Yet again, The Questing Beast

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

The campus group met again, and the two games being played were AD&D2 and Macross (using Palladium). But one cry went up in a pitiful chorus: "I didn't get to play that Beast game!" So this last Tuesday, I prepped another GM-adulterated TQB scenario and ran it for the folks who didn't get to the first time.

(I should point out that one woman was intensely annoyed that I didn't let her play again, in favor of people who hadn't, as she claims that James must have mystically channelled her every need and desire in role-playing into the game's design. Evidently there is indeed a target market.)

Anyway, here's what I presented this time. The starting material is very similar to what I posted in "The Beast Released," but it's a bit different, not being concerned with the Courtly Love thing but rather with curses and affairs and murder. You'll notice that I have rather grossly slammed the characters into the situation, more or less by writing Kickers for them. This is something I only do in one-shot or demo-style games.

As I was a bit strapped for time, I used the relationship map from the third scenario in The Sorcerer's Soul, modified fairly drastically from Ross MacDonald's novel The Underground Man. In later posts, I'll talk about how it went and what questions it raised about the game system.

The Questing Beast
The Accord and The Hallows
This is a game of Arthurian fantasy, about one's obligations to one's children, and the curses that come to lie on a land whose lord is dishonorable.

"The Hallows" refer to things that are basically set in stone for the purposes of play.
- Arthur has been King for about twenty-five years; he is wise, just, and fierce
- The Round Table represents civil order, freedom from oppression, and ideal behavior
- Trevane is a far-away part of Britain which is still not quite officially under Arthur's rule
- Morgan le Fay poses the greatest danger to the Round Table and Arthur's rule
- The job of a knight is to set things to rights across the land
- Merlin disappeared from Camelot ages ago
- A young knight named Mordred has joined the Round Table recently
- The Perilous Forest swarms with magic, some of it benevolent and most of it not
- All of Arthur's knights are sworn to the code of chivalry, which includes among other things the ceremony of the joust

How to play
You may announce events in a scene if your character is present, or if any of your Motifs seem like they would fit well in the scene. Players may therefore be very active even if their character doesn't do much.

Whenever you'd like, tell me what you'd like to do or what you would like to happen. Think in terms of big conflicts, not actions - "I kill him," or "I knock him from his horse," are good, because they resolve conflicts, but not "I swing at him," which just describes an action.

I will assign you 1-3 dice to roll. Add a die if you are using a Motif (one only). You may also wager some dice from your Pool, up to nine total. Roll all the dice at once.
- If you get any 1's at all, you succeed, and you make a Monologue of Victory, in which you describe what happens.
- If you get no 1's but any 6's at all, you fail, and you make a Monologue of Defeat. You also lose any dice you wagered from your Pool, if any.
- If you get no 1's and no 6's, it's a Guided Event, which means I (the Guide) get to say what happens. Add a die to your Pool.
- [Special: If you bet all the dice you had in your Pool, or nine dice at any time, and if you fail, then the Guide narrates a Dolorous (very very bad) Event. ]

You may also give anyone a die from your Pool when you want to (it doesn't come back).
Sir Ballintyre of Kolkenn
Romance: You are a young knight from Castle Kolkenn, in the land of Trevane. Your mother fled into the Perilous Forest when you were very small. Your father has always belittled you, and one day you decided to seek knighthood with Arthur, against your father's wishes. You did well at Camelot and earned the right to name your quest of honor. You decided to return to Trevane and seek into the Perilous Forest, perhaps to learn more about your mother's fate.
Motifs: Determined to know your past +2, Native to Trevane, Excellent swordsman, Young knight, Lonely
Animal Motif (choose): dog, porcupine, badger [the player chose the Porcupine]
Starting Pool: 6

Lady Rielle
Romance: you are a pagan witch, a student of the great Nimue who defeated Merlin, who supports the rule of King Arthur. You are a mistress of nature, time, and mirrors, as well as the animals of the Motif you choose. Currently, you have learned that the Faerie folk (dryads, nixies, sprites, etc) are fleeing the Perilous Forest, and some of the bigger and meaner ones are even talking about eating up all the people of Trevane. As a nature-witch, you are well-suited to find out what the problems of the land might be.
Motifs: Weird and scary magic +2, Faerie folk contacts, Spooky, Alluring, Courtly graces
Animal Motif (choose): bat, black cat, fox [the player chose the Bat]
Starting Pool: 6

Sir Malcolm of Graustark
Romance: You were magically wounded by an evil knight, who devoured children to provide him with unearthly strength. The wound has never healed, and the witch Nimue has told you that it represents the grief of tortured children through the land. The priests told you that you could become healed by dedicating your life to others, and you vowed to protect and help children at all times. Your ultimate plan, after healing the wound, is to return to the evil knight, who still holds his castle in a far land, and to defeat him. Currently, you have learned of a curse on the land of Trevane, as your wound pains you terribly when it is mentioned, and only lessens when you ride toward there.
Motifs: Wounded, Solemn vow +2, Knows people's souls, Veteran knight, Knows legends
Animal Motif (choose): goat, bear, ram [the player chose the goat]
Starting Pool: 6

[Manu]

Hello Ron,

Just one thing: are the Romances as presented to us here summaries, or the full thing? Because I see Motifs that don't seem to be connected to the Romances at first sight.

