[UA] UA Bitterness (long and mean)

[Tom Lynch]

> I figure the best way to play UA is Character Driven Plots.  I love this
> idea, but I've never been able to get players who can grasp this concept.

With you on that one. It may just be that LURPers are particularly forgiving
on this and ready to give it a whirl, but this has worked for me, and you
might like to try it...

Get them to create characters, telling them that they can have characters
with nothing to do with each other - introduction will be taken care of
during the game, all will become clear, relax. Run Bill in Three Persons to
get them together, with some kind of changes - because you're setting this
in a different country.
Then tell them that none of their characters have their passports with them
or any record of them entering the country, and magic ain't gonna get them
back. The Comte, be he Sherriff or British bobby, turns to them and hands
them each a key. Each key belongs to a room in a hotel - a different hotel
for each member - and a sheet of numbers allowing them to call each other.
He nods politely and leaves.

They'll assume there's some point to this and go to the hotels. Work this;
get the characters apart if at all possible. Even if one of them suddenly
needs the toilet, that will do enough.

Then you look them in the eye, one at a time. "OK. You're in another
country. You have no cash. You know no one except those guys you met with
the Sherriff. You don't really know them. Being here is illegal. And you've
just found out magic is real. WHAT DO YOU DO, BOY?"

If the players band the PCs together instinctively and try to figure out the
plot you have for this (and I sincerely hope you haven't bothered; let it
come as the characters quest) in a metagame style, clip them round the ears.
Literally (hit your players!) or figuratively (target one of them. Draw him
away from the others. Have him presented with information that suggests the
others are responsible for his situation, and just pretending to be confused
so they can see what he does. Preferably, do this to the leader-PC. If his
player's a good character player, the group will begin to splinter). Do
whatever you can without making the players hate you to create paranoid
mindsets. Make the characters edgy, make them not sure if they can trust
each other. Pass around paranoia notes.

Because in this framework they shouldn't be able to trust each other. They
don't fucking know each other, they have no idea what happened to them.
Someone appears to; the Comte.
Someone may well; an Irascimancer working with a Pornomancer for the
synchronicities required, perhaps? (If so, the Irascimancer will become
known as the architect of their woes soon enough, to get the charges.
Needless to say, he's also charging the Pornomancer up... maybe also on the
hunt for the two porn stars who were with the Goddess when she Ascended.
Having porn sex with them has GOT to be worth multiple major charges to a
pornomancer).

Maybe even finish this campaign off quickly, but don't do it until you've
forced them to shift into their characters, to play them to the hilt. Then,
in the afterglow, look around the table, and go "Right. Next time, we play
characters who aren't stranded and wanted. Next time, we play the characters
you create... and I'm just going to sit there and react to what you try and
do. If one of you wants to be a death mage and try to kidnap and execute the
President over a twelve-hour period to gain immense magical power, then he
can try. If one of you wants to play someone who intends to bring the New
Inquisition down, then he can try. If one of you wants to play someone who
just wants to flip burgers or fuck his way to the top in an office... then
they can try. All you have to do is create the characters you want to play
and put your trust in me to play the world. I won't steer you. I'll just
react to what you do. I won't stomp over you like I just did, unless you try
to bring down the New Inquisition or kill the President.
But you can try, and you just might succeed if you go about it properly. Or
not.
You got the guts to try?"


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