Session One: Our group, led by GM, with Delphinia, Rupert, Aurelia, Tatsuaki, who we only called "Joe" at the time, and Tasha. Luiz's and my first time with the C:TL rules. We spent a lot of time generating T & A's characters, hashing out particulars, discussing our characters, and we had a game session that involved a pretty cut and dried "I've gathered you all here together, because you're new here, and I need a favor" sort of quest. It was light hearted, well thought out, plenty of twists and turns. We were asked to find a Fae evil clown named Nicklesmart, who had come to Seaside to find a replacement for one of his escaped slaves. Minx and Jinx used to be his captives, and they got away, to take up residence in Seaside Point and run a tattoo parlor. He'd sewn Minx's mouth shut, and as long as she didn't utter a peep, everything would be fine. But she started talking, and now Nicklesmart is looking for not one, but three replacements for her. He popped up in Seaside Point during the Clown Festival, losing himself among the masses, and trying to abduct children. We found him, thwarted him, chased him down the boardwalk in a high-intensity chase scene, almost gave up, found him again, and had the final showdown in the haunted house ride. Very cinematic, and it was a great time. Not too complicated or intense for the new players, yet still interesting and fun for the seasoned players. Joe finally remembered his real name, Tatsuaki, only we still call him Joe (among other clever names)
Session Two: We got together, still, and played a board game called Descent, just for a lighthearted kind of thing. It was a lot of fun, and I could go for playing it again, for sure. Not instead of C:TL, but also.
Session Three/Four (I'm not sure if we played twice without Rupert and Aurelia, or once, but I'm rolling them together either way). Two of the group couldn't make it, so we went on without them. This time, the courts had changed over to Fall Court, and Jasper, an ogre, was the leader. He was asked by a vampire to help intercept a truck shipment of tax free cigarettes, so that it didn't go to a biker gang, which was growing in power, but to deliver it back to the vampires. Right-O boss, vampires, and this is about cigarettes? I thought it was some huge weapon shipment, or something. We tried snooping around the bar where the biker gang hung out, staying "low key" as TJ the vampire instructed us...but that ended with a firefight outside the back of the bar, and Joe killing one of their members. He got bled all over, and his coat started acting all kinds of funny. We did discover that there's more to these bikers than meets the eye, like the leader, Bulldog has a funny eye, and he can "see" us. We stole a car, returned it, bought a car...that talks to us. The coat talks too, but only to Joe. Delphinia's hair was acting funny, too, it had changed into catnip, and she has mobs of cats following her around, which provided a lot of laughs. Speaking of following, some dude in a late model car kept turning up at odd times. Can't really get a bead on what that's all about, but I'm guessing he's with the vampires. I feel like we really got *into* our characters and our game plot advancement stuff during this time. Lots of detailed stuff, "oh shit" moments, and laughs. A lot of weird happenings, that could only point to huger things down the line, which really got me excited about where this is going.
Recent session: Rupert and Aurelia came back to the fold, and there was some brief filling in. I like that we didn't spend the whole session replaying stuff, although I sensed it almost going that way. We started by getting together, and doing more with the now definitely Haunted Coat. Then we went to a bar, first to learn more stuff, but it wound up being closed. The coat, which Joe left at home, met him at the bar, in a very creepy scene. I jetted the fuck out of there. We wound up hitting another bar, and causing a scene, on purpose, to generate glamour. Hilarity ensued. I wanted to go home after that, prepare for this truck heist, and get a good night's sleep to repair bashing damage and refill willpower pools, people had other ideas. We returned to the scene of where the heist would take place, unarmed and unready, only to find the deal going down right in front of us. Which was cool, and the whole thing wound up unfolding well. My dice were against me, but it made for some great gaming moments. I tried to sneak in and throw my only knife all stealth like at the biker gang leader's head, (and motivate everyone into action), but I failed spectacularly at the throwing. Here's where GM is awesomely permissive. Our old DM would have been like "you fail, they see you, and now you're fighting one on one with this biker gang leader, godspeed." Then threw a handful of dice and rendered me into so many bits and gobs, spread out on the tarmac. (although, he did wind up making me immortal, all the better to abuse my character, I'm sure). GM, however, in the interest of being a peachy dude, let me back the fuck up, into the shadows, no harm, no foul. I don't mind abuse, but this was a nice gift. Joe blasted the head guy with lightning, missed, but stunned the group, and Rupert charged on in. He's great for that, point him in a direction, and he runs in swinging. I can admire that in a party member, he took a LOT of hits. It allowed us to do some footwork with the truck, and hopefully save the as-yet-uncovered cargo (which I'm thinking is still like some kind of high end contraband weapons or something). I could sense Aurelia's human sort of losing focus, and Delphinia's human had wandered completely, to the point of GM just saying something along the lines of "ok, you ran into a corner and hid, that's cool" And it is. I get that some people can't stay into it for a long time. A clean break was good, in this case, to keep the game rolling for the rest of us. We fought the rest of the bikers, and Aurelia, for whatever reason decided to light the cargo of the truck on fire. Again, nice GM. Old DM would have been like "well, you're fucked now, honey..." He was all about collateral damage, but I digress. I was pretty much out of combat, and rather than join the fray as she originally planned, she decided to check out where the smoke was coming from, only to stand helplessly by, and watch the truck begin to go up. My meta-side was like "NOOOO THAT"S FUCKING POINTLESS AND DESTRUCTIVE WHY WOULD YOU...why...agh..." but it did make for some funny in game moments, so, of course, it's cool. Everything happens for a reason, amirite? Someone, Rupert, after beating the biker leader to a paste, I think, found a fire extinguisher, and started putting it out, I hopped in there to see what was what, and discovered four coffins! Vampires! Crazy, total surprise. Joe scuffled on the ground with the last remaining biker, who was decidedly not human! Not The Lost, either. We jumped in to help him, as he was losing ground with this non-human, and I got to play a little cranium golf with a tire iron. Aurelia inexplicably lit a carton of cigarettes and threw it at the guy. Rupert was pretty fucked up, by then, but I think he actually shot 6. Great ending. We saddled up, and took the truck back to the vampires.
Here's what I wish I did. I wish that I eyeballed Bulldog, as he was a bloody pulp, on the ground. I checked over 6, the one that Joe was fighting, and it was inconclusive. I wish I'd checked out Bulldog's eye better. I wish I'd grabbed up his gun, and went through his pockets, as well as the other bikers. That would have been in character, but I could tell that everyone was getting tired and antsy, so I sort of fast forwarded, through delivering the truck back to the vampires.
It's my plan to at least do an entry like this after every game session, recapping it from Tasha's perspective. This game is really taking on a life of its own, and I always kicked myself for not documenting other campaigns, so here's hoping I stick to this one.
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