Epoch
04-18-2005, 12:37 AM
I played <i>My Life With Master</i> tonight. This is the rough events of play, plus some impressions:
<b>The Game</b>
We eventually decided to play a game as the servitors of Dr. Booge, a mad scientist obsessed with perfecting children. He was a Collector, abducting children and then "improving" them, which we decided meant running a series of sadistic experiments and theoretical behavioural modifications on them.
The players were:
Dave: <b>Sergei</b>, an early experiment of the Master's, designed to test the idea that perfect children looked perfect. Sergei was unearthly beautiful due to surgeries that the Master had performed on him, as long as you couldn't see the terrible scars that were ordinarily covered by his clothing. He had a sort of reverse-romantic-comedy disadvantage: He was a horribly inarticulate stutterer, <i>except</i> around pretty blonde girls, to whom he was suave and charming. I believe that he was Self Loathing: 1, Weariness: 2.
Damian: <b>Grutt</b>. I'm not sure what his background was. He was incredibly intimidating, except to children, and he was unable to express himself emotionally, except to upset children. He was Self Loathing: 2, Weariness: 1.
Madeline: <b>Pearl</b>. Another experiment of the Master's, and apparently an early one, now in her mid teens. Pearl was your textbook trauma victim, clumsy and useless except when someone was reassuring her by physically touching her, and she somehow dampened sound around her except around priests. Weariness 2, Self Loathing: 1.
Eric: <b>Winston</b>. A gullible but silver-tongued travelling salesman who called on the Master once, and the Master convinced him of the rightness of the Master's cause. Winston was unbelievably charming except when telling the truth, and gullible as heck (I don't remember the exception to his gullibility. I don't think it came up). Weariness 2, Self-Loathing: 1.
Me: <b>14-C</b>. A more recent experiment of the Master's, 14-C can't remember his original name, and is referred to by his experiment number. He was a small (10 year old) black boy who is incredibly industrious when unobserved (works 10 times faster than a normal person), but was small and weak (10 years old), though by some quirk of his twisted psychology, he overcomes those disadvantages when doing something that he absolutely does not want to do. Weariness: 0, Self-Loathing: 3.
With more than the recommended number of players, we tried to concentrate our Connections a little, and several players had Connections relating to the Baker or the Mayor of the town. The GM, wanting a relatively short game, gave everyone Love 2 to begin the game with, and set the Master's Fear to 2, and the town's Reason to 3.
The initial tasks of the game were for Pearl to snoop around the local orphanage for information that the Master might use to interfere in its affairs, thus allowing him easier access to a fresh supply of children. Sergei was told to find something that would allow the Master to blackmail him. Winston was told to bring a travelling priest into the Master's castle so that the Master could talk to him. 14-C was told to deal with the large number of stray animals hanging around the castle (Winston had a connection to a stray dog, so I think this was an early effort to spur player interaction), and Grutt was sent to abduct a child from the local orphanage.
Pearl, never the most competent character, approached the Orphanage, was confronted by an official of the place, and tried to fast-talk her way to the information she needed. She failed her Villany roll, and was unceremoniously booted out.
Sergei, who had a Connection with the Mayor's daughter, used his good looks to worm his way into the Mayor's manor, and succeeded in a Villany roll, finding the information he wanted. He decided to stop by the daughter's room on the way back to chat with her.
Winston had no trouble convincing the priest to visit the Master.
I, as 14-C, quickly decided that I was playing a little sociopath, and I decided to, in a straightforward way, scoop up all the strays in the area into burlap sacks, and then toss them into the river. The GM, in a call I don't think I entirely agreed with, decided that this was a Violence roll, and I rolled pathetically. The GM decided that this, and the resulting Weariness gain, meant that I just couldn't quite bring myself to throw a particularly trusting cat into the river. As I tried to summon the will and failed, the other animals got free of the sacks.
Grutt had a Connection with the head of the orphanage, and decided to talk to her before trying the rest of his mission. He made an overture to her, and his more than/less than's combined to make it difficult for him to make himself clear. Gwen, his Connection, rejected him, giving him SL and Love. His resolve to obey the Master was reinforced.
Pearl decided to try to get into the Orphanage by force, and failed her violence roll. She was beaten, took her Weariness, and gave up on her mission, deciding to go visit her connection, the baker's son, instead.
Sergei had a productive conversation with his Connection the Mayor's daughter, gained Love, and prepared to return to the Master.
