Hey All

David and I are working on a 15-minute demo for Solipsist (well, OK, David has done all the hard work so far)... so I thought I would throw it up here. Partly for general feedback and partly as an example in how I see 15-min demos.

I'll go scan the characters in a upload them too...

-----
DAVID WRITES:

Okay, so let's think about this demo scene

I believe it should involve them confronting the Shadow, in-media-res, so the plausible thing is that the Shadow is in the midst of attacking them through the agency of some creepy minions, and they have to (singly or together) do something about it, which could then lead to them trying a second follow up change to defeat the shadow entirely? I am not sure whether there is time for 2 scenes, quite possibly not, but you have a lot more experience than me.

So that leaves three things to decide

What are they being attacked by?
Who is getting attacked?
How strong is the attack?

What are they being attacked by?
------------------------------

You have the sheets, so I am doing this from memory, so be gentle :) One of the characters wants to be a big game hunter in an idealized jungle world, the other wants to be a Fu Dog guardian of a realm of celestial peace, so both have obsessions and limitations revolving around animals, so warped animals of some sort make sense. They are both most at home in natural and non-urban places as well, so I think a nasty urban scene is the right way to go :)

So they are in a cramped and run-down urban slum, a half-ruined apartment building of rusted wire and stained concrete, on the wrong side of the railway tracks beyond scrub and broken stone and chain-link fences, where people have vanished and the Shadow is strong. Venturing in they have been set upon by minions of the Shadow, twisted feral animals gone wrong, rottweilers with the heads of cats and people, nine-tailed rabid foxes with coats of rippling black like sump oil.

Who is getting attacked?
------------------------------

I'm going to say Johnny, because he has fewer Infestation, that means that he can be put in a bind between working alone (but pushing) or working together, and still have a Shadow weak enough that the two could hope to defeat it in the next scene.

How strong is the attack?
------------------------------

When the Shadow attacks it makes an Un-Change, attempting to alter the Solipsists themselves, scatter their Animacules and reduce their Obsessions. To prevent this the Solipsists must make a change of reality that results in the attack being defeated. The strength of this is 5 + The Shadow's total tokens + (optionally) a Limitation targeted on a Solipsist.

We wanted, if I remember rightly, for one of the characters to be able to defeat the attack, but only by pushing, while both of them could do it together without pushing. Estimating that Johnny Wu (with 4 Infestation) can muster around 4-7 Obessions for fighting the Shadow that means the attack must be stronger then 9-11, but less than 15-17, for him to defeat alone if he is the target. That gives a Shadow strength in the range of 4-12. 10 seems a good number, they can certainly defeat that together, and stand a good chance of overshooting too if they want.

So ... the Shadow has 10 tokens and will target Johnny Wu with the attack, so he must Change Reality with a difficulty of 15 to succeed. If doing this alone he likely needs to Push (Gain 1 tear and reduce difficulty by 5). If the other character (Richard) helps, then they will not need to Push, though the Shadow might spend 1 or 2 tokens on increasing difficulty. (If so have a look at http://www.solipsist-rpg.com/index.php?action=cms.tips1)

If they succeed perfectly the Shadow loses 2 tokens and they narrate the defeat & tick obsessions

If they overshoot the Shadow lose 1 token and the GM narrates how the defeat goes overboard (and could pay 1 token to twist it)

If they fail they gain an Un-tick on every obsession, lose 2 Infestation each, and get deaded

What if they succeed?
------------------------------

You tell the players that the Shadow is weakened by their resistance and that they could then launch an attack on it (it's strength will be 9 or 8, - any tokens it spent. The Shadow will resist by spending tokens, but they ought to be able to overcome it if they have the Infestation (assuming they didn't spend it all resisting)

What if they fail?
------------------------------

You tell the players that the Shadow has scattered their animacules, and tainted them with its influence, but so long as they retain enough of a grip on their Vision they are not defeated. So long as they have Obsessions left they can do an Arrival scene to come back into the world. This has a difficulty of just 3 (or 5 if they chose to return to a Shadow tainted area, but that's risky, because if they fail they can get further tainted), and they can overshoot to gain new Infestation from the intensity of their passions.

How does that look to start with?
-----

Great for a first draft, but I have some notes to make!