Mistakes and Infinite Hallways

A small group of people with boring monotonous live taking the subway late one night find themselves let off the train as it goes out of service.

As the train pulls away they realise that they are at a station that they have never heard of before. When another train does not come, they explore the station looking for an exit only to find that the station is barred up and they are locked in.

As things continue there seems to be no way out of the station, and some people claim to have been here for years. Each time they turn there back someone disappears or new arrives, or their are signs of much time passing.

Each attempt to escape the station is thwarted by an infinite hallway or a looked door.

Finally the people at the station either become part of the station, a permanent fixture, or they think of the monotony of their lives and how they would change it.

Little clues are given throughout that they have been leaving the station, only to return the next night without any memory of having been gone.

When they decide to change their monotonous life, an exit can be found. They leave the station and they are presented with their lives. If they follow through with the desire for change, they are free. If they do not change their lives, they will wake up back in the station, their escape only a dream.

That is the game that I wanted to run this last week. I wanted a game about the monotony of life and the daily commute becoming purgatory. It was an excellent idea that a friend of mine back from my home town suggested I try.

Sadly that is not the game I ended up running. I will start off by pointing you to an article over at Gnome Stew.

My first and most major mistake was in giving out characters. I did not emphasise enough the monotony of their lives. As the game progressed, two of the three characters turned out to have been happy all along. It slipped by me that they were happy at first. But as the players filled out the characters, there was really on reason to be stuck in at the station.

So the game, at least for two of the players, was simply a case of being stuck somewhere in time.

The second main mistake was with what I like to call "infinite hallways". Its a reference to a game I played in a year back were we were stuck in some compound for some ridiculous number of sessions. Every idea we had for escape was met with an infinite hallway or some other arbitrary and insurpassible obstacle.

The infinite hallway has always been something that I have tried to avoid in my games. But it seemed needed in this case. The nature of the story was vary Dues Ex Machina, and you could not have people just strolling out of purgatory.

However, since two of the players were playing almost an entirely different game, it was just an annoying and brutal case of infinite hallway. I think I need to apologize to these players for this.

One of the tools I like to use in my games is The Stool. A little to the side of the circle of gamers I place a large wooden stool and occasionally I send people to it. Then we play it a little "reality tv" style. When a player is on the Stool they have to give the internal monologue of their character, in character. Just like the confession booths in various reality TV shows.

In general, this helps the player fill out their character and lets everyone get a sense for that character. It also seems that roleplaying spills over from the Stool and can facilitate a much more lively session.

My third mistake for this game was that I did not give the players enough back story for their characters to use in the Stool. Instead the Stool became awkward and no-one seemed interested in it by the end of the session.

I had planned for the Stool to let me know when a character had reached some sort of breaking point to move the story forward. But it was not so helpful in this session.

But in the end there was one player who had a terrifically monotonous character. He went through various stages of coping with the situation including contemplating suicide. He even escaped from the station once only to carry on with the monotony and wake back up in the station. His character found a new resolve and up making it out of the station permanently.

Looking back on the session, I find it difficult to decide if the success with the one player outweighed the disaster with the other two.

I think I will put this idea back on the shelf. Perhaps I will give it another try a year or so down the road. But next time I will have learned from my mistakes.

New and Old

The Retirement of Baron Harveset Bowman M.D. 
We finished our last travelers game this last week. In the end we got revenge on Treece, killed that damn dolphin that had been messing with us and even won ourselves a planet. 
Perhaps latter I will fill in more details when I can do it justice.

Burning Wheel

As our travellers game come to an end, we have decided to start a new game. We will be using the bruning wheel system. Burning wheel is specifically designed for "middle fantasy" games. Games with little magic or where magic is mostly in the background. Books like George RR Martins A Song of Ice and Fire would fit nicely within this game. 

The game is designed to revolve around politics and battles of wits. 

How to Dispose of a Kadariak Kepf

Through various adventures Chuck, John and Joe wound up in a cavern beneath a mosuleum in the middle of a forest in Maine. Trapped in a cage in the corner was a demon. The cage sparked with blue electricity. 

The demon had already lured one group into the cavern and convinced them to start a murderous cult. They were on the verge of completing the ritual that would release the demon from his cage. We put an end to those plans. 

so there we sat, trying to figure out how to dispose of this demon before he formed another death cult. Our research showed us that it was a Kadariak Kepf, and that it might be vulnerable to fire, or perhaps water. And apperently it could be contained by electric cages. 
So we gathered up our guns and built a flamethrower, and a tried to dispose of the KK. Sadly, it seemed that the cage would not let anything past it and we would have to release the KK from the cage to kill it. Then we realizede that we had no idea how to open the cage. Everything we tried only released blue sparks from the cage. 

