After Action Report: The Appalling Strangeness
You know what running that one-shot was like? Running that one-shot was like putting on your favourite pair of jeans again. It doesn't matter how nice whatever you were wearing was, it's just so good to find yourself in something so completely comfortable. It was like coming back home.
Of course, it helps that the scenario was building on two reasonably successful campaigns, so I didn't have to re-imagine a lot of the world, and I already had locations that three quarters of my group knew fairly well and a cast of characters I could walk across the stage if I needed to.
So, for the benefit of those who weren't there - a quick rundown. You can get the basic setup here. Rachel ( suyongli ) and Peter (Mr P) Reed, after some out-of-scenario legwork, tracked Jackie to a bunch called Satan's Chosen Temple, and the Temple itself to its temporary digs in Carindale (while a members parents were out of town). Said member (Lylyth - not her real name - played by sugaryfun) had tied up her boyfriend, T-Joe, while he sucked down a bottle of 'possession juice' in an effort to get a demon to ride him. Demons, of course, love that shit, and one showed up (played by Mr D) just as the Reeds rang the doorbell.
What followed in my head was a five-minute introductory scene wherein everyone made their introductions, established what they were after from the night and went off, arm more or less in arm. Instead, the players turned it into a half-hour dance of shifting alliances (Mr D's efforts to convice someone - anyone - to untie him were enormously entertaining).
Now, one of the fun things I'd built into this scenario was the familiarity of one of the characters. In fact, he was so familiar that I was rewarded with groans of recognition from sugaryfun and Mr P when he started ranting about how he could find Jackie. GMs out there: if you're looking for a way to revitalise an adversary who's gone a bit stale, have one of the players take them over, but don't tell anyone else. You'll be glad you did.
Anyway, the four of them went off to the burned-out tennis courts on Milton Road - Peter and Lylyth more convinced than ever that everything had gone horribly, horribly wrong and Rachel trying to work out what on earth was going on around her. At this point, I more or less sat back and let the pre-established character conflicts do my job for me. (Actually, that's a lie. I did throw an old friend of T-Joe and Lylyth into the mix to test Raymond Chandler's advice about having someone come into the scene with a gun. It works.) There was a standoff, gunshots, woundings, a forced injection of heroin and a reenactment of THAT scene from The Exorcist.
In the end, Rachel and Peter wisely decided to flee the scene (though leaving her car behind to be found by the Police). The Demon pretty much browbeat poor Lylyth into going through the entrance of Jackie's new otherspatial home, before using her as a trojan horse to get itself over the threshold - kicking her out of her body in the process. We left things there - in true I-run-Unknown-Armies-like-a-big-literary-tosser fashion, nothing was completely resolved.
I have to praise the fantastic efforts of my players, all of whom got right into characters they hadn't created and played them to the hilt, often against type ( sugaryfun's cries of 'this character is CRAP!' whenever she failed a roll to notice something gladdened my black, dessicated GM heart). I don't think the scenario I had loosely planned in my head would have worked if the players hadn't been willing to play up the areas of friction between them. Special credit goes to suyongli, who had never looked at the game before, but picked up the mechanics with admirable alacrity and ran well with the grungy, bogan nature of the scenario. I like to think she had fun finding 'Fearsome bitching-out: 40%' and similar things on her character sheet.
I mentioned the possibility of running this again - perhaps at next year's Gen Con. Before I do, I'll need to test it on some people who haven't played in one of my campaigns, and won't get all the references to past events. If the whole thing isn't a complete exercise in self-gratification on my part, it should work well with them, too.
Failing that, there's always Jailbreak...