Play report: Leon Mazur, AP

[Thanuir]

(Name courtesy of Abulafia.)

This is AP report of Thalin's game. First session happened on Wednesday. Next will happen on the next Wednesday, barring meteors striking someone's home, or such.

GM: Thalin. Players: Me, A who lives with Thalin and V, who is my friend from the previous year and new to rp. If I have understood everything correctly, A has roleplayed before with some friends of his. The game was Warhammer FRP. He also plays NWN. Mods it, at least.
Thalin has played and larped a lot.
Everyone is male.

I get to Thalin's place around 17.30 (thanks to university; I would have come later, had I not skipped some hopefully inconsequental bits of a demo). There is general chatter, w eat soy-pea-soup of Thalin's cooking, and then settle inside Thalin's room. Unfortunately there is little room, so no sitting around a table, which would help everyone focus and would keep everyone face-to-face.
Ville is somewhat anxious. I am, too, though I don't know how much that shows. V's character is also still unnamed. I did bring a list of randomly generated names, but none struck his fancy.

Cast of characters: A is playing Sarn, a mage who does not know it. Sarn lives in a student apartment, the cellar floor, grows some drugs there (details I managed to forget), sells it to people, steals things, blackmales folk, is a hacker, and so on. He has psychological problems; fixated to smoking and suspectible to depression. His magic is mostly fate-based and instinctive.
A is playing a character not little like himself, personality-wise, and there is significant overlap in capabilities, too.

V is playing as-of-yet unnamed would-be-scientist. He is from a rich family but the relations are not all too good, right now. Magic is mind and space with a touch of something else. Char is pretty new mage. His vice is greed. He does partying (with drugs and booze), experiments and computers. Age somewhere between 20 and 30 closer to 30.

I am playing Leon Mazur, an informal leader of the poor folk in the city. There are plenty of unused structures and the people who would normally live in the street have taken refuge in those buildings. Leon holds them together, almost, and deals with such outside forces as the mafia, city rulers and the police force, if really necessary. Virtue is fortitude, vice is pride. Around 40 to 50 years old. Wears a long, grey coat. Good at drawing, does his magic through it.



The play starts.

Thalin first asks what everyone is doing. Sarn is fuzzing with his computer and growing his plants. Leon is waiting for his "appointment" with the mafia. The unnamed is reading some science stuff. Physics, maybe, I don't remember. He gets a text message: Mister White is dead!! Mister White being the grand master and protector of the entire city, there is some significance to this. 5 more similar messages come, with various emphasis, exclamations and smileys.
Leon gets one, too. "I heard mister White is dead. Would you mind checking this out? Please?" It is from his master, the Count (was Lord before a certain Eurovision), and tells a bit something about this particular person. I chuckled.

V staggered a bit, but did okay here. Also, though I neglect to mention the details, A's descriptions are pretty lively and filled with details. It is a significant factor in making the gameplay as good as it is. Detail does matter.

A's character does something inconsequental, ponders a bit, remembers that a particular person (V's char) owes him money due to an illegal bit of software Sarn acquired for him, and decides to pay a visit to him.
Leon goes to a pizzeria, waiting for the (Italian) mafia.
Unnamed is confused or shocked by the news and decides to calm down before taking action.
Leon sees Sarn walking besides the restaurant and feels he ought to remember the face (Leon does have a great memory for faces and locations, so this is kinda strange). The Don (further name not known) arrives. He is wearing white save for a walking stick with a golden end. The two bodyguards are bulging with barely hidden weaponry, or at the very least look like they are. His deal: this person called Sarn should be taken to the usual location. Leon agrees to take care of it.
Sarn arrives at unnamed's house. Knocking and such is ignored, savage kicking is not. Unnamed opens a peek hole or something like that. Sarn wants to get money. Unnamed's wallet happens to be empty. After some nagging Unnamed decides to come with Sarn to get money from an ATM.

Leon decides to confirm the rumour of mister White's death. The two closest mages he has heard of are Unnamed and someone who wants to control every resident of the city like puppets. V's char sounds a more safe attempt. Unfortunately Leon doesn't know what the mage looks like, only the address. He passes Sarn and Unnamed along the way, but doesn't identify them.

This is me trying to throw the characters together for fun or profit.

