Game Review 2: It was Torture!

Last Sunday, I ran the 2nd session of the Giovanni Choricles for my friends at the office. Although my players said they had a good time, I felt that I was severely lacking in making the experience more detailed. I have to admit that part of it was due to exhaustion. Unlike the previous game, I was playing several different characters extensively. And the players asked some questions that I found it difficult to answer. Here are some highlights:

---

- After having been rounded up by the Founders, all but 1 of the Children of the Conspiracy (CotC), was active; Father Alessandro, an NPC, surrendered and was left unmolested.

- Mordecai, Faolan, Lucy and Wilfred were all beaten into torpor; Raven was staked. The other guests had died...at least, that's what they all thought.

- First revived was Raven, then Mordecai, Faolan, Wilfred and Lucy. The order came about by assigning numbers to the people and rolling a die. Not really scientific, I know but it worked out fine.

- Raven was in shock; Mordecai was acting hysterical (good job Karlo!); Faolan was desparate to escape; Wilfred was in mourning for the death of his lord; Lucy, however, didn't wake up immediately. Unlike the rest, when she was fed blood, she awoke a few minutes after.

- The scene with the sunlight didn't turn out well, at least for me. Though they understood it's significance, I felt I hadn't played it to full impact. The Brujah was directly in line of it; due to his Potence, he was able to break the hooks attaching the chains to the wall. However, he was not free as the others were tied to him. All he did was have Lucy and Raven stretch their arms uncomfortably.

- Because Wilfred's player had a shift then, we had to improvise. We decided that Wilfred had been beaten back into torpor during the torture session.

- The book indicated that during the individual torture scene, Hardestadt would be the chief inquisitor. I decided to change it by having each of the Founders take charge for each of the torture sessions like the harrowings. How I paired them off was pretty random. Unlike the vignettes in Casa Giovanni, I didn't have the players choose who among the Founders they wanted to be tortured by.

- The first to be tortured was Alessandro. Since he was an NPC, I simply gave the other players the impression he was in pain by the screams and moans emenating from the torture chamber.

- Like Tobie, my mentor, I decided to give the players to understand how their actions can affect the lives of other people. Faolan mentioned that Roderigo was the one who brought them to Claudius's castle. Hardestadt had him dragged to the torture chamber where they heard him screaming until he "died".

- First tortured among the PCs was Mordecai. Like a true Ventrue, he kept his cool and tried to find ways to make himself valuable. His torturer was Hardestadt, who found his attempts at brokering laughable but interesting.

- Lucy was retrieved by Camilla Banes. Because they both suffered from a multiple personality, I thought it to be quite apt. Here, I showed Hardestadt displeasure in dealing with Malkavians, giving Camilla a good reason to be the one asking questions. Mina, Lucy's alternate personality, appears and makes comments about the Founders present. What she does not realize is that Camilla's sadistic personality can see her, corners her and asks the same questions the one with Lucy asks.

- Mina found an opportunity to get out of the situation unscathed by cooperating and telling them everything she knows, much to Lucy's chargrin. As a "reward," Mina is pushed into Lucy's body while Lucy is locked away - reversing their normal arrangement; Mina was now in control. Joan did a pretty good job of portraying Mina with just a few suggestions from myself.

- Faolan seemed to be ready to throw in his lot with the Founders, offering them his fealty for a chance to kill Marchettus, his sire. Josef, the Nosferatu founder, could not help but ridicule him and accuse him of being dishonorable.

- Rafael "tortured" Raven with seduction. This was the hardest session as I wasn't sure Maybelle, the player, would react to it. Luckily enough, she seemed to share Raven's disappointment at not being able to find release. Hardestadt found Rafael's technique to be ineffective.

- After each torture session, the Children were brought to another dungeon. When a new PC was brought to be tortured, Hardestadt was described to have been brushing away ash or wiping away blood to give the impression that the previous victim had suffered final death.

- After the last victim had been tortured, Mordecai mentioned to alessandro that the Founders were less inclined to torture the female sex than the male sex. Perhaps. But there is more than one way to skin a cat. Hehehe!

- As Roderigo helped the CotC get cleaned up, he answered their questions regarding Kindred in general. Mordecai was infuriated that Roderigo had pretended to be tortured. But then, Roderigo explained, he did not have much of a choice. Like the OOC reason, it was a test to gauge the characters to find out if they were telling the truth.

- Before being sent to the Conspiracy of Isaac (CoI), I allowed the players an opportunity to talk to other characters as a way for them to put player and character knowledge at more or less the same level.

- Mordecai chose to speak to Hardestadt and Durga Syn. The former in order to learn what it means to be Ventrue. The latter, to get an idea of what they needed to do. In both instances, the answers were not what he expected. Hardestadt demonstrated how Kindred were made to rule over men through the gifts of Caine. Whereas Durga Syn spoke to him of

- Raven/Blyss chose to speak to Rafael and Milov. I chose to make the meetings opposite from one another. Whereas Rafael exhibited the importance of being a "modern" Kindred by having her dressed up, Milov showed that all Kindred were animals deep inside and that dressing up was just their way of moving among their prey.

- Faolan spoke to Adana and Durga Syn. The latter was to get an idea of what it means to be Brujah. I was afraid that Dennis, Faolan's player, may end up patterning his character into a stereotypical Brujah rather than being his own person. As for Durga Syn/Synovea, Dennis was in for a surprise when she mentions that his son is still alive.

- Lucy's discussion with Synovea became a philosophical debate about good and evil. The old crone makes mention of the story of Caine and Abel, revealing to her that the first murder was not borne of jealousy but love. And that Caine's sin was not murder but pride.

---

I had intended to have the game encompass act 2, from the moment the characters are captured by the Founders until their decision on which side of the conflict to be on. However, the characters spent a lot of time talking to the Founders and Durga Syn to get an idea of who they are and what they are.

I didn't mind really. It gave me a chance to explain the game to them further. But I was also hesitant about giving them too much information. I didn't want to limit their choices or follow a set path simply because that was expected of them.

Still, it turned out great. The next game looks to be just as wonderful.