[Burning Wheel] Inheritance at GenCon SoCal

[Old_Scratch]

This was the Burning Wheel viking funeral game, where an extended family gathers to see off the family patriarch, and conflict emerges when the long exiled son who murdered his elder brother returns.

The game was played at Gencon SoCal with a group of ten players and Luke running it. There seemed to be a few who knew each other and two of us had gamed in the Burning Empire game.

First of all, the game was great and one of the highlights of the con. Some good role playing and a great story began to emerge. However, by the next day, I became a little more reflective and wanted to process a few of the events at the game. So, at the expense of ignoring all the positive aspects of the game (of which there were many), I'd like to focus one or two things that didn't go down all that well for me personally.

Pre Game
After working all week and gaming late every night, I felt a little worn down (also true of the night before when we played Burning Empires), so I let everyone else pick their characters before me. I ended up with Fulla, the wife of the new family patriarch and mother of the murderer and the murdered. It's strange that the only detail I remember hearing about this game was (I thought) that someone had mentioned that she was not very central. I found the opposite to be true, she was at the heart of the conflict.

The First Scene
The scene began with the tossing of torches into the Viking ship when the outlaw son reappears, Einherjar. The truth is that Einherjar murdered his older brother to protect his mother when both were found to be Christians. Fulla has carried the guilt and loss for ten years or so, and saw his arrival as the will of the God.

The first conflict was when the father, Fulla's husband ordered Einherjar to leave. Fulla, overwhelmed by her loss and relieved by his appearance rises to his defense. In a withering display in the Duel of Wits, she crushes Tyrvald, her husband, ensuring that Einherjar participate in the funeral. After this display of power, everyone wisely avoided in further Duel of Wits, making my position less effective, which was fine, I didn't want to have to turn to the game mechanics to get my way every time.

The next conflict emerged at the entryway to the lodge upon returning from the funeral, with Einherjar and his big companion forbidden from entering. The scene got a bit muddled with family members inside and outside, some drinking going on, and the scene was redeemed by a pretty cool chat and stroll with Tyrvald, the father, and Einherjar the son. After that, they went in and the feasting began with Tyrvald turning his back upon his wife.

Now, the scene at the table became muddied, everyone was talking and conspiring and it was difficult to make sense of what was going on. It kind of had the feel of the old passing secret notes to the GM and it made it difficult to understand other peoples' agendas, which had some consequences at the end.

Now, came a moment that initially bugged me a little but I was perhaps a bit too hasty. A mad cousin and pagan priest convinces Fulla's youngest son (through Duel of Wits) to execute Einherjar the next morning for being an outlaw. I sensed a battle between two sons and immediately moved to get Einherjar freed from his sentence by getting his father to forgive him. I saw it as a defining moment for my character, before the family, to seek forgiveness for herself and her son from Tyrvald. So I attempted to initiate a Duel of Wits, with Tyrvald converting to Christianity to save his son at the risk of revealing my secret. Tyrvald turned it down and I felt like I had overplayed my hand essentially. I felt a little burned...

...and then realized that I may have played too soon. I hadn't realized that there was still the will to read. So I felt a little chastened by the fact that I may have acted too hastily, but I suppose what mother wouldn't do what she could at that very moment to save her two sons from killing one another. I was quite mollified by this fact, although I still felt that there was an opportunity here.

Endgame
So the will is read. Discussion begins. What followed felt a little contrived to me. Einherjar's companion, the big Danish Viking had fallen in love with Ran, a niece promised to the youngest son. The big Dane Viking was constantly trying to start a fight and in, what seemed to be a little forced, picked a fight with the youngest son. He immediately grabbed his axe or sword and attacked. Of course, this big stranger has launched an attack on the family so all the men folk race to his defense. Bloody versus. And it was here that I later felt a few reservations. Everyone tosses in helping dice and they win over the Dane. Then the GM announces that the Dane has call on dice and more dice are rolled and all the men folk are butchered: both sons, the husband/father and the cousin (father of Ran).

