Gease: A Time for Curses: Dexcon 2010

My next game was at 2 pm: Geasa: A Time for Curses

This was run by Jonathan La Vallee, although it doesn't really have a GM per se. It's a little like Sorcerer in that characters have made supernatural pacts, in this case with a fae, and the question is what one is willing to do to get what one wants.

In Sorcerer, it is possible to have players take on the roles of demons in addition to or instead of the roles of sorcerers. In Geasa, players will generally have at least one human character who has made a pact and one fae character. I think in both games, one does not play the same spirit with whom one's human character has pacted. And, everyone plays the various NPCs.

We went for a Wild West setting and created our human characters.

Jonathan La Vallee: Outlaw in the west, looking to avenge family Me: I run the bestest gambling hall in the west Rebecca Badurina: Disowned younger daughter of sheriff who runs house of ill repute Tony Lower-Basch: Daughter of town sheriff standing at my daddy's grave

Next, we decided on our stat values. The stats were:

Head -- IQ
Heart -- Emotion, empathy
Life -- Dream, plan, big picture
Loin -- Drive, to achieve this dream

IIRC, we had values of 4, 3, 2, 2 to assign as we would. Numbers represented the number of d6s we had to roll. I chose:

Head 2
Heart 2
Life 4
Loins 3

Then, everyone chose at least two goals.

Outlaw: Revenge, find nice place to settle down, recover lost family heirloom Daughter: Pay mortgage, get sis out of the house of ill repute, find a good man Other Daughter: Earn respect, get rich, find sister a good man Gambler: Get rich, have all the best gamblers come to _my_ hall, find a good wife

Next, we chose Supports. We got to have up to one at 3, two at 2, and three at 1, iirc. Supports include skills, gear, contacts, knacks / abilities, and so on. Higher value means more detail.

Supports I recall:

Outlaw:
3 -- find those who murdered family
1 -- tracker

Daughter:
3 -- farm fits her like old worn in boot
?? -- Poppa's gun

Gambler:
3 -- Uncanny ability to assess the odds
2 -- Hidden stash of money
1 -- Never let 'em see you sweat
1 -- Revolver

To make Fae characters, we had to answer three questions for them:

• Who are you?
• What do you want?
• What makes you weak?

Jonathan: Lady Luck. I just want everyone to get a fair shake in the game. _Blatant_ cheating and unfairness makes me weak.

Rebecca: Coyote -- Pooka. I want Chaos. Lawfulness makes me weak.

Tony: Mr. Fix. I want people to get what they deserve. Minister of Justice. Mercy and compassion make me weak. It's what makes you weak, too.

Me: Ghost known as Granny. I want everyone to get along and Mind their Manners. Rudeness makes me weak.

The next step was called Make the Deal.

We discussed the idea of Sarah making the deal with Lady Luck.

Tony: I'm kind of skeptical. You have a _gambler_.

Gambler: Winston -- Lady Luck
Outlaw: Jacob -- Mr. Fix
Daughter: Sarah -- Coyote
Other Daughter: Marissa -- Granny

We described what our human characters looked like.

• Morissa was attractive and clean, to bring in the boys
• Sarah was clad in work pants. Her hands were callused, her hair was in a bun, and she was covered by the dust of the farm.
• Winston wore a fancy suit.
• Jacob wore a tall dusty hat, riding into town with sun setting behind him.

Jonathan explained the system quickly. We had 6 permanent dice and 3 temporary dice (the supports). A roll of 6 gave power to the roller's fae. A roll of 1 meant that one could get magic out of the deal with the fae. That is, by spending a rolled 1, the character could win the conflict, but the die then went to the fae. Low rolls were good, high bad. A 5 was only useful to mess others or oneself up.

Dice given to the fae could be given back to the player with a curse for the human who had made the pact. That is, a fae could try to compel a human to do something.

• If the fae had two dice to spend, the fae could permanently reduce support by 1 die if the human refused to do it.
• If the fae had three dice to spend, the fae could do that and make the human do what it wanted anyway.
• If the fae had four dice to spend, it could make the human do what it wanted and reduce any one stat by one.
• If the fae had five dice to spend, it could make the human do what it wanted and reduce and 2 stats, and if it had six dice to spend, it could reduce any 3 stats.

The mechanics fostered yielding to temptation. Sure, if a fae had three dice, it could compel one. But, often, one really needed it to do something, and it was so easy to slip just a little.

The action began at sunset.

Winston (to Marissa): Our day begins!

Jacob rode into town and went to get a drink. Sarah was hauling bales of hay back into the barn.

Banker, Mr. Vandercliff: That's mighty heavy work there, Miss Sarah!

She agreed, and assured him she'd have the money to pay him.

We then introduced the idea of Creasy and his boys, cattle ranchers, who, we eventually decided, had killed the old sheriff (Sarah and Marissa's father) and Jacob's family.

Marissa got dressed and ready for the evening. Her pianist, Charlie, was being menaced by a local thug named McKay. Marissa told Charlie he could earn some extra money if he did the laundry.

Charlie: But -- that laundry's haunted!

Meanwhile, a gentleman from back east named Wyatt Jessup and his lady friend Priscilla came into Winston's gambling hall and insulted it. Winston set up a private game with Winston and others for after hours, and Marissa arranged for her girls to be on hand.

Sarah went to sell corn to Mr. Cagny, played by me. He tried to cheat her, paying only half of what he offered, explaining that, sometimes, there's a bad year, and real farmers understand that. She asked if he was or was not a man of his word, and forced him to back down and pay what he had agreed.

