Session 1:
We were down two players this evening, thanks to university orientation week. Our RPG club uses university rooms and looks for new members as the new semester begins. We have three weeks of introductory games from the start of March. Gary was away running a one-off game, and James 1 was unavailable. Luckily Gary was willing to lend his character to Theo, a new member of the club.Our heroes completed their modifications to the car. They rolled up their tools and returned to the starting line. (Unfortunately, that was when George got an urgent call. He has a small IT side-business and this was a customer. They needed an urgent server reset. He had to leave and hope to catch up with the others later. With luck, George's player will be with us next week.) Judith dropped the handkerchief, and the racers were off. The cars zoomed off with the drivers and their navigators on board. I rolled a D6 as a luck die to see if there would be any unexpected events. It came up positive for the team, so there was nothing Eve's preparations hadn't taken into account.
Edith rolled 2D6 for the driving effort (+1 base die and +1 expertise die) and came up double-sixes. A six result is success +advantage, so that was a comfortable lead over the other teams. I ruled that from the race's midpoint, team WTF had a good 60 minutes on the closest rival. They would keep it if nothing unexpected happened. From that point it was up to the remaining team members to make their own way to the finish line. WTF had train tickets for Dmitri and Chad.
Chad felt it was his role to disrupt rival teams' concentration in the time before the train left. He tried to get Team Alabammy's Jimmy Dean interested in a couple of lunchtime beers. I ruled that a Personal Trainer role offered nothing in this case, so player Mila had only a single die to roll. It came up a 2, which is a simple failure. Jimmy showed some interest, but he was still focused on the race. He offered to buy Chad a beer at the finish line and rode away on a Harley. Chad turned his attention to Samantha Long, who was about to get into a taxi she'd ordered. He rolled a 3 (failure +advantage). That meant Samantha wasn't interested in Chad's subtle muscle-flexing, but brother Howard was. He lingered for some mild verbal sparring, watching Chad's biceps expand and contract. Samantha's patience ran out after a while and she dragged him away. She complained that the taxi driver was charging her by the minute.
Nothing of any consequence happened before WTF passed the finish line. It was the forecourt of a motel in Monticello, Utah. WTF's car had increased its lead by another ten minutes, so the team finished the first day in a good position. (As another house rule, I declared at this point that Eve and Edith were tired. For any kind of skill check, they would replace their base die with the Exhaustion die. Becoming even more tired was the risk.) Chad watched with interest as Jimmy Dean and John Human arrived. Jimmy was still on his Harley, which means it travels faster than a Harley ought to go. It doesn't appear to be a Wonder, so there's a mystery here. Chad asked him about the trip and Jimmy told him it was great. There's nothing quite like having a motorbike between your legs and the open road ahead of you. He's not a very good liar. John Human claimed to have walked from Los Angeles, in the normal human fashion. That's more than 700 miles. Chad pressed for more details, but John seemed confused by the questioning.
Jimmy had a cooler full of cold beers on the back of his bike. Dmitri had an open bottle of vodka. They instantly bonded and started making boilermakers. As the other cars trickled in, they saluted each one with a cheer and a raised can.
Chad was still thinking of ways to fulfil his self-imposed role as disruptive agent. During the train ride he'd done some deep thinking. What he came up with was an idea for Science-enhanced special brownies. (Increasing his Science score to 2 in the process.)
New Wonder: Special brownies
- long-lasting
- multipliers: none
- flaw: obvious (eyes immediately turn bloodshot)
- rank: 1
He thought that team Alabammy might help him with the most important ingredient. I ruled that weed counts as performance-enhancing... or at least altering. Player Mila rolled two dice to bring it up in conversation. The result was a 4 - success with a complication. Team Alabammy liked the idea and agreed to donate the magic ingredient. The complication was that race official Fred Yang overheard the conversation. Fred's from California. He hinted that he liked special brownies too. Of course, as a race official, he couldn't accept a gift from a competitor. However, if someone left a batch of brownies at the race desk so everyone could help themselves... no harm, no foul.
Team WTF had hired a couple of motel rooms (with kitchenettes) and divided them up between boys and girls. Chad returned to his and cooked up a batch of Science-enhanced weed cookies. He sampled his product, and found it acceptable. (Chad also gained the Tired condition here.) Team Alabammy dug in without hesitation. Fred filled a small container. Team Human reluctantly accepted a single cookie at Chad's urging. Team Rocket weren't there. When their car came in, the four of them drove off into Monticello together.
