In a Wicked Age Actual Play - An Unseasonable Cold

 In A Wicked Age is a tabletop role-playing game designed by Vincent Baker and released by Lumpley Games. It is designed to create a series of one-shots in a loosely-connected anthology, with various characters looping in and out over the course of the chronology.

The setting is implied through the Oracles, which are four tables of story elements from which each session is generated. Each Oracle provides a rough genre of tale, from violence and war, to ghosts and ruins, to political intrigue or drama.

The Oracle used for this session was God-Kings of War.

Previous, in a wicked age...

...a chest containing the tax monies of a rural province, and the soldiers carrying it...

...a bitter and unseasonable cold, caused by warring elementals...

...the site of a pitched battle, ground churned and stinking, and the widows mourning there...

...a soldier's plain shortsword, gradually developing a taste for the blood of women...

    We see the village of Jaduqar, a village on the border of the Empire, far-flung in the northern hinterlands. The town is gripped in an unseasonable cold caused by the local elementals, who are engaged in a vicious and violent conflict with each other. The frenzy of their fury has spilled over and gripped the townsfolk in a bloodlust - more than thirty of them wandered into the nearby fields and violently murdered each other. The sudden deaths have left the rest of the villagers adrift.

    Due to the unnatural cold, the harvest has suffered, and without laborers to work the fields, the village is ill-equipped to pay its tithe when the Imperial tax collector, Barrold Sap-Rissen arrives with his retinue. The tax collector sets up in the tavern, unsure of how to proceed after collecting a pittance from the grieving villagers.

    One such villager is Ibari, a young roustabout who seeks an easier path through life. One of the first to respond to the sudden violence, Ibari stumbled across a seemingly-normal short-sword...unbeknownst to him, the sword is a prison for Frost Sliver, an ancient spirit which can freeze and shatter memories. Emboldened by the spirit in the sword, Ibari goes to the local tavern and attempts to take the taxes from Barrold but he is ill-equipped to deal with the man's guards and is driven away. The spirit in the sword directs him to hide in one of the now-abandoned homes.

    We see a woman at the killing field, Excelias, who lost her husband in the induced frenzy. Outwardly average, Excelias is actually the sole surviving member of an ancient imperial bloodline which grants her eyes dominion over the forces of Winter. She wanders into the killing field to search for his corpse, which draws the attention of Fridela, one of the winter spirits lurking on the outskirts of the village. Excelias attempts to compel the spirit to leave, but Fridela is empowered by the field of death, and the elemental summons a sudden blizzard which drives the woman back towards the village.

    Fridela feels the draw of Frost Sliver's power emanating from the village and moves in its direction. She appears to Ibari in the form of an old woman and attempts to take the blade. Frost Sliver warns Ibari and the boy uses the blade to dispatch her hag-form. Fridela disperses herself across a flurry of blood-red snowflakes and buries Ibari beneath its weight. Frost Sliver uses its power to subdue Ibari's life-force and places the boy in a torpor beneath the snow.

    Excelias is in the tavern, where a visiting bard is playing. Known as Valentine, the bard immediately ingratiates himself with the woman, and the two share an intimate moment. During the afterglow, the pair hatch a plan to steal the collected taxes and flee south to escape the winter.

    Valentine distracts the guards while Excelias attempts to seduce Barrold. It seems the captain is falling for the act when Fridela manifests outside the captain's window and shatters the glass. The captain's body protects Excelias from the worst of it, but the shards slice deep into Sap-Rissen and splatter his vital fluids across her. She grabs the taxes and tells the spirit that it can have the sword - all Excelias wants is the coin. This assuages the spirit, and Fridela leaves to seek the sword...

    Elsewhere, Frost Sliver has completely dominated Ibari - the young man's body heat has been completed subsumed by the spirit in the sword and Ibari is now an ice-animated corpse. Then, unbeknownst to Fridela, the sword-bearer arrives at the tavern just as the spirit is leaving. It breaks down the door and confronts Valentine. The bard attempts to fight the zombie, the Frost Sliver murders the tax collector's guards, and then shatters Valentine's recent memories. 

