Well, pretty much what the title states, really. I was wondering how a typical Infection phase works. I’m not really looking at anything specific, just the basic ideas going into the Infection phase.
It’s public knowledge what the phase is, so players have an idea of what’s happening. But the key is to make sure you start with a phase-appropriate opening scenario. Don’t start the Usurpation with a battle, and don’t start the Infiltration with legal drama. Start infiltration with a smuggling run. Start usurpation with a kidnapping.
After that, each session consists of the scenes and the maneuvers. If you can’t fit at least one set of scenes and maneuvers into a session of 3-4 hours, you’re playing wrong. Shut up and play faster!
A phase usually lasts for 5-12 sessions. And once dispo starts getting chipped away—usually below 10 or so—start aiming for the end game. Start pulling out the stops and gun for your goal.
Is that helpful?
-L
This! This is the thing that’s made every BE campaign fail for me. Every scene needs to be as short as it can possibly be.
No, mostly because the very basic idea of the infiltration phase really doesn’t click in my head. Usurpation is about the Vaylen already being there and trying to wiggle their way into the heads of the rest of the populace. Invasion is the huge explosion of everything that came before coming out into the light and finally being open for the entire planet to see, one way or another.
Is Infiltration the Vaylen taking advantage of the strife already on the planet, thus necessitating that the players help the GM come up with a suitable conflict for the Vaylen to take advantage of and sneak their way in? Is it that the Vaylen are, in some way, already on the planet and are trying to figure out ways to get their wormy brethren in too?
I ask these questions because, as Carpe can attest, subtle methods are my blindspot (“I’m the ****ing Lion of Braeland!” was the chief battle cry of my character Tomar, which was shouted at everybody and nobody) . This is something that I have very little talent for but I’d certainly like to expand my repertoire. So, while what the phases are about are public knowledge I find that I have little capacity to understand in the first place. I suppose I should go and look up play reports of the Infiltration phase, and try to understand it that way. Yeah, I should probably do that.
Why the hell didn’t I think of that before? Oh well.
Any additional comments would be welcomed heartily.
Infiltration is when the Vaylen try to slip their agents onto a particular world. It’s slipping past “border” patrols and smuggling. Cloak and dagger stuff. The spy story.
Usurpation is when the Vaylen have identified key figures of power and started replacing them. It’s a little bit body snatchers and a little bit Manchurian Candidate. The political story.
Invasion is when the Vaylen give up all pretenses and go to war. They bring in their battle cruisers and genetically engineered killing machines. The war story.
The implication of Infiltration is that most of the figures of note on the Vaylen side (if not all of them) are not infected yet. They might be later, but most certainly aren’t at the beginning. Am I correct in assuming that?
(Again, thanks for being so patient.)
Yes. Many characters on the Vaylen side in the Infiltration are unwitting dupes.