Winston met his Connection, a stray dog, on the way back from the priest's place, and fed it, a succesful Overture, gaining Love.
I decided that 14-C was at a loss of what to do with the cat, and he decided to visit his connection, Sarah, a girl that he was supposed to be conducting behavioural experiments on, but who had ended up serving as sort of a conscience for him. 14-C gave Sarah the cat, and she accepted it, a succesful Overture, and he gained Love. Feeling much better with himself, he happily returned to kill the rest of the strays. 14-C was pretty messed up.
Grutt found a local troublemaker at the orphanage and, with a succesful Villainy roll, convinced him to come back to the Master's castle with Grutt. Self-Loathing is go.
Pearl went to the baker's, and found her Connection, the son, in back. He took pity on her beaten and battered state, smuggled her some pastries, and took care of her. Love++.
Sergei came back to the Master and told him that he had found some evidence that the Mayor was involved in some financial misdealings (true), but that he hadn't found proof (false -- he already had it). The Master ordered him back to the Mayor's, which was pretty much what Sergei was hoping for.
Winston came back to Master, who was pleased that he'd sent the priest in, but annoyed that he had taken so long to return himself. He ordered Sergei to convince the priest to stay for a while.
14-C returned to the castle, and happily wandered around planting poison animal-food everywhere. He killed all the strays, but Winston's dog connection had been established as elsewhere, so no big deal. It was Villany, so 14-C gets some sweet, sweet Self-Loathing.
Grutt returned triumphant, with boy in hand, and the Master spoke briefly with the kid. The kid was a wise-ass to the Master, and the Master, in a fury, ordered Grutt to beat the kid. Grutt did so -- Violence -- and netted himself a point of Self-Loathing.
Pearl returned to the Master a failure, and the Master noticed she still had some pie on her face. He beat her for her failure, and told her to get him some damn pie.
Sergei headed back out to the Mayor's and attempted to gather some more blackmail material. He failed his Villainy roll and was caught and thrown out of the Mayor's manor. Since he already had other evidence, he wasn't exactly distraught.
Winston went and convinced the priest to spend some time with the Master, with no real trouble.
14-C came back to the Master and declared success in dealing with the strays. The Master praised him, causing 14-C to positively flutter, thinking to himself, "I love the Master. Some day, I'll cut off his fingers and make him eat them." 14-C? Pretty screwed up. The Master tells 14-C to go abduct all of the Baker's children.
Grutt put the kid that he'd just beat into a cell, and then promptly apologises to the kid for beating him, and helps console him. Grutt's kind of a textbook abusive personality. Anyhow, he makes a Connection with the kid and gains Love (I should point out that nothing, you know, sexual happens this entire game. It was pretty messed up, but not that messed up.)
Pearl... I'm not sure. I think that she tried to make the pie and was a failure at it because of her klutziness. She may have met the priest at this point, gained a connection with him, and/or gained Love.
Sergei comes back to the Master and declares success, giving the Master the evidence he'd found earlier. The Master sends Sergei out for some marzipan for the pie that Pearl's supposed to be making. The Baker (who's a connection of Sergei's) has the only marzipan in town.
Winston, I think, decides to go and visit one of his Connections, a married lady who bought the only thing he sold that he really liked. He succesfully makes an Overture to her and his Love pings up.
14-C meets up with Sergei, as they're both headed to the bakery. He suggests to Sergei that they join forces in getting the marzipan and the children. Sergei agrees.
Grutt returns to Master and gets new orders, which are, I think, to escort any children brought back to the castle to cells. I'm not sure about this.
Pearl continues to try to make the pie, and I think she gains more Love with the priest. Again, people, no sex in this game.
Sergei and 14-C go to the Baker, and 14-C distracts the baker while Sergei tries to steal the Marzipan. Our Villainy roll was terrible, and we end up tying with the baker. She doesn't notice what we're up to, but we're distracted by the appearance of Tomas, her son, and aren't succesful in stealing the marzipan.
Winston... I don't really know.
14-C and Sergei are now with Tomas the son, so 14-C claims to Sergei that Pearl is in trouble at the Castle and needs his help while Sergei looks angelic and innocent and nods a lot, supporting 14-C's story. Villainy is succesful, and Sergei heads off to be the hero of his own personal story. Self-Loathing all 'round.
Grutt catches Tomas as Tomas comes up to the castle, and shuttles Tomas off to Winston.
Pearl is, I think, gaining still more love with the Priest. Oh, the Priest is an innocent, too.
