ZEITGEIST Jim's ZEITGEIST Campaign (SPOILERTASTIC)

[Cheezmo Miner]

Session 2: Steampunch part 2 is up for your reading pleasure. Probabably one more session till we start IatAotW, but, we have some issues...

Thoughts:

* Major Archaelus's player was absent. As Archaelus is the team leader, the guys acted somewhat directionless. I have to assume they were roleplaying, because we've played without this guy before and they never had trouble focusing on where to go next.

* As far as investigations go, I'm trying to suggest that the guys cross-reference clues, rather than pursue individual clues to ridiculousness. Reading Dying Skyseer, it's obvious they will need to be honed to do this. For example... when I mentioned the sea-cave algae, their idea was to check every cave on the coast rather than narrow it down to other areas connected to the suspects.

* We are using Paizo's "Plot Twist" cards, and the crew used them to great effect. Kincaid's player dropped the "Lust" card, explaining that the half-orc thug about to kill Ironwrought was gay and would be distracted by his rippling, mutagen-enhanced physique. The move saved the oracle from certain death. Later, Coil's player dropped the "Pride" card, causing Sam the Butcher to brag about himself and his affiliations during interrogations.

* Edit: As I predicted elsewhere, the guys are not happy about not simply taking their fallen foes' stuff. One of them just took what he wanted. The audit in adventure 3 should be interesting.

* Unfortunately, I have two PCs (Kincaid and Coil) who love to torture helpless captives in order to get them to cooperate--or just because it's fun. Neither character has a high Charisma or ranks in Diplomacy or Intimidate, so their threats inevitably fail to garner useful information. This wouldn't be so bad except they tend to ignore the protests of the player who actually invested in social skills (Ironwrought), applying "street pressure" before giving him a chance. The problem is compounded by the oracle PC's belief that his team members are sociopaths who shouldn't receive badges. I must admit I'm having trouble justifying it myself. Are they testing me? Perhaps they are trying to kicked out? As you can see by the log, the party disagreement reached a head, though hopefully not a point of no return.

My thought is simply have ACI Delft intervene, he will suggest letting the social guys handle interrogations. But I don't want to kibitz too much, nor drive them out of the RHC. What I'm afraid of is that Coil and Kincaid force the others to follow them into heartless mercenary land, which isn't a campaign I'm interested in running.

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm heading to bed so I can't read the whole story, but on the topic of torture, my group asked about it. My answer was that Risur doesn't have an ACLU to combat abuse, so the party probably could get away with that sort of stuff. However the policy of the RHC is that it seldom works, and when it gets out it makes the constabulary look bad, so it is discouraged.

Basically, try presenting it to the players as, "In this setting, that sort of methodology is not normally used, and when it is used it doesn't really help anyone."

 

[Cheezmo Miner]

Session 3: Steampunch part 3 is up.

Ironwrought's player wasn't there, but he wanted his character's resignation letter to reach the squad leader, who disseminated it to the others. While well-reasoned and written, it cast a depressing pall on the rest of the night. While I agreed that the "darker" characters were taking it too far, I thought Ironwrought might be a little too sensitive. I pointed out that the RHC were not like modern cops and not expected to have contemporary ideas about civil liberties, but they did represent a good king whose image would suffer if they acted like fascist thugs in public. I had Delft intervene and explain (Mr. Nock's suggestion of) the agency's position, and suggest that they allow Ironwrought and Major Archaelus (the two good-aligned social-types) to handle interrogations in the future.

Still it makes moving forward and into the path proper with these 5 characters as a team difficult. I have a feeling Ironwrought's player is not comfortable with the others' violence, and too new to our group to think he has a say. I'm trying to tell him he does, and the other players claim that they will treat his voice seriously.

Despite the issues raised by the resignation letter, it led to some excellent roleplay, especially between the two war vets, Archaelus and Dr. Kincaid. Kincaid's player is having trouble adjusting to the "rules" of the campaign, in that there are regulations and consequences for things like stealing captives' effects or abusing uncooperative citizens. He expressed it beautifully, as a grizzled ex-soldier adjusting to peacetime. Unfortunately, the player has other frustrations.

 

[gideonpepys]

Keep up the good work

I have not read your Obsidian Portal accounts before now due to time constraints, but having caught up on your first three sessions, I have to say that you have done a fantastic job of personalising the campaign. There is a depth and richness of detail you can be proud of.

I spent the last three years running a complex, multi-layered, urban campaign, which came to an end shortly before the release of Zeitgeist. Determined to give myself a break, I opted to run the AP unlatered (and keep my buffer adventures simple), but your accounts make me feel as if I've missed a trick, and also that I miss that level of complexity and personalisation. Perhaps a lack of familiarity with Steampunk?

(NB: I'm not saying that the AP lacks complexity. I'm referring to complexity - and richness - of the DM's own devising.)

All the more suprising then to find that one or two of your players aren't having a good time. Although I sympathise to some extent with the frustration of a player who thought his character was 'elite' (which I think you and I touched on in an earlier discussion about the relative power-levels of Pathfinder and 4E; 1st level characters in 4E are elite, and perhaps that's where the 'translation' to Pathfinder misfires a tad). Self-image is a huge part of player enjoyment, but I am surprised that his response was to dump the character.

No disrespect to other DMs because I know this feeling is almost universal - but until reading your accounts I could honestly say that I could not imagine playing through Zeitgeist with any characters other than those my players had created. They have done such a good job of bringing them to life that the campaign seemed very much theirs.

The PC roster for your group is the only exception so far. You guys seem to have been very much on the same wavelength at that early stage.

I wholeheartedly hope that you guys are able to solve your issues and move forward with what sounds like a fantastic campaign.