At the ATM, Unnamed's card is eaten by the machine. It doesn't even belch or anything. Very rude. The decide to turn back in case Unnamed has some cash under his pillow or something.

Leon tries knocking, nobody's home, so he decides to draw the building while waiting. After getting cold (weather: autumn) he is interrupted by Unnamed who asks why Leon is drawing his house. Sarn tries to stay unnoticed; Leon bought him extra lifetime after he had offended a crime boss. Fails. Leon recognises him and checks a picture the mafia boss gave to him. Match.
Leon gives unnamed a copy of the drawing of his and tells they need to talk. They have never met before. Unnamed agrees, but not too happily. Everyone enters his house. Unnamed goes to fetch his money, Sarn and Leon discuss something. "I think we might havemet before." was how it started.
Unnamed gives the money to Sarn who goes happily away (straight to the back door, which he promptly picks open bypassing the hidden alarm). Leon and Unnamed go to the living room. After some innuendo (I heard a pretty important person dies. Not a family member, but important nevertheless.) that leads to nowhere (either V didn't get it, his char didn't, or the char was deliberately witholding information), Leon does a discreet magical ping that Unnamed reacts to. Confirmation of rumours happens. Sarn records all of this on his PDA. The discussion happens on veiled terms, which leads to a small misinterpretation on Sarn's part: that the mafioso he owes to is finally dead. As Leon leaves, Sarn quickly darts to kitchen. A tiny whiff of tobacco is everything that he leaves behind.

Leon exits the house and a mage who is also a cop nods to him politely and passes to knock on the door. Leon decides to circle the house just to be on the safe side and make a few extra drawings. e notices an open back door.

The police officer greets Unnamed and talks in a characteristically loud voice: The dominion of mages is threatened! Are you with us or against us? Sarn hears this in the kitchen. Unnamed says something to the effect of not being willing to take sides. "Would you rather side with man-eating werewolves, vampires, and soul-sucking beasts?" Unnamed's response is no. The officer offers him a contract. At this point (mere coincidence, certainly) Leon is standing on the back door and knocks loudly. Unnamed takes the excuse and comes there. Leon says the door was open. Some creep might be inside. Unnamed mentions the alarms in the door, which promptly decide to activate. The cop comes there, too. Leon tells there may be someone unwanted nside the house. The police officer (called Ruhmann) starts systemically investigating, which worries Unnamed a bit, so he follows around. Leon likewise. Sarn panics, has nowhere to go (both doors being blocked), so checks to see if there are any closets he might fit. Being a lucky bastard (fate magic), one is found. There are some interesting chemicals in that particular closet, too. Some hints lead to kitchen, and Ruhmann opens the correct closet after some thought. A cat jumps on him. They grapple and fight, but Ruhmann who evidently fears cats loses it and jumps right out of the window. The small heap (nyytti) called Sarn remains unnoticed. Leon draws a bit something and enjoys the show. Ruhmann promptly runs away after exiting the building through the aforementioned window. Nyytti whimpers and is discovered. The initial shock having passed, Leon suggests that they ought to go elsewhere to talk.

Scene: A deserted building, upper floor, windowless room. Everyone is sitting on chairs. Some exposition and threatening commence. End result: Sarn gives his PDA to Leon, two audio files are removed and erased a ten or so times (just to be on the safe side), Sarn owes his life to Leon and Unnamed, and agrees to assist them in whatever is about to happen. Count pays a brief visit to Leon. Sarn reveals that some hidden cameras in some hotel rooms stopped functioning within a few days, which is kinda alarming. Sarn's address and phone number are now known to Leon and Unnamed.

Sarn goes home. A cat (tiger-stripped with defined colouring; the same one that attacked Ruhmann) follows him and later waits in his home. He goes to sleep evidently. Leon and Unnamed spot a cat (the same that follows/precedes Sarn), Leon tries casting spatial whatever which is his magesight spell of preference, doesn't see far enough (with a total of one success that is no wonder), tries drawing the cat, which escapes. Leon and Unnamed change the apartment they are using. With no further interruptions exposition happens. Both chars tell a bit about themselves and Leon explains the situation (big guy died; everyone wants power; we are important; I'll try to stay uninvolved, what you do is your business, don't trust people who are not me). They go to Unnamed's house, where he scans the PDA for anything valuable or useful, fails to decrypt some texts from Sarn's uncle who probably was a mage or madman, and they go to sleep. The PDA was stolen from the mafioso.

