[DitV] Bitter Creek

[Bill Cook]

Wa-hoo! I got to run a one-shot of DitV for one of my meetup groups tonight. (See prep thread here.) Actually, I scheduled it as an event for a roleplayers group, and as a coincidence, the time slot I picked matched the Dallas-Plano D&D meetup group in the area, so there were a lot of gamers on hand. Besides myself, I had two yes's and a maybe in RSVP's. One of those played. The other four were pickup players. Sheesh. I thought it might be a low key affair, but they crowded around the table and started demanding instructions for play. I excused myself to the restroom to do some pacing and swearing before I continued.

I'd met Daty before and had played Munchkin with Charles. (Love that game.) The rest I met that afternoon. Gary was introduced as one of the writers for Earthdawn, 2nd ed. He and John were particularly experienced, and I would say Daty was a little hesitant. Charles, John and Gary dove into the narration aspect of Raises and Sees. I mean, they stood up and made speeches. And they kept things light-hearted. In addition to chuckles throughout, those three had me burst out laughing a couple of times. If we'd been playing BW, I would have buried them in Artha.

I had my town and proto NPC sheets filled out. Earlier that morning, I worked out the procedure for group resolution and demonic possession, and that went well, during play. One player's Achievement conflict was to get one of 12 boys to confess to stealing a loaf of bread. I tried for about 20 seconds to use the NPC group mechanic (i.e. Liar's Bunch; 11 innocents @ 2d6), but it just wouldn't gel. So I rewrote it to the one boy.

Players totally got the initial Achievement and came up with a variety of scenarios (i.e. exorcise a demon, negotiate better working conditions for Chinese rail construction workers, track a chicken thief, get a liar to confess and raise funds to build a church in a Near East town). It was good exposure to the principal mechanic. It's so important to get clear on the term, Best Roll (i.e. the highest two dice rolled).

Their was some classic deflowering that happens with most Forge games (i.e. "No, there aren't any limits on your Belongings. Just write what you think you'd need." "No, you don't have to enter and leave each room together." "It's not required to pick up the moment we left off when we cut back to another set of PC's. In fact, it's preferable to include time skips.") I hit the wall a few times, trying to think Western, trying to think religious. I actually had better luck being religious than Western; the players had zero problems with either. They were quoting all kinds of movies and books, whereas I was like, "Well, I saw Unforgiven a few years back." (Smiles sheepishly.)

Vincent writes a bit about not doing the poker face thing. I felt like I had to throw the NPC's at 'em. And they bit down hard, so apparently, I gave enough.

The intro to Bitter Creek was that the town Steward, Brother Thomas, who'd always been rather late in sending letters and tithes, had been later than usual, the two months before last, and sent nothing last month.

Brothers Mordeki and Bill (last name?), played by Gary and John, entered a half-filled church of mostly grandparents and grandchildren. In Thomas' private office, he tempted them with an indulgence of Brandy, to refresh them from their journey. Mordeki raised by rebuking Thomas and pouring the liquid onto the carpet. I picked a proto NPC and wrote "sullen disregard for authority" under Traits, across from d10, rolled that die and See'd. He Raised with "If we are not to enjoy privelege, what is position for?" (I Forget the dice.) Mordeki: Throws glass to the floor, shattering. "We must quicken each other's faith to resist temptation." (Paraphrasing.) The Dogs resisted. Bill took some Fallout, which he assigned as "Tempted by liquor," 2d4. So they totally got the "negative as interesting" angle.

Brothers Festus and Ahmed (Chris and Charles) asked the bartender where the town steward might be, and noticed a Faithful youth, spending his entire day's wages on songs from the piano player, entertaining an older (married?), obviously non-Faithful woman of great beauty. On a Sunday. Festus' stake was "Can you rebuke the owner to close his shop on a day of worship?" Ahmed's was "Can you convince the Faithful one to report at once to worship?" Charles made some really damn convincing arguments and had the dice to back it up. Brother Virgil, the young man, stalked off to church, and the bar closed down for the day.

Brother Nameless (Daty) arrived last to town and heard the sound of  piano music, clinking beer glasses and raucous laughter, coming from, of all places, a spacious barn. It stood beside a proud estate on a hill that looked down over the town. Nameless entered to find a gambling operation in progress, with dancing barmaids and card tables with smoking, drinking locals, feverishly placing bets. One man in particular drew his attention.
- "I'm all in," he said, and pushed his pile to the center. An older man across the table shook, nervously.
- "Damn you, Mitchel! I'm in too deep to back out now." He saw the raise. Then, with a flash of hellfire in his eyes, Mitchel laid down a full boat of Aces. His opponent seemed to be struck by a physical blow and wandered away, speechless and broken. As he reached out to rake in the center, Nameless caught him by the wrist.
- "You damn yourself to steal from your brother."

