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Actual Play Vignettes: [Principia] Venice is sinking

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  1.  # 1
    Venice in 1500. People go about the streets masked to hide their identity. Rival houses employ assassination and intrigue to gain power. Rapiers with pistols build into the pommel are all the rage. Deathless ancestors rise out of the canals at night and claim the lives those who oppose their incomprehensible ends.

    John picked the setting for our current Principia campaign, and he went whole hog. Venice in 1500, it turns out, needs very little awesomeizing. We played agents of The Shield, Venice’s own undercover cop force, entangled in a convoluted series of plots involving Giordano Bruno, and Inquisition Cardinal, illegal Prometheus worshippers, and strange people (known as “honored ancestors”) who apparently live in the canals, walk on water, and may be immortal.

    Our main purpose this session was to implement Brandon’s new “master secrets” for Astrology, the Church of Rome, and artistry. These are like cultural secrets in TSOY, but with Brandon’s own twist. I asked Brandon to come on as co-writer about a month ago when it became clear that I wasn’t going to be done Principia in time to make a print run for Gen Con. It seemed the right time to pull in Brandon’s flair for crunch and give the game something it needed.

    Phil played an inquisitor investigating a cult that turned out be engaging in illegal Prometheus worship AND apparently venerating the mysterious Giordano Bruno (and he ended up making an oath to the cult in the process). His session worked up to gaining the master secret he needed to call upon Jupiter’s will in pursuit of his mission. This basically gives him a pool of bonus dice he can use to give orders to inanimate objects by exerting his authority over the myriad invisible gods that surround us.

    Brandon played a mask maker seeking the master secrets that will enable him to imbue his work with supernatural powers. He got his change when one of the honored ancestors presented him with a powerful curse to be inscribed on a mask and given to the Milanese ambassador.

    My astrologer used his “Knowledge of the Past” secret to make a reading on the ancient past of Venice. This gave me a pool of bonus dice I could use to narrate facts gleaned from my readings. I decided that certain key figures on the campaign were all re-enacting an ancient drama that had caused Venice to be destroyed once before sometime in the distant past. Giordano Bruno, I decided, was NOT re-enacting this drama. He was a new player on the scene, throwing the cosmic cycle into disarray.

    We also got to have cool scenes where Brandon and I found masters to teach us and Phil had some cool scenes with his Inquisitor Lord Cardinal Bembo.
    We also made some tweaks to the War of Ideas mechanic. John had opened the scenario with the question “Does Venice deserve its dark fate?” Principia lets you pose questions like this and place votes on them during play. Whoever wins the question gets to narrate how it affects the game world. As it turned out, Venice does deserve its dark fate, with the narration being that the Inquisition rounded up the Prometheus-worshipping minorities and bundled them off the Crete, with several of the heretics choosing martyrdom rather than exile. This leaves us with the cool setup of both Prometheus and the honored ancestors being seriously pissed at Venice and out for revenge.

    All-in-all a cool session, though one mostly concerned with setup. Hopefully we’ll get a bit more action in the next one.
    •  
      CommentAuthorAnemone
    • CommentTimeJul 13th 2007
     # 2
    Posted By: tony dowlerPhil played an inquisitor investigating a cult that turned out be engaging in illegal Prometheus worship AND apparently venerating the mysterious Giordano Bruno

    *Ahem!* Fire connection! :-p

    That game sounds thrilling. I'm glad you're getting good play (and playtesting).
  3.  # 3
    Posted By: Anemone
    *Ahem!* Fire connection! :-p

    Don't think we don't know it! :)
  4.  # 4
    I am loving this game. I think I fell in love with Venice so hard, I needed a whole session to pour out all the awesome. But now we're situated to get to the crazy action.

    All of the major NPCs of the game are real historical people. Bruno, Bembo, Isabella Sforza, Aldus Manutius and many more. The correspondences and connections across the real people and the invented Principia stuff is just amazing (Bruno and Prometheus is a great one).

