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GUMSHOE: Night's Black Agents - Tinker Tailor Vampire Die
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<blockquote data-quote="writernextdoor" data-source="post: 5841180" data-attributes="member: 6689303"><p>Sure, I'd be happy to. (I should point out that there's a rather lengthy update coming tomorrow, as we're playing tonight). Also, because some of my players read this thread now, I'm going to only list the Core Clues and Conspyramid details the players have uncovered to date. </p><p></p><p>Also, for the sake of disclosure, I'm going to admit I may not be running Clues and Conspyramid "correctly", but I'm happy with my variation since it puts an emphasis on keeping play moving, rewarding my players for working together and creating a narrative thread through the campaign rather than just what-we-do-several-times-a-month. </p><p></p><p>I started with a Core Plot, and even went so far as to offer the Plot to the players before character creation. The Plot is as follows:</p><p></p><p>If you've been burnt as a spy, and you're not trusted by anyone, and you cannot trust anyone, what do you do when you realize you're still able to help do the right thing?</p><p></p><p>By not anchoring my plot to specific details (there's no single country and no single motivation present -- 'do the right thing' is incredibly subjective), I'm able to pose this question to each player so that they can create/shape characters in relation to their responses. Here, I found Drives, Symbols and Solaces to be a really great development tool because I had players creating characters ranging from black-ops leg breakers to criminally insane wheel men to variable takes on existing characters like Jim Phelps, Ethan Hunt and Lisbeth Salander.</p><p></p><p>From there, I built a Conspyramid. I know I wanted a really rich and deep concept, and wanted to stretch it across a wide swath of my own knowledge. I thought first of my major action 'beats', the sort of scenes I wanted to have the players experience: car chases, train robberies, bank heists, kidnapping, complete short cons, staking a vampire in a boardroom, Bourne series close-quarter fights...and looked for any connections I could draw.</p><p></p><p>I found two - 1. There's always a personal risk involved 2. The events are as much reaction to player-created consequences as they are independent occurences. </p><p></p><p>So I started with a simple act my players had seen in loads of other games - a wealthy man assembled a team and sent them on a particular errand. (This is the modern take on 'You all meet at the tavern and sign up to adventure').</p><p></p><p>And then I thought about what I liked and didn't like about 'wealthy benefactors' as game components. My players almost universally thought them untouchable or wanted bigger rewards and intense experiences (it wasn't enough to save the farm, they had to defeat the dragon AND the undead AND do it with a magic carrot).</p><p></p><p>But what if we took the Wealthy Man and couldn't trust him? Or immediately contact him. The wealthy patron became The Man. And immediately trust was no longer an assumed component of play. </p><p></p><p>Trust gone, I only had to create a starting adventure and whatever the players did (or didn't do), shaped the first blocks of the Conspyramid. Initially I considered playing it like a deck of cards, with all the villains being in series and progressively larger and more evil up the badguy-food-chain. But then my players DIDN'T kill the villain when they had a chance, and thought that they could use him as a mole to give them intel.</p><p></p><p>That's the moment they were hooked, and I changed the Conspyramid to more fluid (about 60% fluid) model where I have some key pieces, but a lot of open real estate to play with. </p><p></p><p>The Core Clues became "keys" to those favorite beats I wanted to get into. There are a total of 400 I've put together, and I don't expect them to find 100 total. (I should point out that I'm a writer and editor by trade, so creating plot elements is not foreign to me). </p><p></p><p>Core Clues Found So Far (From my players' email list)</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The list of safe deposit boxes from allegedly random banks in small towns throughout the US and Europe. The numbers are all divisible by 6, and all were purchased sometime prior to 1929.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">If an agent has only 1 surviving parent, that parent received a large check from the 'Acme-Arkham Trust Fund and Library' in an amount equal to the birthdate of the agent (year month day) -- So 197604.11 for one agent.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The agents' former handlers have all received obituaries for at least two of each agent's Cover IDs. The cause of death has always been something biblical or historic (crucifixion, stoning, exsanguination, poisoning)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The deed for the abandoned house (one of the events listed here) is in the name of the kidnapped jewel thief (also described in this thread)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Each agent has found at least 1 bug in their homes, even if their home is a rented motel room they paid cash for.