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| Biggles |
 Posted: Fri Jul 14, 2006 1:45 pm Post subject: Episode 3 - Write me! |
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IntSec Goodwill Ambassador
Joined: 26 Jul 2004
Posts: 923
Service Group: Internal Security
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| Quote: |
3: Putting the Fun in Funball
The PCs have to infiltrate the stadium without tickets, get into the locker rooms and overpower the Slugthrowers during halftime. Then, without any knowledge of the rules, they have to take the field and beat the veterans. They can also sabotage the other team, bribe the referees, or whatever.
As the game progresses, they start to lose badly. The GM can mess with the players, introducing obscure rules and whatnot, toying with them by giving them a few points but never letting them figure out the game. The match builds to a climax where the PCs actually win. Just as they’re accepting the Funball Trophy, the real teams emerge from the locker rooms. Let the players figure out how to escape alive. |
Here's where we can start writing the third episode of MCM2. Above is taken from the official plot: the overall structure cannot be changed, but the details can. For example, the team still needs to play funball, but should they win or lose? In other words, this thread is for fleshing out episode 2.
And while the 'fake funball sports terminology' gag is great, remember that there's more to this episode than that. How long should the game last? And the big question: if the PCs are going to win, how do they beat a team of veteran players?
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IC note: Wields a laser pistol that talks to him through a tiny wireless earpiece. No, really. |
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| Vatman22 |
| Posted: Sat Jul 15, 2006 12:22 am Post subject: |
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GREEN
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 127
Service Group: Internal Security
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A lot of this episode of the mission will be defined by what the players decide to do, so I don't have much for this one. This is where we'll need a map of the stadium, though, so the players have the maximum options available for getting into trouble. Plus they'll know where to find the Slugthrowers' locker room.
I like to think that by this point in the mission, just about everyone outside the stadium and lots of people inside are looking for the Troubleshooters for some reason. Workers on CoffeeLyke breaks who were anxious to see FunBall footage and were disappointed when the Troubleshooter alert came on, a goon squad out to get readers of the confidential IntSec report, and members of various secret societies who are aware of the briefing officer's mistake. Free Enterprise is looking for them because of fears that they'll upset the fixed match. Psion and Anti-Mutant are looking for them to make competing offers - they'll help subdue the other team so long as the Troubleshooters either help or kill any mutants on the other team they can find. The Illuminati control the referees and don't want any interference with that for inscrutable reasons. If the Troubleshooters play ball, so to speak, with the secret society the secret society will help them beat the other team through whatever means are appropriate to that society. PURGE contributes high explosives, Psion sends out telepaths or invisible mutants with Creeping Madness, Free Enterprise helps with kneebreaking, etc.
During all this, the Troubleshooters also have to defuse a potential disaster during the halftime show. A garbled message, obviously sent by someone who could only hunt-and-peck type with one finger, arrives on their PDCs. It's a misdirected email, originating from a land line phone in an IntSec holding facility, intended to be sent to the briefing officer's co-conspirators in Corpore Metal, but instead found its way to the Troubleshooter team. It warns them to avoid the field and the locker rooms during halftime - there's supposed to be a really spiffy show with lots of pyrotechnics and special dancing bots while scrubots clean the locker rooms. However, R&D secretly had several of the bots replaced with experimental devices as part of a covert plan to conduct testing without running everything past CPU's bureaucracy. The obvious flaw is pointed out by the briefing officer's highlighting of the words EXTREMELY EXPERIMENTAL next to the unreadable descriptions of the bots. So not only do the Troubleshooters have to beat another team up and take their uniforms, they have to avoid a potentially insane R&D bot in the locker room that they can't identify, as well as a potentially enormous and insane R&D bot on the arena floor.
I think the game should last for as long as the good jokes last. If that means ten minutes or two hours it's all good. As for how the Troubleshooters beat the other team, I dunno. I think that secret society deal is probably their best bet without resorting to committing mass murder on live broadcast. But once the game ends and the Troubleshooters accept the FunBall trophy, the real teams burst into the arena and demand to know what's going on - their scheduling bots didn't tell them that the game was set for 1400 instead of 1800. At this point, everyone inside the arena starts looking at the Troubleshooters too.
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"Heads don't USUALLY explode for no reason."
-Friend Computer NugoWis #224. |
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| Elm-R-FUD |
| Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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VIOLET
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 2425
Service Group: Armed Forces
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And so, the legacy ends...
The final portion of this game (the FunBall Game itself) should be left with more wiggle room than the first two thirds of the mission. Funball is a chaotic game and the GM to take advantage of that to suit his or her idea of how the mission chould come to it's near-apocalyptic finish.
