The final play reports for my >1yr long Maximum Recursion Depth campaign. I can't fully express just how happy I am with how this all resolved, and how grateful I am for my players. I've played in or run a handful of >1yr long campaigns so far, and this is only the second to come to a proper conclusion, and the first to do so satisfactorily. This campaign truly lived up to the ideals of what I had intended MRD to be, and did so in a way that I had not anticipated, driven by the actions of the Players and the decisions they made given the conceits I presented to them. We'll be following up with a new campaign where one of the Players will take over as GM with their own modified take on MRD, and I'll be running an MRD2 campaign with a new group IRL, but this feels like a milestone in the journey of creation that has been MRD.
I realize at this point that these play reports are all over the place and probably impossible to follow. Maybe at some point I'll try to do a "campaign summary" basically explaining the whole thing in brief. In typical Weird & Wonderful Worlds fashion, I'd say don't worry about the particulars, just come along for the ride, there's some cool wild stuff in here.
MRD Play Report Index
MRD Module / GM Notes
The Court of Those Who Succumb Prematurely to Crippling Expectations (A significantly rewritten, improved, and expanded version is included in the Module of the book)
Doctor Loves-Me-Not's Halloween Party (GM Notes)
Off to the (Karmamare) Racetracks (GM Notes)
I gave up on doing GM Notes posts after a while, but some of the GM Notes are included in the PRs, especially for sessions that were more Conflict-heavy or Adventure-y
Session 25: Kristalvers Amsterdam
An oppressive stillness, trapped in a grayness between twilight and sunrise. A city like a retrofuturist cyberpunk 1970’s/80’s New York/Hong Kong/Tokyo full of metal and neon injected with sleek modern glass skyscrapers. Mirrors and invisible glass walls create mazes and optical illusions and it is often easier to traverse space across the illusions. The entire space appears to be encased in glass, recognizable due to a fracture in the sky streaking like a comet from its round epicenter.
After defeating Charging Bull in the previous session, Naked Fox-Hare opens up a portal to Kristalvers Amsterdam. This session served mostly as a send-off, giving the Team one last chance to interact with many of the NPCs they encountered on their journey and tie up any loose ends. They also get a final encounter boss fight with The Multi-Armed Bandit, the Rogue Poltergeist who has been mastermind the hate group The Deseret Avengers, who they had a tenuous alliance with but which collapses.
Tim’s at 25th: A 25-hour diner that finds the lost and listless. A temporary refuge from the pervasive yet ill-defined threats of the outside world; whether ennui or dysphoria or the panopticon of a fascist dictatorship.
They work a deal with Randy, the Recess Rascal who they encountered in one of the earliest sessions, who has since aged up and is working with Chester, they're former Handler as Poltergeist Investigators who they had long ago moved on from.
They have a quick quince-tini with Barsabbas and Yana at a Wrongside Racetrax franchise location.
There was a Niguma Temple scenario they didn't engage with.
Then they finally have a big boss battle confrontation with The Multi-Armed Bandit.
The Arena
- Glass and Mirrors
- Tall but still enclosed with a fracture in the sky
- Multi-tiered- street, skyscrapers, medium-sized buildings, plenty of above-ground walkways
- Fast-passing vehicles
- Inception-style illusory geometry
Multi-Armed Bandit
Alexei Strauss has been evading reincarnation while running the Deseret Avengers as a Rogue Poltergeist. While working with the other factions to defeat Glass Maiden Pixie, he realizes that he will no longer be able to evade the Numberless Courts of Hell and has a change of heart. He would sooner let the world be destroyed than accept the reincarnation sentenced to him.
- Red Bandits (x5): 3HP, Nd8 (collectively), 60% Word
- Blue Bandits (x5): 3HP, Pd8 (collectively), 40% Word
- Green Bandits (x5): 3HP, Wd8 (collectively), 80% Word
- There is an X% chance of getting a Word when defeating bandits.
- Words are used for Concept Crafting.
- A counter shows X/10, increasing by each defeated Bandit, after which no more Words are provided and a bigger threat approaches.
- There's a 50 Word Bank for this but this post is already cluttered so I'm just gonna leave it out...
After defeating the bandits, the Multi-Armed Bandit becomes an Ashura.
