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The Root of Rockin-Roll-Playin'
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<blockquote data-quote="Water Bob" data-source="post: 5852449" data-attributes="member: 92305"><p>Anecdote...</p><p> </p><p>One of the more interesting games I've run I played just after the turn of the Century. It wasn't long after 9/11. I was thinking about global conspiracy and terrorists and common people getting caught up under heroic circumstances. The West Wing was on TV, and although it was hard to swallow the lefty politics, I did dearly love that show. And, my favorite computer game at that time was the ultra-realistic militar sim, Operation Flashpoint, Cold War Crisis.</p><p> </p><p>I put in a call to several of my regular players. They didn't know this was about gaming. I told them that I was in trouble. I worked downtown, and I asked them to drop whatever they had going to meet me there tomorrow (which was a Tuesday). I said that I couldn't tell them what it was about, but that it was extremely important. Yes, I know that they had to call in to work and skip.</p><p> </p><p>I did this just to see what they'd say. I was setting up the game, unknown to them--they all thought I was serious.</p><p> </p><p>Once they'd agreed to be there, I told them that what we had done was just role played the first scene of my new campaign. They laughed. Everyone understood that they really didn't need to call in sick in order to meet me downtown on the morrow. But, I would not tell them anything else about the game. All they had was the phone call--that I, myself, would call them in the game, as a character, and ask them mysteriously to meet me downtown.</p><p> </p><p>When I got everyone together for the first game session, I had everybody create themselves as a character using the Top Secret/S.I. game rules. We went through and created each person with the skills in the game: Driving, Gun Combat, Stealth, etc. And gave the characters stats based on the real player.</p><p> </p><p>It was an interesting exercise.</p><p> </p><p>With that done, I started the game proper. Everyone was to meet me downtown at a specific time. That's where I started the game, with the players playing themselves, in a downtown skycraper, sitting in a waiting room in front of the receptionist where I really work.</p><p> </p><p>The PCs were all surprised to see the others there.</p><p> </p><p>The receptionist led them back to my office, but before they got there, all hell broke loose. </p><p> </p><p>The PCs were in the corridor next to the men's rest room when they heard a commotion behind them. Then, they heard gunshots! </p><p> </p><p>I had mapped out the real office floor where I work. In the game, I had masked men in body armor, bearing M-15 Carbines, tearing the place up, killing all that had got in the way.</p><p> </p><p>The PCs ended up ducking into the Men's restroom, boosting themselves up, and belly crawling up across the office, with all the slaughter going on beneath them, just above ceiling tiles.</p><p> </p><p>They worked their way to my office--two of them had been to see me at work before--and, as they approached, they heard the loud pop of the M-15's and glass breaking...plus the loud thrum of a helicopter.</p><p> </p><p>In true Hollywood action-movie style, I described how the wind gusts from the chopper blew the ceiling tiles away, exposing the PCs spread out among the girders. They saw me, being taken by two armed masked men, on a line that was pulled up into the chopper. The masked men saw them two and let fly a few bursts from their weapons, but they didn't hit any of the PCs. My character (me) was yelling something. It was, "I LOVE MUSIC!" But, I (GM) told the players that they couldn't hear what I said.</p><p> </p><p>One of the PCs, who in real life is a life long friend I've known since elementary school, wanted a check to try to read my lips. I gave it to him, and he succeeded.</p><p> </p><p>At this point, they could hear sirens going on below. There was chaos in the building. People were running everywhere.</p><p> </p><p>The PCs mingled in with everybody else and got out of the building.</p><p> </p><p>To my surprise, the players didn't go to the cops. I remember this being a major eyebrow leap for me. Since the players were playing themselves in real life, I expected them to fall in with everybody else and go to the hospital then be debriefed by the cops. I was ready for that as a GM.</p><p> </p><p>But, that's not what they did. During the chaos on the street, it was easy for them to get away. They rushed to my house. The PC that had read my character's lips knew that I was into U2 at the moment in real life. At my house, they went through my CD's and found my copy of The Joshua Tree. Inside was a burned CD.</p><p> </p><p>On my computer, they played the CD, and that's when they found the recording of me.</p><p> </p><p>It was cryptic, but I told them that, at my job, I'd gotten into something over my head (I work for a world-wide financial services firm). I didn't tell them everything, but I told them enough to let them know that they were in danger, too, because they knew me. I might have told them something in the bad guy's eyes.</p><p> </p><p>I told them not to go home. Some of the players were married with kids in real life, so their PCs were associated with the same NPCs.