Game Report - Dystopian Universe Beta Playtest - Sessions 0 and 1

We had two sessions in one: Session 0 for creating La Resistence and The Government and setting first secrets (as they created their characters by their own), and Session 1 (a try the waters simple adventure).

First of all, we created La Resistence. As Paulo’s characters hates the VR by some backstory, the players setted the Manifesto to From Le Treillis to L’Apoogée, we’ll bring people back to Reality, so they want to disrupt totally the society stratification and the isolation that the Le Treillis provokes into people from reality.

To the Weakness, they chosed Very few, very apart, many agendas to see that, at least from the start, there’s not exactly one great Resistence, but groups that are scattered and set apart, each one trying to push their own agenda aside La Resistance’s one… and even about them.

For the starting Advancements, they chose (one each) Hijacked Shipments and Hearts and Minds. This was fun for me as GM.

Then, we got for The Government, and then they chose as Slogan For a safer Paris Nouveau. And then we came for the Scandal, where I take a page from William Shatner’s Tekwar, thanks by Paulo, with her character introducting the idea of VR being a kind of disease, even an addiction, like a drug (think also on Dune’s Semuta addiction). So, we put the Scandal as AR/VR: an real addiction, and a very lucrative one

Then, we came to the Government’s Advancements and the PCs chose Surveillance Optimization, and I had forgot it totally in the first Session, or else I would turn PCs life hell. And I’ve took Infrastructure Investiment, so I can cash things in the Bank so I can milk it later in the campaign.

We had some difficult in next step, setting Secrets, as there was just two players and we had to put some extra secrets so the secrets could be not deductables, but using Google Hangouts had worked okay. We’re using Roll20 (for maps and rolls), Hangouts (for chat, recording - via Youtube Live - and screen sharing), Google Spaces (for information exchaging) and Classeur (for notetaking, adventure controls and so), so they’ll creating the secret details via Classeur and share with me.

As we got fast into Session 0 (as they had read the playtest documents - after signed the pledge), we got into Warehouse Raid. They had to go into Georges Méliès’s tomb at Pere-Lachaise’s Cemetery to get for their first mission for La Resistance, each one getting by themselves. Then, Jean-Jacques had compelled himself into the La Resistence’s Weakness to be wary on Remy, and I’ve compelled Remy as Cityoen, as they treat Naturals like Jean-Jacques, and they had some clash on talking about trust and so, until I put the NPCs to talk them about the mission: Said, an Armiger tripodded guy from Arab ascendance with a GLaDOS-like voice and his “sidekick” somewhat, Leandra Vazaios, an Natural that, although being a little more than a child, is respected by La Resistence and is The last humanity link for Said.

Leandra made the presentations and talked about the mission. Also, to describe Said I compared it to the people near Cyberpunk 2020’s cyber-psychosis. And she presented the mission and talked about their loyalties. To turn things even worse, I mentioned indirectly to Jean-Jacques’s secret. They are accusing each other on mistrust, but Jean-Jacques asks about the warehouse, and Leandra presented a Blood-soaked, dirty, scrawled Installation Map. As they tried to analyse the map in secret, Said put them In Target, just in case they run. The Map also had some information about AR/VR connection and information for Remy as Hacker to use to invade and try to do things to mess with the AR/VR in the place.

They accept the mission, after a menace exchange between Jean-Jacques and Leandra, including Leandra giving Said’s Last humanity link with her. And so they went for the prep scene.

Remy had created a set of fake matedata that could be useful to spoof security systems and so, while Jean-Jacques studied the Schedules and Methods of Sun Systems Biotech’s warehouse. And then they had gone for the mission.

La Resistance provided a Van with fake metadata so they could enter the warehouse easily. And Remy had spoofed her metadata to get undetected so she could hack the security systems. They had lots of good rolls and they had took lots of boosts on rolls, and so I had few blowback to use against them. They had entered and a Group of Disguised Naturals from La Resistence came to turn things more correctly.

Remy plugged herself into the local systems network to spoof things and counter the security systems without problems. She had a good result, and spoofed the Security Systems to avoid detection and to use it for them. I tried to launch a clue on something I called Project ET-01 that the hakcer discovered on the warehouse inventory. Jean-Jacques asked for a cargo manifest that could be used to clean things up, and Remy was very succesful to create the manifest.

They filled the van and then Jean-Jacques got near the Security Commander, Guard Captain Rodriguez, and they used a boost for a reroll. With a Sucess with Style, he humiliated himself to Rodriguez for he to sign the fake cargo manifest, and he was successful on this. Jean-Jacques discovered that Rodriguez was the one who need to sign the manifesto so they can get out without problems. Jean-Jacques used the Schedules and Methods and the Cargo Manifest boosts to ease things to get for Rodriguez. This was the moment I thought things was so easy.

