One of my current projects (as outlined in this thread) is the thematic follow on to Cold City, Hot War. I say 'thematic'. because it isn't necessarily a direct continuation of the game setting. Indeed, something I want to avoid is an overarching metaplot of any kind, so the game has, as it's starting point, the German twisted technology experiments of World War Two, but makes no reference to the events in 1950 Berlin. The RPA may have existed in the time line of Hot War, it might not have. That is up to individual interpretation.

With a somewhat smaller group than anticipated (myself, Morgan Davie and Stephen Hickey), we set out to go through the game and character creation process. The mechanics of Hot War are an 'evolved' version of the mechanics used in Cold City. In future threads, these changes will become more apparent.

If you are familiar with the Cold City Companion, you'll have seen the section on collaborative game creation and Hot War uses this as its starting point. Although there are some very well defined setting elements in the game, the group is encouraged to embellish and expand upon this through the game and character creation process. Hot War is still, however, a game that features a strong GM role, where the GM is expected to flesh out NPCs, frames scenes and so forth. But more on that later.

The first stage of game creation is the Tone. At this stage I actually had no idea about what sample tones to offer, but this section of the playtest actually proved to be very helpful in this regard. Morgan suggested that he would like the tone to be similar to a 1960's BBC drama, serious, but entertaining, something in the style of Quatermass and Doomwatch. Steve was leaning more towards the feel evoked by 1980s American movies such as Escape From New York, while my input into this was that I kind of like the 'default' tone assumption of the John Wyndham style British apocalypse novel, in the mould of Day of the Triffids. In the end, we settled up the 60's drama style, but with a more modern sensibility when it comes to action scenes.

Next we moved on to the all-important 'what are we doing' phase. The setting makes it clear that all the PCs are attached to the Special Patrol Group, an outfit tasked with hunting monsters, uncovering spies and seditionists, rooting out pockets of Soviet behind the lines troops and so forth. This section of game creation focuses heavily on exactly what the group would like their 'mission' to be. In this case, Morgue and Steve went down a route that I hadn't anticipated, but was nonetheless interesting. The suggestion was that they be undercover in Battersea, attempting to investigate a well-connected local politician who is attempting to create his own power base, a personal fiefdom where he is sole ruler. A sub plot would concern a monster that is terrorising the local area, something that the politician is desperately trying to control or sweep under the carpet.

Next, we moved on to antagonists and, from the preceding section, it was easy to see that the politician would be a major antagonist. He was un-named at this stage, but we knew that his pre-war position was as a local councillor, a petty local official, now elevated through horrific circumstance t being in a position of greater power. It was also established that he would have a gang of thugs supporting him, former local traffic wardens! Then, there was also the monster. At this stage, the NPCs are very loosely sketched and it's up to the GM to determine more of the details, stats, etc.

Other NPCs come into the game in the form of the 'who else' section. Again, these are briefly sketched in general terms and the two main personalities that came out of this were an 'inside man' who is working with the politician and a respected local figure (such as a doctor?) who is not part of the hierarchy.

Finally, we come to scenes that the the players (specifically NOT the GM) would like to see in the game. Steve immediately dropped in that he would like to see a scene where the leader of the gang of thugs hands him a pistol to execute a citizen to prove his loyalty. Morgue gave a very simple suggestion that he'd like a scene that takes place on the water.

Feedback On This Section

Both Morgue and Steve noted that the first two questions took a lot longer to get through than the others. It was suggested that this is, in part, due to the fact that the setting doesn't have the same cultural familiarity that Cold City has. In Cold City, there's a lot of real world stuff you can draw on, but Hot War is more distant from reality, so requires more setting knowledge. Having plenty of examples and suggestions in the text was given as one way of getting round this. On thing i noticed is that this is a game that will require a certain amount of setting knowledge on the part of the GM.

Another valuable comment that came in was that it should be explicit that the game creating section should not be allowed to over plot the game, essentially creating a 'story before' situation. The suggesting of scenes by the players came in for particular attention in this regard but a very neat solution came out of this. Scenes should be suggested in the form of a black and white photograph. I really like this approach as it fits in with how I see the game, both in play and in terms of the design of the physical book. So, returning to the scene suggested by Steve as an example, using the photographic method it would be described thus "Picture of character being handed a revolver by the leader of the thugs. The leader has a significant look on his face."

