Megagame: Running Hot on February 27, 2021
All hail Case Aniclog!
Game Background: This is a "pre-cyberpunk" megagame that's somewhat setting up the foundation for a future dystopia. There are two main groups facing off against each other: Corporations and Runners. Corps are trying to earn as much money as possible, and Runners are trying to steal from them.
My Past Megagames: This was my 12th-ish megagame. There's a list of my other AARs at the end of this, but at this point, I'm going out of order with my AARs (mostly because I wanted back to back articles about the Facers in Running Hot from different angles). This was my second play of Running Hot, and my experience with the first is documented here.
My Role: I was a Runner named Con from the Facers, a group dedicated to the gloriousness of the actor Case Aniclog, who is definitely not an anagram of Nicholas Cage.
My Team: My starting team was composed of 5 people- myself, my sister Mackensey and good friend Day (both of whom were playing their first megagame ever!), and two other players that I hadn't met before but really enjoyed working with to spread the good word of Case Aniclog. As you will hear in my debrief, our endgame team ended up being much wider than it initially started as, which I fully credit with the undeniable brilliance of Case Aniclog. To know him is to love him.
My Game Plan: Honestly, my game plan going in was to ensure that Mackensey and Day had a phenomenal time (and to drive Paddy a bit crazy). In my defense on the latter- he did this to himself by putting me/us on the Facers.
What Happened: Keep in mind that this is entirely based on my point of view and what I heard through the grapevine. I did not directly participate in a few of the things I'll be recapping.
Wheeling and Dealing with the Corporations: We immediately had a large host of ideas about how to properly honor Case Aniclog. Many of our early plans involved mutual non-aggression pacts with corporations in exchange for incorporating Case Aniclog into their tech somehow. By the end of the second turn, we had deals with Gordon Corporation to put holograms of Case at their facilities, DTC to add Case Aniclog as the starting avatar for their VR tech, MCM to find the missing Case Aniclog film the Biopic of Dougie McMullough for a co-sponsored screening, and ANT to name all of their stuff after Case Aniclog. Ultimately, there was only one corporation left that we could run on (Genetic Equity), so that's what we spent most of the rest of the game doing.
Cloning Case Aniclog: Clearly the best way to honor his brilliance would be to bring about the second coming, to debut at the international release of the Biopic of Dougie McMullough. We found out that his remains were in one of two cemeteries and then raided them, facing down everything from a sleeping security guard that we definitely did not beat up to a Griffin that some of us barely escaped. Ultimately, we recovered his body and were able to clone it with the help of ANTM and stolen Genetic Equity technology. Day was able to birth Case back into the world during the last round of the game!
Scorer Strikes Back: I was SHOCKED when our HQ was broken into and Case's body was stolen, particularly when it turned out to be by someone that I definitely haven't portrayed in a past life. Scorer was consistently on our heels, causing shenanigans like a riot near the Valentine Cinema that he used as cover to steal Case's body (which he fortunately gave back after strongarming our help with some of the Gruffster's plans).
We Need to Steal The Declaration of Independence: The government had been doing shady things that I was much too busy to fully follow, but the Facers united with all of the other Runner groups for a megarun on the Embassy. Some were protesting the unjust treatment of civilians or whatever, but we were focused on the most important task of all: transferring a copy of the Magna Carta here so that we could follow the treasure map on the back. Shoutout to Mackensey for this brilliant idea!
Caseism Grows: Over time, more and more players began to recognize the greatness of Case Aniclog, culminating with Augmented Nucleotech shutting down their operations to start a new Church: The Power and Glory of Case Aniclog. They proposed legisltation co-sponsored by McMullough to designate Caseism the official religion of the Procatoriaon. It was narrowly defeated, but they got close! One of our members, Vampire, was also appointed to be the Runner representative on the Government Council, where he worked to spread the message of Case even more.
The G33ks are the Villains of this Story: Finally, it all came together at our screening of the Biopic of Dougie McMullough, where Case Aniclog was reborn. A number of groups were in attendance, where Case Aniclog appeared to us all and told us to kill the G33ks as they'd been working against us the entire time. Clearly this was completely legit and definitely not mind control by DTC, so we made plans. We didn't have time for the epic showdown, but we did plan a missile targeter on the CEO of G33kdon Corporation, who shot down Caseism as the new religion and wouldn't let us into his facilities to murder the evil G33ks.
The Real Treasure Was With Us the Whole Time: During our very first round, we hooked up with one of the freelancers, portrayed by Cal/The Cartographer. He went with us on most of our runs and ultimately joined the Facers as Treasure.
The Endgame: I paid very little attention to how the corporations worked during the game outside of the plot pieces they worked with us on, but I know that they made a lot of money for the most part! Outside of that, here were the major plot lines that got wrapped up:
- The Facers managed to clone Case Aniclog, screen his unreleased movie, steal(ish) the Magna Carta, integrate him into a bunch of cool tech, get a member on the Council, and identify the true villains of the game, the G33ks.
- One of our members, Vampire, was a secret agent of a rival government the entire time, but he still helped us spread the word of Case, so it was ok by us. We weren't super invested in government stuff.
- G33ks got their AI uploaded into the system!
- Gruffsters were able to spark major revolution, particularly because the government was doing some shady shit.
- Dancers made a ton of fun dance progress, including having all of the Runners do the Love, Actually dance in the PM's office at the Embassy.
- There was a plot line involving assassinating the royal family that I didn't fully follow, but down with the corrupt, ornamental monarchy!
- Early on, we'd heard a rumor that Genetic Equity was working on an Ideal Human program to standardize DNA, which we wanted to stop (or replace with Case Aniclog's DNA if we couldn't). Apparently this wasn't a thing, which would explain was Control was confused every time we talked to them about it.
- My favorite part looking back was the sheer volume of players that ended up on Team Case Aniclog in some way, particularly with this foreshadowing from Paddy a few days before the game started.
This felt very on brand for the game, between us gaining Treasure and wooing several corporations to our side.
My Overall Feelings:
The Best: Once again, the overall story arcs were VERY fun to participate in, even though I was on an entirely different side this time. I loved how into them both Mackensey and Day got, and I really hope that they will play another megagame again!
The Good: I fully understood the system this time, and I think that the runs went more smoothly, both from a player understanding POV but also because of the interface. I really like the way that the Control team has integrated tech at various levels to make the game work fairly well.
The Bad: I still don't know what Charisma does after two plays, but that's the biggest complaint I have! It was a phenomenal game overall.
Recommendation: I really enjoyed both plays and recommend Running Hot for others, particularly new players that are very plot/RP driven. It's more structured than some of the other megagames that I've played in terms of what you can do and how you achieve your goals, but you were still able to shape your story with your actions. I'd probably recommend the Corporation roles for players that are more mechanics driven and Runners for players that are more RP/plot driven.
This Play: 4.5/5 stars
Running Hot: 4/5 stars
--Theme: 3/5 stars*
--Interface: 5/5 stars
--Rules: 4/5 stars
--Player Autonomy: 5/5 stars
* This theme interests me less, even though it was well executed. I might change my ratings breakdowns at some point.
Past AARs:
Running Hot, Scorer from Gruffsters
I play board games, video games, and megagames. This is where I write about them.
