Fate: No Exit - [FATE Core] No Exit (OOC)

[Charlotte]

You've been living at the Complex - an apartment building - for some time now, after a difficult time in an eventful life. It's a place to stop, relax, and take stock of where you've been. It's situated on a peninsula where two rivers meet, and has a magnificent view of the fog-shrouded rivers and all the trappings of home. You'd love to have friends over to visit...

... except you have trouble connecting to an outside line. And trouble remembering phone numbers. You're not entirely sure how you got here. Or how long you've been here. Or when you last left. Or if you've ever left.

... and the other tenants on your floor aren't helping things. You're sure there were more doors in the hallway last week, too. And were you imagining things, or did you walk past the same floor twice when taking the stairway? And that's not even going into the strange smells, and how they make you feel, digging up memories you don't want to think about...

... but no, you're happy here. They promised and they delivered. You're happy here, aren't you?

Well, aren't you?

NO EXIT is a psychological horror game using the FATE Core system. The players play tenants of the Complex, which promises a nice place to get away and forget your troubles, and delivers all too well. Your memories are unreliable, and escaping the Complex whilst discovering the purpose behind it will require you to look deep inside your own memories, failings, phobias and losses, and to not flinch when they turn to look back.

Inspiration for the setting and this game can be found in, of course, "No Exit" - the play about three men and women who discover that Hell is other people. Other inspirations include Lost, The Prisoner, the Paranoia RPG on its most serious settings, and the works of Phillip K. Dick at his most paranoid.

I'm looking for four to five players. Familiarity with FATE Core is not a prerequisite, since FATE Core is a simple system and the act of telling me about your character will create the character. However, one thing I'm inflexible on is regular posting - at least once a week, if not twice. If you go a week without posting I will check up on you; if you go two weeks without posting I will retire your character. Slow posting (as in, over a month without posting) killed the last game I ran, and I'd rather not pour dozens of hours of effort into a game if that's going to happen again.

If you've never heard of FATE Core, it's an upcoming RPG from Evil Hat Productions that leans heavily on narrative-based mechanics and story. It's very easy to learn from someone else, or if you wish, you can pitch one whole dollar into their Kickstarter's hat and get access to the full preview PDF. (More than one whole dollar nets you a lot of extras. FATE Core's Kickstarter might be the best value in gaming for the next week or so.) If I see enough interest from parties who don't have the money or the ability to pledge, I will add more details to the upcoming "how to create your character" post.

Since horror is primarily based around the unknown, details about the special rules of the setting will be kept close to my chest and a level of trust will be required. I'll fill you in on how they work as they come up. Likewise, for anyone who has access to the FATE Core Kickstarter preview materials, I'd appreciate it if you kept your reading of No Exit to a minimum (I am of course going to change details.)

Hopefully, people will know and trust me well enough to play fair (or as fair as anyone can in a game based around scaring players and their characters.) Besides, knowing all the details of the Complex is against the lease agreement you signed. You do remember signing it, don't you?

[Gabe OOC]

As I've said, I'm in.

[Kestrel]

Me too!

[SalmonMax]

Argh, sorry. That was me. Forgot to switch accounts.

[Joani]

I am really sorry, but like I told you in chat, it is not the kind of setting that appeals to me. I hope you'll find enough players, though. I really enjoyed UP, you're a good ST.

[Charlotte]

I understand, Joani. I'm hearing a fair bit of hesitation, so I've decided to go into the rules of FATE and the special rules of NO EXIT in some more detail.

How FATE Works

To perform an action in FATE, you roll 4 FATE dice and add whatever relevant bonus you may have. FATE dice are essentially six-sided dice with pluses, blanks and minuses substituted for the numbers. To treat a six-sided die as a FATE die, treat 1 or 2 as a minus, 3 or 4 as a blank, and 5 or 6 as a plus. Then total up pluses and subtract minuses, and you have your result.

