Some of my best friends have superpowers

The first official session of Unhuman took place this last Saturday.  Conspiracies were revealed, hands were chopped off, and sharp charcoal suits were ordered on a dead man’s credit card.

One thing I’ve learned while playing these games in the past is that it really slows things down when the group splits up for long periods, particularly when some players are less than seasoned.  To compensate for this, the game began with the players waking up in the park in the middle of the night, drugged, poked, prodded, and ultimately dumped with hazy memories and superpowers.  They soon learn that they’d lost an entire week during which many others around the world had developed similar gifts.  Confused, isolated, and with no one else to trust, the gang wisely stuck together while they attempted to piece together who took them, and why.

The conspiracy hook was certainly something I tried to dangle, but I did not force the players down that road.  What I attempted to do was structure the game in such a way that the players would have more freedom to pursue their own goals.  Rather than lay out a specific goal, I tried to craft the world from a higher vantage point.  I sketched out the general structure of the conspiracy they chose to unravel, but I was also prepared to react to several other stories they could have been in (teasing them in a newspaper and television news report).

How effective was it?  I don’t know, to be honest.  I think everyone had a good time.  The issue with organizing a game on this level is the pacing.  There’s no way I can plan out so much detail in advance, particularly considering the chances that the players will strike off on some unforeseen journey and skip all the material.  I had to make a lot up on the fly.  I’m out of practice, but I think I held my own.

However, the worst is likely behind us.  As the group dynamic is established (chaotic neutral skulking and swashbuckling), and the short-term goals are set (revenge!), it becomes easier for me to predict where the cadre will go and the sorts of locations and NPCs I need to create.  I can also mix in a little bit of those other dangling storylines to enhance, distract from, or complicate their central goals as needed.

I used Google Maps and Street View extensively.  Unable to be sure what kinds of places the team would be going, it was damn near impossible to plan the sets out in advance.  So when they tracked down someone who used to work for one of the conspiracy’s shell corporations only to find him very recently strangled by a mysterious black-clad man, I could show them the building’s exterior on my laptop screen.  We even used the Street View image as a reference when they fought the assassin on the fire escape.

That was sweet.  I wonder if any other enterprising gamers have used it for that purpose?

I expect I’ll find technology even more useful next time when the gang heads to New York City following their best lead to a Wall Street investment bank amidst the United Nations’ first summit on the global phenomenon.  Stay tuned.  Action, Mystery, and — one would expect — property destruction on an epic scale, when Unhuman continues.

Unhuman