Answers in MoBu City

[Judd]

"Everyone thinks they know what I should do or what I am up to but no one seems to fucking know what I am going to do next."

- Rifkin, procurer, former Ravensgate convict, hero of the Sangre and wizard-slayer

Last week's game set up the major players in the mystery, "Who set up Rifkin, disbanded his posse of thieves, killed his apprentices and had him sent to prison for 3 years?" This week we got to dig in a bit.

Pete rolled Circles, talked over the situation with colorful characters in MoBu City...like Sets Delightful Snares, a Great Spider fence (in MoBu we call 'em Weavers) and a few wizards who have been drawn into this mess. Members of the Shadow Council have made themselves known to him and he has seen some of the politicking going on within the Shadow Council itself as he uncovered a lie or two.

He called the old crew together but times have changed and things are a bit of a mess with a few of them. The old days are back but the old days are over.

Now he has the answers and things are starting to click into place. The Shadow Council, each of the wizards, a demi-god chained underwater, a Great Wolf gangster, a thief trying to turn legit, the demi-god's merchant-minded divine daughter are all pinging around this city like a musket-ball through a narrow alley.

Rifkin has his answers, more or less. He knows what he has to do in order to get the final answer, the big one, the name of the guy who sent him to prison for 3 years, the guy who killed his apprentices and sent his crew scurrying into their safe havens and bolt-holes all over MoBu City, the guy who set him up because he was preparing to steal the wrong piece of art at the wrong time. Next week, I'd imagine he will get the name and once he does, things will get interesting.

I want to write more about the creation of Rifkin's past and the job that got him sent to Ravensgate prison but it is late and I am tired. Tomorrow I will post that and the link to our evolving google doc with the names of people and places.

[Judd]

So, this was a whodunnit, which is funky. BW players have Circles. At any point Pete could have said, "I want to Circle up the guy who sent me away to Ravensgate," or the person who knows who sent me away or whatever. He chose not to and to use Rifkin's ignorance to drive play, get him Artha and allow him to explore MoBu City.

The whodunnit in this case was - Who set up Rifkin and had him sent to prison? He still doesn't have a name but he has cut a deal with a member of the Shadow Council.

Who set him up linked up to his crew, who we made up through Circles rolls. Well, we kinda pre-made before the Circles rolls, wrote down some names and what their rolls were in the gang. I came up with where they were now, illustrating a whole lot about what they were up to in the past three years.

The set-up that led to the prison was linked to the last job Rifkin was planning. Pete mentioned in play that the final job was an object of art and that he had only told the apprentice kids (both killed) and Teleki (who had run to work with a wizard after Rifkin went to Ravensgate).

As we played, there were players put into place who had their own motivations and goals. Once we had put out the various constraints and details, it was pretty obvious who had put out the order to put Rifkin in jail and who the mysterious third party was who had hired their crew anonymously to steal the art that sparked off this mess.

The fundamentally important thing to do when playing through any kind of whodunnit in BW is that the decisions and the setting have to be fundamentally more interesting AFTER the mystery is solved than before. It has to leave the players with important decisions to make.

I did not control the pacing or thwart Pete's investigations. Really, honestly, Pete (and the dice to some extent) controlled the pace of when Rifkin found out what. I put things out there to respond to his actions, had the NPC's moving and shaking right along with him.

Oddly, I found myself asking Pete, "What do you do now?" far more often than I usually do in most games. The game kind of depended on him going out into MoBu City and shaking things up, giving me fuel with which to tussle with his Beliefs and send shit his way.

What I didn't ever do was try to block him from finding out who did what. I wanted him to know but I didn't give it to him either. I assigned obstacles and made Rifkin work for it but I didn't make PETE work for it. I think that is an important distinction.

Another thing I found myself doing was making MoBu City an almost friendly place at times, especially in Pete's character's home quarter, the Sangre. His reputation, Hero of the Sangre. When he Circled up folks and wanted to talk out the situation, I did so and when they lied, I made a show of the Falsehood rolls vs. his Perception so that Pete knew when lies were coming, even if Rifkin didn't.

Maybe that is the big part of BW whodunnits, put opposition in the character's way and not the player's way.

I'm still kind of piecing together how and why this has worked as well as it has.

[luke]

In the noirs, the audience often knows who it was who betrayed the protagonist.

What would have happened if Pete had tested Circles and failed? Thugs jump him...Or someone sends him a message, "Back off," or the femme fatale visits him and implores him.

What would have happened if he passed? Tragedy as he finds that one of his friends has betrayed him... What can he do about it? The situation is too far gone. The unspoken code has been broken. Nothing to do but get revenge, the money, get the girl and get out.

[Stigg]

I feel that by the end of last night's play it is definitely pointing to the latter, Luke. There is betrayal aplenty going on. This doesn't surprise me (nor Rifkin for that matter) because betrayal is part of being a criminal. It is when you turn on your own crew that the situation gets particularly ugly.

The one thing that I was waiting for as the Player was confirmation that ALL of the heavy hitters had a stake in sending my character to the HousGaol.