    Frost Sliver is advancing on Valentine when Excelias comes down the stairs with the tax chest. She is initially confused about the bard's sudden aloofness, but then confronts the frost zombie. She uses her magical sight to discern the magics animating the boy's corpse and unravels them with a single word. The zombie crumbles to the floor and Excelias picks up the sword, with plans to flee south and sell it. Then she and Valentine can start a new life with the tax coin and sword sale.

    Valentine, now with no memory of this woman who is clearly familiar with him, schemes to play along. Once they're outside the village, he'll kill the woman, take the sword and money, and continue south to an easier life. The two leave Jaduqar behind as night falls and another snow storm approaches.

    When they stop at a cave for the night, Fridela arrives, a harbinger of the oncoming snow. She confronts Excelias and attempts to weaponize the woman's guilt about leaving with another man so soon after the death of her husband, but Excelias maintains her mental fortitude and throws off the spirit's mental assault.

    Valentine attempts to take part in the conflict, but he's woefully prepared for a magical conflict. The strings on the bard's lute are snapped when Fridela sharpyl reduces the temperature, and it begins to snow blood.

    Excelias brandishes Frost Sliver and calls on her magical bloodline. In a moment of magical clarity, she realizes she has the ability to access all of Frost Sliver's stolen and shattered memories - it turns out the spirit in the sword was the one responsible for the death of the Empire in the Ice, leader of a major faction of Winter Spirits. She uses the sword to plant the memory into Fridela, which convinces the spirit that it has actually been defeated.

    Fridela flees, and the snow returns to normal. The temperature rises slightly, and the pair are able to start a fire for the night. In the relative comfort of the cave, the two reconvene for an intimate moment before they start on south again, for warmer climate and easier times...

Facilitator Notes:

With about half a dozen sessions of In a Wicked Age under my belt, I've really started to see what kind of emergent stories are possible with this engine. Though I have yet to have a group run for long enough to really get the anthology going, the sessions themselves always turn into something special.

Fiasco Actual Play: Heroes of Pinnacle City 2

Fiasco is a table-top role-playing game about characters with grand ambition and poor impulse control. Players generate a network of character relationships and the associated details and act out a story in which the house of cards topples magnificently.

This session used the playset Heroes of Pinnacle City, in which players are superheroes, villains, and other folks of power.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Willy Boyle - a 13-year old boy who has the ability to change reality...and uses it to become President of the United States of America. With his reality manipulation Willy forms the Executive Order to help him run the country...preferably well, not into the ground.

The Cabinet - Willy's first creation, the Cabinet was created to be the perfect adviser. Unfortunately, Willy misspelled "Cabinet" and thus created an eldritch abomination. So long as the Cabinet fulfills his master's will, he's fine...

Florence "the Drainer" - an individual with the ability to drain vital essence from his victims, the Drainer serves as Boyle's Vice President and Fixer.

Jeep Wrangler - An alien from a distant planet, with the ability to control geometry and geometric shapes. He has come to Earth to seek help in saving his planet from a doomed fate.

Tsunami - A woman with the ability to control the weather on a grand scale. An up-and-coming superhero, she plans to use her powers to solve the energy crisis. Stu Nami's sister.

Stu Nami - A meteorologist, recent divorcee, alcoholic, with minor superpowers. Absolutely furious that Tsunami has arrived on the scene to not only steal his thunder, but steal his super-identity and powerset.

ACT I
Scene I - Young Willy Boyle has manipulated reality so he becomes the President of the United States at the ripe young age of 13. He's hired his local meteorologist, Stu Nami, as his chief scientist, and Stu recommends Willy use his powers to create himself an adviser. Willy does so, but misspells "I need a Cabinet" as "I need a Kabnet." A tentacled monstrosity appears, but assumes the shape of an imposing man wearing sunglasses.

Scene II - Willy is in the Oval Office when he sees the Drainer outside on the White House lawn - he's draining the life from some of the locals. Willy offers Drainer as much life as he can create in exchange for the Drainer's service, and the Drainer agrees.

