The GLOW 1996: Psychic Eustace Delmont - "Session 0," Arc Launch, Goals, Expectations, and Resources
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| Image © Dean Spencer |
- A Somewhat Different The GLOW and a Very Different Eustace
- A Background in Brief
- The Switch to Outgunned
- A Somewhat Different The GLOW
- A Very Different Eustace Delmont
- Technical Details
- Session 0: Creating a new Eustace and Hitomi
- Credits
A Somewhat Different The GLOW and a Very Different Eustace
A Background in Brief
This past December — which is surprisingly less than two months ago, it has been a long few weeks — I played the opening campaign arc for The GLOW: 1996 Agent Johnny Blue. It used, essentially exclusively, Tricube Tales: Arcane Agents though a few other one-sheets showed up: namely Maidenstead Mysteries and Champions of Fenrir. It had two essential purposes. First, to play out a bit of a different campaign that my usual fare: one where people had sex, smoked, engaged in joyful violence, and were less bound by traditional morals. Second, to play something unattached to an ongoing campaign so I could play with blog formatting and to reset my brain. I had a lot of fun but the initial arc was by necessity of both halves a bit short. Stuff took a very sudden turn and I leaned fully in.
At the time I had the idea of follow-up arcs that would look at different aspects of The GLOW. Neon Foster, in a prequel, would look at the hacking culture. Detective Aurora Hernandez, in a few-years-later sequel, would look more at handling crime in such a city. My initial idea was to follow up with Eustace "Nurse" Delmont trying to wrap up some loose ends for Johnny/Jani. A few days after the conclusion, a more cloistered person who had to deal with the city's violence and grittiness using mostly his mental abilities.
After some thought, and with a general interest in trying out several new systems this year to see how much it impacts my playing, I have changed gears a bit.
The Switch to Outgunned
The first change will be to switch to a new game system: Two Little Mice Games' Outgunned. It is the first new (to me) game since the start of this blog that immediately sparked joy upon reading it. I love its core experience and vibe. It also has expansions — aka Action Flicks — that should make it possible to play psychic powers, cyberpunk aesthetics, and mysticism all in one place. It was essentially going to be this or Shadowrun and though I have had some good times playing Shadowrun, it has a lot baked in that I would have had to strip out.
Tricube Tales has been wonderful for this blog. In fact, outside of The Bleak + The Pearl and the never-finished (and possibly never to be finished) English Eerie game, Tricube Tales has been the backbone of nearly all of this blog's output. Gareth Hendrix, The Bloody Hands, Eustace & Hitomi, and the first The GLOW arc were all various Tricube one-sheets. With The GLOW specifically, Arcane Agents was the original push for the style and motifs.
With that being said, I'd like to try something not only different but also quite a bit different for this one. We have seen a version of Eustace & Hitomi who approach things with a mostly real world requirement — the Disruptor being the outlier — and so it will be fun seeing what Eustace Delmont and Hitomi Meyer look like when they are action hero badasses.
A Somewhat Different The GLOW
Will this be the same The GLOW? Yes Ish. The GLOW is a place with massive buildings, cyberware (called aetherware), high-tech, and people changed by hedge magic. However, in the first campaign we mostly saw grimy backlots, the edge of town, underground enclaves, and magically-warped buildings. There was a massive multi-city-block mall where we glimpsed only a couple of kiosks and a customer service desk. There was a floating building — floating several meters off the ground, I mean — and apartment buildings that were much taller than the actual buildings from the real world region with more enhanced security. There were servisynths and hackers. I just didn't get a chance to go into a lot of the more outsized aspects of the cyberpunk nature of the reality because, frankly, Jani Blum is not the kind of guy to look up. He saw himself as a noir-style detective who stuck to the outskirts and the downtrodden. He was not impressed by the dazzle and the lights. There were hints of cybernetic — aetheric — enhancements and mystical body transformations but he didn't care about how much chrome someone might have, only whether they were victims or victimizers.
In that light, all the established lore of The GLOW is still in place but Eustace will see mostly the grimy -punk side of things rather than the aether-noir flavor. He will be dodging laser turrets and street sams. There will still be magical and mystical elements, but the flavor of the tables will be much more Neon-and-Glass than Yew-and-Ash.
That being said, if something comes up that needs to contradict established lore, it will do just that. I like playing games were some of the "lore" is based on perspectives. Eustace will simply have a different version of events than Jani. Being Eustace, he will probably be closer to the truth since he actually pays attention.