Sergei, now without 14-C's support, goes and tries to get the marzipan again by sneaking it away from the baker. He fails and she kicks him out of the place.
Winston takes Tomas to the Master, and the Master has Winston put Tomas in the cells, which Winston does. Villainy is a go, and Winston gains some Self-Loathing.
14-C now goes back to round up the rest of the Baker's kids, and tells <i>them</i> that <I>Tomas</i> is in trouble up at the castle. With his rapidly escalating Self-Loathing score, 14-C has no trouble selling them on this, and they head up there as well, yielding yet more Self-Loathing for 14-C, and a big Mission Accomplished.
Grutt grabs the next three kids and shuts them in a cell.
Pearl... No idea. I think she spent this whole time in the Castle, but I'm not sure exactly what was up. She did eventually make a pie.
Sergei makes an Overture to the baker, explaining that he was sorry for trying to steal the marzipan. She accepts his apology and increments his Love, but gives him no marzipan.
Winston, probably always the most rebellious of the Master's servents, goes downstairs and makes a connection with the other three baker's kids. He gains Love, and sets them free.
14-C decides that now that he's finished his assigned task, it'd be cool to upstage Sergei in the bargain, and grabs the baker's marzipan, easily succeeding a Violence roll despite the Baker's Desperation, and planning to give the marzipan to Sarah. He figures that if Sergei and Pearl are both in disgrace in the Master's eyes, maybe the Master will give 14-C one or both of their names. Sergei sees 14-C's little theft. 14-C's Self-Loathing can't increase any higher right now, so he triggers a Horror Revealed instead.
Grutt... Not sure. I think he maybe goes and visits a Connection.
Pearl presents her pie to the Master and is smacked around and beaten for her dilly-dallying with the Priest, which the Master interprets (incorrectly!) as "impure thoughts," and also for not making a marzipan pie as ordered. She's told to go to her room.
Sergei returns to the Master and explains that 14-C has the marzipan (nice move, by the way), thus ducking ire. He's told, I think, to go and straighten out Pearl.
Winston is also ordered to make Pearl get back on the straight and narrow.
It's now time for my Horror Revealed. At this point, Pearl has a metric ton of Love, and a low Self-Loathing (unlike Grutt, who also has a high Love, but has a huge Self-Loathing, so is unlikely to be able to disobey the Master and trigger Endgame), so I have the Priest discover that the Master is a horrible guy and release all the NPC experiments downstairs, as a device to get him away from Pearl and to make him a target. A variety of deformed, messed-up children are freed from the Castle and are perched to descend on the town.
Grutt interacts with the escaping children, not hindering them.
Pearl helps the escaping children, and forms a Connection and gets Yet More Love.
Sergei finds Pearl, tells her not to have "impure thoughts" about the Priest, which she's fine with, because she didn't in the first place, and heads off to visit his Connections.
Winston finds Pearl and tells her not to talk to the Priest any more. It's Villainy, he's succesful, and he gains SL.
14-C, meanwhile, has his marzipan and goes off to give his pathetic little gift to Sarah. She's heard about the escaping children, puts two and two together, and realizes that 14-C is from the Castle. She freaks out and runs away from him. Overture blown, 14-C gains SL and Love. Awww, poor kiddo. Don't forget that he's a psycho, everyone -- I haven't, and I'm his player.
Grutt is ordered by the Master to kill the Priest.
Pearl goes and visits Tomas, makes an Overture, and is shot down, as he realizes that she's the Master's servant. SL and Love both shoot up, and Pearl looks poised to start the endgame.
Sergei heads over to the Mayor's daughter, makes an Overture, gets success, and tells her that the Mayor is in danger. She agrees to set up a meeting.
Winston, I can't remember.
14-C goes back to Master, having been rejected by Sarah. Like a desperate little puppy, he tells the Master of all his successes, and gives him the marzipan too, seeing as he didn't get far enough with Sarah to give it to her. The Master praises 14-C and tells him to kill the Priest. 14-C is more than a little dubious about this, as it plays straight into his Less Than Human, and tries to argue with the Master. Un-shockingly, giving my astronomical Self-Loathing, I blow the resist orders roll and agree to do what the Master says.
Grutt finds the Priest trying to raise a mob against the Master, while perched on a hay-cart. He lights the cart, and the Priest, on fire. Violence is succesful, Priest is dead, Pearl's Love plummets, and Grutt gets another SL. Also, Fear increases, since the Priest was an Innocent.
