[Bloodlines RPG] first 3 playtest sessions (single campaign)

[Kami-no-Mark]

I've been a bit quiet since posting about my initial thoughts for my generational RPG back here: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=23087.0.

I would appreciate any comments or suggestions about how it seems to be going.

Since then, we've made Thursday night our Bloodlines playtesting time.  Unfortunately, due to RL commitments, we're going to have to go more irregular.  Fortunately, the three sessions were invaluable, and led to plenty of rules alterations and tweaking.  We're also buzzed about it, and are already discussing "what happens next" and our various plans.

The group:
Me
Steve
Dave

Our good friend Rich joined us for most of the first session.  However, given that he'd had to rely on public transport and a couple of hours' journey on a "school night", it was a one-off.

So, anyway, what did we learn, and what did we create?

Session 1 (setup)
After an explanation of what I was aiming for, character & House generation took about 5 to 10 minutes.  Perfect!  After all, for your character, you just need to pick your age, a Bloodline Trait, two other Traits and a Flaw.  For your House, you just need 3 "professions".

Me:
Alan Zangyr (House Zangyr)
Age: mid 30s
Bloodline Trait: Sword of my Forefathers
Traits: Calming Influence & Scholar
Flaw: Cowardly
House Traits: Carpenters, Scholars, Potters

Steve:
Jose Santiago (House Santiago)
Age: mid 20s
Bloodline Trait: Seer
Traits: Hunter & Linguist
Flaw: Nightmares
House Traits: Stonemasons, Scouts, Herbalists

Dave:
Callum McAvoy (House McAvoy)
Age: early 40s
Bloodline Trait: Strong Will
Traits: Charismatic & Priest
Flaw: Intolerant
House Traits: Priests, Stonemasons, Tailors

Joint NPC
King Richard Winchester (Royal House Winchester)
Traits: Friend of the People & Swordsman
Flaw: Stubborn

The A3 blank map rapidly filled with a  number of features, as we each added about 3 items/features to it.  In the end, we had lots of potential, ranging from marshland and forests, to river islands and a barren ashfield (complete with a lake of glass).

Once we had decided on where to place the settlement (and got the king's approval), we were ready to start playing through our early years.

Session 1 (year 0 to year 5)
Very quickly, we started building holdings (or, in my case, trying to do so).  Our successes (and failures) in setting up our fledgling settlement led to rapid character development (in terms of characterisation), as did the various lending and borrowing of resources and Influence (the game currency).  Since we were able to track all of this easily, it was always clear who owed who what.

By the end of this session, character personalities were firmly established and the settlement was taking shape. We had found out the punishment for murder (death), and how it differentiated house-to-house (Santiago worked them to death, McAvoy hung them, and Zangyr buried them in the foundations of new buildings).  Following a meteor/"Chaos Rock" strike into the nearby swamp, a law was imposed that no one could be alone beyond the sight of the tallest building in the land.  Thus, our foresters and scouts tended to travel in pairs for safety.

In addition, my bad luck with construction turned into a rumour that the forest was haunted....

Session 2 (year 6 to year 9)
Lord Callum McAvoy ("the fanatical priest") continues to worry Lord Santiago and Lord Zangyr with his zeal and focus.  We're already muttering darkly that something might "need to be done".  However, time is running out for Lord Callum, as he ages.  Will he be able to finish everything before he dies?  Our families grow as we find wives, children are born and others are recruited into the Houses.  Lord Callum McAvoy's son, Connor shows something of where his House might be headed (Traits: Inspiring & Swordsman, Flaw: Bloodthirsty).  Lord Jose Santiago's young son Diego dies, just as his twins are born.  Lord Alan Zangyr's daughter, Victoria is heralded as the Rose of Zangyr.

King Richard marries Queen Isabelle.  The Lords fall to worrying, as they see her as a threat (Trait: Beautiful, Flaw: Tyrant).  As players, we know that, for story, King Richard's days are now numbered, for we are going to want Queen Isabelle in charge at some point.

In a bid to do something glorious, Lord Alan Zangyr heads out to deal with the tribal orcs to the north alone, hoping for alliance.  A cultural misunderstanding and his own cowardice results in him losing his leg and sees an orcish Kithband striking at our settlement to test whether we are too weak and deserve conquest (an event from the following year).  As a result, whenever we travel north of the waterfall, we must inform the orcs of our presence and intent.  Already, with the uncivilised humans of Clan Drak'hul to the west, we fear misunderstanding, as the orcs might blame us for Clan Drak'hul's actions....

