In game three, Falconer began the game after a mission had ended. He went to meet Purcell in Blue City, a place she called The Blue City Falls. Falconer had entered an old and pitted stone building and climbed the rotting stairs to the 14th floor. Exiting an open window and creeping along the ledge, he heard a thunderous roar, not unlike Niagara Falls, but somehow different. He came around the corner of the building to find that the eastern side of building was “the falls”. He saw hundreds of people falling from somewhere above the building and down the side right in front of him. The people sometimes winked out of existence in mid fall and sometimes continued down into the maw in the street below, disappearing into the darkness. Purcell explained that The Company believes that if you dream that you are falling, this is the place where you fall. Falconer asked what happened if you didn’t wake up. Purcell told him, “Well, we think you die.”

(The player was really intrigued by this concept and made a point of not making eye contact with anyone falling after he locked eyes with an old lady before she winked out. I decided this has to be a regular meeting place for the two conspirators)

After talking about the box they’d been sent to retrieve from a recurring personality and what could be in it, Purcell admitted that she’s not sure if she can keep this up. Falconer reminded her that they have to work hard and work their way up in the ranks to be able to get enough information on what’s really going on. The two leave The Falls when Draper reaches them on a comm. link. They find a landline and eject from Blue City.

Falconer awakes on the slab with the box in his hand. His mentor takes him back to her office and asks for the box. He hands it over, and she turns it towards her and opens it. Whatever is inside glows blue and she looks slightly amazed by it. Falconer asks his mentor what is inside the box and she explains that it’s a piece of Blue City. Shocked, Falconer asks if this is a wise thing to do. His mentor assures him that they believe strongly that such a small piece of Blue City should not affect the whole and it would give them an opportunity to study it further in the real world.

She then changes the subject to Purcell. She asks Falconer how she is performing and express concern. She reveals that not only is she the youngest Mystery Agent, Purcell is the daughter of one of the original test subjects. With a hint of sorrow, his mentor further reveals that Purcell’s father died on the slab, and she’s concerned that Purcell could be under a great deal of stress and asks Falconer to keep an eye on her and report back if she is at risk. Falconer agreed to watch her.

(After seeing how the player took to the spying, I decided to push him into a double agent role. He smiles when he realized his mentor was asking him to spy on Purcell and even called his mentor on it. She advised him this was unofficial and that she was merely concerned.)

Here are some thoughts about running the game.

* I found it hard to always have it raining. The rooftop scene felt like it should be just after a rain with this kind of hazy fog. The Cafe scene felt like it should take place just after a rain with the sun peeking out of the clouds. I kept these images in my head and neglected to describe the weather, but it was a mental challenge to keep it raining all the time.

* I completely forgot to use Static during the first game session. Heart rate was enough of a threat to keep the player in check since he was still learning the system. With a group of aggressive gamers, this could have been a problem. But that wasn't the text, that was just me learning while running.

* I found myself fascinated with the idea that Lacuna just "makes people better". I took the game to a conspiracy bent. The player also got the same vibe early on. When Purcell first explained that she felt something was wrong, the player rolled with it, telling the NPC she needs to keep quiet because they are watching. The diea that the upper management of The Company are all ex-cons cured by the Lacuna experience and now they're proscribing the same treatment for every major criminal is fascinating Body Snatcher-type stuff.

* The interplay with Control was something I found interesting during the read of the book, but I rarely used it. I enjoyed the exploratory aspect of the game, having Control divorced form the agents for the majority of the game but always watching.

* I haven't even hinted at the Spidermen, The War or "The Girl". It hasn't been necessary to add to the plot as is. In fact, Static hasn't been necessary to limit or push the player. I've only used it once: when I had the room with the snake move about. It was a sufficient weird thing to have happen when the agents were down and almost out.

* The dream sequence where Purcell first talked to Falconer, revealed her name and some of the history of the Nasrudin Institute was this odd piece I threw in. I never explained how Purcell got into Falconer's dream and he hasn't pursued it yet. I plan on bringing this back into play. What if Purcell is The Girl? Hrm... maybe.

Thanks for the feedback, Graham.