Dressed up in the duds of the now unconcious FunBall team, the Troubleshooters take to the field. After remaining at attention for the AC anthem ("The Loyal and the [DFSR]"), play commences. The other Troubleshooters almost immediately recognize that things are not what they seem with the other team, and not willing to give up their potential windfall, they decide to simply crush the PCs. In the very first play, the captian of the other team, rather than go after the funball, attempts to take off the Mission Leader's head with his funball bat. No penalty is called. The first time the PCs try to get some revenge, play is stopped and the offender recieves a warning/yellow card/time in penalty box (choose whatever) for "stiffing the wicket". After that mandatory demonstration of the complexity and sometimes unfairness of FunBall, the confusing sports jokes may be exercised at the whim of the individual GM. For even more confusion during the game, (preferably) most of the SecSoc missions would have to be completed during play, driving the players to the brink of insanity and cheering up the GM.
Finally, after some amount of time (or when the GM feels like it) the game reaches halftime. The coaches are too preoccupied with the lousy performance of the team to notice that the "replacements" are playing instead of the normal starters. After trying one more inspiring speech and giving up half-way, the head coach takes the PCs into the locker room and gives them all several Asperquaint pills a piece. "And not a word about this to anyone, all right clones? *wink* Now, get back out there and crush those guys!" And so, jazzed on stimulants and eager to settle the score, the PCs rush back out onto the field to administer some long-delayed retribution.
Time passes. It's near the end of the game and the score is tied. Nearly every man on the field is exausted; the only ones who aren't are those who had to receive new clones during the match. The PCs have the ball, and if they can put up one last drive, they'll have won the game and successfully completed the mission.
Wait, what? Successfully completed the mission? Are you insane?
Just before the final goal can be scored, the real teams (on both sides) come streaming out of the locker room, ready to rip both Troubleshooter teams apart. The playing field suddenly becomes a battle field. It doesn't help that nearly every fan in the stadium, feeling jilted by this event, charges the field to help their team take down the imposters. If the PCs can escape from the riot, an IntSec security team places them under arrest and brings them back to the briefing room, where both UV's are waiting to administer something painful. Don't count on help from the briefing officer; he's perhaps in even more trouble than the PCs are. If they don't escape... well, their new clones have to explain the actions of their predecessors.
Oh well. That's just the way the FunBall bounces...
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Name: Elm-V-FUD-6
Service Group and Title: Armed Forces, PLN Sector General
Head Adjutant: Sigmund-I-DNO, Director of LIMB
Wearing: Violet two piece suit with boots, green officer's beret, violet cape, leather-lyke; holsters, ID tag; carrying a SynthSilver-topped cane |
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| Vatman22 |
| Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2006 6:21 pm Post subject: |
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GREEN
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 127
Service Group: Internal Security
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I suggest that the Troubleshooters not all die automatically at the end of the mission. It's a worn-out gag that everyone can see a mile away. It'll also make the mission almost incompleteable because clever Troubleshooters will know they're screwed completely from the start. They'll do anything they can think of to be somewhere else for the entirety of the mission and not play along, turning the game into yet another boring Fragfest game where they're more concerned with murdering entire clone families than being funny.
_________________
"Heads don't USUALLY explode for no reason."
-Friend Computer NugoWis #224. |
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| Citron-R |
| Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:47 am Post subject: |
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YELLOW
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 2085
Service Group: PLC
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I concur with the right honourable Vatman22. Under no circumstances should this mission turn into "..and you all get Erased for treason." It is too good to end in such a lame way. Instead, I propose that the Troubleshooters... win. I promise, nobody will be expecting it. In fact, I propose that their win is SO good, that they are promoted to BLUE clearance and are set to judge Funball games unto the end of their clone families.
Why do I suggest this? Because I think it would be funny. I could see my players grimacing at the thought of them judging Funball games with no practical knowledge of the rules. |
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| whiteadder |
| Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2006 6:34 pm Post subject: |
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RED
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 797
Service Group: Technical Services
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NO! Don't just let the PC's win, make them have to jump through all kinds of hoops to get to the goal, this is the point where all the people they ticked off during the mission come back to pester them. I envision something like the final scene in "Naked Gun." Fans and Players in a gigantic fighting knot, the Troubleshooters franticly sprinting through the croud, when suddenly a knot of fighting body's spits out an adversary in their path.
Also, make their winning affect what their treatment after the mission will be. Weither they win or lose the actual game in the course of the riot, (Dropping a really big hint here will at least give them the illusion of fairness.) Will affect weither the treatment they recive is worthey of a winning funball team, or worthey of a group of Troublemakers who ruined the Slugthrowers chance at the Pennet.