I think everyone was shocked by the violence (which is cool), but I couldn't help but feel that there were a few things I disagreed with:

1) It was a first game for everyone and I didn't think that the other players knew what they were getting in to. They were providing help dice and were not informed of the stakes. I could have been wrong, but I don't think that anyone who handed over one of those dice knew that in exchange they were putting their lives at risk. I have my doubts that the player of the youngest son knew either: the Dane had announced murder and the younger son initially set stakes of humiliating him or something like that... So there was this crucial moment of play and nobody knew what the stakes were and I'm not sure that's the ideal situation.

2) That Dane seemed designed to butcher everyone. And once the player attacked, it seemed like some sort of GM autopilot with the GM suddenly announcing all sorts of mechanics that were dropped into the lap. The player had to merely announce that he was attacking and the rest was the GM triggering a set of mechanics which nobody, not even the Dane player knew the character had.

3) After watching the slaughter, I wondered why we even bothered to play? What was all that discussion and arguing about and attempting to save the family if there was a character who had the means to butcher everyone in that room. And worse, that character has little investment besides the fact that he is in love with one of the women and willing to do anything to seize that woman. Other than that, no stake at all! So there's the carefully designed scenario with all these intricate ties and conflicts which can be obliterated by one roll. Only one person had the power to go "nuclear", and it felt like there was little stopping that PC from doing it and butchering nearly half the players at the table in one fell swoop.

Couldn't we have just cut to the chase and have the Dane appear and butcher everyone at the funeral and make off with the woman? It reminded me a little of the scene in the Holy Grail when the historian is giving a lecture and out of left field a knight rides by and beheads him.

It's a lot stronger than I feel, but the next day it felt a little farcical, arguing and playing and investing hours into play until a particular set of mechanics is triggered.

Again, overall I enjoyed the game, but the sudden ending just rubbed me the wrong way and I wanted to process it. Why this seed of discontent about the last fifteen minutes of the game?

That my agenda didn't play out?

That players weren't knowledgeable enough to fully use the mechanics?

"My guy" attachment to the character and their agenda?

The play choices of myself and other players?

Some sort of prim madonna complex on my end?

Design of the scenario?

The whims of personalities at the table?

A lack of transparency between players?

If the other players are around, I'd love to hear their thoughts on it. I can only see it from my own character's agenda and there was very little transparency in the beliefs of others.

I suppose I play for the story and I felt that the ending had little to do with what was transpiring in play, although that might be my ignorance of the agendas of the other players, which was difficult because people were whispering and not telegraphing their moves or agendas to everyone else at the table. I felt that the ending seemed arbitrary yet intentional. Does that make sense?

Again, the focus of this post is on those small, niggling moments that prevented me from declaring this one of the best sessions at a con for me personally. I'd like to thank Luke and all the players for a great time. It's overall a great scenario and I'd love to run it for my own group. Everyone there left buzzed by the experience, but I'd like to piece my feelings about this together and try to come to some conclusion why I felt a little dissatisfied.

I'd also like to open it up to a more general discussion if the other players are around. I'd like to hear about their perspectives on the game and the experience.

[Albert of Feh]

I played Einherjar in the game, and I know what you mean. There was definitely a bit of a sour note to that ending

However, I think the biggest qualification to that (and perhaps one element behind 'arbitrary yet intentional') is that, right from the moment I showed up at the funeral, I knew that this was Not Going To End Well(tm). My viking friend's beserk was the fulfillment of that promise.

If we had gone for full scripted combat, things would have turned out much differently. At least Grisbearn would have died, and maybe one or two of the other family men, but Viking Friend would have been cut down pretty quickly under the sustained assault. However, we only had about 15 minutes left in our con-game time slot, and even the briefest scripted combats with five participants can eat that for lunch. The single roll was unfortunate and felt arbitrary, but there wasn't really a good alternative available to us.

[Caesar_X]

This is really a great AP post, Old_Scratch.  You might consider cross-posting it to Luke's Burning Wheel site so he can see it as well.

http://www.burningwheel.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=12

Chris

[Old_Scratch]

Hey Albert!

A pleasure to meet up with you again... in a fashion...

Would you care to share a bit more of your perspective on the session? Mine was entirely colored from what I saw on the character sheet and my end of the table. What exactly were your goals in play?

I also took the time to read through the other Actual Plays here covering the Inheritance. How strange is it that the other two write ups were from the character perspective, Fulla? It seems to me like she's got quite a challenge ahead of her...

