[DitV] Fun, fun, fun... with no fighting!

[Arturo G.]

Hi,there!

We had our first session of DitV last week. I was the GM and only two players. We were mainly learning how the system works. I used the first example city in the book. It was mainly successful, although the system was still not so natural for us and I didn't manage to press them or escalate enough.

Yesterday our second session. Only one of the previous player, and another new one. I used the second example city in the book, the one about a girl with so much pride she was rejecting the right courtship of the Steward's son, the son was spending too much money on presents for her, the shopkeeper was increasing prices up and up, etc.
We played for around three hours and we didn't finish it.
But it was a complete success I must say. Really, we enjoyed a lot, almost any moment and situation. Both players agreed that it is a really fun game and they want to play more. Long time I was not seeing so much enthusiasm.

It was nice because we didn't need to escalate any conflict to real fighting. Of course we have not yet solve the town situation. Probably in the second session for this town there will be some harsher situations.

But indeed there was a lot of pressure on all social conflicts, I was pressing and pressing, and they gave some of them to avoid escalating and fighting with the girl, the parents, etc. Anytime, it was always a hard choice for them. I was noticing how much they were investing on each raise and block.

It was especially nice the situation when talking with the shopkeeper, who is not a faith-man. The dogs really didn't know what to do with him. Their usual procedures were of no-use. There was only some physical push and pull with him when he got angry and throw them out of his shop. But they still reject to escalate to a real fight with him.

Very funny scene when one of the Dogs tried to convince the girl not to be proud and accept normally the courtship of the steward's son. She was already interested in that Dog. When he tried to talk with her alone, she managed to transform it in a walk along the riverside. She was trying to gently approach him, but the player didn't realize it and he tried to press her to open him her hearth and tell him what was going on. Every raise was fun. She was mingling everything he said, trying to avoid confessing that she was interested on him, but at the same time giving him clues about it. But he was still not noticing, pressing her with some rude sentences. The other player and me where really enjoying that.
When she finally needed to give the conflict and confess (taking some fallout), she started to cry, and run home. The dog was really embarrassed. He tried to run after to calm her before reaching home; and managed to catch her. But then she hided her face on his chest to cry more and more, and he needed to brought her to home in a very, not intended, romantic way. Perhaps a lot of stereotypes here, but really fun.

As I said previously we enjoyed a lot. A really positive actual play.
The players say they like a lot the game in general and the mechanics. The conflict resolution system is so fun in itself.

I will post later some related mechanical questions in the lumpley forum.

Cheers,
Arturo

[Adam Dray]

And for the next game, escalate. Push them a little harder and see if that will make them escalate. Apparently, your players want a game about non-violent solutions and that's fantastic. Verify that with them before the next game. If that's right, push them harder, gradually, until you see what makes them break. =)

[Arturo G.]

Sure, Adam! Good advise!

Originally I think they were not especially oriented to non-violent play. But I pressed them presenting NPCs they were not able to judge as deserving violence. Now I will try to press in the other direction. In the next session they will directly face the sins of those people and the probable bad outcome of the city if they do not do something to prevent it. We will see how long they want to go before deciding to use violence. That's what we really like about this game. It is really about what the players want and don't want to do. About thematically important decisions.

Arturo