Manu

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Manu,

The text above is exactly what I passed out to the players ... what you're seeing is an artifact of the "one-shot, GM-prepped" form of play. In a real game, so to speak, I would definitely have PC creation begin with the Romance and derive the Motifs straight from it, just as in the rules. I didn't really like the idea of writing up pregenerated characters that completely, so what you're seeing are about 70% Romances, with the player being allowed to tweak or add to them a little before or during play. The Motifs are for this purpose - if a player wants to, they can add a bit to the Romance to explain the Motif.

Definitely not canonical, but functional for immediate purposes. To be absolutely clear, this kind of loosey-goosey application of the rules, specifically the degree of GM pre-set-up of player characters, is NOT what I do when prepping games that I review.

Best,
Ron

[Ron Edwards]

Some more thoughts on our Questing Beast session include ...

1) One of the players is new to the group and has never played anything but AD&D2, in great detail and profusion (he showed up to his first meeting with us armed with levels and levels of maps). This is a fine thing and he was welcome to run a whole session of it, and he did, the previous week. But he also saw some of the first Beast run and wanted to try it, and his reactions were especially interesting.

First and foremost, he loved it - "Do you guys play a lot of games like this?" "So there are more of these?" "Where can I find them?" I think all of his experiences in role-playing had been strictly "player announces, resolution mechanic is employed, GM describes." He had never even encountered that intermediate mode, in which I had played most of my life, in which player-power for immediate locales, scene framing, and descriptions of outcomes was at least possible although not embedded in the system. Therefore to play using a system which relies on one or more of these things was truly new to him.

Second, he began play with a number of player-priorities that directly arise from his background: concern for money, a tendency to skulk around asking any and every NPC about the local situation, and most especially a very strong desire to kill someone. I knew the solution to that: fling a load of thugs at the character. I did so; the player got a nice Monologue of Victory, and his eyes lit up like headlights. His character sliced up this guy, sliced up that guy, and scared the rest away with a growl, and he referred to the scene with great satisfaction and achievement: "I killed those guys," several times for the rest of the session. The great thing is that from that point on his character's Romance became his top priority - the player became very concerned with the Wound (he was playing the goat character), with the back-story, with the information and scenes played by the other players in which his character was not present, and with getting a solid resolution to the Premise into play. I could actually see the transition from the one to the other occur on his face during that part of the session. Beautiful - I wish I'd videotaped the whole thing.

2) Friggin' Monty Python quotes showed up a couple of times. One instance involved the use of the term "witch," and the other involved riding anywhere on horseback. My reaction at first was say to the offender, "We've all seen the movie too," pause, "so we can figure out the puns without your help." The second reaction, to the second offender (whom I know pretty well), was to kick him sharply in the shin. I can't say that I recommend the latter tactic, although it did the job in this case.

3) I was very surprised by James' question in another thread regarding scene-framing and The Questing Beast, because frankly The Pool (in any form) is unplayable unless the group employs explicit scene-framing. That's one of the secondary features of the game that people tend to latch onto without thinking about it, because Monologues of Victory almost always set up "a new scene to consider" - and the group tends to cut directly to it quite easily.

Best,
Ron

[James V. West]

Damnit all to hell. I get too busy to check all the stuff going on at The Forge and here Ron goes and plays my game again.

I just found this thread, greedily skimmed it, and now I'm replying. Friggin-A.

I totally love the fact that folks react to the game so well. I've seen it with Ron's descriptions of play, I've seen it with replies here at The Forge, and I've seen it firsthand in actual play. Its awesome.

Now I find myself in unfamiliar territory. I'm about to write an "official" version of the game to be put into hardcopy format and sent on its way to GenCon. There are many indie games now that support narrativist play, but few of them have hit the mainstream audience yet. Mine won't be hitting that audience either (not squarely, anyway), yet I see that it has serious potential to make an impression and to turn on some light bulbs for people who might not otherwise have been given the opportunity to stretch their limits of play. In truth, I'm nervous as hell.

But this post is yet another boost for my confidence and my desire to create the best game I am capable of creating. Thanks.

Now to read this in detail...