</p><p> </p><p>There was a clue they found to go to San Francisco. I had taped some things off of the Discovery channel about the US satellite defense system, and I played that for the players, saying, "This is what you see on the CD."</p><p> </p><p>It was just clues--enough for them to start pieceing stuff together. I described the CD like it was just a place where I'd burned some files hastily in no appearant order.</p><p> </p><p>This next part was really cool. The players pooled their money together--what they could get together that night. Some of them had guns in real life, so their characters went home to get them. The PCs that were married called their wives and, without telling them much, with a lot of "trust me, honey", told their families that they couldn't go home for their own saftey. The players figured out, via atm and whatnot, that they could raise just over $10,000 grand that night among them.</p><p> </p><p>They rented a car at the airport. Paid cash. And, the next thing you know, they were on a road trip to San Francisco. They stopped at a hotel to change the plates on the car they'd stolen. Then, they stopped at Wallmart to buy more guns....</p><p> </p><p>It was a very cool game. I had this huge conspiracy that touched on my financial services firm, Echelon and the NSA, the CIA, Army Intelligence, and the FBI. The players started to figure out that the bad guys were members of US intelligence forces--but they didn't know which one (and this was a long time before I'd read The Bourne Identity).</p><p> </p><p>When they got to San Francisco, I got on Google and printed out real street maps. It was funny because one of my players, who was an auditor at the time for a chemical company, had just returned from that city, and as it so happened, had actually been on some of the streets that I printed out for the game!</p><p> </p><p>There were car chases and shoot outs and lots of intrigue. One clue led to another, and one of the players' wives, as an NPC, almost got killed--which added a real strange dynamic to the game.</p><p> </p><p>All in all, it was definitely one of the more unique campaigns I've ever run.</p><p> </p><p>And, to the OP, I made it all up. I use the Top Secret/S.I. mechanics, but the game was all me--using props, situations, and ideas that I either invented or found on the internet.</p><p> </p><p>It was a lot of work for me as GM (which is probably why I haven't been inspired to duplicate that type of game since), but when we were playing this, it was pure excitement.</p><p> </p><p>Oh....and, everybody lived! One of my friends got shot, but he survived without permanent injury. They rescured "me", and I was suitably greatful. And, in the end, we all went back to our normal lives after the campaign ended (though my character got a new job).</p><p> </p><p>Anybody else ever done something like this with a game?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Water Bob, post: 5852449, member: 92305"] Anecdote... One of the more interesting games I've run I played just after the turn of the Century. It wasn't long after 9/11. I was thinking about global conspiracy and terrorists and common people getting caught up under heroic circumstances. The West Wing was on TV, and although it was hard to swallow the lefty politics, I did dearly love that show. And, my favorite computer game at that time was the ultra-realistic militar sim, Operation Flashpoint, Cold War Crisis. I put in a call to several of my regular players. They didn't know this was about gaming. I told them that I was in trouble. I worked downtown, and I asked them to drop whatever they had going to meet me there tomorrow (which was a Tuesday). I said that I couldn't tell them what it was about, but that it was extremely important. Yes, I know that they had to call in to work and skip. I did this just to see what they'd say. I was setting up the game, unknown to them--they all thought I was serious. Once they'd agreed to be there, I told them that what we had done was just role played the first scene of my new campaign. They laughed. Everyone understood that they really didn't need to call in sick in order to meet me downtown on the morrow. But, I would not tell them anything else about the game. All they had was the phone call--that I, myself, would call them in the game, as a character, and ask them mysteriously to meet me downtown. When I got everyone together for the first game session, I had everybody create themselves as a character using the Top Secret/S.I. game rules. We went through and created each person with the skills in the game: Driving, Gun Combat, Stealth, etc. And gave the characters stats based on the real player. It was an interesting exercise. With that done, I started the game proper. Everyone was to meet me downtown at a specific time. That's where I started the game, with the players playing themselves, in a downtown skycraper, sitting in a waiting room in front of the receptionist where I really work. The PCs were all surprised to see the others there. The receptionist led them back to my office, but before they got there, all hell broke loose. The PCs were in the corridor next to the men's rest room when they heard a commotion behind them. Then, they heard gunshots! I