Bespoke Gaming: Psi*Run - Part 1

After my review of Psi*Run, a reader asked about my thoughts on turning the game into something suitable for campaign-style play. I told them that I would get back to them and here are the efforts towards that end.

Just extending the story with the mechanics in place doesn't appeal to me. One of the things I love about Psi*Run is how tight it is, that it pressure is always on and you are running to the crossroads. I didn't want to tamper with that experience, I wanted to try something different.

Things which make Psi*Run a unique experience (to me) include: the cooperative nature, making hard choices, explicit consequences and the constant visible pressure of the chasers. The elements in a game that keep me engaged in a campaign, even a limited one: a mystery that advances, and character improvement.

With that all in mind, here is my first draft of proposed changes and some discussion on them. The primary changes are to the Risk Sheet and how the Risks play out, as well as some personalized Risks. I would love to hear thoughts on these modifications. If anyone decides to use them, that would be great. Let me know how they turned out for you. Leave a comment!

Goal:
6: Runner achieves goal and finds a clue. Player has first say.
Other results as per book.
Special Addition: If the runner’s goal is resolving a Clue, Goal leaves play for that action and Clue is used instead.

In play I never found any reason to put a high number on Goal, which isn't a bad thing as there are plenty of ways for things to go wrong besides this. I wanted to include a reason to put a good roll there and this also seemed like a great way to also introduce further Clues into the story.

Reveal:
4: Runner finds a clue. GM has first say.
Other results as per book.

When given the option to have reveal that answers a question, a player may always elect to select a new question instead (no runner may have more than six unanswered questions at a time). First say is determined as normal. Alternatively, the player may also elect to find a clue regarding whatever is going on (first say is determined as normal). Every question that is answered gives each runner 1 experience point, regardless of whose question was answered.

The range of reveals was reduced to both slow that process down - it would yield too much XP too quickly - and increase the emphasis on the evolving group nature of the game. Ideally the first session or two will be more reveal-centric with sessions after that focusing more around clues and working together to resolve them. Memories would still feature prominently, but they would become something that evolves from the story, rather than directing it as they do initially.

Clue: Do I make progress on solving this clue?

6: Unexpected find: runner may add a token to the clue and a token to an additional clue. GM has first say.
4-5: Progress: runner may add a token to the clue. GM has first say.
2-3: It could be worse: runner does not add any tokens to the clue. Player has first say.
1: It’s worse: runner removes one token from the clue. Player has first say.

Clues are additional story points that are added through the actions of the runners. They can be an item, a place, a name, even a memory. A clue should never be in the form of a question, but a statement, nor should it be possessive (it isn't anyone's clue). Questions can, and often should, arise from clues. When a clue is brought into play, write the clue on a notecard and perhaps some details about when, where and how it was found. Resolution of a clue involves a series of actions specifically dedicated to uncovering what the clue means. The successful actions taken to resolve the clue ideally will inform the nature of the clue that is resolve (e.g. resolved from investigating the sewers should be related to something sinister happening, or winding up, down there). When there are a number of tokens on a clue equal to the number of runners, the clue is resolved. Every clue that is resolved gives each runner 1 experience point. The objective of clues is to give structure to what is going on and provide a longer running narrative.

Psi:

Power E
6: Powers cause no trouble. Player has first say.
5: Power blip: things go mostly, but not entirely, as intended. Other players have first say.
1-4: Power flux: something goes wrong in the immediate area and things are broken or people hurt. After dropping dice as appropriate select one of the following: goal is achieved on 5+, or no more than a 4 may be placed in chase or harm. Harm may be risked if it was not initially risked. Other players have first say.

Power D
6: Powers cause no trouble. Player has first say.
5: Power blip: things go mostly, but not entirely, as intended. Other players have first say.
3-4: Power flux: something goes wrong in the immediate area and things are broken or people hurt. After dropping dice as appropriate select one of the following: goal is achieved on 5+, or no more than a 4 may be placed in chase or harm. Harm may be risked if it was not initially risked. Other players have first say.
1-2: Power rush: something goes wrong and engulfs the room. People may be injured, things broken. After dropping dice as appropriate select one of the following: goal is achieved on 6+, or no more than a 4 may be placed in Chase or Harm. Harm may be risked if it was not initially risked.GM has first say.

