[Circle of Hands] Playtest: Paradox

[Jonas Ferry]

I had to call the the thread something, and since all of today's players (not me) work at Paradox Interactive this seemed fitting.

We had our character generation session today, and plan to do two adventures. We play every other week. We were supposed to be two more players, but they had to cancel. They'll join for the adventures, probably playing two of the extra characters created today, unless they want to create their own before the session. It's nice that the PCs can be created in isolation; you don't have any front-loaded relationships to other PCs or anything. This actually feels very refreshing.

We had 90 minutes for my introduction of the game and character generation, but we started 10 minutes late. Instead we stayed 30 minutes longer, so 110 minutes, just to give a feeling for how much material we were able to cover. I had already decided I would go through the bullets in the rundown at the start of the book, because they give a very nice overview of all different parts of the setting and the game procedures. To save time I wanted to remove every bullet except the bare essentials, but I couldn't find any, so I ended up discussing all of them. I think it took 30-45 minutes to go through the list and answer questions, mainly on the different lands, the magic war, and social class.

We created two characters each, me and the three players. We went through the instructions in order, and did each section (first attributes, then traits, and so on) for both characters at the same time, instead of doing one character each and then loop back to the beginning. we thought this would save time, since we could discuss all attribute questions and then move on to the next step.

I'll list all the characters first, then I'll list our comments. Note that we didn't have time to do Key Event and spells.

GM (me)

Name: Alwin Lanzo
Sex: Male
Attributes: Brawn 7, Quickness 4, Wits 5, Charm 4
Traits: Brave, Romantic
Homeland: Tamaryon
Professions: Priest, Wizard
Social Class: Freeman
Demeanor: Formal
Feature: Blaze
Weapons & Armor: Staff, spear (foot), mail, cone helmet

Name: Dirk
Sex: Male
Attributes: Brawn 6, Quickness 9, Wits 6, Charm 5
Traits: Brave, Ambitious
Homeland: Famberge
Professions: Farmer, Martial (low)
Social Class: Peasant
Demeanor: Blunt
Feature: Blaze
Weapons & Armor: Knife, hand axe, staff, sling, spear (foot), bow, crossbow, round shield, mail, cone helmet

Player T

Name: Irmhild
Sex: Female
Attributes: Brawn 8, Quickness 6, Wits 3, Charm 4
Traits: Brutal, Brave
Homeland: Tamaryon
Professions: Martial (low)
Social Class: Peasant
Demeanor: Formal
Feature: Mismatched eyes
Weapons & Armor: Staff, hand axe, sling, spear (foot), bow, crossbow, francisca, buckler

Name: Dietmar Lytz
Sex: Male
Attributes: Brawn 6, Quickness 4, Wits 11, Charm 2
Traits: Cunning, Ambitious
Homeland: Spurr
Professions: Scholar, Wizard
Social Class: Professional
Demeanor: Shy
Feature: Mismatched eyes
Weapons & Armor: Spear (mounted), mail, cone helmet, buckler

Player M

Name: Adelan Katja
Sex: Female
Attributes: Brawn 6, Quickness 5, Wits 9, Charm 6
Traits: Cunning, Ambitious
Homeland: Spurr
Professions: Martial (high), Artisan, Merchant
Social Class: Professional
Demeanor: Formal
Feature: One piece of bright clothing
Weapons & Armor: Any shield, spear, bow, crossbow, cone helmet, mail, chained mace

Name: Siegbert Lukas
Sex: Male
Attributes: Brawn 6, Quickness 6, Wits 6, Charm 9
Traits: Brave, Romantic
Homeland: Rolke
Professions: Martial (high), Wizard
Social Class: Gentry
Demeanor: Stoic
Feature: Well-groomed
Weapons & Armor: Sword, spear, bow, mail, spangenhelmet

Player J

Name: Ort
Sex: Male
Attributes: Brawn 8, Quickness 6, Wits 4, Charm 6
Traits: Brave, Brutal
Homeland: Tamaryon
Professions: Entertainer (low) (wrestler)
Social Class: Peasant
Demeanor: Blunt
Feature: One piece of bright clothing
Weapons & Armor: Concealed knife, spear (foot), mail

Name: Konrad "Norri" Astinor
Sex: Male
Attributes: Brawn 6, Quickness 6, Wits 8, Charm 5
Traits: Romantic, Cunning
Homeland: Spurr
Professions: Outdoorsman, Wizard
Social Class: Freeman
Demeanor: Blunt
Feature: Blaze
Weapons & Armor: Bow, knife, walking staff, crossbow, mail

