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Actual Play Vignettes: [Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries] North to the Golden Arch!

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  1.  # 1
    After the game of Covenant reported on here, the mood was for a game that was a touch more light-hearted and humourous. And what better game to engender this mood than The Committee for the Exploration of Mysteries (hereafter referred to as CFTEM for brevity) by Eric J Boyd. Ever since getting a demo of the game (which instantly caused me to buy the book), I've been tremendously excited about CFTEOM and itching for a chance to play it. Now, here was that chance! The other three participants (Morgan Davie, Stephen Hickey and Blair Rhodes) were all equally keen to give it a go, so we dove in!

    Now, it's probably best to recount that a few ales had been consumed prior to starting the game. As drinking (responsibly, mark you!) is part of the game mechanics, this don't seem to be a problem. And the mild imbibing of alcohol did seem to act as a suitable lubricate for the ensuing capers. One thing I will say about CFTEOM: it gets you roaring with laughter from the very start of the game. It probably took us a bit longer to go through the Exploration and character creation process than i should have, mainly due to roaring with laughter and wiping tears from our eyes every thirty seconds.

    We chose to set our game in the Victorian era, starting (obviously) in London. Our exploration panned out as follows:

    Exploration site:

    The Canadian Arctic! To find a city of apes who live like men! Or are they descendent of those who come from the fabled hollow centre of the earth? Are they men or are they apes? And other vexing questions!

    Secret:

    The Golden Arch of legend! Solid gold, towering over the frozen city!

    Locations:

    The journey across the Atlantic aboard a clipper ship

    Hi-jinks in the port of Montreal!

    Across the glacier death-trap by dirigible!

    Finally, we reach the frozen city!

    Hazards:

    We shall reveal these to the agog reader during the course of this report!

    Character creation was a period of hilarity and good-natured bon-homie. Every was riffing off stuff that other people were coming up with, making appalling puns and creating increasingly outlandish back stories for their characters. The highlight of this, for me, was during the period when you describe your characters arrival in the Halls of the Committee and give a brief description of same. Blair had us reduced to tears with the arrival of Major Basington-Smythe on a golden palanquin, carried by his bearers from the Grenadier Guards, sunlight glinting off the pink gin in his hand. The vocal antics and outrageous description of the character were outstanding and one of the highlights of the entire game.
    The characters were described s follows:

    Mr Roland Devershot, spoiled son of a powerful newspaper magnate (Stephen)

    Desire: Adventure...and reward! To become more powerful and and famous than my father!

    Daring 5 (Foolhardy bravado)
    Genius 1 (I read about this in my fathers papers!)
    Instinct 3 (Cutthroat sense of commerce)
    Charisma 2 (Spoiled brat)

    Gear 2 (Pear handled revolver, array of outfits)
    Associations 2 (Chain of reporters, Lintleglott the photographer)

    Unattached Descriptors: Predilection for the brew, Pugilist (once went 5 rounds with heavyweight champion Charles 'Charlie' Charles for a bet), Best side to the ladies (due to a duelling scar received from a Prussian General)


    The Hon. Barnato de Vere Boothroyd, dilettante, bagger of game (both animal and of the female variety) Me

    Desire: To impress His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales (see below) so much that he approves of my advances to his sister, the Duchess of Windsor!

    Daring 4 (Pass me my elephant gun, he's about to charge!)
    Genius 1 (Blissfully bereft of learning and intellect)
    Instinct 2 (A slight bewilderment in the wilds)
    Charisma 4 (A thoroughgoing charmer!)

    Gear 2 (Brimley-Fothergill .500 Express Clockwork repeating 'Destroyer Moderne' Rifle, Hedges, my slightly dubious valet)
    Associations 2 (M'Goyo, my trusted bearer, ladies in every port)

    Unattached Descriptors: Can only make decisions when thinking of a naked lady, A closet ornithologist, many bastard children


    His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales (Morgan)

    Desire: To have demonstrated my pluck!

