Recap of Our First Trial Game!

 

The First Mission:

Today, I would like to walk you through our first test game of House of Eidolons. I had completed most of the rules and we gathered some close friends to give it a test drive. 

I began by asking each player what sort of Cyberpunk character would they be if they could be or do anything in a Cyberpunk universe. From their descriptions of their ideal character and and how they wanted to interact in the world I went to the origins, classes, and all the equipment, cybernetics, pharma, etc, and made their described characters following the character creation parameters I had set forth. 

The team members were as follows:

 

 

Case: A Gravity Hammer wielding Street Samurai with a golden retriever-like personality, until he got to swinging, then we was not so nice. 

 

Aurora: A heavy armored E.O.D. Paladin with a cybernetic arm mounted with deployable Dura Shielding and an SMG. A deadly serious personality who is always focused on the mission and keeping her allies alive. 

 

Birdie: Also known as Bat-Shit Birdie, a drug-addled Netdiver skilled at 

Submersion space manipulation and Hijacking and Glitching every connected object under the moon. She really likes drugs, especially Hype-C. Real big fan of Hype-C. 

Doc Gip: A Sprawl Doc obsessed with his vision to ascend his faulty mortal frame to cybernetic godhood. A lethally precise melee combatant with a deployable spear tendril stored in his forearm and the capability to deploy poison and Konk to his unfortunate targets. 

 

 

Wrakk: A powerful Psion who wielded his psionic gifts in the way of the Shadow Mind. He uses his power to erase his presence from the active cognition of the foes around him and hijack their senses to perceive through them unsuspectingly.

 

The Contract:

As rookie Eidolons from the House of Weeping Gomorrah, the team was tasked with securing a gang boss of the Cutters gang by the name of Prince Vikker. Intel had pegged him as a rising star within the archology that he helped run but that recently he had left the safety of concentrated gang territory to start an operation out of an abandoned bar in the slums. It was there he was held up. 

The team began by utilizing their Contacts, calling those they knew to try and get more information on Vikker, the place he was held up in, and why he was there. They uncovered that Prince Vikker had been engaging with Arven Nordica, a Northern European syndicate well known for arms dealing, especially in illegal military-grade weaponry. They even tracked down footage of Vikker being accompanied by a real threatening character with Arven Nordica’s logo tattooed on his arm.

Another contact helped a member track down the blueprints to the site location and with a closer review of the work done on the premise realized that an underground corridor had been built to the neighboring bar at some point in the past, likely to smuggle goods through. Now the team had a great option for a covert approach through the underground. Finally, they got more information on the cutters, his entourage guarding him, and further about what sort of arms Vikker might be moving for Arven Nordica. 

With all that figured out, they were itching to get on sight for a quick scout. On site, they found the back entrance and a good place for Birdie to roost while she jumped into submersion space (the lady's bathroom). After a look around and assessment of the small gang army squatting out front of Vikker’s digs, they regrouped at the House to put forth a plan. Case and Aroura would go at it head-on, blasting and smashing their way in through the front, mostly to make a big noise and draw attention. In the meantime, Doc Gip and Wrack would go down into the tunnels and try to stealthily proceed, silently taking out resistance and moving to snag Prince Vikker from, quite literally, under his feet. 

Lastly, with B.S. Birdie firmly squatted on her dingy-bar porcelain throne she would jump into Submersion space and manipulate the Real through Nodes in the abstract matrix space. 

With all of the pre-mission work figured out and the execution plan set we concluded Session 1, the pre-game session. 

Game Day!:

As the mission day rolled around the team arrived on sight, the stale smell of trash lingering in the air alongside the hazy neon glow. Wrakk, Doc Gip, and Birdie made their way into the neighboring bar, the same one they had scouted the night before. The usual crowd lingering around, deadbeats, depressed salary men, and overworked factory workers. No one paid much mind to the newcomers who one-by-one slipped into the back bathroom. 

While Doc Gip and Wrakk slipped down into the tunnels, Birdie posted up on her toilet and locked the door. With a hit of Hype-C and a split-second thought she slumped back and awakened in the neon grid Submersion space, the surface of the prescient mapping algorithm, the framework to it all. Here she now tepidly traversed, weary of I.C.E. that may have been installed. 

Case and Aroura slowly started walking towards the front of Prince Vikker’s boarded-up barroom barracks. The usual crew of gangers loitering outside like flies around shit. With a thought, the group connected via their Elevated Mind System and began coordination of the mission. Doc Gip gave the go-ahead from the dark corridor he stood in and with that Case and Aroura began their approach. 

A Ganger with too much moose on his slicked hair and a tacky face tattoo brandished his SMG and threatened the approaching pair, “That's far enough! Best be turning around if you know what's f**cking good for ya!”. He yelled, and with that Case charged in with a puppy dog smile on his face and a gravity hammer humming with energy, ready to swing. As the gangers drew their weapons, the hammer found the chest of the first ganger, bursting his body open like a ripe tomato and sending it through the boarded-up window of the bar, knock-knock mother f**ckers! Aurora followed suit with a hot potato toss of a frag grenade, sending the SMG ass-whole off the overpass to the hard pavement below and his shotgun compatriot smashing against the building wall. 

The five other gangers open-fired, largely smacking into crates and Aroura’s dura shield arm. A few shots zipped past Case but none managed to land and now the bear was a bit more angry. 

Meanwhile, Wrakk and Doc Gip silently moved through the underground corridor to discover a garage room with a fancy sports car ready and waiting to make an escape. The guards lounged on a nearby couch watching garbage TV on the Overlay while another couple of mechanics were busy working on their tasks. Wrakk, with a swift focused hand movement, wrapped himself in shadow, even Doc Gip could hardly make sense of his whereabouts as the two silently approached the lounging thugs. In simultaneous fluidity they Coup De Graced the sitting foes. Wrakk with his silenced pistol and Doc Gip with a swift thrust of his tendril spear. Without a word, the two split around either end of the car and made their way to the two oblivious mechanics. 