Team Faster Pussycat's navigator (Leonie) took one, only to have leader Maggie slap it out of her hands. There was a whispered conversation, then Maggie left. Eve offered another cookie, but Leonie turned it down. Edith commented that they could probably find her some child-suitable snacks. Leonie suggested that Edith pull her claws in, because her team were the catty ones around here. (Leonie is a bit of a firebrand, it seems.)
Eve instantly developed a massive crush on her.
Team Human were examining their cookie with concern. "What if we expose it to an electric current?" "What if we dissolve it in a strong acid?" "What if we ignore its presence among us?" All three members turned their back on the cookie, still held in John Human's hand. After a few minutes they turned back. The cookie was still there. It was clear the situation disappointed them. John Human shrugged and broke the cookie into thirds so they could all take a piece.
Fred announced that there would be a club dinner in the motel restaurant in an hour. It wasn't mandatory, but it would be nice for the teams to share a meal. Team WTF agreed amongst themselves to attend. Tired or not, Eve decided to use the hour to get ready for some inter-team practical jokes later on. She decided to go into Monticello and find a hunting shop to buy the necessary tool: some bear scent. Player Tim rolled well, so Eve had no trouble finding what she needed. She also picked up a box of chocolates as an apology gift for Leonie. Chad asked her to pick up some squirrel bait along with the bear scent because any plan involving a squirrel is automatically 200% funnier.
Dinner was a subdued affair. Team Alabammy were there, and having a great time. They all had the bloodshot eyes that meant they'd eaten Chad's cookies. Fred and Judith were at another table, and both more interested in staring at their hands than eating. Team Human were openly weeping into their pasta bowls. Arthur Huang was the only member of Team Rocket present. He was eating alone at a table in the corner and seemed to be trying to avoid attention. Team WTF enjoyed their meal, even with Chad's mumbling. Later, David David confronted Chad with tears trickling down his face. He asked "We have eaten the human pasta. Is it enough?" before his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed.
(Player Mila asked what would have happened if she chose the Carries Passengers variable for her special brownies. I thought about it and decided that if Chad ate a piece, people around him would get high.)
Eve finished dinner early to take advantage of an empty courtyard. She sprayed a generous amount of bear scent on Arthur's windows, hoping the smell would keep him awake. The smell was strong. She also dosed herself with Sneaker Juice and crept up to the Faster Pussycats' motel room to leave the box of chocolates and a note. She knocked on the door and legged it. Player Tim rolled a 4 (success with a complication.) The door opened in time for someone to see a running figure, but not identify her.
The hour grew late, and the various racers started going to bed. Eve's prank with the bear scent worked. One of the Alabammy Geniuses had his dog with him. The dog went nuts barking at Arthur's windows. In the WTF room, Dmitri had an adventure of his own. He opened a cupboard and a snake sprang out at him! He grabbed it, but it stretched out its neck and buried its fangs in his throat. Then it transformed (back?) into a plastic hose. Dmitri froze, waiting for the venom to hit him. Physically he felt okay and he slowly realised that it wasn't venom. He'd been injected with something else. He didn't get to sleep that night.
The dog kept up its barking until around midnight, when someone took it indoors. Rather than sleeping, Chad was sitting on a doorstep. He was enjoying his buzz and looking at the stars. One of the stars was coming closer, fast. It resolved into a cow. Mooing in distress, legs windmilling uselessly as an unseen forced propelled it through the air. A split second too late, Chad realised it was coming right at him. He threw himself sideways, but a hoof caught him a solid blow in the forehead. He went sprawling and watched, helpless, as the cow was dragged up into the air. There was a bright light in the sky for a moment, then it zipped sideways at impossible speed and vanished.
Chad told his team-mates all about it. They found it easier to believe the special brownies had an unexpected kick to them. Even with the hoofprint on Chad's forehead. That was the last excitement for the night, at least for team WTF. Later on, Eve woke to the sound of snuffling, growling and splintering wood. She looked outside to see a bear-shaped shadow mooching around in front of Arthur's room. She returned to bed satisfied that her prank had been successful.
In the morning, Chad was still high. There's a good chance everyone who tried one of his special brownies was feeling the same way. The race desk was deserted. There was a laminated sign propped up there reading "race postponed due to sickness". Eve found her box of chocolates in front of her motel room door. The chocolate inside had a footprint it it. There was a note accompanying the box: nice try, team crackhead. The other characters resolved to do what they could to get Eve and Leonie together.
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