I ran two sessions of The Broken Menagerie at Gen Con. It is a two-hour game based on one of the After communities profiled in the Desolation: Survivors supplement. The first session had five players and the second session had seven. Both sessions went well, though I was able to let everyone in the first game have more time to roleplay, whereas I had to rush a little with the seven-player session to get it all in.

The scenario begins with some background. The players wandered into the muddy community of Greene shortly after the Thaw. The town had been turned to ash during the Night of Fire when the air surrounding it ignited. Nothing was left above ground, but some scavengers found a few cellars packed with seeds. The players and other survivors helped plant the seeds, their hopes high for a bountiful harvest and a thriving community. That was not to be, however. A plague of locusts wiped out all the seedlings. The townsfolk, including the players, decide to give up on Greene. They split into groups as they abandoned the village. The players hooked up with some of their acquaintances, including a gnome with a map of the Before with a safe place marked on it. The little party doesn't last long because a Weave-storm strikes. The only ones who survive are the player characters. The game begins here.

They follow the gnome's map down an old Empire road, noticing some wagons had passed here a few days ago, going in the same direction. They are surrounded by trees with black bark. The trees have obviously been through a fire. They are charred on the outside, but still living. The action starts as someone sees two grizzly bears coming out of the woods -- then on second glance notice its one bear with two heads (and Advanced Flurry for bite attacks, of course). As they're fighting it, they notice a brightly colored leather collar on each of its necks, with the name, "Barthen" painted on one of them.

A little further up the road, they find charred wagons. An easy scavenge check finds an iron bar in the picked-over ashes and a piece of wood with the word "Great" painted on it in bright, garish lettering. They also find a fresh, shallow grave beside the road. It is marked only with urine and human feces. Exhuming the body, the characters find a headless corpse on its stomach. The man's fingers have been broken.

The soon come upon the little town of Everton. A troupe of performers is there, setting up a large tent. Singers and dancers (many of them Weave-stained in various ways) are parading around it and brightly colored wagons that contain all manner of strange, Weave-touched creatures -- from a fur-covered alligator to a semi-translucent deer. The villagers are applauding the performance. There are more happy people here than any of the characters have seen in the After.

The ring leader, The Amazing Philean, greets them warmly asking about any news from the road. Those were his wagons the group saw charred on the road. He tells them a group of bandits attacked them and started burning the wagons. His troupe had to release three animals before they burned to death: a gentle two-headed bear that balances on a ball to the delight of many children, an acrobatic albino quill ape named Mormuu, and a large wolf that is quite dangerous. Philean asks for their help in retrieving the animals before they hurt someone or get hurt.

That's the intro and quest. The players need to find out who the body was, why it was treated with such disrespect, track down the wolf and find a little boy who is missing from the village. In the process they discover the true motivations of Philean's Menagerie.

Both groups killed the bear without too much trouble, though Tarl botched his Defense roll and got mauled pretty good. Both groups had the presence of mind to skin the bear for its pelt and meat. One group even made some weapons from its bones. Style points all around. They also felt bad about killing it after finding out it was a performing bear.

Both groups caught on that the escaped quill ape, which they encounter in town as it returns to the sound of the performers' parade, freaks out around magic users. Sasha was being played both times and was able to captivate the quill ape until it could be recaptured. The second group was immediately distrustful of Philean, but the first group seemed to accept his version of the bandit attack.

I'll keep the end somewhat ambiguous, in case anyone wants to play it. But suffice it to say that both parties were somewhat surprised by the wolf, his means of locomotion and his flaw. Menelarus went to zero in both sessions due to Burn, but hung on till the end. The second group had a ton of Style points built up -- they were hamming up their flaws very well -- and they all contributed to Lem's cinematic (19 dice, I think it was) take down of one of the bad guys after the wolf was dealt with.

Both games ended just about on time, though I rushed the last combat to get it all in for the second group.

Even in a short con game, all the players were able to participate and had a good time. I was glad to see that all the players got into their characters and no one tried to hog the stage. Tarl was played in the second session, and he made some good empathy checks on Philean -- as well as caused some trouble with his honesty flaw. Denner was also in the second group and managed to break into some of the performers' quarters without being noticed. Of course, Sasha was quite pleased to see the performers in the menagerie and was promised a job both times. Krek made good use of his tracking and archery skills. Lem and Esther were aghast at the way the body was buried and Esther scolded Philean for it. Menelarus had ample opportunities to look down on the circus performers, as well as the townsfolk, and creatively used his air magic so as not to freak out Krek (who is afraid of fire) with his fire magic.

Both games had some people who were new to Ubiquity and they picked up the system quickly. The second game had some 2007 playtesters in it, as well as people who played Desolation at Gen Con 2008. It was good to see them coming back for more.

Hullo, Jamie,

Thanks for posting the report on running "The Broken Menagerie". I really love that scenario, and think that it's got some excellent stuff in it, offers some insights into certain elements of the world of Scondera, and had some very interesting villains and NPCs. Glad the runnings of it went so well.

Out of curiosity, got two questions...

1. How many players are you most comfortable running the scenario with, and which of the pre-gens for this one are the best?

2. Without giving too much away about the plot details and surprises, were there any areas of the scenario during the runnings that caused headaches or any problems?

Thanks, in advance. And thanks again for posting your report of the runnings. Wish I had been there!

Hey John,

I think the scenario needs at least four players, otherwise there's just not enough fire power to deal with some of the fights. Five was the optimum number, imo, but I think six would be fine too. Best characters:
* Krek for the many tracking checks.
* Obviously some time of magic user is a must -- I really think any of the magic-using signature characters would do fine. Esther was fun to watch roleplay as she was surrounded by uncouth circus folk.
* Sasha was surprisingly useful in the game, both with her performance skills and captivate talents. Also good roleplaying as she and Philean hit it off right away, lying to one another that their reputations preceded them.
* Tarl was fun because he performed last rites and his honesty flaw made the other characters squirm.
* Lem got to play the lawman, and of course was much appreciated during the fights.
* Denner had some opportunities to scavenge and sneak about. He used his subtle strike in both scenarios.

Things that I had to improvise on: Tarl's honesty was played to the hilt in the second session. That, coupled with his good empathy checks, had the group ready to accuse Philean's troupe of murder and arresting him -- before going after the wolf. That could have lead to a huge fight where the players were outnumbered 7 to 1. But, a near-hysterical villager looking for a missing boy distracted them enough to go after the wolf to try to find it before it found the boy, and the con-game plot line continued.