    Oh, and gun swords? They were real.


  5.  # 5
    Speaking from a more practical "how to play" angle, I came up with a simple GM technique for Principia (and for regular TSOY too).

    Take a look at the PCs, their Abilities, Secrets, and Keys. See if you can imagine some closed Secrets and Abilities that those characters are moving toward. Then, create situations that present extremely tough obstacles that can be overcome with higher Abilities and closed Secrets that the PCs don't yet have access to.

    This sets up a nice and simple unbalanced situation. The PCs have goals, and those goals are blocked by very challenging obstacles that the PCs can't immediately overcome. So they need to advance their Secrets and Abilities, create relationships to find teachers for closed Secrets and Abilities, and find allies to help them. To do all of this, they need XP, which means hitting their Keys and buying them off, which provides instant personal drama.

    You can use the allies and teachers to "cross" PC stories. For example, PC #1 needs to find a Swordmaster, who is the estranged father of PC #2. Use your relationship map to set up some charged connections of loyalties, hatreds, and love affairs, then drop those Master NPCs into the mix.
    •  
      CommentAuthorBrandon A
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2007 edited
     # 6
    Playtest Report: 2nd Argument

    Note: I got inspired and went hunting on the web for lots of cool pictures that would help to get me in the mindset for this game. I just started finding pictures and dumped them into a blog I wasn’t using. Check out these pictures to get a feel of what the universe of Principia is like.

    The game is Principia: The Secret Wars of the Renaissance (formerly Mathematica). It is a variant on TSOY.

    One of the coolest aspects of Principia for me is the mechanic of a the questions. Basically, any player can make a statement about something that is important to them. They write it down on an index card and they place it in the center of the table. Then, once per scene, you can call on a question for a bonus die, and then at the end of the scene you get to put your name on one side of the question or the other. The strange this about this is that these questions will be binding and you don’t know how they will be narrated. If something is important to you, you must write it down and put it at risk.
    Here are the questions we answered at the end of the last session:

    Does Venice Deserve its Dark Fate? Yes
    For this an the last enclave of the Venetic people were shipped off to Crete or put to the sword.

    Is Friendship more imporant than Ambition? No
    For this Luciano Donato gave Volo Capello to the Inquisition and Volo spends the next year in jail because of it.

    Which is more important, your mask or yourself? Your Mask
    For this Donato the Elder, master mask maker, revealed that deep down there is a true core of who we are, but without a mask it is powerless. He then left to explore alternate universes, using the Ancient Venetic Words of power.

    There was one more that I can’t think of.

    It is a year later:
    Luciano Donato (Phil) - Position: The Ancient Church. Affiliation: The Shield
    An Inquisitor for the Ancient Church. He has enjoyed his new position and responsibility with Cardinal Bembow, but is growing discontent with what he sees around him.

    Volo Capello (Tony) - Position: The Masters of the Heavens. Affiliation: The Shield
    Having spent a year in Jail has turned Volo towards the path of Vengence against Cardinal Bembow. He is now allowed out on parole. He checks out of Jail as Dusk and it expected back by dawn. He seeks to save Venice from this terrible fate, and Giordana Bruno is the key.

    Armando Foscari (Brandon) - Position: The Artisans. Affiliation: The Shield
    Having learned the true secrets of Mask Making from Donato the Elder and the secrets of the Venetic Language Armando prepares to give a cursed mask to the Ambassador of Milan. He wishes the downfall of Venice and believes that it is rotting from the inside.

    This is about where things stood before the playing hard thread. Having read (and participated) in the thread I (Brandon) decided to try to take it up a notch.

    I added the following keys to my sheet:
    * I will reveal the corruption that has so thoroughly rotted Venice and remove it. Focus: Cardinal Bembow (this puts me in conflict with Phil)
    * I will rescue my sister, Mirabella, from the Dungeons of the Doge. Focus: Mirabella
    (This adds a personal link that I did not have before)
    * I will protect my friends from being destroyed by the corruption of the powerful
    Focus: Volo Capello
    (This gives me a Key to buy off when I betray him at just the right moment.)