Scene III - A flying saucer lands in Kansas and drops off an alien, with the sole purpose of utilizing the native life to reproduce. The alien's first Encounter is a Jeep Wrangler, so he takes it as a name. Stu Nami happens to be in the area inspecting a local river and attempts to capture the alien, but Jeep escapes.

Scene IV - Tsu encounters Jeep Wrangler and the two hit it off, after an important conversation about consent. The two connect on a deeper level, but their incompatible biologies mean it can never be a thing. They decide to get it on nonetheless.

Scene V - Stu and Tsunami talk about her entry into the public awareness, and she refuses to stop so he can keep trying to be a superhero. Distraught, Stu stumbles into the news station, drunk and coked out of his mind. He stammers through his segment, talking about how he feels inadequate due to the arrival of Tsunami on the scene. There's a hurricane taking place over Kansas, which Stu knows is because of his sister's broken heart over her incompatibility with Jeep Wrangler. He gets suspended for going to work on cocaine.

Scene VI - We see Willy's first term pass from the Cabinet's viewpoint: it's alright, but nothing special. There are a lot of problems but each and every issue is fixed pretty easily, thanks to the Cabinet's advice, the Drainer's lack of scruples, and Willy's ability to change reality. We get the feeling that the Cabinet is unfulfilled, but all he wants is to help the President, so it's okay.

Scene VII - Willy is talking to Stu about the Drainer's appetite - it's starting to get difficult to fulfill his needs, as he started off with vermin, then larger animals, and now swaths of land. Willy is using his abilities to draw forth abandoned planets for the Drainer to devour. Tsu overhears the conversation and worries about the Drainer.

Scene VIII - The Drainer has taken to space and returns, having eaten the moon, an act blamed on an alien threat. Willy says they have to hide it from everyone. He convinces the president to use his power to take over the world...with the resources of the entire planet behind them, Willy will have no trouble feeding the Drainer. They decide to start with the UN.

Scene IX - Jeep Wrangler - now known as The Reproducer after Tsu got him to download Tinder - is in search of a secret graveyard near the White House. He finds evidence of the Drainer's feeding, and that the Drainer is the one responsible for draining the moon. He tells Stu.

Scene X - Tsunami has been working in Washington DC to fix the energy crisis, and she hates it. She goes to a meeting of the Executive Order at a Denny's and has a falling out with her brother.

Scene XI - Stu leaves the Denny's, drunk and ripped on cocaine. He goes to the television studio and uses his government clearance to get on the set, where he reveals to the nation that it was the Drainer who ate the moon.

Scene XII - The Drainer is eating a homeless man when the Cabinet finds him. They argue about the moon and whether the Drainer really did eat it. The Cabinet reveals its true form and mind-sucks the Drainer to learn he really did drain the moon. He threatens the Drainer to keep his snacks light before he flies off.

THE TILT
Mayhem - Misdirected Passion
Failure - A Stupid Plan Executed to Perfection

ACT II
Scene I - Willy, the Cabinet, and the Drainer are delivering a speech to the UN. Willy manages to throw suspicion off the Drainer by blaming the disappearance of the moon on an alien threat. He says he's going to unite the world against this enemy under the US flag.

Scene II - The Drainer meets with Jeep Wrangler to discuss his appetite. Jeep Wrangler has the ability to shrink planets into tiny spheres and keep them on a necklace or chain - and his homeworld is there because his race needed to find a new sun. So Jeep Wrangler unshrinks Zilliax 45 and sets it in orbit.

Scene III - The Drainer drains Zilliax 45, which Jeep doesn't like. But they get over it when Jeep shrinks Zilliax 45 down as a peace offering.

Scene IV - In the absence of the moon, Tsunami has been manually controlling the tides. The pressure of maintaining the tides while her brother gets all the recognition eventually gets to her, and she lashes out with her powers against the coasts.

Scene V - Stu gives a broadcast about the sudden flooding all along the oceans. Unfortunately, his withdrawal causes him to stumble and knock himself out on live TV.

Scene VI - The Cabinet confronts the president about how his staff are acting out and causing trouble. Willy doesn't know what to do and tells the Cabinet it's his problem - but the Cabinet's only want is to help the president. They're interrupted by Stu, who calls a meeting about his sister.

