Brian Rogers (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
subplotkudzu) wrote2010-01-26 07:45 pm
subplotkudzu) wrote2010-01-26 07:45 pm
Entry tags:
Caper Games and "an Invitation..."
I have had enough time, I think to digest the outcome of the first CFalk game (and have sent out the basic data on the second) and feel capable of discussing it here for comment.
First off, my goal is to mirror the feel of the Mission Impossible TV show, which poses certain problems. I know from past experience that it takes about 4-5 hours of game timer to capture a 1 hour television episode. The problem here is that A LOT of the Mission Impossible plotting occurs off screen - we see Jim Phelps (or Dan Briggs if you're a classicist) get the outline of the mission, he selects the team and then they discuss the outline of the plan (obfuscated enough to keep the audience guessing). We never actually see them, ya'know, plan. Secondarily, asking the players to develop the entire plan gives them more agency then they are comfortable with (at least some of them) - they have an Objective and know that subtle strategies work in this setting better than violent ones, but otherwise they're on their own, which can be disconcerting if you're not used to it.
To resolve these problems I opted for dividing the game into two parts: the actual play, and a pre-game epistolary PBEM in which the PCs get the basics of the episodes objective and a time frame in which they can do research, share the outcome of that research, plot, plan, develop one or two strategies and get a sense for the obstacles each carries. This would take a lot of time in table play, but since they have two to three weeks of PBEM time that isn't an issue. This lets us, in play, do the 'dinner party' scene and skip directly to the finalizing of the plan. Plus, it gives us all a lot of lovely in character notes and letters to keep CFalk's epistolary feel without mandating that anyone keep a journal. Finally, since people are directly posing questions or research to me I can support their decision making without reducing their agency - there is plenty of time for me to point out that one plan or another is not supported by the facts on the ground without being caught up in table momentum or groupthink, so the players hopefully have less fear on their plotting. I expect that will have to do less of that as the sessions go on.
Behind the cut is the first "invitation" the players got, several weeks before the first session.
Sunday, 12 May 187-
Greetings,
The Baron Sarkozy would like the honor of your company for an intimate dinner with Lazlo Schiffren, a Prussian expatriate and former engineer for the Kaiser's Landfortress program. Herr Schiffren separated from the Kaiser's service under contentious circumstances four years ago, and the altercation surrounding his abrupt nighttime departure culminated with the apparent death of his daughter Liserl due to the actions of the bodyguards that Chancellor Bismarck had insisted accompany Herr Schiffren. The engineer, while devastated, managed to book quiet passage through Bayern and find residence in Paris, providing the Second Empire with his knowledge of Prussian technology and his expertise in the upgrading of their Verne cannons.
Herr Schiffren has recently approached acquaintances of mine claiming that he has had very recent contact in Paris with Oskar Tarkmann, a top Prussian agent, and with his daughter. It appears that Liserl was rescued by the Prussians and kept in hiding so that she might serve as leverage against her father once he had worked himself into a position with sufficient informational access. Tarkmann wants a flow of information from Schiffren or Liserl's long rumored death will become a reality. Frauline Schiffren wore a clockwork device on her left wrist which Tarkmann insinuated was sufficient to insure that she not escape. We have no reason to believe that Tarkmann has yet removed her from Paris.
Schiffren is unwilling to risk his daughter's life, and will comply with Tarkmann's commands unless she can be rescued. Tarkmann is to contact him in a week to collect the first package. The French authorities are not aware of these circumstances, and should not be contacted. I am familiar with Tarkmann 's methods and behavior - he has doubtless asked for verifiable information at first to make sure that Schiffren is not playing him false. Bismark certainly has informants in the Inspectorate, so that Schiffren cannot risk going to them.
However vile his methods, Tarkmann is not without his honor - while he will not hesitate to kill Liserl if he feels that Schiffren has played him false, he also will not kill or continue to hold her if she no longer possesses any value. Traditionally he works with a small band of other operatives, both local and Prussian, in direct or indirect contact, who would be given enough information to complete the mission if Tarkmann is removed from play.
The invitation to you, should you choose to accept it, is to rescue Frauline Schiffren and reunite her with her father without putting her life in jeopardy. Herr Schiffren's address is enclosed, as well as a map of the park of where he saw his daughter and his sketch of the device around her wrist.
Dancing will recommence in the public rooms after the private meal, and I have engaged the soprano Eloise Andrieux for a performance beforehand - the Contessa duLac says she is very promising. Please let me know your intentions to attend and your plans for the next few days, should I need to reach you.
Yours,
Sarkozy
These have to be pretty carefully crafted, since I have to operate with certain ground rules for this to work: the information in it must be accurate and complete enough for the players to have a starting point (if I say that Tarkmann would let Liserl go under x circumstances but kill her if Y occurs, the players have to trust that); it has to suggest some genre appropriate courses of action (such as faking Schiffren's death) and discouraging non-genre appropriate ones (the indirect contact agents exist solely to make clear that killing Tarkmann will not solve the problem) without explicitly disallowing either. The second to last paragraph must absolutely and clearly state the objective to avoid confusion; and it has to give the players potential hooks for investigation and planning in the epistolary stages. It's harder than it looks. I'll discuss how this one played out tomorrow.