    Daring 3 (Loves the thrill of the hunt)
    Genius 3 (Listens to advice)
    Instinct 1 (Unprepared for the uncouth)
    Charisma 4 (Breeding!)

    Gear 1 (My lucky sporran)
    Associations 3 (Royalists, my valet, the Welsh)

    Unattached Descriptors: Caber-tossing champion (youth division), aficionado of the Welsh male voice choir (also has pleasing baritone), unable to go more than a week without proposing to a lady.

    Major Basington-Smythe, of the 48th Bengal Lancers (Blair)

    Desire: Further the reaches of the Empire by bringing the Queens civilisation to these damned apes before the bloody Frenchies!

    Daring 3 (Jingoistic Colonel Chinstrap type)
    Genius 3 (Schooled in the field)
    Instinct 4 (One time in the field, I was in a very similar situation...)
    Charisma 2 (Bally foreigners!)

    Gear 2 (trusty Lee-Enfield rifle, fathers antique pocket watch taken fro one of Napoleons minor generals)
    Associations 2 (Punkah wallah, Hawkins the Cockney batman)

    Unattached Descriptors: Fits of temper, taste buds destroyed due to strong curry, fires a small cannon at the sun each morning.


    And so, this represents our plucky band of would-be adventurers! Thusly equipped, we plunged wholeheartedly into the mystery and adventure that awaited us in the frozen north!
  2.  # 2
    I won't recount every single one of the hazards that were encountered, but suffice to say, there was much hilarity, derring-do and folly during the course of our adventures. I should also comment that, as the person who owns the books and was facilitating, I screwed up some rules during the early stages, but set them right as the game progressed. The main one was failing to recall that you had to use all of your attributes before you could use one for a second time (or spend an Acclaim point in order to be able to do so).

    Notable events included:

    Mr Devershot facing down the mutinous crew of our trans-Atlantic vessel! The lascars who made up the majority of the crew were restive and, at the moment of crisis, the Captain was found to be un-trousered! Luckily, Devershot used his power of oratory and skill in dealing with the common man to avert the disaster. Indeed, such was his force of personality that some of the lascars agreed to join our expedition as bearers!

    HRH The Prince of Wales failing to save the ship from a giant whirlpool that mysteriously appeared in the mid-Atlantic. This was the first indication to us that the opposition can make things really, really hard for the protagonist. The failure meant that we had to go through the process of being Stymied on only our second hazard! Luckily, mutiny had been prevent earlier in the voyage, so the swarthy lascars didn't try to take the ships for themselves!

    Major Basington-Smythe having to fend off the dastardly and mesmerising effects of the Aurora Borealis, which threatened to turn him from man of action into gibbering fool in naught but a trice! Luckily, this wasn't too difficult for the stout-hearted Major!

    Barnato Boothroyd defending himself against giant albino snow eagles set up him in Montreal by the dastardly French! Luckily, his natural daring and the hitherto little realised fact that he was an ornithologist of some keenness saw him in good stead. Indeed, such was his pluck that he befriended one of the eagles and took it as his companion for the rest of the expedition.

    The Major being beset by moose on the streets of Montreal, something we assumed to be the work of our dastardly French competitors! Due to an unfortunate conspiracy of circumstances, he found himself in dire need of aid from his companions. Luckily, Boothroyd was nearby (with his trusty elephant gun) and assisted in bagging some fine trophies for the cabinet!

    Mr Devershot being at the helm of our dirigible, somewhere above the Arctic Circle, we we espy our rivals, lead by the dastardly Comte de Blouson, trying to overhaul us in their own airship. Alas, the gallant efforts of Devershot were to no avail and we once again found ourself stymied. The Comte and his crew of ruffians charged ahead towards the fabled city and its precious Golden Arch. Damnation!

    [Other hazards encountered included "Quebecois showgirls", "A traitor in our midst!", "Food shortages" and "Wacky cultural differences"]

    Sadly, it was getting quite late by the time we had got through 2 scene of the third part of the exploration and we realised that there was no way we could finish. So, to wrap up, we initiated a group hazard, finding ourselves trapped in a maze of ice canyons and glinting spires. By dint of luck and daring, we managed to make our way out and see before us the frosted surface of the city we had been searching for! But, as the books says, that is a tale for another time!