Pearl returns to the Master, and he tells her to do... Something, I don't remember what. She succesfully resists his order, but given her now-diminished Love and the Master's recently-increased Fear, she doesn't trigger end-game. So she smashes a vase against his face and runs off. Go Pearl, it's your birthday.
Sergei meets with the Mayor, makes an Overture, makes a Connection, and tells the Mayor that he's in danger of blackmail.
Winston goes to the Master, and is told to track down and beat up Pearl. He resists, succesfully, and triggers Endgame.
14-C, as I saw it, was just rejected by Sarah, then given an impossible order by the Master (that I now didn't have to try to fulfill, as the Priest was already dead). His only recourse is his second connection, the Mayor, heretofor ignored, but written up in backstory. 14-C arrives to see the end of Sergei's disjointed warning (remember that Sergei stutters), and is worried that he's being displaced in the Mayor's affections. 14-C makes a rambling speech about how the Mayor shouldn't trust Sergei and 14-C will help the Mayor instead. Overture accepted, 14-C gets Love, Sergei gets escorted off the premises.
I can't remember what Grutt or Pearl do at this point -- probably go last-ditch for Love.
Sergei returns to the Castle, where the Master and Winston are struggling, and pitches in to help Winston.
Winston rolls and succeeds (with Sergei's help) in beating the hell out of the Master. Game ends:
<i>Epilogues</i>
Sergie, Winston, and Pearl all have high Loves and low SL's. They integrate into the townfolk in various ways, each of them having a romantic interest (Pearl --> Tomas the baker's son. Winston --> the connection of the woman he sold to -- her husband was killed in the riots surrounding the escaped kids. Sergei --> the Mayor's daughter).
14-C and Grutt, with identical stats of SL 7, Weariness 1, Love 5, and a town Reason of 8, are given the options of either serving a new master or suiciding. Grutt elects to serve a new Master, and leaves it vague as to what he might do, though he suggests he'd make a good nanny for an appropriate Master.
I decide that 14-C kills the cat that he gave to Sarah, believing that it has replaced him in her affections. When he shows her its corpse, trying to show her that things are back to the way they used to be between them, she's horrified, and rejects him again. 14-C kills himself, and the last shot of the game is his corpse floating down the river, next to some of the Master's scattered papers, which note that experiment number 14-C was called, by his parents, "Carl."
<b>Impressions</b>
It was the first time any of us had played the game. There was a settling-in period as we tried to balance the camp factor and the horror -- originally, I think, we were mostly expecting a funnier game, and you could see that in some character choices, and it became pretty grim towards the end. We did interject more humor than is apparent from the write-up, I think, because we wanted to distance ourself to a certain extent from the activities of our characters, which were often pretty horrifying.
Five players was definitely the bleeding edge of how much the game could support -- the lag between turns was very noticeable, and I spent a lot of time restless.
I was surprised by how much I got into 14-C. His fucked-up attempts to get Sarah's affections really worked for me. Maybe it's arrogance or just not being in his head, but Grutt, the other high Love, high Self-Loathing character, didn't work for me -- he just ended up feeling like two different people, one loving, one a bastard.
By the end of the game, I was starting to feel like the actions were pretty limited. I mean, essentially the game is a constantly repeating litany of "roll Violence," "roll Villainy," and "roll Overture," with Violence clearly being something to avoid if at all possible, and Villainy really only being worthwhile if you're forced into it or are playing to maximize Self-Loathing, which is <i>fun</i>, but obviously not something that ultimately leads to either your character being instrumental in the End-Game (because you can't disobey the Master and, so you can't trigger End-Game), and not conducive to a happy ending. This isn't really a flaw in the game -- it's heavily thematic, so of course it pounds on the same ideas over and over -- but it means that while I did very much enjoy the game, I'm not super-eager to play again. I feel like I pretty much "got it," and have seen what the game has to offer.
I think that it would be neat if Weariness had something to offer in-game, even if it was an ultimately self-defeating bonus like Self-Loathing is. The way the game encourages Villainy over Violence did yield some nicely thematic bits of scheming and plotting instead of "thug kill," which was nice.
We had a very easy time gaining Love when we wanted to, as the GM was rolling only 1d4 for the Connection, meaning even if we were at the min 1d4, adding in Intimacy or Desperation made it sample to basically guarantee success. I'm glad that was the case, as the game would have lasted a really, really, really long time if we hadn't.
