[TSOY] One-shot Session

[Bill Cook]

I had an interesting time tonight, running a TSOY one-shot for the Dallas-Plano Chapter of DFW Roleplayers. I've got it scheduled to run for the Tarrant County Chapter next THU, but I finished it earlier this afternoon, so I thought, hey, why not try it out beforehand?

I sat down at the kitchen table and wrote out eight pre-gen's, back-to-back. That was an eye-opener. It's one thing to read the manual and roll dice to try out the Ability check, but filling in the sheet to flesh out a concept is a whole 'nother level. At first, I struggled with how to prioritize the Ability categories. I tried using templates, but after the second one, I settled into something much easier: read through the lists, pick everything that fits the concept and prioritize most favorably. I had to do something similiar with BW. (i.e. Pick the skills, then spend Resource Points.)

I incorporated the changes represented by the Solar System. The players were Ron (Pyatt), Gary, Wayne, John, Tim and myself (SG). I spread the pregen's around and played the rest as NPC's. They picked:

• Bowdyn - a Khalean conspirator of the Zaru Moonmen, teaching guerilla warfare.
• Victor - a Maldorite prince trying to buy the love of an Ammenite Parlor Madame.
• Garbo - a Maldorite goblin courier, charged with carrying the body of Lord Saul.
• Alejo - a Maldorite elf mage, journeying to Qek for Lord Saul's re-animation.
• Duval - an Ammenite House Son, obsessed with acquiring a statuette of antiquity, charged with quelling the Moonmen rebellion.

That left these NPC's:

• Moyna - a sister to Bowdyn, summoned by a bird of Zu to retrieve her wounded brother.
• Ceili - an Ammenite commander who burns Zaru villages, seeking the Khalean military trainer.
• Ruby - the object of Victor's desire; blinded by desire of powerful men, she uses the prince to deliver the statuette (a.k.a. Little Woman) to Duval. (Sigh ..)
• Ankhus - a Zaru spy among the Moonmen; he reports to Duval and targets for Ceili.

These are further secondary characters, for SG control only:

• Torvid - an Ammenite House Ruler, father to Duval.
• Lord Saul - Victor's father, who dies in his only scene, convinced that his son's ruination has left him unfit to rule.
• Lord Tamim - an Absolon messiah who conspired with Victor to murder Saul; he wants to buy out the prince and secure his holdings.
• Oakhesh - the Zaru leader of the Moonmen.
• Capt. Péus - Ceili's second in command.

I composed a number of scenes to establish each character's motivation and pit them against each other. One thing I learned is to not get too enamored of my own prose. After all, it's an RPG session, not "hey, sit around and listen to me read this story I wrote." The scenes that were more conceptual in phrasing and observed line limits were better send off's. I struggled to get the scene improvisation to flow after I'd worked through my prepared material. With Victor, Garbo and Alejo's line, it really caught life and started generating itself. And by that I mean, what little that was not a straight write of player requests came off the top of my head and fell square in the pocket. Just the way I like it:)

Duval, Ruby and Ceili's line went pretty flat. So did Bowdyn, Moyna and Ankhus'. Worse, actually. But player enjoyment ran reverse of my perception of line strength: Tim seemed baffled and disinterested while Ron expressed great enthusiasm.

Probably the biggest hit, mechanics-wise, was Gift of Dice. Everybody got it. Everybody used it. When players started to go cold outside the limelight, they threw in some Gift Dice and warmed back up. Players got on with the Fudge Dice. I was surprised, really. Ron is big on Fudge--he brought a big Fudge .. something book to show off--and he was helpful in training the newb's. By the third-to-fifth explanation, I trusted them to the point that I stopped confirming their counts. Success for 1 or more is so much more intuitive than for 9 or more.

The most hated, frustrating bit was Healing. I first required that they get a result equal to or higher than the Harm. We quickly suffered to get above SL 3. The First Aid ability seems relevant, but what about Healing Reason Harm? Most Harm occurred in the arena of argument, and we just couldn't find anything that seemed to fit. The next thing I tried was to lower an incident of Harm by a Healing SL. Then Gary whipped out the non-SG players' copy and read from the page that "any Healing success cleared an entire Harm category" (i.e. Bruised, Bloodied, Broken.) Everybody liked that. We applied it, irrespective of Harm-to-Pool association, almost without thinking. Probably lost out on some useful structure, there.

