[SotC] Mind-Tyrants of Time Square and the Iron Giant Out of Time!

[Paka]

It started in this thread, compiling headlines. Then I read the headlines to the two players and asked them to choose one each for starters and we'd have a mini-adventures with each one. If each adventure in the past was a pulp novel, this was more like a couple of short stories.

I didn't want us to save the world today, just wasn't in the mood. This allowed us to take a breather, role-play a bit and interact with fun things. Wierd science and high fantasy pulp-i-tude abounded but the stakes were a little less intense.

They chose the headlines:

• Mind-Tyrants of Tyria Request Embassy in New York City
• Giant Robot Seeks Sanctuary in Local Cathedral

The first adventure was filled with time travel zaniness. Storn asked to take this headline, as it played right into his aspects about the Mind-Tyrants of Tyria:

Aspects:

• Hatred of Mind-Tyrants of Tyria
• Princess Alura (daughter of a tyrant and leader of the rebels)
• Man Between 3 Worlds
• Honorable

Jeff paid the Fate Point to write the first line of the article, thus really setting the scene for the adventure:

Byron Rhodes made the announcement on behalf of his employers early yesterday morning.

And zaniness ensued with Dr. Stigg and Hadrian Helm seeking out the lawyer who represented the Tyrants. They uncovered in no time that his wife had cancer that the Tyrian Dictators had promised to cure.

But the wife had been replaced by the Martian Shape-shifter who had escaped from Dr. Stigg last adventure! *cue music!*

The conclusion was confusing, damned confusing. I don't know where to begin with all of the time travel and switcheroos and lives lived outside of time. The players also met the mayor, Charles Argento.

Everyone lived happily ever after and Hadrian had a headache from it all.

The Mind-Tyrants were thwarted but the Martian Spy-master lived to shift another day.

And so the Mind Tyrants in Time Square were dealt a swift defeat.

The next headline was chosen by Jeff. I sincerely hope that Storn will post the picture of the Robot.

More time travel, the robot sent by Dr. Stigg from the year 2025 to warn/kill the 20's Dr. Stigg of the damage he was doing the worlds via the paradox he created when in the last adventure he shifted the Mind Tyrant, who was inhabiting the body of the no-good thug, Stu Lancaster, out of time itself.

It ended with a good ole fashioned fight with the robot, who was talked into shutting down but not before we found out that the robot housed the consciousness of Dr. Stigg from 3027.

But, such is Dr. Stigg's aspect, The Price of Time.

Storn paid the fate point to write the first line of this article and he wrote:

Bishop Tommy O' Toole has granted asylum to Iron Giant #27, scion of Dr. Golem. 27 has confessed his sins and seeks to atone. His atonement? He wishes to join the Century Club!

It was uncovered that the Mind Tyrant was in fact shifted outside of time, to a quantum dimension where he could do damage to any number of worlds.

Dr. Stigg sent Iron Giant #27 to the dawn of time itself, where the robot saw the Creator and gained faith.

So ended, Iron Giant Out of Time!

They were fun little adventures, two-fisted Twilight Zone episodes and a fun day of gaming.

What is happening is that we are game by game building a funky little mythology of pulp around our gaming table and I'm curious to see where it is going.

[iago]

What I like about this headline approach is that it ends up producing small, fun stories that I could see manifesting as an 8-pager in the back of an old comic book. You know the ones I'm talking about.

Good stuff.

[Storn]

As requested, the religious minded Iron Giant #27. A very quick, crude sketch... I think this was like 10 mins of doodling at the table. I love the concept, but the drawing leaves something to be desired. I'm a bit hesitant to show it. However, it was totally enough to get the concept across. And in the end, that is what a doodle at the table's job is all about. Not being pretty.

[Storn]

I do want to say something about the headline adventures.

Both turned out to be some of my favorite games yet. Judd and I remarked that I barely used any Fate points in the first chapter.... and I usually burn through them like candy.

