[Probable Cause] Playtest ahoy

After a considerable re-write since the previous playtests, I’ve begun a new cycle of playtesting. Peter, Oliver and Asbjørn have all graciously agreed to play via Skype, and we had the setup session this week. The first session lays down the land regarding what kind of setting, crime and stuff the players are interested in. We quite quickly agreed on playing in Denmark today, and doing something “internal affairs” kind of crime.Smuggling and corruption were also mentioned. The setting is Falster, a big island not that far from Copenhagen but still very, very different. The area has ferry routes to Germany and Poland(?), and was also the location of one of the most famous Danish shipyards, now defunct for decades.

The players each chose a character pack to start building their player characters, and then it’s my turn as the chair to come up with a brief backstory to kick things off.

Human Nature: This is it

Probable Cause is playtest ripe, at least by me, since not all procedures have been written yet. The biggest hurdle so far has been Human Nature, which looks like this in the current draft.

Probable Cause: Good cop, bad cop

Human nature is a central ability in Probable Cause. It defines who your character is and where she is heading. Your player character is a police officer, but how does she go about doing her job? To what lengths does she go? Will she break the law to uphold the law? And how does she cope with the job?

If Human Nature falls to 0 means the character has reached the end of the line. Her interest and energy in protecting and serving is crumbling, and her energy to do so has gone, she is burnt out, done, finished.