Fishing for Bangs... (serenwyn campaign

[pete_darby]

Okay, it's another chapter in the Serenwyn game tonight... and, ladies and gentlemen, we are taking the training wheels off, and driving with bangs.

I've mailed out the prologue to the players, as follows...


---------------------------
Prologue: 1618, Earth season, Death Week, Clay Day... Peace Day


The winds across the tula are still low: since Brastalos day, breezes
haven't really picked up, and the old heads around the hearths are
muttering that they'd feel safer soon, if Vinga's defender storm
would pick up and blow the lunar further west to Prax, or South
gainst Pharaoh.

Danu & Mayara are taking lunch by some ancient ruins near the Black
oak border... it's been quiet since the Blue Sky Dancer incident, not
even much attempts at cattle raiding. Danu thinks it's because of the
legend of the Flying Hunter, riding the winds home, though Mayara
suspects that a barrell of firewater for the Cyrling may have helped
rather more.

On Peace Day, it's usual for young couples to stay away from the
chieftan's stead while a visiting humakti quests to bless the
warband's standard. Not that most young couples need any excuse to
sneak away from busy places, of course. But Mayara has more than
those reasons for avoiding the haunts of the Inner Ring...

"...Enjossa really thinks we can make a difference *now*, and says
the good weather is telling us to make haste before Dark season
closes the passes..."

Danu's eyes mist slightly at the thought of a heroic quest across
Kerofinela, even to the Mother of Mountains herself... He
smirks "Perhaps you just need a big strong hunting hero to guide you?"

Myara chuckles: even when they were kids, she could always best him
at arm wrestling. "Even my brave sky rider couldn't drag my forge
across Sartar, and beyond. It'd be like leaving part of my breath
behind."

Danu leans closer "Then I'll just have to have enough breath for both
of us..."

It's at that point that the duck bursts into the clearing.

Danu wonders whether his wife really is so enchanting that she
distracted him from hearing this three-foot six, boiled leather &
death rune clad, black sword weilding, feathered fanatic crash
through what looked like half the shrubbery from here to Battle
Valley, but before he has time to decide the Duck screeches:

"Thzombies! Thkeletons! Ghoulth! THE DEAD HAVE RITHEN, AND THEY WANTS YER BRAINTH! ARM YERTHELVES!"

EPISODE 3: The Duck of Death

-----------------------------------------------------------

Okay, necessary information...

Danu and Myara are a young, married couple. Danu is nominally a hunter, though more properly a "finder of things." Last week, we ran the Chasing Kites scenario, which ended with him (after making some spectacular rolls, riding on the success of hero-point bumping) flying the kite home just in time for dawn & the vital ceremonies.

Myara is the clan redsmith & the "only distiller in Dragon Pass" (we're still working on firewater myths and their application). During last week's game she gained the favour of the ancestors by liberating the trapped soul of a young girl who was a member of the clan centuries ago, who is now her companion.

The clan lost their Eurmali during last year's sacred time ceremonies (Lunar questers interfered...)

Nieghbours are the traditional Black Oaks (bad clan) & Cyrling (good(?) clan). The clan has strong Elmali tendencies: the Cyrlings tend towards helemakt / heler (fire and water... no, that would be serendipitous...)

Proposed Bangs:

* The duck says he's Horvath MacDonwald, "Thervant of the prime wielder of death." Of course, he's blowing smoke... in Heortling mythology, Eurmal was first wielder of death. Furthermore, on banner day / peace day, all good humakti are tucked up in the hero plane...

* He's being pursued by "half formed" men, ranging from walking skeletons, to walking bodies with viscera showing, to walking musculatures attached to nothing, to walking nervous systems, all armed with traditional heortling weaponry.

* The players may recognise the equipment, etc... Black Oak. In fact, isn't that the fancy knife we gave back to that guy in Sea Season...

* They can talk, but they just want to string up Horvath (he told them he could make them invisible...)

* They are a cattle raiding party from the Black Oaks (btw, cattle raiding season is OVER, only sneaky black oaks would raid in earth season...)

* There's a good portion of the Cyrling warband after them (the "invisibility" wore off soon after leaving the madman's table, an Eurmali holy site)

Well, that sets up a pretty interesting (in my mind) vector of incoming agenda, some ties to what the characters care about (hate black oaks, friendly to cyrling, clan has no eurmali atm), little or no chance to call for back up, and a fair amount of play into the Orlanthi virtues (No one can MAKE you do anything, violence is always an option, there is always another way)

But any more spice before I run it (in, ooh, seven hours) wouldn't go amiss.

