This weekend was my first game as ST for New York City's Mage venue. It was intense, and exciting, and definitely very interesting. Here comes the run down.
Oh, and while I will be discussing things from the game and not the plot, this is all Out of Character information, for those of my players reading this.
I woke up at 6am to finish prepping for the scenes. This is in-of-itself a sign of how much I take this position seriously. I am not a morning person, I love sleep, and breakfast is more of a concept and less of a reality. This is TRIPLY so on Saturdays. Of course, even when I'm early, I'm late. The person with the keys to the studio did not show up until 12pm, which was when game started. So we began game about a half an hour late. Not ultimately a problem, it just ups our timetables.
As people check in, I receive a surprise. A player came in with a werewolf sheet. That makes life a little interesting. They had an approval for permanent cross venue, meaning that the werewolf they were playing is allowed to come into the Mage Venue (cross venue is srs bizness in Cam), so it's all legally copacetic. However, it came without notice and without information to the new VST. I allowed it, and truth be told the player did well, and enhanced the situation. It was lucky that the plot was Spiritual in origin (in World of Darkness, Werewolves are partially creatures of the Spirit Realm), but there are a lot of ways that can go wrong. It doesn't help that there isn't a Werewolf game in this City, making my resources limited to the few who play and the corebook.
The game was held one week after the major National Convention Atlanta by Night. During the Mage part of the convention, several players made their way to Atlantis, the capital of Magic which had been decimated before the world became the world...yeah, I know. Anyway, the point is that it was a religious experience to a lot of people and it lead to a lot of decisions to the Hierarch/Leader of the New York Mages, which of course leads to in fighting. This is unheard of in the year or so I've been playing, since we've all had a common enemy. You kill ONE Police Commissioner who was a part of a global conspiracy and suddenly you turn on each other. Sheesh. So yes, I get to have political infighting, which is WONDERFUL, helps take the load off my case.
Secondly came my plot, or at least two of them. The B plot was the return of Spirits in the City. They ran after a Death Spirit started manifesting into the world and using a Mage to birth itself (Mage is one giant "you'd have to have been there" moment). Anyways, one of them (played by my friend and Assistant, Ben) comes in as a Spirit, which several people, including the Hierarch and Werewolf, can see. The Werewolf, partially being a creature of the Spirit Realm, is able to question name, rank, classification and shoe size from most spirits. She gets it, Osveta, which is Croation for "Revenge" is just that. She is a Rank 5 Spirit of Revenge.
To give you an idea of Ranks in the Spirit World, 5 is in the range of Minor Gods, 6 is a Lesser god, 7 is a greater God (think Zeus, or Odin), 8 is Celestial Beings (Gaia would be an example, possibly) 9 are Platonic Forms, The Endless would make good 9s. Finally is Rank 10, which is God and other Absolute Beings beyond manifest understanding.
So what the Consilium has run into is a Lesser God of Revenge and Wrath, and all the Rank 4's, 3's, 2's and 1's that answer to her. She takes the form of a Little Girl, she likes sundaes...really.
Actually, Osveta was a character in the first story I ever wrote for my Mage character. It was something I was worried about doing, and I'm truly very touched that people liked the character (the story is on other Blog: Boy The City Talks To) I have several stories, and many of these characters may make a return in the venue.
The highlight of my day was the plot I personally ran. In a bid to find a way to banish the Death Spirit still attached and growing through the Mage, three members of the Consillium find themselves at a mental home for those who had Seen Too Much. Magic and Reality don't get along much in Awakening, and the concept of The Lie will make sure that it never goes noticed. What happens if the only way that works is to make the non-mages go insane? They say it, but they're brains can't process it.
So, I let the players walk through that. literally. The site we had was in fact two different rooms. I took the larger room and scattered around it index cards describing each individual patient they saw, some had plot attached, some didn't. The idea came from my playing Dystopia Rising, which used Item Cards and had pieces of salvageable items littered throughout their Site. This is the kind of game I want to play, one that involves investigation and depth, as opposed to just modules that involve hitting things with my axe.
In this scene I played Dr. Chase Alain, a genial doctor with a prosthetic leg. He required the use of a cane, which was designed with flame stripes (it's the cane Dr. House uses, fyi). Unfortunately, not much is what it seems. The Doctor is a Scelesti, a mage who has dedicated itself to the Abyss, but for all the right reasons. He went...a little insane, and dropped a siginficant plot onto the doorsteps of the players. Then he blew himself, the building and his charges up.
It was during this part that one of the characters realizes something, and realizes what plot is going on. The look he gave me was the one of understanding and one that says in any language "Oh Shit". It was a rush, to be able to illicit that response from a player.
The mages, being Mages, were unscathed. Save one. A new player who admitted to me during the game that he wasn't able to wrap his mind around the concept of Mage and wanted to put his character away without killing him off. We arranged for him in the blast to be knocked out of the setting and making a run for it. No one knew him, and really no one noticed his disappearance, which makes me want to have him come back at some point and fuck with that. But I digress.
The game ended as the consillium put together the pieces. What was the point of the House, what were it's connections to the Abyss? Only downtime actions will tell...MUWAHAHAHAHAHA!!
All in all, it was a great game, and definitely some of the most intense Role Playing going on I've seen in game. This thrills me. There were a few problems, opening up on time being one of them. The other problem comes from the transition of one Storyteller to the next. My predecessor is the new Storyteller for the domain of New York City, meaning he is responsible for the story of the City, while myself and the ST's for Changeling The Lost and Requiem are responsible for the stories of our respective venues while inside that. When he became DST, he took the previous Mage plots with him. This lightens the load for me, but the plots are not resolved yet and they were highly involved. So a lot of questions had to be diverted to the DST. I think we both realized at the end that some of those plots need to be put away.
That was the first month, the first hurrah. I won't be in New York for November's game, but that gives me time to build a few ideas, especially a certain prop, using certain designs, to mind fuck a certain group of players.
Remember, Can't spell 'Sadist" without "ST"
Later,
C
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