A Very Different Eustace Delmont
Will this be the same Eustace or Hitomi? No Ish. The core of both characters will stay the same. Eustace will be a big dude who puts fixing things and helping people towards the top of his priorities. Hitomi will be a chain-smoking Japanese-British-American who handles her own sense of despair by taking control of the situation and protecting the people close to her. She will also have a dog, though probably a synthetic one.
Outside of those core elements, they will be nearly 100% revised. One shift will be their age. I wanted the GLOW set in 1996 because it was a shoutout to old cyberpunk movies and aesthetics. This led to some in-jokes between The GLOW and Alabama Weird universes. Unfortunately, it also makes little sense in the timeline. Eustace and Jani have been psychically linked for fifteen or so years. This would put Eustace as ten-years-old when it started. That's a bit rougher than I like. Instead, we'll age him up to thirty-five, basically the same age as this world's Jani. Hitomi was twenty and I will bring her up as well, maybe slightly less. Twenty-seven seems a reasonable age for her. We have already seen some of this impact where The GLOW's Amy Patel is in her late-twenties and Jani Blum is seen as older in the Weird. Age is a minor detail and the timelines already have some large differences.
Other differences are much bigger. Hitomi will be a street criminal who is good at shooting people who get too close. Eustace will be aetherware enhanced as the chubby teddy-bear frame has been built up to quite muscular and his always distracted brain has been turned into a weapon.
Funnily enough, part of the reason of this is because of the Dean Spencer artwork used at the top of this post. The guy on the lower left was the person that I saw and went, "That could Eustace if he had less self-doubt." The other person on the bike is not the image I chose for Hitomi but if you cross your eyes, the art I did choose is...well, not close at all but work with me and use your mind palace to meet me half way.
That image also has the same art-models from Jani and the guy he punched in the mall. And the Amy Patel model in the room with a crime boss. Dean Spencer's art was a major part of crafting scenes so it is fun to see him bring those elements into one picture. Another picture in a subway is also a core theme for this time. The one below.
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| Image © Dean Spencer. |
Technical Details
Resources and Tools
As said, the main resources will be Outgunned and Outgunned: Action Flicks — especially the "Great Powers" and "Neon Noir" flicks with others potentially brought in for the more magical and horror elements if those show up. Since Order Field Psychics are going to be hunting Eustace, there is a fair chance something will happen in that regards.
The main oracle will be Gamemaster Apprentice Deck: Cyberpunk 2E. Since the second edition has replaced the various runes, elements, and prompt-symbols with game-icons symbols and I really like using game-icons symbols, that might be around 90% of all I need. One twist to it will be a way to test certain scene and thread expectations a bit more randomly. Once we get to a new scene, or explore how a thread is going, I will draw a card and look at the Difficulty Indicator. This will be the strength of the expectation. I will roll 2d10. If one is greater, it is a complication/twist and I will draw another card to generate some changes. If both are greater, it's a major complication/twist and I'll draw three cards and combine.
Matt Davids' (aka Dicegeeks') Book of Random Tables: Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 2, and Cyberpunk 3 will the next tool used. They will be joined by Paul D. Gallagher's (and Geist Hack Games') Augmented Reality.
Kevin Crawford's Cities Without Number will almost definitely play a part somewhere. Much like Zach Best's Univeral NPC Emulator.
Finally, Cesar Capacle's Random Realities remains my one stop shop.
Artwork from Dean Spencer will be used again. I am going to probably bring in art from other artists in places, if I can find some, just to expand the visuals. As well as self-creations.
The plan is to use a lot of Karl Casey's music mixed with J-pop for this one. Mostly because I love Karl Casey's music and I love J-pop.
Death Armor
In most of my games, main characters get a version of "Death Armor" which means the point where hitpoints hit 0 and characters would normally be dead is more about finding a way to expand the plot rather than close it off. They are captured. Forced to find a healer. Need to be rescued. Something. Usually the story reaches a point where the death armor is removed, where they have to balance their resources more carefully.
Outgunned does this a bit differently in that losing the "Death Roulette" means the character "dies" in the kind of way where you don't really know what happened to them. They run into a building and the building explodes. They might show back up with a scar or they might not.
In this world, where hedge magic and Order Witches can rewrite reality, death is likely to be different.
That being said, other people may very well violently die. There will be consequences for their actions.
Adrenaline
Adrenaline is meant to be the meta-currency to control scenes and keep the action. Since it gets a bit odd in solo play where you would be relatively awarding your own roleplaying, I will still sub out this method: Each main character gets one adrenaline per scene and might get more at certain events based on how much I can push them.