Scene VII - The Executive Order meets at Denny's, where Willy confronts the Drainer about his crimes. The Drainer confesses, unrepentant, and fights the Cabinet. The Cabinet opens and consumes the Drainer, imprisoning him within himself.

Scene VIII - The Drainer is imprisoned inside the Cabinet - it's fractal and recursive. The Drainer attempts to drain the Cabinet from the inside, but it's too large in there. He's unable to affect the Cabinet on such a scale.

Scene IX - Jeep Wrangler meets with the Cabinet and asks for advice with his frustration. The Cabinet recommends Jeep to a sex therapy group.

Scene X - A week later, Tsu meets with Jeep, who has taken a vow of celibacy. Tsu has calmed down and is keeping the weird weather at bay. The two discuss their old romance, and in a moment of weakness, Tsu loses concentration and lets a wave sweep Jeep out to sea.

Scene XI - Stu is on a cliff nearby and sees the whole thing. He's drunk and high, and pitches forward off the cliff.

Scene XII - The Willy unites the planet at the UN as the United Nations Under God, or UNUG. The Cabinet, now with an upset stomach, flees into the night, now fully an eldritch abomination.

THE AFTERMATH
This is President Willy Boyle, standing before the Galactic Senate. He delivers a rousing speech and unites the galaxy under the Earth banner: a United Galaxy Under God, or UGUG.

This is Jeep Wrangler, adrift on the open ocean. He washes up on an island and notices the beautiful spheres growing on the trees - he spends the rest of his life romantically entangled with coconuts.

This is Tsunami, identified as a planet-level criminal by the United Galaxy Under God. She's picked up by a police cruiser and spends the rest of her life in galactic prison.

This is Stu Nami, covered in piss and sleeping in a gutter. He's lost his position and dies, poor and high.

This is the Drainer, partially melded with the Kabnet. He wanders the inside of his prison, eternally hungry and broken.

This is the Kabnet, wandering the planet. Freed of his need to advise the president and forever infected with the Drainer's hunger, he feeds on the less fortunate, and knows what it's like to want something for himself.

Facilitator Thoughts
This was a gold-star session. Everyone was very in-character, for better and worse, and the stories weaved together well. It was an example of how Fiasco can serve as a screen-writing aid.

Fiasco Session Write-Up: Manna Hotel

Fiasco is a table-top role playing game heavy on the improvisational story-telling and light on the dice rolling. It concerns characters in possession of grand ambition and poor impulse control, and most of the story elements are randomly generated at the beginning, pulled from a specific Playset. The best comparison is to a film by the Cohen Brothers, in which a house of cards is built upon unsteady ground.

Fiasco is played across five stages:

The Setup, in which players choose a Playset to randomly generate relationships and their associated details: needs, objects, and locations.

Act I, in which players establish and resolve scenes. The end-result of these scenes, whether positive or negative for the character, is determined by a die taken from the pools in the center of the table.

The Tilt, in which the players with the strongest narrative through-lines choose Tilt Elements: unexpected events, characters, or items which turn the story on its head.

Act II, in players drive their characters to an inevitable conclusion. Guns go off, precious things are set alight, and loose ends are tightly wound together.

The Aftermath, in which the players provide final, conclusive scenes determined by the net-positive or net-negative dice accumulated throughout gameplay.

The playset used for this game was Manna Hotel, included in the Fiasco Playset Anthology '11. Set in the sleepy town of Manna, Kansas (pop. 1200), it concerns a 22-room motor lodge and the strange folk boarded there...

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Ruth Yoder - An old-world Mennonite woman keeping watch on Manna for the Kansas City mob. Operates the Manna Hotel, and is often seen knitting at its front desk.

Sabrina Wimples - Highly ambitious. Serial cheater. Militant lesbian. Recently collaborated with Leopold Tinman to steal a honey badger and a black bear from the nearby Calgary Zoo.

Leopold Tinman - A bitter veteran of the Korean War...or the Vietnam War? One of them. Suffers from severe tinnitus. Assisted Sabrina in her zoo heist, but doesn't know what to do with the animals.