Oh, and I never really went into detail about my role at the end. When the blades came out I was, for the first time, a little aghast. I basically stood there as everyone was butchered: the men fought amongst themselves, the Christian Priest stunned the mad Berserker, and the mad pagan priest and her daughter descended upon the Priest and killed him. I envisioned Fulla weeping over her slaughtered husband and two sons and giving them a Christian burial in the frozen earth with her own hands, and returning to her bloody empty homestead.

[okiran]

Ah, my lovely wife and the son who broke my heart.  It is I, Tyrvald.  And here is my perspective.

I'll start with something good (for me anyway).  The gaming session was one of the best I've had in a long time, and easily the best in the past 6 months. 

I felt there was lot of deep RPing going on at the table, so much that I know I missed some of it.  The downside of that being sometimes I'd see people getting ready to roll dice and not know what was going on. 

Regarding the ending I, for one, had no idea there was the chance we'd all be killed on one roll.  I agree with Albert.  Three and three-fourths viking men should be able to take out one beserker, though not without some losses.  It's obvious the scenario is set up for major conflict, but I don't think it has to end with the berserker killing everyone. It just probably happens the majority of the time.  I'm willing to cut Luke some slack as it is a one-shot con scenario.

Old Scratch, I hear you on the feeling that the actions by most of the characters may seem empty with ending we had.   But I had damn fun ride getting there.  I played  my character's beliefs as getting rattled slightly by Einherjar return.  After the reading of the will my character's beliefs and instincts started falling apart.  All of which contributed to Fulla getting a dying moment conversion from Tyrvald. 

Overall, I had very positive experience with my first exposure to BW.   I'm curious to play the game as a different character, and to play more games using BW.

[Mel White]

Old Scratch,
I've played the 'Inheritance' scenario twice—once each as Fulla and Jocke.  After the first game I had the same impression as you regarding Aurvindil's role—sort of a ringer designed to lead to a bloodbath, if the story comes to fighting.  In the first game, Aurvindil was very restrained, refraining from combat until the very end of the game but then handily defeating both Grisbaern and Tyrvald in a successful effort to kidnap Ran.  Aurvindil's victory was achieved because of his 'Driven' trait tied to the Belief that 'Ran is the most beautiful girl (or something like that)'.  The fight was similar to the one you described in that the GM pointed out that the Driven trait allows the character additional dice ('exploding sixes') in a contest about a Belief.  My interpretation of the general feeling the players whose characters were opposing Aurvindil had was, 'We're in trouble!'  But, at the same time, it was clear that Aurvindil's competence in combat would be as unknown to the characters, who had never seen him fight, as it was to the players, who were all mostly new to Burning Wheel.  So it was natural that the characters would get themselves in over their heads.   
My impression of Aurvindil has changed, though, after the second game.  In this session, Kaare (Ran's one-armed former berserker father, for those following along at home) defeated Aurvindil in a one-v-one fight.  Holy smokes!  Even Kaare didn't expect to win.  And it was Kaare who instigated the fight and insisted on it being a fight to the death.  Kaare's victory was partly due to Aurvindil using up artha in earlier, social conflicts, and thus not having some available for the duel.  And Aurvindil was involved in social conflicts throughout the game because Ran, the object of his love, convinced him in a Duel of Wits not to use violence while in her presence!  Aurvindil also made comments indicating that he did not want to use violence against the family of his comrade, Einheryar.  So Aurvindil has a little bit more at stake than just his desire for Ran, although a lot of how that plays out does depend on the player.  In sum, Aurvindil seems to be a much more complex character than simply a combat animal.  I think he might be one of the hardest characters in the scenario to play because it would be just too easy for him to resort to violence...I suspect now he may have some sort of Belief against using violence but that's just a guess.       
Mel     

[Luke]

I'm smiling pretty broadly as I read through this thread. While I am sad that the game ended on a sour note for you guys, I feel like it might be a little bit of the sour grapes. Come on, you gambled and lost. Such are the fortunes of war and will readings.

