{"id":61,"date":"2011-04-25T18:18:57","date_gmt":"2011-04-26T01:18:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/?p=61"},"modified":"2011-05-04T13:26:25","modified_gmt":"2011-05-04T20:26:25","slug":"aces-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcdream.com\/home\/2011\/04\/aces-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Aces High"},"content":{"rendered":"

A campaign framework for GODLIKE. <\/em>By Greg Stolze, (c) 2002.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the things every World of Darkness game has is a “prologue” where you start as a
\nnormal, baseline human being and play through the experience that turned
\nyou into a vampire, made you realize you were a werewolf, killed you into a
\nghost or whatever. With that rattling around in my brain, I formed an idea
\nfor how you could start out a REALLY, REALLY LONG campaign for GODLIKE.
\nHere’s how it works.<\/p>\n

You start out by having your players all stat up non-Talent pilots in the
\nRAF. You run them through a perilous dogfight during the Battle of
\nBritain. While it’s going on, every time you make a player roll, you deal
\nhim a card from a standard 52 card deck. Feel free to make this scenario
\nas VICIOUS AS YOU WANT. PCs should be in tremendous peril of dying
\n(especially since they’re all fairly weak, starting characters). Scare the
\ncrap out of ’em — and, in the process, teach them the dogfighting rules
\nwithout the complications of Talent powers. Let things get grim until one
\nof the players turns up the Ace of Spades.<\/p>\n

That character has just become a Talent. (You may want to stack the deck
\nso that the Ace shows up at a climactic moment. Or you could simply put
\nthe Ace in with three red cards if you have four players, and have them all
\ndraw at the climax.)<\/p>\n

Take a break. Generate the power that the player thinks would (1) save his
\ncharacter, (2) help save the others or (3) otherwise be appropriate. Stat
\nit up and finish the game. (Or, if you don’t mind doing things a little
\nfree-form, just narrate it out to the end.)<\/p>\n

Next session, have them all stat up non-Talent British soldiers fighting
\nwith a tank corps in Africa. Same deal — no characters from the previous
\nadventure are in this one. The only difference is that the player whose
\ncharacter got Talented last time doesn’t get to draw cards this time.
\nAnother high-fatality adventure yields another Talent.<\/p>\n

Next session, you’re doing gurerilla fighting against the Japanese in Burma.<\/p>\n

The session after that, naval engagement in the North Sea.<\/p>\n

Keep coming up with these “ordinary dogface” missions until each player has
\na surviving Talent. Those Talents enter the Commando school in Scotland,
\nwhere they meet each other for the first time. They get a couple sessions
\nof their grueling training and then are ready to go to the front lines.<\/p>\n

The advantages of doing it this way, as I see it…<\/p>\n

1) The players start out focussed on the war, not the funky powers — an
\nattitude that will really help them survive GODLIKE’s rules assumptions and
\nget them in what We The Authors consider to be “the right mood.”<\/p>\n

2) Each character starts out with some experience points to use, even
\nbefore Commando training.<\/p>\n

3) Each character has a background. “Yeah, poor Spanish Joe… that
\nbastard Die Flieger took him down over London. I’ll make that goddamn
\nJerry pay if it’s the last thing I do!”<\/p>\n

4) The players get to learn the rules unencumbered by the modifications of
\nfunky powers. By the time they’re an actual Commando group, the players
\nare confident that they understand multiple actions, called shots, Spray
\nratings and such.<\/p>\n

5) They get experience with character generation and get used to the idea
\nof adapting to new characters quickly (something the troupe style GODLIKE
\ndefault encourages).<\/p>\n

6) If characters from the prologues survive, the GM has a set of handy GMCs.<\/p>\n

Now, the drawbacks…<\/p>\n

1) The instantly high mortality rate may turn some players off.<\/p>\n

2) Breaking in the middle to generate powers may derail the intensity of
\nthe experience.<\/p>\n

3) The last player to get talented knows he’s destined for it, so that snap
\nsome disbelief suspenders.<\/p>\n

Anyone else got thoughts and comments?<\/p>\n

(You could do this just as easily for US Talents, who also train in
\nScotland, but with Brits you can play through more of the war. Plus it
\nseems like half the list is “Britisher” anyhow.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A campaign framework for GODLIKE. By Greg Stolze, (c) 2002. One of the things every World of Darkness game has is a<\/p>\n

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