Feedback

• Both the bullet points as an introduction and the steps in the character creation process worked very smoothly. No head-scratching.
• Well, I lied a bit. There were a couple of questions on the bullet points from the players. They were surprised by, but accepted, that the Circle Knights use magic of both colors to fight magic instead of avoiding magic altogether. There was a question if the "young king" in Rolke is twelve or twenty years old. I said he's more like twenty, and that he has seized power on his own. The final question was that the outcome of the adventures are almost always successful. I explained that the focus of play isn't to find the right clues to figure out the mystery, or to beat the bad guy, but on how the characters go about their business and how it affects them. I think one player thought that the PCs could just show up, do whatever they feel like, and be successful anyway. We agreed that they are successful unless the PCs mess it up, either by tripping more tripwires than they can handle or by getting killed or something similar. If they are investigating hidden knowledge and there's a TPK, the mission can hardly be called successful. I think that I get the point of the bullet, but I want to be clear that there was a discussion.
• Alwin Lanzo will get a tally item because he had the lowest attributes, but we didn't have time this session.
• The randomized character creation was great fun.
• One player thought that the traits were extra fun. His reasons were: there are few alternatives, but they give interesting combinations, and give a quick insight into the character's personality. This is extra important when you play someone else's character.
• One player was confused if the list of weapons and armor for each profession was what you know or what items you own. I said that their previous professional lives and the king would provide the with any weapon they knew how to handle. The PCs have retainers to carry stuff. He was still unsure if it meant he could utilize any weapon in a fight, but I'm sure we'll be able to handle it. It's not the game where you have to keep track of each thing you carry; if there's a battle and he says he has his spear, he'll have it. If he says he has his axe, chained mace, sword, bow, crossbow, I'll suggest that his retainers keep them close to the battle and can provide them in a short amount of time if needed.
• For the demeanor and feature lists, we would like twice as many alternatives in each list. Now each result covers two values. With 1d6+Charm you don't get that many different alternatives. For example, Player T got mismatched eyes on both his characters and got Blaze on both of mine.
• The different-color dice are not needed for character creation, and was more confusing than helpful. For attributes you can roll 1d6 three times instead of remembering which attribute was the red die. Two players tried the color variant, but after I had to read the list of attribute-color pairs twice they gave up. Same thing with Demeanor and Feature. Since they're separate tables you can roll 1d6 twice instead. For the GM adventure preparation table I can kind of see the point, since you add up the dice in a specific order, but even here it would be possible to restructure the process to use the same color dice. I happened to have the correct colors in my dice bag, but if I play somewhere else and want to plunder a Yatzee game for dice I would have to work around the colors anyway. The different-colored dice are not used during adventures, only in prep, so it feels like an unnecessary complication. One player thought that the different colors were used in the normal resolution and that they were included in the prep to introduce them, but I don't think that's the case.

This bears repeating: The first session was great fun!

[Jonas Ferry]

Sorry about the formatting of the bullet list in the feedback. For some reason, when I click preview it takes forever. I posted and planned to edit the post if it didn't look right (for example not adding points to the bullets), but I'm not allowed to edit.

[Ron Edwards]

This looks like a great start, Jonas! Be sure to check out the current combat thread, and don't use what I describe in my first post - scroll down to find an outline in one of my posts.

One tiny quibble: please don't think of a character as belonging to any player, especially after the first adventure. It's actually important to remove this concept from the game. The only reason I mandate playing one of your own on the first adventure is that in every early playtest, every player always did it.

I'm thinking about roles for the colored dice in the resolution, particularly breaking weapons. But if you prefer to ignore the colors in the preparation, that's fine. I find it especially useful for the adventure preparation.

[Jonas Ferry]

I grouped the characters by player above because I thought it might be interesting to see what kind of choices were made, for example if some player made similar or very different PCs. We didn't write the players' names on the sheets. Actually, there was this great moment where you divide the characters in a top and bottom half based on attribute scores. When we put all the characters in piles in the middle of the table it felt like it broke some of the connection to the creator, which was good. We were also careful to write down everything important on the character sheet (we just used blank pieces of paper), to transfer all relevant information to the next player.

