[Burning Wheel] The Bane of Magic

[Kaare Berg]

I need to get better at providing Bangs. I also got get rid of this notion that I cannot lay down some rails. Force is good at times.

Controversial I know, but bear with me. You see this last game I did just that. I began all wrong for all the right reasons, got stuck and had to grab some cast-iron. But for you to understand let me explain the set up.

The Set Up:
For the first time in a long, long time all my players were set to join in. This included two new characters to replace a casualty and a retirement. I also had to bring back into play a character that had been out of the loop the last four sessions (over two years of game time).
What I didn't take into account was that the time that had passed between the last session and this was that Player Motivation had changed or been forgotten. I totally forgot to ask the two "new" guys what they wanted, yet in my prep I was aiming for an Impossible Breakfast.

The characters around my table were:

Calem, errant mage and now Grand Master of the Druids. Suddenly thrust into a position of leadership and power time has yet to show if he will grow with the challenge or be broken by it.

Joshua, a thief whose lack of ambition has not helped him avoid both temporal fame and power. Known as sir Joshua, Dragonslayer, Master Ranger and Mage in Training despite his best efforts to refute such titles.

Tengel, a wandering knight with a dark past who has avenged the Roadwardens, restored his family's honour, and become the Champion of Trinsic. He has not yet faced his own darkness.

Prince Jari, Captain of Dinen Aglir. Dwarven prince who sought out the Champions of Ram Mithren to achieve enough honour and glory to fulfill his ambitions.

Bregor, member of a mysterious order dedicated to the war against the Shadow. A large man with special martial training

.

My Prep.
I wanted the players to choose where to go next, yet at the same time I wanted to accelerate the Core Conflict, the War against the Shadow. I prepared four situations with a few bangs each, planning to develop more underway. I unfortunately pre-loaded my brain with a distinct preference by creating a monster called Dûldagnir.
It seemed great in my head, but  . . .

The game.

Part one: The Council of Candle Keep

For the remainder of the year after the events that led to the restoration of the Order of Druids Calem, with the help of Allarnon, reorganized the order. Once he was satisfied the new Grand Master sent summons to the Kings of Miranna. Two weeks after the first day of spring four kings came to this grand keep. First was high king Aldahir II of Miranna, followed by King Mikail of Minoc, King Eothain the Young from Trinsic and King Lagand VII of Yew. Of the other kings there were no news. Fom the Dwarven fortress Dinen Aglir and the line of Niall came Prince Jari and speaking for the elves was Shea the Half-elf.

The fact that the characters have liberated the shrines of these here countries was glaringly obvious. The players did a round of introductions of new characters and some minor discussion before the list of bad news were listed.

From Trinisc came rumors of war. All mercenaries from the land of Jehlom, kingdom of Valor, were summoned home and merchants spoke of a great army gathering. All summons to the humble shepherds and fishermen of New Dranna had gone unanswered and terrified sailors spoke of black ships and corsairs sailing the straits of these islands. Rumors spoke of a Dark Tyrant claiming the vacant throne. Shea the Half-elf told of a malady of the soul spreading from the elves to the men of Skara Brae. He spoke of a ragged prophet traveling the land, and where he, went people's spirits were crushed. Of Molnglaw there was no news except a letter to the late Sir Locklear describing how the City of Honesty and the Order of Mages were torn apart by secrecy.

There you have it. My four prepared situations. But since we all had forgotten about player motivation, and there was nothing in these given questions to Kick the players into action the tale floundered a bit. Espen, Calem's player, expressed a slight interest in the Molnglaw mystery and since this was where I had Gûldagnir in wait I had all NPCs support this, including the ancient druid Allarnon (whom they trust). A decision was made without any of my players really objecting, nor really caring.
Given we were all hung over I felt it was imperative to get the action rolling. I began laying tracks.