First off, my goal is to mirror the feel of the Mission Impossible TV show, which poses certain problems. I know from past experience that it takes about 4-5 hours of game timer to capture a 1 hour television episode. The problem here is that A LOT of the Mission Impossible plotting occurs off screen - we see Jim Phelps (or Dan Briggs if you're a classicist) get the outline of the mission, he selects the team and then they discuss the outline of the plan (obfuscated enough to keep the audience guessing). We never actually see them, ya'know, plan. Secondarily, asking the players to develop the entire plan gives them more agency then they are comfortable with (at least some of them) - they have an Objective and know that subtle strategies work in this setting better than violent ones, but otherwise they're on their own, which can be disconcerting if you're not used to it.
To resolve these problems I opted for dividing the game into two parts: the actual play, and a pre-game epistolary PBEM in which the PCs get the basics of the episodes objective and a time frame in which they can do research, share the outcome of that research, plot, plan, develop one or two strategies and get a sense for the obstacles each carries. This would take a lot of time in table play, but since they have two to three weeks of PBEM time that isn't an issue. This lets us, in play, do the 'dinner party' scene and skip directly to the finalizing of the plan. Plus, it gives us all a lot of lovely in character notes and letters to keep CFalk's epistolary feel without mandating that anyone keep a journal. Finally, since people are directly posing questions or research to me I can support their decision making without reducing their agency - there is plenty of time for me to point out that one plan or another is not supported by the facts on the ground without being caught up in table momentum or groupthink, so the players hopefully have less fear on their plotting. I expect that will have to do less of that as the sessions go on.
Behind the cut is the first "invitation" the players got, several weeks before the first session.
Sunday, 12 May 187-
Greetings,
The Baron Sarkozy would like the honor of your company for an intimate dinner with Lazlo Schiffren, a Prussian expatriate and former engineer for the Kaiser's Landfortress program. Herr Schiffren separated from the Kaiser's service under contentious circumstances four years ago, and the altercation surrounding his abrupt nighttime departure culminated with the apparent death of his daughter Liserl due to the actions of the bodyguards that Chancellor Bismarck had insisted accompany Herr Schiffren. The engineer, while devastated, managed to book quiet passage through Bayern and find residence in Paris, providing the Second Empire with his knowledge of Prussian technology and his expertise in the upgrading of their Verne cannons.
Herr Schiffren has recently approached acquaintances of mine claiming that he has had very recent contact in Paris with Oskar Tarkmann, a top Prussian agent, and with his daughter. It appears that Liserl was rescued by the Prussians and kept in hiding so that she might serve as leverage against her father once he had worked himself into a position with sufficient informational access. Tarkmann wants a flow of information from Schiffren or Liserl's long rumored death will become a reality. Frauline Schiffren wore a clockwork device on her left wrist which Tarkmann insinuated was sufficient to insure that she not escape. We have no reason to believe that Tarkmann has yet removed her from Paris.
Schiffren is unwilling to risk his daughter's life, and will comply with Tarkmann's commands unless she can be rescued. Tarkmann is to contact him in a week to collect the first package. The French authorities are not aware of these circumstances, and should not be contacted. I am familiar with Tarkmann 's methods and behavior - he has doubtless asked for verifiable information at first to make sure that Schiffren is not playing him false. Bismark certainly has informants in the Inspectorate, so that Schiffren cannot risk going to them.
However vile his methods, Tarkmann is not without his honor - while he will not hesitate to kill Liserl if he feels that Schiffren has played him false, he also will not kill or continue to hold her if she no longer possesses any value. Traditionally he works with a small band of other operatives, both local and Prussian, in direct or indirect contact, who would be given enough information to complete the mission if Tarkmann is removed from play.
The invitation to you, should you choose to accept it, is to rescue Frauline Schiffren and reunite her with her father without putting her life in jeopardy. Herr Schiffren's address is enclosed, as well as a map of the park of where he saw his daughter and his sketch of the device around her wrist.
Dancing will recommence in the public rooms after the private meal, and I have engaged the soprano Eloise Andrieux for a performance beforehand - the Contessa duLac says she is very promising. Please let me know your intentions to attend and your plans for the next few days, should I need to reach you.
Yours,
Sarkozy
These have to be pretty carefully crafted, since I have to operate with certain ground rules for this to work: the information in it must be accurate and complete enough for the players to have a starting point (if I say that Tarkmann would let Liserl go under x circumstances but kill her if Y occurs, the players have to trust that); it has to suggest some genre appropriate courses of action (such as faking Schiffren's death) and discouraging non-genre appropriate ones (the indirect contact agents exist solely to make clear that killing Tarkmann will not solve the problem) without explicitly disallowing either. The second to last paragraph must absolutely and clearly state the objective to avoid confusion; and it has to give the players potential hooks for investigation and planning in the epistolary stages. It's harder than it looks. I'll discuss how this one played out tomorrow.