2-6pm Saturday Clockwork: Dominion: In for a Penny

"In for a Penny" After Action Report: 2-6 pm, Saturday, 10 December 2016

I ran this game at AnonyCon, having played in it at Gen Con. I had six folks signed up, one of whom bowed out in favor of a hopeful seventh and a chance to rest. This was good because I didn't want to use the 7th character sheet. The Penny Reds are a close knit group; that's what makes the scenario shine. Without Eugene being listed on their sheets and them in his with details of what he thinks of them and vice versa, there was no way I was using him.

I explained the backstory of the fight as far as the Penny Reds knew it (i.e., that Peter brought the Cutter Street gang over, whaled on St. James, and then St. James drew a knife and cut Peter, and everything changed) and handed Cecily's player the intro. It made far more sense for him to say it than for me. Also, I'd recited the poem earlier, and when the player started to say, "In for a penny", everyone chimed in. Instant bonding, and then to business: Where was St. James?

I'm not sure I remember all the details, but Maxwell wanted to check with his boss, Mr. Topper, and Chris wanted to go to church and ask around there. I think we had three groups, maybe four.

The church folks knew the gossip about Mrs. McHale, while Maxwell's boss knew about Peter Scripps. I forget how they found out about Burns and Molly Suggs. There was a bit of a false start due to some confusion I had with the scenario, which I think I avoided when I ran it again at Gen Con, but nothing too bad.

Also, folks tried to figure out a timeline, which makes sense. And it was hilarious because Mark was doing the writing with a lovely pen he'd nicked on some crappy paper. But, I wasn't as clear on the timeline as I should have been, again, something I think I beefed up on before I ran this at Gen Con. Basically:

"Last" Sunday: The fight in the park. The Penny Reds lay low.

Monday: Burns saw St. James lurking in the alley behind Scripps' place.

The Other Night (the night before last, I presume?): Molly Suggs sold St. James a few posies.

Last Night: No one on Pennington Street sees St. James. Mrs. McHenry sold him a bag of candy.

Today: Thursday.

Folks also tried to figure out the larger timeline, which was something like this:

• Mary Brewer says St. James and Peter have been trying to mend fences for a few months.
• Cory says St. James has been around Cutter Street "the last few weeks".
• He's been buying flowers from Molly Suggs for "some time".
• St. James has been buying candy from Mrs. McHenry for "weeks".
• Peter found a love letter "last week", and Edie went missing "last night".

In any case, folks split up after figuring out who in their area they needed to talk to.

Mark and Rachel talked to Burns. Mark and Rachel made a scary and effective team. They did pay Burns, and despite temptation, let him keep the coin. How did they get coin? Er, well... before they talked to Burns, they may have, ah, plied their trade, i.e., maybe lifted some coin from folks passing through the neighborhood. You know how it is. (They did quite well on the card draws for that.)

William and Chris, and possibly Maxwell, went to Mrs. McHenry's. She was quite suspicious, but Chris was there, so she deigned to talk before insisting they leave. I think she made the mistake of saying that she had her eye on them, implying that she'd see if they tried to take something. Regardless, William was affronted and stole some candy right out from under her nose, to prove a point, leaving her none the wiser (at least for long enough for the Penny Reds to put some distance between them and the shop).

Cecily and Maxwell talked to Officer Robertson, as they had figured out his patrol route, which was a mistake on my part. I should have discouraged this, making it clear that Robertson would try to take any of the Penny Reds in, for their own safety. But, it didn't really derail the scenario, as I didn't realize that. I figured that, given we're talking two of the more respectable members, and that they really had no idea what was going on and neither did he, this boiled down to an exchange of ignorance and a lecture on how the Penny Reds couldn't keep doing this sort of thing, especially St. James. Sure, Robertson heard rumors about the fight, but really, he's not a source of any new information. And the gang could truthfully say that they didn't know where St. James was and that they were trying to find out.

Cecelia talked to Molly Suggs. And folks started thinking that maybe there was a girl involved. They also asked about the members of the Cutter Street gang. These were:

• Peter Scripps
• Weasel
• Cory
• Pudding Tom
• Mary Brewer, aka "Peter's girl"

Edie, Peter's sister, was NOT in the gang, nor was Thomas Scripps, his older brother.

Folks decided to make a move on Weasel, in public. Not a violent move, just a...talking to him move. They learned what little he was willing to say. And, they thought that perhaps St. James was trying to court Peter's girl.

So, folks went to the Brewer alehouse. They didn't go in, though. Nope, folks hid in various places around the area. And they left flowers at Mary's window, along with a note of very few words and those most passionately argued over. (I forget what the words were, but I think they didn't include St. James's name, so...)

