This is a playtest through Larger Than Life

Reading through Larger than Life, it appears very interesting and I do want to try it. It has a logistics problem though in that there are tables to be rolled on to see what you can recruit for a given locale. For example, in a country town I would roll and get a film crew, military, local authorities, or specialists. If I get a film crew, I then roll to see if I can get a director, leading man, leading lady, camera crew, or stage hands. Its good fun and makes adventures be kooky and interesting but does it mean that we need a huge case of figures with us to cover every eventuality (yes, I know I have a camera crew)

I start by making Brock Ironjaw. Brawn will be his primary attribute so Brains and Bravado are secondary. He'll start with 4 Reputation and his home will be a Safari basecamp somewhere in Africa (Jungles). For Advantages he takes 'Exudes Confidence' and 'Strong Willed'. Rolling up his disadvantages I get Slow and Dumbass. That sounds about right. He gets the skills Climb 4, Shooting 4, Influence 2, Clever 2, Swim 4. His profession is Adventurer (Explorer). He is self-employed.

His Love Interest is Sunny Honeychurch (Rep 3, Bravado primary, skills Conversation 3, First Aid 2)
His co-stars:
-Professor Crun (rep 2, Brains primary,skills: Science:Natural Sciences 2)
-Colonel Bloodnock(rep 3, Brains primary,Dead-Eye, Distinguishing feature(his ridiculous moustache, skills:Tracking 3,Area Knowledge:Africa 3)

Often he may take extras from the local natives (rep 3, Profession - villagers, Primary brawn. They get an occupation skill so I guess we'll say 'bearers')

 

The Opening Scene always takes place at the Hero's home so it is in his tribal kitsch themed hostel in Darkest Africa. I need to pick my team before starting this scene and get my full reputation allowance (when at home you don't need to roll) so I'll pick Professor Crun (costars cost 2) and then two tribal bearers. My houseboys.

It turns out that Brock must find someone but enemies will be protecting him/her. We'll start small and I decide that the object of Brock's hunt will be Ethan Orient. It turns out that the Big Bad will be some sort of Native and his rep will be 3. He apparently has a plan to steal a weapon of mass destruction.

Now, our hero will have to achieve a total of 20 to reach the final scene. He starts with 4 (his rep) and he will need to get clues to increase his total. He also gets to roll a D6 to add to it.

He needs clues to advance the story so moves on to a Travel Scene to try to get to a Story Advancing Scene. Like the Opening scene, these scenes also aren't played out on the tabletop normally.

Apparently he must travel to an exotic locale, the local colonial trading town with its colourful personalities. Perhaps clues to the location of Ethan Orient may be found there. He'll apparently need to get there by Tramp Steamer. He rolls and gets no encounter so arrives at his first scene without incident.

THE STORY ADVANCING SCENE

First, we see what allies we can recruit for this scene. He only gets 2 rep points worth of friends for this scene so he'll bring along Sunny Honeychurch. She is an adventurous sort.

I roll a 1 and it seems that my Big Bad is here in this first mission and his goal in this scene is to GASP! capture my love interest. It looks like I'm going to need to roll up my Big Bad and get more information on exactly who he is. Meanwhile, it is a daytime scene and my objective is to find someone (an airplane mechanic) that can give clues to the location of Ethan Orient. It doesn't appear that I can get down to the business of finding the mechanic until I have dealt with Barooba-ba's attempts to capture Sunny.

The scene will apparently take place in the town square. There ought be a fountain in the center of a wide crossroads and innocent bystanders may be present. Arranging the forces: I get Brock and Sunny (7 rep total) and my roll results in telling me that my opponents will have 7 rep total. Barooba-Ba is 3 so that leaves 4 to determine. It looks like it will be a local authority figure accompanying Barooba-Ba. He'll be armed with modern weapons. There are only 3 innocent bystanders.

Brock and Barooba-Ba will start 11" away from each other, in cover. Our allies are within 12" of us. Hopefully Brock will gain the upper hand

Barooba-Ba is the Big Bad. Reputation 3. His primary is Brains. He is terrifying (-2D6 to fire at him, -1D6 to melee him) and Animal so gets +1D6 in melee. His disadvantage is that he is slow and a bit of a wuss. His skills are Magic 3, Occult studies 3, and intimidate 2. With his magic he can cast attack spells or demon summoning spells. Demons are terrifying.

Kareema is the Femme-Fatale. Her primary is Bravado. Reputation 3. She'll get the advantage Natural athlete and the disadvantage Runt (-1D6 in HTH). Skills Seduce 3, Stealth 3.

His extras will be native warriors when he is at his home. Their skill is primitive weapons.
 

Once the actors take their marks, a gaining the upper hand test is made. Brock wins it by 2 (even with his additional 1D6 for exuding confidence) with the result his faction may charge into melee but enemy may not fire. Go to combat Rules section rolling activation as normal.

If he charges he can't be fired upon so Brock tries sprinting toward the Big Bad (after succeeding at his Dumbass test). He is slow though and even with an attempt at fast movement, he only moves 8". Not enough.

