recursionary diversions

a place to collect notes and ideas for my game of The Strange

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Paul Stinson, 1978.

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Tim White - Revolt in 2100, 1978.

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Mars of the imagination

Old Mars is presented in The Strange corebook as a recursion created by fictional bleed, based on Barsoom from the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I like this idea as a seed, but for my game I want to expand the premise.

Old Mars is a recursion based on Mars as it existed in the popular imagination at the dawn of the Space Age. Wikipedia lists many examples of Mars in fiction dating back to the late 1800's, and separates the list before and after Mariner. The first space probe to Mars makes a fitting demarkation point as those early photographs revealed a dead world and put to rest the dreams of Martian civilization.

Before Mariner, writers were inspired by astronomers who observed linear features on the surface of Mars, which were often described as water canals. This was enough to paint visions of an advanced civilization, clinging to life on a dying world through world-spanning feats of engineering.

Old Mars is this early vision of Mars. A dying planet and ancient civilizations. Barsoom to some, but the Burroughs' stories are just a fraction of what can be found on Old Mars. The creatures from H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds come from Mars. Looney Tunes character Marvin the Martian is a pre-Mariner invention; it might seem absurd to include a cartoon character, but many of his schemes involved destroying Earth, so he easily makes an appropriate villain. Old Mars is heavily influenced by the pulp adventure stories of the 1920's, a world of sci-fi westerns, damsels in distress, and heart-pounding action.

There also exists the possibility that Edgar Rice Burroughs was an early recursion miner, and the John Carter of Mars character was based on his adventures there. The plot of the stories supports this notion.

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Frankenstein on Mars

As I was reading the corebook, and saw Old Mars listed as a recursion created through fictional bleed, I recalled the image of Frankenstein carrying a large sword riding an insect mount on the red plains of Mars in Frankenstein #2 (2005) by Grant Morrison and Doug Mahnke, DC Comics. The idea is simply too epic to ignore. I'm not sure how it will happen, but at some point my players will travel to Old Mars, and there they will meet Frankenstein.

Frankenstein makes an excellent candidate for a character to meet in The Strange, as the "monster" has walked through countless stories and films over the years. Created through fictional bleed in some recursion based on mad science, the creature gained the spark and awareness of worlds beyond. Through his travels, Frankenstein has been to Earth and read Mary Shelley's book, and seen many of the films portraying his story. The words and images were like memories come to life. Being a creation of fiction, Frankenstein prefers to dwell in recursions based on fiction, currently making a home on Mars, known by some of the natives as Barsoom.

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Frankenstein on Mars, Doug Mahnke for DC Comics

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Incognito Communications

Lost among nondescript warehouses in the industrial park is just another building, but it matches the address on the card. The parking lot stands empty, except for one car that looks abandoned. The door is unlocked, and the front office is furnished though the lights are low.

"If you're here for the three o'clock, it's through the room to my left."

You didn't notice her at first. She barely looks up from her book. There is a computer on the desk, but from the lack of monitor glow you can tell it is switched off.

The room to the left is set up like an office cubicle farm, but empty. Desks without computers, without chairs, no workers. Everything is strangely silent. Through the empty office you find a conference room. Big leather office chairs, white boards, projection equipment in the ceiling.

The offices of Incognito Communications don't look like much, which is exactly what one would expect of a company named Incognito Communications. Most people don't even know the name of the company, the business cards just list an address. The company offers a location for completely secure, off-the-record conversations, to an exclusive list of clients. 

The Incognito Communications warehouse is a Quiet Cabal safe house. Artifacts on site maintain a bubble of radio and electronic silence. The onsite receptionist handles day-to-day operations, which don't really amount to much work, so she reads. A recent graduate with student loans, she was happy to find a job, even if it's just a receptionist and not at all in her field. She knows the business involves space for telling secrets, and is paid well enough to not ask questions.

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Mr. Iff

The man in the dark sunglasses who contacted you about the meeting steps into the room. With a successful awareness check... you notice that the door he walked through was not the same you used, the room beyond was different than the one you walked through to enter the room.

One of the stories I'm excited about watching unfold is tied to the main NPC contact, Mr. Iff. The initial adventure presented in the corebook assumes a player connection to the Estate, but I was more interested in a campaign centered around the Quiet Cabal.

During the prologue for my game, I introduced Mr. Iff as a mysterious patron for the player characters. He gave them background about the game world, information regarding the creation of Ardeyn, cyphers, and a mission. I deliberately avoided bringing up anything to do with Ruk, and the players asked no probing questions into the nature of their mysterious benefactor.

I did introduce the Estate. Mr. Iff explained the Estate was watching Tom Mallard, but Iff's organization did not trust their surveillance abilities and hoped the PC's could check up on the situation. A perfect setup for future revelations from a third party, to make the players question the motives of their patron.

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Simon Iff

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first Strange session

I ran my first game of The Strange last night. After backing the Kickstarter campaign, then waiting and waiting and waiting for the release, I was eager to finally try it out. The reaction from the players was enthusiastic, and I'm looking forward to whatever strange recursions we manage to take the story during future sessions.

I've run games of Numenera before, so we were all familiar with the Cypher System. There were only two players and I decided to start with the characters being naive to the deeper realities of the game. Aware of their powers from being quickened, but not necessarily the ability to translate to other recursions. I let them flip through the Player's Guide to get a sense of the game, then launched into a roleplay heavy prologue before even making characters.

The prologue introduced the primary NPC contact, who explained some of the basic features of the Strange and the formation of Ardeyn. A demonstration of a phase shifting cypher was enough to dispel any doubts in their minds. The characters were given initial cyphers, and the background information for the provided starting adventure, The Curious Case of Tom Mallard. At this point, we finally pulled out character sheets and made characters: a mad scientist (a clever paradox who conducts weird science) and a former mercenary (a fast vector who is licensed to carry).

(I wouldn't recommend this prologue structure for everyone... but with my group of experienced roleplayers, already familiar with the Cypher System rules, it really worked to hook them into the story before writing anything down.)

The players made short work of the security system and searched the apartment top to bottom, enjoying the feel of a modern day dungeon crawl. We translated into Ardeyn and started exploring the ruins beneath Shalmarn, but didn't quite finish the adventure before calling the game for the night. (Another friend just got off work and showed up late, so we switched to a board game...) Judging from the reactions, my friends were excited about the possibilities of the game and just as eager to explore strange recursions.

To share those stories and brainstorm ideas for future games, I am starting this blog.

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The Strange is a game that crosses multiple worlds, called recursions, which player characters can explore and defend. In The Strange, your characters change with each world they travel to, taking on new aspects suited to that recursion’s unique laws and structures. Eventually, as characters progress, they might even gain the ability to create a recursion of their own!