Saturday, October 20, 2012

QiaB entry 1 Gencon 2011


the following is a transcript that i wrote out for my Gencon event. it's not 100% specific, but there is a lot to cover in a four hour game. this is real lengthy, so please bear with me, but it is about as fantastic as it gets. welcome to my mind.

Qags-in-a-Bag “QiB” Gencon 2011

the initial pulls: (6) these are shown to the players. Additional pulls during play are kept hidden until they are revealed.

odd angles and arrows/ surreal
gunned down
mutant league style
personal orbiting energy ball
PC changes Weakness
Doppler Effect

the initial setup (sci-fi mega-city cyberpunk judge dread)
location: New Detroit

the characters:
(each character is given an opening scene to introduce their character to the rest of the group.)

Elton Joel Tribute Man: his real name is lost because he has been an out of work impersonator of Elton John and Billy Joel. He is hired by his agent to be the entertainment for a High Society Event

Joe-Bob: a cyborg mall cop with built in GPS and Segway. He is hired to fill out the security detail for a high society event

Slick Shepard: Everyone's favorite arrogant TV show host. His main gig is a sports announcer on “MegaForceBall” a futuristic death sport. He is the main Interviewer of Big Bad Damocles; the sports largest star. Together they are supposed to attend the high society event.

Cranky old Man: an old man who lives above the venue where the high society is to be held. His joy in life is sitting outside on his balcony and telling the young to get off of his grass, even though he has no yard. His cane-jutsu is strong.

Super Jane Doe: a stunt woman who is clearly insane, thinks she is a superhero at times. She is hired to pull off a spectacular stunt at the Social Event.

Arthur (AKA Shithawk): master custodian at the venue of the social event. As he puts it, he doesn't give a shit unless its about shit.


The setup: note that [bracket entries] denote direct pulls from the bag and correlation to the overall plot:

Big Bad Damocles, famous MegaForceBall player, a [mutant league style] sport, has to go to a sports related high society event. He arrives with “Slick” in a limo. While entering, the entertainment and stunts go off without a hitch as the custodial and security details handle their jobs.
The old man above the venue decided to heckle Damocles, which throws him into a rage. Damocles begins to scale the side of the building and reaches the balcony of the old man.
As this is going on, a large semi barrels down the street, taking cars and vehicles out left and right, a shot rings out in the open air, and Damocles is [gunned down] and falls from the building and dies.
Local law enforcement descends on the scene and take the players into interrogations for statements. After several interesting statements, it is decided by the police that the players can clear their names by finding the real perps of the crime and bringing them to justice. The team returns to the scene of the crime and manage to find a clue of significant importance; a shard from the license plate of the semi.
The cyborg mall cop hacks into the mall database to see if he can get a match of the license plate. Amazingly, he does, and finds that the truck is owned by Michael Lablanc; heir to the Lablanc Shoes empire. He works at the mall, so it is justified that they would find the info there. They also find out that he likes to hang out at a local club called [the Doppler Effect].
The team goes to the Doppler Effect club, while several players schmooze with the ladies and alcohol is consumed, Shithawk goes to find the facilities. Shithawk happens to find Mr Lablanc in a stall performing some ritual with a [personal orbiting energy ball] and has manages to produce a swirling vortex just behind the toilet. One by one, everyone in the club is dragged into the vortex, though some are strong enough to resist the pull and walk into the vortex of their own free will.
The Players find themselves on a large square island, where all of the buildings and trees are bent at [odd angles and arrows/surreal]. The party continues on strong for a while, bu the players try to find a way around the island. Instead of finding a bus pass, they manage to find a sub pass. They go down into the subway, and find that there is literally small personal subs that can take you to anywhere on the island. During this time, the stunt woman superhero has failed to take a dose of her medication in a while. Though she fails her weakness roll, the weakness does not grip her, and she appears to be cured of her dependency here in this strange world. She is rewarded the option of [PC changes weakness], which she swaps out eagerly.
The sub ride goes uneventful, and drops off the players on the docks near the far end of the island. Again, the trees are bent inward towards the center of the island. The players move forward into the dense jungle, to find that they are attacked by [marionettes]. They are made to look like natives or some other tribal group. One is blown to bits by the mall cop with a built in rocket launcher, but then put together again by Elton Joel. He is dubbed “junkie” and after communication is established with the natives, the group is led to the camp of the marionette natives...

now comes one of the best highlights of the game. A player (out of character) throws out the comment that : “a native village like this might worship something strange, like an unexploded nuclear bomb. I smile at the player, then flip the [Doomsday Device] I pulled a few minutes before and exclaim “Oh My God! They have an unexploded nuclear bomb in the middle on their village!”