Session 3 (year 10 to year 13)
We have a number of years of rapid expansion, as we build larger holdings, bringing more resources and potential to bear.  However, there is a great tragedy when Lord Callum McAvoy leads an expedition to convert Clan Drak'hul to our gods.  In the midst of their village, he speaks out against their champion, a man named Stone Hand, the Hand of the Earth Mother, proclaiming that if Drak'hul's gods are powerful they have but to strike him down.  With a swift slash of his stone knife, Stone Hand, as embodiment of the Earth Mother, cuts the intolerant Callum's throat, and the bewildered Lord McAvoy dies in front of his son's eyes.

With Lord McAvoy's death, his widow, Lady Sarah McAvoy takes charge of the House, and changes are afoot.  In contrast to Callum, she is both "Cunning" & a "Strategist" (Traits) but her "Short Temper" (Flaw) could bring much trouble to all.  Naturally, she "inherits" her husband's "Strong Will" (Bloodline Trait).  The emphasis of the House had to shift, no longer being so focused on the gods and priesthood.

Fearing a potential famine, an expedition to the north results in an encounter with Halflings, which nearly ends in tragedy for us.  The Halflings (or Child-kin as we have quietly named them behind their backs) don't play fair, using guerrilla tactics (for an idea, see: Spanish guerrilla resistance to Napoleonic forces).  Fortunately, the situation is calmed down and we have our first allies (?), although they still view us with suspicion.

Just at the end, though, tragedy strikes: the king is poisoned and slips into a coma!  Queen Isabelle stands accused and the next in line, Lord Oliver Winchester, nephew of the King, steps in to rule.  Were it not for Lord Santiago's vision, and the work of Lord Zangyr's jailers and Lady McAvoy's guards, Queen Isabelle would have been executed.  Instead, the Lords and Lady uncover the real culprit: Lord Oliver Winchester himself!  Before he can be caught, he flees to the east and joins with the mysterious tribe that has moved into the barren ashfields.  The purging of the traitors is a painful process, with only Lord Santiago's brother-in-law, the simpleton Juan escaping punishment (although his Flaw has changed from "Stupid" to "Untrusted").

With that resolved, Queen Isabelle now leads us, whilst King Richard languishes in his coma.

...

So what for next time?

Lord Alan Zangyr is beginning to age, and must ensure that Lady Karen, his wife, is ready to take charge.  After that, the next in line is either his daughter Victoria or (more fun) his son Owen (Trait: "Negotiator", Flaw: "Stubborn").  None yet know that his twin, Dairmuid (Trait: "Assassin", Flaw: "Compassionate") will do anything for his brother, nor that he is the nicer one of the two.  Only young Catherina Santiago can tell them apart.  Will it be her or her brother Alfonso who will inherit the gift of Seer on the death of Lord Jose Santiago?  Meanwhile, Connor McAvoy is but 5 years from maturity (15 years old) when he will seek revenge on Clan Drak'hul for the death of his father.  Will Victoria, the Rose of Zangyr, enable him to find peace or will she be drawn to Alfonso Santiago?

And we still haven't touched on Queen Isabelle, whether King Richard recovers or who Lord Oliver Winchester has joined....

...

What worked/evolved:
- The random elements were reduced, allowing much greater player choice in how to play things out and ensuring that it matched with what players wanted.

- Some random elements were retained and work brilliantly.  For instance, when an Event happens (approx every 5 years), we randomly determined what sort of event it was (enemies, criminal activity, natural disaster or hearts & minds).  That led to some awesome story.

- Whilst Traits grant you 1 die, the House Trait grants you 2 dice, making it more defining.

- Flaws, which originally reduced your dicepool by 1 now increase the difficulty by 1.  This is perfect, having a much bigger sway on what happens, where, previously, losing 1 die had been pretty meaningless.

- Influence seems to be balanced.  It is neither too useful to just horde, nor so useless that you didn't worry about trying to rebuild it.

- Spending Influence to create a rumour/story seed was fantastic. You have narrative control about the truth of it.  We all created a number of rumours, especially when we were a bit more flush with Influence.

- The role of Advisor, which allowed you to set what idea was presented to the king, worked well.  Whilst you could "go it alone", and try to push through what you wanted, the opposition of the other Lords seriously reduced your chances.  This gave rise to great IC debates, as the various Lords suggested and negotiated about what they wanted.