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IC Notes:
Name:Adder-R-YOU-1.
Tick:talks to himself, (but who doesn't), often forgets his missing arm.
Status: Slightly confused looking, missing a arm.
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| Vatman22 |
| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:00 am Post subject: |
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GREEN
Joined: 16 Feb 2005
Posts: 127
Service Group: Internal Security
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The Troubleshooters should not have to fight their way through an angry mob to get away. That lends itself far too easily to GMs saying, "Ok, you all die in the stampede" which is boring and stupid and a cheap out.
One thing we have to establish is how the other team's real players got tied up in their locker room for the entirety of the game. This is also how we get around the problem of the untrained Troubleshooters beating the supposedly veteran players: the other team is the other Troubleshooter team. Their Team Leader misinterpreted the mission order, which is why they aren't impersonating the Slugthrowers.
Instead of having them promoted right to Blue, we could promote them to Orange and make them Funball referees and umpires. Judges get nice luxury boxes with air conditioning and real soda, referees are down on the court up to their ankles in players' teeth.
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"Heads don't USUALLY explode for no reason."
-Friend Computer NugoWis #224. |
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| Twim-R-NGE |
| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:12 am Post subject: |
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ORANGE
Joined: 28 Jun 2006
Posts: 262
Service Group: Technical Services
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| Orenge might be mean, placing them all right back out on the field but unable to play.. but... how about Yellow? Instead of promoting them to Orenge as refferrees and such on the field, Yellow could be even meaner should they win and escape alive. Paperwork and forms, anyone? Plus the players are already partially expecting this, buuut... whoever said anything about a LIFETIME of it? This way they won't even see the perks of a refferee, but could be close to being judges... without the luxary. |
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| whiteadder |
| Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:26 am Post subject: |
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RED
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 797
Service Group: Technical Services
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I didn't say they had to fight an angery mob to get away just to get to the final goal. Come on, they've probably spent an entire third of the mission waiting for a chance to smash the other teams heads into the synthcrete. This is a reward for the FunBall game, which will probably be perceived as unfair.
_________________
IC Notes:
Name:Adder-R-YOU-1.
Tick:talks to himself, (but who doesn't), often forgets his missing arm.
Status: Slightly confused looking, missing a arm.
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| alaras |
| Posted: Tue Nov 04, 2008 11:17 pm Post subject: |
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RED
Joined: 02 Nov 2008
Posts: 4
Service Group: Internal Security
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| I say we make it TOO easy for them. They win the game, nobody shows up to contest it, or so they think. When they get back to the locker room, the Slugthrowers are not only conscious, but armed to the teeth (they're also with the Armed Forces, and all of them have weapons above their clearance, including two with unregistered slugthrowers, and the rest with lasers and ORANGE barrels! |
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| Teln |
| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 1:13 am Post subject: |
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YELLOW
Joined: 18 Oct 2008
Posts: 165
Service Group: Internal Security
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Necromancy = BAD.
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Name: Teln-Y-URN-3
Wearing: A RED jumpsuit with boots. The right sleeve of the jumpsuit ends at the elbow, and the end is a bit charred. A combat baton is stuffed inside one pocket.
Status: Teln LOVES Friend Computer! Do you? |
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| Adam-R-LON-1 |
| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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INDIGO
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3851
Service Group: HPD&MC
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No it's not. This MCM needs to be written no matter how long it takes! Contribute some ideas.
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For the Glory of Friend Computer! |
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| Aratos |
| Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2008 7:32 pm Post subject: |
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BLUE
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 4621
Service Group: Power Services
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| Adam-R-LON-1 wrote: |
| No it's not. This MCM needs to be written no matter how long it takes! Contribute some ideas. |
Well said!
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Episode 5 info for Aratos-B-SCO-7
Wearing: Trenchcoat, blue jumpsuit, Esoteric Order of the Needlessly Pretentious Subnet Idiots Pin, Reflec
Carrying: Energy pistol and force sword |
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| Adam-R-LON-1 |
| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 12:42 pm Post subject: |
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INDIGO
Joined: 23 Aug 2004
Posts: 3851
Service Group: HPD&MC
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I hope there was no irony in that, Aratos...
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For the Glory of Friend Computer! |
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| Aratos |
| Posted: Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:24 pm Post subject: |
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BLUE
Joined: 06 Aug 2004
Posts: 4621
Service Group: Power Services
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Not a jot. I'm totally sincere/.
_________________
Episode 5 info for Aratos-B-SCO-7
Wearing: Trenchcoat, blue jumpsuit, Esoteric Order of the Needlessly Pretentious Subnet Idiots Pin, Reflec
Carrying: Energy pistol and force sword |
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