[PbP] Many Games, One Collaborative World

In the scene I’m playing, a player has triggered the Consequences rule - My character, Jens, was attempting to have a conversation with Augustus, in front of Davy, but he was trying to be a little bit too clever, and to try to essentially offer Augustus a corrupt exchange, while making is seem all above board for Davy, so he could act as a witness if needs be to the innocence of the conversation.

In another rpg, usually Davy would be offered a roll to see if he detects the subterfuge and understands what is really going on here - in this game there are no such rolls. Instead, @Captbnut gets to choose whether Davy understood the subtext or was completely naieve to it.

Davy understood exactly what was going on from the beginning - in a different rpg he just rolled a crit. He wasn’t merely suspicious, he didn’t have to do any further roleplay to uncover what was really going on, he just knew! That’s perfectly allowable in this game, however, the balancing mechanism is called Consequences.

Any player (whether part of the scene or not) can trigger a consequence any time they feel that success in anything has been earned too easily. In this case, I have decided that Davy understood what was going on just a little too easily, so there must be consequences.

In this case, I’m going to say that the consequence is that Jens has lost his ‘mojo’ - he has underestimated Davy or overestimated his own skill in subterfuge. Either way, the result is the same, Jens’ lies and deceits are now easily detectable to even the most trusting ear - but Jens doesn’t know it and will continue to lie and deceive as he always does.

Because I triggered the consequence and because it affects my own character, I can make this decision unilaterally. Had I decided to inflict the consequence on another character, I could only do so with their player’s consent.

(I hope I didn’t mess it up. Sorry)

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Not at all!

Quite the opposite in fact, it’s these stories that drive the game and this is where the fun comes from! If we all just played nicely with each other and worked perfectly together, we may well solve the problem, but the story has no drama, nothing to remember. Now, every time I lie, everyone in the vicinity gets to know about it, and that’s fun!

It sort of brings me to a point I wanted to make - don’t get too attached to your characters, let bad things happen to them - let them be hurt, let them lose their powers etc. Give them struggles to overcome. Does that make sense? It’s in ceeding control of their stories to each other where the gem of this game really lies.

To be clear, when I read your post, I actually grinned so wide my partner thought I was laughing at him, not helped by when I figured out that now Jens can’t get away with lying for the consequence I actually did laugh. This is going to cause some chaos!!!

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Ok, so we’ve played our first scene! I’m going to ask @Cokho to write a brief overview of the scene, remind us of what has been revealed about our world, situation and our characters.

I’ll do likewise for the alternative scene - then we will be onto @Captbnut’s scene


In our scene, we were back at camp for the expedition away from the colony. Jens shared a flask of rum with Davy, as he seemed agitated and we learn that people brew alcohol in the colonies to sell, or trade. We also learn that there is a district of the colony known as ‘Cold Orchard’.

Moving forward, Augustus is very stand-offish, he doesn’t like men like Jens and Davy, thinking them all very very far beneath himself, though he understands their use. Jen’s picks up on this attitude - not that this makes him detective of the year - but approaches Augustus. We learn that he’s only had himself included in this mission to get access to Augustus. Jens doesn’t beat around the bush, he goes straight in with what he wants to talk to the man about - he wants to know who in the government of the colony has been paying off a ganger who goes by the alias of Sharpnose. Some evidence was pulled from the police fileroom and destroyed.

Augustus doesn’t exactly answer, but hints that he may know all about this, and assures Jens that if he’s working for the good of the colony, everything will be alright.

Jens, who sees the world through a very particular lens, takes this to mean “I know, but I won’t tell you unless you grease my palm” and starts to play a game he plays quite regularly How can I act corruptly, yet appear completely innocent. He decides to offer Augustus a bribe, right in front of Davy, hoping that Davy wouldn’t understand what was going on, so much so that Davy would in fact - if push came to shove - remember that the exchange was perfectly innocent. This didn’t happen. Davy immediately understood the subtext. Jens has lost his mojo when it comes to lying and being deceitful. Not that he knows it!

Davy offers to help how he can, and Jens is a bit put out, he works alone, he doesn’t like others to take risks on his behalf. Augustus turns down all offers - corrupt or sincere to help, and rather curtly at that.

To conclude the scene, Jens and Davy start hatching plans over the rest of the rum - Jens would like Davy to relocate to Sharpnoses’ district, known as Bonebarrow (and the Gang are known as the ‘Bonebarrow Lot’), either moving out there or getting a job. He just wants Davy to report on their movements, anything he notices them doing every week. He tells Davy that the job will be much safer than he believes it will be, but has lost his mojo when it comes to lying, so Davy knows this will be risky.

Feel free to correct me or add details I missed that you feel were important!! Maybe @RogerBW could make this a wiki post for us to give us all the power to edit it directly! Thanks @RogerBW !!

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