had mapped out the real office floor where I work. In the game, I had masked men in body armor, bearing M-15 Carbines, tearing the place up, killing all that had got in the way. The PCs ended up ducking into the Men's restroom, boosting themselves up, and belly crawling up across the office, with all the slaughter going on beneath them, just above ceiling tiles. They worked their way to my office--two of them had been to see me at work before--and, as they approached, they heard the loud pop of the M-15's and glass breaking...plus the loud thrum of a helicopter. In true Hollywood action-movie style, I described how the wind gusts from the chopper blew the ceiling tiles away, exposing the PCs spread out among the girders. They saw me, being taken by two armed masked men, on a line that was pulled up into the chopper. The masked men saw them two and let fly a few bursts from their weapons, but they didn't hit any of the PCs. My character (me) was yelling something. It was, "I LOVE MUSIC!" But, I (GM) told the players that they couldn't hear what I said. One of the PCs, who in real life is a life long friend I've known since elementary school, wanted a check to try to read my lips. I gave it to him, and he succeeded. At this point, they could hear sirens going on below. There was chaos in the building. People were running everywhere. The PCs mingled in with everybody else and got out of the building. To my surprise, the players didn't go to the cops. I remember this being a major eyebrow leap for me. Since the players were playing themselves in real life, I expected them to fall in with everybody else and go to the hospital then be debriefed by the cops. I was ready for that as a GM. But, that's not what they did. During the chaos on the street, it was easy for them to get away. They rushed to my house. The PC that had read my character's lips knew that I was into U2 at the moment in real life. At my house, they went through my CD's and found my copy of The Joshua Tree. Inside was a burned CD. On my computer, they played the CD, and that's when they found the recording of me. It was cryptic, but I told them that, at my job, I'd gotten into something over my head (I work for a world-wide financial services firm). I didn't tell them everything, but I told them enough to let them know that they were in danger, too, because they knew me. I might have told them something in the bad guy's eyes. I told them not to go home. Some of the players were married with kids in real life, so their PCs were associated with the same NPCs. There was a clue they found to go to San Francisco. I had taped some things off of the Discovery channel about the US satellite defense system, and I played that for the players, saying, "This is what you see on the CD." It was just clues--enough for them to start pieceing stuff together. I described the CD like it was just a place where I'd burned some files hastily in no appearant order. This next part was really cool. The players pooled their money together--what they could get together that night. Some of them had guns in real life, so their characters went home to get them. The PCs that were married called their wives and, without telling them much, with a lot of "trust me, honey", told their families that they couldn't go home for their own saftey. The players figured out, via atm and whatnot, that they could raise just over $10,000 grand that night among them. They rented a car at the airport. Paid cash. And, the next thing you know, they were on a road trip to San Francisco. They stopped at a hotel to change the plates on the car they'd stolen. Then, they stopped at Wallmart to buy more guns.... It was a very cool game. I had this huge conspiracy that touched on my financial services firm, Echelon and the NSA, the CIA, Army Intelligence, and the FBI. The players started to figure out that the bad guys were members of US intelligence forces--but they didn't know which one (and this was a long time before I'd read The Bourne Identity). When they got to San Francisco, I got on Google and printed out real street maps. It was funny because one of my players, who was an auditor at the time for a chemical company, had just returned from that city, and as it so happened, had actually been on some of the streets that I printed out for the game! There were car chases and shoot outs and lots of intrigue. One clue led to another, and one of the players' wives, as an NPC, almost got killed--which added a real strange dynamic to the game. All in all, it was definitely one of the more unique campaigns I've ever run. And, to the OP, I made it all up. I use the Top Secret/S.I. mechanics, but the game was all me--using props, situations, and ideas that I either invented or found on the internet. It was a lot of work for me as GM (which is probably why I haven't been inspired to duplicate that type of game since), but when we were playing this, it was pure excitement. Oh....and, everybody lived! One of my friends got shot, but he survived without permanent injury. They rescured "me", and I was suitably greatful. And, in the end, we all went back to our normal lives after the campaign ended (though my character got a new job). Anybody else ever done something like this with a game? [/QUOTE]
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