Eventually, we gathered up some cable and some jumper cables. We connected the jumper cables to the cage and ran the cable outside to some metal spike we had planted in the ground. Efffectively grounding the cage and releasing the KK. 
Several shotgun blasts, flamthrower bursts and axe swings later we had the KK's head seperated from its boddy and both aflame. 

But there was still the matter of disposing of the boddy. We tried burning it some more, but that produced to much smoke which could draw attention to the site. We tried to drag it out in a boddy bag, but the boddy would not stop smouldering and melted anything that touched it.
We were not certain of KK biology, so we were not certain if the KK was truely dead, despite its severed head. It had servived a milenia or two in this cage and had not died, and its mouth was located over its heart. So we were rather skeptical of its demise. 
Eventually, we decided to try its other weakness. We poored some water over the boddy. With a billow of steam the boddy dissapeared. 
We stood there blinking at where its body had been, uncertain of what had just happened. 

Death By Darnivar and Bear Fisted

This week we departed from the usual in the Fallen Soldiers game and played some other characters that have been wandering about in the same world. 

I ended up with 'Bob' the closet homosexual that has been causing one of the PCs Shaajid so many problems. As the story progressed we discovered two things about Bob. He can be unintentionally really creepy and he is a pretty good guy and a bit of a badass hero. 

The creepiness came out in a situation that found a PC Darnivar in a dress and a compromising position with a guard. It was all part of a rather successful plan to take out a guard station, but the creepiness was enough to cause Darnivar to really have Bob. 

The hero bit came about when the party fought against the a rock crab pulled out out of the Tremors movies. Bob bravely stuck his axe into the ground and stood in the monsters way. He of course was tossed aside as it flew by beneath him, but that did not stop him from keeping on the assault. Although the rest of the team did most of the useful work , Bob was there clinging to its back with one hand while beating it with his axe in the other. He struck the final blow the felled the beast. 

It was later that night that Darnivar snuck into his room and slit his throat for being creepy. 


Bear Fisted
Hutch had her own side quest to kill a demon bear. As this was all part of a spirit quest, hutch had to take the beast allone and unarmed. Despite her best efforts to cheat, she ended up going toe to toe with the bear. She punched it in the face. It stood there stunned, unable to think comprehend a gnome punching it in the face. Unalbe to comprehend the amount of force packed into those little angry fists. Hutch punched it in the face again. This caused the bear to be more stunned. Where does this gnome get such nerve? Two more fists to the face and the startled bear fell to the ground unconcious. 

It wasn't long before the gnome struggled back to the party dragging a bear carcus behind it. 

R.I.P. Jayden, Beloved Nephew

A duel was the only way to solve it. A duel or some underhanded kidnapping work. Thats the way it works with these people. You make it a matter of honor, or you ransom your freedom. 

Of course, being an older man myself, I cannot duel and must have a champion. My hired gun, Jordan, had taken off on some fool mission to kidnap a girl and solve the problem that way. I figured he would get himself killed or captured. 

Jayden insisted that I let him be my champion. He had held his own with our last encounter with our disgruntled shipmate. So of course I thought he could hold his own. 

And he did. 

He got a shot off first. But then two bullets ripped through him. 

Jayden's ever present cigaret fell from his lips. A soft "oh" escaped him. Then he slumped to the grass. 

It was a that moment, as Jayden lay slain at my feet, that Jorden came in over the radio. He had pulled off his escipade, and there was no reason for to duel. 

Jayden, you will be missed.

-Baron Harveset Bowmen MD.

I hate Treece

We arrived on a small water planet, I don't recall the name. It was supposed to be a refueling stop and a place to take on some more passengers. The local authorities must have had word we were coming, because they had our parts all planned out for us.
I was called to do a medical exam for the high commissioner. His own physician was off planet and he had heard of some of the research that I had done. During the exam, I discovered two things that sealed my fate. The first is that the man was avidly against any treating with the hell of a planet Treece from which we just came. The second is that the man was in spectacular health for his age.
One of the passengers that we brought with us from Treece was the latest diplomat sent to rape this small paradise of its resources and natural beauty. Undoubtedly he is the one who had the high commissioner killed. With me as the last doctor to see him alive, and having declared him in excellent health, I knew I would be the one who would take the fall. Playing along would be the only thing that would get me out of this one.
I gave them what they wanted. The death is recorded as an acident with my signature on the autopsy report. At least it got me and my crew off world.
Don't think we are done yet. We still have our secret weapon. We are coming back to screw you Treece.

-Baron Harveset Bowman MD.