One player questioned why you need demeanor and feature if there's no real impact in play, that is, any mechanical impact. If it's "just" for role-playing, why write it down? The answer, from another player, is that it gives the same information to the next player for them to base the character on, and I agree. Of course we talked about more things about the characters than what's on the sheets; for example I called Dirk "Luke Skywalker", going from a peasant to a fighter, but when a player picks him up I don't know if they'll have the same idea. That feels very exciting!

[Jonas Ferry]

The playtest group decided to create Key Events and pick spells for non-wizards separately and send them to each other by email. Here are the key events and spells for the GM-created PCs.

Alwin Lanzo; Priest, Wizard

Alwin Lanzo lived a simple life with three fellow priests on the top of a hill. At the foot of the hill was the shared cemetery for four surrounding villages. The priests performed burial rites there, and traveled to the villages for weddings. One day an Rbaja zone is created on top of the cemetery. The dead rise from their graves and shamble towards their old villages. The other three priests are killed at the cemetery and return to the monastery as zombies. Alwin destroys his former friends with the spell Restore Undead.

Dirk; Farmer, Martial (Low)

While plowing the fields Dirk found an ancient ceremonial dagger marked with swirling snakes. He hid the dagger in his room from his aunt and uncle he was living with, because he didn't think they would let him keep it. When he returns home from the fields the next evening he finds the house burnt down, his aunt and uncle killed, and the dagger gone.

Dirk has Wits 9 and is not a wizard: Healing (1w), Perfect Senses (1w), Shimmer (1w), Animate Dead (1b), Semblance (1b), Summon Demon 1 (1b)

[Jonas Ferry]

Dirk has Wits 6, not 9. The number of spell points are correct.

[Jonas Ferry]

We were supposed to be five players for the playtest, but two had to cancel the character creation session. I gave the two players the choice to either:

a) Play one of the extra characters already created
b) Do a Skype session with me to create characters
c) Create two characters on their own and bring to the next session

I'll do a Skype session with one of the players tonight, but I realized something. We've already divided the PCs into two piles and assigned bonuses to the lesser half. When we create PCs later, this will mess up the two sides if both PCs end up on the same side. It's not only a problem when you create characters like we are, but also if it's possible to add PCs later in a campaign.

What I'll do now is look at the total scores of the old PCs and see where the two new PCs fall, but will leave the old PC values as they are. Another option is to always give the lesser of the two PCs of each player the bonus, which one player thought was the case when we created characters. Or you'll just state the average expected total based on random rolls and give a bonus to PCs below that value. But none of the two options are as fun as the current system.

[Ron Edwards]

The larger questions about creating the Circle are definitely a concern.

1. What happens if initial Circle creation is disrupted in some way, as in this case?

2. What happens if people join the game later with new characters?

Ideally, I wish neither of these would ever happen. To the point where I'd even suggest telling the two players, "Sorry, next time after the playtest draft revision." But I know that I need a practical rather than ideal solution.

I think the best thing for #1 is to wait until all the character creation prior to the half-and-half comparison is done, before assigning the extra points. In other words, up to the Key Events, and then merely wait until all the characters are ready, then go ahead and finish. The last bits are pretty easy and could even be done over email, or just before playing the first adventure when you gather again.

For #2, I think retaining the initial cutoff value is the best plan, with new characters simply added to that list and taking the +1 (or not) as its prior-assigned boundary dictates. What I do not recommend is permitting a player to sit down at the table and choose from the Circle without bringing anything to it. He or she should bring two characters just like everyone else did, and play one of those for that player's first time at the table, just like they did as well.

I also wish - and this is a different issue - that no one would miss a session of play, because observing how each character is played, each time, by different people, is a key mechanic (yes, mechanic) of the game.

[Moreno R.]

Possible rules patch for very few absences in a big group of players: You can't play characters played in a session you were absent.

It would break down quickly with multiple absences (after a while the pool of playable characters for that player would shrink too much), but the positive thing is that it would allow the occasional absence, but it's a strong deterrent against them (if you miss a session you can't use anymore almost half of the playable characters...)

[Jonas Ferry]

I'll start discussing the upcoming adventure now, so I expect my players to stop reading this thread.