Jean-Jacques had entered the room and Rodriguez did a snob look, but Jean-Jacques stayed on his cool. Although he was very agressive, he signed the manifest. They looked for a safe and Remy captured a photo of it via the hacked security system. Jean-Jacques get out with the signed manifest, and they got out the warehouse…

It was too easy, so I compelled on a Jean-JacquesBeing Human is More Important than live Aspect and was negated. But Remy suggested for an compel on her Aspect The Plague Doctor (her fame in the Datasphere) to make her left a message and they were detected after. They had crossed with a Corvid Economics convoy (my idea was to put them into the Convoy Ambush mission, although it had happened somewhat). They tried to detract the van, either in real life and into AR/VR.

They decided, in the end, to empty the van and bring the supplies to La Cave, and to forfeit the van. While emptying the van, they had a Success into a Minor Cost, so I chose to make them left A Way Opened to La Cave, but they left the van into neutral and had a Success into Style to made the van get into the Siene. The Way Opened to La Cave was left unscatched, but I considered the Gerdame didn’t wanted to get with more problems (like I’ve Conceded the Convoy Ambush, with a total 4 Fate Points for the Bank). And this was the mission ending, going to debrief.

As I’ve not used the FPs for the mission, and so I received 2 FP for the Bank (by the Investing in Infrastructure Advance). As receive 6 Advancement Points for the Mission (they were spotted and the alarm was called). Then I started the debrief, with Leandra being a little uneasy with them, and Remy accused Leandra of double-crossing them, and Leandra accused Remy of intentionally marked the AR/VR to alert the government, with Jean-Jacques also supporting her into a tration accusation.

I put them the options for Remy: clean her name, getting double or sacrifice. Remy’s player had chose to clean her name, revealing she did this because she fell in love for Said (didn’t choose if this will be mutual). Then Remy explained she tried to impress Said. Jean-Jacques lost all his Advancement and I received an automatic advance.

They had took 10 Resistance Advancement Points, so they took an extra Advance, and they learned their lesson by choosing Training Archive Access to ease for themselves next missions.

For myself, I took an extra Government Advance (by Remy’s cleaning her name) and put her Secret Attraction back the Secrets Deck and Remy’s player took for a new secret. He took it and them we ended the session.

I think the worst was to manage all the pools involved: Advancement Points for Resistance/Government, Blowback, Bank, etc… But I think this was because it was a first time, and in next session I’ll be better on this. I also had problem to obtain blowback to escalate things, but chose to save them for next missions.

Unfortunately I can’t pass on more about PCs and so, because we’re using things in Portuguese… But if they want some extra info, I can always put them for you into for resource links if you want, things like gameplay video, character sheet and so.

Anyway, it was fun and people understood the idea on cyberpunk and also so on. Hope to play more adventures. It was incredible, albeit the difficults. The player liked the idea that everything is growing: La Resistence, The Government, the players, everything. The system was fast and funny and left space to guide things up easily.

Sidney “Knacks” Sheeran, Espírito da Desenvoltura

Aspectos

Tipo Aspecto
Conceito Um garoto vagabundo do Texas que se vira como pode
Dificuldade “Adeus Texas, minha casa agora é o mundo!”
  Sempre com seu chapéu e o seu laço
  As pessoas de quem ele gosta podem confiar nele 100%
  Quer fazer amigos como ele (embora não saiba o que isso significa)

Abordagem

Abordagem Nível
Ágil Regular (+1)
Cuidadoso Razoável (+2)
Esperto Bom (+3)
Estiloso Regular (+1)
Poderoso Medíocre (+0)
Sorrateiro Razoável (+2)

Façanha Centuriã

  • Já fiz isso… Eu acho: como ele faz de tudo para sobreviver, ele recebe +3 ao Criar Vantagens sendo Esperto quando fazendo coisas que normalmente não faria

Façanhas Comuns

  • Habituado ao ar livre: Uma vez por sessão, pode ignorar os efeitos negativos de Aspectos relativos ao clima ou ao ambiente. O Aspecto não é removido e pode ser usado pelo personagem contra seus inimigos.
  • Primeira Impressão: +2 ao Criar Vantagens sendo Ágil para gerar uma boa impressão inicial.

Aparência

Knacks é um garoto vagabundo como muitos outros: vestido em roupas rotas e rasgadas, seu rosto normalmente sujo é sardento e seu cabelo ruivo é encaracolado e normalmente bagunçado, já que ele tem poucas oportunidades de tomar um banho. Não importa o quão sujo ele está, ele nunca é visto sem seu Chapéu Texano e sem seu laço na cintura. Ele também sempre é visto usando botas, mesmo quando isso não combina com o que está vestindo.

Comportamento

Knacks é um garoto bem expansivo e alegre, já quie ele acredita que deixou o pior para trás quando abandonou a fazenda e o Texas, e que as coisas agora irão melhorar. Ele não sabe porque, mas sente que ir para Nova Iorque foi uma grande aventura que lhe renderá um bom prêmio.

