GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Adrienne Mueller, Eric Fattig, Karen Twelves
System: Tomb Raider
Nemesis
Guinevere Khan and Iteration 41
Drive: Plumb the secrets of the world to break the chains of mortality.
Description: A technofacist cult founded by Guinevere Khan to discover the final iteration of the human form (which, according to Guinevere will be Iteration 41). Their work has included the use of stabilized cold fusion to provide untold energy reserves, stealing memory enhancing techniques from the Acantha people, and relying on old money families such as the Pembertons to finance their goals and give them a veneer of credibility in the international political scene.
Iteration 41 believes that the secrets to immortality, omniscience, and omnipotence are locked away like puzzle pieces in the hidden corners of the world and it is their duty to mankind to recover these secrets and exploit them to their fullest extent.
Their current iteration involves uploading consciousness via direct taps to the cerebral cortex. All agents have a data port installed in the neck and their memories are uploaded as part of the screening process. What is less well known is that potentially seditious memories are removed to prevent insurrection amongst the ranks.
Moves
- Obfuscate actions behind reputable veneer
- Reveal secret information about the Truth Seekers they didn’t know themselves
- Upload needed skills into their agents
Spend Trouble to Unlock: Return from the dead in some altered form.
Spend Trouble to Unlock:
Faces
- Guinevere Khan, leader and mastermind behind the Iteration.
- Harold Pemberton Sr., renowned illusionist, famous for discovery of the Sunken city of Kherfu
Establishing questions for NPC 1
- They have something that once belonged to you. How did they obtain it? And why do you want it back?
Establishing questions for NPC2:
- You witnessed NPC2 die and yet they have somehow returned as this abomination. How did they die? Why do they blame you for it?
Establishing questions for Aurora Eugenio:
- When you defected from Iteration 41, many Seekers thought it was a trick. Why did Aurora trust you? What promise did you make to her that you still have to fulfill?
Action Phase
- Forge a path to help people to the community center.
- Explore Aurora’s hut for clues. Crisis. A lightning bolt catches it on fire and knocks it into the water.
- Intuition question leads to Take Control
- Defy Death to escape the burning and drowning.
- In a moment of some safety, Explore the Community Center
- Milestone – Meeting the Banwannon
Feedback
- Crafter pushes a futuristic time period that doesn’t match the others.
- Reclaimer bond “why do you still love me” sems like it would be better asked to the Reclaimer.
- Looking for non-traumatic bonds
- A lot of tracks and currencies to monitor
- People may look for more action, less emotion focused game.
- Exhausting to answer introspective questions all the time.
- Sometimes it was hard to match a move to an action (what to use to get out from being trapped underwater?)
- Hard to juxtapose establishing questions (thoughtful and reflective) with pulse pounding action.
- Hard to generate lore when running for your lives.
- Would have liked a prologue before the action phase to get settled and meet the the locals before the action happened.
- There’s a lot scripted in the beginning. Significant lore dump and not a lot of player action.
- We liked how lore/aid/map allows you to travel to locations. Cool how past efforts help you move forward.
- Lots of motivation (bonds and questions) are based on trauma and guilt.
- Felt like the tokens were too similar.
- Face an Enemy didn’t work when facing an environmental hazard (the lightning storm)
- We liked the lore, specifically the stories about the Six Moons.
- Would have liked an enemy to face. It this the best way to introduce the action phase?
- As a Keeper I didn’t spend or gain much Trouble. There were lots of keeper options to keep track of.
- As a Keeper I thought the moves were intuitive.
- Challenge to frame the opening sowing the locals having agency (What should the Seekers be doing if the locals are taking care of themselves)?
- “Am I thinking outside the box?” is a hard question to answer.