In addition, FATE uses defined traits called Aspects – traits that are in turn part of the FATE point economy. An Aspect is a trait that a person, place or thing possesses that can be an advantage or a disadvantage as circumstances allow. If it is acting as an advantage for your character, you can invoke it – paying one FATE point and gaining either a reroll or +2 to your roll, or gaining some other GM-approved intangible benefit. You can only invoke an Aspect once per roll, but you can invoke as many Aspects as can apply (and that you have points for.)

Likewise, an Aspect can be compelled – in which case, the GM offers you a FATE point for your trouble in exchange for your actions being inhibited or compelled in some way. An Aspect can be both of these things simultaneously, with whether it's an overall advantage or disadvantage being priced into the system by how it impacts the FATE point economy.

Moreover, anything in FATE can have an Aspect. A corporation can have the Aspect "Anything For a Buck." A burning building can have the Aspect "On Fire." The "FATE fractal" as it's referred to, means that in FATE, everything uses the same rules as the player characters. Many of these Aspects can be created by player or non-player action – setting said building On Fire, for example. This is called Creating a Scene Aspect. Another player can invoke a Scene Aspect you yourself have created, allowing you to assist others in situations where you yourself are at a disadvantage, and to help overcome overpoweringly difficult contested rolls.

A character begins play with five Aspects; a High Concept (your character in one sentence,) a Trouble (your character's chief problem, drawback, or vice,) and three other Aspects. Developing these Aspects will be done through a collective collaboration process called the Phase Trio, which I'll get into later in this post since No Exit has special rules regarding it.

In addition to Aspects, you get Skills, which don't require FATE points to use. You get one skill at Great (+4 bonus,) two at Good (+3,) three at Fair (+2,) and four at Average (+1.) The Master Skills List is: Athletics, Burglary, Contacts (it's not what you know, it's who,) Crafts, Deceit, Drive, Empathy, Fighting, Intimidation, Investigation, Lore, Notice, Physique, Rapport, Resources (not just money, but ability to get what you need,) Shooting, Stealth and Will. Each has a list of relevant Stunts that I can go into with you should you need them.

Skills and FATE points play directly into Stunts and Refresh. Stunts are tricks that you have associated with a skill that gives you a situational bonus, or that lets you use it in circumstances that otherwise wouldn't be allowed. You gain one Stunt for free, and by default have a Refresh of 3 – said Refresh number being the number of FATE points you start with in a game session (or, in the case of this PBP, an "episode" of the fictional TV show we'll be creating.) You can take extra Stunts at the cost of 1 Refresh per Stunt – so if you have three Stunts, you have a Refresh of only 1.

When something is harmed in some way via a contest or conflict, it takes Stress. You by default have two Stress Boxes in each category, a Physical track and a Mental track. Each is marked by a number – Box 1, Box 2, etc – and whenever you lost a contest, you mark off one box with a number equal or greater than the amount you lost by. If you do not have any relevant boxes, you may choose to either be taken out of the conflict, or to take a Consequence, which is a medium-term Aspect that can be compelled – but that mitigates Stress by a set amount listed next to the box you'd write the Consequence in (2 for Mild, 4 for Moderate, 6 for Severe.) Stress Boxes are temporary, and any marked boxes are cleared at the end of a conflict; Consequences are more long-term and either go away after a short period or will require some assistance to mitigate or cure.

(For example, one of the Management's enforcers is trying to force you back into your apartment where you'll feel better, honest. He hits you, and you lose the contest to defend; he wins by 2. You mark off the stress box marked "2." In the next round, he hits you again, winning by 2; you can't mark off the "2" box since you already did so, so you and the GM agree that you can choose to take on the Consequence Winded, eating a shot to the solar plexus that makes it tough to breathe. This gives you a temporary disadvantage that can be compelled, even in the same fight – but that also means you're still in the fight, and since a Mild Consequence is worth 2 shifts, it mitigates the attack entirely and you don't take Stress. You might run into trouble clearing a flight of stairs should you get out of this, though...)

Physical and mental conflict – which No Exit will contain both of – will use the same system.

Still confused? Here's a character worksheet, and a character sheet. And like I said, the FATE Core Kickstarter is one whole dollar for the PDF I pulled all this information out of.

Additional Rules for No Exit

The Phase Trio in No Exit works like this.

In No Exit, your character has led a fairly dramatic life, via choice or circumstance. Aspects from this past are meant to be evoked in the present, so think carefully and pick Aspects that will impact the present.

The First Phase is a major adventure or event in your life, such as a trek through the desert, an incident with an armed felon, or the like. From this, you will take an Aspect such as, for example, Hardened by the Desert or Don't Point That Gun At Me.

The Second Phase is when you cross paths with another player character in the Complex – you all know each other, though you might not know that you're all staying at the Complex. You pass the story along to another person, who in turn passes their story to another person, and so on until it loops back around to you. You take another Aspect that comes out of crossing paths with this person. For example, if you met the aforementioned character during a trek across the Gobi Desert and you helped them with supplies or directions, you could take Sucker For the Down and Out; if you met them when they were held up by an armed felon, you could take A Shoulder To Cry On if you helped them with the trauma.

The Third Phase is an event in your life that caused it to lead, inexorably, to the Complex – an event that caused your life to stall or take a path you didn't want. This will be fully collaborative; you work things out with a different player as to what experience you shared that went so wrong for you. (The Aspect each character picks from Phase Three need not be from the same event; what is traumatic to one person may not be to another.) For example, you could have been in a car accident and you came out worse for wear than they did, with the Aspect I Hate Being In Or Near a Car; if you wound up emotionally devastated after a business partner robbed you blind, you could have the Aspect I'm Better On My Own.

For each Aspect, you have a Touchstone; a small, portable item that is a memento of the event that created the Aspect. You will have three in total. A compass from your trek across the desert; a bullet; a rabbit's foot from a keychain; anything small and portable that you can keep on you. This doesn't have any real game value (no fair keeping that hand grenade, unless it's got no gunpowder in it) but they're still important, since these items are how you retain your connection to your memories in the face of the power of the Complex.

When you are done, the GM asks you to pick an Aspect from the Phase Trio that is inviolate – you remember it more or less as it happened. Your other Aspects are subject to adjustment by the GM at a later date, as you discover the truth about your own past. Your memories in most cases will be spotty and incomplete – you may remember you were married by virtue of your wedding band, but you may not remember if you're still married, or divorced, or widowed – and you may not also remember why.

In addition to traditional invocation and compulsion, two special options exist. The first is that, when you invoke an Aspect, the GM may give you the option to forego the usual benefit in exchange for a greater level of clarity regarding the memory you're trying to invoke. Instead of gaining a bonus, reroll, or special insight, you and the GM slip into Flashback; the memory unfolds, but it unfolds differently, with extra details you didn't recall before because They made you forget.

The other special option is Sacrifice; used as a last-ditch effort when things are bad. In such an instance, you sacrifice a Touchstone and the related memory and the related Aspect, in return for a major Advantage or to overcome a major obstacle. Once Sacrificed, the Touchstone is lost or destroyed, and so is the memory and Aspect, and it will not be replaced with anything. If you lose all three of your Touchstones in this way, your character loses the will to escape and slips into near total amnesia, lost to the Complex and content to live out their life there. A Sacrifice is therefore not something any character should do lightly, but it may be the only way to escape the Complex or to uncover its purpose...

… or it may not do the slightest good at all.

All skills are as per normal. There is a special skill with special stunts that will be revealed over the course of play. It could save your life. It might also make you wish you were dead.

In addition, there are two other details to put in place before play begins. The first is your Apartment, which has two Aspects that you can invoke or that can be compelled; for example, if you're paranoid about running out of supplies you can take Overstocked Shelves; if you are worried about earthquakes for whatever reason you can make sure Everything Is On The Floor.

Finally, there are seven floors in the building. Pick what floor you want to live on in the Complex. No, there's nothing significant about the floor you pick. Honest. Would the Management of the Complex lie to you?

[zoo]

I would like to join.

[Charlotte]

Thanks, Zoo. You're welcome to join. With Max, Gabe and Phas that leaves us at four.

Anyone else want to join? I'm going to start recruiting off-forum if not.

[Vivi OOC]

I'm not familiar with the system at all, but the premise sounds delightfully paranoiac. I would love to give it a shot.

[Charlotte]

That's five players, so No Exit is a go.

So what I need to begin with, from everyone, is your High Concept (character in a sentence,) your Trouble and the first phase of your Phase Trio. For each, write down a sentence that summarizes it best; in the event of your Phase One adventure, a brief description of your adventure is needed in addition to the single sentence that makes up your Aspect.

Then for Phase Two, we'll work out who passes what story to whom. I'm thinking passing it leftward along this chain: Zoo <- Gabe <- Vivi <- Phas <- Max, with Zoo passing to Max. When you receive the story of the person who passed to you, your task is to work with them in this thread to come up with a way for your character to guest-star in their story, while at the same time another character guest-stars in yours. From your guest-starring role, pick the second Aspect of your Phase Trio.

For the third, come up with a pivotal event in your life that set you on a course for the Complex - some way your life went off the rails. This will also have a guest star, but in the opposite direction - rightwards instead of leftwards, Zoo -> Gabe -> Vivi -> Phas -> Max. For example, if Zoo's character guest-starred in Gabe's story in round two, then Vivi will guest in Gabe's story in round three. This is where you'll pick your final Aspect.

Then select your Touchstones from each memory, and pick which memory you wish to treat as Inviolate. (Your other memories? ... might not be as reliable as you think.) Then choose the two Aspects you wish to apply to your personal apartment, pick your skills, and pick which floor of the Complex you wish to live on.

If anyone needs system help and I'm not around, I know that Max and Gabe both have access to the rules. Please try to keep all brainstorming in this thread where I can see it. Since you're all going to be crossing paths with each other before you entered, there are a few obvious-in-hindsight rules - you're all from the same time period (modern day) and you'd all have means of meeting each other somehow, so you'd all either be living nearby, or be fond of travel.

Thanks so much for helping me create this game. I hope you all enjoy it.

[tquid]

If you have more space, or interest in a backup player or a player for a more intricate NPC, I'd be keenly interested in this game. I'm a Fate Core backer but coincidentlaly haven't read No Exit yet.

[Charlotte]

Sure, I can slide you in. The revised Phase Two chain will be Tquid <- Zoo <- Gabe <- Vivi <- Phas <- Max, going the other way for Phase Three.

Welcome to the Complex! You'll love it here. We promise.

[zoo]

Name: Emanuel Francis

Once the star architect who defined a generation, his talents are but a grim reminder of all he lost.

High concept: jaded former star architect.

Trouble: he let others pay for his mistakes until there was no one left.

Phase One: For the first couple of days there were rumors, that the Fielding Tower had been the target of a terrorist attack. The elegant skyscraper, crown achievement of Emanuel C. Francis, collapsed like a house of cards. Within an hour the renown architect was in front of the press, putting the blame at the structural engineer.

Aspect: I know who is to blame and it certainly is not me.

Comments are very welcome. I am new to fate and eager to learn.

[Uriel Arcadia]

This is Gabe/Jeremy, prepping my brainstorm here....

Uriel Arcadia

High Concept: Ex-Corporate Spy,
Trouble: Right Leg that Acts Up.

First Phase Aspect: Deal-breaking is unacceptable.
On one of Uriel's earliest corporate espionage missions, where he was contracted to acquire CPU designs for Intel, the executive who hired him got the bright idea of trying to frame Uriel. It failed, and left the VP the target of Uriel's attentions. Thus the man went through a series of issues before being effectively exposed and denounced by Intel... the corporation paid Uriel twice the amount he'd agreed to.

,,

Touchstone: A copy of the event's paycheck Uriel eventually received, bronzed and framed.