End of the first day and session.


The game was good. Probably the best I have played in. I was not immersed in the hardcore I-am-my-char-who-stays-separate-from-me-the-player sense. I did focus pretty solely on the game, but it was more holistic. Hard to describe better.

Participants are excellent. I was suspicious about A's tendencies, but he is good. If I had to find a negative, it would be spotlight-hogging. He uses the game as a conduit of his RL issues, I think, to some degree. I'm okay with that, because it adds to the game.
V is a first-time roleplayer but is also pretty good. He doesn't share the nasty habits of some long-term rpers.
Thalin probably had fun time; we generated plot hooks and twists more-or-less related to our chars. I did this the least, actually. A was particularly good at creating nastyness to Sarn.

The difference to Monday games with the university people is very large, and to the positive direction.

What I am anticipating/guessing/thinking to do (aka the GM's cheat sheet): Negotiate with the mafia about keeping Sarn for a while, at least. The PDA is a part of this process. Spread a word of warning on the streets. Investigate the cats. Investigate the matter of silenced microphones and cameras.

[Thanuir]

I was supposed to write this thing a week or so ago. Right. Excuses: Tara, Heini and mum visited, which consumed the entire Sunday. On the positive side, there are some carpets on the floor now.


The second session (previous week's one; there were exams at inappropriate moments during this week, but there is a chance of playing in Saturday).

There was a significant amount of chatter before the game, which started kinda late. Little to nothing of that spilled on actual game time, of which I am grateful.


The second day started with people waking up. Upon waking up Sarn discovered that his little garden had sprouted up to huge proportions. He was delighted and decided to test them. They were catnip. Having paid a lot for them, Sarn was kinda pissed off about having been cheated by whoever sold them to him.
There is, naturally, absolutely no connection between the cat that is inside and the catnip.

Leon and still Unnamed wake in the latter's house. It is kinda cold inside due to a broken window. Unnamed offers coffee to Leon and would offer food if he had anything edible. Unnamed decides to call in someone to fix the window, while Leon grabs the PDA and starts leaving. Two repairmen come almost immediately. They are big people and act somewhat robotic, with the response to inquiries of Unnamed being "We are good." or "Yes.". Leon leaves.


To be continued.

[Thanuir]

Unnamed uses his supernal vision-spell, which is pretty superb at detecting magic. The people have the likes of strings on them and are played as if they were marionettes by someone. Given that there is a mage called Puppetmaster with city/world domination goals, deductions are not hard to make. Unnamed panics and calls to Leon, who finds some thugs and gets there. The repairmen have, naturally, left by then (after kinda finishing the job and getting some coffee through a window). One of the thugs smashes another window; after that, the way they left is discovered. It is nearly a square hole in a hedgethat surrounds the house, from at least one direction. Following the trail the people left leads to the town proper, where following becomes kinda futile. Unnamed pays to the thugs (who start fighting about the money).

Here my recollections become hazy. The order may very well be inaccurate. Oh well.

Sarn spies the hotel where his microphones stopped working. It is one for the wealthy people. The particular apartment is totally darkened. It starts to rain, but before leaving, Sarn does notice a visitor; someone arriving in a long limousine, with pink hair and expensive and immensely distasteful clothes to any sane person. Sarn takes a picture which is kinda muddled; it focused on the background.
Back in his home Sarn googles and uses assorted forums but finds little information.
Next he goes to meet the associate who sold the catnip seeds (who promptly denies having done that). He knows about the pink-haired guy who is evidently very famous and such within his circles. He has a website, too. I forgot the man's name. After some vocal threats about revealing drug deals and some painful shows of affection by the cat Sarn leaves.
Back in his den Sarn checks out the website; it has lots of overtly expensive clothing and accessories for sale, but no personal information or photos of the designer himself. So Sarn hacks into the police database only to discover that the car and the house both are owned/rented by fishy individuals. The owner of the car has a social security code to the effect of 123456-789-0. Also, there is some foreign language written in the hotel's entry. (That would be Atlantean, the very secret language of mages.)
Sarn decides to report his findings to Leon or Unnamed.

