[UA] Jailbreak chat

[James O'Rance]

Now that I think of it, if you haven't read/played "Jailbreak," you might 
not want to read this.



Kevin Elmore <kelmore at rocketmail.com> said:

 >>>Damn, I can't get them in the basement either.<<<

In my experience the characters simply haven't had a good reason to go down 
there. Everybody is too tense to worry about exploring the house; in one 
game, the issue of leaving the dining room nearly came to violence.

A tornado would certainly give a good reason to go down into the basement, 
but then *everybody* would go down there. I imagine that would be 
counterproductive to the creepiness that the basement could provide.

 >>>On a bright note, most of the time, the people do check out
the thumping in the attic.<<<

Naturally; there's a clear reason to do so (checking out an obvious 
potential danger). A thumping in the basement might have the same effect, 
but is harder to justify from a simulationist PoV. Fortunately I'm much more 
of a dramatist-oriented GM, so I'll use this idea in future.  :)

 >>>One time I had Bors kill the state trooper on his way back to the 
car.<<<

That's a cool idea, but the poor troopers have never left the house in my 
games. Once the troopers show up, the action begins - including one 
remarkable example where the wife-beater and a trooper stood about ten feet 
apart firing weapons and *both* getting matched failures for about five 
straight rounds. Then the martial artist *finally* got past Tristan and was 
hit by a lucky shot from outside, killing him instantly.

it sounds ridiculous, but it was highly entertaining.  :)

 >>>The violin girl has always been a success, though.  At the
very least, the person who investigates the room talks to her, gets 
frustrated at her response, and gets creeped at her lack of reaction to 
being threatened.<<<

I modulate my voice to be pleasant and respectful, and use the exact same 
intonation when repeating the same phrase. That's usually enough; very few 
players have realised what she actually is.

 >>>I never take into consideration the sleeping issues.  How do people do 
that?<<<

The scenario never covers that much game time; everyting is so tense that 
I've never needed to say something like "Okay, one hour passes as you do 
such-and-such". Everybody is continuously IC throughout the scenario.

If it got really late and a player fell asleep through sheer exhaustion, I 
suppose that's how I'd describe it as a GM. That might lead to the other 
players shaking her awake, though...

 >>>Also, there is a bit of incredulity that a hail storm of that magnitude 
would last that long.  A couple times, my players have mentioned wanting to 
leave when the hail stops.<<<

High winds, slippery roads. Have the car slide out of control and run ito a 
ditch half a mile down the road. Naturally, the ditch is too muddy and 
water-filled to pull the car out during the storm. The cons can just about 
hike back to the farmhouse in the heavy rain... although I might force them 
to make Body checks to avoid pneumonia.

 >>>I also have a cap gun.  Before the game, I fire off three
shots so that there are only five left.  That adds a bit
more excitement.<<<

I enjoy yelling BLAM!

One odd thing about running "Jailbreak" and "And I Feel Fine" is that I 
spend much of the game roleplaying the dog. It's weird that I know the 
subtle differences between Sparky and the clockwork dog. For one, Sparky is 
not as bright.

Cheers,


James O’Rance
“Divine being creates petting zoo. It gets out of hand.”
- The Bible (summarised by John W. Mangrum)

http://www.geocities.com/dragon-dreamer/



_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.


_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua