Lonely Star

Gaming Career Report - Part 2: The Avatar the Last Airbender Game

Read part 1 here.

banner

This one was the third game I can remember and happen to have a record of. It happened sometime in early to mid 2014, when I was 14. Here's what I found.

System and Setting

Used Chronicles of Darkness seemingly unchanged, includes Morality rules. Each bender had a specific marker, such as Blood Potency for Vampires or Gnosis for Mages, but theirs varied the name per bending type.

Bending itself seems to be a sort of skill that doesn't work quite as a skill. In the character sheet, it's side by side with the Blood Potency attribute and it cost a lot to increase, but it was added to rolls regularly.

The setting itself had the premise of it being 17 years after the death of Korra "at the hands of a mystery", with each nation having a thing going on.

All of the setting docs are explaining the world of Avatar as if to someone who doesn't know what Avatar is, and all of the system docs are translations of the Chronicles of Darkness books. There are no prep folders and I've seemingly lost the ability to see the images I had gathered (which is how I used to prep), so I have no idea what the game will be going in.

Note: I wrote all of this before reading the session logs. Having done that I can confidently say that none of this plot or setting docs matter. The name of the game was "Book 1: Madness", as Avatar tends to divide its seasons into "books", and I'm pretty sure I intended to have Azula's children be the main villains but... it didn't go that way. This is why the image of the post was a little swirly thing, in case you were wondering; that was the image I had as a banner on the chatroom. We're all mad in here!!! Except not really.1

A Brief Summary of Events, and thoughts

We follow two main characters:

The events of this game are baffling. It's 40k words long, about the length of The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, yet pretty much nothing happens.

For the first 3 sessions, Guan and Kenichi fuck around as Guan is looking for a firebending master and wants to get a passport - they're both airplane pilots and that's the primary method they'll get around. At session 4 Guan arrives in Air Temple Island in search of an airbending master, and in session 5 he's introduced to Fai, the third member of the group who will follow them along - a blind swordsman (a trans man, interestingly! My narration keeps drawing attention to that fact with my own words, as I didn't quite know what a trans person was at the time) who's searching for the spirit of the Incendiary Ape, Hono Saru, which has plagued his family for 60 generations.

It takes them about 2 sessions of witty banter, and at session 7 the second thing happens: the very obvious women they had tried to enlist to their group back in the city betray them, they fight, and decide they'll hunt them. They don't, though, not really.

On session 8, the third thing happens, and it's the last one in this 16-session campaign: they fight a waterbender and Guan goes into avatar state. The following 2 sessions are pretty much fallout from that and characters talking to one another, until they arrive in the Western Air Temple and some DMPC tells them they're playing the game wrong and should be out there looking for adventure. The game ended shortly after. I recall I used to do this a lot, I had an idea of the "right" course of action to take at any one time, and whenever the players deviated from it, I used a DMPC to tell them they did something wrong.

Another interesting thing is that the entire campaign seems to take place in real time. As in, I almost never cut away, and most of the events are extremely prosaic conversations, or tremendously mundane procedures, such as a command tower asking for their plate number or roleplaying a conversation like asking for directions. As far as I can remember, this was considered part of the "gaming courtesy" of the platform, which was that GMs should never assume anything that the characters didn't specifically say in their actions, no matter how small and prosaic. This led to a sort of hyper-present approach to gaming where things were almost never elided.

Indeed, it seems like I rarely asked for rolls, and the session I asked the most rolls - the Nikushimi one, which you can read below - was the one where I was actively antagonising the player (some might call this bullying; not me, but some). I think this betrays pretty directly that I conceptualised of rolls as a sort of undesired outcome; after all, you don't want to leave things to luck, do you?

This is contradicted by the times I ask for rolls for the most mundane things that also involve magic. Specifically, most times the players do bending (magic in Avatar) of any kind, I ask for a roll. It's maddening and inconsistent, but I can see the logic I was working with.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with this game. It very obviously lost its steam because I couldn't guide the players in an interesting plot, but the banter can be genuinely funny at times and I was excited to see how things would resolve. They didn't, but I see why my players would have stuck around with this.

A Long Summary of Events

And now, an itemised series of notes on each one of the 16 sessions of the Guan and Kenichi sessions, and the Nikushimi session at the end, told in more detail because it was funnier like that.

Log 1 - 3.098 words. Starts off glacially. Guan is in an air carrier, his plane has no gas, so his travelling buddy indicates he should get a job at Future Industries. They talk on the way and there Guan meets Kenichi, and they spend the entire rest of the session riffing and ribbing. Guan talks about being the avatar, Kenichi needles him about not being able to bend metal, and eventually Kenichi agrees to be his firebending master.

Log 2 - 592 words. This one was seemingly cut short and is entirely made out of Kenichi and Guan riffing about what to do. Kenichi walks Guan to his apartment, and Guan says he'll have to swing by the mayor's office (despite Republic City having a president, whatever).

Log 3 - 800 words. Guan goes to the mayor's office, takes a queue, forgets to actually tell anyone why he had come there until an officer tells him to do that. He tries to get a meeting with the mayor saying that he's the avatar, they don't believe him and he rolls Bending to convince them, passes the test, bends 2 elements at once... but the officer isn't looking, so it was all for naught. Strange ruling from me, very adversarial. Firstly to ask for a roll for this, and secondly to negate its purpose once the roll is succeeded.

Log 4 - 2.599 words. A Guan Yu solo session. Guan is escorted out of the mayor's office and into the precint... which he promptly leaves and asks for direction from a kooky old man to Air Temple Island. A secret cop sits by him in the cable car taking him there and bluntly asks Guan what he's been doing, making it clear he's being followed, and then leaves. Arriving at the island, he meets two Air Nomad boys, one named Gotama and the other Siddharta2. Guan Yu tells them he's the avatar and they scramble to find Tenzin, and the session ended with them introducing themselves to one another.

Log 5 - 5.172 words. Another solo. Tenzin quickly excuses himself and Guan wanders the temple, brief vignettes happen at him - a young bison headbutts a tree, monks playing airball, etc - but he mostly keeps wandering until he can talk to Jinora. He tells her the world doesn't need an avatar, but she tells him a storm is coming... literally. A storm approaches and Guan Yu scrams to ask the monks to come back inside. He stops doing that to play a game of Pai Sho with a girl named Mari... just watch the sparks fly:

```«!» -- [...] Anyway what's it like to be the avatar? * - * [Mari's tone was quite enthused.]

<Guan> --...  ... I don't know how to answer you, after all I never knew what it is like NOT to be the avatar. You know, I was born like this

«!» --That makes some sense, I suppose. But then, where are you from? e.e [She asked moving any piece, doesn't look like she's paying attention.]

<Guan> --I'm from Zaofu, but also trained in Omashu. I like travelling...

«!» --Where's that? .-. 

<Guan> --Zaofu is the new capital of the Earth Empire, home to the metal clan. And Omashu is another big city, with a very cool delivery system . I'm surprised you don't know it .___.

«!» --Oh excuse the little stupid islander who was born in an abandoned island in the middle of the ocean between the Fire Nation and Republic City. . - .

<Guan> --Sorry, I didn't know .__________.

«!» --Of course you didn't, it's in international waters! @.@

<Guan> --Then why are you blaming me? [He said furrowing his confused brow, breathing a bit and turning back to the game]

«!» --Why wouldn't I? You're the avatar! U.U

<Guan> --....  .....

«!» --And I just won. Therefore you owe me fat stacks of cash. OR YOUR LIFE! HAHAHAHAHA! [She spoke with an evil laugh.] --But I'd rather the cash. You can buy things with it.```

After the game he goes back inside the temple and finds a blind swordsman fighting a giant ape-thing who's seemingly defeated by the swordsman and swears vengeance as it dies. The swordsman of ambiguous gender is treated by a doctor and introduces themselves as Fai (seems to be a trans man, though I'm quite sure I didn't know what trans people were at the time), saying they were hunting that spirit because it inhabits a mask currently possessed by a criminal, and his family feuds with it for 8000 years. Jinora again tells Guan this was a bad omen and the session ends.

Log 6 - 5.670 words. Kenichi is back. Session starts with Jinora once again waxing about how everything's about to change and tells Guan to go to the Fire Nation. He sleeps in the temple and, next morning, says goodbye to everyone and goes to Kenichi's apartment.3 He isn't there however, but his neighbour - a lady obsessed with the Fire Nation - invites Guan in for what seems to be a complete tangent, because Kenichi comes back shortly after and they go right back to riffing about firebending. They start training and we get 3 more rolls, an extended test of them playing a fire ping pong game as training.

After training they decide to depart and invite the neighbour to go too, for some reason. Kenichi spends some time Looney Tunesing it up with his pet (both of them have pets). The session ends with our protagonists introducing themselves to the sister of the neighbour who's travelling with them. My notes tell me these two are Azula's daughters, and their NPC sheets are on the "antagonists" tab, so... we'll see what happens lol

Log 7 - 4.950 words. Session starts with parallel conversations, Kenichi with his neighbour, named Sam, and Guan with her sister, named Yumi. They're flirting like crazy, the two women seem to be clearly telegraphing being villains by playing with knives and fire inside the plane, making the lads very nervous (and attracted, it seems).