ADVENTURE SPOILERS AHEAD

I rolled 6 6 2, so I have Spurr, and Rbaja presence is the only component. Three named NPCs are needed:

1. Agathe Folker - Female chief - Martial (high) - Gentry
2. Adalbert - Male black wizard - Merchant and Wizard - Professional
3. Henrik - Young male fisherman - Fisherman/Farmer - Peasant

The above are not finished, I'm still sketching out all parts of the adventure. My first idea was a power struggle for how the small fishing village is run between Agathe and Henrik. Adalbert could be interested in buying large quantities of fish, and would use black magic to help the side of the conflict that gives him the best price. Then I realized I didn't roll local power tensions, so that shouldn't be part of the adventure.

My next idea was to make Adalbert attack the village from the outside with zombies and skeletons, and Agathe and Henrik defending it in different ways. That removes the power tension, but it makes Adalbert the clear bad guy, and there's not much for the Circle to do than immediately start fighting the undead.

So the current idea is to make the adventure start as a ghost story, with the potential for an undead attack. The old chief, Friedemann Folker, is still around as a haunt. I haven't decided his oath or if he's tied to the main hall in the chief's house or to Agathe. Agathe stil seeks Friedemann's counsel and love. Adalbert is the chief's advisor. He's loyal to Agathe, I think he's in love with her, and will fight to the death for her if the knights confront her with violence. Right now I think that Henrik opposes the black magic. Perhaps he has a specific reason, or he just think it's unnatural that the dead stay in this world. As I said, this is still sketchy.

The environment will look like the Swedish island Öland, for example this, this, this, and this. There will be a larger main hall for the chief, and smaller houses for the fishermen and their families.

I want the tripwire to trigger an attack on the village by zombies and skeletons, probably by Adelberth creating a Rbaja zone with Distort.

My comments and questions so far:

1. I miss fisherman in the list of professions, but I view them as farmers.
2. I went back and forth on the profession and social class of Agathe. She obviously has the highest class in the village, and she's used to command people. Even though gentry can mean "toughest bad-ass in town", the mention of "baron" and of warring with other members of the gentry, makes it sound too high-class for a simple village. But Martial (low) didn't sound right, Agathe is not doing hard labor. Martial (low) sounds more like grunts.
3. Can I phrase the tripwire "If Adelbert is killed an Rbaja zone is created..."? It feels like cheating to rig a spell without anyone casting it, but it also feels difficult to know which action will be his last one alive if there's a fight. I want the NPCs to follow the same rules as the PCs. Or can the Rbaja zone already be created outside of town, but the creatures are trapped until he's dead?
4. This is not a question, but it would be very useful to have lists of suggested village names for the different regions.  Now I found the name Felchta in Google Maps, but considering how nice it is to have the list for character names, village names would be equally good.
5. I need to figure out Friedemann's oath. What is his unfinished business? The question is also if the adventure is too tame, at least unless the tripwire is triggered. Does the king of Rolke care if the chief of a small fishing village in Spurr talks to a ghost? One option is for the village to be known for its high amount of exported fish, when it turns out that the fishermen are actually zombies controlled by Adelbert working day and night. The fishermen still alive spend their time on the shore, since they don't dare spend time with the zombie fleet at sea. Perhaps the situation needs to be more weird, both for the Circle to care and for the adventure to quickly kick into high gear if you want to finish in a session.

[Jonas Ferry]

Or the tripwire is connected to Friedemann's oath: if it's fulfilled the tripwire is triggered. I was thinking that Adelbert may create the Rbaja zone if the oath is fulfilled, but I realize that it's dangerous to connect a tripwire to a specific person like that. What happens if he's already dead and can't perform the action? Does the tripwire count as triggered or not? This must be considered when doing the prep.

Now I need the oath... but first I'll sleep. Looking forward to hear your thoughts.

[Ron Edwards]

Good Nordic morning, Jonas!

Boy, there is nothing like a merchant-wizard in Spurr, is there? I think it might be the single most attractive character-build in the game, judging from appearances so far.

I've been thinking about articulating the concepts and constraints regarding all the adventure components. Local power tensions, for example, is going to be explicitly a matter of social rank. Therefore people won't second-guess themselves and wonder how you can have an adventure when everyone there loves each other, without tensions.

So the current idea is to make the adventure start as a ghost story, with the potential for an undead attack.

That is a fine idea.

I ran into the farmer/fisherman thing in my last session too. I'll add fisherman to the list at the Peasant level, as well as sailor in the Freeman rank.

