One
of my regular players could not make last weeks regularly scheduled
game. Going on over two years of online play he has never missed a
session so he is involved in like everything which has happened to date. During the previous session when the good Dr. Thomas Norton last
played he ended up getting separated from the party so being absent didn't force any hand-waving to explain his absence. Still, with vacation coming up here at the end of the week another
regularly scheduled session was going to be scratched leaving the
next live session not until February 18. Damn, just too darn long for
my tastes. What to do, what to do…
I
decided on an off week bonus game session. It would focus on the
activities of the Dr. until he was able to rejoin the party proper.
This would also give me a chance to let a previous regular player
jump in for a session since, no fault of his own, he had to change
his schedule like last year and could no longer make the live
sessions.
Without
going into a detailed session report, okay, a mildly detailed session
report, I have to say I really like splitting the party and having
action happen “off-screen” to the rest of the party. Time
commitments are the only thing holding me back from doing this
ongoing, but getting in another session covering mushrooming campaign
action was a blast. First, I get a bigger game world with multiple
courses of action occurring. Second, it gives me practice towards
accomplishing my ultimate role-playing goal. I'm sure this has been
done before, but I would like to have different campaigns with
different players meet up in special cross-over sessions much like
Elric would run into manifestations of himself in the multiverse.
This means I would have tangential relations to the major world
changing effects/enemies in each of the different campaign worlds and
players who previously didn't know anything about the other game
would find themselves face to face with PC's they've never
encountered before, even possibly playing a completely different game system then the other party. Something uniquely doable with online play.
But
on this night of January 19, 1646 in Great Yarmouth the gasping,
spent Dr. is urged on by his old Puritan soldiering grognard
companion Saul Goodman coming out of the gloom. Recently returned
from a secret mission on Zeal's behalf he immediately searched for
Dr. Thomas Norton when finished debriefing. Norton had split from
his badly wounded companions in the hopes of keeping the escaping
Xaxus/Martyn, the current villainous threat, and his loaded wagon in sight.
Random
rolls established how long before the pair located the now abandoned
wagon and we got underway. This is where I hoped to channel some of
those great city pursuit adventures. A bit of Carlito's Way, The
Matrix Reloaded, Collateral, Bourne Identity, etc. was what I had in
mind for the session, but this is 1646. What kind of sexy, neo-noir,
dangerous urban challenges does a cold night in the golden age of
dysentery have to offer our ruthless duo? What would actually be
interesting to encounter but not seem like utter rubbish? Going to
the historical record has been really useful for my game prep. One, I
know “bollocks” about this period of time, and two, +James Raggi has built his successful line of game adventures on this time period
so this tells me there are plenty of real horrible tales to be told
from such a record. Still the question stands, what is their to
do in a town like Great Yarmouth when street lights haven't even been
invented yet?
The
abandoned wagon provided a rather staid opening for session
start. I spiced it up with some hanger-ons drinking and fornicating
among the ransacked goods. This gave the PC's their first chance to
pick up the trail. Their target left with one of the locals and they
got a direction. The next possible encounter was a Puritan mass for
some of the destitute locals. While there target was not here I
provided another clue from a parishioner. What made it interesting? I
poached descriptions from the beginning of Moby Dick. Ishmael's night
wanderings in Nantucket can provide great sights, sounds and smells
of an active fishing town. Sexy? In the eye of the beholder. But its
Melville, the guy can write. You would have to be one of Dr. Norton's
patients not to respond somehow to what he is laying down. So this
encounter gets the PC's some more concrete location information and
they make their move. I couldn't find any “historical” record of
my next location, I made it up, but it was time to put out my 1646 disco ball! An
illicit “tea” shop serving up the new rage from the New World;
coffee and cocaine! Complete with a tuned-up accordion player and
upscale clientele. I'm a big fan of random encounters and I rolled a
Doctor, a Dr. Howy Brass, as the random NPC the villain would encounter here. I rolled
this ahead of time during my session prep. This gives me time to ask myself the usual questions; "Why would Xaxus find this person interesting/useful?", "What would such an encounter lead to?". This would be my plot hook
to hang my alien god on so I wanted it to be satisfying, make sense and offer opportunities to kill PC's. Back to historical
research. What fucked up things could your average Paracelsan
physician get up into? I came away from google with Distillation Furnaces and
Boyle's Law. Click, click, click. So we have coked out monied
gentleman, one experimenting with purifying the mind of ill-humors
and a desperate alien entity looking to convert as many people as
possible to his cause as willing slaves, hmm….
I
won't bore you with any more details. Suffice to say this provided
plenty of activity and action for the PC's to engage with and let the
bloody chips fall where they may. And it left me feeling, split the
party? Hell yeah!
