[D&D] Drifting

[Rexfelis]

I'm working on a mystic space opera game called dominion, in fits and starts. What to do in the meantime? I proposed to my group an epic fantasy mini-campaign. We were agreed. What system to use? The epic fantasy rules I'm working on are half-finished. So I went to an old stand-by: Basic D&D, drifted to narrativist play.

This time, it worked better than before. We've only had one session, but I enjoyed it more than I usually do. I think I've learned from the Narr techniques discussed in Sorcerer and in Sorcerer and Sword. Everyone knew the game would be narrativist going in, so everyone focused on crafting a premise for his character.

Before I conclude that this is a counter-example to the view that drifting gamist rpg toward narr doesn't work, it should be mentioned that we had problems. They weren't too noticeable, because our play is usually even more dyfunctional, so the overall reaction was positive. But the problems were there.

The main one was that I found it hard as GM to give adequate care and feeding to each PC's storyline. There were 4 PCs, lots of important NPCs, and a fairly structured setting/environment, in the form of a multi-tribal assembly (so, in the short run, all the addressing or premise occurred within that social context).

There also may have been a tension between whether or not the central premise being addressed was a group premise or several individual PC premises. All the PCs were from the same tribe (of a pseudo-Celtic variety), and conflict with other tribes and with invading foreigners from the civilized south created group values and a group storyline. But, I also asked each player to come up with a premise for his character. I'm not sure, but there may have been a tension in play between what was important for the several characters and what they cared about in common as members of the tribe. (Actually, though, part of this tension boiled over in the form of disobedience/disrespect on the part of two of the PCs toward the king of their tribe. It's too early to tell whether this will feel like a distraction or whether it will increase our interest by setting up new complications.)

But, surprisingly, I still felt like we were able to address premise and have a good time. It felt like most of the awkwardness came from my own lack of a skill as a narr GM, and not from the system. I feel it's hard to say, though, because our play has been so unsatisfying for me in the past that any improvement in game-play felt like a breath of fresh air.

A final note: for me, Basic D&D is like a "plate glass" rpg. It's the one game our group is more or less familiar with. We don't have to focus that much on the rules in play--so they won't "get in the way" of the story. As a group, I would say we're not very rules-savvy (that includes me, the usual GM), and I'm always afraid that when introducing new rules everyone will just be confused. That's largely what motivated the experiment in drift.

Rexfelis

[Zak Arntson]

The conflict between self and tribe is certainly a fine premise to address in play. What were your desired group and PC premises?

Also, how did you reward experience during play? Was it straight up D&D? Or did you tailor the reward to fit the desired play?

[Rexfelis]

The conflict between self and tribe is certainly a fine premise to address in play. What were your desired group and PC premises?

For the tribe: Can we trust other tribes enough to ally with them against the invaders from the south?

The tribe's kicker was essentially being treacherously attacked by _one_ of the other tribes, who had the assistance of a contingent of the southern foreigners. Were they to fight on their own, or look for alliances?

PCs

The players did not write kickers for their PCs. They were having trouble coming up with suitable kickers, and time was a premium, so I just did it for them. Part of the weirdness was that a lot of their kickers were inter-twined with the tribal kicker and happened simultaneously. [Side note: I don't know why they had trouble coming up with good exciting kickers. Maybe I didn't explain the concept clearly enough.]

Culhwch: Do I maintain my forbidden love for the gentle queen of our tribe, or do I pursue my overwhelming attraction for the bellicose, passionate princess of our tribal enemy? Kicker: The princess essentially initiates the attack against my tribe.

Eithne: Do I fight for the land and the spirits who dwell there, or for the tribe which adopted my family, when we were exiled from our kingdom? Kicker: While asleep in the woods, I see a vision of a shining being who offers me a choice: he will help my tribe [this is a twist for the PC: the goals of the land vs. the tribe aren't necessarily contradictory, at least to begin with], but only if I give him a living human baby, to do with as he will.

Froech: Does loyalty to tribe outweigh my desire to unite the Vali tribes vs. the civilized Tadasti? With an undercurrent of: am I first and foremost a druid (who serves all the Vali tribes) or am I first and foremost a member of my tribe, a servant of my king? Kicker: the rival tribe attacks at an inter-tribal assembly, with other druids present; violence is forbidden, but technically our tribe started the fight [our prince slugged the rival princess, but then the rival tribe and the southerners pulled out knives they had hidden--in violation of the druids' law not to have weapons at the moot].

Garth: Does my love for the prince of my tribe outweigh my desire for revenge against his friend, who killed my parents but who already paid the weregild (and against whom I have no "legitimate" grievance). WIth an undercurrent of: is my love for the prince purely Platonic or something else? Kicker: My prince is challenged by the rival tribe's princess--do I let him fight the battle, or fight in his stead?

Also, how did you reward experience during play? Was it straight up D&D? Or did you tailor the reward to fit the desired play?

Rewards are as per D&D. I figured that giving XP for monsters and treasure makes sense in a warrior culture where honor is gained by killing people and taking their stuff.

Originally, I was going to use a "Virtue" score as another source of rewards and as a sort of meter of a character's protagonism/antagonism. Virtue was on the same scale as an ability score and moved up or down as a result of character actions. It could also be used in a quasi-"plot points" way to call for divine intervention.

We decided at the end of the 1st session that Virtue hadn't added much to the game. Also, it turns out I had not defined Virtue clearly: was it supposed to be based purely on the norms of the tribe, or also on a "higher" moral standard? One of the players got upset when I deducted a point from his character's Virtue for exceeding the bounds of feminine propriety (the character, not the player, is female, and the tribal culture is rather patriarchal [though less so than the civilized south]). It was clear to me that to be usable I would have to give a lot more thought to Virtue, and given that the campaign is to be a short one, and that my players were telling me it hadn't added much to the game, I decided to drop it.

Rexfelis