2. I went back and forth on the profession and social class of Agathe. She obviously has the highest class in the village, and she's used to command people. Even though gentry can mean "toughest bad-ass in town", the mention of "baron" and of warring with other members of the gentry, makes it sound too high-class for a simple village. But Martial (low) didn't sound right, Agathe is not doing hard labor. Martial (low) sounds more like grunts.

Agathe is gentry for sure. "Baron" is a scattershot term, in application. Think of the gentry as I've defined it as an ongoing thing, and verbal titles as a local add-on, observed in some places and not in others.

3. Can I phrase the tripwire "If Adelbert is killed an Rbaja zone is created..."? It feels like cheating to rig a spell without anyone casting it, but it also feels difficult to know which action will be his last one alive if there's a fight.

Good thinking. My solution here is for the zone already to have been created, as an enchantment, and for the tripwire to result in the zone doing something awful – spreading rapidly, some specific effect that you can dream up.

Another consideration is to get rid of the wizard. You already have a haunt, and if you add the zone itself, that's plenty of Rbaja right there. It seems to me that some of your problem is trying to figure out the haunt's oath but having the tripwire be about someone else. Concentrate things down to the haunt and on the soap opera surrounding that one thing. Remember, haunts rely on the living to get stuff done for them. In fact, the more I think about it, this is really the best solution, especially since your one-sentence premise can be met without a wizard.

I agree about village names. Expect to see many of them lifted from this very forum.

[Jonas Ferry]

First the characters of the two missing players, who created them with me over Skype.

Name: Lutgard (Lulu)
Sex: Female
Attributes: Brawn 6, Quickness 8, Wits 3, Charm 7
Traits: Romantic, Ambitious
Homeland: Famberge
Professions: Priest(ess)
Social Class: Freeman
Demeanor: Formal
Feature: Blaze
Weapons & Armor: Staff, spear (on foot), mail, cone helmet, buckler, and parma
Magic: Avatar (2w), Paralyze (1b)
Key Event: Leading her faithful on a pilgrimage across a mountain pass, they were caught in magic crossfire in a battle between white & black wizards. Many were killed (and later raised as undead cannon fodder for the Rbaja wizards), the rest starved as they fled through unchartered mountain territory. Only Lulu survived - frostbitten and hallucinating - having succumbed to cannibalism and murder to escape the wizards and the winter.       

Name: Horst
Sex: Male
Attributes: Brawn 7, Quickness 8, Wits 7, Charm 5
Traits: Brave, Brutal
Homeland: Famberge
Professions: Outdoorsman, Martial (low)
Social Class: Freeman
Demeanor: Formal
Feature: One piece of bright clothing
Weapons & Armor: Sling, bow, hand axe, staff, spear (on foot), crossbow, round shield, mail
Magic: Web (1b), Dominate (2b), Perfect Senses (1w), Vine (2w), Ward (1w)
Key event: Trying to piece together the peace in Spurr, Horst had captured a murderous bandit leader and brought him to justice in the local market town. The assembled freemen, under the influence of Amboriyon spells, voted for forgiveness and decided to let the rogue free.

Name: Alfreda Isidor
Sex: Female
Attributes: Brawn 7, Quickness 6, Wits 5, Charm 8
Traits: Brutal, Romantic
Homeland: Rolke
Professions: Martial high, Wizard
Social Class: Gentry
Demeanor: Fierce
Feature: Blaze
Weapons & Armor: Mail, any shield, spangenhelm, sword, spear, bow.
Magic: All
Key Event: Growing up fierce and independent in our hill-fort overlooking the ocean, I'd never been afraid of anything. One day, coming home from a hunting trip, I saw a horde of strange creatures crawling out of the sea and attacking my home. I tried to warn the people but was too far away and no one heard my warning. Enraged and bewildered I galloped forward, reaching out to whatever would answer my prayers. As a dark storm engulfed the creatures, they all vanished without a trace. But it was too late – around me, all my family and friends lay dead.

Name: Ingolf
Sex: Male
Attributes: Brawn 6, Quickness 6, Wits 5, Charm 7
Traits: Cunning, Ambitious
Homeland: Rolke
Professions: Martial low, Scholar
Social Class: Freeman
Demeanor: Formal
Feature: Blaze
Weapons & Armor: staff, hand axe, sling, spear (on foot), bow, and crossbow. Buckler or round shield.
Magic: Cat (1 w), Perfect Senses (1 w), Confuse (1 b), Reflect Spell (2 b),
Key Event: The wizard my chieftain kept as an adviser was a knowledgeable but zealously stern man. When he ordered us to put some helpless villagers to the flame, in order to cleanse them of their impurity, I had had enough. Using a trick I'd learned by watching him perform one of his rituals, I turned his own magic back on him. I could still hear his screams as I made my way through the darkened forest, away from the village.

