Lots of Netherlight, also Cyberpunk (three one shots and an ongoing campaign)
I've been busy translating stuff, so here's four quick session/play reports (the first two as a player, the other two as a referee) from not too long ago.
I. Sigve's Netherlight One-Shot
We're playing this Netherlight game (WoDu/ItO hack for rules, FKR style), but I didn't play my character, and instead took on one of the other player's henchmen since she had been adventuring solo before this session.
- I don't remember names as this was a while ago but basically the other PC had hired me and a few other people from DeGrouse to find someone's husband, who usually went out on drinking binges but normally came home by late morning. Her nvestigation had led us to a tavern, which we explored thoroughly. There was a weird guy who wouldn't stop mentioning cheese and sounded somewhat unhinged - we tied him up with rope and used him to test out potentially dangerous rooms. After rifling through the upstairs rooms (which featured a dude smoothie), and quickly noping out of a rabid dog-infested courtyard, we eventually went back to the basement and found a hidden passage (always look inside and behind barrels). We explored the first few corridors of some creepy cave with body parts and a terrible stench. And the cheese guy turned into soup, either because of something in the air or near our location - it was pretty gross, which I love.
Commentary
- Use more than sight and sound when describing locations - smell adds a lot of texture.
II. Sigve's Cyberpunk One-Shot
- Couldn't follow-up on Netherlight due to cancellations, so that evening Sigve ran a 2h cyberpunk job. I played an armenian cleaning lady / hacker, and the other PC was a brawler/fighter-type, taught by her mad prepper dad. Our task was to assassinate a researcher and download her cyberbrain, plus any optional stuff we could get during the run (we just got texts telling us new jobs when they became relevant, like not killing anyone or downloading additional data).
Legwork was handled by giving us options that would be deduced from the mission's reward once completed, like different methods of entry or being outfitted with disguises and ID cards. We also had a good map with little details but it still gave us an idea of the layout. We got fake IDs, disguised ourselves as cleaning ladies and had someone put a worm in the security network to make my hacking easier.
- The operation went pretty smoothly too. We casually sneaked our way to offices where we downloader some data as a bonus objective, then made our way to the target's lab. On our way there, some other group attacked the place - loudly, which let us reach the lab with no interference. There I started hacking a big combat synth for extra cash while the girl with the pistol went to find the target. Since said target was cowering in fear under a table, she had a change of heart and decided to talk with her, explaining the situation and figuring out a way to get the cyberbrain data without killing her. Then she killed her anyway to avoid loose ends, got the cyberbrain and joined back with my character.
When the bot came online, I asked it to get us out of here without using lethal force, and it just broke a freakin' wall and gently helped us get to the ground floor. Then we ran off into the wilderness with our fancy bot. Success!
Commentary
- The whole session was ran diceless, using a Matrix games style weighing of pros and cons per difficult situation. It worked super well, too.
III. Netherlight One-Shot
- For this one, I was at a friend's house with a small mixed group: some newbies, some experienced players. I didn't have time to prepare for the next game of the day (IV) so I made them be my prep. They made characters that would be part of the [REDACTED] and were in essence a motley crew of expendable but tough bad people. Under orders from [REDACTED], they went to [REDACTED] - OK, ok. Dear players from my Netherlight campaign, just skip over to IV so I can tell the Internet about this session, thanks.
...
- They're gone? Ok. So these are a space barbarian, an ex-titan (space marine!), a psychomancer who worships the Horrors, an automata with an assassin programming and an orc pyromancer. They were all recruited more-or-less forcefully by the mysterious Mr. K, an officer of the nameless Imperial secret police, for a simple job: they'd go down on Kori, set up a fake diplomatic meeting with the Duke Caldwell, and terminate him. So I made this map based on a videogame level (an idea stolen from Sigve's cyberpunk game):
- While the noble did his inspection upstairs, the crew's bruisers reached kennels and quietly killed two guards, disposing of the bodies easily (vicious dog-like fauna all around in cages, starving). After that, they set fire to some hanging tapestries and accidentally gave the signal for another group (apparently, rebels) to launch their assault on the building. Meanwhile, the psychic noble scanned the brains of an old scribe and learned a terrible secret! Then everyone met at the meeting room's door and barged in, participating in a short but intense three way fight between the rebels, guards and PCs. Duke Caldwell was shot in the back and the party escaped via helicopter.
Commentary
- The game was run fast and loose, regularly switching from one group to the other after every meaningful obstacle was dealt with. I just had them throw 2d6 and set TNs on the fly based on context and it worked well enough.
IV. Netherlight Campaign, part 2
- Back with Cleanthor and Callisto, we did a bit of abstracted shopping and discussion of their plans before moving on to the journey towards Kori, their next stop. The Nether was quiet, although the ship got a slight barnacles problem now.
- On Kori, they were told they wouldn't have access to the spaceport without special authorizations once they landed, as maximum security was in effect due to the Duke's recent and untimely death. Taking note of this, the party left the ISS L'Absente in the hands of some bureaucrats, then went down to the ground level (Kori is a medieval world, there's just this one big tech tower at the core of the ringed city).
- Having little idea of where to go next, they started looking at a few possible threads to find Casper: they learned a "Mr. K" had landed about three days ago, though the records were sealed and the locals wouldn't cooperate with pathfinders. They asked locals about their world and what kind of politics were going on, learning that the Duke had been of an independent bend, and that part of the population was proudly patriotic, so they didn't seem to mind just yet that the new regent was establishing curfew and increased navy patrols in the streets.
- Callisto also got herself a job as an engineer, two days away from then. Speaking to Colonel Miller, an ally of Kathreen, they learned about some details of the assassination and that Mr. K/Casper was probably still on Kori for now. Then they went into the wilderness to see if he had left any tracks where he hid his ship, but didn't find any hints and got attacked by a pack of wild dogs, losing some ribs and a horse to the hounds.
Commentary
- Diceless worked but I genuinely missed surrendering to the dice a few times. I'll try using Kontext Spiel d6 next time as it's my new favorite thing. I also attempted to rely more on third person descriptions for NPC interactions, to see if it could help me set the tone and convey subtle details easier. I thought it was relaxing to assume I would go third person, even though I still often relied on 1st. Usually, I kind of feel like I have to go 1st person and might do it even when it's not adding anything, so here it was more freeing to go the other way around. Kind of the same reason I find it easier to not use dice if I'm playing something with dice as the default. ALSO, the players used playdoe to make minis!
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