It was the final session of The Watch at +MK RPG last night. Here’s what happened in our thrilling finale!
PCs were, as always, Lt Cmdr Liasa, Sgt Maega, Cmdr Ruvac, and Wdn Teka
We opened with the PCs lurking in an alley in Dothas Town, having rescued Ruvac and Parda from the lynch mob that Ruvac was whipping up. When asked why she was leading the mob, Ruvac said, “If I’d stayed in the Spire any longer, I’d have given away even more vital information!” In a moment of character growth, Ruvac confessed to Liasa everything that happened in the Spire, including Ruvac’s mistakes. Liasa saw some Shadow power remaining in Ruvac.
When Maega talked to Parda (Maega’s aged aunt, but now in her early 20s), Parda said that the Shadow had been in control for the past 12 years and she was very concerned about her baby son Otet who was still in Dothas Spire (the same Otet who is in his mid-20s, held by the Watch after deserting the Shadow a couple of sessions ago).
Liasa and Maega returned to Teaso’s resistance safe house to inform them that they’d rescued Ruvac. Liasa took the opportunity to belittle Teaso in front of her resistance cell (Liasa resisted the Shadow to realise that this point-scoring was what the Shadow wanted, but did it anyway). At this point, Shadow soldiers burst through the safe house’s front door and started killing members of the cell, and the PCs realised they’d been followed to the house. Maega and Liasa escaped, dragging Daruc (Meaga’s clan-sister) with them.
Meanwhile, the other squad members hid in Dothas Town, but at one point Pera sacrificed herself to distract a Shadow patrol away from the rest of the squad.
Eventually, the squad all met up.
Liasa hit her Tipping Point, ripped off her Lt Cmdr insignia and thrust it at Ruvac. Liasa announced she’d had enough of this shit and was going off to find out what was on the other side of the mountains. Liasa threw away Meaga’s offered holy spliff, then got knocked unconscious by Ruvac.
Teka and Maega Spirit Walked everyone back to the Watch headquarters. Liasa recovered and left.
We then Changed the World.
From Liasa’s player: Thedon clan opened up its trade and set up a commonwealth, led by a council of one person from each clan.
From Teka’s player: after the Shadow, the clans reasserted themselves, but stronger in their individual identities.
From Ruvac’s player: Sharn clan make better use of their lands around Raish Ruins and become healthier and stronger.
From Meada’s player: the secret Dothas base is kept secret and reinforced for the battle to come after the Shadow is defeated.
We then had eulogies for Liasa and Pera. The best line was for Liasa, when Teka said, “Liasa punched Ruvac with love.” The rest of that eulogy was similarly tongue-in-cheek. Meaga’s eulogy for Pera was earnest.
Meaga was promoted to Lt Cmdr and wore Liasa’s rank insignia.
We then did a Final Battle as the Watch attacked Dothas Spire. Ruvac’s squad was given the mission of assassinating Reme, the Shadow’s kingpin sorceress. None of the PCs batted an eyelid at these orders.
Ruvac led a charge through Dothas Town, defeating some Shadow legionaries as they went.
Teka skirmised away to draw some of the heat from the main squad but got cut off.
The squad entered Dothas Spire, which looked something like Escher’s Relativity. Meaga used her dream magic to lead the squad through the maze and cornered the sorceress who was manipulating the terrain.
Ruvac followed through and killed the sorceress.
Meanwhile, Teka followed a different group of Watch soldiers into the tower, only to realise they included Mealde and Miende who deserted Ruvac just after the rescue of Ucit. Teka shouted a warning as they attacked rest of Ruvac’s squad.
Maega tried to talk the deserters into surrender but didn’t get very far. Maega and Ruvac the slaughtered them all.
The way was clear to Reme’s throne room. Teka did her spirit dance to suppress the Shadow, Meaga chanted, and Ruvac lept at Reme with Maega’s murder knife. Ruvac used her Shadow magic to turn Reme into an impossibly beautiful and ordered crystalline form; Ruvac shattered it with the murder knife.
The Shadow was defeated.
We changed the world again.
Ruvac led cleansing rampages against Shadow holdouts in the clan lands.
Teka said how the corruption was removed and all the clans were working together.
Meaga took away shards of Reme’s body and used them to make a warning system in case the Shadow re-entered Dothas lands.
And close…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativity_(M._C._Escher)#/media/File:Escher%27s_Relativity.jpg
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Meaga’s player wrote some more notes for each PC. Can you guess which note was for which PC?
Rather sweetly, that player thought I had a plot the players were veering away from! Bless.
There were also buns.
photos.google.com – Watch final session
I asked the players for feedback. Everyone really enjoyed the game!
Maz said she didn’t like how experience was tied to highlighted moves (a personal preference).
Jess remarked how gender just wasn’t an issue in the game, once we’d got past the initial “everyone’s a woman” moment.
It was only Matthew’s second-ever RPG! He’d previously played a three-week game of Call of Cthulhu. Despite that, he really got stuck into the melodrama and scenery-chewing of The Watch.
For my part, I really enjoyed running the game. I’d previously tried to run Night Witches at the club, but that crashed and burnt. We got three or four sessions into the game and realised it wasn’t working for us; all the non-mission parts were too lightweight.
In contrast, the three tracks of Experience, Jaded, and Weary really made The Watch‘s free play significant. The constant threat of the Shadow and succumbing to it also made all the personal interactions significant.
The Watch was a much, much more successful game for us! Thank you Anna Kreider and Andrew Medeiros for writing such a great game.
These summaries have been so wonderful to read! Thank you so much for posting them, and I’m very glad it sounds like you had a wonderful campaign!
I can only second Anna’s comment, thank you so much for the work of typing these up for others to see. It’s been a great ride and I’m very happy with how the game turned out!