All kings present pledged their armies to the war against evil and an order for arms was sent to the Dwarven Kingdoms. Prince Jari pledged the axes of his Line and then asked to accompany the Grand Master on his quest. Tengel offered his sword, and Joshua would not be left behind. King Aldahir asked for the inclusion of a man of valuable skill, the servant Bregor. A fellowship was formed, and after the proper feasts the fellowship traveled to the Justice Moongate and entered the druid Ways.

And so the rails continue,
or:
The Exodus of the Mages.

Narrating the journey, leaving only a little room for intra party interaction and a few color NPCs I moved the game on. The first real choice came at sea.

From the Shrine Village the Fellowship traveled by ship south towards Molnglaw. At sea they met a cog traveling in the other direction. Aboard was a mage called Fenner who urged our heroes not to travel south. A horror had been unleashed that no mage could kill. Recognizing Calem, the hanged one, he was shamed into turning round. However he changed his mind when Jari spoke of the mage's new title. Suddenly Fenner was filled with disbelief and he sent the heroes away with a sudden wind.

Espen, knowing that Calem would not receive a warm welcome among the mages for having broken the Conclave of Division tried to travel incognito. The other players took great delight in Christer (Prince Jari) proudly proclaiming the arrival of the Grand Druid, deliberately provoking a reaction in Fenner. Whether he did this out of "boredom" or in an effort to use author stance to complicate matters I can't tell. I know it was IC and fitting with his Character. It seems that my players take great delight in picking on each others titles to complicate matters. Most fun is had at Joshua's expense, who keeps getting too much attention due to his title and fame as Dragonslayer.

Having landed and progressed southward through the forests of Molnglaw the fellowship met the Librarian Kyron, a Headmaster of Baruin Angol. Fleeing his home the despondent arch-mage proclaimed the end of magic. He gave advise on the horror and warned the companions to take care. He had heard of them and was saddened that their bravery would doom them so. The companions traveled south and he left for the north to seek shelter in Candle Keep.
At dusk they saw smoke rising over the distant town of MolnGlaw.

I left little room for the players to maneuver here, constantly driving the tale forward to get to the Good Part, the waiting monster. With hindsight I see how the Impossible Breakfast is catching up with me and my desire to run more NAR. What saved this session so far was the fact that the intra-party bantering let them play. Good thing.
This might so far sound extremely bleak, like we didn't have fun. We did, just not to the full potential.

Within a stone throw of the burning moat around the Baruin Angol the fellowship held council with the desperate King Dodric and the dying Cormandoc, Calem's mentor and master. More dire warnings were heard and the heroes made plans to enter the besieged school. Planning to sneak into the depths under Brûngond and investigate the broken prison of Dûldagnir our heroes gathered torches and oil to hold the Mage Bane at bay. As the evening sun began to set they rushed across the broken drawbridge and entered the halls of Baruin Angol.

I gave them back the driver's seat at this stage and we took a short break before we continued.

Into the empty halls of Magery.

The silence of the great halls only broken by a distant scream of death and pain our heroes carefully made their way through the University of Magic, finding only corpses and trails of blood as they made their way down into the depths. There was little to challenge the tracking skills of Joshua as their path was marked by broken doors and Shield Guards. Climbing down the Stairs of Brûngondhûn they did not know the peril they would soon find themselves in.

I had spent four hours before game-time playing Doom 3, you could tell.

Entering the prison Joshua spied a golden ring lying on the edge of the lava pit. Unable to reach it he tried to pick it up with his dagger, failing not once but twice and abjectly saw the ring fall into the molten rock. The magic ring was destroyed with a dull thump. The fellowship all looked to the small thief with fear in their eyes.

Twice he failed to hook the ring, and all eyes were glued to his dice. Everyone knew what this meant. The monster would come for them. In a place where they had no tactical advantages what so ever. Even me, the omnipotent GM, saw no outcome but death. Earlier on when the party had fought Gostiaur the Dragon they always had the possibility of escape. Here there were fifteen stories of stairs to climb, and a monster walking down.
The next four hours of real time took place within this open stair-well.

