Example of Play

This example of play features five participants: the GM and four players, who are denoted here by their characters’ names. Luiz is a policeman (Tira). João is a musician (Músico). Ana is a slumming aristocrat (Peixe Fora D’Água). Sofia is the leader of a street gang (Cabecilha).

We join the action part-way through the episode.

GM: It’s Luiz’s turn to call the scene. What’s happening?

Luiz: I’d like to go talk to that gang leader. What was his name? Tartaruga.

GM: Yep, Tartaruga. Where do you catch up with him?

Luiz: Well... would I know where the malta guys get together to play capoeira?

GM: Sure, you’re a beat cop, you know the area.

Luiz: Great, so let’s say there’s a bar or something where Tartaruga holds court, they have capoeira bouts and so on.

GM: OK, so there you are at this kind of dive bar. Out the back there’s

a space where they’ve cleared out all the furniture to make space. People are standing around the edges with drinks and there’s rowdy music.

Luiz: Like a biker bar in a cop movie.

GM: Yeah, exactly. And in the middle guys are coming into the roda two at a time and playing capoeira. They’re playing, but they’re playing hard – people are coming out bleeding and bruised. You can see Tartaruga on the far side of the room. He gives you an unfriendly look and so do his guys.

Luiz: I make my way around the circle. I do that whole respectful nodding thing to people as I go past. I’ve arrested quite a few of these guys in the past.

GM: Tartaruga waits for you to get close, then walks over to near the back door where it’s a little quieter. “What the hell do you want?”

Luiz: I point to a guy staggering out of the roda with a busted nose. “I want that to stop. Blood all over the place.”

GM: “I’m not sure I follow you.”

Luiz: “Here’s what I mean, man. I don’t want to be coming around closing down capoeira meetings. I get them. I understand why you do it. I was one of you, before. But all this violence, even behind closed doors, but especially when it gets out on the street... you are just giving the powers that be an excuse to step on you.”

GM: Tartaruga’s a little more relaxed now. You can see his body language is less defensive. “I don’t think you do understand. Your fellow coppers beat us in the street, for nothing. If you’re going to get beaten, imprisoned, it may as well be for something. You take this away, we have nothing to defend ourselves with.”

Luiz: “But you can make it stop. Make capoeira something they’ll accept. Tell them it’s like a folk art.”

GM: “You really have bought everything they’re selling, haven’t you? You think that if you obey, things will get better. Well, that’s not how it is. If you obey, things will stay exactly the same.”

Luiz: Well, I tried. I tell him “I hope you reconsider” and shrug and make my way out of the bar.

GM: OK, so that’s the scene. I guess you didn’t get what you wanted.

Luiz: Not really. His agreement, maybe out of respect for me. Didn’t get that.

GM: Works for me.

The GM gives Luiz a drama token.

GM: OK, so it’s my scene. I think now is about the right time for Pedro’s goons to catch up with you. You’re outside in the street, just

walking away from Tartaruga’s bar, shaking your head in disappointment. when you go round the corner, it’s dark, and you become aware that someone is waiting for you.

There’s half a dozen of them. Low-level thugs from the Santa Rita gang in scruffy linen suits. A couple of them have clubs. One steps forward, like he’s made himself the leader. “Hey copper.”

Luiz: I think I can talk my way out of this... wait, no, that’s not my scene. I let him come forward, try to threaten me. Then when he’s halfway through a threat, I kick him – a martelo to the side of the head.

GM: OK, that’s a Brawl action. Roll Fighting – or Capoeira.

Luiz: I only have Fighting. I’ll spend it.

Luiz rolls a die, getting a 3, and adds his Fighting rating of 2 to the result, for a total of 5. He must choose a drawback from the list of options in the action’s description.

Luiz: I’ll do the harm, but be at a disadvantage.

GM: All right. Fists and feet do 1 harm, so you give him a solid whack on the side of the head. The leader drops back but his cronies get all agitated and move to surround you. What do you do?