,,

Second Phase Aspect: Trust Issues. (Inviolate)

His Affair with Josephina

,,

Touchstone: A picture of the two of them.

,,

Third Phase Aspect: Searching for Meaning.

A Meeting with Howard Makes Uriel Question his Life

,,

Touchstone: The invitation to that event.

,,

Skills

,,

Deceive +4

Stealth +3, Investigate +3

Rapport +2, Notice +2, Empathy +2

Athletics +1, Fight +1, Lore +1, Will +1, Clarity +1

,,

Stunts

Lie Whisperer: +2 to all Empathy rolls made to discern or discover lies, whether they’re directed at you or someone else.

,,

Mind Games: You can use Deceive in place of Provoke to make mental attacks, as long as you can make up a clever lie as part of the attack.

,,

Lies upon Lies: +2 to create a Deceive advantage against someone who has believed one of your lies already during this session.

,,

Other Stats

Refresh: 2

Physical Stress Track: 1 point, 2 point

Mental Stress Track: 1 point, 2 point, 3 point

,,

Apartment

Floor: Sixth

,,

Aspects:

- Meticulously Clean

- Standard Bland Walls

[SalmonMax]

Zoo, here is my comment.

Use a bigger font.

Thanks.

[tquid]

So, quick question, where's the Weirdness dial set for this? I know the game in play has mystery to it so you won't want to say about that, but I'm wondering if it's acceptable to have a PC who at least thinks some form of Weirdness is real. (And not to try to anticipate weirdness and meet it too easily later, either--I promise he won't be a special forces guy who beat up Cthulhu cultists every day before breakfast.)

[Charlotte]

Lots of people in the real world believe that the Royal Family is lizard people, chemtrails exist, and that 9/11 was an inside job, even though evidence for these things is, ah, a little shaky.

So your character can believe in any number of strange things, or all strange things. They just won't have proof, even if they claim that they totally did, they just forgot it in the move to the Complex. So if you want to have someone whose reaction to them realizing the Complex isn't a normal set of buildings is "I knew the Illuminati were real!" then go ahead.

[Charlotte]

Name: Emanuel Francis

Once the star architect who defined a generation, his talents are but a grim reminder of all he lost.

High concept: jaded former star architect.

Trouble: he let others pay for his mistakes until there was no one left.

Phase One: For the first couple of days there were rumors, that the Fielding Tower had been the target of a terrorist attack. The elegant skyscraper, crown achievement of Emanuel C. Francis, collapsed like a house of cards. Within an hour the renown architect was in front of the press, putting the blame at the structural engineer.

Aspect: I know who is to blame and it certainly is not me.

Comments are very welcome. I am new to fate and eager to learn.

All good ideas, but is this the first Aspect or the Third? One way to think of it is that the first Aspect is your Rise, and the third is your Fall. If you're familiar with the life history of Eliot Ness, then convicting Al Capone was his Rise - his first Aspect - and failing to catch the Torso Killer in Cleveland was his Fall, his third.

(Is Eliot Ness going to be at the Complex?? Who knows.)

[Necronaut]

Charles Volcov

Concept: Brilliant Behavioral Psychologist

Trouble: Amoral Curiosity

Phase 1:

As a graduate student Charlie Volcov was responsible for interviewing test subjects in his lab's behavioral experiments. One of those test subjects suffered a major psychotic break and came to the interview armed with a knife. Volcov's response, when asked for his last words with the blade at his throat, was to proceed with the analysis. Why today? Why here? Why a knife? Why that knife? The questions gradually turned deeper and more pointed. The subject eventually calmed under the interrogative barrage and, at Charlie's firm request, gave himself up. Not long after this Volcov resumed psychoanalysis of the subject under more controlled circumstances. The paper that came out of the experience turned into his dissertation.

Aspect: Trust me, I'm a doctor.

[zoo]

Saw Phase 1 as the first step on a downward spiral that leads him to the complex. He was at the top and I would have used Phase 2 and 3 to elaborate on how and what he lost.

Sure I can push my former Phase 1 back.

