[CoH] Joshua and me only

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Joshua,

I was reviewing the thread and realized I didn't understand the GM's prep at all. What components were involved? How did you organize their internal features?

Also, here's some feedback on your introduction to the players:

The assignment:
Bekselle is a town, in the upper reaches of Rolke's deepest fjord. It is prosperous but insular.  The fjord's mouth is a shallow a treachorous delta, nearly unnavigable. Better protected than most of the coastal cities, it has been virtually immune to spurrish incursions and raids.  Its prosperity seems entirely inward focussed because it does so little trade with other cities.   A travelling priest or herbalist reports that the town teems with healthy children and youths and has even since well before the young kings time.   The young king would like to know the secret of their robustness to see if it can be shared to other towns.

They should discover all the geography through travel, without reference to whether they knew it already or not. The material like "shallow but treacherous delta" is what you say when they arrive.

Even language like "the assignment" makes me squirm a little. These are ... well, ventures, not missions. The knights are interested, that's why they went there. The king doesn't have to be invoked, and the whole idea that some person or committee set up an "away team" to go there and do something ... well, it's vulnerable to many RPG habits. I'm seeing any number of Shadowrun veterans getting it locked into their heads that they are to get the widget or kill the critter, period, no matter how many bodies they leave behind or how much stuff they blow up.

This is the opposite of the other habit, the Dogs one, which can be discussed another time.

I'm not saying your prep or your game fell into that trap actually, but the whole idea of describing the bird's-eye-view of the community and using words like "reports" carries a distinctly military-ops mission feel.

[Joshua Bearden]

I'm not saying your prep or your game fell into that trap actually, but the whole idea of describing the bird's-eye-view of the community and using words like "reports" carries a distinctly military-ops mission feel.

Oh I'm in that trap; I'm in it so deeply that it's going to take more than you pointing it out to me to get me out.

I think I'm correct in understanding that the social contract requires that player and GM agree the session will start with the Circle Knights approaching a location wherein the GM has prepared 1-3 components with details sufficient to stimulate some emergent adventure and personal drama. I thought the text directed the fictional premise for this agreement is that the knights are "sent on assignment," directly or indirectly, on behalf of the young king.


Let me retrace my steps actual play prep.  (Justice and Vernon, feel free to look away, as we intend to finish this adventure in a second session. I'm not going to give away the tripwire but I will describe most everything else---and possibly change it based on feedback)

....


Slight spoiler break


....

Black-White-Red = 4-5-3 = hidden knowledge in Rolke

4. Hidden knowledge

• A magic resource*, a historical fact, or something similar
• Circle Knights are sent to secure clear possible advantages for Rolke

*I picked a magical resource.
   
(BTW I really don't see how I could interpret that second bullet as anything other than "an assignment." If I sound testy it's cause I am, but I trust you'll forgive me. I'll get over it and we'll move on.  Done. Good.)

Where exactly? Each region includes lots of variety, so pick the kind of location you like, and
start filling it in. Come up with evocative place-names if you're good at that.

I picked a town on the water but also isolated (and protected from raids) and named it Bekselle after this place:  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bexhill-on-Sea)

I decided what the hidden knowledge was:

Two secrets:
(1) Women eat the bark of the buxus tree, not presently known to grown anywhere else in the crescent lands.  This bark's properties greatly strengthen their health dramatically reducing infant  and maternal mortality. It also allows women to bear children much later in life.  This herb is an open 'secret' from the men. Though everyone recognizes "the grove" as a sacred and magical women's space. It is taboo for men to enter it.

Eating the buxus bark is done ritualistically in a cave behind a waterfall near the grove.  The cave contains the second secret.

(2) The cave leads to an extensive cavern connected to the deepest waters of the fjord.  Inside is a place where kelpies and women meet on the shores of an subterranean beach.  Many of the strongest and healthiest children in Bekselle are half-fey offspring of kelpies. 

Kelpies are fey spirits with the bodies of seals who take human form to have intercourse with human women.  They will not fight on dry land, except in the event of a direct (in their presence) violent attack on a current lover or their offspring. This is a rare and unlikely occurrence.  On land they are robust and healthy, (8649) but in all other ways mortal men. In the sea, in seal form, they are deadly opponents.

The kelpies are a very well kept secret. The men fall into three categories (1) blissfully oblivious, happy only that they have so many healthy children.  (2) philosophically resigned, still pretty happy about their children---most of them look like me---I think (3) Jealously resentful, ignorant of the secret of the cave but deeply suspicious of their wives fidelity. The third is the smallest faction and up until now they have not dared to violate the sanctity of the grove.

----


Then I came up with three named characters with needs, agendas, and clout

• Hulda

Elder woman who understands the hidden knowledge perfectly.  She is not inclined to teach, but will offer up information about the buxus and take great measures to preserve the sanctity of the cave. Needs to preserve both the status of women in Bekselle, influence over all the women and many older men. She will distrust outsiders, but may open up to women if any approach her with humility.

• Aghi

A young, angry suspicious husband, leader of a few who seek to impose more patriarchal control over women in a town where women have a subtle but unacknowledged advantage. Dabler in Amboriyon magic. (There is an Amboriyon zone among some smooth standing stones in the nearby mountains.) Has influence over a gang of young men.

• Guntram

A halfling wizard, eldest of Hulda's 23 children, skilled Rbajan wizard, there is a Rbajan zone is the depths of the fjord (which is extremely deep).  He, unlike most halflings, knows his true parentage. He has influence with other halfling children. His agenda is their protection both from Aghi's type but also from the outside world.  Presumptively hostile to the Circles inquiries he may be brought around if they will assist in quashing Aghi's schemes.*
[/list]

* I see the problem with this type of statement in prep.  In play, it was quickly washed away with a successful charm roll.