Ashura Multi-Armed Bandit
Wild West Sheriff with an explosion of arms like a tumbleweed, flashing with disoriented lights, neon, and loud noises, each arm a different kind of gun composed of Words.
- 30HP
- Xd6-Xd12 depending on Gun, conditional abilities from Words
- New gun generated on each turn, composed of three Words (if buffed by Moon Marine), two words if >50% HP, one word if <50% HP
Moon Marine
Wrapped up in Alexei’s claims that this will be the end of the DA, she initially turns on The Team, but may be convinced to rejoin.
- Uses her magic to provide Alexei an additional word per Gun every other turn.
- 15 HP
- Scorned Lover's Halation: Wd12, Bifurcated Cupid Arrow tipped with bright light.
- Spiraling Heart's Abandon: Nd12, Pink spiral beam emits from chest.
- Lost in Moonlight's Escalation: Pd12, Summons a magic moon that emanates below.
- KAO: Soft Mother suggests to Alco to sacrifice her Plumbers License to the Ghost in the Mirror, so that she can return to Squaretime and free Jerome Candle, who can empathize with (and be entangled in Conflict with) Moon Marine, convincing her to reconsider her worldview.
- It doesn’t mean anything anyway, she says.
- KAO: Doctor Loves-Me-Not sacrifices themself, as a living idea, to incept Love into Moon Marine.
Rather than these KAOs, Jack used the Sword of Manjushri to enlighten Moon Marine and bring her around to their side.
Alco had to use her reincarnation ritual, but was brought to Squaretime by The Ghost in the Mirror. She made the same KAO deal with Soft Mother above to give up her Plumbing License in order to rescue Jerome Candle and return to the fight immediately.
After defeating the Multi-Armed Bandit, he gives them the location of the Glass House for the final confrontation with Glass Maiden Pixie.
Session 26: The Glass House aka The Court of the Unasked Question
The final confrontation with Emil McGinley aka Glass Maiden Pixie, the Poltergeist Investigator who used to work with Dori before setting her up for a fall in order to escape with a Magic Lamp. With the Lamp, he encoded a Wish to Break the World, in order to be freed and free all from this disgusting, distorted, dysfunctional existence. The Team don't want the world to end, but they have their own plans in mind for how to break the Karmic Cycle and radically alter reality.
The Glass House
Massive Crystal Palace, where the entire outer surface is like a one-way mirror (the inside is The Court of the Unasked Question).
As The Wish Unravels, the Karmic Cycle is so disturbed that Reincarnation Rituals are not possible; if one acquires too much Karma they either die or become an Asura.
- Lobby/South Chamber (moon roof access for N.E.M.Os)
- East Chamber (Ghost in the Mirror / Homicidal Maniac)
- West Chamber (The Wish Unravels)
- North Chamber (Asura Glass Maiden Pixie)
N.E.M.O. (Non-Entity Multiplex Obliteration) Mk0 and Mk1 drop from a kaleidoscopic Twilight Beam in the sky in front of the Glass House. They will not attack on-sight, only if engaged or The Team tries to enter.
- Pungent odor of nearly overaged meat that sizzles in the Twilight Beams. Subtle notes in the odor change in sequence with the Twilight Beams.
- The odor and Twilight Beams of light are two components of Twilight, the encryption algorithm and language passing instructions to and from the NEMO.
- If The Team decrypt Twilight they can deal Enhanced TECH Damage to the NEMO once per turn.
- When they move the Twilight Beams of light follow them.
- If somehow the lights are blocked or the NEMOs pushed outside the bounds of the light, they take Sd6 Damage and are disabled for one turn. Each consecutive turn out of bounds the die size of Damage increases as they spoil.
- Much too large to enter The Glass House.
- KAO: Moon Marine and/or Doctor Loves-Me-Not could hold off the N.E.M.Os… but they will be tied up in it for the duration of the encounter and possibly die.
Indigo Cyclops bio-Mecha with a burning bright Karmic eye.
PHYS: 12, TECH: 11, SPEC: 11, HP: 6
- Nd6*10 Tendril of Null (eldritch prehensile tongue).
- Pd6*10 Churning Mass (one hundred arms extending from its stomach, the vengeance of exploitation of workers and the desperation of the starving).