Oh, I think Static is neat. I plan on using Static as the game ramps up, but once I remembered to track it in the second game, I realized I wanted to use it judiciously.

If I were to do a Lacuna Part I. movie, the intro credits would show the polished wingtips of some Mystery Agents as they walked through the Company's hallowed halls. The music playing in the background would be the Beach Boys, "I Get Around."

Posted By: ShaneJackson

Posted By: orklordFalconer lost his Lacuna device

Mechanically, how did this happen? Did the player blow a roll and decide this, or did you decide it?

The player blew a roll and decided not to push it, so I ruled that the snake tail whipped his arm and his Lacuna device disappeared in the dark.

I spoke with the player last night. He said he wants to continue the game, but we didn't completely decide when. It looks like it might be an every other Sunday game. This is good because it gives us a flexible timeframe for game length, and if I wish, I might be able to add another player!

It's funny how differently our Lacuna game played out. I should cook together an AP, since it's (mostly, kinda) complete (for now).

If I were making a Lacuna movie, it would immediately begin with a young girl, perhaps 5 or 6, screaming for her life as thousands of spiders ate her alive. Then a woman of similar breeding, late 20's, would rocket out of bed, drenched in sweat, clawing at her skin as she was crying. This would go on for about a minute, as "lacuna", small font, all lower case, materialized in the corner.

But that's me.

I've written out chunks of it just for fun, and have been THIS |___| close to asking Jared offhandedly what he thought of an idea, what with the preonderance of indie-filmmakers-with-writer's-block with whom I seem to associate. That and the fact that I could very easily have a Spiderman costume done at cost by the costumer/propsmaster of Bubba Ho-Tep. Dude's an artist of the highest calibre. Maybe I'll just get the suit and hover in Jared's peripheral vision for a few days.

Continued...

The team entered Blue City. The player described Falconer entering at the same Coffee Shop where he'd first entered Blue City and he quickly saw Purcell as she came from the back. Purcell walked quickly up to Falconer and told him she thought this mission was bunk, that someone was after Ikuzus because he had been helping her, that he was one of the sources who helped her. Falconer calmed her down and told her that if they didn't do it, someone else would, that they had to carry out this mission to keep rising up and find out what's really happening.

As Purcell relented, Draper hit them up on the comm and met up with them. The three walked a few blocks to reach the Broken Hotel. The Hotel was the same place where Blue City Falls happened. Falconer never saw an elevator then. They entered through a different entrance than Falconer had used before and came into a section of the hotel that had previously had a small department store. I liberally stole from the XBox 360 game Condemned here for my descriptions of the mannequins strewn about the department store, trying to amp up the creep factor as Falconer made his way to the elevator. Once the team made their way in, I described the elevator as being archaic, with the floor numbers displayed above the elevator door and an arm like a clock hand moving up and down like an indiscator (don't know the technical name for such things, but hopefully you get the gist). The elevator door was actually a gate, and the elevator car groaned as it came down to their floor.

Inside the car was a portly man that Purcell addressed as Ikuzus. Ikuzus smile, opened the gate and once everyone entered, the elevator began moving. Ikuzus asked if the team wanted to know more about the death of Agent Key. When Purcell asked what he knew, he said that Jimmy saw a guy who knew what happened. Draper and Purcell nodded as if they knew who this Jimmy was. Purcell informed Ikuzus that they weren't there for information, and Ikuzus began to get nervous. Draper ordered Falconer to "get it over with" and Falconer took out his Lacuna device and moved to slap it on Ikuzus. Ikuzus jumped back and took his hand off the elevator controls. The elevator began moving rapidly, and the bottom of the car began to swing back and forth as if it shared the fear of its operator. Falconer hit his target and reached around to grab the elevator control. )it took him a couple tries and this built Static) As Ikuzus winked out in curls of black smoke, Falconer brought the car to a stop.

