[Dirty Secrets] April Coroy in "Death by numbers"

[watergoesred]

This game went over three 3 hour sessions, despite appearances to the contrary.
Session 1: Chapters 1 to 5
Session 2: Chapters 6 to 9
Session 3: Chapters 10 to 15 & the Epilogue.

April Coroy in "Death by numbers"

Chapter One: Number crunch Opening sequence: Liz is the investigator
It's 10 in the morning and it must already be 30 degrees Celsius. And it's dry, dry, dry. The shoebox I call my office feels like an oven and I'm the beef jerky. And, not surprisingly, the accounts I'm working are even drier than the air.

That's when I hear the rumble of Brian Samuels, rolling up the stairs and then bellowing at Virginia, my secretary. He busts in like he owns the place. Which he does. He smells like a blue cheese milkshake.

Turns out the chump's had some statue stolen but only got it insured for damages. So he's got to find it to get paid. Or so he says. "Listen April, I need that statue. Screw the insurance. Find that fucking statue by Friday or your fired. Your my fucking accountant, do the math."

Great. Just what I need, my fucking ex-con boss, throwing his weight around and making me do his errands. Or else.

Chapter Two: Hack Attack Investigation sequence: Oli is authority
Fuck him. Something's got his goat. He's blaming the cleaners, that's fucking lame. There's a bee under his bonnet and he's asking me to squash it. With a spade. If he's gonna fire me if I don't get the dirt, well then I'm gonna get the fucking dirt. I call up Jimmy.

The snivelling arsewipe keeps backing down. Says "Only someone two snags short of a barbie would hack into the home network of Brian fucking Samuels. He's not just an ex-con. He's a fuckin rich ex-con. And you know what that means, he knows how to make an omelette. He knows how to break a few eggs. And I don't feel like getting broke." I remind Jimmy about how I helped his grandma with her tax problem. He says she still got fucking audited. He hangs up and by the time I try to call him back, the little c**t's already redirected the line to the laundromat on Bunda St. Shit. Conflict: Liz loses all her dice. No violence.

I still smell Samuel's sweaty arse. I've got to get out of this place.

Chapter Three: Glamour Reflection sequence: Emma is authority
Sliding into the cool air of the Canberra Centre, I forget the nightmare of this morning's heat and the odour of my boss. One sushi roll, one pedicure, one new pair of shoes and one caramel gelato later, I almost forget the world of shit I'm in. Liz gets all her dice back.

Violence sequence
Strutting back to the office, my feet are chaffing sweetly in my gorgeous, new satin blue heels and it must be almost 40 under the midday sun. I take a short cut through some of the buildings in Garema Place. I pass some drop kick hitting a bongo out of time just before the alley entrance. I'm half way down before I notice the drum's not fading. Then its stops and dirty fat hands grab me from behind around the throat. I fight like a tom cat but my vision's blurring. Somehow I get the bastard off balance and do the judo hip throw my dad taught me. I run, panting for breath, not stopping to look back. Fucking bastard, he made me break one of my heels. Liz wins, 1 Violence

Chapter Four: Hot Coffee Investigator sequence: Narayan is authority
I stumble into Wendy Chen's office. She works in the Federal Police Agency in Civic. I've helped her on a few embezzlement cases. I thought she might be able to tell me what's spooked Samuels or at least help me catch my breath and work out why the fuck someone tried to strangle me.

She knows it's serious when she sees the state of my shoes. "Holy shit. They're feeking the latest Menilo Blanks. Must of cost of heaps." The stupid bitch won't help me though. Tells me I should talk to the local cops. Even when I start crying. She basically pushed me out her office after I asked her to breach the Code of Conduct and I hit some loser with the door on my way out and I'm sure he nearly burnt his nipples off with the half dozen coffees he spilt down his shirt. I leave the stuck up bitch to clean up. Conflict: Liz loses one dice. One violence.