    In order to try to play hard, here are the highlights:
    *John (GM) starts the stakes with over 70 people dead by magical drowning (done by the honored ancestors and Armando knows this perfectly well.)
    *I (Armando) want to protect my family, so I set up a situation that will keep them from attending the Ball where all of the bad will go down. I accept a condition that reveals that my character knew that the drownings would happen well before they ever did.
    *Tony (Volo) – Gets a writ to kill whoever is behind the killings and then becomes the Ambassador of Milan’s bodyguard.
    *Phil (Luciano) – Goes to the temple of Neptune, discovers all that’s left of the Venetic people, and gets ambushed. Armando gives a helping die to Priest of Neptune who is attacking Luciano with the Rank skill, thus revealing that this Priest of Neptune is a member of the Shield and reports directly to Armando.
    *Tony (Volo) – declares that Giordano Bruno was born in 1545 (the game is in 1500) and that all of the stuff that Armando is doing has been fortold and is going to destroy Venice.
    * Brandon (Armando) – breaks his sister and Volo’s sister out of the dungeon, just after learning that his sister is carrying Cardinal Bembow’s love child.

    Phew. It was fun. We have a couple of new questions on the table, but my favorite is:
    Is Time Travel Possible? (yes/no)

    So what is the verdict on playing hard?
    Well I don't have one yet, but we are getting more dynamic play simply by being more cognizant of it and trying to come up with better stakes. I don't think I lost any conflicts tonight, but then again, I don't think I got into any conflicts either, and ... well ... I think I am ok with that. Weird.
    •  
      CommentAuthorJohn Harper
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2007 edited
     # 7
    It was a very good session. Most of the scenes revolved around the PCs making some tough choices about who to trust (or not) and who to get into conflict with (or not). It's true that Brandon didn't make any conflict rolls, but this wasn't because of a fizzle, it was because he chose not to go into conflict at a few key points, which turned out to be just as interesting. And now we are positioned for some very interesting throw-downs (throws-down?) for next time.

    And system was very much engaged the whole time, especially with helping rolls. In Principia, when you help someone (or when you accept help) those characters become tangled up together in some way. Like in Brandon's case where giving helping dice to one of the Venetics meant that his character then had a direct connection to the people behind the murders. Helping also lets you put your name on a question, so there's a powerful incentive to reach out into another player's scene and get involved.

    As GM, I used a technique Storn Cook promotes, which is having an NPC show up and ask the PCs pointed questions. The game opened with all three PCs together in the scene (for the first time so far in this game), being debriefed by their handler in La Targa. She asked them direct questions related to the stuff they have been sort of keeping secret from each other, so they each had to decide how much to tell and how much to lie to a superior (and put their jobs and the security of Venice at stake). Everyone chose mistrust and secrecy over opening up and collaborating for the sake of the city, which was very fun.
  8.  # 8
    Oh, I have to tell you about my favorite little nugget that I got to include in the game.

    Aldus Manutius is a major NPC in our game (even though he hasn't been on screen yet). He lived in Venice at this time, and was a very innovative printer and publisher, inventing the portable book and italics, among other things. He also published Cardinal Bembo's book and Isabella Sforza's book, both of them being key players in our story.

    Another part of our story is the Veneti and their lost (or secret) language. In our fictional setting, Venetic writing is used to create magical effects. However, the letterforms and words must be inscribed precisely, otherwise the power of the magic word is diminished. If a word is inscribed improperly too many times, it loses all its power. If it is written incorrectly a great number of times, then the thing the word represents can come to great harm. So, the words are kept secret and guarded by adepts.

    So... remember how Aldus invented italics? Yeah. Turns out, Cardinal Bembo has gotten hold of a large number of Venetic magic words, and has sprinkled them all through the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (which he wrote anonymously). Aldus will print these words on the oblique, in his new Aldine type (later known as italics), thus destroying most of the magical power of the Veneti and "saving Venice from a dark fate" (or ensuring a stranglehold on the power base of the city, depending on how you look at it).

