So! Last night with Olive absent due to having got in from his flight at some ungodly hour of the morning, and Matt absent due to being on the phone with a real estate agent to buy a house in some dreadfully bleak part of the country (Mildura), it seemed better to set aside Tiwesdæg for the session, and play a one-off instead.

Colin had with him on his little memory stick A|State (light version here) an rpg of a Dickensian cyberpunk world - though without much cyber.

This ridiculous system was point-buy, but we made it random to get into it quick. Aron played Johnathan, ill-educated thug, gas fitter, amateur theologian and thug. Also a thug. I played Jack, the spineless academic armed with his wits and a half-brick in a sock, though brilliant he was horribly disfigured by looking as though he were a Down's Syndrome sufferer and worse, with a mullet!


Johnathan was clad in a shiny ankle-length dogskin coat, and disappointingly carried not twins but only one katana, but also had a small revolver. Jack was clad in a cheap dogskin coat and cheap clothes and one shilling tie, looking like a pimp.

They ventured forth to pay Jack's library fine so he could graduate from university. Along the way they enjoyed a breakfast of dog kebab. They took the train, which was smelly and dirty, someone left the train door open, Johnathan rose to close it, and was accosted by a mugger who demanded his money. Jack approached with his half-brick in a sock and smacked the mugger over the back of the head, who reacted by collapsing with a groan. The two friends then removed the mugger's coat while the train patrons pointedly looked away. As they got off at the next stop, they tossed five shillings to the crowd to make them accomplices and keep them quiet. The coat proved to contain many shillings from less bold mugging victims and some lint.

They changed trains and arrived at the university about lunchtime. There they bumped into their friend Micky, who was sweating and worried because his old man a fisherman had been smacked over, "who could have done this? Help me find him." Astounded by the irony of fate, that a plot hook would come from a fisherman, the two set off to help out. They took the barge this time, and disappointed the bargeman by not engaging in witty repartee with him. They snooped around the fisherman's shack and found that a fancy strongbox was missing, and that the whole interior was visible from a spot across the canal.

"Does he have any enemies? Anyone out to get him? Perhaps from across the canal?"
"Only that crazy old man Jerry, rants and raves. We haven't seen him about for a bit though."
"Where can we find him?"
"Dunno, ask Terry, he sells watches and things over there."

The two went across the canal and found Terry, who told them old Jerry had died a few weeks back. They asked if he'd seen a strongbox, he said, "Oh yes I bought one and then sold it, I bought it from a guy with a hat and this coloured blanket over him, you'll find him in the market."

They went to the market and saw no such bloke, on returning to Terry they found him having legged it with all his dodgy merchandise. They grabbed a kid passing.
"You know Terry?"
"Yep."
"He's buggered off. Where does he live?"
"I don't know, guv. But I know someone who might know, I can point him out to you."
"Show us, then."
"I'd like to, guv, but thing is it's rather cold and I've got no shoes, I've got to find myself some new shoes."
"Would two shillings help keep you warm?"
"That they would, guv," he said, quickly pocketing them.

Off they went to the market again, and the kid pointed out a curly red-headed bloke. They thanked the kid and went and accosted the redhead.
"Hello there," said Johnathan, "We're looking for something - a strongbox?"
"A what? Er, I suppose I could get one for you. I'm someone who gets things."
"So we heard. We're looking for a particular one, though. One that went missing from a humble fisherman's shack recently."
"What? Oh bugger, this is about Terry, innit? He's the sod you want."
"Take us to him." Johnathan gestured with his pistol in his pocket.
"Alright, alright. But what's that in your pocket? You don't look glad to see me. We can make this a business arrangement."
"Just show us." The PCs had a strange urge propelling them forward to deal with these events quickly, perhaps it was because their guiding spirits saw that it was 10:30pm already and the GM wanted to go home.
"Look, I've got two of my blokes here in the crowd watching us, so don't try anything. Now we can do this friendly, or -" he raised his fist to strike at Johnathan, and quick as a whip, Jack knocked him in the goolies with his half-brick in a sock. To everyone's surprise the redhead stayed standing, though he was crouched over a bit and not happy.

A general melee ensued, scrappy and messy, which was resolved by Johnathan drawing his sword. The redhead's two goons backed off, and the redhead said, "there's no need for that, let's go," and off they went to Terry.

They found Terry in a scungy little dosshouse with all his stolen goods, which they promptly stole from him at swordpoint. All up the takings were thirty-five pounds, and a big stash of drugs. "And don't nick nothin' from any of our mates again!"

All-in-all, a fun session. The details of the system remain vague to us, I think it was percentile, and that a half-brick in a sock is the most deadly weapon known to man. Colin did very well, put on the spot like that, but came up with the goods - that's the true spirit of being a GM.

We've had this game for a while, but I've never played it.  I'd love to give it a try.

You should. If nothing else, it's an excuse to do really bad English accents.

Sounds amusing in a HARDWARE/Split Second/Thunderdome kind of way.


- Ed

Well, it was just a one-off and/or intro session

Quote from: Kyle AaronYou should. If nothing else, it's an excuse to do really bad English accents.

Hee.  It sounds even worse mixed in with my French Canadian accent.

Sounds like you didn't see enough of the system to give us your take on it?

