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So this weekend was the first beta weekend of the Secret World (of Alex Mack - no not really). 

I was lucky enough to win a free beta key from wodnews.net which will allow me to play as one of the factions, the Dragons. Now my mate James (who has been co-hosting some Darklings with me) has already bought the life time subscription and is also playing Dragons, and also has beta access. But for the beta weekends we have to play as specific factions, and this weekend was the turn of the Templars. 

So in brief in the Secret World you essentially play as monster hunters and paranormal investigators, allied to one of three factions (Illuminati, Templars, Dragons). These factions fight against each other while also investigating the world for the devices, magics and secrets to win the shadow war. 

So this basically means that it is a combat heavy MMO that draws on the same themes as Supernatural, the World of Darkness, the X-Files, Millennium etc etc. 

For the beta weekend the main locations were London, home of the Templars, and Kingsmouth - a location that takes heavy inspiration from the work of H.P Lovecraft. So we have the best of British and the best of New England. We have the streets of Shoreditch and the woods of Salem. 

Now graphically it works well. Not too amazing right now, but the locations are filled with atmosphere (the streets of London and the red phone boxes, and the streets of a coastal town of America). Put it this way it runs fine on my laptop (Toshiba Satellite Pro L670-189 with 6 Gig RAM, and a ATi Radeon Mobility HD 5650 graphics card). So it's a year old but it works fine. 

So the gameplay. First up. I hate most if not all MMOs on the basis of them all requiring you to grind. Now as a table top rper that just does nothing for me. Fuck that shit! 

Now the basic combat mechanics is nothing special, no different to any other MMO. Select skills. Press to attack. Await cool down. Attack again.There are guns, close combat weapons and magic. There are items to equip like talismans and charms. 

Now that all sound not very unique. Monsters of course act in the same manner and drop shit when killed. 

What is different is the need to grind. So of course you get xp for killing monsters - but that is not the main way. Of course you get xp, and a lot, for completing missions. Now not all missions are the same. Some are go here, collect this, bring it back. Or go here, kill this thing, kill more, survive. But then they also have missions that require proper thought. They are quests that involve using your brains and solving riddles and finding the correct locations and items. This means that there are missions that don't rely on how powerful you are. It also means that team work is more useful to have more brains working on it. The exact same reason why I love Assassin's Creed 2. 

Other cool things are that clues are give as in game artefacts. So things are written on pages of the phone book. Rather than just bland text. Also the game is not level based. Instead you just buy ranks in skills as you see fit and kit out with two weapons and so you swap between ranges. 

So over all my experience with the game was great. Myself and my mate James essentially rped as Dean and Sam Winchester. So we had Google chat open on voice chat and were chatting through the clues as we battled our way to the next clue. 

So roll on the next beta weekend.

So as an update to our loyal listeners, Mike and Kris are working behind the scenes on some cool stuff for the future.

Expect to see some more interviews, more Darklings - we have the Vampire the Dark Ages series by Steve and Adrian, and the Chronicle Design series by Kris, James and Steve. Also there is a super secret project coming out of the Chronicle Design Darkling, so stay tuned for that.

Also Kris has got back a edited version of the main bulk of the Changeling Venice ebook, so expect to see that finish off in the last few chapters. A big thanks to Katherine for the editing and Diego for the correction of Italian terms in the book.

So go listen to Steve and Adrian rant about Vampire the Dark Ages

As always please leave us comments, complaints, secret frequency ideas and praise.

Darker Days Radio Episode #34

Dave "Laser Sword and Jetpack" Brookshaw

Mark, Mike, and Chris join White Wolf freelancer David Brookshaw as he attempts the world record of "Longest Darker Days Episode." The crew begins with the mailbag and then gives its thoughts on White Wolf's new V20 Companion kickstarter. Chris treats everyone to the disturbing tale of Robert the Doll, straight from the history of Key West. From there we enter into a lengthy Q&A with Dave, discussing everything from Greeks in Space to Mage to More Mage to Vampire to Changeling. It's a doozy.

We end the episode with a very special farewell to longtime host and podcast founder, Mark. Good luck man!

Be sure to check us out at http://www.facebook.com/DarkerDaysRadio or our Posterous forum at http://darkerdaysradio.posterous.com/#!/. Be sure to subscribe through iTunes!

V20 Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/v20-companion-deluxe-edition

OWbN Hour of Power podcast:

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=31339&cmd=tc

OWbN Girls podcast:

http://soundcloud.com/meredith-gerber/owbn-girls-podcast-eddy-webb

Dave's Broken Diamond Actual Play:

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?279847-Actual-Play-Mage-The-Awakening-The...(contains-Reign-of-the-Exarchs

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p.s. please feel free to comment on this thread with opinions and ideas and questions

    World of Darkness games, new and classic, are heavily focused on social conflict. The Primogen Council manipulates others in their games to grab power and control the Prince, Mages influence mortal society so that potential humans can be brought under their control in the Ascension war, Werewolves jockey for the position of Alpha and for territory and for control over the spirits of the Shadow, Changelings watch the courts cycle from season to season and will try anything to see their court stay in power a little longer. Hunter cells struggle for some form of jurisdiction while also having conflicting practices and philosophies.