Goals and Expectations
The chief goal of this arc will be to help Amy Patel take down her crime family. Either by working with her or by doing it for her. There was a description of what was on the mini-disc in the latter part of the previous arc that was a bit underwhelming. Details about the family's crimes. Control of the Rambler from the outside. I want to expand on that and maybe make it bigger and more damning. Also, a lot more dangerous to have.
A potential second goal is to find out more of the horrors of The GLOW. Eustace is having to decide if he wants to give up his freedom to become a weapon for The Order (and based on his qualifications, he will be one of THE weapons that sets the bar once he hits his full power). Since Hitomi and he are sort of cross-dimensional soul mates, he risks giving up the love of his life for his duty. On the other hand, if he tries to leave The GLOW, he will suffer severe consequences. Parts of his body belong to The Order.
I want him to have a fairly clear notion of his life by the end. Other things can be explored in later arcs if the chance comes up.
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| Image © Dean Spencer |
Session 0: Creating a new Eustace and Hitomi
Creating a New Eustace Delmont
His Role will be The Brain. His Trope is Genius Bruiser. From the latter he will take a point in Brawn.
His catchphrase is, "How can I help?" — best used if he says it right after literally cutting through the problem already — and his Flaw is the fact that he is always seeing psychic threads like visual noise.
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| Image © Dean Spencer |
Eustace's psychic powers will net him a "Super" tag. The weakness will be that his powers require The GLOW — specifically the soulburn that gives the city its signature glow — to function. If he gets denied access to soulburn, he will lose his psychic powers and his aetherware will shut down. In his case, this means he loses his arms and his brain will have some definite issues. He probably has batteries for the latter but the former will hit him hard and immediately.
He gets a super feat. I'm going to burn one of his normal feats to give him a second. The first is from Action Flicks [AF] page 76. Mind Powers: You can push, pull, or block things and people with the power of your mind by making a roll in Focus + Cool. Additionally, you can communicate telepathically. ☇[Quick Action] Gain access to a person’s mind to influence their actions. In combat, this skill allows you to find 2 Enemy Weak Spots and choose the one you prefer. The second is from AF page 77. Super Senses: Gain a Free Re-roll for all Reaction Rolls against Enemy Special Actions and for all rolls made to sense danger, to prevent an ambush, or to spot lurking enemies. ☇Repeat a failed Awareness roll.
He will swap out his other The Brain feat with the slightly renamed [AF p 180] Aetherpunk: Gain a Free Re-roll to use or repair your aetherware. In this light, he has new arms that include retractable blades and has techno-hands. He has an aetherjack in his brain that gives him access to the aethernet at all times. This gives him some bonuses to various strength and fighting tasks and fixing and repairing equipment.
Finally, because he is always able to pull data from the psychic threads and the aethernet, he has [Outgunned [OG] p54] ☇ Outsmart: Make an Action or Reaction Roll of any kind using Know instead of the required Skill.
As a character, he is about physical, up-close fighting and generally fixing things.
The extra -ware slightly unbalances him as a character but considering the enemies he is likely to face, it should work out. He actually gets little else to start, being a bit new babe in the woods.
He starts with two bullets in the chamber since at the core he is a "Neon Noir" character.
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| Session 0 Eustace. Subject to change. Character portrait © Dean Spencer. |
Creating a New Hitomi Meyer
Her role will The Criminal. Her Trope (from "Neon Noir") will be Techno Wizard (she'll take Smooth).
Her catchphrase will be "What do you want?" and her flaw will be always trying to take advantage of the situation.
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| If the hair gets dyed purple in the first session, it makes it easier to pretend the other graphics are her, slightly... Image © Dean Spencer |
She will not be super or aetherware enhanced. From The Criminal she will get [OG p50] Gunslinger: Gain a Free Re-roll when using, repairing, evaluating, or handling a pistol or revolver. She will also sub out, from "Neon Noir," [AF p180] Sprawl: Gain a Free Re-roll for all rolls made to move through the Sprawl [aka, the slummier parts of The GLOW], to find contacts, and to interact with people who live in the slums.
From Techno Wizard, she will take [OG p51] Hacker: Gain a Free Re-roll for all rolls about computers, to hack a system or to bypass IT security measures.
She has a gun and a set of lockpicks. She desperately needs a ride.
Like Eustace, she gets a second bullet in her revolver to start.
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| Session 0 Hitomi. Subject to change. Character portrait © Dean Spencer. |
CREDITS
It's pretty obvious which ones, but some images are © Dean Spencer. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Characters sheets are taken from Outgunned: Action Flicks, specifically the form fillable ones for "Neon Noir".
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