Back to the game: now that there is a bomb in the center of the village, all hell breaks loose. The old man beats on the bomb with his cane, while the stunt woman begins to crush the homes of the marionettes. During the time, the tribe shaman makes his way to the group, telling them to stop. He looks like he's very old and battle-worn, for he bears the [bite marks] of some animal on his wooden body. He manages to stop the attacks for now.
Meanwhile, Shithawk and Slick make their way back to the sub dock. It's about this time they realize that the reason the buildings and trees are bent is because the leakage of radiation from the bomb. As they frantically look for a way off the island they see several dots on the horizon flying towards them. As the dots get closer, they can tell that the dots are black ops helicopters. They hover over the island a heavily armed soldiers rappel down ropes. The soldiers perform as [strategic insertion] to recover the bomb and do so without incident. They leave as quickly as they arrived, and leave the players alone again with the marionettes.
One of the players notices that there is a [talisman] embedded in the ground where the bomb was resting. He hands it to the stunt woman/superhero, simply because it is in her same color scheme. Upon doing so, it actually gives her superpowers, and grants her [boots of immaculate speed]. She speeds around the poor village destroying more and more huts, fully convinced that they are evil. Several other attempts are made to stop her, but finally she is talked down and stops the attack. It is a little too late, however, as junkie is the last marionette to survive.
The players decide to leave, since there is nothing to do anymore at the island. They manage to pick up another sub and make their way to a second island, which seems to be a thriving old world town. There are all sorts of shops for food and goods.
Slick decided that his outfit isn’t working for this scene, so he plans on having a new suit made. He goes to find a unique bolt of cloth to make his suit stand apart from all the others. Something loud and gaudy, flashy but not overstated. He manages to get a truly unique patterned cloth that seems to shimmer and shift. Slick loves it, and pays top dollar for it. Then he finds a tailor to make the suit. Against all good taste, the tailor agrees to make the suit, but it will take a lot of money about an hour of time.
So, with time to kill, the players go to look for Lablanc, and manage to find the fiend incognito as a sombrero wearing old man. He is apprehended by the superhero and mall cop. He says he killed Damocles so that he could get his personal orbiting energy ball for a ritual to awaken the [crabmen]. It seems to be more of a lie than the truth, since they have seen no crabmen, so they take Lablanc into custody and lead him back into town, where a local [cooking contest] has broken out. Elton decides to try and win the contest by swiping key ingredients from other tables and making his own pie. Surprisingly, he wins, but just barely.
As the Players get close to the tailor's place, so that slick can pick up his new suit, Lablanc gets away, takes the newly made suit and puts it on. In doing so, the fabric grants [special effects/ SFX] and disappears in a flash of smoke.
Slick is seriously bummed at this point, but tries to get another suit made of the same fabric. The quality is not as high as the first suit, but it does work.
As the players look for clues, they see that a bit of fabric leads away from the scene and a single thread is leading them all over town. It is at this point that Shithawk finds his calling; the museum of fecal history, and the worlds largest collection of toilets anywhere in the universe. Shithawk achieves that perfect moment of balance and zen, and enters the last place that he will ever work. (in other words, the player had to leave, so this was the most opportune time to send Shithawk “down the toilet”)
the players bid a find farewell to Shithawk, and continue tracking down Lablanc via the thread. At this point, Slick is really angry because Lablanc is destroying the suit that Slick paid for with a gratuitous amount of money. Finally, they come across a large door with a sliding eye-port. It looks to be an old entrance to what might have been a speakeasy at one time or another. The large man behind the door lets the players in, though he has a ridiculously high voice for a man of his size. Slick tells the man to get a hold of “his people” because the goon might have a future in the Mega ForceBall universe.
The thread leads the players up a staircase and find themselves in an ornately decorated office building. The whole place is decked out in a feudal Japan theme, and there are two ornate doors in from of them. One is slightly ajar, so they venture forth into the inner office.
Lablanc stands there, a Katana slung over his shoulder. He smiles, then mockingly speaks to the players, and it occurs to the players that his speaking and his lips are completely out of sync, just like bad dubbing. As it turns out, Lablanc is the head of the Toho [Ninja Clan], and within seconds the room is filled with 40 ninjas, all with [great reflexes].
Slick tries to reason with Lablanc, telling him that he is outclassed, then tries to get the ninjas to turn on their master. Enrages, Lablanc throws a shuriken at Slick. Slick's player, spends tons of yum yums at this point to make the most spectacular catch by clenching the chinese star in his teeth, then pulls it out and flashes a glinting smile.
Instantly, the ninjas know who the true rules of the dreaded Toho Ninja Clan should be. They capture Lablanc and make Slick the new leader of the Toho. They award him a big gaudy medallion that show his new found status with uncharacteristically unnecessary bling.

The wrap up

With the baddie caught, they return to the main dock, then make Lablanc reverse the ritual that sent them here in the first place. In doing so, there is a large flash of light that blots out everything. Beyond that they see that a black door opens in the distance. The realize that they are dressed in normal everyday clothes, and all personal effects are gone.
They go through the black door to find that they are on a stage, in which there are pytotechnics flaming up, fake smoke generators, and curvy cuties showing them the correct way to go. There is a huge crowd cheering them, but then they find that Lablanc is standing on the other side of the stage, dressed like a gaudy gameshow host. He lets the players know that they have won fabulous prizes, though no one expected them to complete the tasks that they had been given. The players now realize that this has all been some sort of VR game show. Slick is disappointed to find out that his own personality had been overwritten by the game show Lablanc, because the ratings cant get enough of him.
As the players come to grasps with what just happened, Lablanc signs off saying the show's catch phrase:
“Remember, [Life's a game] on everybody's favorite game show, [99 ways to die!].

Obviously the end credits roll with the song of the same name by Megadeth. The feedback I received from this specific game session has been absolutely awesome. I thank all my players for making this one so memorable.

MK

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