Winston drew on Lady Luck's power to win the game and make it look like Jessup was cheating. He did have to deal with the other players wondering if Jessup and Winston were in it together, but managed to convince them otherwise.

Priscilla tried to cause trouble with Marissa's girls, telling them that back where she came from, they'd all have a stage and fancier clothes. Marissa drew on Granny's power, and Priscilla slipped while trying to demonstrate her dancing skills. Marissa told the girls that she would try out this stage idea IF there were enough money to do so, and they were satisfied for the moment.

Jacob learned about Creasy's role in his family's death from Charlie, I think saving Charlie from getting killed for welching on debts, to the annoyance of Mr. Fix. After all, that was what Charlie had coming to him!

There was some kind of disagreement between Marissa and someone named Cletus when Cletus made some sort of suggestion, possibly about Sarah becoming a whore.

Marissa: <SLAP>

Cletus: Is that a no?

Marissa: Cletus don't make me whoop your ass?

Cletus: You know, there's good money in that, too. (he steps back quickly)

Marissa: I got a left hand, too!

Sarah kept trying to get Marissa to go to church, and Granny thought it was a good idea, too. And, eventually, she had three dice to force Marissa to do just that.

Marissa (to her girls): Shall we go to Church?

One of the girls: Oh no -- I'm afraid the Lord'd strike me blind or deaf!

Marissa: Oh, you're just saying that because your daddy's the pastor.

Marissa: I would not disrespect the Lord. It's just real tempting.

Later, Marissa tried to protect her errant pianist.

Marissa: You know I _need_ Charlie.

Cletus: There ain't no law 'ganst talking

Marissa: Don't make me come over there and whoop your ass!

Cleuts: I can't afford that!

Marissa: Oh, I'm sure you couldn't!

Charlie ran out of town, fearing for his life. Marissa sighed and asked Jacob if he could play the piano.

Jacob: If I come back, I might tickle an ivory or two.

Marissa: Would you consider dusting the keys?

When one of the girls, Conchita, learned that Jacob planned to go after Creasy, she tried to dissuade him, but to no avail.

Conchita: You can't go after Creasy! (later, to Marissa) We will not be able to use him as piano player!

Marissa knew that Creasy had killed her father, the sheriff, so she had her own scores to settle. She found Jacob.

Marissa: Hey -- You're going after Creasy? You won't get him alone. I know someone who might help -- If you're not above accepting a woman's help.

Jacob decided that he was not above that at all, so the two headed to Sarah's farm.

Tony: Now the town has, out of kindness, so Sarah doesn't get herself _kilt_ [sic], arranged so that Sarah doesn't know who shot her father.

Sarah hit her sister when the news was revealed. Jacob wisely stayed out of it.

Jacob: I may be a gunfighter, but I know when I'm unarmed!

Marissa: You hit me again, and I _will_ deck you!

Sarah: I need to get dressed. (slams door to the room where she's changing) (later, coming out ready for a fight) Okay, Marissa, get along back into town.

Marissa refused, and Sarah said that she didn't want to see Marissa coming along.

Marissa (practical as always): So you ignore me!

The farm fitting Sarah like an old glove, she did something that locked Marissa in temporarily, I think, but Marissa got out.

Jonathan: This is the epic conflict right here -- forget about the gunfight!

And the fight resolved and then began again.

Marissa: Are we doing this again?

Sarah: We're doing this always!

Winston, meanwhile, waited until a couple of Creasy's boys came by and offered them a choice of the money he owed them or information Creasy might want. They went for the money, but as they started to leave, Lady Luck told Winston to give them a fair chance.

Winston: Well... I want to be a good citizen.

Creasy's boys (nervously, reaching for guns): What?

Winston: And tell you the information Creasy wants to know anyway.

Creasy's boys (relaxing): Oh! Yes, good citizen, yes.

He said that Miz Sarah now knew who'd killed her father and was coming out to get him, along with that stranger from out of town. But, the problem, as far as he was concerned, was that Miz Marissa was coming with them.

The boys agreed that was a shame, but so it went, and they'd just have to kill them all. Winston offered drinks and a toast to Miz Marissa. And her girls. Especially Conchita. And another to Miz Marissa. And so on, until the boys were snoring in their chairs, reducing the odds against Jacob, Sarah, and Marissa.

Alas, Jacob's fae, Mr. Fix, now had the power to compel him. And, as the trio shot down Creasy's boys, and finally, Creasy himself, Mr. Fix compelled Jacob to shoot the child who was Creasy's son. After all, Creasy had killed Jacob's child. It's what they all had coming to them.

Sarah and Marissa looked at each other, then fired simultaneously, dropping Jacob, agreeing on the first thing they'd agreed on in ten years. And, the closing credits rolled.

We enjoyed the game, but agreed that releasing it as an ashcan, rather than a finished product, was the correct move. Tony, Rebecca, and I asked about fae weaknesses. Did they harm the fae?

Jonathan explained that they were useful as a distraction. For example, someone could say, "Oh, Lady Luck! Look! There's blatant cheating over there!" And, then, while she was distracted, do something she might not approve of.

We also asked if a fae could say no when someone used a 1 on a die to ask for magical aid. Jonathan said that a fae could. Then, another fae could jump in and say, "I will help you." The fae who helped would get the die. At that point, the human was pacted with both fae, and the player would decide to whom to offer the 1s as they came up.