Character Creation

We moved into character creation and, as there were only three of us present, I decided to create a character as well. Again, if you are familiar with Cold City, then the method of character creation will not be surprising. Things that are different are the replacement of the National Hidden Agenda with a Factional Hidden Agenda. it serves the same purpose in the game, but given that the SPG is made up of numerous little factions all struggling for power and looking to see who will come out on top during the re-building of society, the factions are things like the Army, Navy, Government and so forth. The 'Draw Scene' from the Cold City Companion is also made an explicit part of the creation process, but altered slightly for the needs of the game. It is re-named the Experience Scene and must take place in the first few days after the War has broken out. The scene has the following requirements:

1) The scene must take place in the immediate aftermath of the War, preferably in the first few days, when the struggle for survival was at its most brutal.

2) There must be conflict in the scene. This conflict can be whatever the player
chooses for their character.

3) There must be achievable stakes for the character that will not result in them
either being killed or prevent them from being part of the SPG.

4) The scene must establish a fact about the War. This can be something very personal, such as the fate of the characters home town or it can be large scale, such as an event which affects many thousands of people.

The Experience Scene is one of three scene types in the game where the player has framing authority (the other two are a scene resolving a hidden agenda and a scene resolving a crisis point for the character), in all other scenes, the GM has scene framing authority.

Another difference is that hidden agendas are now 'rated' with an odd number between 5 and 19. This shows the number of times the agenda can be brought in to conflicts before it must reach a resolution point.

Anyway, the characters turned out like this:

Steve

Constable Bill Neams

A London policeman before the war.

Action: 4
Influence: 3
Reason: 1

Traits

You killed her and you're gonna pay (+)
"Cop" is just another word for someone who knows what shits people are (+)
This is where I grew up (+)
I've taken too many beatings (-)
My anger often gets the better of me (-)
Violence has a way of backfiring on me (-) - This trait came from the Experience Scene

Agendas

Factional: ID the monster and bring it back alive for the British Experimental Rocket Group (rating: 9)

Personal: I'm gonna kill him for what he did to my Nan (13)

Experience Scene

Neams at the head of a mob in Battersea, facing down a line of troops who have evicted people and are sealing the area off. The scene is tense with potential violence. The scene represents a failure for Neams and the Army open fire on the people.
Fact: Battersea is cordoned off by the military and access is tightly controlled.

Morgue

John Perkins

A young ne'erdowell from London. His father was in the Army during World War Two.

Action: 3
Influence: 3
Reason: 2

Traits

Brimming with the confidence of youth (+)
Always wise to the scam (+)
Trying to be responsible now (+)
Doesn't think things through (-)
Fond of the drink (-)
Keeps his nerve when horrible things happen (+) - This trait came from the experience scene

Agendas

Factional: Undermine the Navy monopoly in power generation (this is for the Army, who have got to John and encouraged him to work for them "..because it's what his Dad would have wanted.") (13)

Personal: Get Mary Pike to marry me (11)

Experience Scene

John and his mate Barry are rolling Old Des for a bottle of wine when they are found by Johns dad who has, much to his despair, be called up to the Army again. Dad is furious and waving his old war trophy, a German Luger. Creatures come down the alley, carrying strange bayonets and wearing disturbing gas masks. John manages to get his dads attention long enough so that his dad goes down fighting, rather than being stabbed din the back. John runs.
Fact: Strange, gas-masked foot soldier infiltrated London shortly after the war began and killed people with bayonets.

Me

Lieutenant Commander Ralph Beaumont

A Royal Navy officer with a dubious history of mental fragility.

Action: 3
Influence: 4
Reason: 1

Traits

I cover up my mistakes (+)
Handsome and popular (+)
Well drilled in weapons (+)
Hates himself for what he has done (-)
Irrational and easily spooked (-)
Decorated war hero (+) - This came from the experience scene

Agendas

Factional: Isolate Army personnel working in the SPG and get them to reveal the location of hidden fuel dumps (5).
Personal: Set as many refugees as possible free and give them a better life outside of London (15)

Experience Scene

The Battle of Romney Marsh was a Pyrrhic victory for the Navy, fighting against a beached Soviet landing ship that was carrying an attack gate. Beaumont was in charge of the land forces and made a complete hash of things, causing most of the force to be killed. He, however, survived and was decorated with the Military Medal for his leadership. The medal is pinned on him by an Admiral and parts of London burn behind him.
Fact: The Battle of Romney Marsh was a narrow victory for the Navy.

A comment that came out of this stage was that the initial questions setting up the game should include something about how long the game is intended to last. This would give better guidance for setting the ratings for hidden agendas.

Overall, I was quite pleased with how this session went. There is food for thought in terms of the processes involved and so great ideas came out of it. There was also some good colour in terms of the facts established in the experience scenes, which was one of the aims of including fact creation in the character creation process.

Hopefully Steve and Morgue might pitch in with their thoughts on how it all went.

The next session will showcase more of the changes to the mechanics and most importantly, give an initial indication of how functional they are in play!

Cheers
Malc