[Mike Holmes]

I'm having trouble discerning if these area actually bangs or not. For each, could you explain how they:

A. are situations that the characters must address. That is, does walking away make a statement if that's an option? and
B. Are situations where there are any number of things that the PCs could do to address the situation. That is, it's not at all obvious how the PCs will handle the situation. Such that it's completely a player choice.

If it doesn't fit the above criteria, then it's not a bang. That's not to say that some of these things might not be useful exposition or something, just that they won't get players heading down the path of creating their own story (which is the point of using bangs).

For use to add to this, what we need to know are what are suitable issues for the characters. What built-in conflict do they carry? What makes them interesting?

Mike

[pete_darby]

You ever have one of those days when you read two thirds of the way through a post thinking "who is this jerk?", before you realise you're reading a quote from one of your previous posts?

Kind of getting that feeling now... especially since the game fizzled last night (a combination of fatigue, colds, unsupervised children and oh, what was the other thing...? Ah yes, amnesia).

Sooo, tooling down, back to basics, what's the premise for each character? I'm more seeing a premise for the characters as a pair forming, leading to individual permises that are mirrors of each other. Danu is very much a wanderer, partaking of the "adventurer / explorer" nature of Orlanth, more so even than the local bravos. Yet he's married to Myara, clan redsmith and one of the tribes most valuable members (as sole source of firewater). So for Danu, the question is, in the old cliche, "Is your love strong enough?" Will he emulate his chosen aspect of Orlanth, and go a-wandering, trusting his wife at home (Ernalda had many years husbands...), or develop, again as Orlanth did, to give up his curiosity for the love of his wife? In myth, iirc, it took the death of Ernalda to force Orlanth to renounce his wandering ways and take responsibility for his actions...

And you're right, nothing in the above stuff feeds into that.

Myara is, without doubt, the most vital member of the Serenwyn clan, even if she doesn't realise it yet. She's their unique selling point, and reonciliation of opposites: female redsmith, maker of firewater. It's just that kind of thing that makes for mythic importance, as well as political importance. With respect to Danu, the question is "How can she love him?" By letting him go? By forcing him to stay? By renouncing her position in the clan and following him?

And guess what? None of that stuff I wrote feeds into that either.

So they aren't bangs, they're just stuff that happens.

I blame spending too long arguing about GNS on RPG.net for turning my brain to mush...

Thanks, Mike: your post was like putting on my glasses first thing in the morning while looking in the mirror... I might not like what I can see, but at least I know what I'm loooking at.

[buserian]

So for Danu, the question is, in the old cliche, "Is your love strong enough?" Will he emulate his chosen aspect of Orlanth, and go a-wandering, trusting his wife at home (Ernalda had many years husbands...), or develop, again as Orlanth did, to give up his curiosity for the love of his wife? In myth, iirc, it took the death of Ernalda to force Orlanth to renounce his wandering ways and take responsibility for his actions...

Actually, this is not the case -- it took the birth of Barntar, his first child with his wife, to get him to (start) settling down. He became fairly settled and responsible for a long time, being a good stay-at-home husband and father (as stay-at-home as any Orlanthi, anyway), a stable chieftain, etc.

He did wander again when he was exiled from the Storm Tribe, though even then he snuck back once in awhile to see his wife and children. And when his unjust exile ended, he returned.

Ernalda's death actually started his wandering life again, since he no longer had an anchor to keep him at home.

Of course, this is probably not the whole story, and different versions will include different details and sequences, but this is the basic story as set down in King of Sartar and Thunder Rebels.

[Mike Holmes]

Eh, so, one bad episode, no big deal. Time to move on. What's the result of the play that did occur? Look at that as a starting place, and build from there for the next game.

So, it's all about their relationship, and whether or not they can/should keep it together? The problem with this is that this suggests just one bang. That is, the point at which Danu is asked to leave on some big quest. At that point both characters make their play, and the end is determined. That is, this main issue is resolved. Then what? If he leaves, and she stays home, is the game over?

If you present this in the first bang, the game could be over in ten minutes. If you delay that, then what do you present in the meanwhile? Everything that I can think of only serves as ammunition to build up the final showdown. Which is possible, you should have some of that before you get to the final Bang. But are there any smaller thematic statments that can be made along the way?

I'm not getting anything here. Can somebody else suggest some ideas for how to throw things at these characters that will highlight their issues without resolving them? Am I overly concerned here?

Mike

[Peter Nordstrand]

Hi Pete,

First of all, you are most certainly not a jerk. Secondly, may I suggest that we take this one step at a time. First: The heroes.

