players: John, Stuart, Ben

Stuart wanted to try out Shock so we took it for a spin. Unfortunately we ate up a bunch of time in setup and only got through one round before Stuart had to take off. But instead of calling it quits John and I knuckled down and cranked out two really hot scenes in the next half hour. It was a tribute to dramatic focus.

Final scene. John's cultural enforcer, an agent of the rigid status quo, shows up to arrest and/or assassinate his antagonist, a peace-loving gardener who offers him tea and solace, neither of which he wants. We'd already established the society had no written records of any kind and existed entirely through oral traditions:

enforcer: "Look at those fields! We've farmed that way for hundreds of years! Who are you to change that?"

antagonist: "Have we? All we know about the past is what we've been told. They've lied to you about everything else. How do you know these 'traditions' you're protecting are even real?"

The enforcer does not take it well. John says "and I kill her. Conflict?" Nope, no conflict, you totally kill her. My conflict? He murders her out of rage and betrayal, not to enforce his precious law. Enforcer loses conflict. Awesome bitterness.

Also file under: it's never too late to save a game.