But I was taking bribes, hitting aspects, I actually was gaining more Fate than I was spending. I was losing conflicts left and right, but I seemed to be very cool with doing that... the outcomes of loosing was so interesting to me, that I let several ride. Instead of blowing Fate to overcome or reroll.

Even though I was totally invested in stopping the Tyrian Embassy getting a foothold in NYC. And Judd's bribe of while Princess Alura is tailing the Shiftshaped Dorothy Rhodes, Alura is arrested... was one I couldn't resist taking... I went, "oh, that's too juicy!" I think I gave one of my better speeches in front of the judge, wrangling for bail for my Princess!!!

Also, what was concieved as our fall back game, easy to do one shots, as really evolved for me, into a really interesting, rich mythos/pantheon to play in. I'm really surprised how much we've gotten out of those Mind Tyrants of Tyria... I really expected that to be color. But it keeps coming up and Jeff's Dr. Stigg has taken such a strong reaction to the Tyrants, that they just beg to be used again and again.

It is like having planet Mongo next door, yet still being able to go home for dinner in Brooklyn.

So. good stuff. havin' a blast.

[shockvalue]

Can you all talk about the process of coming up with the adventures themselves? I get the sense that these were done on the fly - picking the headlines was done in the same session as the adventure dealing with those headlines. Yet these are some pretty intricate stories, especially with the Dr. Stiggs of different eras and the evolving mythology of the Mind Tyrants.

Paka, did you just take the headlines and go into another room for half an hour and figure out all the behind-the-scenes stuff? Did you just make it up as he went along? Or did all of you make it up as you went along, sort of a group-GM thing?

As a specific concrete example, how did the idea of the lawyer's wife being the mind tyrant in disguise come about? Pure GM idea, or a player saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if..."? (But don't get too focused on this one example if others would illustrate the methods used better; I'm just picking it to get the ball rolling.)

I like the idea of a "pick-up" game, but I have to admit I have little experience in that area, and I'd like to hear about how it was done in specific instances, rather than just hypotheticals.

[Paka]

Originally Posted by shockvalue

Paka, did you just take the headlines and go into another room for half an hour and figure out all the behind-the-scenes stuff? Did you just make it up as he went along? Or did all of you make it up as you went along, sort of a group-GM thing?

I was most certainly the GM, but Fate Points and Aspects, coupled with my intense trust of Jeff and Storn (and all of the players at the tables that I have been blessed to play at) makes it pretty easy.

I start with a simple situation.

The Tyrians want an embassy, as the headlines noted.

Jeff writes the first line of the news story and the lawyer comes up. Jeff names him.

They go to meet the Mayor but don't roll anything social for shit and aren't willing to put their Fate Points where their mouth is and duke it out. They get some information and leave.

They meet with Byron Rhodes, lawyer and rep for the Mind-Tyrants. I drop in that his wife has cancer and the Tyrians can cure it.

So, this introduces the wife. I know I have a powerful NPC there and Storn instantly wants to meet with her.

They get to her, hopping over some obstacles (3-headed Tyrian Hounds guarding the Rhodes family manor).

I don't recall if I asked Jeff or if Jeff asked me to make a roll to analyze her. Iether way, when he rolls really well, I drop the bomb that she's actually the Martian Shape-shifter.

And things start to get cuh-razy. The shapeshifter idea was spur of the moment. I decided it'd be cool and went with it.

And things just went complicated from there, all out of Jeff and Storn's actions.

So, I had a simple situation, got some player input, twist the situation to make it more dramatic and let the PC's make it more complicated. That is my general method of making shit up. I start simple and build on the players' reactions and push them with the flags on their sheet.

So, the players have input, but we aren't just sitting around telling a story to one another. Its an RPG, and fairly traditional.

When we put up the recording we made of the game, I'll post a link here, so you can specifically hear the way it went down.

Thanks, damned good question! If you have further questions, feel free to post 'em up here.

[Storn]

We got a colorized version of Iron Man 27, courtesy of freakboy6117

http://www.herogames.com/forums/atta...8&d=1166569347