Danu
Keywords: Heortling, Hunter, Devotee of Destor Adventurous
Relationships: Savrening Alynx Sidekick, Friend of Orlev (Clan Warband Leader), Friend of the Weaver Women, Elf Friend.

Myara
Keywords:Heortling, Resmith, Initiate of Gustbran.
Relationships: Respected by chief Unstanus, Respected by Community, Liked by Weaver Women.

Questions for Pete
Tell us more about Danu's friendship with Orlev, or rather, tell us what the player has told you. And what you have told him.

Who are the Weaver Women?

Danu is described as an Elf Friend, which sounds pretty cool. This is one of the abilities that the player has picked, which means that he wants to use it during play. It is also something that makes the character very special. Players like special characters. Use that. What has the player come up with? Why is Danu an elf friend?

Myara is "respected by the community". What community? Clan? Family? Temple? All? Tell us about it.

Myara is an unusual woman: Redsmith and Distiller. Has the player come up with a backstory about this? Tell us about it.

The heroes have few relationships. I think they should list all their relationships from their keywords on their character sheets. Why? Because relationships is the key element when playing with bangs. (Personally, I think you need a proper relationship map, but we'll get to that.)

Are there any NPCs from your first session that seemed to interest the players more than others? Tell us about those NPCs.

Mike, am I asking the right questions?

All the best,

/Peter N[/i]

[Ian Cooper]

If it doesn't fit the above criteria, then it's not a bang.

One technique I am finding useful in learning to drive with bangs is when you have written out your bang bullet point possible responses from the players below it. Just a quick bullet point will tell you:

Can you think of an immediate set of choices? Because if you can't how will they.
Would it be useful to have a thought about information you might need in reponse to that. Not to overprepare, so you feel pressure to use the bang a certain way, but so you have names to hand etc.
Are those choices applicable to the premise?
Do they force the heroe to engage with the relationship map?
Does this push the story forward.
[/list:u]

I guess more experienced hands can probably do this in thier head, but I find writing it down at this stage makes me think about it.

Anyway HTH.

[pete_darby]

Thanks a lot guys, really helping me to focus here...

Okay, most of this is pointing towards the lack of an r-map. Before anyone complains, I know it's not necessary, but it's leaving an r-map shaped hole in the middle of the planning. So off to r-map threads if time allows, and out with the primitive draw program at home (I can't read my own handwriting, hence program...)

Apart from that, if it's cool with you, Peter, I'll present your questions lock stock to J&J on the discussion list. I think it'll be better if they answer than I keep up with the "I think, I guess, I think I recall..."

[pete_darby]

And then, the bolt from the blue (and thanks to Prime Time Adventures for triggering it)...

Looking through Peter's questions, I'm getting a lot of idea, but thinking, "yeah, wait for a time to introduce that, don't want it all at once..."

PTA's assignment of Issue levels for each episode works very well with a lot of characters with individual issues, less well for two characters with lots of issues... unless (*DUH!*) you re-engineer it to assigning issues, not characters to issue levels.

So not all at once, but picked and chosen, individually hand tooled for each session.

That makes it easier for this pair... back to work

[Peter Nordstrand]

Hi,

I have no idea what Prime Time Adventures is, which makes it kind of hard to interpret your post. Apologies in advance if the following is already implied.

Looking through Peter's questions, I'm getting a lot of idea, but thinking, "yeah, wait for a time to introduce that, don't want it all at once..."

Don't just look through the questions, answer them! :-)

And tell us your ideas!

And don't save it for later. Use it in your game. Now. If you have too many ideas, pick the ones you like the most and go with it.

/Peter N

[pete_darby]

Peter:  I don't want to answer for J&J, I want them to answer the questions themselves. I mean, I think I know some of the answers, but I'd rather conduct the discussion in ful view of them on the Serenwyn list... but, be aware, they're playing games most nights, so I'm fighting for their attention.

Primetime Advetures is here, and I get the feeling you'll like it...

To put it in a nutshell, it models roleplaying on the basis of collaboratively writing a TV serial in the mould of Buffy, Farscape, etc. Characters don't have "ability ratings", but presence, which varies thoughout the campaign ("season"), as the characters variously take the spotlight, or take a back seat. High presence in this episode = your character's issues will be to the fore, you get more dice, which can equally mean more successes and more complications.

The naturallly emergent nature of planning for sessions looks fabulous.

[pete_darby]

BTW, and to bring a little focus, Peter, Have you seen the Dramatis Personae in the Serenwyn homepage database?

It's the elements for the r-map, but without much of the structure: been there since day 1 of the website.