I ran a first session of Midnight of the Century yesterday. I had one player who chose the Profiler Specialism and I ran the Widening Gyre.
We went through character creation together, and that was fun and went into more depth than expected. The Profiler Psyche Profile is quite evocative. We skipped over rolling on all of the physical traits, as the player had something in mind linked to how the character doesn't take care of himself but looks in good shape because he doesn't eat enough. Had some nice description of his apartment (Haven). When we moved on to the mystery, and I asked the questions about the Haven etc., there were more details drawn out and that was fun.
Scenes:
- [Morning] We had a brief scene in his apartment, when the pager buzzing wakes him up, fallen asleep in front of the TV.
- [Morning] A scene driving with Will Butler - I made the choice to not give all of the detail in the briefing at this point (I'm not entirely sure why, I guess in my mind it seemed too early in the investigation to have much background on the victim), so mainly shared who the victim was, that nature of the killing, and that Oroboro were called in.
- [Morning] The alley scene had a nice pace and he was asking a lot of questions. He asked about CCTV (maybe less common in the 90's, but I said there was no footage available anyway). I was a little baffled for a moment when he asked how the cops identified the victim. I'll say a little more about improv in general thoughts later, but I said that the cops had his fingerprints because there had been a burglary at his house years before and they collected them for elimination, then I though, "Crap, is he going to try to track down the burglar? 🙂"
- [Afternoon] He drove to the Locan Home. Talked to the cops outside and then did a thorough search of the home. He made a couple of phone calls to numbers found during this search. By this point his WILL had been hammered, so he called his Connection and made a plan to meet for food.
Skills:
I triggered a Glimpse in the alley, when he was looking at the body, and again at the Locan Home for the vision there. I wasn't sure whether that vision was intended to be used with Glimpse or as more of an Occultist one, but it seemed to work. In both cases he didn't resist the Glimpse.
Early on, the player helpfully reminded me that basic investigation doesn't require rolling, after I asked for one. That works well.
He used Force to open a locked drawer, and used Interview during a phone call. There were other occasions where I considered calling for a roll for Interview but didn't. He didn't use Profile at all. I more or less forgot about it, so didn't suggest it at any time. I'm not sure if the player remembered and just chose not to use it until it feels more timely. I also asked for a WILL save when he did something of questionable ethics, to cover the potential guilt/stress from that.
Rules:
The rules are very clear. The player has plenty of experience as a GM too, so we chatted about the rules a couple of times during play. We had a little doubt about whether it was correct that he lost so much WILL, but once we understood that it drives the gameplay loop of investigation and recover, it makes sense, and I think will lead to some great roleplaying.
In the section "What causes a Fracture Check?" there is a reference to 'critical' saves. I interpret that as very important saves, but the use of the word critical confused me a little because it also has a meaning for rolling 1s and 20s.
What stood out:
The decreasing of WILL stands out, compared to other Odd-like games I have played. But I like it, and it feeds into the next point about character.
It felt very character driven. It can often take some time for a player to settle in to a character, but I think the character creation here is great, and the whole thing very atmospheric with familiar touchstones to draw on.
We progressed through the mystery slower than expected (though I *always* overestimate how fast things will go in a game), but I really liked the pace. Looking forward to seeing things escalate in the next session.
What slowed it down:
It was mainly slowed down by my GMing. I'm used to relying more on improv than on pre-written adventures. I was reluctant to improv too much in case I threw in something inconsistent. So I had to check the notes several times to make sure I didn't misstep. The Widening Gyre is layed out very well, especially the timeline. Another read through it before the session would have set me up well. It feels flexible, that the bullet points of information can be easily pulled from and revealed at times that suit, and I played around with that a little, giving a bunch of information to a cop at the Locan House, or moving some polaroids from a locked drawer in one room to another room.
I was worried that it might feel like railroading, when he finished investigating the alley, and the only other declared location at that point was the Locan House, but when I asked the player later that wasn't his feeling at all. And the amount of stuff that he found in the house made him feel like the investigation was opening up in a lot of directions.
Really enjoyed it, looking forward to more!