of your team-mates said they’d
scored something to help you get it back so you arranged to meet them at Central Park. Unfortunately it turns out something else has seen your light and it took you and your team-mates to a land of cold and pain where you burned to light the way for inhuman things, somehow you lead some other captives to a way back, they’re your team now.
- Bones
As a mortician attached to the NYPD you eventually started to put the pieces together, every 10 years a dozen people disappeare from the blocks surrounding Central Park but it appeared as though someone was covering
it up; you poked a little too deeply and one night as snow began to fall and you investigated one of the disappearance scenes the Horned God came for you, spiriting you away to his land of night where your skills were put to use preparing his kills, some of whom cried out in all too human voices; then one day you found the key to free the burning man from his prison.
- Hare
You used to work in Central Park, sure you’d heard the rumours about how the previous ranger had disappeared almost 10 years before and that they’d been unable to find a replacement, but you loved your job and weren’t going to let any urban legends spoil it. So one night when you heard a sound like
an animal in pain you rushed out only to see a young woman being snatched away but a horned creature sat atop a demonic horse; without thinking you tried to prevent the abduction and were rewarded by being
taken to a land of ice and snow where you became the prey they hunted.
- Sway
You were one of the finest dancers touring with the NY Ballet when one glorious winter night your fiancé popped the question you’ve been waiting to hear just outside the entrance to Central Park; horns sounded in the background and for a moment you thought Mark had hired them, but it was not only Mark who your beauty had captivated, and your new suitor
spirited you both away to a land of beautiful madness. You never saw Mark again but in time you were able to use your whiles to discover the location of the key to help free yourself & some of your fellow captors.
- Wolf
As a bouncer working outside the clubs in the districts surrounding Central Park you normally knew when to keep clear of trouble, you could almost smell it; you never knew why when you heard the young red haired man being taken that you tried to interfere but the next thing you knew you were bounds and shackled, little more than a hunting hound. Somehow you managed to survive; holding on to your humanity and your sense of
self until the young man appeared again, now burning like fire and lead
you back to the human world.
Call of the Wyld Hunt Character Teaser
I’ve been working away this morning preparing five pre-genned characters for the Call of the Wyld Hunt Changeling one-shot that I’m going to be running in a few weeks time.
I’ve made a good start on them and have the kiths and their roles in Arcadia defined so I thought that I’d post a little teaser for the characters, you can access the PDF by clicking on the link below:
Call of the Wyld Hunt
I’ll shortly be running a Changeling: the Lost game one-off (using a streamlined version of the rules); in order to get the players into the mood of the game I created the video below:
Preparing a Player Handout for a Wild Blue one-off
The Great (Sky) Train Robbery – Planning a Wild Blue (Fate) One-off
Since reading the Wild Blue setting in Fate Worlds, Volume One: Worlds on Fire (written by Brian Engard, you can find my video review of the book here) i’ve been dying to run a one-off session using the ideas and rules from the setting; given that i’ve had a few questions via the blog and my Youtube channel about how I go about preparing for a campaign/session I thought that’d be a good idea to write up my thought processes during the planning stages of this session and post them to the blog.
What is Wild Blue?
Wild Blue is a very interesting mashup setting where the players are human members of a society descended from settlers on a magic-rich alien world; in a parallel to the colonisation of the Americas, when the settlers arrived they found the world occupied by strange fey-like people whom they took to calling the Folk. A huge conflict erupted between the settlers and the Folk and the indigenous people were driven northwards out of their homelands; over the next few years the settlers noticed that the high levels of ambient magic on the world had started to affect them and people were being born with strange powers. An organisation called the Queen’s Wardens was set up, recruiting empowered people to police others with powers.
Basically Wild Blue is a mashup western, super-power, space opera style setting where the players take on the roles of Queen’s Wardens, each of them having their own unique super powers.
Planning for the Session
Since i’m only planning to run a one-off session at this stage (since i’m already running/playing in a number of campaigns and don’t have time really to start any more) I decided to base the setting around an iconic element of the western genre (where a lot of Wild Blue’s flavour comes from), that of the train robbery.
Now obviously it’s more interesting to actually be the robbers, but the game setting does presume that the players are taking on the roles of the Wardens/Sheriffs and, whilst I could just ignore this, I quite like the idea of the players having the law on their side and all the associated paraphernalia that goes with it, so I decide to flip the concept around slightly.
What is the main aim of the session?
Return control of a hi-jacked sky train to the appropriate authorities and protect the lives of those onboard.
Since this is a one-off that will be run during a weekday evening I want to have an aim that is achievable within a few hours; handily the fact that the players are playing Queen’s Wardens with defined jurisdiction makes this very easy indeed to manage, I have decided to give them a limited amount of time before the hi-jacked sky train leaves their jurisdiction, if they haven’t manage to bring it under control in the time allotted then their chance is lost.
What challenges will the players face in this session?
I always like to note down the main challenged of a game, especially in a condensed one-off session since it serves as a useful checklist during the game to make sure that all the main points are covered.
- Getting on to the sky train in mid-air.
- Entering the train unnoticed.
- Avoiding the criminals who are stationed throughout the train.
- Stopping the train before it leaves their jurisdiction.
- Ensuring that the civilians on board are not harmed.
- Getting on to the sky train in mid-air.
- Could be done if one or more of the players have flight based powers.
- If not they may have use a cart to travel down the tracks or attempt to jump on the train as it speeds through one of the towers (obviously given the height this is very dangerous).
- Entering the train unnoticed.
- Can be done using appropriate sneaking and burglary skills.
- Avoiding the criminals who are stationed throughout the train.
- If the sound of gunfire or a conflict is heard onboard then the person driving the train will throw open the throttle and put the train up to full speed, this will half the remaining time before they leave the player’s jurisdiction and will create the Aspect “The Train’s moving too damn fast!” making it more difficult to perform certain actions.
- Stopping the train before it leaves their jurisdiction.
- The players could get to the front of the train and take control of the engine room.
- They could attempt to de-couple the engine car from the rest of the carriages and the engine car continue on it’s way.
- Ensuring that the civilians on board are not harmed.
- The players could de-couple the cars containing the passengers.
- They could attempt to remove the criminals threatening them.
Who are the opposition?
The train has been hi-jacked by a member of the Crimson Council (a group of Folk dedicated to taking back the lands stolen from them by the settlers using any means necessary).
Most of the Folk onboard will be fairly low level thugs/grunts with powers that are only minorly useful however there will be two antagonists who will pose slightly more of a problem.
- The Leader of the Group: A cunning Folk who has bought this band together with the aim of hi-jacking the train and talking into the Outlands (the wild area that the Folk were forced into).
- The Lieutenant: This Folk is the second-in-command and will be placed in charge of corralling the captives onboard, he is brutal and ruthless and will seek to initially quash any attempts at heroism by throwing a random passenger to their death out of the train.