- Wd8*10 Trauma Beam (indigo laser beam from Karmic eye, induces the experience of being eaten alive and having one’s Karma extracted like the separating of meat fibers from fat).
- Pulsing energy shield of indigo light (2 SPEC Armor).
I forget exactly how it played out, should have written better notes, but I believe they hacked the NEMO by stealing the Twilight Controller (see below) or something to that effect. It was very clever at the time, but the way things play out in the end was so profound to me that some of the boss battle / dungeon crawl-y particulars kind of don't matter to me as much anymore.
South Chamber
The lobby of The Glass House. The exit which they came from, and the entrances to any of the other chambers, are blocked by glass panes (only perceivable after they approach them).
- Moon roof and massive crystalline Glass Maiden Flying Guillotine chandelier floating in place.
- x6 Niguma Gangsters and x2 Niguma Mystics hovering on glass panes. They allow The Team to act freely unless provoked, merely standing ominously in rows on each side.
- Niguma Gangster: 3HP, Nd6 Axes, Enhanced if breaking a glass plane onto a PC
- Niguma Mystic: 3HP, Wd6, create physical glass pane barriers that can push PCs around (WIS Save). The planes can also be used to block exits, or push The Team up on the moon roof to the NEMOs or into the Glass Maiden Chandelier.
- Whoopi is the leader, also a Niguma Mystic, and the Twilight Controller of the NEMO. She wears sparkling gold and white robes and a cow horn hood, standing under the moon roof and Glass Maiden Flying Guillotine chandelier.
- 15HP, Niguma Mystic Abilities
- Controls the NEMOs (Twilight Controller)
- Twilight Beam Scramble:
- Full Success: Pd4
- Partial Success: Pd6
- Partial Failure: Pd6 and can't speak or understand language for duration of conflict
- Full Failure: Pd12, can't speak or understand language for duration of conflict, can't use WORDs
- Having doubts about Emil’s goals. Reining in the Gangsters from premature action, and may be convinced (likely through PRO Conflict) to back down.
- Fearless Girl will recognize Whoopi's disposition if The Team don’t.
- Fearless Girl will suggest using the Naked Fox-Hare Credit to preincarnate her into The Bear, having a sense that Whoopi will listen to The Bear.
- Offers to give The Team a tour of the Library.
Rewards
- It is possible for The Team to take the Glass Maiden flying guillotine with them.
- Get the words TWILIGHT and FERMENT if the Conflict ends peacefully.
They did manage to successfully convert Whoopi to their side without conflict, although I think it was all a bit dicey. Again, I've kind of forgotten the particulars, but it was fun. They definitely preincarnated The Bear, that I'm sure about.
East Chamber
A digital library on a massive holographic display. The walls are all reflective screens, and hidden projectors reflect the contents both onto the surfaces, and refracted around glass particles in the air itself.
- A cat-like Holo-Selkie playfully interacts with The Team, nudging them to interact with the holo-books.
- Each holo-book is keyed by two Words. Using whatever Words they have (or taking a turn to get two new Words), they can scan for books.
- The Team can explore for a bit, but they hear weird banging noises from inside the walls, before Ghost in the Mirror eventually crashes through…
- If on a tour, Whoopi and the Niguma Gangsters will ally with The Team, but only affects conflict if PCs use their turns to make an action with them.
Rewards
- The Perfect Cat (see below) will resolve Dori’s Attachment for Jack and also any Jerome Candle Attachments and also can have powers from two Words applied to it.
- Each PC can make a permanent Holo-Book granting powers related to the content of the book (as pertaining to one or more Attachments).
This encounter allowed us to wrap up several loose end Karmic Attachments explicitly, but also by tying the Holo-Books to other Karmic Attachments, and based on Hairball Devils worked (see below), it also allowed us to indirectly settle some of the really ancillary Karmic Attachments.
Ghost in the Mirror / Homicidal Maniac
- Cat-like homicidal maniac cyborg, covered in a circuit of metal pipes and hydraulics.
- 20HP, Enhanced WIS Damage.
- The knowledge from the holo-books can be used to block Ghost in the Mirror’s otherwise devastating Enhanced WIS Damage, but the book must characterize the PC’s Attachments in some substantive way.
- Eats non-Starting Karmic Attachments. Consumed Attachments do not divest Karma and do not count towards Advancement.