[Jonas Ferry]

We've played our first session.

The adventure was in Spurr, in the medium-sized fishing village Felchta. I got the name by typing in "Germany" in Google maps and zooming in maximum. The component was Rbaja presence, with three NPCs and one tripwire. The Rbaja presence was a Rbaja zone and a haunt. The chief Friedemann Folker had died from disease a month before, but to keep the power in the family he swore a dark oath on his death bed that the dead would rise (meaning himself) and keep his wife in power. The result was an Rbaja zone on the village cemetery, where zombies and skeletons rose from their graves. Friedemann haunted the main hall, which was both the general assembly hall, party hall, and the chief's living quarters. Before the undead attack there was 400 people in the village, so quite large, but after the attack only 200 were left. With the graveyard tainted, the survivors buried the dead at sea outside of the village.

The three NPCs were Agathe Folker, the current chief and gentry; Adalbert, a scholar and administrator for Agathe; and Henrik, a young fisherman. Agathe in one sense wanted the power, but also felt that it was forced upon her by her dead husband, who still appeared only to her to talk to her. Adalbert had been Friedemann's administrator, and was still loyal, even to a ghost. Adalbert knew about the situation with Agathe. Henrik also knew about the situation, and wanted to rid the town of the last undead left, Friedemann. The tripwire was that if Agathe were removed from power (either killed or otherwise removed as chief), the ghost's broken oath would expand the Rbaja zone to the newly buried at sea, who would rise from the waves.

We usually have three-hour session, but this time we started half an hour late due to a late player. I'd given some homework to the players due to lack of time at character creation, that they should read through and pick spells and come up with a key event. Three players hadn't read the spells and two players had no key events, so both those were rushed through. This would later lead to low player buy-in, which ruined the session. There were me as GM and five players, which is a lot for any game that requires a fine touch. I'd compare the session to a convention one-shot Sorcerer session, with a GM with no experience running the game, lack of time, and five players not very invested in the game. Not ideal circumstances.

When I introduced the adventure, the players knew about the undead attack, reported to the Circle by a merchant. They didn't know about the ghost. The players picked one of their characters. They were:

Horst, B 7, Q 8, W 7, C 5; Brave/Brutal; Famberge; Outdoorsman/Martial (low); Formal/One piece of bright clothing

Dietmar, B 6, Q 4, W 11, C 2; Cunning/Ambitious; Spurr; Scholar/Wizard; Shy/Mismatched Eyes

Adela, B 6, Q 5, W 9, C 6; Cunning/Ambitious; Spurr; Martial (high)/Artisan/Merchant; Formal/One piece of bright clothing

Konrad, B 6, Q 6, W 8, C 5; Romantic/Cunning; Spurr; Outdoorsman/Wizard; Blunt/Blaze

Alfreda, B 7, Q 6, W 5, C 8; Brutal/Romantic; Rolke; Martial (high)/Wizard; Fierce/Blaze

We started with the PCs approaching and riding into the village. We had discussed that they had four retainers each, so they were a company of 25 people riding into town. One player really wanted his PC to be wearing armor, but he agreed not to. We had decided that since Dietmar was from Spurr, I didn't really have time to tie in the other Spurr PCs, he was from the next village. It had been three years since he was last here, so he thought Friedemann would be in charge. He noticed that the village seemed very low on people, much less activity than it used to. Adela rode up to a fisherman and wanted to know more about the undead attack. Since she was a professional talking to a peasant, without even introducing themselves, I made the player roll 1d6 + charm of 6. He failed, and the fisherman just grumbled and continued his work.

They rode up to the main hall looking for Friedemann, but were approached by Adalbert who greeted them. Since the players had now figured out I would give them 1d6 unless they were either the same social rank as the other person, or behaved as expected between the ranks, they wanted to know what rank Adalbert had. I said he had the same air and demeanor as Dietmar, the scholar, so Dietmar talked to Adalbert. I don't remember if he asked to see Friedemann or about the undead attack, but he rolled 2d6, with a charm of 2! He failed as well. Now Alfreda spoke up, gentry, saying that they were passing through and that they asked to stay and talk to the chief. One of Adalbert's tasks was to handle these kinds of things, so 2d6 + 8, and the first social check was passed. The PCs were invited to the main hall to wait for the chief. Adalbert informed Alfreda that it wouldn't be Friedemann, as he was dead, but his wife, the new chief.