It's hard to keep the conversation straight but this keeps up for half the session, Kenichi has to roll not to lose his composure when Sam flashes a dagger, but eventually they land without asking for permission and a ton of cops show up. The women blow up a police car and challenge Kenichi to a duel, which ended in a single roll (lol) as Kenichi loses. Guan puts him in the nearest police car and drives it to a hospital, but the cops come after him and tell him to pull over. He successfully rolls a Persuasion check, asking if they would really want to stop the avatar, and they leave him with just a fine (and the police car).

At the hospital, Guan meets up with the blind swordsman, whose name is Fai, and they talk a little more about their respective quests - Fai is after the infernal ape spirit, and Guan recruits him to the party under the promise he'll teach Guan swordsmanship too. The session ends with Guan meeting up with Kenichi in the hospital and Kenichi saying he won't be able to travel with the avatar... because he'll hunt those two ladies! Drama!

Log 8 - 4.510 words. Session starts with Guan trying to convince Kenichi - with a roll (!) - to not kill them when he finds them. I don't know whose idea this was, it might have been the players'. Either way, Kenichi agrees, they talk a bit more and return to the hotel to get Fai and then go get their airplanes. It's interesting how much ink is spilled with meaningless proceedings - guards asking for documents, the details of getting inside the airplane, turning it on, then departing, and things like that.

Anyway, they fly to Ember Island and look for another hotel and book themselves for 3 days. They then proceed to train firebending and trash talk one another before being interrupted by the waterbender Balthazar Masyaf and some goons who seem to know and dislike the avatar. The fight is short as Balthazar hits Guan with 9 successes, the roll exploded four times:

«!» >> (1/2) Dexterity + (1/2) Aim + Bending + 2 vs. Dexterity + Athletics

  Havoc rolled 11d10 > 7 = 5 Successes {(4, 8, 10, 6, 2, 5, 7, 10, 2, 4, 7)}

  Havoc rolled 2d10 > 7 = 1 Success {(4, 10)}

  Havoc rolled 1d10 > 7 = 1 Success {(10)}

  Havoc rolled 1d10 > 7 = 1 Success {(10)}

  Havoc rolled 1d10 > 7 = 1 Success {(10)}

  Havoc rolled 1d10 > 7 = Failure {(6)}

Guan "dies" but then is brought back in the Avatar State and sweeps them. The session ends as Fai pleads with Guan to return to himself.

Log 9 - 2.496 words. Kenichi rushes Guan to the hospital, he'll be there for a while. They then go back to the beach to talk with Balthazar, which they apparently left just sitting there and didn't tell anyone about it. He's sitting, synchronising himself to the waves to drag him to the sea. Kenichi scuffles with him and knocks him out, then discusses with Fai about what to do with this guy for a while. They decide to drag him back to the airplane and tie him there, as there doesn't seem to be any police in Ember Island.

Kenichi spends the rest of the session talking to Fai, learning about him and his hunt, and having comedic moments with his owl-cat.

Log 10 - 2.179 words. The session starts mid-conversation, with Kenichi and Fai talking about themselves. The tied waterbender wakes up and Kenichi tries to intimidate him, but gets a critical failure. They keep talking about getting lunch and trying to figure out the waterbender who's stonewalling them. The guy then reveals he's already undone the rope and walks out after some more witty banter, Kenichi just lets him. Guan returns with a faulty memory and they discuss what to do next, deciding to go to the Western Air Temple. I keep making it hard for them to land their airplanes too. The session ends with Guan determined to land in a difficult place.

Log 11 - 433 words. An extremely brief session. Basically a vignette. My narration is full of small spelling errors, I may have either been hurrying or in some kind of pain. Anyway, Guan lands at the Western Air Temple, Kenichi fails the roll and busts the left wing of his airplane. They witty banter some more and the session ends.

Log 12 - 1.625 words. Session starts with Kenichi trying to fix his airplane with a series of inconsequential extended rolls. The both of them walk down to the Western Air Temple, meet some acolytes who receive them, people doubt Guan is the avatar once again (this has happened pretty much every single time). The acolytes spring a little gotcha at them, saying they're disrespectful and that they haven't introduced one another, even though they did introduce themselves, I was just being an ass. They wander some more and meet a master airbender called Inie and Guan tries to convince her to teach him, then the session ends with her seemingly interested in the concept of travelling around with the avatar.

Log 13 - 1.944 words. The session begins mid-conversation, Inie is really antagonising Guan and Guan is trying to get her in logic pitfalls, because she (thus me) keeps contradicting herself. She's saying he needs to be out there Doing things instead of learning the elements. They sleep in the temple and the next morning Guan discusses what Inie said with Fai - Kenichi is around but would rather not say anything. Guan ultimately agrees that he should be more proactive in searching for adventure and ways to make the world right. The session closes with Guan going after Inie.