To a lesser extent, BDTP was another bugbear; specifically, training to Give. Incidentally, I had the same issue with DitV, which uses a similiarly arbitrary method of chaptering conflict. There was a recent thread [searches] that I just failed to find that gave the advice to move on and Give if you couldn't quickly narrate something fresh and interesting. I don't know whether that's the fix or simply recognition of the issue. Don't get me wrong: I love this approach. But what I experience in play is that Stakes are resolved before you run out of dice to See. Or, to say it a TSOY way, your intention feels established long before you're forced out. Then simply Give! you may say. But it doesn't seem right to throw in the towel when you're still on your feet.

Another odd experience with BDTP is applying Harm but feeling that no progress has been made, due to repetitive actions. The system designer in me wants to tighten this up.

Scaling back from the exit, training this group to roll Ability checks, instead of resolving through IC dialogue and Drama, was like passing kidney stones. Maybe I suck at explaining it. Maybe this is just how wide the divide is between Indie and mainstream, but god, preserve me from the grueling wrench of training players to roll dice to execute. And what's most heartbreaking about it is that their intent and narration are tear-jerkingly beautiful. Really clever and funny ideas. But it just doesn't penetrate when you say, "That sounds great. Now roll." So yeah, I blew a hundred holes in their immersive wrapper with repeated demands to roll Ability checks. (Which, I hope this doesn't read too negative. I enjoy playing with these guys.)

I got some complaints about laying for player-on-player adversity and weaving lines vs. having all the bad guys be NPC's and troupe-style exploration. But after Sorcerer, how can I go back? ;) Gary asked me, "You're one of those Narrativists, aren't you?" I guess it's all strange ass.

More TSOY relevant, there were complaints about "social damage." It was weird to me, too, but we went for it. At the end of Alejo's second scene, BDTP resolved for Victor to imprison the elf. All the characters did was get into a shouting match, and yet this Enthralling Three-Corner Mage was Broken by .. Etiquette? This particular outcome really frustrated John. He worked hard to keep his attitude loose after that, but it was a rocky road.

Another thing worth mentioning: we really had trouble finding Abilities to roll for particular situations. This happened several times. I wish I could remember specifics. Each time, what we were trying to do was something generic that wasn't covered by anything on the sheet or in the book. If the search went on too long, I just used Innate Abilities.

TSOY heads: if something here inspires a comment, chime in! Anything that can get me more smoothly in the groove will make the next run that much better.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Bill,

Sounds like an ambivalently fun time!

Success for 1 or more is so much more intuitive than for 9 or more.

I know! Everyone else will figure it out soon enough.

The most hated, frustrating bit was Healing. I first required that they get a result equal to or higher than the Harm. We quickly suffered to get above SL 3. The First Aid ability seems relevant, but what about Healing Reason Harm? Most Harm occurred in the arena of argument, and we just couldn't find anything that seemed to fit. The next thing I tried was to lower an incident of Harm by a Healing SL. Then Gary whipped out the non-SG players' copy and read from the page that "any Healing success cleared an entire Harm category" (i.e. Bruised, Bloodied, Broken.) Everybody liked that. We applied it, irrespective of Harm-to-Pool association, almost without thinking. Probably lost out on some useful structure, there.

I have no idea where any of those rules came from. They sound kind of made up. (I'm sure you'll point to something I wrote, but any "Solar System" stuff was playtest-y. The official rules - ah, it's 6:30am, and I can't talk yet. I will illustrate:

Harm goes from 1 to 6.
If you try to heal harm, your success level is applied to:
1) The harm that matches your SL. That's easy.
2) If that doesn't exist, look "down". That is from SL 3 to 2 to 1. Any harm there? Heal it instead (the first one).

There's healing over time, now, too. Basically, you can spend X pool points to heal a harm of level X.