How about this:

Phase 1.01:

A part of it may have been the sleep deprivation, but when he showed him the finalized model of the building, Emanuel Francis could see something in his former teachers eyes that hadn't been there before. Now he was the master. He had stuck to his ideas and found the thing of beauty in the non-space of self-conflicting requests and impossible requirements. Some purest form of beauty had opened up to him and let itself become manifest.

Aspect: There is perfection, true beauty. Let me show it to you.

[Charlotte]

Zoo, it looks great, and thanks for posting it.

Does anyone else need help with their characters?

[Josefina Reyes]

Okay. (This is Vivi, by the way!) Giving this a shot, so please let me know if anyone has any suggestions.

Josefina Reyes

High Concept: Good Cop

Trouble: Just A Girl

Phase 1: As an officer with the Las Vegas Metro PD (Vice/Narcotics), Jo pushed herself both mentally and physically to compete with the other (overwhelmingly male) officers in her division. She consistently excelled, breaking departmental records for firearms accuracy and obstacle course completion time, and yet she found herself time and again relegated to the role of "decoy" in vice operations. During one such sting, she was solicited by the son of one of the city's most notorious "legitimate businessmen," and was forced to chase him on foot when an over-eager officer accidentally hit his lights. Before the man made it back to his car, Jo managed to tackle him on the pavement and wrestle him into handcuffs. In the end, he was facing a laundry list of charges- charges which were dropped in exchange for more valuable information on a "rival company's" operations. That information led to a number of real arrests, including two enforcers and several low-level couriers, earning Jo a formal commendation for her assistance and a long-awaited move from Vice.

Aspect: Something To Prove

[tquid]

Howard Tulchinsky

High Concept: Visionary Artist

Trouble: No, seriously, visions

Phase 1: Howard had drawn through his whole school career, and been praised for it, but his practical-minded parents drove him to a degree in Engineering, and he did well there even if the companionship mostly bored him. He laboured for years in one soul-crushing job after another, not much given to moods, nor to turn to any manias or chemicals to assuage the dull, throbbing pain of his uninteresting existence, he was deeply shocked when the mechanical angel came to him and vouchsafed the enginery of beauty to him. He designed furtively, frantically, for months, making tiny clockworks of exquisite beauty. He nervously showed one to a friend, who knew someone who owned a gallery, and in less than a year his outsider status and aesthetics rocketed him to art stardom.

Aspect: Beautiful Engines

(A couple notes to correct the hopeless vagueness of this Aspect: invoke to create something mechanical and beautiful; to find beauty in machinery; to find order and regularity in something beautiful. Compel to create an obsession with some such artifact.)

[Charlotte]

It looks good. I'll have to rule that the visions are - or rather, as far as Howard knows, are just that, visions, not portents of the future. That said, every once in a while, in the Complex, it might become more than just a mental condition...

[tquid]

Totally cool with that! As the "visions" are his Trouble aspect, I wasn't expecting portents of the future (or certainly not accurate ones), just angelic visitations, overwhelming vistas of beautiful mechanical order . . . you know, what the psychological profession would call a "psychotic break." Dude is on the inside for a reason, I figure.

[SalmonMax]

James Duncan (AKA Damien Drake)

High Concept: Horror novel writer

Trouble: Not a People Person

Phase 1: James started out as a teacher in elementary school. He loved kids, and he loved how the curriculum kept him challenged to keep learning all kinds of things. He was a dabbler; someone who preferred knowing a little about of a lot of things to specializing to know a lot about a little. His wife was in the Air Force, and was called up for duty overseas, causing them to delay plans for having a baby. She was killed in a training accident however, which caused James to have a nervous breakdown that resulted in him losing his job teaching. Having reached the bottom, he poured all the angst and darkness out into a manuscript that a friend convinced him to offer for publishing. To James' surprise, the publisher loved it. The book went out under the pen name Damien Drake, and became quite successful, inducing him to write more. James is on his fifth book now, and his popularity as an author is only going up; and is matched only by the ongoing bitterness that claws at him from the bottomless pit that's opened in his mind.

