#RPGaDAY2020 21: PUSH

#RPGaDAY2020

21: PUSH

Pushes for in-game action.

In Medias Res is the obvious starting move for this, skipping the “deciding whether to take the job” phase and going to the “breaking in to the building” phase or even the “fleeing the Imperial fleet” phase.

The trick here is getting the players to go along with its specific requirements - “I would have checked for traps!” Some players are never happy with this, and some thrive on it.

In session, a bit of scene framing can go a long way, for similar reasons.

And there are also narrative pushes, where the pacing comes from the events in-game. The classics are in-character deadlines and activity happening while the PCs are doing something else. I come from the “cut the wire with 007 seconds left on the clock” school of thought, so I have to make it clear that I’m doing this, and stick to it, and I don’t apply it to campaign-ending apocalyptic deals.

Cutting away to what the antagonists are up to can be fun in an appropriate genre, but keep it short and vague.

And, why not, the film Push (2009). One of Chris Evans’s several superhero roles, though not one of his several comic adaptation roles.

Push is about different kinds of psychics in a plain-clothes supers modern action setting, rebelling against an authority trying to weaponise them. This is rather relevant to the Trinity Continuum, not least Aberrant - drop the powers for Aeon into the present and mix with Deviant: The Renegades and you’re most of the way there. There are also smaller Scanners-y games like The 23rd Letter that could work, though it’s lower on action.