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">When the agents need to travel somewhere, they will often find extra tickets or luggage along with their reservations (they'll book 4 seats and find that they've been given 6)</li> </ol><p></p><p>My Core Clues are bridges from the plot to the action. I go further to divide my Core Clues into two types - Local and Greater. Local Clues are the ones that help THAT night - the informant's name, the time a meeting is to occur - the elements that keep my session going forward for the 4+ hours we play. The Greater Clues connect the sessions to the overall conspiracy and global plot. And usually I cluster this information into three facts:</p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The name of someone either parallel to the person giving information.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The name of someone higher up the food chain, often talked about in panicked whispers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Items or materials that can be used to by the agents to discover more of the plot.</li> </ol><p></p><p>I don't mean items like "the golden hand of Doug", as that would render my game too much like a Zelda-clone. I mean here "cocaine, that they can hijack from a shipment leaving the docks at 0245 this morning, if they hurry and get there before Alan can switch container lablels" (From this info, they know the plot has to do with drugs, shipping things, late night meetings at the dock and some badguy named Alan)</p><p></p><p>I hope that helps. If you're still stuck, this is the formula I use, and you can plug in elements:</p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Pick an element from one character's backstory.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Make something bad happen because of that element.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Add to that bad thing between 1 and 3 also on-going bad things that are related to it (if the bad thing is that a mentor dies, then add to it assassins or suspicious circumstances, etc)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">From that expansion, make an NPC responsible.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Take the responsible NPC and give them a job.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Take that NPC's job and make it intersect with the Agents needs (Alan is a hacker, he's trying to out-hack the agents).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">If that's still too linear, consider creating a third party (another NPC, another job, another bad event) and making it happen BECAUSE the first one is happening -- (The party is going to meet Alan because he's hacking credit cards? Well then the Triads will also want to talk to Alan, and they're going to think the players are Interpol).</li> </ol></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="writernextdoor, post: 5841180, member: 6689303"] Sure, I'd be happy to. (I should point out that there's a rather lengthy update coming tomorrow, as we're playing tonight). Also, because some of my players read this thread now, I'm going to only list the Core Clues and Conspyramid details the players have uncovered to date. Also, for the sake of disclosure, I'm going to admit I may not be running Clues and Conspyramid "correctly", but I'm happy with my variation since it puts an emphasis on keeping play moving, rewarding my players for working together and creating a narrative thread through the campaign rather than just what-we-do-several-times-a-month. I started with a Core Plot, and even went so far as to offer the Plot to the players before character creation. The Plot is as follows: If you've been burnt as a spy, and you're not trusted by anyone, and you cannot trust anyone, what do you do when you realize you're still able to help do the right thing? By not anchoring my plot to specific details (there's no single country and no single motivation present -- 'do the right thing' is incredibly subjective), I'm able to pose this question to each player so that they can create/shape characters in relation to their responses. Here, I found Drives, Symbols and Solaces to be a really great development tool because I had players creating characters ranging from black-ops leg breakers to criminally insane wheel men to variable takes on existing characters like Jim Phelps, Ethan Hunt and Lisbeth Salander. From there, I built a Conspyramid. I know I wanted a really rich and deep concept, and wanted to stretch it across a wide swath of my own knowledge. I thought first of my major action 'beats', the sort of scenes I wanted to have the players experience: car chases, train robberies, bank heists, kidnapping, complete short cons, staking a vampire in a boardroom, Bourne series close-quarter fights...and looked for any connections I could draw. I found