I won't narrate blow for blow but there were some scenes or moments that stood out.

Hoping to use an invisible servant to lure the Bane of Duids into the prision Calem found to his dismay that Dûldagnir could see the thin line of magic stretching between the spell and his will. Like Belgered the Windfinder Calem ran into the prison cave luring the monster into its prison. Dismayed his companions saw that the key stone was missing. There was no way to close the gate.

Espen's plan at this stage was brilliant but for two small details.
He had to sustain the spell and subsequently glowed in Gûldagnir's magesight.
He assumed Gûldagnir to be unintelligent.

With his companions leaving to find the Keystone Calem tried to blast Duldagnir into the molten rock. His spells thundered and roared, but the beast retreated into the tunnel, trapping Calem. Bregor threw a skin full of oil at the ancient horror and then set it alight. In berserker fury the beast gave chase.

The other PCs had begun the long slog up the stairs, everyone of them not making the forte test required to jog up. Bregor made his and as he overtook them so did Gûldagnir. Some desperate jumping and avoiding ensued.

To prevent the beast from escaping Calem had followed the furious beast. He tried to hurt it with White Fire. He failed. Healing the beast instead. It turned to him, its berserker fury gone. Hate of magic drove it yet again after the elusive mage.

And so more desperate avoidance ensured. I could have kept this up for hours. Eventually the others reached the top and while Calem and Joshua played a dangerous game with Gûldagnir, they sought out the keystone. They found the remaining apprentices and learned that one of them knew the Keystones location. Spotting a great location to try out the Duel of Wits rules that Luke has made I explained the rules and we rolled.

Somewhere else they may have worked, but here they broke the momentum of the scene. I tried switching back and forth between the desperate struggle in the Brûngondhûn and this debate but it fell flat. The rules worked, the timing didn't.

Eventually they won, got the stone and rejoined the haggard mages.

The beast stomped towards Joshua when Calem ran within a mere ten paces of it. Calling upon all his might the Druid unleashed White Fire at the stone beneath the beasts feet. The blast broke the ancient stone stairs throwing both mage and monster into the air.

White Fire is the most powerful spell in BW. And Espen used Artha to double his die pool. The damage went off the scale, White 24. So the desired effect went of the scale.

Desperately Calem pulled on the elemental force of air and pushed himself to safety. Crawling to the edge of the stair he looked down only to see Gûldagnir climb onto the remaining column. With little health left Calem sunk together.

Espen cast an Abstraction (new magic rules proposed by Luke Crane), hurriedly. He faced a daunting obstacle 12 and passed the sorcery test. He then faced an ob 12 Forte test to resist Tax, with 6 dice. The end of Calem the mage was nigh. More Artha was burned and Espen managed seven successes, leaving him with only one die of Forte left.

Joshua threw a skin of oil and a torch, again infuriating the trapped monster which proceeded to climb up towards its new tormentor. When it reached the top the thief tried to push it off the stairs. Power 4 against 8, brave try that cost him a persona artha for a complication. Both mages were beginning to run very, very low on this valuable resource. Despite awards for great role-playing.

Swiping the apprentice of the stairs the beast prepared to finish him when Tengel stepped up. His sword flared in Dûldagnir's sight and the beast leapt at the warrior. Tengel's sword crashed into the beast who fed of its ancient magic. The cold steel claws of Duldagnir sliced through Tengel knocking him from the stairs. Seeping his friend in such desperate straights Joshua cast his only spell, the Sense.

It was getting close to a climax here. They had the Keystone and now Joshua lured the monster back into the prison. Infuriating it in the process. This turned out to be a part of his plan.

With his back to the molten pit Joshau face the rushing beast. At the last moment he threw himself aside and the beast tumbled into the Lava. For a second silence fell, then the Brûngondhûn exploded.

They fled to the surface as the stairs collapsed behind them and the cliff known as Brûngond filled the hole. Dûldagnir was dead. We wrapped up with some flavour text and the restoration of the Shrine of Honesty.