Falconer started moving the elevator back down to the ground floor so the team could exit. The car had reached the 14th floor before the deed had been completed. As the car descended to the ground floor, I described that the light from the elevator spilled out onto the floors as they passed. The team got a glimpse of the contents of each floor. Each floor of the hotel was mostly hollow in the center so if you stood in the lobby at ground level, you could look up to the penthouse level. Everything was barren and dust-covered until they hit the sixth. On the sixth floor, Falconer, who was watching each floor pass, while Purcell was staring blankly and lost in thought and Draper was busying himself with something in the back of the elevator. Falconer saw an individual on the sixth floor, standing with its arms folded behind its back. It was wearing a military uniform not unlike a Russian officer, but the symbols on the lapel were foreign. And the head of this thing had mandibles and six beady black eyes!

By the time Falconer got Purcell's attention to look, they had moved down to the next floor. Falconer stopped the elevator, and started back up to the sixth floor and explained what he saw to Draper and Purcell. Draper exclaimed, "You just saw a Spiderman?!?" and began quickly drawing a pair of pistols. Purcell shrieked, "Hey wait, why are we going back?" Then the team reached the sixth floor to see nothing. Falconer thre open the gate and rushed out to where he'd seen the Spiderman (keep in mind, the player has only read the first section which says NOTHING about Spidermen). Draper began trying to contact Control, and Purcell came up behind Falconer to tell him that it sounded like he saw a Spiderman and that these guys are really dangerous. She told Falconer that every agent who'd ever seen one either woke up screaming or never woke up again. Falconer replied, "What's the big deal about waking up screaming?" with a smile and began looking around the floor.

I described that he saw a pair of boot prints in the dust where he'd seen the Spiderman standing, but he saw no prints in the dust heading either way. The player simply said, "I look up." He saw the Spiderman's boots as he was floating up the floors in the center of the hotel. As the Spiderman reached the penthouse level, he "stepped off" into the penthouse floor.

The team headed up the stairs to the penthouse level and came out. The penthouse floor had four rooms, one in the center of each wall at compass points. The Western wall, the one facing the Falls, was ajar. falconer crept along the wall and peered in. He saw a small hallway and a wall inside the room. On the wall was what look like a map of Blue City, something that shouldn't exist because Blue City is always shifting and changing. So was the map.

The player said, "Falconer walks in the room." So ended the game.

Interesting take on real-life scenes. A buddy of mine wanted to use a totally different system for real life, one that was a real pain in the ass to use.

Posted By: johnstoneInteresting take on real-life scenes. A buddy of mine wanted to use a totally different system for real life, one that was a real pain in the ass to use.

Heh...Lacuna's base system in Blue City, HERO in the Real World.

But here's a fun trick that completely wigged out some of my players recently...

Okay, so my team does an incredibly intense mission, half the crew turns against the other half of the crew, we have several near-death experiences. The HP gets tagged, several other off-the-reservation submissions get accomplished, and the team of 4, I think, finally eject. Total Static for the mission was like 24 or so. Now...I keep the Static in a visible pool of markers in the middle of the table, because I like visually representing it. The players have a good sense of what happens when Static increases as well (per Luke's observation that Static represents the GM's growing control over the game).

So the team ejects and they go into debriefing. Typically I follow a "customer service review" type thing -- ask for suggestions for improvements, areas of concern, reports on other team members. But because half the team had turned on the other half of the team, recriminations start flying around the table. "Why did you give us this order?" "We can't do our jobs with contradictory information!" "Whoever the fuck was in Control should be shot!" Stuff like that. One agent's player threatens to slug the debriefer....

And I add a Static to the pool in the middle of the table. The pool of markers I'd sort of conveniently "forgotten" about once they thought they had "ejected."

So, mad dash to find a phone in the Blue City Nasrudin offices to reach Control and find their way out, because they'd never actually ejected. Final static was 30ish, and one flatlined agent.

p.

Great AP! I am eating this up. If you don't mind sharing a bit, how are you prepping for this? Did you build up a detailed backstory like a Sorcerer GM, or are you driving along guided by the player's response and counting on him to make sense of chaotic inputs? Or would that be telling?

Paul? You are an evil, evil, man.

@Rich: how do you find the pacing of Static with just the one Agent? I ran a 1-on-1 game this weekend, and I noticed that heart rate quickly outpaced the Static level.
I had a pretty detailed events chart, but I ended up cutting out a lot of it and just using the stuff I liked the best.