[Burning Wheel] Poisonous Ambition

[rafial]

Poisonous Ambition (Luke's PvP con scenario, available from the BW website) was run for 4 players at Clinton Con, as part of our "all Orc day" (it was back to back with Great Orc Gods).  It was a blast, and we had a crazy amount of combat.  I almost feel like I'm starting to get the hang of how to run combat in BW.

I started by passing out the top six characters on the list by importance.  The PCs wound up being:

Astride the Beast -- Jared Sorenson
Blood Blacker -- Clinton Nixon
Black Destroyer -- Matt Wilson
Follower -- John Harper

In retrospect, I realized that both the Follower and the Whisperer should have been PCs, but things went well despite that.  Best PC selection dialogue:

Clinton: I'm really thinking about playing the wolf, except for the fact that I wouldn't really be able to talk.
Wilhelm: Wolves have vile speech.
Clinton: Alright!!!  I just got my character!

After everyone reviewed their sheets and I gave the setup narration, events kicked in to gear with the Named and the Whisperer retreating to the Named's cave for a pow-wow, which the Knower of Secrets was rebuffed from attending (I was hoping to provide a little political dynamic for the players to exploit).  Blood Blacker headed off to the cave of the Black Hunters, and the Follower stalked about the campsite fondling his whip and looking for trouble, scattering Night Seekers from his path.

The Follower noticed the wolf entering the cave, and headed over to investigate.  Meanwhile the Wolf made a pact with his Black Hunter contact to poison a hunk of meat in exchange for persuading Slavering Swift to accept the Hunter as his new rider should Astride the Beast "meet with an accident".

The wolf then noticed the Follower lurking outside the cave, but decided to make his exit as if he hadn't noticed anything, and went off into the forest to bring down a deer in order to get some meat to be poisoned.   At this point, since the Follower had been parading around displaying his whip, and he was standing off by himself, I had the Troll make an attempt on him.  Fortunately for the Follower, he made his perception roll and was able to dodge out of the way, and whip the Troll in to submission.  He got yelled at a little by the Named for not keeping order in the camp.  And then, in what turned out to be the fatal moment, told the Troll "bring food to your master."

Naturally, sending a troll to root around in camp stores creates chaos, and whipped up the goblins charged to guard them.  He Who Bears the Lash sorted that out, but then came and bitched at the Follower for sending the troll over in the first place.  The Follower announced his intention to grab HWBtL and beat him with his own whip, which set off a scuffle between the two.  The rest of the camp gathered around to watch... even Blood Blacker came back from the forest to observe the goings on.

HWBtL managed to break free, and used his whip on the Follower, which sent the Follower into a crazed killing frenzy.  HWBtL called the Night Seekers to him, at which point the Black Destroyer came to the Followers aid, and Blood Blacker took the opportunity to pull down a straggling Nightseeker (free meat!).  The Black Destroyer slew several Night Seekers, while the Follower charged HWBtL and knocked him back into the Black Hunters cave.  Astride the Beast took down another Night Seeker with a mounted charge. The Hunters in the cave pinned down the hated lash master, and the Follower tore his throat out.  (Blood Blacker's comment "I thought /I'd/ be the only one eating orcs in this game").

The Follower emerged from the cave, carrying the former whipmaster's lash and leading a Black Hunter.  Under the watchful eye of the Named, he promoted the Hunter to HWBtL, but praised the former occupant of the office for his courage in challenging the foolishness of his superiors.  "Who will stand with me in challenging the cowardice and foolishness of the Named?"

This kicked off an opposed roll between the Follower's Command backed by crazy Forks and Artha versus the Named's Brutal Intimidation.  A tie, with eight successes each.  We went to traits to see if the tie could be broken that way.  Again, it looked like for each trait the Follower could muster to break the tie, the Named had one to counter it.  The final outcome was that the NPCs all backed off, and waited for their betters to settle their differences.

So the Follower and the Black Destroyer (now mounted on Bestride Death) moved in on the Named and the Troll.  And Blood Blacker, to everyone's great surprise, lunged at Astride the Beast, who was busy looting one of the Night Seekers for its bow.  Blood Blacker pinned down Astride the Beast and was about to go for the throat when Slavering Swift hit BB from the side, and the two wolves rolled off in an snarling snapping mass.

Meanwhile, the Follower tackled the Named, and two rolled around biting each other and belting each other with their axe handles.  The Black Destroyer and his wolf squared off against the troll.  That battle remained inconclusive for awhile, as the Troll failed to connect with the Black Destroyer, and the Black Destroyer was unable to have much affect on the Troll's stony hide.  Meanwhile, the Follower racked up a couple superficial wounds on the Named, while managing to repeatedly avoid attempts by the Named to lock him up.

Ignored by all parties for a moment, Astride the Beast suddenly reannounced his presence with a spear thrust, powered by /insane/ amounts of Artha that transfixed Blood Blacker in a single blow.  Then, having taken care of the immediate threat to himself and his wolf, he sat back to watch the rest of the show.