So why was force good and don't you contradict yourself when you say Rails are good.

Yes I've moaned about how the game didn't feel right. But then it struck me. We were all hung over (Jon cancelled in the last minute due too much pain). The cognitive sum of the group (your narrator excepted of course) was way down. I had created too many options in the name of Player Protagonism. I lacked the Bang to get the game off for a flying start.

I could have taken us straight to "you look around the halls of Baruin Angol . . . " , but this would have robbed us of some wonderful tone setting. And IMO this setting creation is one of the reasons why my game has this hard to define "epic" feel.
It also served to heighten player tension as they met powerful mages running for their lives.
So it helped create the SIS.

It also served to grab a game where we all had forgotten the basics that were so much fun the previous games. In retrospect it is kind a hard to satisfy Player Motivation when everyone has forgotten it. So I see these rails as providing a running up space for my players to get up to speed. When I finally let them loose they led me on a merry chase.

I didn't feel good laying them, and will do different next time. But in this hungover instance they proved invaluable to gather scattered and befuddled minds into our SIS.

So I propose that the Force inherent in Railroading, though it may prove to be the bane of roleplaying magic, may at times save that very magic by getting the players to the good bits. Just use with extreme care when all else has failed.

[Bill Cook]

I hugely enjoyed reading your post. The names and phrasing reminded me of Moorcock yarns. And Dûldagnir's fall read like slaying Grendel.

Getting drunk can be fun. Role-playing with drunks hardly ever is:)

Re: Force, you need not fret so. Leaving theory out of it, consider the following:

(a) When I was in third grade, a man came to my elementary school library to tell everyone a story. There was this repeated interactive bit where he said, "And the duck said .. " and pointed to a kid in the audience, who said "Quack! QuacK!" And so on, with various animal noises. It made the whole thing more lively.

(b) In church camp, when I was still in grade school, all the kids my age met in the lunch room for activities. One thing we did was add a couple of sentences to a blank sheet of paper, continuing a story. Everyone wrote the last sentence as a cliff-hanger. (e.g. "And then, suddenly, from behind the door .. ") After the last entry, that camper went before the group and read aloud. Everyone laughed their heads off, taking special interest in hearing how their part fit in.

My point: they're just different ways of experiencing community, each as appropriate as they are enjoyable.

** ** **

I, too, have "taken charge" of freaking .. everything in the total absence of input. I suspect that angst over meddling with free will in the context of apathy amounts to neurosis.

[Kaare Berg]

The situation wasn't as much lacking impetus from the lack of input, it was lacking forward drive because I as the GM failed to set up a situation that intrested the players and forced their characters to make descisions.

It is to salvage this kind of situation that I opened up for some rail-roading. In this case I said: You have to go to D, to get there you travel to A ( bla bla ) - B ( bla bla ) - C ( bla bla ) and then you get to D, what do you do?
Could have skipped to D directly, but wouldn't gotten the colour from A, B and C and in this here game colour is an important part of the SIS.

But there is a subtle difference between the lack of input and the lack of involvement.

Lack of Input may stem from many things, in my case it could have been taken as a result of hungoverness.
Lack of Involvement stems from a failure to engage the Players in the situation presented.

We do however agree about Force Neurosises. And I think this was the observation I tried to convey.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

In the mild hope that I'm helping ...

Nothing being described in this thread constitutes Force. A lot of people over-interpret that word to mean any sort of "GM participation" or "structure" or "input."

It merely sounds to me as if you want to play too, as GM, and that is perfectly OK. Check out "GM Tasks" in the Glossary - those things do have to happen during play, and Burning Wheel presupposes that most of them are centralized in one person's hands.

Again, that's not Force.

Best,
Ron

[Luke]

actually, Ron, sometimes the smallest thing can clear away the clouds.

thanks for taking the time to drop a little soap in our dirty dishwater.
-L