The Between Session 1 Play Report and Thoughts
The Report
This session picked back up right were the last left off, with my character, Jacob Dunch, investigating the three bodies while Rosin, another PC, talked with the headmaster of a school. Jacob Dunch noticed that each victim had three scratch marks on their right hand. As soon as this was discovered, he was accosted by the vampire but was able to escape unharmed. The vampire then turned to mist, avoiding capture. Jacob then visited a pub by the docks to talk to anyone with information there. He spoke with the woman who found the body and contracted some illness from this interaction, but its specifics are unknown at this time.
Rosin talked with a student of one of the victims, who revealed that she was often very harsh and cruel towards her students. Learning this detail, he went out to where the body was found but could gleam no further clues.
While this was happening, Vera, another PC, pursued a strange man who claimed to be a member of parliament. Tracking him down to, presumably, his home, the man shared that he was a captain. Vera donned the sun mask that this mysterious man always wears and saw a ship near the arctic. Was this remote viewing, or perhaps a memory? Time will tell.
Concluding their investigation for the night, the party regrouped and discussed their clues. They determined that the vampire must be a true child based on the evidence. Having determined this, Vera and Rosin headed to the docks on the theory that the child arrived recently by boat. Jacob stayed behind to make preparations for a hunt and to sculpt, his true passion.
Rosin, a selkie, transformed into a seal to see if any sea creatures noticed anything strange about the ships. He encountered a seal in possession of another clue, a necklace with a green gem. This seal was quite fond of this treasure and did not wish to part with it. As a seal, Rosin had nothing to trade, so he let the clue go.
Jacob, attempting to process the horrors of the day, took to sculpting. While crafting the figures of the three bodies he saw, he was accosted by the dark spirits that haunt him. They disrupted his work, causing the figures to shift and mutate into bestial forms. Disgusted by this, Jacob went outside for air, where he was attacked by the vampire for the second time. This time, the dark entities intervened, saving his life. Continuing to wander the streets of London, Jacob catches a brief glimpse of the main villain of the campaign, although he doesn't know it yet.
Vera went to the harbormaster to check the dock's records of new ship arrivals. The harbormaster attempted to locate the relevant records but found that three of his logbooks were missing. Indeed, three paintings were missing, three candles, and so forth. Just about to depart after discovering this oddity, Vera is stopped in the doorway by the vampire child. The child asks Vera to be her mother, her answer to be determined next session.
Thoughts
I was very harsh on the system last time, and I must admit that it has grown on me. Putting together the clues into a cohesive answer didn't feel as bad as I expected. It does require some thought and effort to interpret the clues in a way that makes them cohesive, rather than just guessing and rolling dice as I originally posited. I still don't love that the GM has to explicitly state that certain things are clues for the system to work though. It feels very gamey, like dialogue is just about executing the right moves to unlock the clue. Granted, this is how a lot of TTRPGs work, but it's a lot different when an NPC says something and then the GM declares it a clue. It signals the end of the conversation, or at least the end of useful information.
A new part of the system we experienced this session was the unscene. During the night, this scene is narrated alongside the main action. Each player takes a turn answering one of the prompts to give atmosphere to the scene. These descriptions are supposed to tie in thematically with whatever is happening with the PCs. (If I can figure out how I'll link the unscene we used during the session).
This mechanic didn't really come together for me. It shows a wider world outside of the PCs investigation, which is something that I think a lot of TTRPGs struggle with. It's hard to imagine a scene without the main characters of the universe present. This system forces you to think about the wider world, but it does so by interrupting the action every so often. It is nice that the players get to narrate the scenes though, without that touch this system would have been awfully boring to sit through. I could see this mechanic growing on me but for now I think it's a good idea with okay execution.
Between the unscene providing atmosphere, the paint the scene mechanic providing location descriptions, and the quantum clues allowing for mysteries without planned solutions, I'm left wondering why a GM is needed at all in this system. Yes, they take the lead in most narration, but this could easily be fully outsourced by asking for more paint the scene rounds. Yes, they introduced the premise of the mystery, but this could have been introduced from the book, or by chatting as a group to determine what our investigation would be. Yes, they control the monsters, but (at least so far), this has only come down to them attacking and the PC rolling to see if they escape. Yes, they dole out the clues, but these could be gained from a random table, tarot deck, or made up on the spot. Yes, they control the pacing of each scene, but this also comes down to the players most of the time already. Scenes naturally end when the players stop describing their actions and wrap up with an out of character "and then we...". But there is one feature that the game puts solely on the GM.
Providing NPCs for the players to roleplay against. The GM is playing the world through all the NPCs they control, to link it to OSR sensibilities. They can focus on creating believable characters that elevate the setting and make it more real. But without any of the other duties listed above, the GM is left as just the roleplay machine, not as an active part of the table. This game focuses a lot on the collaborative storytelling aspect of TTRPGs, but it does so in a way that diminishes the role of the GM, rather than elevating the role of the player. Or maybe these are the same thing? It seems a contradiction to have a game with complete collaboration and a strong GM role.
With so much of the GM role outsourced, I wonder how this game would look if it went GM-less. It would probably end up playing more like a GM-Full game, with all players running NPCs as each scene sees fit. It feels very in line with what the rest of this system encourages, just taken to its extreme.
All this talk of the diminished GM is not to slight my GM, of course. They do a wonderful job at their role; I just wonder if it is a fully necessary one for this game.