Power C
6: Powers cause no trouble. Player has first say.
5: Power blip: things go mostly, but not entirely, as intended. Other players have first say.
3-4: Power rush: something goes wrong and engulfs the room. People may be injured, things broken. After dropping dice as appropriate select one of the following: goal is achieved on 6+, or no more than a 4 may be placed in chase or harm. Harm may be risked if it was not initially risked. Other players have first say.
1-2: Power surge: people may be injured, things broken - it would make local news. After dropping dice as appropriate select one of the following: no more than a 4 may be placed in chase or harm. Harm may be risked if it was not initially risked.GM has first say.

Power B
6: Powers cause no trouble. Player has first say.
5: Power blip: things go mostly, but not entirely, as intended. Other players have first say.
3-4: Power surge: people may be injured, things broken - it would make local news. After dropping dice as appropriate select one of the following: no more than a 4 may be placed in chase or harm. Harm may be used if it was not initially risked. Other players have first say.
1-2: Power eruption: people are dead, things destroyed - it would make national news. After dropping dice as appropriate select one of the following: no more than a 2 may be placed in chase or harm, or no more than a 4 may be placed in chase and harm (harm must be risked). Harm may be risked if it was not initially risked. GM has first say.

Psi powers are closely tied with advancement and as you grow more powerful, so do the opportunities to cause horrific damage with increasingly dire consequences. At the crash each runner has the following psi limitations: One effect (e.g. movement, destruction, healing, creation, stealth, information, interaction, etc.) and may only affect their self, or a very small effect/range if self is inappropriate. Use Power Risk E.

Harm:
2: Runner is hurt and impaired for the rest of the session. GM has first say.
1: Runner is hurt and impaired for the rest of the game. GM has first say.

Other results as per book.

Special Addition: Another player may elect to take the Harm from this result instead of the acting player. The hurt player will have first say for all aspects of this action (except Chase).

Impaired:

Special Addition: Triply impaired: You may not take actions until you have recovered to at least doubly impaired. Another runner’s action must always include moving you when advancing to the next locale. If another runner is not present at your locale, then actions must be spent to arrive at your locale before the chasers do. If chasers are at the locale of a character that is incapable of taking actions, they are automatically caught unless another player spends their action to move the character. Alternatively, Help may be used to resolve this. See “Help” below under other uses for experience.

Given the goal of having long-term play, I wanted character death to really be in the control of the player and have capture be the far more serious long-term consequence. As well being impaired for the rest of the game is a pretty big deal when that game is more than three sessions. That being said, things can still get very rough for everyone if you get very roughed up.

Chase:
Results as per book.

Capture:
Results as per book.

Disappear:
Results as per book.
Special Addition: If a runner disappears, players immediately receive a clue regarding where the character has disappeared to. Character that has been captured may participate in actions once a scene in a limited fashion until they have been rescued by the other characters (which really should be all that they are doing until resolved). This is can be an excellent opportunity for the captured character to have reveals and gather clues.

Help
At half the cost of an advancement (rounded up), a runner may instead purchase Help. Any runner may only have one unused Help at a time. After a roll, any player may decide that the acting runner receives Help from an outside agency that will be defined at the time. The player that makes this decision will be expending their help. The player may then adjust one die to a 6 to represent this help and the nature of the help provided should be directly related to where the affected die was placed. The die may not be adjusted any further by other advancements the runner may have. Once defined (e.g. cab driver), there can be no other Help from another cab driver, only that cab driver. Each time that helper is used another defining characteristic must be added by the player being helped.