Next I thought of three Confusing and potentially dangerous locations:

1. The grove and waterfall
2. The cavern and subterranean shore
3. The Smooth Stones - an Amboriyon zone high up on a nearby mountain.

Throughout the process, the preparer needs to integrate the details within each components, tune
them to the details of the location, and to make sure to normalize the equivalent material for
components that are not included. The situation always has to be problematic in the sense that
people have their reasons not simply to give the Circle knights whatever they want.

"What the knights want" I think is a good understanding of what's going on an why this town is burgeoning while so isolated. The problem I think is simply that the men don't know and the women don't want to tell.

One thing I am pleased with myself for not doing, and I think I'm right, is this: I refrained from speculating if and how the knights would actually uncover any of this information.  I also don't have any idea whether even complete knowledge of these secrets provides any usable advantage for Rolke.  Not my problem I think.

I feel satisfied simply that something really interesting is going on here and there is some definite volatility beneath the surface.  One way or another, the knight's presence and activity is bound to spark something a crisis. What, I did not know.

Finally, I should mention I decided on a very clear simple tripwire and consequences but will refrain from describing it until the adventure is done.

[Ron Edwards]

Hey, I will have to write a pretty extensive bit about this. However, today is all kids, all the time, and I ask for a day's time. It may be shorter but I can't guarantee it.

[Ron Edwards]

Black-White-Red = 4-5-3 = hidden knowledge in Rolke

4. Hidden knowledge
•   A magic resource*, a historical fact, or something similar
•   Circle Knights are sent to secure clear possible advantages for Rolke

*I picked a magical resource.

Ouch. That's the one I've already edited out of that component. It's revised to be always completely mundane.
   

(BTW I really don't see how I could interpret that second bullet as anything other than "an assignment." If I sound testy it's cause I am, but I trust you'll forgive me. I'll get over it and we'll move on.  Done. Good.)

Here's my situation. As a playtester you are always one or two steps behind what's going on in my head and on my notes. If I backtrack even to understand where you are, it knocks the process askew. It's a cursed, thankless position for you to be in, and I sympathize completely, but the fact is – you can be using the manuscript precisely as written, do something and X happens, and I'll say, "Oh that, yeah, that doesn't work at all, do it like X and Y and Z instead." It doesn't matter that I wrote the thing itself right there in black-and-white, or you followed what was written or that you interpreted what was written in an understandable manner. I'm not calling you stupid or saying you did anything unreasonable. I am saying that my tone in responding is going to be that of someone who is feeling the beginnings of triumph in design and is dissecting and flinging away much more than he is putting in, and whose attitude toward the rejected material is one of literal loathing (even though I wrote it). It's not a gentle tone.

In this case, in addition to the revision above, I've also already eliminated mission-based phrasing from this section. It's best to say that a given character may have been asked or directed to go, or that he or she heard about whatever the situation is and decided to go, and that it doesn't matter and is best left unplayed and unexamined. Meaning: that through no fault of your own, you got hammered twice.

Where exactly? Each region includes lots of variety, so pick the kind of location you like, and
start filling it in. Come up with evocative place-names if you're good at that.

I picked a town on the water but also isolated (and protected from raids) and named it Bekselle after this place:  (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bexhill-on-Sea)

I decided what the hidden knowledge was:

Two secrets:
(1) Women eat the bark of the buxus tree, ...
(2) The cave leads to an extensive cavern connected to the deepest waters of the fjord.  Inside is a place where kelpies and women meet ... 

First, that is a hell of a lot of hidden knowledge. The first seems quite awesome to me and more than sufficient. I thought my example would be a model, but I have to explain why it's a good model: one simple thing, and done.

Regarding the second, in addition to being more than enough, there isn't any "fey" in the setting; it's a whole metaphysical concept that doesn't fit. The implications of halfbreeds ... tons of stuff which turns into a complete thematic package and doesn't have anything to do with what's supposed to be the only magic.

I'll have to work on parameters for this kind of instruction too, which is trickier – one doesn't say, "add nothing to this perfect and pristine textual setting," but there is such a thing as setting-breaking through addition.

Then I came up with three named characters with needs, agendas, and clout

Here's where something really jumped in: you're adding components. One of the points of the component system is that you don't use what doesn't come up. Specifically, you've added "social tensions at a boiling point" and both an Rbaja wizard and an Rbaja zone, so a double dose of "Rbaja interference."

Next I thought of three Confusing and potentially dangerous locations:

I think something went a bit awry here because you are working with a single component and only need one such location.

Throughout the process, the preparer needs to integrate the details within each components, tune
them to the details of the location, and to make sure to normalize the equivalent material for
components that are not included. The situation always has to be problematic in the sense that
people have their reasons not simply to give the Circle knights whatever they want.

"What the knights want" I think is a good understanding of what's going on an why this town is burgeoning while so isolated. The problem I think is simply that the men don't know and the women don't want to tell.

No problem with the logic here at all. I think it could have applied fully to the first hidden knowledge, the tree bark.

One thing I am pleased with myself for not doing, and I think I'm right, is this: I refrained from speculating if and how the knights would actually uncover any of this information.  I also don't have any idea whether even complete knowledge of these secrets provides any usable advantage for Rolke.  Not my problem I think.

Agreed!

OK ... so I'm a little worried you're feeling insulted in light of the fact that you are indeed playtesting my game. It's true that I should be nothing but grateful, and from me as a person, that's exactly the case. The frenzied creator, on the other hand, is very selfish and only concerned with the work in progress ... but still has to say, Thank you, absolutely.

Best, Ron