OOC

[jemmus]

I missed replying about the ambient music. Regrettably, I usually post during breaks at work, with no speakers. Gonna listen at home. I've been thinking about some Ennio Marconni for these scenes along the way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enuOArEfqGo

[redwarrior]

I'm having a lot of fun. Not quite sure of the nature of the world. Which is natural with the first scene in a new game with new mechanics and a new (to me) GM and new party - on literally a new world.

Seems a bit law-dog heavy for this bounty-hunter's tastes. But maybe they're OK...

[Faanku]

I am having great fun, but I don't have a full grasp on what's going on inside the saloon and why...and my character has even less of an understanding.

2nd this, but it's to be expected with such a huge cast of characters. A crude map with character and NPC names might go an extremely long way in helping understand who is where.

[Enoch]

Very true, and I fully admit that I haven't made a huge effort to follow what's going on inside the tavern, as my character is completely unaware of it. I know that it's a tangled knot of wanted woman and bounty hunters and lawmen.

[redwarrior]

Likewise, I’ve ignored everything that wasn’t part of the saloon scene. That said, I really like how all the action is happening at the same time. It feels real.

[Marullus]

Thanks for speaking up. There IS a lot going on (as there's a wide variety of goals in play) - I worked to integrate a coherent flowing narrative and if the individual hooks aren't apparent I definitely need to clarify that. I'll do so below (warning: spoilers) -- if anything remains unclear or you still feel unconnected, speak up.

Lira Bunt - Bring The Law to each town I enter. / Reorganize the badlands under a true lawful government.
Taavi Perttu - Survive. Not get beaten up (or worse) by local bosses not interested in laws or any meddling in their business. Persuade strongmen to agree on alternative penalties for crimes (something other than flogging or hanging for every crime). / Establish simple, practical, workable courts for punishing crimes and peacefully settling disputes.
Emile Khadaji - He aims to bring justice, and thereby civilization, to the Badlands. Once he has helped the locals, there are others in this part of the galaxy who need evil destroyed.
Talina Mannifer - Evade anyone looking for her / Use her special abilities to help others rebuild society

I explicitly gave you some narrative control based on what you put in your goals; these goals provide some pretty strong statements. They set the starting conditions that:

• The Law is not present in each town.
• Badlands towns do not recognize a true lawful government.
• Flogging and hanging are the default punishments for every crime.
• Judgment is passed without workable courts.
• Society needs help to be rebuilt.
• The Badlands are currently unjust as well as unlawful.

Since we're starting in a town, these are a major part of what has unfolded and has been established. If you don't take action, the following will be true (per my OOC note on the most recent post):

• Hansel will be judged without a trial.
• Zoe will be lynched.
• Tatiana will be given over to Chuck for the bounty.
• The matter of Teo Hrsak will be closed without investigation, given his death.

You will need to work to change these conditions, including roleplay and successful tests. It doesn't happen all right here/now in the Saloon - feel free to spread it over several days, talking to people in town to learn new things, marshalling support, etc. Arranging a trial, having a trial, carrying out a sentence are all potentially differentiated (depending how you set the scenes) and short-term and long-term outcomes may differ depending on the steps you take.

Talina Mannifer - Evade anyone looking for her / Use her special abilities to help others rebuild society
Hansel Shatner - To see those who prey on the weak punished. You should only prey on those as can defend themselves. / To build up enough credits that he can get a ship and explore the galaxy
Emile Khadaji - He aims to bring justice, and thereby civilization, to the Badlands.

Related to the above, but differentiated. Lira and Taavi both want LAW established. Talina, Hansel, and Emile want JUSTICE. These are not always the same thing.

It is up to your characters to decide what things you find in the current scenario as unjust, then how you want to act on them.

• The warrant for Talina is lawful, issued in the city under Greater Kumenha jurisdiction. But it is to reclaim her as property (thus supporting slavery) owned by a corporation.
• Local justice includes lynching psychics (as terror of psychics is the baseline for this world), now applied to Zoe, where it may or may not be just.
• Thoughts on Hansel's actions will really be up to each PC.
• Do you believe that the actions relating to Teo Hrsak require greater justice than his individual death?

Sister Amalia - Survive her first mission. / Summon ever-greater aspects of the Lord. (Core Value: Rid the Badlands of the Devil's taint and guide humanity into the light.)
Shadrach - ? / Destroy the cult that sacrificed my family. (Core Value: Shadow cults are a tool of the Devil and must be eradicated.)

The goals here don't give much to work with but the Values are rich and flavorful. The opening scene showed there is a clear problem here, the town has faced it for a while, and the wolves and Teo Hrsak are related. Do you investigate to learn more while in town? You've stated the goal of pursuing the wolves (which will initiate Chapter 2). Do you go alone or sway others combine efforts? (There's a story here about ecclesiastical jurisdiction vs. Greater Kumenha civil jurisdiction which can be engaged between your cluster and Lira, plus those looking for justice (Emile), and those with keen interest in the cult for other reasons (Báleygr/Faraday).