Chapter Five: Redhill tango Investigation sequence: Jason is authority
I'm a steaming cup of coffee now. I know Samuels is down at the Yacht Club for Thursday drinks. I go to his fucking mansion amongst the embassy mansions of Redhill. I charm my way through the front gate and get greeted by this young, expensively dressed bimbo (or himbo, I can't quite tell) Mei Wang. Whilst he/she's trying to get through to Samuels, I get into his study and have a poke. I don't know what I expect to find but I scoop up some white dust on the floor in one the zip locks I always carry in my pocket for spare pant and shirt buttons. I also find a handkerchief in the bin smudged with lippie.

That's when I hear a low growl by the door and another sharp dressing asian bitch starts hollering at me. Bloody Samuels is keeping a regular whorehouse. I try to duck past her but she does some kungfu shit and knocks me down. I roll with it and remember the games of footy I played with my brothers. I brace my legs and launch to tackle her slim frame. She does this ridiculous somersault and I'm out the door. Conflict: Jason loses one dice. No violence.

Pushed conflict.
Then the bloody transgender asian tries to cross me, brandishing a sharp and nasty looking hairbrush. She tries to slow me for the kungfu nasty to catch up but Mei Wang's no fighter. I'm not sure if she was stunned by the hit she took from the floor or by the feeling of such a fabulous gown getting ripped off her sparkling young shoulders. Conflict: Jason lost three dice, 1 violence.

The guard dog practically licked me as I let my self out.

[watergoesred]

I really enjoyed this session. It was the first time we gamed together as a group and the first time we'd played Dirty Secrets. I had played a half game about a month ago, which I screwed up quite a bit, so I did bring a few hard earned lessons.

I think the system has a bit of learning curve. There's no single mechanic but rather a set of interlocking pieces. This session took about two and quarter hours by my count, which included all the rules introduction.

We started playing a couple of rounds of Liars dice so everyone could get a feel for the dice mechanic. Though in the game, Liar dice only involves two people, we played a couple of rounds with all five of us together, so that everyone could actually place a few bids and get a feel for it. I think this worked well. Much better than when I tried to explain it during play when a conflict arose, when there's so much going on, mechanically and fictionally.

The Chapter flowchart I created came in handy. Although it's quite busy, I think some of the players found it useful to understand the flow of the game. And it saved me a couple of times from making big mistakes, like forgetting to move the Witness. It also saved time flicking through the rule book.

There were two main things I emphasised. The first is highlighted the book: anyone can narrate whatever, whenever, as long as its from the investigator's perspective and with the understanding that only the game can decide who actually committed the major crimes. It was quite natural and intuitive to move to discussing the rules for Jurisdiction, Appeal and Upheld. I don't recall any Appeals or Uphelds happening, at least not formally. I think Jurisdiction took a while before it made sense for everyone.

The second thing I emphasised was building a working theory about who did what and why and then keeping this to yourself. I think my earlier (half) game of Dirty Secrets fell a little flat because people discussed their working theory out loud. I thought this might've helped some of the less confident players but instead it created railroad tracks that decided what had to be narrated before it was narrated and took a lot of the spice out of the game. It felt like we were just going through the motions rather than being creative and free.

In the game last night, I made a point that we should resist the urge to tell others what you think is going on in the story. Instead, channel this urge into your narration, driving the game into the direction that you think is most interesting. Bring in characters that interest you, introduce scenes that drive in the direction you want. That's what Jurisdiction lets you do, that's what being the Authority and winning conflicts gives you, the ability to turn your idea about what might be going into a reality. I encourage Authorities to drive toward conflict so they could get a chance to drive the story. I feel last night's game worked well in this respect.

We all had a chance to play the authority. Four authorities is pretty damn tough on the investigator, she's got a lot of dice against her, 20 in fact. Liz managed to knock one Authority down to one dice but she still has three authorities with full dice (15 dice) to survive before she can reap any more from her victory, and with only four dice herself that's a tough call. If there were fewer authority I can see the investigator would have a much easier time getting on a roll. If there were six players, I think the game might become unfairly stacked against the investigator.

All in all though, I had a good time last night and it went well. I think we started to get into the flow of the system. I think most of the game's complexity is upfront and that once that's grasped I think the system should feel pretty light and flexible. I'm really keen to see how much we can flow through the second session and what it'll feel like solving all the crimes.