Jeff Stalin - A junior member of the Russian Mafia in town to establish a criminal foothold. Fought against Tinman in...the war? Actively seeking to remove Ruth, as she's the lone representative of the Kansas City mob. Currently under-cover as a check-out boy at Manna Grocers.

Svetlanalanka Stalin - Jeff Stalin's twin sister, and partner in the mission. A fan of knives.

ACT I
Scene I - Tinman and Sabrina have just stolen a black bear and a honey badger from the Calgary Zoo and stashed the animals in their room at the Manna Hotel. The two go to Manna Grocers and buy out the meat department, alongside a cart full of ice and styrofoam coolers. The pair chat with the checker while Jeff secretly shakes up their 2-liters before loading them into the car. Tinman drives them out towards the hotel when a particularly violent bump pops the 2-liters, which throws Tinman back to the War, causing him to crash the car miles from the hotel. The two start walking.

Scene II - Satisfied at his prank, Jeff clocks out from Manna Grocers. He drives past Tinman and Sabrina on his way to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, he and Svetlanalanka discuss their plan, which amounts to causing petty vandalism in order to drive down morale. They decide to hit the zoo first.

Scene III - Svetlanalanka is interested in vandalism, but she reminds Jeff that they need to remove any influence from the Kansas City Mob - AKA, get rid of Ruth Yoder, the severe-looking woman in the bonnet who's always knitting behind the motel's front desk.

Scene IV - Ruth is knitting something behind the front desk when a man checks in - he says he's a zoo inspector from the city in Manna to inspect the Calgary Zoo, as two high-profile animals have gone missing. Ruth gives him the room next to the war veteran and the lesbian couple ("Praise God she's taken herself a man").

Scene V - Sabrina and Tinman feed the animals - the honey badger's chained up in the closet while the black bear's in the bathroom. They decide the bear is too much to keep in a hotel room and the abandoned schoolhouse up the road is a better option. Ruth drives a large panel van to and from work, so the pair decides to use it to transport the bear.

Scene VI - Tinman shmoozes with Ruth over their shared distaste for young folk. Ruth lets Tinman take the van, so long as he returns it the following morning, as she uses it to transport the local Korean population to church on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Scene VII - After a day at work, Jeff meets up with Svetlanalanka, who has decided the best course of action is to blow up Ruth's van while she drives it back from church. He agrees, and while she prepares to attack the woman he takes a handful of molotov cocktails to the Calgary Zoo and sets the entrance building on fire.

Scene VIII - Svetlanalanka lies in wait as Ruth's van - actually driven by Tinman, carrying Sabrina and the black bear - arrives at the schoolhouse. Svetlanalanka uses her smuggled rocket launcher to blow up the vehicle, though Tinman, Sabrina, and the bear escape unharmed. Before they can confront her, Svetlanalanka disappears into the Kansas countryside and Tinman runs off, thrown back into flashbacks to the War.

Scene IX - Ruth is knitting at the front desk when she sees a soot-covered, dusty Svetlanalanka slink back into the hotel parking lot. The visiting zoo inspector soon leaves, talking on his phone about how the zoo is on fire. Ruth puts 2-and-2 together and calls up the Kansas City Mob, who says they'll send some boys out to drive away the Russian menace.

Scene X - Sabrina tries to get the bear to track Tinman, but the animal isn't willing. Fortunately, she finds him asleep inside the schoolhouse, no worse for wear. Relieved that they're okay after the van mysteriously exploded, they outfit the bear with a harness and a nearby wheelbarrow, and ride the beast back into Manna.

THE TILT
Failure - Something Precious is on Fire
Guilt - A Showdown

ACT II
Scene I - Tinman has a flashback to the War while riding in the wheelbarrow. Whichever conflict it was involved Russian bear riders and a tank. Upon arriving at the hotel they apologize to Ruth for the van's destruction, but the woman seems preoccupied. Tinman and Sabrina offer to use their bear wagon to take the Koreans to church the next day, which seems to mollify Ruth.