Given the proposed cost of advancements below (equal to the number of players), an astute reader will note that once you have enough experience points to purchase help, it can then quickly be leveraged into providing increasing amounts of experience points to the group as a whole. Since the cost is half the number of players (rounded up) and will provide experience points equal to the number of players, this can be used to provide a lot of reveals early on. As things proceed, it should taper off as the costs will break even at best once all of the initial questions are exhausted. This seems to be a feature to me. It encourages players sharing experience points early on and thinking more as how their actions can benefit everyone instead of just themselves. As well it introduces NPCs to flesh out the setting as well as potentially make them relevant to the plot if they were used for a Reveal.

Example of Help: Jesse is in a pickle and is about to be captured by the chasers. He calls on the Help he previously purchased in the form of a rogue chaser that is secretly on the runners’ side (or so they think). The chaser helps Jesse by giving him an opportunity to flee. Later, Jason is in danger of dying from some psychic surgery gone horribly wrong. He calls on Help and decides that the same chaser from before arrives to provide a first aid kit. Jason decides that not only is he a “rogue chaser”, he is also “widowed”. Something about the chaser indicates that fact. Noting that the help (a 6) has been placed in Goal, the GM decides that the clue will be the widowed rogue chaser saying “27 September” before leaving.

Advancements
Advancements cost a number of experience points equal to the number of runners. Advancements may be purchased at any time prior to the dice roll for an action. You may only select an advancement once unless stated otherwise. If you want faster or slower advancement, adjust the cost of advancements down or up respectively.

Here are some examples, but this list is by no means exhaustive and any input would be more than welcome:

• Talent: +1 to your goal die for a specified type of action: Movement, healing, destruction, building, stealth, interaction, etc. You may select this advancement more than once, each additional selection must be for a different type of action and the bonuses will not stack.
• Skill: if the die on goal is 7+, you may improve any other die by +2. Must possess talent.
• Investigator: +1 to your clue die. You must have a relevant psi power and be risking psi, or have a relevant talent advancement to use this.
• Revelations: if the die on reveal is 7+, may choose the following result: Runner has a memory and answers one of their questions. Afterwards they may ask a new question. Other players have first say.
• Tough: +1 to the harm die if you will be suffering an injury. This may explicitly work if you are taking an injury for someone else, but will not work if someone else is taking an injury for you.
• Help: you may receive help at a future date. This advancement is removed when used. After this is removed, you may select it again. This advancement costs half the normal amount (rounded up).
• Psi effect: add another effect to your psi power: Movement, healing, destruction, building, information, stealth, interaction, etc. You may select this advancement more than once.
• Psi control: Power blip is eliminated: "5-6: Powers cause no trouble. Player has first say."
• Psi aptitude: +1 to your psi die for a specific type of effect. You must possess the associated psi effect. You may select this advancement more than once.
• Psi gift: if the die on psi is 7+, you may improve any two other dice by +1. You must possess the associated psi aptitude.
• Psi capacity: you may now affect your immediate area, up to a room, with a proportional increase in power. Use Power Risk D.
• Psi potential: you may now affect a large area around you, up to a building, with a proportional increase in power. Use Power Risk C. You must possess psi capacity to select this advancement.
• Psi power: you may now affect a significant area around you, up to a city block, with a proportional increase in power. Use Power Risk B. You must possess psi potential to select this advancement.

Psi*Run

In Psi*Run you play a psychic with amnesia (also called a "runner") that has just escaped during a crash. While evading the chasers (the NPCs that will be chasing your runners) and coming to grips with your strange powers, you are trying to regain your memories because that is the only way you will be able to bring this to an end.

The system for this game is simple, easy to grasp and will largely propel the session on its own momentum. You'll just need a few printouts, 3x5 cards and a sharpie, some tokens and a pile of d6 (at least 6). The printouts that you will be using are character sheets, the risk sheet and the chasers sheet.

Each game will involve having the GM and the players decide what kind of themes you want to play with, both for your powers and whatever secrets will be associated with this run (e.g. power origins, government conspiracies, who you really are, etc.). This isn't expressly necessary, but this conversation really seems to focus everyone's attention and keeps things from diverging wildly. This is particularly true if two players are trying to tell very different stories, which can be awesome, or it can be messy and incoherent. That discussion will get everyone on board and significantly help direct character and chaser creation, which can be difficult for some given how open-ended it is, and there isn't much to help direct your thoughts.