[watergoesred]

I know of one mistake I made during this game. I thought the name written on the Crime Grid had to be a Character that appeared in the Chapter. But that's wrong, the Character only has to mesh with the suspicions that arose during the Chapter. This means we don't have to force Character's into the narrative just to get them on to the Crime Grid, nor are we forced to declare bit parts as Characters just so we can write something on the Crime Grid.

Another screw up of mine, but I think I'm starting to get a handle on all the nuances of the game.

I've updated my Chapter Flowchart to be more precise regarding this part of the process. For those interested, find below a copy of the pdf.

Dirty Secrets Flowchart 1.1.pdf

(44.29 KiB) Downloaded 100 times

[Narayan]

Chapter Six: Strong Suspicions
Authority: emmajeans
So I got the suspicious white powder in the ziplock bag with my spare buttons and I'm thinking how the hell am I going to get this analysed. Then I remember I have a client who is a professor at ANU: Dr Strong. So I payed Dr. Strong a visit.

I had to really appeal to his good side to get him to analyze the stuff without calling the cops if it was illegal [Liz won the conflict and Emma lost three dice]. He agreed not to report it for 24 hours. And the stuff turned out to be a mixture of heroin and plaster. I got the analysis readout on an a sheet of paper. And then Dr. Strong pissed himself.

What a freak.

Chapter Seven: Showdown with Samuels
Authority: Narayan
So, my asshole of a boss was snorting heroin cut with plaster. Or something. Which explains everything. It was time to get some answers. I texted Samuels (the bastard was at his favourite Fyshwick massage parlour, Happy Endings, as usual) and convinced him to meet me at the office.

I smelt Samuels coming before I saw him. I showed him the analysis readout and demanded to know the truth. The bastard snatched it up and crumpled it, telling me it was bullshit. Which was bullshit. So I stared him down and demanded that he spill his guts. His eyes went round like saucers. Then his nose bled, he broke down and blubbered the ugly truth [Liz won the conflict and Narayan's dice were reduced by 2, the violence die result in a light wound and Liz chose to give Samuels a nose bleed].

Apparently, the stolen statue was part of a consignment of other phallic statues, all of them filled with heroin. Samuels and that bitch Rosa were partners in smuggling these things into Canberra. But someone nicked the statue from Samuels' office and was blackmailing him, demanding that he cough up some serious mulah or the cops were gonna find the shipping crate full of these things. With Samuels' name on the shipping list.

I left Samuels there, blubbering like an idiot. What a fucked up situation this was. I needed a break.

I went home.

Chapter Eight: Law and Lawyers
Authority: watergoesred
I woke up the next morning with a headache from Purgatory by a skull-splitting tone. It was my phone. It was Wendy Chen. She asked if I had checked the papers today. I hadn't. So she told me. Samuels was found dead in his office.
Fuck.
Shit.
Fucking Hell.

Wendy wanted me to come down to the cop shop and tell her what happened. What choice did I have? Shit.

I saw Rosa being brought in when I was there. Wendy told me that Rosa was a suspect and wanted to know anything I knew about Samuel's murder and the missing statue. So I laid it on her. She seemed startled. She went out to get some coffees.

Then this slick dude waltzed in. Suit, briefcase, ego. Said his name was Kurt DeVries. I caught the faint scent of musky cologne - something foxy? Just Kurt wanted to know my story. Said he could put me in touch with some good solicitors in legal aid if he knew what to tell them. I didn't trust him. In the end, I told him as little as possible and found out that he was Rosa's lawyer [Liz won the conflict and Oli lost his only die]. Asshole!

The oily, musky bastard left as soon as Wendy came back. I stalked out of the cop shop. I had to get to the bottom of this myself.

Chapter Nine: That Little Shit
Authority: emmajeans
I decided to give my hacker friend Jimmy Heuer a visit. At his house. Right then. I tracked him down and asked him to help me. The little shit said no. I told him to call me when he changes his mind. I was too angry to deal with him. And I had bigger fish to fry.

