[UA] In media res

[John Scott]

At 07:30 20/04/01 +1000, Patrick wrote:

>My preferred method is to start in the middle of things - usually somewhere
>fast and exciting, like a car chase - and establish a few key points - where
>you are, who's shooting at you, what McGuffin you're carrying etc.
>
>After a couple of minutes, flashback to a more 'normal' starting point. Then
>direct the action so that it flows into the established future scene.
>
>Obviously this requires players who will co-operate with you. If your
>players don't, they're useless arseholes and you shouldn't play with them.

That's not the slightest bit of a problem - the players I have for my UA 
game are most certainly not arseholes and will play along.

In part, that's why I'm thinking about this now - the game is actually 
planned for the end of July, and I've already got the ground rules sorted - 
they would like a short prelude explaining the situation up to the IMR - 
but I can write that in advance, and they'll accept with good grace the 
railroading that will entail.

Okay - here's what I've got so far for the game.

About 9 months game time ago, whilst going through the Pinfeathers 
scenario, Mikey (a chaos mage and entropomancer) picked up an astral 
parasite.  Not knowing what it was, or what to do about it, he took an 
extreme view.  He did several rituals to change himself culminating in 
walking into a random person's house and taking over their life.

He walked into the House of Renunciation instead.

So TNI Team Blueglass (European 'Weird Shit' division) lost their chaos 
mage, and a little later got a new member - Charles, who is both 
an  architect and a heavy Avatar of the Architect. And yes, it's Mikey 
having gone through Renunciation, and none of the players have picked up on 
this, though they're getting suspicious.

Now, the arrival of a heavy Avatar (55%) out of no-where has caused ripples 
in the OU, and the current leader in the race to becoming the Godwalker of 
the Architect has become upset.  The one in the lead wants to get rid of 
Charles, but the taboo of the Architect is 'cannot destroy'.  And the one 
in the lead (as yet unnamed) wants to change the Archetype to the Social 
Architect

So if he can either put Charles in a situation where he destroys something 
directly, or where his own friends kill him.

That's the backstory.

Being a social architect, Thingy has worked his way into TNI-Europe and is 
ready to put his plans into action.  He's assigning them to a mission in a 
malaria-stricken part of the world, and when they go for their medicine, 
they'll get Ro-Hypnol instead of the malaria medicine.
They'll accept that as the necessary railroading.

They'll wake up in a jungle hut, with a sound of breaking glass ... a 
grenade will hit the floor and not go off ... then a voice from outside 
will shout "send out Charles and the rest of you will walk out of here alive".

The truth is that their minds are in a construct on the Astral Plane and 
all their skills will be based off their Soul skill.  Thingy will keep 
putting them in situations where they can kill Charles/Mikey,  It's up to 
them whether they do, or whether they work out what is going on.

Oh, and before I forget - thanks all for the input so far.

John


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