Issues: Diffusion of Responsibility, Religious Intolerance, Natural Resources

Shock: Weather control. A large corporation, the Weather Control Agency, has a weather-controlling apparatus they’re using to counteract desertification, enabling bountiful crops to feed the ‘first world’ folks, but wreaking havoc with ecosystems relied on by the have-nots. The Gaists -- part nature-worshipping cult, part eco-terrorists, part back-to-nature hippies -- are putting up resistance to the WCA but the de-fanged government and the largely unaffected public have turned a blind eye to the corporation’s depredations -- as well as to its violent retaliations against the Gaists.

Praxes: Harmony/Disruption, and Truth/Power

Niala is a journalist just returned from a trip visiting areas experiencing the most negative effects from the weather control. She’s got a riveting feature article highlighting the plight of the farmers that she’s determined to get published (story goal). She manages to outwit Nona, the censor assigned to her newspaper, and get her story out there (protagonist success & story goal achieved), but … no-one cares (antagonist success). Niala risks her link to the farming association representative she’d befriended and the two take to the airwaves to try to drum up some outrage, but despite this extra effort, they still fail to inspire any compassion in their audience – and that puts a serious dent in their friendship. (link risked, to try to reverse the antagonist’s success, but the attempt fails & therefore the link is transformed.)

“Nakri” is the public identity of Enzani, secret Gaist activist who’s infiltrating the WCA in hopes of bringing the corporation down (story goal). His bloodthirsty sister Ursula plays the ingénue and clumsily distracts Choi-Wan, the boss, while he burgles the boss’s residence and steals an access key. While he escapes with the key, his sister’s cover is blown and he leaves her behind. Using the access key he overrides the weather control system to bring up a massive storm. Neither Nakri nor Choi-Wan is willing to back down and the stakes keep getting higher (we had *tagonists on fulcra multiple times during this story, and twice in a row during the climax sequence!) and Nakri manages to not only retain the respect of the Gaists but also become a serious leader … in the new order that follows the killer storm, thousands dead, and the WCA destroyed. (story goal achieved.)

Nari is an insipid hippie Gaist whose life could use some meaning (story goal). His sister Iolana kidnaps him and brings him to the city for an intervention. She installs him in a boring job and she and her friends chaperone him until inertia & a new girlfriend stop his attempts at escaping back to rural life. (this was the only Protagonist conflict failure in the entire game, but Nari going up to 4 features & getting to roll an extra die later didn’t actually manage to make him non-pathetic.) Much to Iolana’s disgust, he does hook up with the city-dwelling chapter of the Gaists and becomes something of a cult figure (link to the Gaists transformed) but in the end, he finds his leadership role hollow and his sad little life continues to lack any real meaning (story goal failed).

We compressed the scenes a bit, particularly at the end (my brain starts to shut off as it gets later, so thank y’all for letting me fast-forward when necessary). And thank you Jesse – you picked a thinky and complicated game to play with us on your first time out, and you totally stepped up to the challenge.

Yeah, it was much fun. And thanks to you guys for being such good and patient teachers!