Current Dice Pools:
Liz (Investigator): 4
Emmajeans: 2
Narayan: 3
Oli: 0

Sorry, I can't remember the specifics of what happened - maybe someone can help fill in the blanks?

[watergoesred]

Chapter 10: Kiss & Makeup Revelation sequence: Narayan is Authority
Revelation: Wendy Chen and Rosa Corpus are having a sexual/romantic relationship.

I need a break and a new pair of shoes. I enjoy the air con until I spot that crazy ass kungfu bitch, from Samuels's place, window shopping at Bras & Things. And holy shit, is that Wendy with her? They walk in together and I can see them holding lingerie up and almost groping each other. As soon as they go share a change room, I'm outta there.

O man. What is Wendy doing with that crazy bitch?! It's late and my brain's too fried to handle this now. I sleep on it.

Investigation sequence
8am Saturday: I press the buzzer for one of the 9th floor apartments on Doring Street. I know Wendy. She'll still be snoozing. Even if she didn't have company. Someone answers and it's not Wendy but can hear Wendy scampering about in the background.

The maintenance guy lets me in. He's got a face like a day-old meat pie, dribbling in all the wrong places. I need key access to get to the 9th floor and he is standing there with a fist full'o keys. As we ride the elevator together, he says he thinks he's seen before and then he asks me out. I can't get out the lift fast enough.

Wendy knows its me, and opens the door a crack. She won't talk to me or let me in, its a bad time or some shit. But I'm in no mood for it and they don't make door chains like they used to. As I barge in, I hear the bedroom door slam and then a woman's squeal and curse.

Wendy's shaken but she's stubborn and won't tell what she's got herself into. Even when I let on I know she's been shopping at Bras & Things, the bulldog won't talk. She gets me out with only a promise to meet at Cafe Essen in an hour. Conflict: Liz loses all her dice. One violence.

Crime resolution: Wendy Chen was blackmailing Brain Samuels

[emmajeans]

Reflection on the game and the system.

It can be very easy to play the game out before you even roll the dice. As players you have to have ideas and suspicions and theories: but as Oli has said elsewhere, the mechanics make it impossible for you to know how the game/story will finish. We all needed to be reminded to play the game rather than talk about our theories (and I think Oli said that this was a problem last time he played it, too).

Because only one person is assigned a role (the Investigator), and *everyone* can direct the actions of the other characters in the story (within the limits accepted by the Authority; more on that below), it can be confusing as to who each player is playing. In some cases, we slipped out of Detective Story mode and into role-playing mode - and some cases switched characters within a scene/chapter/encounter. We discussed this afterwards, and decided that next time, we would probably make better use of the character sheets, maybe even writing the character's name on the back of the sheet and standing it up in front of us. That way we would all be on the same page (and be clear about who was shooting whom!).

Each chapter has a different Authority. (Authorities can be anyone at the table, except for the Investigator.) A chapter can be violent, contain conflict, or can be a simple case of walking from A to B and buying a pizza. Everyone contributes to the chapter, but the Authority has the final say. I was all tired and distracted, and I lost sight of this by the end of the evening, which is entirely my fault. While my chapter helped the story along in some way, it also held it back: instead of having a confrontation at the police station which resulted in April receiving help or not -- but she needed to have help, we'd already kind of decided this (see above 'playing before you play') -- we RPed it out. This isn't what the game is designed to do. By the time I realised what had happened, and that I should have started the chapter with 'after a long and drawn out discussion with three cops, one of them agreed to spend the night on my couch' (or whatever), so the shooting could begin, it was too late, the chapter mechanics had been completed without any conflict or violence, and it was someone else's turn to be the Authority.

The discussion we had at the second session was about the stakes, and how both outcomes had to progress the story. By the end of the third session, we were kicking arse at that. I am looking forward to bringing this with me to BW.

[watergoesred]

Chapter 11: Don't call me Honey Reflection sequence: Jason is Authority
Cafe Essen is quiet for a Saturday morning, though it's still before 9 and already almost too hot for my appetite. I order crepes with a berry compote and a double shot espresso. I think of Wendy. The coffee's bittersweet. Everyone gets all their dice back.

