Lacuna Part 1 Campaign Notes

These are notes from my running a short campaign of Lacuna Part 1. It was distinctive in that Lacuna is usually run as a one-shot or short adventures, whereas we played for ten sessions. Most of the eight adventures were straight runs, but there was a steady progression of unusual events regarding what was happening in the real world. The real story behind Lacuna is somewhat secret, though also somewhat vague in the game text. To optionally avoid spoilers, click here to unhide/hide text with spoilers below.

The progression of the campaign was that almost every session started with the PCs on a mission as agents with no memory of who they are. However, there was a steady progression of clues for many things. Each time, the agent would appear in the middle of something -- apparently replacing the body of a person in that world. The leader, Agent Hammer, first appeared sitting up on a tray in a hospital morgue. In later adventures she continued to appear in morbid situations. In one adventure where the player Nancy couldn't make it, I had Control report that Agent Hammer should be there - but there was only a graveyard where they said to find her. In contrast, Agent Tucker often jumped into violent situations, such as appearing just as he was dropping a match into a pool of gasoline. Control at some point told them that how they jumped in depended on their psychological state.

At the end of each adventure, they would have about a minute where they appeared in hospital beds with various electrodes hooked up to them. However, they blacked out after just a minute in that reality.

The players also slowly got impressions about who their targets were and what they were doing. In the Lacuna game text, the agents are curing criminals of problems by isolating them from the collective unconscious. In my game, the sense of the targets they were going after shifted. There was a warning at some point about taking government contracts, and then one adventure involved attacking a target in a mosque. They also started receiving contacts from a person who seemed to know about them - a woman named Terrill.

I also interpreted that the spider-men were part of a general process where the collective unconscious was reacting against the intrusion of these agents into the natural flow. In later adventures, increasingly dangerous arachnids and insects appeared to endanger them. These could also potentially talk, and grew fairly disturbing.

In the end, the agents all ended up cooperating with a plan of working with Terrill and other people of "The Company" to leave the employ of the Institute and take control over their lives.

The Agents

Agent Hammer (played by Nancy)
The team leader, whose insertions always involved a morbid element, to the point of once being inserted into a coffin and not being found.
F; Age 40; F2/I4/A3; Talent Strategy; Techniques Bulletproof; Mentor Duke.
Agent Tucker (played by Black)
The youngest member of the team, who always forgot who he was and what he was doing each mission. He had an unhealthy obsession with a woman named "Jill," who began to appear on missions - and had identity problems after that, where he began to alternately appear as Agent Mercer.
M; Age 29; F4/I3/A2; Talent Intuition; Techniques Writer; Mentor Snyder.
Agent Piper (played by Peter)
An older agent, who in principle seemed gifted at blending in.
M; Age 48; F3/I3/A3; Talent Intelligence; Techniques Documents; Mentor Baxter.
Agent Taylor (played by Sandra)
A headstrong agent who grew weary of the pattern of missions, Taylor often appeared in the middle of a stressful situation.
F; Age 41; F2/I3/A4; Talent Investigation; Techniques Bulletproof; Mentor Duke.
Agent Schreiber (played by Albert)
A talented agent who worked hard for the company to a point, but then became one of the first to consider turning against them.
M; Age 48; F3/I3/A3; Talent Communication; Techniques Caller; Mentor Chambers.

The mentors were:
Duke(29M):young/wit/retired;Chambers:KIA;Snyder(65F);Baxter(46F)


Adventures

What follows are my somewhat incoherent notes about what happened in the various sessions of the game.

Adventure #1

Adventure #2

Adventure #3

Adventure #4

Adventure #5

Adventure #6

Second Session

Next Short Session (Adventure #7)

Adventure #7

Adventure #8

 


J. Hanju Kim <hanjujkim-at-gmail-dot-com>
Last modified: Wed Jul 7 11:16:46 2010