Quote from: Kyle AaronAll-in-all, a fun session. The details of the system remain vague to us, I think it was percentile, and that a half-brick in a sock is the most deadly weapon known to man. Colin did very well, put on the spot like that, but came up with the goods - that's the true spirit of being a GM.

It's percentile, and fairly straight forward. This was put out before Malcolm got adopted by the Forge, so it's pretty much normal RPG stuff. I personally loved the game, and told him so at GenCon. He's promised more support for it in the future.

BTW, Malcolm is a very cool guy.

-clash

There's more support for it out right now, in fact, in the form of the long-awaited Avenues & Alleyways. It essentially adds over 100 pages to the descriptions of cool places and NPCs in the City from the main rulebook.

Quote from: WarthurThere's more support for it out right now, in fact, in the form of the long-awaited Avenues & Alleyways. It essentially adds over 100 pages to the descriptions of cool places and NPCs in the City from the main rulebook.

Well, GenCon was in August, so now would BE the future!

Great news!

-clash

Quote from: AnemoneSounds like you didn't see enough of the system to give us your take on it?

Unfortunately, no.

In my game group playing Fourth Tiwesdaeg I had three players. One is fairly often absent due to work and family committments. Then I came across another gamer, and he seemed a good bloke. I said to the players, "Ideally Id have three players, but then if one is absent you'd only have two, which can be a bit flat. So what do you think about getting a fourth? That bloke so-and-so at the Geektogether last time?"

They were happy with that, he showed up next time and the session was fun for all. Well, in the next session the player often away was again, and another was, too - so we had just two, one of whom was the new guy. Well, the first absent player had missed out on too many key decisions in the campaign, and the second absent one had made decisions last time that were going to lead to a civil war and foreign invasion of the land, so it seemed only right to have him around to suffer the consequences

So I said to the two present, "Let's set Tiwesdaeg aside for this week and play a one-off. What would you like to give a go? Hey, new guy - didn't you say you had an A|State intro planned? Do you have your books here?"
"No, I don't have my books. Oh hang on, yes I do, I've got my memory stick, they might be on there in pdf."
I slotted the stick into my laptop, and there they were. I stood up, "the GM seat is yours, mate. I pass the Viking Hat to you!"

And away we went. So the poor guy had to whack up a scenario quick-smart, and because we didn't have the physical books to look over and it would have taken ages with point-buy and looking things up on pdf and minimaxing as players always do, so I said, "let's just roll for everything, our characters will be crap or mixed-up crazy, but it's only one session, so what."

He wasn't all studied-up on the rules, and we'd never seen them before, so it was pretty loose

That sounds like a very interesting game, and I'm glad that much fun seemed to be had by all. I'm a little confused by the setting description - Dickensian cyberpunk, minus the cyber, strikes me like steampunk. Accurate description, or just me trying to slap labels on things?

I'm not sure myself.

The setting is a big city with lots of canals, and trains throughout the city. There exist firearms, basically they're muskets - though some use electricity as a sparker. But there's also some sort of computer system.

My impression is that there's a high tech upper class, and a low tech lower class, without anyone much in the middle class. The poshes make it cyberish, and the dregs make it Dickensian - a big and dirty city with lots of poverty.

In my OP I linked to the "lite" version, you could download it and have a look.

You'd be amazed (nor not) how often the half brick in a sock comes up in a|state. I'm glad you had an enjoyable time with the game and thanks for taking the time to talk about it as well.

Yes, the system itself is a fairly standard percentile-based one and, as a few people have pointed out in a variety of other places, it's not without its flaws. Then again, it is functional. Certainly, there are things that I did then that I would do now and character creation does take a fair bit of time to get through (and, yes, there are probably a few opportunities for min-maxing mixed in there).

Quote from: Kyle AaronIf nothing else, it's an excuse to do really bad English accents.

"Oi guv'nor! Where's me fish, eh?" and so on and so forth. The cheeky-Cockney-rapscallion accent is always a viable fallback position. Although, I always think  of a lot of the characters speaking with Scottish accents. But that's just me.

Quote from: Last KnightI'm a little confused by the setting description - Dickensian cyberpunk, minus the cyber, strikes me like steampunk. Accurate description, or just me trying to slap labels on things?

Not quite accurate, but close. It takes influence from Dickens, Gibson, Peake, Mieville and a whole bunch of other literary sources, as well as films like Jacobs Ladder, Elephant Man and so on. So, yeah, there is a pretty big Dickensian feel to chunk of it, but it also encompasses spikes of hard-SF and horror. I find it hard to say what it actually is, in terms of a style or genre. But steampunk is probably the closest I can get to it.

Quote from: flyingmiceWell, GenCon was in August, so now would BE the future!

Great news!

I'm delighted that we finally got Avenues & Alleyways out. Been a long time coming for sure.

As always, if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask. I might be a bit slack on answering them, though, as I head out with my backpack for Australia tomorrow!

Cheers
Malcolm

This intrigues me, and I shall download and consume.

Quote from: Last KnightThis intrigues me, and I shall download and consume.

Thanks for the interest, I hope that a|state Lite has something of interest for you. Man, I really should think about updating that thing to streamline it a bit.

Cheers
Malcolm