All things considered, I give the session a 7 out of 10, for fun and novelty, but about a 4 out of 10 in terms of interest in playing again.
<b>The Game</b>
We eventually decided to play a game as the servitors of Dr. Booge, a mad scientist obsessed with perfecting children. He was a Collector, abducting children and then "improving" them, which we decided meant running a series of sadistic experiments and theoretical behavioural modifications on them.
The players were:
Dave: <b>Sergei</b>, an early experiment of the Master's, designed to test the idea that perfect children looked perfect. Sergei was unearthly beautiful due to surgeries that the Master had performed on him, as long as you couldn't see the terrible scars that were ordinarily covered by his clothing. He had a sort of reverse-romantic-comedy disadvantage: He was a horribly inarticulate stutterer, <i>except</i> around pretty blonde girls, to whom he was suave and charming. I believe that he was Self Loathing: 1, Weariness: 2.
Damian: <b>Grutt</b>. I'm not sure what his background was. He was incredibly intimidating, except to children, and he was unable to express himself emotionally, except to upset children. He was Self Loathing: 2, Weariness: 1.
Madeline: <b>Pearl</b>. Another experiment of the Master's, and apparently an early one, now in her mid teens. Pearl was your textbook trauma victim, clumsy and useless except when someone was reassuring her by physically touching her, and she somehow dampened sound around her except around priests. Weariness 2, Self Loathing: 1.
Eric: <b>Winston</b>. A gullible but silver-tongued travelling salesman who called on the Master once, and the Master convinced him of the rightness of the Master's cause. Winston was unbelievably charming except when telling the truth, and gullible as heck (I don't remember the exception to his gullibility. I don't think it came up). Weariness 2, Self-Loathing: 1.
Me: <b>14-C</b>. A more recent experiment of the Master's, 14-C can't remember his original name, and is referred to by his experiment number. He was a small (10 year old) black boy who is incredibly industrious when unobserved (works 10 times faster than a normal person), but was small and weak (10 years old), though by some quirk of his twisted psychology, he overcomes those disadvantages when doing something that he absolutely does not want to do. Weariness: 0, Self-Loathing: 3.
With more than the recommended number of players, we tried to concentrate our Connections a little, and several players had Connections relating to the Baker or the Mayor of the town. The GM, wanting a relatively short game, gave everyone Love 2 to begin the game with, and set the Master's Fear to 2, and the town's Reason to 3.
The initial tasks of the game were for Pearl to snoop around the local orphanage for information that the Master might use to interfere in its affairs, thus allowing him easier access to a fresh supply of children. Sergei was told to find something that would allow the Master to blackmail him. Winston was told to bring a travelling priest into the Master's castle so that the Master could talk to him. 14-C was told to deal with the large number of stray animals hanging around the castle (Winston had a connection to a stray dog, so I think this was an early effort to spur player interaction), and Grutt was sent to abduct a child from the local orphanage.
Pearl, never the most competent character, approached the Orphanage, was confronted by an official of the place, and tried to fast-talk her way to the information she needed. She failed her Villany roll, and was unceremoniously booted out.
Sergei, who had a Connection with the Mayor's daughter, used his good looks to worm his way into the Mayor's manor, and succeeded in a Villany roll, finding the information he wanted. He decided to stop by the daughter's room on the way back to chat with her.
Winston had no trouble convincing the priest to visit the Master.
I, as 14-C, quickly decided that I was playing a little sociopath, and I decided to, in a straightforward way, scoop up all the strays in the area into burlap sacks, and then toss them into the river. The GM, in a call I don't think I entirely agreed with, decided that this was a Violence roll, and I rolled pathetically. The GM decided that this, and the resulting Weariness gain, meant that I just couldn't quite bring myself to throw a particularly trusting cat into the river. As I tried to summon the will and failed, the other animals got free of the sacks.
Grutt had a Connection with the head of the orphanage, and decided to talk to her before trying the rest of his mission. He made an overture to her, and his more than/less than's combined to make it difficult for him to make himself clear. Gwen, his Connection, rejected him, giving him SL and Love. His resolve to obey the Master was reinforced.
Pearl decided to try to get into the Orphanage by force, and failed her violence roll. She was beaten, took her Weariness, and gave up on her mission, deciding to go visit her connection, the baker's son, instead.
Sergei had a productive conversation with his Connection the Mayor's daughter, gained Love, and prepared to return to the Master.
Winston met his Connection, a stray dog, on the way back from the priest's place, and fed it, a succesful Overture, gaining Love.
