Hello hello. We’re back this week with another TTRPG Tuesday. This week I figured I’d think out the Experience I want to create with my two WIPs - The Riders 18-card RPG, and the Company scenario The Envy of Ajax. It’s going to be a bit freeformy - quelle surprise, eh?
The Envy of Ajax:
Someone who likes The Company and has played it before sees that there’s a short standalone scenario, and picks it up. The simplicity of the pamphlet gels with the accessibility of the zine, and adds to the small but eye-catching pile.
The person wants to get some friends into the Company - perhaps friends with similar taste in films, but not especially versed in RPGs. The first zine allows them to build everyone full characters, but for first timers with just one evening at their disposal, the Eurydice Incident seems to be too much of a commitment. Instead of trying to pick one of the scenarios from the second zine, the GM decides that the pamphlet will be loose enough that they can jump in fairly quickly, without the players being intimidated or bogged down, and pacing will be played by ear as the evening progresses.
The players get a kick out of the novelty of it - the whole thing is one page, of which they can only see one side. The tone and brevity of the rules make them feel empowered to take chances and try narratively wild things. The abstractness of the map, and the pacing with which they penetrate into the Bullseye reinforce that.
Their first taste of combat is challenging and memorable; in a fairly straightforward brawl, they are brought to the brink of defeat before the first monster “flees”, its path reveals the cache of superweapons, and the players feel a rush not only from being healed (by medical supplies that close up their wounds but also increase their infection rate) but by suiting up.
Upon arming themselves, the players immediately feel the powerup - the group of enemies they next encounter are dispatched easily and the only challenge is in describing how brutal their victory is.
Corporate branding is still everywhere, and the players begin to feel warmly toward the Company and the lab that made them feel so powerful.
The hunted become the hunters, or so it seems to the players. They are all at the height of their abilities - shooting, hacking, building, scienceing better than they ever have before. They can track the main monster with ease, and land hits that seem to really have an effect. There is just enough time for the players to start to believe that this is a different kind of scenario, or that they’ve earned their success, when the reveal happens.
Now that the players remember what genre this is, they feel a panicky urgency to try and escape with their lives. The power fantasy of earlier is completely turned on its head, and their willingness to inhabit and care for these characters invests them in escaping somehow, anyhow.
Any players that succumb to the infection get to switch sides, and the GM makes them feel like accomplices, not minions - they get to keep their power fantasy a little longer.
In the end, players feel like they were invested from start to finish, in a barebones world that they slapped the flesh onto. The whole experience from character creation to end lasts maybe 85 minutes, and they have a great, on-theme introduction to the system and the genre it bleeds.
Whew! I was gonna do both WIPs but that went on longer than expected, and I don’t think I have a whole ‘nother game’s worth in me right now. Til next time! Keep on TTing RPs G!
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