To a lesser extent, BDTP was another bugbear; specifically, training to Give. ... But what I experience in play is that Stakes are resolved before you run out of dice to See. Or, to say it a TSOY way, your intention feels established long before you're forced out. Then simply Give! you may say. But it doesn't seem right to throw in the towel when you're still on your feet.

Hopefully, I've now illustrated this better. Send me an e-mail at crnixon@gmail.com, and I'll send you the current text. You can review it and tell me if it sounds better to you.

Another odd experience with BDTP is applying Harm but feeling that no progress has been made, due to repetitive actions. The system designer in me wants to tighten this up.

Yeah, I think this also has gotten cleared up.

Scaling back from the exit, training this group to roll Ability checks, instead of resolving through IC dialogue and Drama, was like passing kidney stones. Maybe I suck at explaining it. Maybe this is just how wide the divide is between Indie and mainstream, but god, preserve me from the grueling wrench of training players to roll dice to execute. And what's most heartbreaking about it is that their intent and narration are tear-jerkingly beautiful. Really clever and funny ideas. But it just doesn't penetrate when you say, "That sounds great. Now roll." So yeah, I blew a hundred holes in their immersive wrapper with repeated demands to roll Ability checks. (Which, I hope this doesn't read too negative. I enjoy playing with these guys.)

This is the super-interesting part. You know, my last session of TSOY, we didn't roll a die. (We did use the rules, especially for self-healing and refreshing pools. It wasn't all freeform.) You don't have to push the Ability Checks - they're only there for uncertain actions. Normally, I totally would be behind you, yelling "Roll! Roll! Roll!" But I'm a changed man in this respect.

More TSOY relevant, there were complaints about "social damage." It was weird to me, too, but we went for it. At the end of Alejo's second scene, BDTP resolved for Victor to imprison the elf. All the characters did was get into a shouting match, and yet this Enthralling Three-Corner Mage was Broken by .. Etiquette? This particular outcome really frustrated John. He worked hard to keep his attitude loose after that, but it was a rocky road.

See, that sounds awesome to me. But I get it that some wouldn't like it - and that's cool! Of course, if you're in a shouting match and you realize your character's getting screwed, stop. But, again, I know the problems with that concept.

Another thing worth mentioning: we really had trouble finding Abilities to roll for particular situations. This happened several times. I wish I could remember specifics. Each time, what we were trying to do was something generic that wasn't covered by anything on the sheet or in the book. If the search went on too long, I just used Innate Abilities.

I'd really love to hear a concrete example of this. I tried pretty hard to make the abilities generic. Hmm.

I really appreciate you running the game, Bill, and thank you. Please let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

[Bill Cook]

For Healing, we started with what you state in your reply post. No one was gonna Give (except from fatigue of repetitive action), so characters were getting Broken, right and left. They were all arguments, so most of the Harm was R or I. The problem was that we couldn't heal above SL 3--mainly because I couldn't find an ability to heal non-V. (Come to think of it, Alejo did have Counsel.)

Just to make sure I understand this, there are two opportunities to Heal: (1) make an Ability check with First Aid, [not sure] and Counsel for V, I and R-type Harm, or (2) time passes, and you spend a Pool mix. (In either case, you must achieve an SL equal to or greater than a particular instance of Harm.)

Assuming that's right, I have to ask: if you don't have the Healing abilities, can you make an amateur attempt at Rank -1?

Poor John had three R-type Harms of SL 4, 5 and 7. He's basically a turkey shoot for any argument until he can get those high-level Harms off his back. Assuming you can self-Counsel, he's got to roll 3 before adding Rank and he's got to be the best damn counselor there is. Like, way better than Troi.

I guess you'd want to limit Ability check Healing by type to once per scene. Given that high-SL Harms will require Pool expensing, refreshment becomes emphasized. [Reads over Pool Refreshment on p. 48.] This strikes me as being maintenance-ish. I find the overlap between V and I refreshment activities to be confusing.

Crap! Must run .. more later ..

[Clinton R. Nixon]

For Healing, we started with what you state in your reply post. No one was gonna Give (except from fatigue of repetitive action), so characters were getting Broken, right and left. They were all arguments, so most of the Harm was R or I. The problem was that we couldn't heal above SL 3--mainly because I couldn't find an ability to heal non-V. (Come to think of it, Alejo did have Counsel.)