    CFTEOM was great fun for everyone involved and all participants expressed a desire to play the game again at some point. The mechanics work really well and the method of gaining Acclaim via the recognition of other players caused some hearty cheers.

    Hopefully Steve, Morgan and Blair might chip in with some of their thoughts on how the game went.

    Cheers
    Malcolm
    •  
      CommentAuthorAnemone
    • CommentTimeJan 1st 2008
     # 3
    Another great play report! You seem to be hitting a bunch of games I'm interested in, lately! ^_^
  4.  # 4
    Malcolm,

    Thanks for posting about your game. I'm glad to hear that you all had a fun time and really got into the spirit of free-wheeling storytelling (I'm sure the liquid courage/creativity didn't hurt at all). Those characters are great!

    A quick rules question for you since you mention being stymied several times. In those cases, were you using the higher difficulties or did folks just have terrible dice luck? Generally, getting stymied doesn't happen all that much since you can call upon dice from Gear, Associations, and your Unattached Descriptors to win the day. And running out of time can result in losing Acclaim instead of being stymied depending upon the total of all your dice. Sounds like you had fun racing the dastardly French to the Golden Arch, though, despite the dramatic setbacks.

    Cheers,

    Eric
  5.  # 5
    In the case of being stymied, it was mainly due to some really big dice rolls on the part of the opposition. I think the highest number of opposition dice we got to was 4d10, but even when using 3d10, I think we had numbers around 27/28 come up a few times. Unattached descriptors, gear and associated were flying around the place, but a combination of high opposition rolls and low protagonist rolls caused the stymies.

    Cheers
    Malc
  6.  # 6
    And also, our unfamiliarity with the rules. Those options (for Gear, Associations, and Unattached Descriptors), and the specific uses for Acclaim, weren't immediately obvious to us ... and the helpful list on the character sheet was a little too small for me to be able to refer to in the heat of the moment, in my increasingly drunken state.

    Is there a bigger cheat sheet around somewhere?

    Also, this was a really fun game. What I found most interesting about it was that it took me ages to figure out and feel comfortable with the story telling style - that you're the characters having arrived back safely, telling the story of what happened (basically) to each other, and that the key phrases are the characters interrupting each other.

    This was a skill that I had to learn, and before I 'got' it I found it really difficult to contribute to the SIS because I was focusing totally on the fictional events and ignoring the dynamics of the conversation - which is where a lot of the fun was for me.

    Hopefully that makes sense. I'm trying to say 'Committee' felt very different from any other game I've played.
  7.  # 7
    Thanks for answering, Malcolm. It sounds like the dice gods were indeed harsh. Using your character's Desire to reroll a d10 can help out a bit in those situations, but you can still be caught short. Sounds like the stymie scenes were themselves entertaining, though.

    Steve, thanks for the comments. I'll put together a bigger cheat sheet and post it on my Web site. The game does have a learning curve, but it's great to hear that it clicked for you and produced a fun play experience.
    • CommentAuthorYokiboy
    • CommentTimeJan 3rd 2008
     # 8
    Sounds like a great game session. I got the game for Christmas, and am looking forward to playing myself.
  9.  # 9
    Posted By: Eric J. BoydThanks for answering, Malcolm. It sounds like the dice gods were indeed harsh. Using your character's Desire to reroll a d10 can help out a bit in those situations, but you can still be caught short. Sounds like the stymie scenes were themselves entertaining, though.


    It's definitely the case that the stymie scene add to the fun of the game, especially the losing of associations or gear (my characters valet Hedges got washed overboard during the whirlpool stymie scene, a sad loss, as who would press by trousers now?). The use of Desire only came about half way through the game when I suddenly remembered that there were rule for this! My bad, as the one with the book!

    Cheers
    Malc

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