Excitingly, this was the first chance I had to GM Hot War since playtesting was concluded. Especially exciting as it was amongst friends whom I had wanted to run a game for (and promised to run a game for) for ages.
The game was run at Gamewang!, a friendly little weekend of RPGs, boardgames, card games, barbecue, drinking and merriment held at my parents house in Falkirk (they were away on holiday and kindly let me use their spacious abode for the event).
Because we were limited to 3 or 4 hours of play, rather than go through the complete game creation process, I grabbed one of the pre-generated game sheets from the back of the book and filled in the blanks. However, everyone did get the chance to quickly generate their characters (albeit, without the experience scene, as that would have taken up a bit of time better dedicated towards playing through the game).
The characters that were part of the game were:
Rich Holburn (Brian Nisbet)
A former East End criminal, recruited into the SSG. Faction: The SSG itself.
Action: 4
Influence: 2
Insight: 2
Factional Agenda: Gain control of as much of the London underworld as possible and use it to help the SSG!
Personal Agenda: Keep myself and my mates alive and living well.
Traits: Good in a fight (+), Underworld contacts (+), Brick shithouse (-), Unenlightened self-interest (-), Underworld enemies (-)
Relationships: The SSG (faction, +1), James Turnbull (team-mate, +3), Mike Holburn (brother, +3), 'Filthy' Dave (underworld enemy, -2), Katherine Stevens (team-mate, +2)
Professor James Turnbull (Stuart McIntyre)
A scientist and researcher from the British Scientific Research Society (Research & Archives Dept.). Faction: The BSRS.
Action: 2
Influence: 2
Insight: 4
Factional Agenda: Explore and retrieve information or devices of use, with minimal damage!
Personal Agenda: Use the information and devices to help people.
Traits: Attention to detail (-), Font of knowledge (+), Open minded (-), Too much info (-), Too curious (-)
Relationships: Rich Holburn (team-mate, -1), Prof. Abigail Tollworthy (faction, -1), Emily Turnbull (sister, +2), Ashley Bingham (antagonist, -3), Prof. Geoff Duncan (colleague, +2)
Polly Botham (Shevaun Frazier)
A clerk from the Royal Air Force. Faction: The RAF and, tangentially, the British Experimental Rocket Bureau.
Action: 2
Influence: 4
Insight: 2
Factional Agenda: Find and procure the technology that controls the 'hands'!
Personal Agenda: Eradicate BERB scientists influence in the RAF: discredit, destroy, devalue!
Traits: Convincing (+), Thorough (+), Nosy (-), Merciless (+), Panicky (+)
Relationships: James Turnbull (team-mate, +1), Dr. Eisen (faction, -2), Mike Doubleday (boyfriend, +3), Major Cripps (antagonist, -2)
Katherine Stevens (Lucy McCraw)
A former political journalist. Faction: Like Holburn, the SSG itself.
Action: 2
Influence: 3 [4]
Insight: 3
Factional Agenda: Ensure the defection of a prominent MP to the side of the SSG!
Personal Agenda: Help the Citizens Defence Army to change into what she thinks it should be.
Traits: Contacts within the political system (+), Personable and friendly (+), Intuitive reasoning (+), Sympathetic (+), Convinced she's always right (-), Hates the Government (-)
Relationships: Ashley Bingham (antagonist, -3), Martin Derby (politician, +2), James Turnbull (team-mate, +1), Rich Holburn (+2), Polly Botham (team-mate, 0 [had been at +1]), Mr Struthers (faction, +1)
All the characters are presented as they were at the end of the game, so a lot of their traits, attributes and relationships were affected by the consequences of conflicts.
The basic situation (as outlined on the pre-generated game sheet) was something like this:
"Disembodied hands have started appearing all over London.
They carry out mysterious tasks, such as carrying on long-abandoned jobs. They creep into rooms at night and touch people as they sleep, softly. They strangle and suffocate, whole swarms of them sometimes descending upon people. Nowhere seems safe from the hands.