Just to make sure I understand this, there are two opportunities to Heal: (1) make an Ability check with First Aid, [not sure] and Counsel for V, I and R-type Harm, or (2) time passes, and you spend a Pool mix. (In either case, you must achieve an SL equal to or greater than a particular instance of Harm.)

Assuming that's right, I have to ask: if you don't have the Healing abilities, can you make an amateur attempt at Rank -1?

Poor John had three R-type Harms of SL 4, 5 and 7. He's basically a turkey shoot for any argument until he can get those high-level Harms off his back. Assuming you can self-Counsel, he's got to roll 3 before adding Rank and he's got to be the best damn counselor there is. Like, way better than Troi.

I guess you'd want to limit Ability check Healing by type to once per scene. Given that high-SL Harms will require Pool expensing, refreshment becomes emphasized. [Reads over Pool Refreshment on p. 48.] This strikes me as being maintenance-ish. I find the overlap between V and I refreshment activities to be confusing.

You're almost right on everything. I mean, all will be explained in four weeks, but here's some run-down:

I lowered the harm tracker to 1-6. This helps, believe it or not. You get harmed easier, but healed easier.

There is no "self-Counseling." Nuhuh, no way.

Pool refreshment has been clarified, so that should solve your Vigor and Instinct confusion. Also, refreshing two or three pools at the same time is totally encouraged.

[Bill Cook]

Cool. Since you have a version release in the works, I won't press on that point. Good to know that refresh mixes.

It sounds like you're going the "say yes or roll dice" route for design intent towards requiring Ability checks. That's an easy enough adjustment to make.

I remembered one example of uncertainty with which Ability to check. After Victor woke up under the mead hall table and couldn't find his jail tower keys, he realized that Garbo had duped him and sent out criers and posters to every town, placing a bounty on the goblin's head. I thought we should roll to see if his network could locate the pair. Victor has the Innates, Streetwise, Stealth, Aim, Battle, Etiquette, Savoir-Faire and Dueling. Nothing seemed to apply. Gary suggested Savoir-Faire, and we went with that.

A couple of other questions. We had one scene in which Victor wanted Alejo to leave Saul's body where it was, Alejo wanted to carry it to a pony-drawn cart in the courtyard and Garbo wanted everyone to relax and have a drink. Victor and Alejo's actions seemed to be perpendicular, so I took the difference in their SL's before applying. Garbo's action seemed very parallel and to be targeting the arguers, so I applied the full SL against Victor and Alejo. Over a handful of rounds of argument, they got peppered with unrestricted "take the drink" Harm; after Victor pushed Alejo out, he quickly Gave to Garbo. Does this sound right off or right on?

Second question: can qualified task resolution effect a change in intention? Two instances in the above BDTP demonstrate the case.

• #1: Alejo Enthralls Victor to desist his protest. He succeeds!
• #2: Victor calls for the guards to take Alejo away. He succeeds!

To me, the magical nature of Enthrall reflects a change of intent from "cart away the dead" to "ensorcel the as-yet-uncrowned prince;" likewise, calling for guards moves from "keep my dad in his bed" to "imprison the mage." What's tricky about this is knowing whether the action announced is still in line with intent or if it represents a change. Am I still on the nature trail?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

I remembered one example of uncertainty with which Ability to check. After Victor woke up under the mead hall table and couldn't find his jail tower keys, he realized that Garbo had duped him and sent out criers and posters to every town, placing a bounty on the goblin's head. I thought we should roll to see if his network could locate the pair. Victor has the Innates, Streetwise, Stealth, Aim, Battle, Etiquette, Savoir-Faire and Dueling. Nothing seemed to apply. Gary suggested Savoir-Faire, and we went with that.

Maybe I'm reading something wrong, but that sounds like so much Streetwise. Bounties and contacts? All about Streetwise. Savoir-Faire's for getting the tasty bits all up in your game.