You had every advantage in that fight with Aurvandil, martial and moral. You gambled and lost. Now, I apologize for not grabbing each of the warriors by the shoulders and shouting "This is a battle, you could all die!" But I KNOW I warned you all. I KNOW I informed the soon to be losing side that their fate was bound up with Grisbaerne's. I know I told you that you could all die. It seemed unthinkable at the time, I know! But fortune is fickle.

And, as Mel pointed out, Aurvandil is not the same character in every game. Don't pretend for a MINUTE that I'd write a one dimensional kill machine into a game like that. I hope you'd all assume better of me.

And Garret, you definitely played your hand early with the DoW with Tyrvald. But that's how it goes. You never can tell how people will react from there. I think it was equally possible that based on that initial victory you could have practically assumed the reins of the family. But also, think how differently the game would have gone if you had recognized the danger to Einherjar and used your first DoW (your first display of power) to bind his bodyguard and companion to your will.

It's different every time, gentlemen.
-Luke

[Old_Scratch]

I'm smiling pretty broadly as I read through this thread. While I am sad that the game ended on a sour note for you guys, I feel like it might be a little bit of the sour grapes. Come on, you gambled and lost. Such are the fortunes of war and will readings.

Indeed, that could be it. But... for me... the conclusion wasn't necessarily a sour note but a bewildering note. As I may have mentioned before, it seemed a senseless conclusion in that if I hadn't happened to be listening in to the discussions on the side that were not broadcast to the group as a whole, I would have had no idea why the violence broke out.

That's my problem with the way this particular scenario played out. The dinner scene was chaotic with people talking in asides and conspiring and it felt like I was playing, for a brief moment, some chaotic evil bad guy D&D game with everyone planning on backstabbing each other. I don't mind people telegraphing and suggesting to other where their stories are going, but instead, we had these little conclaves where apparently plotting was going on. I didn't care for it at all, it kept me excluded from other developments that I and others could have contributed to.

So in the end, for reasons still unclear to me as a player, a fight breaks out between our son and the others son's companion. Nearly the whole family butchered. Again, it felt like something out of left field, other than the Aurvandil player making a few googley eyes it seemed like there wasn't much for Aurvandil to do, although that might have been the player behind it, who seemed to spend most of his time looking imposing, drinking, and making aforementioned glances at Ran. Now the whole Ran, Aurvandil, Grimbeorn was a little subdued, partly because of the scheming.

You had every advantage in that fight with Aurvandil, martial and moral. You gambled and lost.

I'm not convinced of that. I wasn't directly participating in the battle, but this is how it went:

Almost no discussion of how conflict works.

People roll.

Suddenly, a discussion of how Aurvandil's driven mechanic, a mechanic which has not been mentioned or used is suddenly detailed to a group of whom few have any sense of its use. It was like a GM-macro that suddenly went off without the players having or saying anything about it.

Nor were the stakes up front. Sure, it could have been a battle to the death, but as I recall it, people were throwing dice in to the pot while Grinbeorn was still making comments about humiliating him. It seemed apparent to me that Grimbeorn's player and many of the others did not what was going on.

For me, I've only used Bloody Versus, and I like it, but in this case... I had my reservations... I'm still mulling over my responses.

Now, the thing that proved the pea under the mattress was a comment by you, Luke, which seemed to imply that most of the family is often butchered by this character, which strikes me less as a whim of fate and as one of those things that could be perceived as "interaction be damned, the GM will have his conclusion". That's not what happened, but it seemed to have echoes of that. Now, the only reason I posted was because it felt out of place with my past experiences playing with you (all two of 'em!).

So I see what you're saying, but from a player's perspective it looks like a very different thing. All I'm suggesting is that a few things gave me pause. Again, I'd like to emphasize that it was overally a very fun adventure and I'd love to play it with a different character.

Now, I apologize for not grabbing each of the warriors by the shoulders and shouting "This is a battle, you could all die!" But I KNOW I warned you all. I KNOW I informed the soon to be losing side that their fate was bound up with Grisbaerne's. I know I told you that you could all die. It seemed unthinkable at the time, I know! But fortune is fickle.

Again, I wasn't directly involved in the battle and I didn't hear this, but what good is that advice when a character is seemingly designed to triumph in such a contest? I mean, why wouldn't a father join in to protect his son?

And, as Mel pointed out, Aurvandil is not the same character in every game. Don't pretend for a MINUTE that I'd write a one dimensional kill machine into a game like that. I hope you'd all assume better of me.