Violence sequence
As I scoop up the last berries, Rosa appears suddenly at my table and gives me instant indigestion. Bitch must of bullied Wendy out of coming down to meet me. She sits opposite me at the table and I can feel the heat coming off her. She coils her limbs like a snake.

The conversation is crisp and short. Most of the threats and cajoling are left unsaid, though Rosa adds emphasis to her parting shot "Stay. Away. From Wendy." by gracefully tipping the last of my maple syrup on me. My heads pounding when she struts away and I order another coffee. Conflict: Jason wins exactly so no violence.

[watergoesred]

It can be very easy to play the game out before you even roll the dice.

Thanks for sharing this Emma. I remember this scene really bugged you at the time. I think we were all pretty zapped by then.

I agree that we definitely didn't frame the cop shop scene in a way that went Snap! I think Dirty Secrets has been good at testing our gaming skills and showing where we can improve. I think scene framing is one.

And avoiding flaccid scene framing has to be balanced with avoiding playing before playing. I read some advice about this that I really liked in 3:16

Flavour the scene when you frame it but don't 'cook' it. That will come through the roleplaying during the scene. Think of the framing as preparing the ingredients, but make the meal in play.

But I like analogies, especially those involving food.

I think the hard part with scene framing is using it to drive the story in a compelling way without being attached to which way the scene and story goes.

[watergoesred]

Chapter 12: Game on Revelation sequence: Oli is Authority
Revelation: Rosa Corpus and Brian Samuels have a business relationship.
It's not till the coffee's a bittersweet memory that I spot the business card Rosa left on the table.

Rosa Corpus
Brian Samuels Inc.

Fuck. She's the Corpus on Brian's accounts. With Brian dead, she'll have controlling interest of Brian's company. Shit. That's means she's my employer now. I'm so screwed.

And she knows it. "see you monday, rosa" is scribbled on the back of the card. And the "o" is heart-shaped

Investigation sequence
I'm sweating when my mobile buzzes. Jimmy's SMS is almost indecipherable "m884 m3 @ d4 b4rr4k5". The Barracks, a well known dive for computer junkies. It's just round the block and I've almost run out of steam so I take to Jimmy's invite like a dog to a bone.

I descend from the street into a humid, dark, corn chip smell, blended with body odour. The room is lined with headphoned zombies, all glazed to their LCD screens. Jimmy's behind the counter. He pretends not to know me and he casually directs me to a free computer.

I'm waiting for the browser to load when a window pops up with the words "Let's play a game...". A game appears. I have to fit odd shaped statues into a cargo ship container. The little shit is obviously in deep.

Then I play hangman and my name's the answer. I look around but I can't see the creep behind the counter or anywhere else. The stick figure on the screen swings from its noose above the words "your move".

The creep's trying to freak me out and it's working. And if it could get any worse, everyone in the room suddenly leaves their computer and files straight up and out on the street. I jump but the door slams in my face and then everything spins into darkness and crunching sounds. Conflict: Oli loses one dice. 3 violence to the investigator.

Bonus investigation sequence
It's dark and cold. The floor's hard. There's a window and I can see stars. Shit. I push myself up and I hurt all over. Then I hear the sizzle of a cigarette. Two red spots glow closeby.

Rosa talks. She's trying to shake me. Tell me I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. I spit back that Wendy's a good cop and she'll work out what's going on. Then Wendy speaks and it all goes to shit: join their operation or say hello to Samuels.

I hear footsteps and then the full moon pours through a door in the distance. I stumble out of a warehouse, I think in Fyshwick. Cars crunch gravel as they roll away. And man, I look like shit.

[watergoesred]

Chapter 13: Cop what? Investigation sequence: Emma is Authority
I stumble along the freeway through Fyshwyck till I find the cop shop. I'm not exactly the epitome of the upstanding citizen: I look like I've fallen down a flight of stairs, been drugged and had the shit scared out of me. So no wonders the cops take a bit of convincing. I tell 'em the whole kit and caboodle. The hardest bit is convincing them I need witness protection, given Wendy's a Fed. Eventually, Detective Sweetapple says she's knocking off soon so she can bunk with me at hotel overnight. Then in the morning they can work this all out.