Making a character starts with the character sheet. It has everything you're going to need on it from creation, throughout play and onto the endgame. The book, which is slender at 60 pages and a small shape (~8 x 6), does an excellent job of relating all of the creation steps through numerous examples throughout the text, often with completed examples in sidebars. To start you pick a name and apparent age, what your powers are, what you see when you look in the mirror and then choose your questions (these are what you explicitly do not know about yourself, but through answering them will tell your, perhaps others', and the game story).

The book suggests that you leave your powers (it is worth noting that psychic powers aren't a requirement and a group of fallen angels is just as supported as rogue psychics from Push) vague rather than specific and I agree. It keeps what exactly you are capable of a mystery to everyone, but a strong theme and some implications goes a long way; e.g. searing light that leaves me empty. What you see when you look in the mirror is a creative way of describing what you look like, perhaps with some interesting implications (e.g. I cannot help but stare at my eyes and wonder), consistent with how you will see yourself for the first time - what with the amnesia.

Answering your questions will be your ultimate goal, though odds are that you will not be the one giving the answers. It is really vital that your questions interest not only you, but everyone else in the group so that they have a stake in who you are. At least one should relate to your powers (e.g. why does my light leave me?), one should relate to your strengths and weaknesses (e.g. why can I never meet her eyes?), and at least one should relate to your immediate, past, or current circumstances (e.g. who is Deacon Priest?). Everyone will have the same number of questions (four to six), but not all questions need to be decided right away, besides the three aforementioned. The number of questions that each character has will heavily influence how long the game goes; the more questions, the longer the game. If you want a one-shot, I would strongly suggest that you have no more than four questions.

The GM will start by taking care of the chasers and filling out the chaser sheet. The chaser sheet is useful the first time and is really just a way to organize thoughts, but after that a sheet of paper with a nice blank area I have found to be more than sufficient. On the sheet you keep track of all of the public information about the chasers, their look (e.g. black suits and mirror shades), methods (e.g. ruthless efficiency) and powers (e.g. preternatural awareness). On one of your notecards, the chaser card, make some secret notes that keep with the themes from the chaser sheet and provides imagery, items, events, whatever to keep things moving forward and hangs things on (e.g. black basalt, no eyes, The Revelation Device, Dr. Cypher).

From here you are ready to get started, which means laying the first card in the trail, the crash! The trail are the locations the players have traveled to which the chasers will be following. Every player should have their own distinct token that will be used to show what location they are at, this is particularly important if players ever branch off. From here the system takes over and the first thing to remember is that no one gets to take two actions in a row. In fact, I prefer to have everyone take an action before someone gets to go again, it helps to ensure that everyone has a say and doesn't feel overshadowed. I crafted some tokens to keep track of just this from red and white poker chips. Every player begins at the crash! having just awakened with no memories, the inkling of strange power and questions. Oh yeah, and you're being chased.

This is the point where you begin to interact with the system. Whenever you want to take a significant action you roll some dice. A significant action is defined as one where something can go wrong, shows off how awesome you are (possibly at making things go horribly wrong, but that's for you do decide), could trigger a memory, takes time and focus, and/or might expose you to danger. The number of dice you roll is based on the number of true statements from the following: I'm exceptional, I want to do something important, this might trigger a memory, the chasers might catch up, I am using a psi power, and/or I am risking harm. The first four are always true and all of these are on your character sheet for easy reference. You start with four dice, but can have up to six. If you are using a psi power and/or are risking harm, things might go sideways more spectacularly, but you have more control over how your decisions are made. Here's an example of two risks:

Reveal:

• 6: Runner has a memory that answers one of their questions. Player has first say.
• 4-5: Runner has a memory that answers one of their questions. Other players have first say.
• 1-3: Runner has no memory triggered. Player has first say.