    And that’s before we get to the internal politics of the player troupe.

    Where do we begin to put together a political game? First up is identifying the key political story of the game. This will involve two rival parties/individuals/groups at least.

    Example 1:
   
    The Carthian Prefect is dead. A political fight has begun for the new Prefect. There are two obvious choices amongst the Carthians, and each has their own base of supporters who are attracted to each candidate’s policies that they will implement if they take power. One wants to keep the status quo but to shake up the city Primogen Council, while the other wants to totally overhaul the city power structure and remove the Primogen Council entirely.

    So there we have the start of the political game. And we now have some new hooks for the players and for other factions within the game.

    First up the candidates will be wanting to influence the player troupe. Why? Because it is fun and get’s the players into the politics. It can be in small ways like being invited to a political rally or meeting, more direct ways, such as being bribed/coerced/blackmailed into supporting them, or major ways, such as being employed to help in the their political campaigns.

    Next up there are the other factions that will be interested in the outcome of such a political rivalry. They can be smaller rivals in the battle. Third, fourth and fifth parties that want to be elected but do not have the same political might (yet). These are internal influences. Then there are external influences. These are from groups and people from other factions who want to have the political fight play out to their benefit.

    Example 2:

    The Carthians election has other candidates. They offer policies and benefits that are either too extreme or not important enough to sway the supporters of the main candidates.
    Now  of course there are the other Covenants. The Carthians are a major faction in the city and in fact essentially rule the city. The member of the Invictus see this election as their chance to bring down the Carthians, and help those candidates that see as most likely to cause the most chaos within  the ranks of the Carthians. The Invictus are not the only faction that have an interest in what happens. The Circle of the Crone and the Lancea Sanctum and the Ordo Dracul,  and in fact any other Covenant or independents in the city are interested in seeing hte election play out in a manner beneficial to them.
    Now we can leave it like that or we can get more complex. Each of the  other Covenants have their own internal politics. That means members of the Invictus can end up helping different Carthian candidates etc.

    So we have the candidates, their supporters, their other rivals, and those that have a interest who wins the political fight. We could leave it like that. It is all laid out before us who is helping who, who wants who to win, and so as a result we have a tangled web of who are rivals and who are not, and who are rivals indirectly and who are allies without realising it. But lets muddy the waters even more.
    Politics revolves around philosophies, in theory. One person believes his approach to a problem is better than an other’s solution. But politics get tainted  by personal issues. And this really starts to mess things up as political battles get  diverted and become more about enacting revenge upon another.

    Example 3:
   
    The Lancea Sanctum is lead by a bishop who was the protege of the previous Cardinal of the city, back when the Lance held power. The Cardinal was murdered by his childe during the uprising that led to the Carthians taking power. The Cardinal’s childe, a Carthian, took the position of Chairman, a sort of Prince of the city. The bishop knows that under the Carthians things have in fact been better in recent years, as the Carthians allow their members to attend Lancea Sanctum mass, and in turn members of the Lancea Sanctum can have a say in the city politics by being allowed to elect the Clan Prisci. However, the bishop has an old score to settle, and would rather see chaos amongst the Carthians and the Chairman deposed, even if it would mean the Lancea Sanctum would be at the mercy of a new Invictus Prince.

    Once we have some sort of structure for the politic we can start filling  in the names and personal history of these people and factions. Some characters and factions may need a fair amount of detail, others, perhaps just a few bullet points.

    The next stage is of course using all this in play.  The worst things for player immersion is to feel like all this politics is just a farce for rail-roading the game. The players should be allowed to feel like tey have some sort of influence over the political struggle. It could be as small as ensuring that friends of their voted for a particular candidate, or that their campaign trail failed because they made too many enemies. Ether way the setting should feel organic and that all actions have a reaction, that all deals have strings attached, and that everything has a price to be paid. They may have threaten people into voting for the right candidate, but the result is that they now a a small faction of people who see them as threats in the long term. Some may want revenge, and also the losers of the election may see them a being new enemies. Others may realise that the players have become important in influencing certain portions of the city and so which to remove them before they even become direct rivals.

    The key here is that those in power can offer power, remove it from others below them, eliminate rivals, and abuse it. Those savvy of such affairs, or even just lucky may find themselves gaining power and influence, or perhaps they lose what influence they had. Rivalries may end and new ones begin.