- Gaining the King's favour (doing what he wanted for that year) was mostly useful for the increased Influence recharge (you regained 2 rather than 1), but the bonus votes you also gained were starting to tell (Houses with more votes were more likely to sway the King).  It was a subtle thing, but players remained aware of it.

- In a co-op GM-less game, setting the opposition dice pool proved a tricky thing to balance correctly for the first few sessions.  Now, with it being based off House Strength (total number of House Traits), it steps up as the settlement "powers-up", and drops back if the settlement suffers a serious attack.  Regardless, it will always be quite challenging.  The players can raise the opposition dicepool in order to gain a one-shot bonus if they win.  We love that.

- Because of this, eventually, decades down the line, what your House has will become more important than what your Hero can do, and the Age of Heroes will slowly pass.  We all like that.

- RetCon (Retroactive Continuity) seems to be quite a big part.  Much like "surprise revelations" in PtA, the way laws might have "always been", traits and flaws have origins (such as Dave decided that Connor's "Bloodthirsty" was a direct result of Callum McAvoy's death) all tie in neatly together.  Similarly, we have numerous rumours floating about (the blood-drinking Clan Drak'hul started off as a rumour about "skirt-wearing giants"), and we know that we'll get great story out of it.

What now?
Now?  Now I need to see about getting rough notes into a rough draft of the rules.  I would also appreciate any comments from my players, but also anything that the rest of you might spot or question.  Sometimes, I can find it difficult to separate the wood from the trees and I often work things out better when asked about them.

Wow.  That turned out longer than anticipated!

Thank you for your time.

[Clyde L. Rhoer]

Hi Mark,

This game sounds interesting. I don't have any real feedback at this point, but I would be interested in reading and critiquing what you're doing once you have that document ready.

[Kami-no-Mark]

Thank you, Clyde.  I'll try to get to writing up system things soon, but it might take a while and be a rather rough draft!

[jackson_tegu]

similarly, mark, the experience you described and the story you´ve generated using your system are really exciting! please post a unified, playable design soon.
soon in the relative sense.
the relatively short sense.
thanks.
jackson

[Simon C]

This looks really great! It sounds like you had an exciting game.  I'd like to ask a few questions:

How much was play centered around "my guy"ism? by which I mean, did you get a strong sense that you were playing a character, or were you using the characters as one of many tools to tell a story? (I'm not implying that one is better than another, it's just a question of how the game works.  I think the second option is more interesting, but purely for novelty reasons.)

How strong a role did NPCs play in your game? Did you develop strong connections to the NPCs, or did you find they tended to be background colour against which the main characters acted?

What was your level of detail? Did scenes tend to play out in real time - "this happens" "Lod McAvoy reacts like this." Or was it more like storytelling. "Oh no, Lord McAvoy failed the roll, he's dead!" "Ok, what happened is..."

How did you negotiate narration rights? Did you have a formal system for this, or was it more ad-hoc?

To what degree did you feel like you were competing with the other players? Is this a game which can handle hard-core gamist competition, or does it require a collaborative effort towards sustaining the story?

Did you feel like you were "running" the game, even if you weren't GMing? How much of a facilitator role did you play?

I hope these questions are useful ways for you to look at your playtesting experience.  It's what I'm curious about, but hopefully they'll also spark you to think about ways to refine your design - and inspire you to write it up so we can take a look at it!

[Kami-no-Mark]

Hi Jackson.

Thank you for your kind words.  I'm not shelving this project, that's for sure.  We're having to move to a bi-weekly gaming slot for a while, so that will hopefully give me time to write things up in the relatively soon relatively short sense! (Relatively)

Hi Simon.

Let me see if I can answer your questions.

1. "my guy"ism
I think we all found a connection to our main heroes (the Lords, our "actual" PC).  Strong character traits and, especially, a strong flaw were instrumental in getting a strong connection.  We also speak in character a lot, which really helped.  For instance, Lord McAvoy ("Intolerant priest"), as played by Dave, was a very forceful presence at the table.  Other characters (our "kin") started off with much less flavour.  However, one or two scenes where our hero was otherwise occupied, or not so centre stage, really allowed us to flesh them out in more depth, just by roleplaying them out for a while.  I'm thinking in particular of the "lead up" to us meeting the halflings, when we had brought some of our children along, and we just had a few minutes roleplaying the kids and their interactions.

