The Middle When the next session rolls around, go through the same motions as before. The characters will experience the last session again, but this time, everything has a very surreal feel to it. The Watchers make more appearances, and this time, they'll be ready for the characters. Every time they approach the Watchers, the men in black will disappear in even more mysterious and disturbing ways. Melt them down like last time, or explode them into blue flame. Have them sink to the ground or have a nasty Cthulhu-like nastie rip up the fabric of space and time to take them away. It's all up to you. Remember to keep reminding your players that feeling of Deja Vu just won't leave them alone, but they are just dead wrong about it. This has never happened before and you don't have any idea what they are talking about. Making obvious traditions like this right in the player's faces will get them perturbed. Good. The angrier they get, the more the computer that's running the VR lightshow screws up. But if they get real belligerent about it, get belligerent back. Throw dice at them (make sure you miss, by the way), shout at them and tell them to "SHUT UP!" Or, take a more subtle approach by requiring them to make rolls for everything they do. Have them use Dex/Reflex rolls to pick up a cup of coffee or put the key in the ignition of their car. Keep this up until they drop this ridiculous notion that they've seen this before. If they try to throw themselves off of buildings or anything else suicidal, tell them "You know, this may only be a hunch, but something like that may be rather -- terminal." By the way, it is rather terminal. The computer running the simulation will overload if one of them tries something "terminal." It will cause massive feedback in the computer's circuitry, causing a crash. The entire system will overload. All the other characters will go black and you take the character that did the dirty deed out of the room. Tell them they wake up in a VR suit, tied down and very, very hungry. There's an IV up the character's nose that goes all the way down the throat and into the stomach. Let them deal with that for a while. Then, once they've gotten themselves free, go through the following description for your little martyr. Good Clean Fun: If you want some real paranoia, try this out. The other PCs don't know what happened to the awakened PC during their blackout. When he returns, begin the day all over again. The awakened PC knows that his memory is supposed to erased, but something's gone wrong and he has his full memory of his time in the laboratory. Now watch him as he tries to convince the other PCs that throw themselves off of buildings or in front of trucks will "free" them from their trap. Just good, clean fun. The Staroscik maneuver This is an alternate means of escape for your PC's that Matt Staroscik used in one of the playtest sessions. When the guards came rushing through the door, demanding the PCs get down on the floor, Matt just stood there with a smile on his face saying, "You're not going to hurt us. If you do, you'll have to answer to the guys who have been keeping us alive for months. Why don't you hand your gun over to me? They still had to engage in HTH with the guards, but was a brilliant move a worth mentioning as a alternative. Those damn clever players. The Laboratory It's your typical super-sterile, super advanced laboratory. The other characters are locked away on their own tables with their own IV's and VR suits. There's a door to the south, but it's got an electric lock that will not give. Tubes and wires line the walls, giving the lab a kind of archaic or alchemical feel. Everything is beeping and bleeping and the character won't understand any of it. It'll be at this point that the door will buzz and a thin, scrawny doctor will wander in with a Coke and a clipboard. When the character attacks poor Dr. Charles Westmoreland, the doctor will be terrified, taken completely off guard. He'll do anything the character wants him to do. You see, he's fully aware of how dangerous the characters are. After all, why else would they be locked away? He's fully ready to cooperate in any way he can. Westmoreland knows how to wake up the other characters (they're on "pause" at the moment) . and he'll begin to do so as soon as the freed character demands that he do it. However, once he does so, he'll notice that the silent alarm has been switched and he'll start to stall. Westmoreland is no actor, however, and a good Interception Roll of some kind will alert the character of his activities. If the character doesn't catch the hint, have security show up, lock him up again and erase his memory of the event. He gets start all over again. But if the character is smart enough to pick up the hint, he can have Westmoreland lock the door again and get at least get at least two more of the characters out of their predicament. Your characters will come up with really clever ways to keep the door locked. Let them. They'll be suffering from starvation, bumbling around and dry-heaving for a while. After all, they've been locked up for five months, that's right, five months. It's taken them that long to break out of the computer's spell. If the characters whine, have Westmoreland tell them they've got people in the 'freezers down the all that have been there for years. Let 'em chew on that for a while. Once the characters get all their compatriots out of lock-up the security will be working at a way to burn through the lock. The only way out is through a tiny airduct in the ceiling. There's plenty of stuff around the room to stack to build a make-shift ladder, and once they're there, they'll have to shove each other into the hole. Of course, just when the last character is ready to jump up, Westmoreland will bolt for the door and let the security guys in. Just as they grab for his leg, the ther characters will be able to pull him up. He'll be kicking and screaming, his legs pulled down by hefty security guys, and just as he's yanked up, they'll all have to dodge bullets as the guards fire rip into the airduct. Pretty breathtaking, eh? The characters race through a maze of ducts, bumbling across a small room with doctors' overcoats. This is their only chance to get some clothes. The airducts eventually lead out to an iron staircase leading straight up. From there, they find a stone stairway and the distant sound of rushing water. The walls are sweating and the droplets have a salty taste. Ending (and Beginning Again) When the characters escape the underground, they will come up into