It's an Untold Christmas Blog, Brannon Hollingsworth!

Alright, sorry for not posting one last week, but I was beat. Looks like that'll be the last time I miss a blog for a while, so I guess that's a good thing. So, this week's blog is a present for Ashy: how to build a good role-playing encounter for Untold. Now, I'm going to be the first to say that building a good rp'ing encounter can be very difficult. If you're anything like me, then you usually make it up as you go along with a general direction in mind. However, encounters like this can be planned and prepared for. I am also a very strong believer that a good rp encounter is composed of two primary things: good players/gm's and the right cards and abilities. Keeping this in mind, I'm going to discuss the general lay out of our encounter, and some cards that would be useful in how the encounter would possibly unfold.

Now, the general premise of this encounter is relatively simple, but simultaneously complex: A Highbred soldier is going to infiltrate and investigate the disappearance of a L'na friend (another player in the party), and attempt a rescue of the wayward companion, without seriously harming or killing any of his highbred compatriots. Now, this encounter is going to start out peacefully and end with a daring escape. However, rp'ing is going to be heavy, and the over-arching goal is going to be to rescue the party member without killing anyone.

I'm going to focus primarily on three different cards for the rping section, and five different cards for the daring escape at the end. The cards I'll be focusing on are Diplomatic, Beguiling Speech, and Verbose. However, keep in mind, the Gifts of Maoru has a whole boat load of cards that could really shine in this setting. When it comes to obtaining information through peaceful means, L'na Twilights are the undisputed masters. But I'll talk more about those at another time. The Highbred hero in question is going to have to find out a way to locate where his friend is being held prisoner, talk his way into the prison, and bust his friend out.

Now, Diplomatic is a useful card, but it's better reinforced with Beguiling Speech and Verbose. Diplomatic is a great way to get a foot in the proverbial door, but Beguiling Speech and Verbose can blow the door off the proverbial hinges. Beguiling Speech can make a target friendly and helpful, and Verbose can leave a target as dazed and confused as a Churl reading a Jane Austen novel. A great way to add on to this combo is the card Endless Calm, which can add its MAG to an Aspect boost bonus. So, with some good rolls, the talking your way into the L'na's prison should be fairly easy. But how are we going to get out?

This is where the situation gets a little more violent and dangerous, but remember, there is still a good amount of rping involved. The primary cards involved in this are going to be Grapple, M201 Assault Weapon, M422 Glue Grenades, Smoke Grenades, and the XR3 Tranquilizer Gun. Now, the cards like Grapple, the Grenades, and the Tranq. Gun are all well in good, but how is an Assault Weapon harmless, you ask? Well, I'm getting to that part. Grapple, Smoke Grenades and the XR3 Tranq. Gun are going to be used primarily by the character who's going to be doing the rescuing the wayward companion. Grapple is a good close quarters card, and can leave a target immobile. The Smoke Grenades are an excellent stalling and cover tactic, and the Tranq. Gun neutralizes targets without killing them. The M201 Assault Weapon is necessary to use the M422 Glue Grenades and also provide cover/suppressive fire to help our Highbred hero and the imprisoned party member escape the actual base and meet up with the rest of party.

Alright, so we've got the actual cards we need for this encounter, but how is it going to play out? Well the prologue is that the party strays a little too close a highbred base. A patrol catches the party off guard and a member of the party is captured and taken to the base for questioning and possibly study. So the party is left with the task of infiltrating the base and springing the wayward member from prison and linking up with the party to escape into the night.

With this in mind, the Highbred Hero is going to take two days to infiltrate the base, locate the captured compatriot, and spring them from the prison and meet up with the party. On the first day, the Highbred stumbles onto the base under the guise of being a lost scout escorting a supply convoy from Base A to Base B. Beset by baddies, the Highbred was forced to flee once he determined the situation was hopeless. Through some miracle, he found this base and needs to rest and refit. As the day passes, he begins to ask questions and make friends with some of the locals, using the cards like Diplomatic and Beguiling Speech to locate the location of the captured party member. Over night, he breaks into the armory to obtain some new gear (perhaps using Stealthy and Mad Hops?) and gains the Smoke Grenades and the XR3 Tranquilizer Gun, and sneaking an M201 Assault Weapon and Glue Grenades to a predetermined location and leaving them for other members of the party to find. On the next day, he waits until the base does a guard change, close to the time a majority of the personnel would be on the other side of the base at the mess hall or something similar. Once again, using Diplomatic, Beguiling Speech, and Verbose, the Highbred Hero talks his way into the prison (maybe with a little help from Endless Calm) and the action begins. Using the Tranq. Gun and Smoke Grenades, the two party members make a mad flight for the safety of the wilderness while another member of the party, from an unseen vantage point, uses the Glue Grenades and the M201 to lay down suppressive fire and stalls pursuers.

Now, it may not sound like much the way it is now, but when actually played, this scenario could be very dangerous but a lot of fun. Ofcourse, as is the case with most games, players and GMs may have to improvise to compensate for bad rolls and the like. As you can most likely tell, I'm not great about putting ideas like this into print, but rather am better working with a group of people and kind rolling with the punches, so to speak. But I hope you enjoyed. This is going to be an idea I'm really going to try and develop with this blog for two reasons: 1.) To make this blog more diverse and enjoyable for readers, as they look for ways to expand their Untold experience and 2.) To make me a better Untold GM.

To wrap things up, serious role-playing encounters are fairly simple to build in Untold. With a variety of useful power cards, good minions, and some creativity, a quality rp encounter can be put together relatively quickly and a good time can had by all.

For once, I know what next weeks subject will be: A Year In Review, a look back at Untold's first official year. I'll be taking a look at the highlights of this past year, for me atleast, and would love to know about your favor Untold moments of the last year. Until next week, thanks for reading and have fun! And Happy Holidays!!