However, especially when the kin were new (either newly created or not yet used), they were viewed a bit more in terms of "what can they do?" rather than "who are they?".  Mind you, once they're in a scene, that all starts to alter and personalities develop.  The simple combination of Traits and a Flaw really work wonders for that.  "Past history" also helped.  For instance, one of McAvoy's kin took years to learn new traits (much to his frustration), which helped develop the character even then.  Especially if we saw a "pattern", we were often quick to play up to it.

I think, overall, character was foremost, although we are starting to set up potential conflicts further down the line.

2. How strong are NPCs?
I've realised that there are 2 types of NPCs: yours and those that aren't "owned" by anyone.
You often pick up and play your own NPCs, your "kin", as I wrote about above.  They become stronger with time, especially as you'll end up playing one (or more) of them as your main character, as things change and your original character dies.

Those NPCs that aren't "owned", such as the King and Queen, have been much more background colour.  We're developing stronger connections with some of them (our tyranical Queen springs to mind), and that's because we're seeing good story in the offing.  It's a given in the way we're playing that we'll go for it at some point and bring those plots to life.  However, if they are not of interest, they fall by the wayside and don't get picked up.

3. What's our level of detail?
Tough one.  The fixed turn sequence helps focus us, and gets any "admin" out of the way early.  The "what idea do we suggest the King supports" discussion is a neat real time IC thing played out between the Lords/Lady.  Whatever Personal and House actions we're planning (whether it is a quest, reacting to an Event or building something new) are discussed, and we decide who is doing what, who is assisting, etc.  We then RP up to the conflict, at which point we reach for the dice.  Once the dice have fallen, we're at the "ok, this is what happened" stage and narrate the outcome.

Short answer: we RP in real time up to the conflict, and then blur to narrating the outcome after the dice have fallen.

4. How do we negotiate narration rights?
There's a formal(ish) system in place.  I'll try to break it down.

(a) The Advisor
We take it in turns to be the Advisor, on a game turn by game turn basis (each game turn = 1 year).  IC, this means that we're the one to bring the King our own idea ("we need new walls!", "after all that has happened, a festival is in order!").  OOC, general narration is with you and, if an Event occurs you, determine what it is and how it works.  You are also the arbitrator in disputes and the "deciding vote" if necessary.  However, given that you only have this "power" for one game turn, it balances out.  I deliberately put this role in place so that the game wouldn't get derailed by two (or more) people having a long arguement/discussion which was wasting time (IC arguements are, of course, fine).  The Advisor has the power to make a call and get the game back on track.

(b) My Rumour, My Story
If you spend Influence (game currency) to create a rumour ("there are bandits in the forest", "a tribe has moved into the barren ashlands"), you determine the truth of what's actually there.  If you invested Influence in it, you care about it and get control of how it works.

(c) Everyone's Involved
If, as has happened on a few occasions, one (or more) of us is not involved in a conflict, they've always been asked for input, and to shape the opposition. E.g. "the two of us are off to explore the Land Cursed by the Gods!  Dave, since you're not coming with us, what is it?"

(d) The Dice Have Spoken!
Whoever garnered the most successes in a conflict has narrative control.  If the opposition wins (i.e. not a player), then narration goes to any player not involved in the conflict, or the Advisor, if everyone is involved.

(e) Group Concensus
Not really about narration, but worth covering under this area.  A great deal of the fun is in trying to find ways of using those bonus dice you get, if only you can make your "Potters" House Trait relevant*.  At that point, you tend to ask "can I use my ____ here?" and get the concensus of the other players.

* as an example, we allowed Steve to use his "Herbalist" House Trait in the construction of his festival hall, but only at the end.  The colour result: the wooden festival hall has living plants and herbs growing up its pillars, and a wonderful smell.

5. Are we competing with fellow players?
Not really, no.  It requires a more collaborative effort to keep everything ticking over nicely.  There are various minor elements of competition (such as gaining the King's favour to get a few extra votes and that all-important extra Influence), but it is really very collaborative.  There are some character vs. character conflicts, but it's not a hardcore gamist thing: it's a character roleplaying thing.

6. Am I running the game?
No.  It's been rather wonderful, actually, to play rather than run.  In the first session, as I explained rules and got things running, then, yes, I had more GM/facilitator jobs, but this has really dropped off, and fast.  It's just the three of us playing a game, and discovering the game's world as we go.

In fact, it reminds me of something a friend told me about a PtA game we played.  He said that he did not know what made his character a grieving alcoholic, but we were going to find out, and he knew it was going to be awesome.

Thank you for your questions.  It looks like I'll be busy writing my design up next week!