I decided that 14-C was at a loss of what to do with the cat, and he decided to visit his connection, Sarah, a girl that he was supposed to be conducting behavioural experiments on, but who had ended up serving as sort of a conscience for him. 14-C gave Sarah the cat, and she accepted it, a succesful Overture, and he gained Love. Feeling much better with himself, he happily returned to kill the rest of the strays. 14-C was pretty messed up.
Grutt found a local troublemaker at the orphanage and, with a succesful Villainy roll, convinced him to come back to the Master's castle with Grutt. Self-Loathing is go.
Pearl went to the baker's, and found her Connection, the son, in back. He took pity on her beaten and battered state, smuggled her some pastries, and took care of her. Love++.
Sergei came back to the Master and told him that he had found some evidence that the Mayor was involved in some financial misdealings (true), but that he hadn't found proof (false -- he already had it). The Master ordered him back to the Mayor's, which was pretty much what Sergei was hoping for.
Winston came back to Master, who was pleased that he'd sent the priest in, but annoyed that he had taken so long to return himself. He ordered Sergei to convince the priest to stay for a while.
14-C returned to the castle, and happily wandered around planting poison animal-food everywhere. He killed all the strays, but Winston's dog connection had been established as elsewhere, so no big deal. It was Villany, so 14-C gets some sweet, sweet Self-Loathing.
Grutt returned triumphant, with boy in hand, and the Master spoke briefly with the kid. The kid was a wise-ass to the Master, and the Master, in a fury, ordered Grutt to beat the kid. Grutt did so -- Violence -- and netted himself a point of Self-Loathing.
Pearl returned to the Master a failure, and the Master noticed she still had some pie on her face. He beat her for her failure, and told her to get him some damn pie.
Sergei headed back out to the Mayor's and attempted to gather some more blackmail material. He failed his Villainy roll and was caught and thrown out of the Mayor's manor. Since he already had other evidence, he wasn't exactly distraught.
Winston went and convinced the priest to spend some time with the Master, with no real trouble.
14-C came back to the Master and declared success in dealing with the strays. The Master praised him, causing 14-C to positively flutter, thinking to himself, "I love the Master. Some day, I'll cut off his fingers and make him eat them." 14-C? Pretty screwed up. The Master tells 14-C to go abduct all of the Baker's children.
Grutt put the kid that he'd just beat into a cell, and then promptly apologises to the kid for beating him, and helps console him. Grutt's kind of a textbook abusive personality. Anyhow, he makes a Connection with the kid and gains Love (I should point out that nothing, you know, sexual happens this entire game. It was pretty messed up, but not that messed up.)
Pearl... I'm not sure. I think that she tried to make the pie and was a failure at it because of her klutziness. She may have met the priest at this point, gained a connection with him, and/or gained Love.
Sergei comes back to the Master and declares success, giving the Master the evidence he'd found earlier. The Master sends Sergei out for some marzipan for the pie that Pearl's supposed to be making. The Baker (who's a connection of Sergei's) has the only marzipan in town.
Winston, I think, decides to go and visit one of his Connections, a married lady who bought the only thing he sold that he really liked. He succesfully makes an Overture to her and his Love pings up.
14-C meets up with Sergei, as they're both headed to the bakery. He suggests to Sergei that they join forces in getting the marzipan and the children. Sergei agrees.
Grutt returns to Master and gets new orders, which are, I think, to escort any children brought back to the castle to cells. I'm not sure about this.
Pearl continues to try to make the pie, and I think she gains more Love with the priest. Again, people, no sex in this game.
Sergei and 14-C go to the Baker, and 14-C distracts the baker while Sergei tries to steal the Marzipan. Our Villainy roll was terrible, and we end up tying with the baker. She doesn't notice what we're up to, but we're distracted by the appearance of Tomas, her son, and aren't succesful in stealing the marzipan.
Winston... I don't really know.
14-C and Sergei are now with Tomas the son, so 14-C claims to Sergei that Pearl is in trouble at the Castle and needs his help while Sergei looks angelic and innocent and nods a lot, supporting 14-C's story. Villainy is succesful, and Sergei heads off to be the hero of his own personal story. Self-Loathing all 'round.
Grutt catches Tomas as Tomas comes up to the castle, and shuttles Tomas off to Winston.
Pearl is, I think, gaining still more love with the Priest. Oh, the Priest is an innocent, too.
Sergei, now without 14-C's support, goes and tries to get the marzipan again by sneaking it away from the baker. He fails and she kicks him out of the place.