História

Em uma pequena fazenda no Texas, nas primeiras badaladas do dia 1° de Janeiro de 1901, um garoto nasceu em uma grande familia Escocesa-Americana. Já tendo 6 bocas para alimentar, a 7ª foi demais, e quando garoto não conseguia fazer sua parte nos trabalhos da fazenda, por ser muito pequeno, os seus irmãos tornaram a vida dele um inferno… com o consentimento de seus pais.

Foi quando, aos 7 anos, ele sentiu um desejo enorme pela estrada e acabou fugindo. Ele não sabia o porquê: apenas parecia fazia sentido fugir, e assim ele o fez, pegando um trem para Albany, onde ele acabou encontrando alguns andarilhos mais gentis que lhe ensinaram o básico da vida nos trilhos, o colocando para trabalhar limpando os vagões dos animais para o Ringling Bros em troca de comida e roupas. Ele gostou dessa vida, e gostou muito da comunidade de Andarilhos de Albany, mas ele sentiu que tinha que ir ainda mais longe.

E então ele seguiu para Houston, e o processo se repetiu: ele encontrou a comunidade local de andarilhos, fez alguns serviços por comida e roupas, mas então ele sentiu novamente o desejo de viajar tão comum em alguns andarilhos, mas 1000 vezes mais forte e com um destino específico: Nova Iorque.

Ele não entendia qual o fascínio que Nova Iorque exercia nele, apenas um garoto da fazenda, alguém que preferia as estrelas como teto e os uivos do coiote como canção de ninar. Mas ele sentia que descobriria as respostas para as perguntas que estavam se fazendo, e agora que ele chegou em Nova Iorque e encontrou a Rainha dos Vagabundos conhecida como Lady Brigit Danaan, ele acredita que terá as suas respostas, mesmo que ele as tenha que pegar no laço!

Ibi, Espírito da Terra

Aspectos

Tipo Aspecto
Conceito Índia brasileira que fala com a mãe Terra
Dificuldade Os animais tem tanto direito à vida como nós
  Juma sabe tudo sobre mim sempre me protegerá
  Vegetariana, não consome nenhum tipo de carne
  Espírito Animal da Águia - deseja saber mais sobre o mundo lá fora

Abordagens

Abordagens Nível
Ágil Razoável (+2)
Cuidadoso Bom (+3)
Esperto Razoável (+2)
Estiloso Medíocre (+0)
Poderoso Regular (+1)
Sorrateiro Regular (+1)

Façanha Centuriã

  • Ligação com Animais - Como uma índia amazônica, Ibi vive e é ligada à natureza, e graças a isso ela pode chamar os espíritos dos animais de onde estiver, falar com eles e até mesmo convocar seu poder. Duas vezes por sessão ela pode gerar Aspectos relacionado a Animais com uma Invocação gratuita. Só pode Gerar Aspectos dessa forma envolvendo animais que ela já conheça e que existam na região.

Façanhas Comuns [ Recarga: 3 ]

  • Falar com Animais: +2 ao Criar Vantagem de Maneira Cuidadosa ao conversar com animais. Entretanto, eles não podem passar informações que não consigam descrever
  • Conhecimento do tempo e da mata: +2 em Criar Vantagens de Maneira Cuidadosa relativas ao tempo e clima em regiões selvagens

Aparência

Ibi tem o tamanho normal para uma índia amazônica, e usa uma espécie de saia feita de folhas, e um cocar. Ela também pode ocasionalmente tapar os seios com uma veste feita de folhas. Caso necessário ela pode também usar roupas “do homem branco”.

Comportamento

Ibi valoriza sua liberdade, a Natureza e os animais. Ela é curiosa quanto aos hábitos do homem branco e quanto ao mundo fora de sua tribo, mas ao mesmo tempo não tem respeito ou paciência com aqueles que não respeitam a Natureza. Ela ainda se sente pouco à vontade com a ideia de que cedo ou tarde deverá deixar a aldeia onde vive e explorar o mundo lá fora. Ela confia acima de tudo em Juma, a velha mas forte pajé de sua tribo e guardiã do poderoso Amuleto Xivipi.

História

Ibi nasceu (e ela não descobriu sobre isso até ser mais velha) nas primeiras badaladas do novo Século, em sua tribo. O grito do Condor no seu nascimento foi considerado uma forma de Auspício, um que levou Juma, a pajé da tribo, a dizer que ela deveria crescer como uma filha especial da Mãe Natureza. Ibi aprendeu muito de todos na tribo, em especial de Juma, que lhe contou muito sobre o homem branco e sobre como cedo ou tarde ela iria deveria partir da tribo, para ir ao mundo do homem branco, aprender e um dia retornar, como Juma mesmo fez quando ela era muito mais jovem, de modo a voltar ainda mais sábia e forte em mente e conhecimento, para usar o conhecimento do homem branco e a sabedoria do passado a favor da sua tribo. Desse modo, Ibi espera o momento em que deverá partir.