All right, I admit, we still haven't mastered the days of the week. Even worse, this time, my friends at the table have no idea why!The truth is that, in advance of a big party on March 2nd celebrating their relationship, my brother and his girlfriend of many years have decided to marry in secret. So, on February 21st, my wife and I will be sneaking off to Manchester Town Hall for the ceremony and then on to Malmaison for drinks, speeches and many courses of delicious food. Critically, everybody who isn't attending the ceremony must be kept in the dark until the big reveal at the party; nine days later. Fortunately, my friends have known me long enough that, when I say "hey guys! Let's have our gaming night on Thursdays," and then organise the first two such events on Wednesdays, they really aren't all that surprised.
First item on the agenda tonight is to establish the rules system we'll be utilising. Last week's analysis told me that the players want
- collaborative worldbuilding
- cinematic storytelling
- an emphasis on richly developed characters
- a mechanic that rewards roleplaying
While I'm willing to admit that my judgement may be clouded (I backed the Kickstarter, joined the G+ communities, and I've been eagerly waiting for my chance to try it out), but to me this seems like the ideal opportunity to run a FATE CORE campaign. I do my best to introduce the basics of the system to our players and they all agree to give it a whirl.
So, I turn to Chapter 2: Game Creation in my copy of the December Draft and read aloud the advice on how to begin.
WHEN CREATING YOUR GAME:
Setting: Decide what the world that surrounds the protagonists is like.
Scale: Decide how epic or personal your story will be.
Issues: Decide what threats and pressures inherent to the setting will spur
the protagonists to action.
NPCs: Decide who the important people and locations are in the setting.
Skills and Stunts: Decide what sorts of things characters in the setting are likely to
want to do.
Character Creation: Make the protagonists.
The game that I want to run takes place in a near-future version of Manchester, in the United Kingdom (where we live OOC). About a year prior to the campaign, there was an outbreak of a mysterious affliction. It spread quickly, from the Northwest, to the rest of Great Britain and Ireland, and inevitably to the world at large. Those who contract the illness usually exhibit strange beliefs and behaviours.
e.g. "I can understand the speech of cats... I'm going to let them live with me."
Initially, these changes may seem merely peculiar and essentially harmless. But, before long, a build up of salt crystals in the patient's body (particularly in joints and tendons) results in debilitating pain and necessitates intensive drug treatment. Public awareness of the way the sickness develops led to sufferers being referred to euphemistically as 'Salts'. In the final phase of the illness, which cruelly is almost never terminal, brain function degrades rapidly. Many sufferers then fall into a persistent vegetative state; those that remain conscious exhibit failures in cerebral cortex function. A loss of linguistic capabilities and impulse control, accompanied by a behavioural shift towards more crudely aggressive or defensive activity, renders the individual incapable of social interaction, dangerous to others and in need of indefinite secure hospitalisation.
Unsurprisingly, the effect of this global pandemic, has been devastating to economic, cultural and political bodies alike. The coalition government of the United Kingdom took immediate steps to minimise harm: the borders were closed in order to limit the spread of the disease (although there is some evidence that the whole of Ireland lies within the quarantine), as far as possible the freedom of media and communications was curtailed to prevent misinformation or needless panic (the officially sanctioned options currently available are BBC television - 1 channel, BBC radio - 1 channel, The British Times newspaper), a vast network of Emergency Medical Facilities (EMFs) were set up on the sites of airports (as these immediately fell into disuse), and certain critical resources (such as fuel, medicine and tobacco) were seized and are now distributed through a system of rationing.
Tobacco? I hear you ask.
Well, it became apparent that smokers were not contracting the mysterious illness. Consequently, the majority of UK citizens took up smoking as a form of prophylactic medicine. Once the His Majesty's Government took control of distribution, every citizen was afforded an annual ration of 50 cigarettes.
His Majesty? I hear you ask again.
When things took a turn for the apocalyptic, the British Royal Family were notable by their absence. About a month in, however, when things were looking rather dire and the prospect of all out anarchy was looming, the news media were suddenly flooded with news of the unexplained accession to the throne of King William V. Even in The End Times, people are suckers for fairytales and the regular broadcasts of the King's speeches inspired enough order to see the nation through. The rest of the world was reportedly not so fortunate and the borders remain closed for the citizens protection.
That's enough about the Setting for now. The next question is that of Scale. However, this post is getting pretty long, so the rest can wait until Part Two!
Unsurprisingly, the effect of this global pandemic, has been devastating to economic, cultural and political bodies alike. The coalition government of the United Kingdom took immediate steps to minimise harm: the borders were closed in order to limit the spread of the disease (although there is some evidence that the whole of Ireland lies within the quarantine), as far as possible the freedom of media and communications was curtailed to prevent misinformation or needless panic (the officially sanctioned options currently available are BBC television - 1 channel, BBC radio - 1 channel, The British Times newspaper), a vast network of Emergency Medical Facilities (EMFs) were set up on the sites of airports (as these immediately fell into disuse), and certain critical resources (such as fuel, medicine and tobacco) were seized and are now distributed through a system of rationing.
Tobacco? I hear you ask.
Well, it became apparent that smokers were not contracting the mysterious illness. Consequently, the majority of UK citizens took up smoking as a form of prophylactic medicine. Once the His Majesty's Government took control of distribution, every citizen was afforded an annual ration of 50 cigarettes.
His Majesty? I hear you ask again.
When things took a turn for the apocalyptic, the British Royal Family were notable by their absence. About a month in, however, when things were looking rather dire and the prospect of all out anarchy was looming, the news media were suddenly flooded with news of the unexplained accession to the throne of King William V. Even in The End Times, people are suckers for fairytales and the regular broadcasts of the King's speeches inspired enough order to see the nation through. The rest of the world was reportedly not so fortunate and the borders remain closed for the citizens protection.
That's enough about the Setting for now. The next question is that of Scale. However, this post is getting pretty long, so the rest can wait until Part Two!
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