Winston takes Tomas to the Master, and the Master has Winston put Tomas in the cells, which Winston does. Villainy is a go, and Winston gains some Self-Loathing.
14-C now goes back to round up the rest of the Baker's kids, and tells <i>them</i> that <I>Tomas</i> is in trouble up at the castle. With his rapidly escalating Self-Loathing score, 14-C has no trouble selling them on this, and they head up there as well, yielding yet more Self-Loathing for 14-C, and a big Mission Accomplished.
Grutt grabs the next three kids and shuts them in a cell.
Pearl... No idea. I think she spent this whole time in the Castle, but I'm not sure exactly what was up. She did eventually make a pie.
Sergei makes an Overture to the baker, explaining that he was sorry for trying to steal the marzipan. She accepts his apology and increments his Love, but gives him no marzipan.
Winston, probably always the most rebellious of the Master's servents, goes downstairs and makes a connection with the other three baker's kids. He gains Love, and sets them free.
14-C decides that now that he's finished his assigned task, it'd be cool to upstage Sergei in the bargain, and grabs the baker's marzipan, easily succeeding a Violence roll despite the Baker's Desperation, and planning to give the marzipan to Sarah. He figures that if Sergei and Pearl are both in disgrace in the Master's eyes, maybe the Master will give 14-C one or both of their names. Sergei sees 14-C's little theft. 14-C's Self-Loathing can't increase any higher right now, so he triggers a Horror Revealed instead.
Grutt... Not sure. I think he maybe goes and visits a Connection.
Pearl presents her pie to the Master and is smacked around and beaten for her dilly-dallying with the Priest, which the Master interprets (incorrectly!) as "impure thoughts," and also for not making a marzipan pie as ordered. She's told to go to her room.
Sergei returns to the Master and explains that 14-C has the marzipan (nice move, by the way), thus ducking ire. He's told, I think, to go and straighten out Pearl.
Winston is also ordered to make Pearl get back on the straight and narrow.
It's now time for my Horror Revealed. At this point, Pearl has a metric ton of Love, and a low Self-Loathing (unlike Grutt, who also has a high Love, but has a huge Self-Loathing, so is unlikely to be able to disobey the Master and trigger Endgame), so I have the Priest discover that the Master is a horrible guy and release all the NPC experiments downstairs, as a device to get him away from Pearl and to make him a target. A variety of deformed, messed-up children are freed from the Castle and are perched to descend on the town.
Grutt interacts with the escaping children, not hindering them.
Pearl helps the escaping children, and forms a Connection and gets Yet More Love.
Sergei finds Pearl, tells her not to have "impure thoughts" about the Priest, which she's fine with, because she didn't in the first place, and heads off to visit his Connections.
Winston finds Pearl and tells her not to talk to the Priest any more. It's Villainy, he's succesful, and he gains SL.
14-C, meanwhile, has his marzipan and goes off to give his pathetic little gift to Sarah. She's heard about the escaping children, puts two and two together, and realizes that 14-C is from the Castle. She freaks out and runs away from him. Overture blown, 14-C gains SL and Love. Awww, poor kiddo. Don't forget that he's a psycho, everyone -- I haven't, and I'm his player.
Grutt is ordered by the Master to kill the Priest.
Pearl goes and visits Tomas, makes an Overture, and is shot down, as he realizes that she's the Master's servant. SL and Love both shoot up, and Pearl looks poised to start the endgame.
Sergei heads over to the Mayor's daughter, makes an Overture, gets success, and tells her that the Mayor is in danger. She agrees to set up a meeting.
Winston, I can't remember.
14-C goes back to Master, having been rejected by Sarah. Like a desperate little puppy, he tells the Master of all his successes, and gives him the marzipan too, seeing as he didn't get far enough with Sarah to give it to her. The Master praises 14-C and tells him to kill the Priest. 14-C is more than a little dubious about this, as it plays straight into his Less Than Human, and tries to argue with the Master. Un-shockingly, giving my astronomical Self-Loathing, I blow the resist orders roll and agree to do what the Master says.
Grutt finds the Priest trying to raise a mob against the Master, while perched on a hay-cart. He lights the cart, and the Priest, on fire. Violence is succesful, Priest is dead, Pearl's Love plummets, and Grutt gets another SL. Also, Fear increases, since the Priest was an Innocent.