A couple of other questions. We had one scene in which Victor wanted Alejo to leave Saul's body where it was, Alejo wanted to carry it to a pony-drawn cart in the courtyard and Garbo wanted everyone to relax and have a drink. Victor and Alejo's actions seemed to be perpendicular, so I took the difference in their SL's before applying. Garbo's action seemed very parallel and to be targeting the arguers, so I applied the full SL against Victor and Alejo. Over a handful of rounds of argument, they got peppered with unrestricted "take the drink" Harm; after Victor pushed Alejo out, he quickly Gave to Garbo. Does this sound right off or right on?

Sounds great to me. Yes, two people arguing can be easily pushed around by a third party. They can also turn on the third party and crush him. Up to them.

Second question: can qualified task resolution effect a change in intention? Two instances in the above BDTP demonstrate the case.

• #1: Alejo Enthralls Victor to desist his protest. He succeeds!
• #2: Victor calls for the guards to take Alejo away. He succeeds!

To me, the magical nature of Enthrall reflects a change of intent from "cart away the dead" to "ensorcel the as-yet-uncrowned prince;" likewise, calling for guards moves from "keep my dad in his bed" to "imprison the mage." What's tricky about this is knowing whether the action announced is still in line with intent or if it represents a change. Am I still on the nature trail?

You lost me for a minute there, but I know where you're going now, and what the issue is. No real result happens in BDTP until it's over. The Enthrallment - if the point of it is for Alejo to get a chance to cart away the dead - is fine. What it does is force Victor's player into parallel actions, or trying to resist the Enthrall. That strategy may make it easier for Alejo to get his intention.

Let me example it up. Victor's got the feet and Alejo's got the hands and they're tugging. They're rolling Athletics against each other and it's little back and forth level 1 harms. Alejo decides to mind-blast old Victor. If Victor chooses to keep pulling, Victor's taking a lot of harm this turn, as so is Alejo, as he's distracted from keeping the body. Make sense?

[Bill Cook]

It does. The disconnect happens in expecting an Ability check to pass/fail intent. I totally get how the advantage Enthrall offers is to act in parallel, but it's pretty counter-intuitive that success is reflected in Harm, as progress toward resolving intent, instead of just saying (as you might expect in WoD, for example) that your new mind slave now gives you whatever you want.

To elaborate on calling the guards, Alejo takes non-V Harm, and the guards are here, now. But intent is still up for grabs. I assume further commands to the guards by Victor would resolve their attempt to drag Alejo away. That probably threatens V Harm. I guess, bottom line, visualizing how intent remains suspended as tasks resolve is stretching my mind. New muscles!

[Bill Cook]

Had the chance to play the same one-shot with a different group tonight. I ran it at a Tarrant County Roleplayers Meeting at a seafood restaurant. Two folks I'd met before; the other five, that evening. I hadn't expected to see so many new faces, and it kind of threw me. I was a bit anxious to deliver the game, but started out with introductions. When I started explaining the backstory, they really backed me up. To the point that I decided not to run it. Then Steve asked if we were going to get started, and I thought not. But they said hey, play it. We'll just watch and split when we need to. So I took a deep breath and began. That's just another lesson in the wisdom of building rapport and not skipping courtship.

Terri played Ruby, Ben played Victor, Steve played Duval and Melissa played Alejo. This time around, I really laid back. I let them just talk and talk. When it became clear that they were at an impasse, I suggested options. They picked ones they liked and we made checks. I went a lot more slowly and refrained from restating summaries of their input. As we closed down one scene, one player or another would literally (I'm not making this up) leap forward and start the next scene. And then another would enter, in character. And I had the distinct feeling of them running the session. It really impressed on me the usefulness of being quiet and allowing silence to enter the dialogue.