The stakes were "Can you reveal this man's deceitful Sorcery?" This conflict escalated all the way. The sorcerer, Brother Mitchel, had caused himself to be possessed to use the demon's power to cheat at cards. Only the Dog's training had enabled him to detect the forces at work. Daty just wouldn't let go and used this opportunity to leverage Traits, Belongings and Stats (through two escalations). And he died from the Fallout.

At first, Nameless turned Mitchel's whiskey to holy water and set it down in front of him. Kind of a slap in the demon's face. Mitchel's Raises made Daty Take the Blow two-to-three times for three and four dice. But he wouldn't Give. (And I continuously reminded him that he could.) Mitchel didn't have a gun, but once Nameless whipped out his and starting shooting up the place, I had Mitchel duck behind the table and then break a chair to bits across Nameless' chest. Nameless Called the demon by Name to resolve. It possessed Mitchel and confessed its duplicity before banishment. The strain, alas, proved the Dog's undoing.

** ** **

I asked everyone what they thought. There was broad consensus on a few points:

[*]It's a sharp, fun little thing.
[*]They wanted Fallout to apply after each Go. I don't really agree.
[*]They wanted Fallout to be variegated according to Escalation. I sympathize more with this point.

e.g. Virgil (NPC) sustained 3d4 + 3d6 Fallout in his argument with Dog Ahmed. I'd have to roll high, but I could get above 20. I realize it's a Sim longing, but allowing for an argument to kill justs seems unwarranted in all but exceptional cases.
[/list:u]

We played for two hours, including character generation. We probably could have wrapped it up in two or three more, though I think everyone was satisfied with a taste and that we found a clean stopping point.

Fun stuff.

[lumpley]

Fallout is always roll 'em all, take the two highest. So the highest possible result of 3d4 + 3d6 Fallout is 12.

It sounds like a good time!

-Vincent

[Lance D. Allen]

They wanted Fallout to be variegated according to Escalation. I sympathize more with this point.

I'm not certain what you mean here.. Do you mean that they wanted fallout to be dependent on the escalation level, rather than the nature of the particular attack? (ie. escalated to gunfighting, then got nailed with a chair, and had to take fallout, so they wanted that fallout to be d10s?)

I know there's been a few misreads on this point, as well as the point Vincent mentioned, that Fallout is always the two highest dice, rather than the total of all fallout dice. (Man! Can you imagine taking 7 dice of talking fallout and dying of it? That'd make the game a lot scarier..)

Is that what you meant? If so, what's your take on it? Personally, the Sim in me likes the way it is; If you get hit by an axe, it's weapon fallout, even if you're in the middle of a gunfight, but I've had a heated debate on this point before, with people who felt it should be the other way, where fallout level is based on the escalation level, rather than the nature of the raise.

[Bill Cook]

Do you mean that they wanted fallout to be dependent on the escalation level, rather than the nature of the particular attack?

They wanted a ceiling to what rolled Fallout could indicate, according to the Escalation that produced it. I think the real problem was that I misapplied. (Flips through book.) Yep, there it is on p. 39, in plain English. Add Fallout Sum to the list of critical terms.

(Man! Can you imagine taking 7 dice of talking fallout and dying of it? That'd make the game a lot scarier..)

That's how we (unintentionally) played. In fact, now that I think about it, highest Fallout Sum per die type is probably how Vincent set the cutoffs. Clever bastard.

Now that I understand how to treat the pool roll, I also like it the way it is. As for rating die types, I did it by the blow and made no effort to maintain continuity of Escalation across the conflict. In that same example, just because Nameless (Daty) opened fire doesn't mean that Mitchel (me) gets to now roll Will and apply d10 Fallout. Brother Mitchel didn't have a gun. Swinging a chair, rolling Body + Will ("just talking" Escalates to "fighting hand to hand") and applying d8 Fallout was the next best thing.

Incidentally, I quite like that Fallout dice total to a pool. It's a pro-Nar choice; it keeps the repercussions at the level of what's at stake. (A more Sim way would be to segregate, like wounds.) As is, you lose metaphysical continuity but you maintain story focus, above chapters of conflict.

[Lance D. Allen]

As for rating die types, I did it by the blow and made no effort to maintain continuity of Escalation across the conflict. In that same example, just because Nameless (Daty) opened fire doesn't mean that Mitchel (me) gets to now roll Will and apply d10 Fallout. Brother Mitchel didn't have a gun. Swinging a chair, rolling Body + Will ("just talking" Escalates to "fighting hand to hand") and applying d8 Fallout was the next best thing.

You did it precisely right. Page 36, first paragraph explicitly states "The size of the Fallout Dice you take depends on the nature of the blow". This is rather than depending on the escalation level.

I forgot to say this before, but it sounds like you had one hell of a game, especially with such an abrupt start. Do you think you've made some converts?

[Bill Cook]

They all liked it. Gary asked for info to learn more about the game, and I told him to check for a link on the Forge's independent sub-forum for Lumpley Games. Which he was like, oh, the Forge, so he sounded familiar with this site.

If I'd had a second copy, I'm sure I could have sold it;)