Psi:

• 5-6: Power causes no trouble. Player has first say.
• 3-4: Power surge: people may be injured, things may be broken - it would make local news. GM has first say.
• 1-2: Power goes wild: people may be dead, things are destroyed - it would make national news. GM has first say.

Once you've rolled your dice, you will place them on the risk sheet. The risk sheet is a handy reference that guides you through your decision making process based on what you rolled on your dice and the consequences for a given result on each risk (it may sound complicated, but it couldn't be more simple in practice). The risks that are always in play are goal (do you accomplish your goal?), reveal (do you remember anything?) and chase (do the chasers advance?). If you used psi and/or harm, then the psi;(do your powers cause trouble?)and harm (are you hurt?) risks are in play for that action as appropriate.

You may note that you are rolling more dice than you can place, which means you get to drop your lowest die. The exception to that is if you are hurt and impaired. If you are impaired you lose a die before you roll, so you have to place all of the dice. If you are doubly impaired (you've been hurt and impaired twice), you have to lose your highest die after your roll. That is pretty rough and means that things are going to be in a bad way very soon.

Each risk will also dictate who has first say over the events. Typically this is the active player or the GM, but not always. If the chasers ever catch up with a runner, different risks will be revealed instead of chase. It changes the tone of what is going on.

This is why it is important that your questions are interesting to not only you, but the other players as well. There is a good chance that they will be answering most of your questions for you. This really works for me as it builds a stake for each player in all of the other characters, so they are fans of that character and invested in their story, and through that tying all of the stories together. In practice, at least. Sometimes it can get messy, but that is where a brief discussion before getting started so that everyone is cribbing from the same notes can go a long way to creating something that is a little more coherent. That isn't going to work for everyone, naturally.

Once a player has answered all of their questions (if you didn't fill them all out during character creation, you will use reveals to ask new ones), that is when the endgame begins, called the Crossroads. The player that starts the Crossroads gets to pick from the available endings first: Home, turning the tables, on a quest, hidden, trapped, lost, or making a discovery. Then each player, moving from most to least answered questions, picks an ending; no one can have the same ending. From there the GM decides the order the endings play out and the players narrate how they play out. I like to write the each ending on a notecard and the order for them to play out on the back ahead of time; it gives the player that picked it an immediate cue to where their ending will be taking place in the overall sequence and they can begin planning accordingly. Sometimes a brief note to offer some more structure helps; e.g. "#1, you die in this one" on Turning the Tables and "#7, this is the happy ending" on Home.

My only real criticism for this game is with the Psi risk above. I've found that it has no mechanical teeth behind the consequences. All other risks clearly list the consequences for the decisions that you make, but all of those for Psi require some significant buy-in, and given the limited nature of the game not all players will have that. It often becomes a place to dump poor rolls so that avoiding chasers and harm are fairly straightforward. If you're playing conservatively and only gaining reveals when you can afford to, this becomes even more of a problem.

Towards that end I've found modifying the 3-4 and 1-2 levels slightly to give the consequences to those actions that make them more risky. For 3-4 I include "Cannot play a die higher than 4 on one of Chase or Hurt risks" and for 1-2 "Cannot play a die higher than 2 on one of Chase or Hurt risks, or cannot play a die higher than 4 on Chase and Hurt risks. Hurt can now become a risk at the Runner's choice". It worked to really increase the drama and Things Going Horribly Wrong with groups that tended to be very careful to always stay well ahead of the chasers and have little regard for the carnage they left in their wake. This broke the immersion and illusion of competence on the part of the chasers, who could not follow an arrow straight line of devastation.

Another option that I found useful was to allow another runner to take the harm in place of the acting runner in exchange for first say in that action, including the GM say. This seems to get players more into a place of working together, willing to sacrifice for each other, and aware of the potential consequences of their risks. It also grants more opportunities for the players to take control of the narrative, but at a cost.

All summed, I think that this is a great little game. Four questions is an excellent number for a long evening and more will give multiple sessions to wrap everything up. I highly recommend this for some structured cooperative storytelling and really wrecking some major metropolitan area.