The SSG is in a state of uproar. The hands were initially found to be laughable. Not any more. They are a serious and increasing problem. People are dying, panic is spreading. What to do? The characters are one of many OFUs who have been assigned to the hands problem. It’s not just the SSG. The military and various other groups are all competing to find out where they come from, who (if anyone) is controlling them and how to eradicate the menace. Some would rather not eradicate, some would rather find out how to control the hands... "
So, that's what the players had to confront from the get-go. A part of the game creation process which I really love is getting players to suggest scenes they would like to see, but in the form of a black & white snapshot of a frozen moment in time. It gives the players an opportunity to say some stuff that they want to see, but gives the Gm flexibility in how to bring it into the game. The photos that were suggested by the players were:
"Professor Turnbull looking into a filing cabinet. He looks shocked. Ashley Bingham (an antagonist from the pre-gen game sheet) is looking over his shoulder. She looks smug."
"Polly and Mike having a pleasant dinner together. Hands are everywhere."
"Updike (one of the 'other people' from the pre-gen game sheet) is on the floor scrabbling for hands that are running around."
"Close-up, 2 hands both holding guns, pointed at each other. The photo does not show if these are peoples hand, or the mysterious hands."
Some good fodder for scenes there, I felt!
We kicked off by dropping straight into a tense situation in the ruins of Trafalgar Square, underneath a bullet scarred Nelsons Column. Soldiers, under the orders of Major Cripps (another antagonist NPC from the pre-gen sheet) were trying to get the PCs to hand over rat traps they had been using to capture hands for testing. The scene worked pretty well in showing that not everyone was on the same side or had the same goals and set the game up up well in terms of tension and conflict.
Other key scenes throughout the game were:
Stevens and Holburn visiting the largely intact St Pancras Railway Station Hotel (a massive Gothic edifice), which is now teeming with hundreds of people crowded into its many rooms. They spoke with Updike, a traumatised former Postman who lost both his hands during the fighting in London and who now sees the mysterious, creeping hands as some sign from God.
Turnbull being surprised in his lab at the Natural History Museum (faithfully guarded by the old porter Jenkins and his decrepit Lee-Enfield .303 rifle) by Bingham, who proceeded to threaten his sister with the most awful (but only implied) retribution if the Professor did not starting coming over to her way of thinking. There wasn't even a conflict roll in this scene, just some really good moments of play (and a handy reminder from Lucy that Bingham would probably use Turnbulls sister against him, something I had forgotten about).
Polly and Mike having dinner in the basement of the old American Embassy and Mike revealing his plan to use a beached ship at Sheerness to get back to the USA, along with some of his colleagues. This was a bit disheartening for Polly, until Mike said he could bring her along. What would she do?
The big showdown between Bingham, Turnbull and Holburn, with Bingham eventually having her reputation in the eyes of the SSG totally destroyed and her position with her Governmental superior utterly ruined (the result of an extremely powerful success on the part of Brian when rolling for a conflict between Bingham and Holburn). Then there was the horrible retribution on the part of Turnbull...
An interesting aspect of the game was that Bingham was described fairly neutrally on the pre-gen sheet. But almost all of the players decided that she must be a total bitch who would try her best to screw them over. So a total bitch she became.
There was great character and story development, even in this short game. Turnbull was forced to become vengeful and violent, Holburn proved to be a much more sympathetic character than first imagined, Polly was torn apart by love and deceit and Stevens developed into a strong, capable leader.
A fun game all round and one which I would have loved to have seen go on longer. I was enthused that the players enjoyed the mechanical elements and how they contributed to the creation of the story and the atmosphere around it. Hopefully, Shevy, Brian, Stu or Lucy might give further thoughts on this.
Cheers
Malc
Some Further Thoughts...
Submitted by Brian on Thu, 17/07/2008 - 14:46.
This was my first time playing Hot War and I very quickly fell in love with the system. I have often been dubious of scene-framing mechanics and arbitrary cessations or interruptions to roleplaying, but as Malc showed during this game, when it's done right it works very well.
