September 13, 2015

First Meeting: Sunday, 13 September 2015

Agenda: Same Page, Character Generation, Date for Fiasco Session

We used the Same Page Tool, https://bankuei.wordpress.com/2010/03/27/the-same-page-tool/ , which may have helped and certainly didn't hurt. We made the following calls, noting that the questions and available answers didn't entirely take the last few years of RPG development into account:

Do you play to win? b) Good play isn't a win/lose kind of thing.

NOTES:

That said, this doesn't mean folks won't play "to win", which, in the case of The Dracula Dossier, means killing Dracula for good (although folks recognize that one on the table part of the game is that Dracula WILL survive the first three generations) -- but also means sometimes hitting a problem with all the resources one can bring to bear on it. That can be an issue for me because I can't necessarily outthink one, let alone four, players, and sometimes have to say, "Okay, so, we need some space for the game to be able to happen at all. Give me a hand here?" This oddity may stem from the fact that, even though we're playing a Gumshoe game, we all love to chew on the scenery.

Player characters are c) expected to work together; major conflicts might erupt and never see reconciliation

The GM's role is a) The GM preps a set of events -- linear or branching; players run their characters through the events. The GM gives hints to provide directions.

BUT: Dracula Dossier is very improvisational. My set of events is likely to be "okay, X is the situation, and A, B, and C will happen in the next session or two if the PCs don't do things to change that, and beyond that -- I'll have to wait to see what kind of chaos has been created".

The players' roles are c) to fling their characters into tough situations and make hard, sometimes unwise, choices.

Doing the smartest thing for your character's survival b) sometimes isn't as important as other choices.

NOTES:

After all, saving the world requires sacrifices, no?

The GM's role to the rules is a) follow them, come what may, including house rules.

NOTES:

• "Including house rules" is an important qualifier
• As one player noted, "This is not a suicide pact."
• This is Gumshoe.

After many sessions of play, during one session, a player decides to have her character side with an enemy. This is e) a meaningful moment, powerful, and an example of excellent play

NOTES:

• This means Player vs Player is On the Table.
• Corollary: Keep everything out in the open -- no note passing, no secret conversations. (Side conversations when one is rabbitholing are okay, but keep it short and be cognizant of limelight and session time, and be prepared to answer "So, what did you guys just say over there?")
• Corollary: Disputes are mediated by the Dracula Dossier NBA Gumshoe rules, with the GM having final say, and with the players allowed to overrule the GM if she's made a bizarrely inappropriate call (due to stress, forgetting to eat, et cetera).
• Corollary: All of the above may not come up often, but it is important to have a clear understanding of what happens when it does come up.

A fight breaks out in a bar! The details of where everything is -- tables, chairs, where everyone is standing is something that c) you can decide on the spot using specific game rules (rolling the dice, spending points, whatever).

NOTES:

• It's Gumshoe.
• We hate "Mother, may I...?"

In order to really have fun with this game, the rulebook is something that c) everyone at least should know the basics of the rules

Special: The game runs best when players take time to create characters that are

ALL OF THE ABOVE:

• built to face challenges using the mechanics and stats
• written with extensive backstories or histories
• given strong motivations and an immediate problem or crisis
• tied into the other characters as (allies) (enemies) (as either)
• written with some knowledge, research or reading up on the game setting, real history or an actual culture

Fiction Hurdle Questions

What kind of conflicts / protagonists / outcomes make sense for this game?

• For right now, 1894 protagonists who would investigate this whole Dracula business.
• For Outcomes, in 1894, 1940, and 1977, Dracula escapes.

"And the survivors live happily ever after..."

The Characters:

Liesl Rosenzweig: Middle Class Jewish Austrio-Hungarian doctor, a neurologist with an interest in psychology. 21 in 1889. MOS: Hypnosis. Drive: Scholar. Symbol: Magen David necklace. Solace: Mentor, Dr. Sigmund Freud. Safety: Zurich Mental Hospital.

Roxana Maria Renfield: The third of four daughters of a high society family. She has two brothers. 33 in 1889, and married.

Herman August Sager: An actual historic figure, a chemist who created a clay and glaze formula. Middle class. 48 in 1889. Symbol: Periodic Table of Elements.

The Hon. Sebastian Wimsey: An upper class consulting detective. 22 in 1889. This eccentric nobleman is the person on whom Doyle's Sherlock Holmes was based. MOS: Disguise.

I need Drives for everyone except Liesel, MOS for Renfield and Sager, and Solace, Safety, and Symbol for Renfield and Wimsey, and Solace and Safety for Sager.

IIRC, Herman is the only one with Vampirology, and he also has Explosives. He seems part Van Helsing and part Morris to me.

Liesl seems part Mina and part Seward, while Sebastian seems part Arthur and part Van Helsing.

One thing was clear: Bram Stoker had obviously fictionalized a lot more than we had realized.

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