[TSOY] Snakes in the Shadows OR Dysfunction is good if it's the characters

[oliof]

(also posted at story games under a slightly misleading title)

I was at hspielt! 14 this weekend, and ran a minimally tweaked version of a con scenario called Snakes in the Shadows for five players. For easy reference, this is the core of the story:

Dancian de Marnee, a young, bon-vivant ammenite noble is sent to Khale to retrieve a piece of moon metal, to make him a real man. He is accompanied by Bowdyn, an outcast Khalean who is working as a guide and seeks revenge by treason; Edmund, his favorite cook and also chief torturer and poisoner of House Marnee, sent along by Dancians father to keep an eye on the boy – Edmund also secretly is in love with Kiana, Dancians favorite slave, who is an agent of the watchers, trying to get Zu syllables from Amoux, an elf acquainted to House Marnee. Amoux has learnt the secrets of the Zaru and now seeks to control moon metal for himself. Unbeknownst to the others, Amoux is the progenitor of one of the others in the group. Furthermore, the group is accompanied by Phillipe, commander of the 30 bamboo warrior elite guards that are coming with the group.

As you can see, the initial situation is charged up to a level where you just need to add a little pressure, like being in woodlands, surrounded by invisible enemies, without the normal luxuries of life, to light the fuse. The players interpreted Bowdyn to be perceived as a barbarian by the ammenites, to which the player responded by giving the khalean a ghetto gangster attitude and slang (a bit uncalled for, but fit the situation at hand quite good – this also was the player's obvious choice of music and garb, so it added up to badwronggood fun despite some cheesiness).

I knew all the players from other cons, except the player of young lord Dancian. But he did quite well and at times got a little bit carried away. He obviously had fun, as did the others.

Highlight scenes: When the players realized how keys worked. That immediately turned the scenes to grabby stuff where the characters fought for their beliefs and motivations as the players vied for XP. When the player of the slave bought of the key of conscience seeing the group at the clearing where they found the moon metal tree, being outmatched five-to-one. Bringing Down the Pain between Kiana and the elf, fighting over control for a Zu syllable. The player of the slave leaning in to me and softly speaking "Zu" to indicate usage of the base effect of the syllable. And of course, when Lord Dancian wanted to die in the end, and the chieftains daughter (whose lies led to the expulsion of bowdyn) humiliated him and sent him running home without moon metal. Edmund using the confusion during the battle at the glade to lean into the moon metal tree to bond with it like he had seen Bowdyn do (the player had the XP to buy the secret, and I thought it was a cool idea to let it happen).

In the end, Bowdyn was pardoned and would become part of the panther clan again, possibly vouching for Kiana (on the other hand, Bowdyn did not buy off his key of revenge). Dancian would be run out of Khale alive (the panther clan would see to that!). Edmund had the moon metal, and we'd have enough hooks for a campaign where Dancian would either try to fight for his influence back at home or stage an all-out invasion on the panther clan for revenge. Also, would Edmund tell anybody that he now has moon metal inside his body? Lord Marnee would possibly try to find a (possibly fatal) way to extract the metal from Edmund, as Edmund himself being the current torturer of the house knew very well. And what about Amoux, who now had a map to the moon metal tree?

Of course, a group built like this is not necessarily a good basis for long term play. For a convention it's great: the players don't have to share a single GM to get into all the fun, get instant rewards and enjoy the game. My task was to increase the pressure of the situation by putting in delays, confrontations with Phillipe and his men (In this game, Phillipe thought Dancian to be a weakling that didn't deserve his position and openly rebelled against him near the end and the bamboo warriors went out of their way to make bowdyns life miserable).

Bringing down the pain was mainly used for stealing Zu words and fighting people. There were two or three too much of them, which tended to drag down the game a bit, but I urged the players to give when it was clear they wouldn't possibly win this BDTP, which helped avoid running into 'boring' mode.

This game run in about five hours for five players, including a short introduction into the world and rules before the scenario started. I think it's possible to come to a satisfactory conclusion of the scenario within four hours.