A players AAR ...

[kcdusk]

As a referee, you map out all these challenges for the players (set pieces and some randoms) and hope players head off in the right direction that advances the story. As a referee you know which encounters are likely to be more deadly than others. Some encounters are designed to be hooks (player difficulty: easy), other encounters can be significant and result in players heading in one direction or the other (player difficulty: hard) and some are purely random (player difficulty: variable!).

My own character was in a game the other day. It was a chance for my character to get a toe hold in a T2K world. And the experience was very different as a player. You simply don’t know where the story is going, and you assume that all encounters will be “difficulty: Hard”.

Even simple things, like the opening set-piece that my character ended up in below proved troublesome. I dont know if I did what was expected by the referee or not … and as a player I suspect I will never know! Anyway, this is how it went (from a players point of view).

My PC walked into town. He had been sitting on top of a hill outside a wild west looking humpy town for a couple of hours trying to decide if the settlement was “free” or “controlled”. He decided it looked “free” and took a chance by walking down the hill like he belonged there, between two wooden shelters straight onto the main street. He waited for a reaction but no one paid him any attention, which was a welcome relief.

My first decision was what to do next? My character didn’t seem to have any pressing needs, he had a few items to barter with, I was standing in the middle of a blank page.

With no obvious path to follow I fell back onto perhaps the oldest, tried and true method, and my PC walked into the local pub. If I was going to pick up any intel, that was the place to go. If trouble was going to come looking for me, the pub was as good a place as any. Besides, I had no plan B.

There was no door to push aside. Wooden sleepers supported a patchwork roof of sticks to dull the rain. There were no walls either, hence no door. This made the common area breezy and given the general dishevelled-ness of everyone the wind probably kept the place inhabitable by reducing the stink.

I bought water which was predictably more expensive than home brew beer or wine. Buying the water rather than wine or beer was a pretty conservative purchase which betrayed my concern I have for everything as a player. The water was disappointing. Most places on my travels have been able to produce clean water either taken from a stream or rain run-off roofs. This water was slightly brown while still drinkable given the apocalyptic conditions, but still disappointing it wasn’t clearer given its price.

Trouble didn’t arrive, it was more a case of trouble was already in the common area when I got there. One guy pushed another and fell into my table. That was OK, I had drank a mouthful of the water and wasn’t unhappy to spill the rest. A situation developed where I was challenged, called “yellow” and I was sucked into a “draw” situation with a middleweight who might have been a heavy weight pre-war.

At this point I wasn’t sure what was expected of me. Would this guy turn out to be my lead into the story line? Was I meant to make an enemy here? Was I meant to kill him and make myself a marked man? I played a straight bat to see if any clues presented themselves but the referee quickly asked what I did once my character realised the man was drawing on my character.

I couldn’t do anything but draw and shoot back, outcome be damned. I rolled high on my initiative and ended up with the first action. This actually wasn’t much help. My character was being drawn on but as a player I still didn’t know how serious or not this encounter was meant to be.

I quickly decided my character didn’t have much choice. I fired two shots, the first hit him in the chest while the second missed. My opponent was knocked down but remained conscious and agitated. It seemed to me like he had a slight wound, maybe worse, and was suffering from short term shock.

The decision was mine again. Do I finish him off? Help him up? Whats the “norm” here? I decided to back out of the humpy slowly. So gun up, I backed out into the main street. Nobody made any movement against me and most went back about their business. A couple of guys were helping the injured guy up and I was still trying to figure out where my character fit in to all this.

I was now aware I had come into town, hadn’t made any contacts and shot someone. Was the games plot arc still on track? Being in generally good health, and able to travel for another couple of days if required, I decided to head out of town. My character had walked away from the pub without any consequence and turned to follow the sun towards whatever the next location was. Having cleared the humpy towns last derelict (but occupied) shelter, a loud deliberate whistle was heard. Some men came out of the pub and began looking in both directions of the main through fare. Soon enough they could see me through the falling darkness and it became clear they were now coming after me.

At first I thought “flight”, then I wondered if I was meant to be interacting with these guys? No, nothing is clear, this feels bad. My character turned and ran. Always go with your gut, and nothing about this situation was looking encouraging. The chase was on.

I quickly made the decision to leave the road and go bush. Staying on the road would become a straight “whose faster” type affair. By getting off the road, with the sun just setting below the horizon, I could junk it up and if I could remain out of my pursuers reach for the next hour or so I might stand a chance of getting away for good.

That’s where the session ended. As a player I had been waiting for something to happen and react too. In the end, I think my character ended up unintentionally doing “something” and created an encounter and pursuit out of nothing. Maybe that’s the kind of game, instead of falling for a plot hook and into a story line, my character was given the chance to create his own future.