Esme and Daniela took Esme's car and chased after officer Connerty to a residential neighborhood where the police had found a dead woman. Rudy and Violet were left behind and had to make their way to the crime scene on foot. The woman was mistakenly reported by dispatch as Lucy Herrera, but upon seeing the body of the dead woman Esme and Violet were able to confirm that it was not Lucy. The dead woman had apparently fallen from her balcony and was found impaled upon an iron fence that ran between the residences.
After regrouping it became clear that Esme and Rudy were mad at each. Rudy left upset. Daniela deciceded to walk a few short blocks back to her apartment, and Esme offered to drive Violet back to Lucy's place.
Next session will begin the following morning. Esme wasn't up for a discussion on the drive home, and Daniela's walk back was uneventful. Following the stress of the day both characters would have crashed immediately after getting back to their places.
Better gaming through discussion
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I was listening to a gaming podcast this morning and it made me think or our game. Some of what they were talking about in the podcast was about how players play their characters, but most of it was about other stuff that has nothing to do with our game or our game group.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, it reminded me about our conversation at the end of the last session. I told you guys to remind me to describe the world, to slow me down sometimes, so that I don’t rush through the environment. What I realized is that you guys, as players can physically stop me and ask me to describe things, or with your characters you guys can narrate the environment yourselves. In fact, both of you have already been doing that a lot throughout the game.
For example, when Bozena grabbed a hamburger on her way to St. Teresa, she showed all of us that there was a hamburger place near on her route. She also told us that she was going to wear her nun’s habit because she was concerned about Beth’s (her landlord) warning that the neighborhood was sketchy. Remembering to eat meals, deciding to discuss matters over a coffee or beer with another character, explaining your wardrobe, or requesting the creation of an alley (as Shevon did on Fairfield when Violet was being chased by the cop) all add a richness to the game environment. Sometimes it’s wise to stop me and ask me about what your characters are seeing, but often times it’s just as cool to tell me what YOU are seeing (sometimes I will make you roll, or use a Fate Point, to narrate).
When Shevon decided to chase after Rudy on foot instead of trying to jump the chainlink fence or ask that Daniela try to open the gate, she gave that whole scene a totally different perspective. She was able to watch Esme tear down the street instead of being just another passenger in the car. The fact that everyone had to swap cell numbers as you struggled to find each other again added all sorts of cool intrigue to the session, and also helped each of your characters out because now everyone can contact any other character directly, whereas you might not have remembered to swap numbers if you hadn’t separated.
Anyways, I wanted to type this out to make you aware of the impact that you are having, and can have, on the game. Keep up the attention to detail: Violet’s quick mental walk-through of the old Sawyer Mercado (the counter was here, the door was there…) when you all meet Rudy for the first time was a prime example. Remember to dwell on the details sometimes, sometimes a small detail you introduce just to add ambiance will turn into something of major consequence to the plot down the line.
Lots of information! I'm glad for it, because I'd forgotten Esme and Rudy were mad at each other. When did that become clear? Did we see it at all when we were in the remains of Sawyer Mercado, or was it something that happened between then and the regrouping?
ReplyDeleteIt's really fun to think back on these sessions - I'm surprised at how real the scenes seem to me. I have a very vivid memory especially of the whole block where the crime occurred. Some of those scary moments - walking down the gangway in the dark, hiding from the cops, wanting to get through so we could finally see who the poor dead person was, and if it was Lucy, seeing the woman impaled on the fence and wondering for a second if it was her... it's all there in my head. Very cool.
It's also good to know that we can roll to do a little narrating of our own. I was thinking about how there are so many weird, random people and things on a given city street at any particular time: those crazy taco and elote vendors with their pushcarts, homeless folks, etc. I think it would even be cool sometimes just to mention the fact that they're there, and then they become tools to use or not use later. Probably Adam will find clever ways to make us pay for them, but hey, it's all in the game :)
One question I have for Adam: will you be telling us a little about Lucy, by way of describing her apartment? Will I be able to react in a certain way, to either say the place isn't what I expected it to look like, or that something I did expect to be there, wasn't?
I also wanted to see if you guys would mind meeting a little later this Sunday - maybe noon? I'm dog-sitting for my parents in DeKalb, and I don't want to leave him too too long. My parents' neighbor is going to let him out Sunday night, and my parents get back early Monday, so if I left at 11 or so, he'd be OK.
I will reply in order of your questions:
ReplyDeleteEsme and Rudy don’t appear to see eye to eye. There was a little bit of animosity at Sawyer Mercado, but it really started to come out after everyone regrouped on Fairfield. Rudy seemed upset about how Esme was handling Lucy’s disappearance, particularly the fact that she never told him that she filed a missing person’s report with the police. Next session can ask Rudy or Esme about their stranded relationship.
I’m glad it’s all very vivid. To me, reflecting on a session is the most fun part of the game. Seeing what you remember; reliving the bits that were most exciting. I specifically recall you rushing to ask me if the woman on the fence was Lucy. In my mind, I already knew it wasn’t, but I forgot that I hadn’t told you that yet. When you were so eager to know if it was Lucy I realized how anxious you were to know, which told me that the suspense that had been building had worked! Awesome :)
Yes, bring random elements into the game at any given time. I have a sheet of names specifically for that exact purpose. Asking a stranger for change could result in them becoming a major or minor character in the story arc. When players create parts of the world it generates more options and it also informs the GM and other players about what is going on with your character.
Yes, explore Lucy’s apartment. You will learn lots of interesting things about her (depending on dice rolls). Exploring Lucy’s place will an “Extended Skill Challenge.” You can look up what that means in your FATE manual, or just wait and see next session, I will explain it.
I am fine with playing a little later on Sunday. 12:30 works for me. Plan to eat a lunch prior so we think with full stomachs.
*This is a good use of the blog to game discussion
Ohhh, right, the missing persons report. It's interesting to be in the same position as our characters - we see that there's a problem between those two, but we don't know how it started and we have to get it out of them carefully. Bozena, you and I will have to work together on this, to try to get both sides of the story and not piss either of them off too much. I feel like this next session, we should try to take a moment (if we are not running through the streets of Chicago chasing down another murder) to have a conversation between us (Daniela and Violet) because even though we know all these things about what's really going on, our two characters have not talked very much at all.
ReplyDeleteI'm excited about the Extended Skill Challenge. I haven't looked it up yet but it sounds like, well, a challenge :) I hope I won't screw it up!
Cool, so hopefully a little later on Sunday then, if it's OK with Bozena. I'll eat before I come.