Log 14 - 972 words. Guan tells Inie he's gonna change his ways and asks if she would like to come with; Inie agrees, just like that. A little animal tries to lick Kenichi and both of them run after it as Guan and Fai go have some lunch. Kenichi finds it, a small salamander. Guan and Fai don't have much to talk about, Kenichi loses the salamander, and the session ends, taking the campaign with it.

The Nikushimi Session - 3.031 words. At this time, there were certain people - "humans", we would call them - who would get in a game and try to make it entirely about themselves, usually not reading much of the setting and bringing a pre-done character. I can't say with confidence that this was one such case, but it was human-like. From what I can tell, the character was the edgiest of edgelords which had as objective to "spread chaos". It seems like he was some sort of criminal.

The session begins with him waking up, his ally, Izaya, isn't here. I have no idea who Izaya is meant to be but both me and the character knew this at the time. I just describe the guy waking up in his apartment and he walks out. I tell him he forgot to put his pants on, or grab his keys, because he hadn't specified doing that in his action. This was another stupid gotcha which I apparently loved doing at the time.

He dresses and leaves. Outside, he sees 3 cops next to a police van in front of a closed down building, and a school bus stopped in traffic with teen girls making faces at Nikushimi. The player simply keeps moving towards "the more bustling parts of the city". A fire truck accelerates past him, almost running him over, and the player does the rational thing and tries to shoot a fireball at it to make it explode. I ask him to roll and he fails, so I rule that he explodes a tyre. The cops obviously take note, so Nikushimi raises a barrier and runs towards an alley. Successful roll, so I tell him he set fire to the school bus too.

In his thoughts, the player keeps mentioning "destroying a power plant". Thinking he lost the cops he just walks towards some park, but before that he notices the cops observing him from the top of the buildings. He propels himself towards them and finds out there's 6 of them, pointing their steel cables at them (cops are iron benders in avatar). I ask for a composure roll for him not to be afraid, he gets a critical failure but I don't seem to enforce it. The cops yell at him to stand down, Nikushimi starts setting fire to the building itself. I ask for a roll, another critical failure. The steel cables tie Nikushimi and he is arrested and put in the police van.

On the way to the PD, the cops throw mad shade at the guy, but he starts yelling about how they're violating his human rights and asking for cigarettes. The cops start discussing among themselves how he'll most certainly be condemned, and then throw him inside a frozen iron cell, to make it difficult for him to bend.

After half a day of the guy trying to raise the temperature of the cell, he manages it. The cop reads the accusations against him and tell him he has the right to a phone call. The player does the rational thing and responds like this (I've tried to preserve his writing as best as I could):

NIKUSHIMI: --Great government don't you think? i even with so many accusations I have the right to a phone call? i don't think you should blame me, in part yes, in part not... homicide... The admiral killed his own soldiers for disturbing him, it's bet that it wasn't the first time... that driver who drive the school was drunker than anything else I've ever seen in my life, were it not for me, it would be on the road, it's with the life of some... [starts burning more flames] --I have a very simple intention of showing the world the mistakes of the government, it's simple, just look around, when something bad happens, should one blame... the chaos? [lays there on the floor wanting to sleep] --I don't have who to call, they're already dead... "This ist about to change... the chaos.... ha....."

The cop very presciently goes "lmao this guy is gonna end up killing himself" and leaves. Nikushimi falls asleep, wakes up, and starts trying to blow a hole in the wall.

It takes him six increasingly easier rolls, at which of it he takes more and more damage, the cop starts saying he's going to die if he keeps that up... and he does! His last words are "Izaya, if I die... I'll kill you in the next life!"

He successfully blows a hole in the wall of the jail and the narration throws shade at him, saying "at the end of his life, Nikushimi hadn't managed to bring chaos to the world, and therefore wasn't able to accomplish anything of note. Fin."

  1. I was a bit obsessed with Alice in Wonderland at this time. The next game, Scion, showed inclinations towards Alice in Wonderland in some points, and the one after that was JAGS Wonderland.↩

  2. I think I wrote it as Gotama instead of Gautama because it was written like that in my copy of Hesse's Siddharta, which I was probably reading at this time. I don't remember anything from that book.↩

  3. If you're curious, Mari disappears here. She seems pissed off at Guan for reasons I don't quite understand, but it seems like either the spirit or Fai had broken her arm and she resented Guan for it.↩

#gaming career reports