Agent Faraday - Track down and acquire local Earth-9 maltech / Re-establish the Perimeter in its full glory
Báleygr Gangleri - get offworld again, preferably on a ship / find TL4 tech to repair/use/sell
Hansel Shatner - To build up enough credits that he can get a ship and explore the galaxy

These are a bit more difficult, as they're long-term leaving the planet, which we scoped as "the next arc." You're going to spend the short-term plotlines here. That said, I gave this explicitly to engage them:

Across the room, the two new black-clad figures step forward from the stairwell. They check Teo's pulse, then remove a sleek black device from his wrist. They press a few buttons on their own sleek black wrist-devices. There is a swirl and flash of amber light accompanied by three seconds of a high-pitching keening sound and the two men are gone, Teo's corpse lying ignominiously on the floor. Such blatant display of pretech immediately catches the attention of Báleygr and Faraday, neither suspecting it in these parts of the Badlands.

I expect the presence of teleportation technology (blatant TL5+ Pretech) that wasn't supposed to exist here to interest these characters in also joining into the "pursuing the cult into the Badlands" Chapter 2 arc. If is their discretion what fact-finding they do in the town to learn more, and under what conditions they join up with the others on such an effort.

Re-reading posts is also always a good practice. I embed tons of hints intentionally, but all things depend ultimately on player/character action. You can pluck anything you want and riff off of it to create an action, or you can make new NPCs with a Connect roll (whether successful or not) and I'll unfold the story in your designated new direction. For example, Báleygr took the idea that there was a mechanic up the street and spurred off it for his entrance instead of arriving on the truck. That resulted in the NPC mechanic being fleshed out and named, and he provided a reference that there's Oil Derricks out in the Badlands as a location and provided an invitation. You could choose to interact with that mechanic again or not. You could end up going to the drill platform or not. That's the nature of a sandbox. There's been other information provided about this town, about Justice problems, about the next town of Windfall, and to interest you in wherever the wolves got to in the Badlands. I'll unfold the story based on what your characters do.

...since NPCs are often dynamic, I don't know that I'll be able to also maintain a Dramatis Personae list for you. I will open a thread, though, to allow easy reference and encourage you all to add to it as the game progresses. I think a player-administrated list of who and what YOU see as important is a benefit to the game. I'll lean on your list for who I re-introduce as the story continues.

[Enoch]

All I can picture with us intervening to prevent the townsfolk from dragging Zoe away as a witch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBBWgxsodPM

[jemmus]

All I can picture with us intervening to prevent the townsfolk from dragging Zoe away as a witch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBBWgxsodPM

GM Marullus, I really like the way you're letting the players help build the sandbox. I've noticed that it's kind of hard in PBP games for the GM to let players know all of the details of the world, so they can make informed decisions. And if they make a wrong assumption about that, and other players post based on that wrong information, getting everyone back on track could be really difficult. (It would be hard to ask everyone to go back and redo their posts). But here the sandbox is building the way the players visualize it. So we can't mess up! Nice.

[Mister-Kent]

Very nice set-up! I should be able to post more today.

[redwarrior]

Darn! Where's that Blarney stone when you really need it!

[redwarrior]

Oh, and for those who haven't heard, Worlds Without Number (Swords & Sorcery, OSR-style) joins the fray!


https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/34 ... out-Number

[Marullus]

This link is the Free Edition.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/348809

My hard copy is already ordered. I am tempted to run a game in it (I really want to dig through the magic systems) but would happily play if someone else DMs.

[jemmus]

Nice! I'll probably get the paid PDF, if nothing else to help keep these guys in business.

[redwarrior]

Yep, I'm at the point where I sometimes buy things just because I think they're cool. Even if I doubt I'll ever use them. I can't imagine 10-years ago me ever saying that, but here we are.

[Enoch]

Right there with you. I love exploring the ideas, even if I'll never play them.

[Marullus]

Indeed. I had to modify for many years, saying my hobby is actually more kickstarting and collecting cool games, not actually playing them. I really dig the small press community, and easily have 40+ RPGs on my shelves, not counting my PDF library.

[Enoch]

The one thing I wish these boards had was a "thumbs up" mechanism, where you could "like" a post without actually posting a reply.

Also, I had no idea Johnny Cash redid "Personal Jesus". I'm a bad Cash fan.

[redwarrior]

Well, now that Hansel may have talked his way out of Jail, knock on wood, I need to spend some time this weekend re-reading all the backstory! In crafting "Han's Story" I found a TON of stuff that I hadn't even realized had been going on in the Saloon at the time we were playing it. Glorious confusion! (I mean that in a 110% good way). And I have NO idea what's happened so far anywhere that ISN'T the saloon. This is really immersive storytelling. And I LOVE the soundtrack!

[jemmus]

Yeah, glorious confusion and really immersive is right! I'm such a dork that I told my wife the story of the scene. She's never played an RPG, but she's a creative type and likes this kind of stuff. She was had a look on her face like a kid listening and imagining at story time. "Wow, like a movie scene. But you guys are the characters. And you write your own characters story!" So immersive even to a complete layman non-RPGer. Really nice. (Wish we had a thumbs up emoji to insert into posts, in addition to one thumbs-upping other people's posts).

[shroomofinsanity]

I think each of us only concerning ourselves with whatever scene we are in is a good call, at least at first. I kinda like learning things as Lira does as it concerns the various plots going on in town, and an eventual meet up of all the characters where we can actually tell our sides of what we have seen and learn through the speech of the other characters, it's something I have only managed to do in real life with running private sessions or out of the room rp moments. I love this, and I can't wait to see how many of these goals we can deliver on!