Yes, Mel's post alleviated some of my concerns. It's hard to say because that character was played through the prism of the player and I'm not sure what it said on the character sheet or how the player interpreted and then embodied the character in play. Of course, I'd love to see the character sheet, again, I'm only operating with what I know and saw.

If you wouldn't mind sharing, what are some of the ways that Aurvandil became more engaged in play and intertwined his own story with that of the families. It *seemed* to me like there wasn't much for him to lose, in comparison to nearly all the other participants.

Is there some other belief or something that wasn't introduced in play, or is there something else you could change... I wasn't clear, what conflict if any, Aurvandil was grappling with.

And Garret, you definitely played your hand early with the DoW with Tyrvald.

Hahahaha! Yeah, well I got frustrated because I thought we were in the "final scene"! I didn't realize that there was a little more to the evening, I thought we'd sort of entered the endgame I suppose. Once I found out there was still the will to read, I rolled my eyes at myself for jumping the gun and shrugged my shoulders and moved on... to bury my family! ;)

It's different every time, gentlemen.

Indeed it is... Again, thanks for a good game and taking the time to respond. Talking afterwards, we still enjoyed ourselves, I just wanted to process that little seed of discontent. I'd love to run this game for my group one of these days, although for now I still harbor some doubts about including Aurvandil.

And Mel, thanks for your feedback as well. Some food for thought, I was a little surprised about the Duel of Wits that Aurvandil got caught up in. Could you briefly detail what went down in that second game?

[Mel White]

And Mel, thanks for your feedback as well. Some food for thought, I was a little surprised about the Duel of Wits that Aurvandil got caught up in. Could you briefly detail what went down in that second game?

I see that one similarity between the various games is the tendency for the players to engage in secret, whispered conversations in small groups.  I actually tried to discourage this behavior, after all, I want to see the cool roleplaying people are doing and let them see what I'm doing!  The group should be mature enough to separate player knowledge from character knowledge.  On top of that, it's fun to try to identify a character's motivations based on what we see and hear them do.  At any rate, for that reason, I did not observe the preliminary discussions leading up to Ran and Aurvindil's Duel of Wits.  From the stakes, I have the impression that Aurvindil initiated the conversation with Ran, more or less asking her to be his wife.  I believe Ran, however, initiated the DoW.  Her stakes were, as I've mentioned, that Aurvindil would not use violence in her presence (or while a guest in the home—something like that).  As background, neither Chris (Ran) nor Scott (Aurvindil) had played 'Inheritance' before although I think Chris had played Burning Wheel.  In the Duel of Wits, Aurvindil did manage to win a concession...I think it was something like Ran would seek to make her own choice for a husband, rather than accept whatever her parents arranged.  Her parents and Grisbaern's parents had earlier been discussing marriage between their children.  I guess that is what prompted Aurvindil to run to Ran (sorry, couldn't resist!).  Aurvindil did not get much support from the other players regarding the Duel, while Ran did.  Aurvindil tapped into his pool of artha to improve his chances but it was not enough.  And, having lost, Aurvindil did more or less stick to his agreement for the rest of the game—he certainly never sought out a physical confrontation.  The martial duel with Kaare arose because Kaare insisted Ran only marry someone who proved himself worthy.  So either Kaare said that Grisbaern and Aurvindil should fight, with the winner getting his daughter...or maybe Grisbaern challenged Aurvindil..it's a little hazy.  In any case, Aurvindil demurred (because of his oath to Ran), and both Ran and Fulla (Grisbaern's mother) were opposed to this idea.  So then Kaare more or less said to Aurvindil, 'If you won't fight Grisbaern, then you will fight me.'  Hey, he's a berserker...perhaps he was looking for a chance to go out in a blaze of glory.    Aurvindil tried to get out of this fight, or make it non-lethal...but Kaare insisted it would be to the death.  In the bloody versus test that followed, Kaare gained most of the support from the other characters and players...I think perhaps only Einherjar backed Aurvindil.  Despite that, it was a near run fight.  As you experienced, Aurvindil drew upon his Driven trait to re-roll failures (I misspoke earlier about the effects of the Driven trait).  But it was not enough—he would have won if he had artha to draw upon, but he had used it up earlier in the DoW with Ran and I think another DoW...And so Kaare, who had made it clear from the get-go that this would be a lethal fight, killed Aurvindil.  So if Kaare was looking to die gloriously, he failed!  In fact, he later converted to Christianity.  Coming full circle back to my initial point, had we players seen more of Kaare's motivations through seeing his conversations with other characters throughout the game, then perhaps we would not have supported him in the fight with Aurvindil, recognizing that death is what Kaare wants.  Personally, I find that I like my characters to survive, so it's counter-intuitive for me to think of death as a goal. 
Mel         