The photo mechanic was nice and it allowed the players to feel from very early on that they had an influence on the game. This was further backed up by their ability to add or remove a die during conflict resolution. At no point did we feel we were just watching the other PCs. Of course there is scope for abuse there, but that just harks back to the necessity of having good players and a good GM.
Indeed I think one of the few "flaws" of the game, based on this one outing, is that it has a higher requirement for a group of players (including the GM) who are willing to commit to the story and maintain a high degree of focus and gravity throughout. That's not to say that there isn't the opportunity for levity, but many games allow for a far more relaxed/unfocused play style and I think one bad player would have far more impact on Hot War than it would on such games.
All in all an excellent session and a great recommendation for the game. However perhaps next time I won't drink *quite* so much vodka while playing... :)
My thoughts
Submitted by Lucy on Thu, 17/07/2008 - 16:51.
I hadn't played Hot War before either and was also very impressed with the system. Normally the system is what gets in the way of the setting for me but Hot War was just the opposite.
Allowing players a chance to contribute to other people's conflicts by adding or removing a die from the opposing pools was great. It meant everyone was engaged the whole way through. Also it wasn't really abused by the players in our game. There was only one roll I can remember where all 3 other players chose to help the same 'side'. Throughout the rest of the game we picked different 'sides' each time and helped not only each other but those against our team if it seemed right for the story.
Taking narrative control also suddenly clicked into place for me during this game. I've never been too sure of it before. Probably because I've seen it abused or not used very imaginatively. The first example of this was being able to create a link between the victims of the hands that also tied into the strongly held hatred for Bingham. So I had a bit more of an inkling about what narrative control *could* be used for. Then towards the end of the game mine and Shevy's characters came into a conflict over whether or not Stevens would be sympathetic to Polly's plight or would lock her into the room and go to her superiors to tell them Polly was witholding information. At first I wasn't too happy about not being able to control my own character. When Shevy won the role however, she used the narrative control to make Stevens realise that she was turning into Bingham, her worst enemy. And then I realised that by having the conflict, Polly was being given a chance to make an argument that wouldn't be simply dismissed by me as a player. And in the end it gave my character something really strong to play off. So yeah, I 'get' narrative control now I think.
Thoughts
Submitted by Malcolm Craig on Fri, 18/07/2008 - 09:16.
Brian: Yep, I totally agree that a game such as Hot War does require a fair degree of focussed commitment from the group. To be honest, this is pretty much a deliberate design choice, as that's the kind of game I want to play these days! Yes, casual games can be fun, but more often that not, I want to play something that has a point and has, well, focus (there's that word again!). I'm certain there could be levity in game of Hot war, but I could see them tending towards black humour.
I'd like to say the B&W photo thing was my idea, but it really wasn't. It came out of the original mechanic, whereby players simply suggested scenes they would like to see. During playtesting in Wellington, one of the group (I think it was Steve Hickey, actually) said "Wouldn't it be cool if...". Thus, the idea of having players suggest scenes as photographs came about.
Lucy: Great! I'm really glad that Hot War gave you the opportunity to experience some of this stuff. The scene between Stevens and Polly (interesting that throughout this AP, we have referred to Polly by her first name and Stevens by here second name) was great, but I didn't mention it initially because I didn't think I remembered it correctly. I was hoping that you or Shevy would pitch in with your thoughts on it!
You are quite correct saying that by engaging in a conflict and using the dice, it makes it something that the player can not ignore. And that totally worked in the game. The realisation on the part of Stevens that she was in danger of becoming what she hated was really cool, and very well played.
Thanks for pitching in with your thoughts here, it is very much appreciated.
Cheers
Malc
Contested Ground Studios
Even more thoughts
Submitted by Lucy on Fri, 18/07/2008 - 14:45.
Yeah I noticed the Polly/Stevens thing too. In my comment I realised that I was referring to them that way and I'm not entirely sure why. Even in game I don't think her first name was ever used. I do remember calling Polly by her surname in character though and so did Bingham. Maybe if we'd carried on playing Stevens would have had a chance to show her new found sympathy and have gained a first name!