How unfortunately prophetic Detective Sweetapple proved to be.

Chapter 14: Formula for hell Investigation sequence: Narayan is Authority
We shack up in the Formula One up in the north of Canberra. It's another hot, dry night. The Detective's on the bottom bunk and she's snoring like a champion. I can't sleep. I'm frigging terrified.

Then I hear a car pull up down in the carpark and know it's them. It must be 1am, who else would it be. I peek out the little boxy window and I see that transsexual Asian I met at Samuels, behind the wheel of black BMW.

I shake Detective Sweetapple several times before she wakes. She's groggy until I tell her "They're here. Rosa and Wendy are here." then she's wide awake. She just spots the car when we hear voices in the corridor. Sounds like an argument. Sounds like Rosa and Wendy.

Detective Sweetapple unholsters her sidearm and slides to the apartment door. She pushes me into the bathroom, basically a shower cubicle, and shuts me in the door. Its dark. I hear the voices grow louder when Detective Sweetapple opens the apartment door and then I hear Detective Sweetapple shouting. I definitely hear Wendy before the I hear the three shots. Conflict: Liz loses all her dice. 2 Violence.

Crime resolution: Rosa murdered Samuels.

[watergoesred]

Chapter 15: All washed up Reflection sequence
There's this god awful silence. I have no fucking idea who shot who. Shit. I scribbled frantically on the wall with the bar of soap. It's not worth repeating. We're all allowed our moments of weakness. Everyone regains all their dice

Chapter 16: Stay out of the kitchen Investigation sequence: Jason is Authority
Then I hear some curses, shuffling and the door of the apartment closes. I hear Rosa being snappy. Shit. I'm fucked. Suddenly, the bathroom door's open and I'm out on my arse.

I'm trying to hold up Detective Sweetapple. She's shot in the shoulder. I see her teeth grit but she looks very pale. That's when Rosa speaks real calm, about cleaning up the loose ends but I can't quite follow. My head's spinning and I'm feeling nauseaous. I do Wendy's all red and screaming.

Then all hell breaks loose: Wendy throws her self around Rosa's waist, Rosa's on the floor under Wendy, a bullet thuds into the wall behind me. It's all blurry. Then one thing cuts throw my shock like a knife: the a gun on the floor in the middle of the room. Conflict: Jason lost one dice. 1 violence

Jason escalates conflict to violence
I lunge for the gun. Only then do I see Rosa's off the ground. O shit, she's got another gun in her hand. Then my leg burns like its on fire. Then I hear a bang and another. I blank out as the cry of sirens rise and Rosa runs out the door. Conflict: Liz lost two dice. 1 violence

Crime resolution: Jimmy stole the statue.

Chapter 17: Closing the books Epilogue
I'm on the steps of the magistrate's court with Jimmy's mother. Jimmy just got convicted for theft and aiding and abetting a kidnappng. He'll see time in prison. I'm not sure how much he'll mind it though. After seeing how his mother is. If she hadn't turned him after finding the statue, he'd probably never have been convicted. Yet there's air about her of contentment, sadness of course, but she's almost seemed to have relaxed after Jimmy got convicted.

Rosa was never caught. They suspect she's skipped the country. I sometimes see her mug shot on Crimestoppers: Most Wanted.

I heard Wendy left the AFP and Canberra. I never saw her again. And I heard Detective Sweetapple recovered her health and recently got some award.

And me. Well, I repaired my shoes and they still have that sweet just new chaff. O, and I got control of Brian Samuel's company assets and changed it's name to:

April Coroy's Forensic Accountancy

Of course.

[watergoesred]

Took a long time coming, I know. But all the talk of systems of late have made me reflect on some of the games I've played this years. And this one really set the standard for me. Very unique.

And the ending was where it got really satisfying. The way everything got tied up neatly, all the crimes solved, without anyone controlling or guiding it.