Example 4:

Dimitri and his coterie helped Patric Falken get elected. However, at last moment Patrick betrayed them and set them up, having them caught, apparently having rigged the election. However, members of the Ordo Dracul have given them an alibi and in return for ensuring a true democratic election the Ordo Dracul are one more admitted to the Primogen Council.

Dimitri has also gained a reputation and the admiration of others, and has been elevated to one of the Harpies of the city. However, some of the Harpies are not happy with this, in particular those of his Clan and of the Invictus.

Dimitri has also made enemies with the Invictus, especially those who did not want Patrick elected. And there is the issue of Patrick’ betrayal.

I hope that helps give an idea about setting up a political game. Of course depending on the game many of the types of rivalries and goals can be switched around.

    So I have posted up in the past how I would go about structuring a one shot game. How I would plan out the scenes and then use those as a guide to running the story and pacing the game. But what I have been asked to comment on is how to world building for such a game. That’s a tough call for a setting that may just get the one outing.
 
    First off lets review my way of structuring the story. This could come in handy when we consider the world building.
 
    So first up in episode design is the pitch. What is the concept of the episode and its aim? What is the Theme and Mood? What story element should be present? A pitch should be able to sum up the episode in a few sentences.

For this episode it is;

'On an island a group of people from various backgrounds must contend with the horror of an entity from the seas and the mystery that surrounds its attacks on them. Help is not possible as they are alone and so must rely on each other and their wits, or worse, use each other selfishly in order to escape.'

With that pitch done we can now think of the structure of the episode.

The episode has around 5 to 7 scenes.

1. This scene is the setup. Character introductions and the establishment of the location and any form of weirdness, but nothing to crazy, just something to spring on the more observant characters.
2. Escalation of the plot.
3. Further escalation and introduce the threat.
4. Escalate the mystery and allow for a degree of investigation.
5. Further threat, and now introduce a degree of urgency in the plot.
6. Further investigations leading to finale
7. Finale, final threat and conclusion.

So now we have an idea of scenes lets also remember that there are scenes here that can be skipped and altered mid game to suit our needs. This is merely a guide, not a set route.

 
    OK. Are we cool with the idea of key scenes, designed to follow the ‘route of least resistance’ i.e. what is more than likely to happen if your players play the game in a paint by numbers fashion.
    Now the game can be played quite easily now with the appropriate stats drawn up for the player characters and NPCs and the monsters of the game. The game can easily run, but be lacking. It could lack many of the things we want from a World of Darkness game. Primarily immersion.
 
    Immersion is key. It makes the world the players are in credible. It makes it a threat. It makes it new and unknown. In a longer chronicle we have time to develop the setting. We have time to introduce a cast of dozens and more,  all with their own agendas, creating a mash up of plots and politics. An organic setting where the NPCs react to the player actions, creating one big feedback loop of interactions, vendettas and intrigue.
    But within a one shot game this level  of detail is impossible to replicate. So as the Storyteller we have to keep the setting tight. restrict the show, restrict the player characters, restrict it all so that we can focus on what is important.
    What can we do for such a one shot?
    History. We need history. The thing that is hunting them? Where does it come from? How is it connected to the players? How is it connected to the location? A great example of the influence of history on a game is in Ghost Stories, and in particular the excellent story, The Terrible Tale of James Magnus. History colours the monsters that stalk the characters, the house in which the story takes place, and the scenes and clues that they find.
    And there in that line above we hit on something very important. The player characters. For quick immersion into the one shot game pre-generated characters are critical. It means that skills can be balanced across the party of characters so that no one is ever a spare wheel. It also means  that character backgrounds can be provided ahead of the game, and design too offer immediate reasons for why characters are involved in the story. Of course some freedom is required for the players. And this can be through small things. A few dots shifted around, virtues and vices swapped around, and of course players can bring their own characterization to game. They can put their own spin on the old reporter, or teenage drug pusher.

Other tips and tricks. For one shots it is perhaps the one time real investment in creating props pays off. You will more than likely use them,  unlike in  a normal game. The documents, and items can really help get players into the zone. Make them feel like they are there. Hell even use scented candles and the like to help get players more immersed.

Oh and music! Music helps. Like a lot! I often put together a playlist  of tracks, nothing too heavy on vocals, that gives the right atmosphere to the game. Aim for about 3 hours of music, and don’t try and queue up specific tracks - that is just folly - instead just let it play on, but  design the playlist to have different segments, with the soundtrack building up over the course of the game, building in tension.

So in summary;

Tight plot,

Tight control over the setting,

Critical info only - keep info dumps about the setting for longer games,

Show don’t tell - no one likes long bits of dialogue,

Keep it creepy - think Alien, think the Thing, think about those horror films that slowly  crank up the fear, all through good pacing,

And finally, of course, keep it fun and fast - if you can’t find a rule just gloss over it. Such worries are for longer games.