[Albert of Feh]

I'm smiling pretty broadly as I read through this thread. While I am sad that the game ended on a sour note for you guys, I feel like it might be a little bit of the sour grapes. Come on, you gambled and lost. Such are the fortunes of war and will readings.

For what it's worth, I agree with you, including the existence of my own unripe fruit. That said, even bitter tragedies are worth savoring, especially with an understanding of the specific twists of fate that led to this particular conclusion: my decision to make the family Eiherjar's #1 priority, over the money; my reluctance to give Aurvandil much assurance of either money or Ran because of my outlaw status, causing him to take matters into his own hands; his amazing reroll in the combat...

In the long view, it doesn't seem any more contrived than any other product of myriad decisions plus some dice rolls. The grapes are in the moment, not in the reflection.

[Luke]

Thanks, Albert, for the response.

And Garret, don't you dare exclude Aurvandil! He's a thing of beauty. The only real viking among all the house-bound, hen-pecked "men" in that scenario.

He happens to be brutally capable of dispatching any one character sent against him. Or to restate it, he's capable of winning one martial conflict hands down. Just like Fülla is capable of outright winning one Duel of Wits. I don't see you complaining here at how overpowered your character with a Gray Will and Gray Persuasion was. She's literally undefeatable in a solo Duel of Wits. If anyone is to have a chance against her, the whole family has to gang up against her.* And even then there's a chance she'll win and force something awful on the whole family. Sound familiar?

Inheritance isn't without its problems, but in my experience, Aurvandil is not one of them.

-L

*She was so powerful in the initial playtest of Inheritance, Thor wanted me to take her out or nerf her because he felt that over-balanced the scenario and was undefeatable. I didn't change a thing.

[rafial]

I had the privilege of playing Aurvandil at the GenCon run of Inheritance, and wound up dead on the floor after trying to escape with Ran.  And the family went on to merrily slaughter each other Hamlet style, leaving the younger son as the only one alive.  So it doesn't take Aurvandil to get a bloodbath if the players are set on it.  I think it more likely that the one shot atmosphere encourages players to grasp for for extreme stakes and wilder gambles.  And that's not a bad thing.  It sure brings the drama!

[Mel White]

Just like Fülla is capable of outright winning one Duel of Wits...She's literally undefeatable in a solo Duel of Wits. 

Very true!  I played Fulla at Ubercon and realize she is very strong in a Duel of Wits.  Fulla had a DoW with Tyrvald over whether or not Einheryar could remain at the funeral--victory!  Then a DoW with Jocke to convince the family that Jocke (the scheming dwarf) was not to be trusted!  Victory!  At that point, though, no one would agree to a DoW with Fulla anymore.  They knew they would lose without the full support of the other players and Fulla could usually count on support from Ansgar, the priest, Einheryar, her son, and implicitly Aurvandil, Einheryar's companion.  So Fulla's skill makes it important for her to be subtle. 
Mel

[okiran]

Luke, I have no sour grapes.  Many of the best games I've played in ended in tragedy (Inheritance among them).  I still feel I didn't know the true stakes of tossing a die to Grisbaern, but it doesn't bother me.  I had such a good time getting to that final moment.  And Garret kept me in the game by pleading a dying conversion out of me.  Thanks for that, Garret. 

Mel, Fulla whupped me good in a DoW about 10 minutes after starting the game.  There was no way I'd engage in a DoW with her after that. 

Albert, thanks for giving me the chance to do some dramatic RPing during our father/son chat.

Garret, if you do run Inheritance and need another player, keep me in mind.  I'll even play Aurvandil.