Sunny Honeychurch moves to take cover. So the turn passes to the Big Bad. Barooba-Ba commands the Inspector "I will take care of Brock Ironjaw. Get the Girl!". The inspector dashes toward Sunny. There appear to be no rules at all for moving through or over terrain so he goes around his obstacles.

Meanwhile, Barooba-Ba will reaches a claw into the air and summons arcane magicks to thwart Brock Ironjaw. Casters rep (3) + Magic skill (3) + Star Power (2) = 8. The target's defense will be Rep (4) + star power (2)=6. Barooba-Ba gets 5 successes. Brock gets 4. Brock is dazed by the magical power and stops in his tracks.

Brock will need to take an Adventurer Dazed Crisis test. He passes it and will recover when next active.

Rolling for initiative again, the heroes once more win it but this time Brock is too far to lead Sunny and the initiative die roll will allow him to act (rep 4) but not Sunny (rep 3) so Sunny will have to move after all of the bad guys.
 

Brock, recovering from his daze, looks left and looks right. Does he go to stop the Inspector or does he try to stop Barooba-Ba from casting more spells? Apparently the decision is too much for Brock's brain and he fails his Dumbass test so he cannot act this turn. Barooba-Ba acts next and hurls another spell at Brock. Brock is once again dazed and once again passes his crisis test.

The inspector rushes forward to seize Sunny!

In the fight, because neither character has melee skill, neither side gets to roll any dice to see who wins. I decide that each will roll one dice to determine who gets to win the tie and Sunny wins this one. With a hearty kick, the Inspector is wounded (his rep is not reduced since no weapons were used). He falls to the ground and takes a dazed crisis test/. He will recover when next active. Sunny now gets to activate and so she chooses the prudent path and opts to try exiting the scene.

Brock activates first, succeeds at his dumbass test and so does the smart thing. He draws his pistol and fires at Barooba-Ba. Brock rolls 2 less dice because the villain is terrifying. Rolling 2d6, he gets a single 1. Barooba-Ba is wounded and his reputation is reduced by 1. He makes his star power roll and doesn't reduce the damage at all (nor does he lose any star power). Barooba-Ba must take a Crisis test for being wounded which he passes, despite being a wuss.

The Inspector activates next and I can find no rules for standing up. Since it takes an entire turn to go prone it will take a turn to stand up and face any direction. The inspector gets to his feet and then Barooba-Ba does the same. In Sunny Honeychurch's turn, she flees off the map. As soon as a star's love interest leaves a map, the scene ends and we go to a CHASE SCENE.

CHASE SCENE

It seems that I didn't need to go to a chase scene since Sunny left under her own power but I do and this takes me to a test that our heroes win so Sunny escapes and we go off directly to the story advancing scene that I'd come to this exotic locale for in the first place. I'm still on the trail of that airplane mechanic who once worked for Ethan Orient.

STORY ADVANCING SCENE

I find 'Mickey the mechanic' but complications ensue. In order to get my clue(s), I apparently need to devise an opposed challenge for myself. Brock has Influence 2 and Sunny has Conversation 3. Since my NPC isn't defined, I should assume that it has no Influence skill so while I test with 2 dice, the mechanic gets 1. Because I suffered a complication, I get 1 less die.

The task can be as easy or as complicated as I choose and with consequences as dire or inconsequential as I wish. This first one will be a terribly simple one: Influence Mickey to tell me where he flew Ethan to. The consequence of failure would be that I gain no clue and also, that Barrooba-Ba will know who I am looking for. Actually, I'll modify that.

Step One is a conversation task that Sunny will do. If I fail this test then Mickey will not be charmed by us and will tell Barooba-ba after we leave. Step Two is the influence test, the consequence being that the trail dries up and I get no clue.

Sunny easily succeeds. Brock succeeds after a couple of tries. Mickey spills his guts. We are back on the trail of the mysterious Ethan Orient. Brock has his first clue point.

TRAVEL to another STORY ADVANCING SCENE

They are going from Exotic Locale to Exotic Locale and this time he is looking to get information from a local gang of thugs. After travelling by aircraft (it seems Mickey flew them there) without incident, he fails to find the thugs but instead encountered some civilized natives that must be interacted with.

INTERACTION

There's 11 points of rep in the group. The first is an Officer (rep 5, star power 2, skill: shooting, enforcement crisis table), 1 civilian (rep 3, civilian crisis table), and a soldier (rep 3, skill: shooting, military crisis table). We do an interaction test: Brock gets 4 dice and the native officer gets 5. The Natives score two more successes than Brock and Sunny. The NPC becomes belligerent. Go to the DRAW! section. The Native Officer wins big and so immediately shoots at Brock (no miniatures set up yet?). Brock is wounded! He makes a star power roll and avoids the reputation loss but also loses 1 of his 2 star power. He passes a crisis test.

ACTION!

This scene will also take place in the town square of an exotic locale. It will start with Brock on his backside and local native officer standing over him 8" away. I made no effort to recruit more allies before starting this scene so it is just Sunny and Brock again. There is no gaining the upper hand test after a Draw!

Local authorities will, it is said, arrive in 1D6 turns. I roll a 6. I have no idea what local authorities means since Brock did, I belive, just get shot by a local authority.