Birdie, jacked on Hype-C and jittery as all-get-out found herself face-to-face with a Beholder I.C.E. program after taking a corner. Lucky for her, the I.C.E. was non-lethal but would build up Trace on her fast if she didn’t dispatch it quickly, too much Trace building up on a netdiver would alert the local law enforcement frogs or worse, Talos Judicial. With a couple executions of her Power: Slate program the Beholder shattered into digital debris, but not before calling its other I.C.E. friends, another Beholder, and a larger Binder. 

Though panicked, Birdie quickly executed her Decoy: Mirage program to make a double of herself and draw the attention of the incoming I.C.E. while she split for the regional Node to assist her allies above. 

Case and Araura up above continued their frontal assault as several more gangers filed out of the bar and blasted away from the windows. Case broke left to splatter a few heads while Araura took up a covered position on the overpass, blasting away with her SMG and boosting Case with her Boost: Optimize program. If Case was hard to deal with before, he was now a terror as his elevated mind system (EMS) ramped up from the program. 

Though the gangers were child's-play to these far superior Eidolon they both were given pause when they heard the sounds of mechanization coming to life just inside the bar. Turned out that Arven Nordica had been moving a personal-sized mech through the Cutters and that the large syndicate agent with Prince Vikker in the video feeds was its pilot. With twin Gatling gun arms the bar doors were blasted away and Araura was driven to her knees as bullets tore into her shield and obliterated the crate she was behind. 

Below the bar Wrakk and Doc Gip, in the same fashion as before, silently killed the mechanics. Wrakk studied the manifest on the screen of the mechanic he had dispatched while Doc Gip worked his way to the tunnel entrance leading into Prince Vikker’s layer. He could hear hurried footsteps and the muffled voice of Vikker yelling for one of his gangers. Knowing that Vikker was moving for an escape route, scared by the frontal assault up above, Doc Gip dipped his spear tip into a vial of lethal poison and prepared to meet the yet-unaware Vikker. 

Birdie finally arriving at the Omni-N node congruent with the region outfront of the bar began to survey the situation. Over her EMS she could hear her teammates yelling for assistance with the military mech. Finding the mech’s connectivity she deployed her Hack: Hijack program to take control of the left Gatling gun arm and with a swift motion rotated it to the gangers confidently standing next to the mech. In an instant, the two gangers were smeared across the pavement in a spray of red. 

The confidence and taunting of the gangers alongside the mech quickly turned to confusion and panic as they witnessed their friends turn to a fine red mist by what they thought was their ally. No sooner had this happened than Prince Vikker reached the bottom of the ladder leading into the tunnels and the poison damp tip of Doc’s spear gently pressed to the side of his neck, “Vel Mr. Vikker, I tink its time ve go for a little drive, yes?” With a sigh of defeat, Prince Vikker told his guard not to come down the shaft and Wrakk, Doc Gip, and Prince Vikker slipped into Vikker’s sports car and drove off with their objective secured. 

With gangers running for their lives, Case caught up to the mech that had turned its guns upon Araura once more. Even as her shield was about to give to the onslaught, Case lifted his gravity hammer ready to drive it into the cock-pit. Then a call from the Mech-pilot hit Case’s EMS, amused, he answered, “Listen Eidolon, I’m looking to deliver this mech for sale to an interested client, let me leave and I’ll owe you one. Wouldn’t hurt to have a favor with Arven Nordica, ya?” 

Case pondered the offer and then took it, letting the mech lumber off and gaining a new contact within the Arven Nordica syndicate. 

Aurora and Case went to fetch Bridie and the three reunited with their comrades back at the House of Weeping Gomorrah, mission accomplished and crypt-wired to their accounts from a happy client. 

Our Takeaways:

It was a successful first mission, one that everyone really enjoyed. I could tell straight away that everyone felt like a badass, like they were the heroes of the story. They got to dive immediately into their power fantasy. That was a huge win for me and I believe it is one of the strongest qualities that House of Eidolons will have to offer to the TTRPG community. 

We learned a lot from this test run game:

• We learned we needed to update and reimagine submersion space. It had been too abstract, especially for new players, and needed some TLC to get it to be a bit more intuitive. 

• We learned that our game would often have the team dividing up to solve problems from multiple fronts and that it was important that others could watch their other teammate's actions to stay engaged. 

• We learned several other things that we could make changes to and with this info we began to refine our system to make it more accessible and engaging for everyone. 

• Most of all though, we learned that everyone really enjoyed it and felt like it was a fresh and fun experience and that they couldn’t wait to play more! 

Special Thanks:

Roll20 was the online platform we used for our first game. My friends and I all live rather distant from one another so it made sense to play online. I want to thank the platform for being a good option, and though we played future games on VTT (for reasons I will talk about in a future post) it is still a great platform, and I encourage you to consider it for your future online TTRPG games! 

I also want to thank and direct your attention to Many Maps on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/manymaps/posts. All of the tilesets and many of the tokens are from Max of Many Maps and have been some of the best Cyberpunk tilesets I have been able to find. Please go support them and take a look at the assets they have created, the assets have been great to work with and help set the mood for immersive gameplay! 

What’s Next for the Blog?:

Next blog, I am going to regale you with the same mission but played by a totally different group. None of the parameters or mission objectives change but only the players and the choices they make and the experience is so very different! 

Stay tuned and keep an eye out for a lot more social media coming your way about the game!