    Real history is so much fun I can hardly stand it.
    •  
      CommentAuthorBrandon A
    • CommentTimeJul 18th 2007
     # 9
    I just read the entry for the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili and oh my god is it ... the plot to a very strange RPG. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that people were creative and inventive all throughout history. I guess it is easy to get crushed beneath the facts and lose sight of the awesome.
  10.  # 10

    So... finished by Gen Con or not?

  11.  # 11
    Well... I'm not Tony. But... no. Not ready for GenCon.
  12.  # 12

    Poop.

  13.  # 13
    Nope, no Gen Con release for our game. A flurry of circumstances kind of negated that plan. We are very far along however. Also, Brandon (Judaicdiablo) is now co-writing it with me. He's writing all the cool interlocking secrets and some of the other crunchy bits. We do have a playtest packet ready, so whisper me if you're interested.
  14.  # 14
    Man, I want this game so bad!!! Why can't anyone I know run a game set in 1500's Venice for me? :-(
    • CommentAuthorthor
    • CommentTimeJul 31st 2007
     # 15
    I haven't got a full playtest report ready but I have to say that while we were dubious about the questions at first, they are a really cool way to get everyone involved with different bits of premice.

    We playtested last weekend. Our setting was Trieste. We had Clockwork "Spider Panzers", Alchemists, Ottoman automatons, Greek Fire and a bar fight for the hand of a woman. The questions raised included "Can a person be transformed", "Are the Ottomans the closest ally of the duke of Triest" "Will these new fighting machines ruin the forces of the west"

    There is a lot to the setting that makes it magical. I am so looking forward to the next steps forward.
  16.  # 16
    Sweet! It's so exciting to see people grab the game and go with it. Those questions are completely valid, and yet not the kind of questions our group would pose, which is incredibly cool. Our last session of this game was incredible, and I think the only reason none of us have written an AP is because we're not sure how to do it justice. We ended up transforming the setting through our question resolutions into this weird quasi-magical city where the mast you wear actually changes who you are in a fundamental way. One of the PCs had a personal audience with Neptune where he essentially signed on to Neptune's schemes and became (possibly) a heretic in the eyes of the Church. Another PC transcended in a swordfight by inscribing a word of power on his opponents forehead in a combat. My character was caught in the backlash when a printing press loaded with type containing words of power was sabotaged.

    One interesting thing we did was instead of playing the climactic scene we decided to jump right to question resolution and let the questions decide the results. While I'm not sure I'd recommend this, it's interesting that the game supports it and it seems to work well. I think setting up sub plots then letting question resolution decide them might be a valid tactic for play. More playtesting will tell.
    • CommentAuthorthor
    • CommentTimeAug 1st 2007
     # 17
    I like the idea of jumping into the questions after some play. Play for a bit find out what is cooking and grab that with both hands.

    I often find that what I think will be fun to play is either not really possible without completely hijacking or doesn't work the way I wanted. but once things are rolling you get a feel for what you want to do.
  18.  # 18
    You can totally play Principia without Questions as a good-ol' fashined TSOy variant, however, I think you're missing a central peice of the game.

    Yeah, I know that's not what you're talking about, but it still deserves to be said.

    If a group isn't sure how to get into questions, my advice is for the GM to pose a question that's relevant to the PCs and the situation and just leave it out there on the table. Don't push it, don't make a big deal of it. A good question is one that implies a basic threat to the PCs way of life. If the PCs work for the King, then "Does the King deserve to die" might be a good one. When it's your turn to set up a scene, frame a conflict that touches both the PC and the question. For example, maybe the PC is trying to inflitrate a conspiract against the King. Then you invoke the question and tell the PC that if you win, you're putting your name on the "yes" side. This makes it very clear that questions are about things the PCs care about.

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