Category: Legacy: Life Among the Ruins

So last Friday we had our second session in the lands of Zion (did I told you the Homeland is called Zion? Because the Homeland is called Zion =D). A little short maybe (less than 3 hours) cause one of my players grew quite asleep (these 20-old-youngsters have no energy at all!), where our heroes explored the overseas Marsh (they were still traumatized from Mansions of Madness) Research Center, and they discovered they weren’t alone, both over and underwater. It turned out that the Research Center was created to observe and control the activity of The Maw (the huge underwater volcano), and that there were pre-Fall marvels able to advert the eruption; the twist was that a sort of cult put itself in charge of observing The Great Red Eye and preventing it from opening and bringing ruins over the land “with the majestic, terrible power of a god”… and no, I wasn’t thinking about Sauron at all, really! And yeah, mainlanders could feel safe, everything was under control: the Dancers were a bit restless but nothing concerning (“Dancers? What the heck are these Dancers?” It turned out there were some serpentine silhouettes moving in the magma, each about 3 to 5 meters long; “Oh please, not dragons too!” said Nicholas, and he doesn’t know he putted something drake-ish in Zion’s future!) the Ferret (their High Priestess… and it was fun when they understood that cult’s titles came from the names on the ancient laboratory coats) already went in the Sacrarium below for the rites to close the eyelid again, could they leave the temple now and left them in peace, please?

Well, the problem was that the Ferret was dead, killed by some Scourges (the machine-hybrid monsters that caused the Fall), so the characters descended in the Research Center searching for the Sacrarium. However, after a clash with a pair of Scourges, they discovered the monsters took control of the underwater labs, so they decided to fall back and prepare a large-scale assault. After this we zoomed out… and it was midnight, and I was “losing” a pair of them to sleepiness, so we stopped there.

I think I must “free” myself from habits given by more traditional RPGs and become a little “faster” at characters level, spending less time on “first-person dialogues” and putting the spotlight on important parts (but without forgetting “fluff” here and there which give color to the world and it is the funniest part). Oh well, one step at a time, I guess.

So, first session finally happened! It has been fairly short (a pair of hours, then we were quite sleepy… Damn you, real life!) and my players had some issues in wrapping their head around the concept of “Family level – Player Level”, but it went fairly smooth. Just to recap Families and Characters:

– The Sages (Cultivators of the New Flesh): a feudal society of scientists, where the king is decided with tests tailored on the actual needs of the Family. Grace is a Envoy concerned with the growing separation between the Sages and the people they reign over;

– The Silver Seed (Synthetic Hive): androids created to help humanity managing the environment, they are now dispersed around Zion (the Homeland) and guided by the directives of a Singularity. RONn13 is a Seeker which is searching for a way to improve the defences of Family members;

– The Baston Family (Order of Titan): a military corp of honorable fighters, they defend Zion against Titans, foreshadowing their actions with a misterious psychic connection with the monsters. Nicholas is a Hunter, and he’s guiding the Family in a blood hunt against some dangerous creatures that threaten their homebase;

The Gargantia (Pioneers of the Deep): part of the Tritons (genetically enhanced humans for operating above and below the waters), they are a sort of nomadic warriors with isolationistic tendencies. Ren is a Reaver living in a marsh out of Zion. She is currently trying to steal something important from a dangerous faction (it hasn’t been decided yet)

So I started with two brief scenes involving two characters each (the predators Nicholas is searching has its lair in the marsh Ren is living in; Grace and RONn13 witnessed the delivery of a strange creature’s corpse they’ve never seen before – it was a hint of a threat, the horde of genetically altered creatures added by Cultivators) and then zoom out to family level and asked them what they wanted to do. Apparently the large creature wasn’t enough concerning for the Sages because they preferred to solve some issues with the people they rule over (they don’t think scientists are the most qualified to rule a settlement), but the large earthquake caused by The Maw (a large underwater volcano near the shore and about to explode) was enough to catch everyone’s attention. Now they’re looking for the answer at a simple question: how do you stop a volcano erupting? Meanwhile, something else is approaching…

So a short session, they found some hint about a research laboratory nearby (a point of interest added by Gargantia) and we ended our session with our heroes arriving there and discovering they’re not alone (DUN-DUN-DUUUUUUUN!!!).

I must admit, PbtA games are a bit “intimidating” because they require a bit (ok, quite a lot) of improvisation from GM, but in a exhilarating way (like a roller-coaster), and I already GM’ed some Dungeon World (and I read a lot about issues GM often found) so I’m quite confident I will be able to tackle it with a little effort. Maybe my only issue at the moment is that there seems to be a lot of things to do (four threats – one for each Family; four “issues” from the roles they choose; and some other complications they decided to introduce during the preparation process – and I’m ok with it, I like how they put their marks on the fiction without any push by my side) without the “focus” offered by more “traditional” rpgs; so I’m a little afraid to overwhelm them with things to manage, and in trying to avoid doing that, giving not enough time to the “funny things” that are about to happen or, even worse, put them out in a sequential way (“Ladies and gentlemen, after last week’s volcano, this episode’s threat is… “). But I am quite sure we’re in for a great ride with this great game (I think I will not be able to express my appreciation for Legacy enough)