Naturally, Mary was working in the alehouse, so wasn't in her room. Folks settled down in their hiding places.

Well, except for Mark, who banged on the back door for some reason I forget. I mean, it was to make some kind of distraction or con or something. Or maybe to try to slip in? I'm not sure I was ever clear on that.

But, with an eye on the time, I figured the thing to do was to have Mary open the back door. This let everyone talk to her. Yep, poor Mary watched person after person pop up -- off the roof, out from behind the trash, and so on.

I may or may not have gotten the social combat rules correct here. I do know that she told them what she knew, i.e., that Peter and St. James wanted to bury the hatchet, St. James and Edie fell in love, Peter discovered a letter and thought that the whole peace talk had been an excuse to seduce his sister; and that the Penny Reds wanted Mary to come clean with Peter. I think she stayed non-committal there. That was probably a missed opportunity, as convincing her to come clean is a great social conflict.

Next was the meeting with the Cutter Street gang, and here again, I'm really not sure I had the social combat rules right. Regardless, folks got on Peter's good side, as everyone agreed the important thing was to find St. James and Edie, and the Penny Reds made it clear that they weren't exactly happy with St. James, as, at the very, very, very least, he owed them an explanation.

So, the Cutter Gang gave them its piece of information: that the last anyone know, Edie and St. James were seen heading into Old Magoun's.

My players immediately asked when this was. That would have been the night before the scenario started? Earlier? When?

I went with the night before the scenario started. And, Cecily decided to ask Molly Suggs if she knew anything about Old Magoun's.

And she drew the Fate card.

And I made a snap decision that Molly used to work there, but, well, Mr. Dandy had his finger in that particular pie, and... she moved out of Old Magoun's as soon as she could. I figured while Mr. Dandy might not be exactly pleased, he might be no worse than indifferent.

No one went into Old Magoun's, and I have a feeling that I got the geography of the scene all wrong. Again, not a problem for the particular run, but spacial configuration is not something I'm great at.

The gang scouted around the building. At the very least, they wanted to know where a back entrance was, in case they needed to slip out. Okay, the main thing they needed to learn was that St. James and Edie were being held against their will, so I had them find the secret room by cutting through the warehouse in the course of looking for a back entrance. St. James and Edie were bundled into trunks as they watched. (Well, as whoever was being the sneaky scout watched -- probably Rachel.)

Okay, so, the situation is that the bad guys are loading the trunks into a horse cart and driving to another warehouse. Now, the Penny Reds have no idea what the cart's destination is. And, they want to stop that cart Right Now.

So, while they discussed how they were going to do that, my immediate panic subsided and I looked at the time. 45 minutes left. Yeah, let them try to stop the cart, run the resulting combat, and at that point, we'd be out of time, so I didn't worry about the logistics.

I figured we had:

• One cart
• One horse
• Three Bully Boys, using the Bully Boy stats. I think I forgot their abilities, which was just as well. Three bully boys are actually very tough, even when there are six street kids.

If things had gone too easily, I would have had Mr. Dandy and his cats appear on the scene. They didn't.

I forgot about lines of attack, at least some of the time, but that wasn't a huge deal. Rachel slipped in and cut the traces on the horse, and I think Maxwell slipped below the cart. Basically, Team Stealth was very stealthy.

Cecily taunted with social attacks, quite effectively, even if I'm not sure I always had the rules right. She got at least one of the Bully Boys to chase her, which meant her friends could attack them.

Someone pulled the Doom card and wanted to use a point of Purpose to pull again, but that's not doable. If you've got the Doom card on a pull, you're stuck with it.

Despite Rachel being seriously tempted, I don't think any of the gang escalated to attacking with a knife. Two of the Bully Boys were downed one way or another, and I think at that point, we called it for time. It was pretty clear that the Penny Reds would win against the lone man standing.

I wondered how angry Mr. Dandy would be. On the one hand, his new acquisitions had escaped. On the other, his Bully Boys hadn't been dented too badly, and really, they should have been able to protect themselves from a bunch of kids.

One of the players: Will they admit they were beaten by a bunch of kids?

An excellent question. I decided that they probably wouldn't. Maybe some story about suddenly efficient police or something much more threatening than the Penny Reds.

All in all, the game went quite well, although I would have preferred to have a stronger grasp on all the ins and outs of the rules for conflicts. I ran the game twice at this past Gen Con, and didn't do too badly, but I do think I'd benefit from having one of the authors watching and telling me afterwards where I slipped up on the rules. Of course, they have better things to do with their time, such as running other games of Clockwork: Dominion and working the booth.