Luiz: Trying to escape would be Moving, right? I’m bad at that.

GM: Yeah, it would be. What else have you got?

Luiz: I still have my cane! I’ll try to smash my way through.

GM: Oh, right. The cane is your Resource, isn’t it?

Luiz: Yeah, so roll with plus two?

GM: Go for it.

Luiz rolls again, getting 5, and adds 2 from his Resource – a sturdy cane – for a total of 7.

Luiz: Seven! Is this a Brawl again?

GM: It could be but I think let’s treat it as a violence-based Act Under Pressure. You smack a couple of them about the head with your bengala and get some distance between you. The two guys you hit fall to the ground clutching their heads, and the others look at you, afraid. What do you do?

Luiz: I run like hell.

GM: Fair enough. End of scene.

Luiz: What if I hadn’t got away?

GM: You’d have had a sound thrashing, like 3 harm probably.

All right, who’s next... Ana.

Ana: I’d like to go back to the Fonseca house. I need to steal that locket from Lady Carolina’s study. But I’m not sure if this is a dramatic scene or a procedural one...

GM: Well, go ahead and describe how the scene starts and we’ll figure that out later.

Ana: All right. I’m not much of a burglar, so I think I’ll try and bluff my way in to the house. I ring the doorbell and when the maid opens the door, I just breeze in as if I own the place.

GM: She’s taken aback but she doesn’t stop you from coming in. So there you are in the hall. One of the male servants is up on a ladder cleaning the chandelier. The maid... did we give her a name? She’s looking at you a little nervously. “Miss Fortunata is out, Miss,” she says.

Ana: Can I roll Talking here? I want to get her to let me into the study.

GM: Yeah, she’s not a major character... yet. That’s a Be Persuasive action.

Ana rolls a die, getting a 4, and adds her Talking score of 3, for a total of 7.

GM: Well, that worked. What did you tell her?

Ana: I tell her that I left a book behind and I need to get it so that I can lend it to someone else.

GM: All right, so she shows you into the study and leaves you to it.

Ana: Do I need to roll something to find the locket?

GM: No, we can leave it there for now. In the next scene you call, you can just establish that you have the locket already. Or someone else might call a scene where you’re still in the Fonseca house and have to get the locket without being caught. 157

GM: Who’s next... João, I think?

João: Yes, my turn. I promised I’d go to my grandma’s place for dinner, so let’s do that.

GM: OK, great. Who’s there?

João: Well, there’s Grandma, of course, and João and Sofia. And probably... did we establish how many siblings I have?

GM: Not as such. Let’s just say that João has an indeterminate number of brothers and sisters. And if we need to pin it down later, we will.

João: Works for me!

Sofia: What if I don’t want to be there?

GM: You can ask not to be in the scene, or pay a drama token to definitely get out of it.

Sofia: I don’t mind being in the scene. Just asking for future reference.

GM: João, please set the scene for us.

João: We’re all preparing for dinner. Grandma’s cooking, the table is being laid, and so on, and I buttonhole Sofia and take her

through to the next room on the pretext of getting some drinks or something.

“So what happened?”

Sofia: “With what?”

João: “With getting that cop, Luiz, to back off.”

Sofia: “Ah. Yeah. It didn’t go that well. I had a few of my lads menace him in a dark alley, but he smashed them in the head and got away.”

João: “You know that he knows we’re siblings, right? So his vague disapproval of me has now probably escalated to wanting to beat me up.”

Sofia: “All is not lost. I can raise the stakes. You know, smash his windows. That kind of thing.”

João: “Yeah, no. Don’t bother.” I pick up several wine glasses and carry them through to help lay the table.

GM: So what did you want there?

If it was reassurance, I think that’s a no.

João: Yes, it probably was reassurance. I’m the exact opposite of reassured now.

GM: Does that work for you, Sofia?

Sofia: Yes, that’s fair.

Sofia pases a drama token to João. The game continues.