Pearl returns to the Master, and he tells her to do... Something, I don't remember what. She succesfully resists his order, but given her now-diminished Love and the Master's recently-increased Fear, she doesn't trigger end-game. So she smashes a vase against his face and runs off. Go Pearl, it's your birthday.
Sergei meets with the Mayor, makes an Overture, makes a Connection, and tells the Mayor that he's in danger of blackmail.
Winston goes to the Master, and is told to track down and beat up Pearl. He resists, succesfully, and triggers Endgame.
14-C, as I saw it, was just rejected by Sarah, then given an impossible order by the Master (that I now didn't have to try to fulfill, as the Priest was already dead). His only recourse is his second connection, the Mayor, heretofor ignored, but written up in backstory. 14-C arrives to see the end of Sergei's disjointed warning (remember that Sergei stutters), and is worried that he's being displaced in the Mayor's affections. 14-C makes a rambling speech about how the Mayor shouldn't trust Sergei and 14-C will help the Mayor instead. Overture accepted, 14-C gets Love, Sergei gets escorted off the premises.
I can't remember what Grutt or Pearl do at this point -- probably go last-ditch for Love.
Sergei returns to the Castle, where the Master and Winston are struggling, and pitches in to help Winston.
Winston rolls and succeeds (with Sergei's help) in beating the hell out of the Master. Game ends:
<i>Epilogues</i>
Sergie, Winston, and Pearl all have high Loves and low SL's. They integrate into the townfolk in various ways, each of them having a romantic interest (Pearl --> Tomas the baker's son. Winston --> the connection of the woman he sold to -- her husband was killed in the riots surrounding the escaped kids. Sergei --> the Mayor's daughter).
14-C and Grutt, with identical stats of SL 7, Weariness 1, Love 5, and a town Reason of 8, are given the options of either serving a new master or suiciding. Grutt elects to serve a new Master, and leaves it vague as to what he might do, though he suggests he'd make a good nanny for an appropriate Master.
I decide that 14-C kills the cat that he gave to Sarah, believing that it has replaced him in her affections. When he shows her its corpse, trying to show her that things are back to the way they used to be between them, she's horrified, and rejects him again. 14-C kills himself, and the last shot of the game is his corpse floating down the river, next to some of the Master's scattered papers, which note that experiment number 14-C was called, by his parents, "Carl."
<b>Impressions</b>
It was the first time any of us had played the game. There was a settling-in period as we tried to balance the camp factor and the horror -- originally, I think, we were mostly expecting a funnier game, and you could see that in some character choices, and it became pretty grim towards the end. We did interject more humor than is apparent from the write-up, I think, because we wanted to distance ourself to a certain extent from the activities of our characters, which were often pretty horrifying.
Five players was definitely the bleeding edge of how much the game could support -- the lag between turns was very noticeable, and I spent a lot of time restless.
I was surprised by how much I got into 14-C. His fucked-up attempts to get Sarah's affections really worked for me. Maybe it's arrogance or just not being in his head, but Grutt, the other high Love, high Self-Loathing character, didn't work for me -- he just ended up feeling like two different people, one loving, one a bastard.
By the end of the game, I was starting to feel like the actions were pretty limited. I mean, essentially the game is a constantly repeating litany of "roll Violence," "roll Villainy," and "roll Overture," with Violence clearly being something to avoid if at all possible, and Villainy really only being worthwhile if you're forced into it or are playing to maximize Self-Loathing, which is <i>fun</i>, but obviously not something that ultimately leads to either your character being instrumental in the End-Game (because you can't disobey the Master and, so you can't trigger End-Game), and not conducive to a happy ending. This isn't really a flaw in the game -- it's heavily thematic, so of course it pounds on the same ideas over and over -- but it means that while I did very much enjoy the game, I'm not super-eager to play again. I feel like I pretty much "got it," and have seen what the game has to offer.
I think that it would be neat if Weariness had something to offer in-game, even if it was an ultimately self-defeating bonus like Self-Loathing is. The way the game encourages Villainy over Violence did yield some nicely thematic bits of scheming and plotting instead of "thug kill," which was nice.
We had a very easy time gaining Love when we wanted to, as the GM was rolling only 1d4 for the Connection, meaning even if we were at the min 1d4, adding in Intimacy or Desperation made it sample to basically guarantee success. I'm glad that was the case, as the game would have lasted a really, really, really long time if we hadn't.
All things considered, I give the session a 7 out of 10, for fun and novelty, but about a 4 out of 10 in terms of interest in playing again.