Excellent!

A lot of Spione stories begin with a flurry of action, and then turn into a murky, scary environment of uncertainty, in which the most important emotional connections are formed. It looks like this story is a great example.

What was Lucien's Trespass?

Best, Ron

As Per wrote on the trespass he might remember better than me. I think it was something like "betrayed a close friend's trust" or something.

From what I remember the detail was that Lucien had stolen a student's thesis and turned the student back over to the Stasi.

It would be career suicide if this got out, and the betrayed student sits like a black mark on Lucien's dossier!

IIRC, the trespass was "Betrayed a friend's trust", yes.
Lucien is spying because his young wife's mother still lives in the GDR and is being threatened with arrest, jail etc by Stasi. The wife, Lilli, has managed to flee East Germany.

When I read the trespass, it immediately occurred to me that Lucien maybe is an asshole, primarily out to save his own skin, and trying to wiggle himself out of his forced situation as a spy. He tried that by giving up his friend (a student) to Stasi, hoping it would buy him free. It of course also played a part that Lucien was looking to steal his friend's thesis to further his own career, which would be greatly helped if the friend was jailed in GDR instead of studying in West Berlin.

Per
http://darkplaces.squarespace.com

I am interested if you think the game does what it sets out to achieve: bringing story games to a new audience. Can you see yourselves playing it with people interested in the spy genre but who aren't roleplayers? Can you see them playing it off their own backs?

Cheers

Iain

Mob Justice now available!

'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.

Iain,

That vision has faced some really bad roadblocks. The original plan included two key things:

1. Release in German in Berlin bookstores. The bookstores were willing but the translations hit a brick wall last December.

2. Better and more extensive actual-play videos. I need to film play using the real rules and to upload them.

Without them, the whole project was basically cut back to about 40% effectiveness, maximum. It's currently about there now. At that level, my vision of bringing this whole thing into a wide audience can't be assessed. It's basically blocked.

Addressing the question "can it work for non-gamers" without those in place is not really fair.

Best, Ron

Well, we finished the game tonight and it was a very enjoyable experience. I guess the whole game was about 6 hours over 2 sessions. It really felt right when we finished the game.

Mechanically the game is very easy and I think, if anything, already being a gamer might limit your choices. Someone new to it would probably grab at things that a pre-selected gamer might baulk at. For example, we found that the two players with Principals did associate with their Principals almost as if they were PCs, but this needn't have been the case at all.

Anyway, here are some endings to keep fresh in my mind:

Lucien Besse elevated to immunity by the Stasi he retired a broken and weary man, after the death of his wife Lilli. Made peace with Hannes and died sometime in the 1980s. Hannes outed him as a spy in his Obituary.

• Hannes, a graduate student. Imprisoned in the GDR after being set-up by Lucien, Hannes eventually became a spy for the Stasi himself. Made peace with Lucien and assumed his former role in the west. Outed Lucien after his death to further cement his cover.
• Jakob, a rival. After an incident with the writers group Jakob came to an academic understanding with Lucien and they enjoyed years of fruitful work together afterwards. Never found out that Lucien was a spy.
• Lilli, his wife. Began to suspect Lucien perhaps. She put these thoughts out of her mind after a romantic meal. The following week Lucien sent her to her death at the hands of the Stasi along with Horst, her lover. In actual fact the BfV spirited the two of them away from the Stasi plot and it was East German agents who were killed in their place. The Stasi and the BfV kept this from Lucien for the rest of his life.
• Mr Mason, a greedy biographer. Tried to extort money from Lucien and met an untimely end under a train in central Berlin. Lucien had a weak, but plausible all the same, alibi.

Anton Khostov aka Dietmar Shäfer, was due to be imprisoned for 40 years after spying materials were found on him and at his house. Pled that his boss Fuchs aka Yuri was the actual spy. Framed Yuri with the help of German intelligence and became a double agent. Got cold feet when Control asked him to report back on Andropov and the Kremlin in the late 1960s. Evaded pick up by the Americans and Russians in Berlin and fled on a train to the FRG. Was discovered to be dead at the border, having been poisoned by an umbrella tip on the trip.

• Horst, a friend and satirical underground writer. Anton always suspected his friend was working for an agency. After Anton's death Horst tracked down Anton's spymaster in East Berlin and shot him dead after discovering why the KGB had killed Anton - a purge, they had failed to realize that Anton had been turned. Escaped back to the west and assumed a senior role in German intelligence. Real name and so on never known. Assumed to be living with Lilli somewhere in the FRG.
• Fuchs aka Yuri, boss. A greedy man dealing with Nazis and plane tickets to Brazil. Was framed as a spy by Anton in agreement with German intelligence. Found hanged in Spandau prison a few days after being convicted of spying and sentenced to 40 years in jail. The Russians always insisted he was a former Russian war hero and not a spy.
• Monika, left-wing bartender. Had her bar forcibly closed down by the authorities and moved to Münich to live with relatives. Soon forgot about the drunk guy who was always at the bar.
• Frau Richter, a neighbour. Shot dead by a bullet surely meant for Anton, or in a botched police/secret service raid. No one was ever convicted of her murder. Her daughter Helga continued to help Anton spy for many years afterwards.

Anton died before the final maneuvers during the penultimate flashpoint. Lucien was killed and outed as a Spy with the final card of the game, a doubled Ace.

Oh, brutal. You guys laid waste to the whole cast!

What was Anton's disclosure? Or did he?

It seems clear to me that Per's judgment upon his own Principal, upon reading the Trespass in the first place, was a key factor of play.

Also, Iain, I apologize for my whiny last post. I hope I can get it all back on track again, but that's no reason to shut down your excellent question.

Best, Ron

Anton's Trespass was that he had stolen from a relative. He had taken the identity of Dietmar Schafer from a relative of his wife during/after the war.

The reveal was well done. Anton is in jail protesting that he is not Anton, never has been this Anton, etc. and is clearly Dietmar.

The investigator says that he is Dietmar's son and Anton blanches. Whether the investigator was Dietmar's son was not known for sure but Anton of course, was not in any way the real Dietmar Schafer.

This happened in prison and led to a flashpoint. The outcome was Anton got 40 years in jail for spying (two aces) but Per hindered that down to them offering a deal if he played ball. Steve then used a doubled Queen to take the deal and kill off Yuri instead! What a scumbag!

I had started that round of maneuvers and framed Anton into jail along with Yuri. There was so much evidence and money lying around his bedroom from the previous scene that the authorities happily threw him into jail until they could work out what exactly was going on: either Yuri or Anton was a spy, and possibly helping former Nazis escape to Brazil.

Yuri was greedy but Anton really threw him to the wolves to save his own neck.

Oh, and it was proved in the end that Lilli was a spy feeding false info through the bugged writers group. Her marriage to Lucien was a sham to put her in a position of trust in the writers group. I don't think they knew that he husband was the one spying on the group.

Lucien did find out that Horst and Lilli had been lovers the year before he met her, and this really destabilised his marriage as he found himself incapable of talking to her about it.

It was funny, Lucien wanted out and was more and more distanct from his handlers, but he was always reaching for one last thing before quitting. And he continued with this until he was broken.

Just to say that we might have to wait a while for Ron to come back to this post. His wife Cecilia just gave birth to a boy (Erik) and a girl (Annika).

Congratulations to Ron, Cecilia, Annika and Erik from everyone here.

[Edited: to spell Cecilia's name right!]

Thanks for the info Ron, and congratulations. I hope all are well.

Iain

Mob Justice now available!

'The Giant Brain':Small games, big ideas.

It's great to read about your experiences with the game and thanks for the good wishes.

Best, Ron