- A consumed Karmic Attachment gets barfed back up as a Hairball Devil.
- Hairball Devil: 3HP, Xd6, characterizes the Karmic Attachment in some way. If the PC fights it, that's that. If they use the holo-books similar to defending against Ghost in the Mirror, the Attachment is resolved.
- Will be satisfied after eating three Attachments.
- When defeated / appeased, the Holo-Selkie turns into The Perfect Cat (and a twin for Jerome Candle). Will receive the words VIBRATION and SOFT, and can apply any two Words to the cat.
- Jerome and the cat afterwards willingly go to be processed as Poltergeists.
North Chamber
A palatial yet filthy bedroom. The sheets of the overly large floating bed are undone and covered in sweat and grease stains. Distracting glaring light filters in from random places through random spaces, reflecting the filth and microscopic Time Worms and Mu and glass dust in the humid air that feels gelatinous like swamp water. The glass walls of the room reflect recursively, giving it the appearance of being infinitely large like a glass ocean.
- The Bed: Swims in the thick air like a fish, nudging unsuspecting occupants of the room to rest on it.
- On the bed one feels Time Worms crawling over them, dragging them into the bed as if in a deep pit.
- Deal Xd4 per turn to the PCs highest Ability Score (Max not current) and must make a Save of that Ability or else can’t leave the bed (but can still do other things).
- Pixie Cage: Half-eaten corpses of cute little pixies lay at the bottom of the cage; Mu like inside-out ravens screech with dial-up tone, electric pixie blood and glass shards caught in their beaks.
- Floats and bobs like a jellyfish.
- Deal Xd6 to anyone who gets too close (random Ability each time).
- If the Pixie Cage is opened, Mu will war with the Time Worms on The Bed, doubling Damage received on The Bed but removing the other effects.
- Infinity Glass: The recursive reflection can be traversed, but the further from reality one goes, the dimmer and stiller things become, and the harder it is to find one’s way back. Pushing past the point of seemingly no return leads to Squaretime. From Squaretime, one can hear King Kevorkian coming.
- It is apparent that Asura Glass Maiden Pixie will not follow them into the Infinity Glass but will eerily and patiently wait with an inscrutable grin.
- If Ghost in the Mirror has not already been defeated, it will prowl the PCs who enter Infinity Glass, but will deal only Wd6 and only if the PCs keep moving forward- corralling them back into the North Chamber.
- Time Worms will become more and more of a problem.
- If a PC reaches Squaretime via Infinity Glass, they will find Time Worm Fumigation Gear.
- King Kevorkian: Like a biblical angel by way of Jack Kirby and the Radiation Symbol. According to Psyr Psimon Stilton, it is the third god which the Monkey King could not defeat. It waits in Squaretime, fumigating Time Worms, serving either as the beacon of the <danger message>, or the executioner of its will, or both.
- Time Worm Fumigation Gear: Holographic fumigation suit with an emerald Klein bottle fumigator. Immune to Time Worms. In Lineartime the fumigator is self-intersecting and can only be used by breaking. Immediately destroys all Time Worms in the vicinity, creates two Mobius Time strips which the fumigator can use to create interconnected portal-like time loops.
- Has all Quirks and all Poltergeist Features of Glass Maiden Pixie Poltergeist Form and a metamorphosed appearance like a kaleidoscopic cosmic butterfly of shining stars and nebulae straining against a partially cracked glass maiden cocoon armor.
- Always gets a turn after the first PC and again after all PCs.
- All Ability Scores are at Max 20. Karma starts at 8 and can be further accrued but not divested. Uses a d8 for Karma rolls.
- Reduce all ability scores to 0 to defeat.
- After each one is defeated it is debilitated in some way / losing certain features.
This played out mostly as a typical boss fight, although at some point Doctor Loves-Me-Not was merged with Alco's Karmamare Bronco Rogers in order to save The Team from Obliteration, but I don't remember anymore how exactly that played out...
West Chamber
The Lamp is more like a furnace, taking up the entire Chamber. It cannot be stopped by physical means, and as it churns, existence itself begins to unravel like a black hole. If The Team did not examine the Infinity Glass in the North Chamber, it will become apparent that King Kevorkian is coming.