People that run the same one-shot for different groups at conventions already know this, but it was new to me: it's so entertaining to see what different people will do with the same dilemma. This time, Alejo Enthralled Victor and left with Saul's body. Duval viciously pressed Ruby for progress from Victor. At one point, he grew so disgusted with Victor's failures (Alejo and Garbo managed to evade a band of searching rangers by camping deep in the woods) that he postered every Maldorite harbour town. Alejo secured passage on a merchant ship and returned to find that Garbo had abandoned their cart to feed his addiction to revelry. He arrived in time to aid Garbo in extricating himself from a group of Victor's rangers, who'd spotted him leading a conga line in the streets. (There was a festival.) Meanwhile, Victor learned through Ruby's spy network which town they'd gone to and journeyed there with ten knights from his garrison. He narrowed down his search to three ships by harrasing the harbor master for information. Bribes to the captains did not avail him, so he left three men at each pier. Alejo tried to Enthrall his way past a trio but was dragged to an alleyway meeting with the prince. They beat the crap out of Garbo. Victor terrified Alejo with threats of maiming torture while his knights held him and pounded his belly until he revealled that he'd left Saul's body at the inn. Liar! It was on the ship!

I was much smoother in training BDTP and Harm. The latter was the toughest piece for this group as well, but we got it down much better. And knowing what a freaking hassle it was going to be to heal, I Gave for Garbo after he took an SL 4 Harm, so familiarity tempers. There was still that experience of repetitive actions slogging towards Broken. Kind of itches a bit.

Ben was right in the groove of laying for crosses. He totally got it. I was worried that I kind of lost Terri, but she later commented that she really enjoyed observing the interplay between the rest of the players. Ben said he liked how having the characters at each other's throats from the first scene really cut you straight into the action. Melissa did something that I found quite interesting; she used Divination to impart established player knowledge to her character. Ah, the virtous restraint. (Sniff.)

If anyone would like to run this one-shot at GenCon, PM your e-mail for materials.

[Ron Edwards]

WOW! Bill, you get the Actual Play Rock Star Award.

You play a short game, you post here and break it down both in terms of your own desires and the creator's input, you go back and try it again, and you post about it!

That feeling of them running the session is what bass playing is about - and I'm sure you can see that your silences, as well as your input, were actual contributions.

Note for the confused: bass playing, as I introduced the term, has nothing to do with whether the GM or anyone else makes up back-story and setting as you go along. It has to do with recognizing that the fictional equivalents of "melody" and "soloing" and "lyrics" are not your part of the process most of the time, but they need you in order to work together.

Fantastic.

Best,
Ron

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Bill,

Rock on, man! Thank you for running this. (Did my PDF I sent you help out with this game any?)

This time around, I really laid back. I let them just talk and talk. When it became clear that they were at an impasse, I suggested options. They picked ones they liked and we made checks. I went a lot more slowly and refrained from restating summaries of their input. As we closed down one scene, one player or another would literally (I'm not making this up) leap forward and start the next scene. And then another would enter, in character. And I had the distinct feeling of them running the session. It really impressed on me the usefulness of being quiet and allowing silence to enter the dialogue.

This is incredible. It's the same experience I'm having in my game, and it's the style I'm trying to get across in the new text about how to run a game of TSOY. In fact - can I quote the above in the book, not as praise, but as advice?

People that run the same one-shot for different groups at conventions already know this, but it was new to me: it's so entertaining to see what different people will do with the same dilemma.

No joke. This is one of my favorite things: starting with the same situation with a different group of people.

I was much smoother in training BDTP and Harm. The latter was the toughest piece for this group as well, but we got it down much better. And knowing what a freaking hassle it was going to be to heal, I Gave for Garbo after he took an SL 4 Harm, so familiarity tempers. There was still that experience of repetitive actions slogging towards Broken. Kind of itches a bit.

Bill - do you have any recommendations for healing? It seems to be the one bit left that's acting all crufty. (Are you "shaking down" harm after BDTP?) I see you also had some of the same repetitiveness with BDTP. Part of that, I think, is ingrained: people repeat the same actions in bog-standard combat, too.

[Bill Cook]

Thx, you guys.

The PDF was a definite help. We did shake down Harm. And that's a fair counter-point, that players are perfectly content to hit with the sword, again and again. Feel free to use my feedback in any way you see fit. Part of my interest in running TSOY is to promote it.

As far as recommendations for healing go, to be fair, I think a mult-session campaign is required to prove the whole "take Harm, be healed or self-heal, refresh Pools" cycle. For all I know, it could be tops the way it is.