Aspect: Renaissence Man

(Note - I have some other concepts too, if this is too similar to the tortured artist in theme. This was just the most detailed I have so far)

[Charlotte]

If Tquid is okay with it, so am I. You could both explore artistic creativity from opposite angles - James from painful things that happened and Howard from beautiful things that aren't real.

[SalmonMax]

Yarp! Or if not, I have a med school grad who's drowning in debt, or a quasi-idealistic lawyer who's starting to become less-idealistic who's considering getting into politics.

[Charlotte]

That's all the characters, unless circumstances arise, so it's time for phase two and phase three.

Work out between yourselves what you want the stories and relevant Aspects to be. Then picks skills, touchstones, any Stunts you want, which one memory is inviolate, and Aspects for your apartment as well as which floor it's on.

Once everyone's gotten this all done, then we can start!

FAKE EDIT: Phas is also known as Necronaut.

REAL EDIT: I are a dummy, and I reformatted the round-robin to be not something a dummy would make. If it's at all unclear who's collaborating with who, let me know.

REAL EDIT 2: I've apparently managed to miscommunicate this - again - so here is a step-by-step of how I see the Phase Trio working.

[tquid]

Any guidance on phase 2? 1 is kind of the "origin story," so that's not too tough, and 3 is your fall from grace, so that's fun, but all I know about 2 is that someone else is in it. With Spirit of the Century each one is its own pulp novel, and that's plenty of guidance there, but obviously not appropriate for this game.

I guess I'd just like a tip on the theme for that phase. Thanks.

[Charlotte]

Basically, imagine a world where they had $200 million to make a Hawkeye or Black Widow movie. (That this is not our world is evidence that this is not the best world it can be.) In such an event, their own movies would be their Phase One stories, and their guest appearances would be where they pick up their Phase Two Aspects. In Hawkeye's case, it would be I'm Starting To Like This Guy to symbolize him rooting for the underdog, and for the Widow it would be Always Underestimated to illustrate how she is treated by Stark and underestimated by her opponents.

Those movies still are Iron Man and Thor's stories, but you can still illuminate a side character via how they intersect with them. It's the same way with these Aspects. Think of how you could somehow intersect with the other person's Phase One story and what the circumstances involved would illuminate about your PC.

[zoo]

The vernissage of the biggest exhibition of Howard Tulchinskys work yet was well underway, when the artist himself finally arrived. At some point Emanuel Francis,
the architect of the building grudgingly congratulated him on the success of the party. The lobby had been modified to house the slender but two story high abstract statue and its many protruding spikes and shards. At that exact moment a woman in her twenties on the third floor gallery screamed "I will fly with the lights", jumped and impaled herself on the center piece of the exhibition. Reporters immediatly closed in to capture the artists reaction to the suicide. The architect quietly left through an service exit.

,,

Aspect: Has a fanatic following.

,,

tquid, are you fine with this portrayal of your character? Does the nature of the complex prohibit the aspect from being relevant, Mike?

[Charlotte]

The nature of the Complex would put a damper on any social-based Aspect, yes. Most people in the Complex can barely remember who they were, let alone who each other were. I'm not saying you can't take it, I'm just saying that it's unlikely to come up.

Perhaps you could reword it so it's less about how others see him and how he expects others to see him? Less social and more psychological?

[tquid]

zoo, I love it! So that's an Aspect for Howard, then? That clarifies Phase 2 for me a lot. Given what we've got about socially-oriented stuff, what about The Art Thirsts?

[Charlotte]

Ah yes. I think I've been unclear here. (Surprise.)

,,

What Tquid does with Zoo is come up with a way that his PC guest-stars in Zoo's Phase One story, with Zoo's approval, and Tquid's the one who gets the new Aspect from it. What Zoo does, is come up with a way that he guest-stars in Gabe's story (again, approved by Gabe,) and then Zoo comes up with whatever aspect's illuminated by that.