After a discussion with Agathe, and more failed social rolls by the very straight-to-the-point PCs, they found out about the cemetery. They decided to travel there and put on their armor. I used following map (http://www.slocgs.org/slocem/OldMiss-Map.jpg), with the PCs approaching from south west, but the place marked "Center Section" was replaced by a large black square. This was the part of the Rbaja zone you couldn't enter. The surrounding parts were opened graves, some of them filled in again by relatives, and I used the thick air and so on from the text. This was the component's location, but it failed in play because all the action had happened a month ago. Also, the PCs couldn't remove the Rbaja zone, so after investigating it they returned to the village. I was torn between using the cemetery as the location or the main hall; in practice the main hall was were the action was.

The PCs were divided for the night. Alfreda could stay with Agathe in the main hall, and the others, including retainers, were placed in other houses. I realize now that half the village houses should have been empty... Konrad wanted to summon a small animal, a mouse or a snake, to spy on Agathe. We decided he could do this with the spell Beast 1, but we weren't sure if he would be able to communicate with the animal. They obey commands, but can they speak with the summoner? This would have been neat. We said he couldn't so the PC summoned a cat just to have something to do. This was an alarm bell that the adventure wasn't engaging for all players.

Adela started performing the ritual Puppet, to use on Agathe. I think the player wanted to go straight to the core of the adventure, to see if he could make her tell them all that was going on. One question was if the target has to be present during the ritual, or if you can throw it on anyone in the world. Or perhaps you need something from the victim, like hair for a voodoo doll. We decided the target didn't need to be present. Before the ritual took effect, Alfreda woke up from hearing Agathe's voice in main hall. Alfreda used Perfect Senses to hear the words, and heard Agathe say that "It's your fault I'm chief. You put me in this situation. And now there's Circle knights here investigating! What should I do about them?" When Alfreda peaked into the main hall she couldn't see who Agathe were talking to, since the ghost is only visible to people it wants to. Alfreda entered the main hall, and Agathe excused herself and said it was time for bed.

When Agathe reached her room the Puppet ritual was finished. Adela ordered Agathe to open the front door, which Agathe didn't try to resist. Adela followed Agathe to her room, and found the wrapped body of Friedemann still in Agathe's bed. Adela told her to stay in the room while Adela talked to Alfreda. Agathe decided to run out the front door, so I rolled her will of 8 + 2d6, easily equal to or above 12. Adela tried to order her to stop, but again the roll was successful. When Agathe decided to resist, she succeeded every time, which made the spell a lot less impressive. Adela didn't have any control at all over Agathe.

Agathe ran out the front door and shouted that the village was under attack. It was the middle of the night, but people started coming out of their houses to see what was going on. Friedemann materialized between Agathe and Adela, to attack with the special haunt thing, but with Q 6 he was slower than most of the PCs. The PCs had also woken up, and started using Restore. I played this wrong. The PC payed 3 brawn, but I let the ghost pay 1 brawn to avoid being destroyed, when he should've payed 3. With brawn 12 it meant that multiple PCs had to use 3 brawn + 2 pumped brawn, for the ghost to lose 3 brawn. We were also running late and I wanted time for a discussion, so we stopped the fight half-way through. Had we continued Agathe would've clashed with a PC to save her husband, and could've been killed, triggering the tripwire, but this didn't happen now.

One question from the fight: what happens if someone watches the ongoing fight and wants to get involved; to they automatically go first (this is what the players argued), or are they put somewhere else in the initiative order. Do you do a new fair and clear, reordering people based on their current Q?

Some observations, both from the session and the following discussion:

* We tried to describe magic in ways that would make someone else be able to identify the color and intention of the spell, if not the exact spell. For Perfect Senses, the PCs used white clay on their eyes and ears, and for black magic they used mostly coal. This was a good way adding material to the session, instead of just saying "I use Perfect Senses".

* When creating PCs, if you have four PCs with attribute sums 20, 24, 24, 26; how do you handle the two 24s? Do they get +1 or not?

* I thought that the social class charisma rolls went really well. They push the PCs to act as expected from them socially, not in the usual "Give us your information, NPC!" way. I was clear with higher classes not being better.