Scene II - Svetlanalanka's pissed at Jeff - the attack on the zoo drew unwanted attention, and now they need to hurry to get rid of Ruth before the enforcers arrive from Kansas City. They make shivs out of some broken vodka bottles and storm the front office - but it's Sunday morning and Ruth is at church. They decide to take out their anger on her knitting, slashing it to bits.

Scene III - Svetlanalanka flashes back to her mafia induction, where she's tasked with killing the Mayor of Kansas City...but she's foiled by a junior member of the Kansas City Mafia, who is revealed to be a young Ruth Yoder.

Scene IV - Ruth is at the church graveyard when Sabrina arrives. The two have a heartfelt conversation in which Sabrina apologizes for destroying her van. They hug and go back to church.

Scene V - Sabrina flashes back to the zoo heist, in which Tinman is a distraction while Sabrina smuggles the animals out. She heads out to meet Tinman at the schoolhouse.

Scene VI - Tinman's feeding the bear when he finds Svetlanalanka's discarded rocket launcher. The combined stress and PTSD breaks his mental state and he decides the only way to be free is to blow up the zoo. Sabrina comes across him limping across the Kansas countryside and knocks him out for his own good.

Scene VII - We skip forward one month in time. Sabrina has opened a new zoo in the schoolhouse, with a ranting Tinman as the main attraction, and business is booming. Jeff comes by to visit and confesses to Tinman it was actually him who blew up the van. The betrayal drives Tinman deeper into his psychosis, and the guilt causes Jeff to wander out into the countryside.

Scene VIII - Ruth is at the church's graveyard when Svetlanalanka arrives. The two have a short conversation before they begin to fight! Blows are exchanged! Ruth throws Svetlanalanka into a gravestone! Svetlanalanka tackles Ruth through the stained-glass window! Ruth takes a gun out from her hollowed-out Bible and shoots Svetlanalanka! Svetlanalanka wrestles Ruth's knitting needles away from her and stabs her through the neck, ending the fight!

Scene IX - The enforcers from the Kansas City Mob arrive and meet up with the Koreans - they were secretly Ruth's contacts. They go to visit the Manna Hotel, which is under new management - Svetlanalanka meets them and confirms she's on their side...

Scene X - Sabrina has her new zoo up and running when she's visited by the zoo inspector. The man is hesitant, but revenues are up and Sabrina secures her licensing for future security.

THE AFTERMATH

This is Leopold Tinman. He's finally found some measure of security against the outside world, locked away in Sabrina's zoo. The outside world proved too much for him, and so he embraced his imprisonment. However, the trauma he's experienced will never fully leave him and his mind proves a more effective prison than any metal bars ever could.

This is Jeff Stalin, wandering the wilderness. He's distraught over his betrayal of his friend and once-enemy, Leopold Tinman. He's soon found by Sabrina and taken to her zoo, where the company of Tinman's nearness is a minor comfort.

This is Svetlanalanka Stalin, who now runs the Manna Hotel. With her brother's mental breakdown, she attempts to go it alone and tries to carve out her own small empire based in Manna. Unfortunately, she's not quite up to the task and winds up getting busted by the cops.

This is Ruth Yoder, survivor of the church brawl. The Kansas City Mob does not suffer failure lightly, and though they nurse her back to health, she never sees the light of day again.

This is Sabrina Wimples, zoo tycoon. She enjoys a brief span of significant success providing work to local veterans at her Human Exhibit. But it's lonely at the top, and soon her exhibits begin to act up. One night the locks fail, and she finds herself as prey at the mercy of a gaggle of old, hungry soldiers. They eat her alive.

Facilitator Thoughts
The group walked out of this session pretty satisfied - due in part to a few vivid scenes and interplay between the plotlines. In particular, Sabrina's player ruthlessly pursued her character goals, resulting in some very dark imagery which contrasted nicely with the goofier mafia story. The highlight was the fight between Ruth and Svetlanalanka - a scene which exploded into play with very little warning and contained reincorporation of various, seemingly inconsequential images from earlier in play.

The best advice I've ever heard concerning Fiasco is to never let yourself get in the way of the character. This particular session was a study in how it can result.