Brew's New Crew: Guild by Gaslight

[Brewmaster]

Hey everyone! Just posting the start of my new TtB game. I will be putting up ideas on how I run my game, interesting things that make elements of the game unique or cool, and I'm definitely going to be working on how to best implement "Boss Fights".

 

I have 3 new players (Totally fine since the system is scaleable like that.)

 

<Player 1>: "When at last you look upon your beating heart, your deeds will be undone before the 13th step but fear the shadow cast by no man. Pale faced, the innocent will drown in bile and the penny paid is thrice earned."

 

<Player 2>: "When you choose between the quill or the blade, he will trust your falsehoods for new enemies are made from old allies. Step through the looking glass and into the fable and he will be paid his price."

 

<Player 3>: "After the quiet of a thousand nights falls upon your ears, you will not heed the mentor but heed the cripple who speaks for the coin. It is, and it grows and yours is only yours."

 

Hope you guys are looking forward to more learning!... OH and a good story... or uh... something

[Brewmaster]

So, I had the group vote between two story hooks I was interested in. The overall pacing of the game is: Guild officers working in Malifaux Proper, plenty of mystery, intrigue, and other stuff. I've got one player who was interested in my alternate hook, so fighty fighty is necessary, the second player was super in for the intrigue, and a third player that I don't have much of a read on yet.

 

The following DOES contain spoilery elements, so those of you in my game, stop reading doods!

 

GM Rule 1: What's the most interesting thing you could be doing right now? Are your players interested, and are you the GM interested?

 

I've been hankering for an exploration of Brilliance. A good Miami Vice "Drug caper" is always fertile story-telling ground. There's also a Ten Thunders hook, so I can throw in "East Meets West" elements. Enough variety, so that it doesn't feel like "ANOTHER 1d6 thugs? SIGH", the built in mystery of "There's this new drug called Brilliance on the streets", and a definitive endpoint to work back from (totes fight Jakob and Huggy). Sounds like a solid point to start from.

 

I don't quite know how I want to run Destinies in this game, but I have a SOLID outline of the story, so it's easier to plan. If we look at this from a Daredevil-esque "The Rise of Jakob" point of view, the story lends itself to 1-3 session plots, each one building a bit of story in the background for the bigger plot. 

[admiralvorkraft]

I'm interested in seeing where this goes. I had fun reading over the last campaign you posted about.

[Brewmaster]

Thanks

 

Next up: actual construction (AGAIN SPOILERS)

 

Since I know how many sessions my game will be, I can make better plans on how the sessions progress. Since I established that I want to do a Lynch game, I also have a solid list of encounter options.

 

GM Rule 2:  By having a terrific foundation, the rest of the game builds out solidly

 

My foundation for this game is "This game chronicles the rise of Jakob Lynch as a power player in Malifaux. The Players will be Guild members who start in opposition of him. What the players find out is that Jakob has a second game going on where he's trying to get out from under the thumb of Huggy, the 10T, and about 11 billion other things".

 

Basic outline for the game:

 

Sessions 1-4 "The mystery of dead Depleted guy who was killed by  this new drug called Brilliance"

Session 5 "Mr Graves shows up, explains to the Players that if they don't go away, he'll snap their necks"

Session 6-about 9ish " Mr Tannen begins manipulating events to deal with the players"

Session 10 "Tannen's death trap"

Session 11-14 "Jakob's final push"

Session 15 "Final fight with Jakob"

Session 16 ????

 

The basic elements I want to manipulate through the game:

The players shouldn't find out the name Jakob Lynch till about 4-6

The players should have hints about an internal power struggle that become obvious by session 12ish

Lynch should make about 3-5 moves that seem counter-productive to the "10Thunders" plan

 

I kinda have an urge to throw in a couple "Downtime" episodes, but we'll see what happens.

 

My encounter bucket:

 

Mr Graves

Mr Tannen

Beckoners

Illuminated

Depleted

Stitched Together

 

Hired Mercenaries

 

10 Thunders "Protecting our monies investment"

 

Splash of Neverborn for unique flavor