,,

If the chart I posted is in any way unclear, let me know. We've had a lot of problems on this. I've considered scrapping it entirely since I can't seem to clearly communicate how it works, but interconnected memories and backgrounds are key to No Exit.

[Charlotte]

Here's my second stab at a cross-section of who writes what.

,,

,,

Again, if I am in any way unclear, PM me, look me up in chat, or ask in here.

[SalmonMax]

Thanks, Mike.

,,

Tquid, we need to talk! Are you in chat? Or do you prefer PM?

[tquid]

PM me and I'll send you my google chat info if you like.

[Necronaut]

Vivi, take note. I have PMed some collaborative thoughts to your Reyes account.

[Josefina Reyes]

Hope this is okay, guys. Jer, let me know if this characterization is all right.

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Starring: Uriel Arcadia

Guest Starring: Josefina Reyes

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It was a completely chance encounter; Uriel rarely opted for the intimacy of a real bar over the anonymity of the Strip. He'd long ago found it was much easier to be just another high-roller, a single face amid a sea of other faces, and luxury in glitzy Las Vegas was de rigeur. He'd made more than enough with the Intel job to enjoy a little super-deluxe-penthouse R&R, flirt with the girls who swore they were just working their way through med school, and disappear into the crowd. For all its ostentation, or maybe because of it, Vegas was a great place to vanish without any complications.

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And yet, for some reason, this time, the spangles and sequins and neon and klaxons bothered him. People were just blobs in motion, haloed by flashing lights like some surreal Impressionist painting. It was too bright, too shrill, too crowded- just too damned much. So it was that the grey-suited infiltrator found himself pacing the boulevard until a cab pulled up alongside him.

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"Somewhere low-key," he told the driver curtly, feeling restless and tense as a drawn bowstring without hope of an arrow. "The less water in the drinks, the better." Within ten minutes, the well-dressed entrepreneur was standing alone in a gravel parking lot, staring at a tiny building with blacked-out windows and a single LED sign that blinked "OPEN" every half-second. He had no idea where he was, and there wasn't another living soul in sight for the entire time he stood out there wondering whether or not to go in. Right then, it was perfect.

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Once inside, having gone down the stairs immediately inside the cinderblock cube that might once have been a storm shelter, Uriel was surprised to find the interior relatively clean and comfortable, for all that it couldn't compare to his suite at the hotel. It was dimly-lit, of course, with the ubiquitous jukebox droning out classic rock or country (it mostly sounded the same, to his ears), and hanging lamps over the pool tables. There was a lone waitress meandering from table to table, and though she eyed his suit as she took his drink order, to her credit she didn't miss a beat in heading back to the bar to retrieve it.

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"You lost?" a woman's voice asked, a warm and pleasantly husky sound that reminded him of the slow burn from good scotch. The owner leaned her hip against his table, arms folded over her chest as she gave him a cursory once-over. She was attractive enough- not as implausibly hot as most of the women he'd casually bedded over the years, of course- but it was the sense of sharpness, the hint of an edge in her voice that was strangely compelling.

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"Aren't we all?" he retorted, and she laughed.

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"Name's Jo," she told him. "Welcome to Vegas."

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That chance encounter began the most intense affair either of them could remember. She never told him anything about her life, and never asked about his. He never offered. It simply didn't occur to him to give up anything meaningful, despite how much they each enjoyed the other's company. It was casual. It was ideal. Still, there was a niggling worry in the back of his mind, a warning flutter of near-desperation that drove him to fill their every moment together until there was no room for a past or future to intrude. He knew nothing about her, could tell her nothing about himself, he realized with cold clarity one evening, listening to her shower as he sat on the edge of the hotel bed. Sweet and heady as it was, if he drained this bottle to the dregs he'd be left with an empty, hollow thing and just the memory of its flavor.

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He'd considered extending his stay, prolonging the experience as long as he could, but decided against it in the end. Trust... It was the only luxury he couldn't afford.

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Aspect: Trust Issues.