- West Chamber is LOCKED until Ashura Glass Maiden Pixie and Ghost in the Mirror have been defeated, or some other extraordinary means, after which the remaining enemies will immediately swarm The Team.
- The Team received Credits from the Guardian Elemental Beasts over the last several previous sessions, and must use the profound abilities of these Credits along with their own ingenuity to unravel the Wish to Break the World or supersede it for their own purposes.
Moon Marine is the <Danger Message>, this will become apparent to her if she is still with The Team. She will allow herself to be sacrificed if it means stopping King Kevorkian, but The Team must determine how.
Doctor Loves-Me-Not, the living meme and the unintended side effect of the Doppler Potential superorganism, in combination with one or more of the Credits, may be able to reroute or disable The Wish, but The Team must determine how.
Just as The Team were beginning to deliberate... BETRAYAL!
Soft Mother whistles and in a flash Wire Mother, Redlight/Greenlight, and a squad of x3 Calamansi Goblins (Orange Goblin shocktroopers with literally shocking power armor) arrive on the scene.
- Knowing that The Team plan to break the Karmic Cycle anyway (Soft Mother of course breaking their trust), and lacking the means to alter The Wish for themselves, The Doppler Potential will play chicken with existence, demanding that they include The Doppler Potential’s ascension into godhood as part of the alteration of The Wish, or else let the universe be destroyed entirely.
- If Doctor Loves-Me-Not is still available, they suggest that despite the backhandedness of The Doppler Potential, that this is ultimately worthwhile and that The Doppler Potential’s ascension will ultimately be for the best anyway.
- If Moon Marine is still available, she will reject this on principle, but clearly from a place of Karmic Attachment and reactionary anger.
- Fearless Girl will be uncertain. If she was preincarnated into The Bear, she’ll be defensive of The Team.
- There is no “objectively” right or wrong answer, it’s the end of the campaign…
- Wire Mother: 30 HP, Wd10 for existential trauma conflict. Nd8 for physical conflict. Drips nutritious milk that can be lapped up if in close range. Recover Nd6, at risk of getting cut on a wire barb causing Wd4 of existential loneliness and learned helplessness. Being in close range of Wire Mother risks accidentally lapping up the milk and/or getting barbed.
- Redlight/Greenlight: 8 HP each, Xd6 each, various kinds of attacks, whatever makes sense in context. By high-fiving and yelling "redlight", "greenlight", or "blacklight", can induce red-phase, green-phase, or black-phase. Red-phase cancels out all NAT Conflict or NAT special abilities, green-phase cancels out PRO, black-phase cancels out WIS.
- Calamansi Goblin: 5 HP each, Nd6 electric claws, 2Nd6 suicide bomb. Trained to weaponize reason and morality against opposition (Wd8 psycho-ethical assault, -2 related WIS Saves against them, immune to WIS Damage), but vulnerable to those who exhibit alpha behavior (+2 related PRO or NAT Saves against them). Nd4 and Pd4 when in touching range of them from electric power armor and shock tactics.
This ended up being a long and intense deliberation, and it was awesome. While they at first took the "fuck this" stance of Moon Marine to the point of summoning The Metro Thing to eat Soft Mother whole, they eventually open up to the possibility of compromise given the overwhelming opposition. They learn why The Doppler Potential actually wants to ascend to godhood in the first place, to represent humanity in the Celestial Bureaucracy (no taxation without representation).
They had already intended to destroy the Karmic Cycle regardless, rendering The Doppler Potential's request moot regardless. By destroying the Karmic Cycle and creating something new, this achieves the Doppler Potential's intention of humanity leaving an indelible mark on all of existence.
After much philosophical deliberation as much out as in character, they replace the Karmic Cycle with a Metaphysical Sewage System and elect Alco to become the god of these Pipes, effectively becoming the God of Plumbing, despite having sacrificed her Plumbing License earlier to rescue Jerome Candle and herself from Squaretime.
When confronted with the breaking of the universe and asked to protect the status quo, even though that status quo was a dysfunctional bureaucracy doomed to fail, the Players of their own ingenuity determined to break the Karmic Cycle and create a new system. They acknowledged both in and out of character that they could not know if this new system would be better, but they knew the previous system would inevitably fail, and made a conscious decision to disrupt the status quo in the hope of creating something better. I could not be happier with this conclusion to the campaign.
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