Leon goes to eat and spreads the word that something bad is likely to happen soon. The latter involves telling it to a random associate of his who starts yelling it around the streets. Very subtle.
After that, a meeting with a cat person. She is maybe around 50 years in age (IIRC), lives with a veritable herd of cats and claims an ability to talk with them. (NPC pulled out of thin air, Thalin elaborated as I met her.) She had something edible to offer and a glass of milk besides. When Leon asked of her about the peculiarly behaved cat, she asked it of her cats, who only knew the cat was famous. Leon gave a picture of the cat which she put on display. Leon left with an offer of something edible and company whenever he was about those parts of the city.
Next Leon goes to meet with the mafia Don. People there are acting strangely (which probably is a sign of the Puppetmaster controlling them, but Leon has little chances of figuring that out). The Don is late and acts in an uncharasteristic way, too. Leon gives the PDA to him and tells he has further use for Sarn. The Don says he still wants Sarn and has use for his unique talents. "Will you harm him?" "Of course we won't." He doesn't look exactly sincere. Leon's response is definitive "I'll see what I can do about it." Also, two members of family have disappeared; big males, both. Leon asks for pictures, is shown them, draws sketches, which is met with some disapproval, thanks for that and makes his exit.

As Unnamed returns home, the hedge is mysteriously fixed. There is some trouble with his neighbour who returns home seeing Unnamed in his yard, but it is summarily dealt with by willpower-fueled mind magic and threatening. The other window has been fixed, too, but no other magic can be detected.

Every PC meets at Unnamed's house. He and Leon investigate the arcane matters (hedge new-grown with life magic, window fixed by creating thick glass there; thick as in bulletproof. Sarn reveals his findings, some deductions are made about the nature of the two inhabitants (vampires/mages/tremere/pretty much anything supernatural, really) but they remain unvoiced.
Everyone goes to Sarn's apartment. The catnip and the cat are duly noted. The fact that the entire plce is a total mess but everything is exactly where it ought to be is noted. The fact that the entire place is absolutely full of space, fate and miscellaneous magic is also noted. Everything but the cat and Sarn radiate magic. A bit suspicious, really. Sarn shows the police database and other, related matters. He also shows the cryptic notes of his uncle who supposedly lived in the city but has since disappeared; the time of disappearance happens to be exactly the same as the time when Infernus the tremere (mage who eats other mages for prolonged life and fun) left the city. The notes are partially written in Atlantean and seem like a work on magic theory written by an expert (if Sarn could read them, he would learn more, but, oh well).
Just as Unnamed is about to tell ofhis intention of buying the notes, Leon says that anyone willing to buy them is likely to be very dangerous, due to a [random conspiracy theory here]. The writings also clearly emanate nastiness to Unnamed's supernal vision thingy. Sarn says he can infiltrate the hotel, Leon advices to wait for a while. After that Leon and Unnamed go away. There is a bit of discussion about the place's magical aura.

Leon goes to the police station to meet the esteemed Ruhmann. Random chatter about the two people who like their privacy (I manage to confuse the two people, but shit happens, and my character is not any more smooth then average, so let that be as is), the contract Ruhmann tries to get people sign (it sucks) and the fate of the two mafia people (dead; same as the window-repairmen). Leon returns home.

Unnamed goes home. A mage called Mother Nature follows him. She is Thyrsus (like Verbena of old Mage, from what I have understood; that is, hedonists who dabble in life and spirit magic) and pretty aggressive when it comes to her pleasures; also, a master mage and hence one of the most dangerous around. She reveals Puppetmaster's ploy to conquer the entire city and tries seducing Unnamed, who burns willpower and resists. He calls her in for coffee. Small talk, blather, Unnamed rolls to seduce and burns more willpower, succeeds. Details are left to individual imaginations.

End of the second day.


The game remains good, but I am slipping into "play to win"-mode, which is bad. Also, random speculation: Leon gave the PDA to Don. PDA has encrypted copies of the Atlantean IIVÖL writings probably written by a tremere or someone who became such. Puppetmaster controls the mafia. Hence, if/when Puppetmaster discovers the contents of the PDA, explosions will start.
Given that Puppetmaster also wants Sarn (or mafia wants, but the difference is negligible), he is likely to know something about the writings.

[Thanuir]

The game is over. No player character died. The ending was not the high point of this game.

Fairly lengthy reflections in my blog.

And unnamed was named Stephan.