the desolate sewer system of Al Amarja. No doubt, they will have no idea where they are or how they got there. They have no identification, no passports, no visas, nothing. They're going to have to go through illegal means to get some, and of course, that means going through the black market of Al Amarja's capital city, The Edge. The "barrio" that they've risen up to is the Great Men Barrio. Here, statues of men from history stand in the midst of graffiti and filth. This is one of the more dangerous parts of town, it makes Harlem look like Rivendell. The first things they see are a gated warehouse (the home of Sir Arthur Compton), the Winds of Change Casino, and the D'Aubainne Museum of Modern Life. The cannot enter Compton's home, no matter how clever they think they are. The security at the D'Aubainne Museum isn't about to let a bunch of freaks who smell like the sewers in. It looks as if the only place to find shelter is in Chick's casino... When they step inside, the characters will be surrounded by sensations. The lights are low, the air is thick with the smell of cigars, cigarettes, marijuana and incence, and there is the sound of money jingling and jangling just under the ruckus of wild men making wild wagers. It looks like a scene right out of an Indiana Jones film with livestock at their feet and low lamps hanging from the low ceiling just before their eyes. There are dense shadows to hide in, and couples are making good use of the space. In the midst of it, surrounded by beautiful men both young and old, is Chikutorpl ("Chick" to her friends). She is majestic. Dark eyes peek out from behind a white feathered mask, and her lips are red and plush. There is enough jewelry about her neck, bare ankles and fingers to buy the characters a dozen fake ID's -- a dozen for each major country in the world, that is. She immediately notices them and moves through her crowd of worshipers right to them. Her voice is... somehow not human. She speaks with an accent that no one will recognize, anld invites the characters to sit down, have a drink on the casino and enjoy themselves. She's a sucker for a good story and she wants to hear theirs. Whether they lie or tell the truth, she'll laugh all the way through, especially at the painful parts. Then, she will call for refills on their drinks and invite them to the back of the bar. The characters are in for a real surprise. Chick's casino is a rather strange piece that ignores many of the laws of our reality. If you can hit the place with strange, non-Euclidean angles that defy our understanding of modern architecture and physics, you'll be doing just fine. When they reach the back of the place, they'll be surrounded by a sordid crew of criminals and desperate men, for Chick's casino is the last place you go when you have nowhere else to run. These folks are making wagers with the only thing they have left. Mr. Joel Blankenship is wagering his sight to have a chance to break his writer's block. Many years ago, he wrote a beautiful novel, and has not been able to write a single word since. What the PC's will see is his failure to toss a quarter "heads up" three times in a row. As the third coin falls down tails, his face twists into a mask of terror and his eyes explode into green fire. Chick giggles and turns on her naked heel to the characters, her smile full of sabers. "So," she asks, "what do you want to wager?" Now's their chance. She's willing to let them wager something very clear to discover their forgotten past. Or to get a whole ton of money. It's up to them. There's only one catch. They can only wager for themselves. Sorry, but you can't be put in charge of someone else's destiny. Also, they can't change anything that's already happened. We're dealing with destiny here, not with the past. When they tell her what they want, Chick will look at each of them individually and tell them what they have to put up in exchange. She will know precise details of their backgrounds, dreams and fears. Then, she will turn to a craps table and take two dice into her hand. "Roll these," she says. "Roll a seven and we'll see what I can do." When Chick announces this, pull out and roll d6's and play with them between your fingers. (See sidebar.) If they really want to chance it, let them. It'll just give them something else to do while they're in The Edge. If not, remind them that they'll be turning down the opportunity of a lifetime. If they still refuse, Chick will sigh and become bored with them and find someone else to play with. Afterward Well, you've got them in Al Amarja. Now its up to you to keep them there. The Customs and Immigration department will be very interested in how they got to the island without the proper papers, and the Peace Force will be looking out anyone fitting their description. Why? Because more fun that way. I designed this trick to work with Over The Edge, but it can be used to bring your players into just about any game from any game system. Try bringing fantasy characters into Vampire Shadowrun characters into Doomtrooper. After it's not the system that matters, it's the setting and the characters that enter into it. Once again, I hope this little strategy inspires some wicked thoughts in your brain. One of the dangerous traps to fall into when you're a player is complacency. It's all too easy for players to get to know you and your style. But you take away everything they rely on -- even the world under their feet -- then they really have to improvise, and that's when players are truly their best. Films to Watch: For more inspiration, check out North by Northwest and The Man Who Knew Too Much (two great Hitchcock classics), Frantic (with Harrison Ford), Blow Out (with John Travolta), and The Usual Suspects (now out on video). All these are great examples on pulling in normal folks into mind-blowing conspiracies. You Bet Your Life Remember when I mentioned that I playtested this story with the players running themselves? Well, when we came to this part of the story, I handed them the dice and had them wagering some pretty precious things. I do not use dice when I GM, and now I was letting them wager everything on a roll of the dice. Neeedless to say the dice were like hot potatoes and they were very reluctant to roll them. Try it out with your own group and see what happens. Deja Vu: Section 1 Back to Shadis #25 Table of Contents Back to Shadis List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master List of Magazines © Copyright 1996 by Alderac Entertainment Group This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com