* If every spell gives you colored circles, and 9 circles gives you a tally, what's to stop a PC from using, say, Glow, over and over until you have all the white tallies? There's a brawn cost, but if you do it outside of battle you regain the brawn immediately. The brawn cost for non-battle spells was a bit difficult, for example Adela's Puppet spell. Would she arrive at the scene with full brawn, since she has had a short rest between, or with lowered brawn? In the game Whitehack, that uses HP costs

* During the discussion the players were surprisingly critical of the game. They called the PCs "cardboard cutouts", and that they lacked any "fun hooks". The players are experienced story gamers, so I think that they were missing the super clear "Your goal is X; Your relationship to this PC is Y" that you can find on character sheets for certain story games. They also had a hard time knowing what was expected of the Circle knights. "Why don't we just burn the witch (meaning Agathe) and move on?", was a suggestion. The players couldn't connect to their PCs, the people in the village, or anything in the game, really. I was surprised. Perhaps there's something missing in the game, but I think the main problems were lack of time, lack of preparation, and an expectation that this would be a zero-prep one-shot type story game.

* Another big criticism was the lack of a clear challenge. Since the players know that the mission is a success anyway, why would the players and PCs spend time doing things? As you said in another thread, I think it's good to clearly separate the long-term success from the immediate success. I mean half of the Circle knights can be killed, and it's still a long-term success, which I like. But it made the discussion with the players very difficult. They wanted *either* a challenging adventure (that is, find clues, defeat the big boss), or PC-centered play, but they felt they got neither. There are no personal bangs that you can use to challenge the players/PCs, and since GM prep is explicitly divorced from the PCs you can't tailor the adventure to the PCs. Tailor it beforehand, that is. Of course you can do it in play, for example by noticing that the adventure is in Spurr and your PC is from Spurr, or by the player making the action meaningful to the PC in some other way. This requires player engagement that I don't think we had for this playtest.

* One player thought it was boring that wizards know all spells, as it makes them very similar to each other. He created a wizard and non-wizard, but played the non-wizard because the liked how the limited number of spells put a personal touch to the PC.

* We wrapped up the session quickly to get to the discussion, so I forgot the attribute improvement rolls.

* Since the PCs hadn't activated the tripwire when we stopped the adventure, I let the players suggest how they finished up the situation. We didn't fully explain what happened to the village and the people, but the ghost was at least banished, Agathe was still alive, and the villagers hadn't attacked the PCs when we left them. My idea is that they managed to sort things out without further violence. It was hard for me as GM to know how much of the epilogue I should describe and how much the players could decide. I wouldn't have let them say anything they wanted, if they had abused an NPC I would've objected, but I gave them more narrative freedom since the adventure was a success. The GM has to decide if they want to give the players any missing information during the epilogue, or if the information they get during the session is all they know about the situation.

Finally: I think the main reasons the playtest fell flat for us was a lack of player buy-in, a lack of GM experience running the game, and time constraints. Multiple players blame the game, but I think the problem was one of expectations. The players expected a story game like Fiasco, where you just show up and an interesting story is "just born", but in Circle of Hands it takes more subtlety to get to the good parts.

I'm not up for GMing another session, so unless one of the players take over the game this will be it from us.

[Jonas Ferry]

Here are the missing key events:

Created by a player before the playtest session:

SIEGBERT LUKAS
Siegbert Lukas was a unusual child. Growing up in a loving noble family he
was educated, protected, and trained. Once his father, a local hero, died
from an infected wound, he became the man of the household at age twelve.
Soon his duties involved everything expected, including keeping his mother
and sister satisfied. His mother repeatedly told him that he was destined
for greatness, that he was blessed, and that the Gods would make the world
his. When the Fever took the rest of the family during one winter he left
the keep to fulfill his destiny.

ADELA KATJA
People have always respected Adela Katja for her great skills in trading
and crafts. Nobody knew she killed people for sports and for salvaging
their organs. She failed during an encounter and got exposed. Once her
secrets as a serial murderer was out, she had to flee her homeland.
Several bounties are on her head but the trackers appears to have been
thrown of scent as of late.

Created at the start of the session (verbatim from the character sheets):

DIETMAR LUTZ
Created a demon that killed his family.

IRMHILD
Killed employer wizard.

KONRAD ASTINOR
Talked to an elk who saved him from a falling tree.

ORT
None.