two - 1. There's always a personal risk involved 2. The events are as much reaction to player-created consequences as they are independent occurences. So I started with a simple act my players had seen in loads of other games - a wealthy man assembled a team and sent them on a particular errand. (This is the modern take on 'You all meet at the tavern and sign up to adventure'). And then I thought about what I liked and didn't like about 'wealthy benefactors' as game components. My players almost universally thought them untouchable or wanted bigger rewards and intense experiences (it wasn't enough to save the farm, they had to defeat the dragon AND the undead AND do it with a magic carrot). But what if we took the Wealthy Man and couldn't trust him? Or immediately contact him. The wealthy patron became The Man. And immediately trust was no longer an assumed component of play. Trust gone, I only had to create a starting adventure and whatever the players did (or didn't do), shaped the first blocks of the Conspyramid. Initially I considered playing it like a deck of cards, with all the villains being in series and progressively larger and more evil up the badguy-food-chain. But then my players DIDN'T kill the villain when they had a chance, and thought that they could use him as a mole to give them intel. That's the moment they were hooked, and I changed the Conspyramid to more fluid (about 60% fluid) model where I have some key pieces, but a lot of open real estate to play with. The Core Clues became "keys" to those favorite beats I wanted to get into. There are a total of 400 I've put together, and I don't expect them to find 100 total. (I should point out that I'm a writer and editor by trade, so creating plot elements is not foreign to me). Core Clues Found So Far (From my players' email list) [LIST=1] [*]The list of safe deposit boxes from allegedly random banks in small towns throughout the US and Europe. The numbers are all divisible by 6, and all were purchased sometime prior to 1929. [*]If an agent has only 1 surviving parent, that parent received a large check from the 'Acme-Arkham Trust Fund and Library' in an amount equal to the birthdate of the agent (year month day) -- So 197604.11 for one agent. [*]The agents' former handlers have all received obituaries for at least two of each agent's Cover IDs. The cause of death has always been something biblical or historic (crucifixion, stoning, exsanguination, poisoning) [*]The deed for the abandoned house (one of the events listed here) is in the name of the kidnapped jewel thief (also described in this thread) [*]Each agent has found at least 1 bug in their homes, even if their home is a rented motel room they paid cash for. [*]When the agents need to travel somewhere, they will often find extra tickets or luggage along with their reservations (they'll book 4 seats and find that they've been given 6) [/LIST] My Core Clues are bridges from the plot to the action. I go further to divide my Core Clues into two types - Local and Greater. Local Clues are the ones that help THAT night - the informant's name, the time a meeting is to occur - the elements that keep my session going forward for the 4+ hours we play. The Greater Clues connect the sessions to the overall conspiracy and global plot. And usually I cluster this information into three facts: [LIST=1] [*]The name of someone either parallel to the person giving information. [*]The name of someone higher up the food chain, often talked about in panicked whispers. [*]Items or materials that can be used to by the agents to discover more of the plot. [/LIST] I don't mean items like "the golden hand of Doug", as that would render my game too much like a Zelda-clone. I mean here "cocaine, that they can hijack from a shipment leaving the docks at 0245 this morning, if they hurry and get there before Alan can switch container lablels" (From this info, they know the plot has to do with drugs, shipping things, late night meetings at the dock and some badguy named Alan) I hope that helps. If you're still stuck, this is the formula I use, and you can plug in elements: [LIST=1] [*]Pick an element from one character's backstory. [*]Make something bad happen because of that element. [*]Add to that bad thing between 1 and 3 also on-going bad things that are related to it (if the bad thing is that a mentor dies, then add to it assassins or suspicious circumstances, etc) [*]From that expansion, make an NPC responsible. [*]Take the responsible NPC and give them a job. [*]Take that NPC's job and make it intersect with the Agents needs (Alan is a hacker, he's trying to out-hack the agents). [*]If that's still too linear, consider creating a third party (another NPC, another job, another bad event) and making it happen BECAUSE the first one is happening -- (The party is going to meet Alan because he's hacking credit cards? Well then the Triads will also want to talk to Alan, and they're going to think the players are Interpol). [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
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