The Black Destroyer did finally managed to score a superficial wound on the Troll, but just about then, Wrath (the Named's wolf) came bounding out of the cave and sunk his jaws deep into Bestride Death.  Poor Bestride Death collapsed, and the Black Destroyer was unable to leap clear, getting pinned underneath.  Just in time to meet his doom at the agency of the Troll's mattock.  And the Follower's luck came to an end, when he just missed inflicting his third superficial just before the Named finally managed to pin him down.  At that point, it was a simple matter of tearing out the throat, as the Follower had done to HWBtL.

Final tally: rebellion put down, the Named remaining in charge of the Hateful Flesh of God.  Astride the Beast was the only PC left standing, and received a promotion and a name (Wolfslayer).  And the game was greatly enjoyed by all.

By the end of the game, we were all pretty comfortable with scripting, although our tactics might have made more experienced players cringe.  The plotting and scheming element of the scenario did not see as much action, at a certain juncture, the whole place went up like a box of kindling.

The only rules question that came up that I wasn't really sure how to handle (and therefore ignored) was how to deal with the situation where two characters are grappling, and a third participant on the outside wants to stab one of the grapplers.

And later, I played the Shadow of Yesterday using my BW dice, but that's another story...

[Luke]

This kicked off an opposed roll between the Follower's Command backed by crazy Forks and Artha versus the Named's Brutal Intimidation. A tie, with eight successes each. We went to traits to see if the tie could be broken that way. Again, it looked like for each trait the Follower could muster to break the tie, the Named had one to counter it. The final outcome was that the NPCs all backed off, and waited for their betters to settle their differences.

This is perfect! Nice job handling this one, Wilhelm. And in this case, a tie result is acceptable -- the Named is NO ONE to be trifiled with.

By the end of the game, we were all pretty comfortable with scripting, although our tactics might have made more experienced players cringe. The plotting and scheming element of the scenario did not see as much action, at a certain juncture, the whole place went up like a box of kindling.

Definitely the goal of the scenario. I've yet to see a peaceful resolution of PA. Always lots of poisoning, assassination and outright murder. With a bigger group (recommended size is 5-8 players, but I've run it with 17!) you have a lot more factors at play, and you see a lot more scheming and vying for influence as a result.

And I can't believe Jared played it safe! Wuss!!!!!!! He could have been Named if he'd joined in the fracas. His Spear skill is rad, so he could have skewered Named or Troll. And he's got the Ambitious trait, if I am not mistaken. O Jared of the big talkers!

The only rules question that came up that I wasn't really sure how to handle (and therefore ignored) was how to deal with the situation where two characters are grappling, and a third participant on the outside wants to stab one of the grapplers.

This is just a third character interfering with the script of two others. All players script as normal. The only difference is that the character Striking into the fray gets a +1 Ob penalty to hit his target. This is merely a GM rules call -- completely in line with the obstacle modifier system.

Thanks for the actual play post. I've be hedging on my Poisonous Ambition Actual Play because I didn't want to ruin some of the surprises.

But since last August I've run this 7-8 times, and I am always amazed at how fun it is!

-L

[joshua neff]

The thwap thwap sound is me kicking myself that I couldn't get to ClintonCon. That session sounds really cool.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

This session was completely rad. I'd never playing Burning Wheel before, and it lived up to my expectations of the brutal combat it would bring.

Scripting is a great concept. What I found it brought - besides interesting combat - is a sense of anticipation. Right before Blood Blacker got knocked out of the fight, I'd scripted a move that totally jazzed me. Blood Blacker had Slavering Swift pinned down with his jaws on the wolf. Not wanting to kill him - the wolf had been promised to the Black Hunter - I had a Throw into the cave wall scripted which was pretty much guaranteed to put the wolf into a great unconciousness. Waiting for that to happen, and then seeing the dice fail me, kept me on the edge of my seat.

Great game, Luke; and awesome job with the adventure, Wilhelm. It's definitely on my list to play again, and run an extended campaign with.

[John Harper]

This session was so much fun. Like Clinton, it was my first experience of Burning Wheel. I am a slavering BW fanboy now.

I found the Color in BW to be so evocative that playing my character came to me as naturally as if I'd been playing him in a long series. Traits, Instincts, and Beliefs gave me everything I needed to run the Follower. I really got into his head. So much so, that when He Who Bears the Lash dared to whip up the chain of command, I felt the boiling black rage grow in the Follower. What would have been a nasty little scuffle between Orcs suddenly turned into a no-holds-barred battle to the death -- which turned into a full-blown coup attempt in the tribe. I have never been happier to get a character killed, and based on the looks around the table, I think everyone else enjoyed their bloody deaths as much as I did.

Everyone says this, and I'm no exception: I was wrong about scripting. I expected to dislike it, but after the first round, I was converted. It adds a level of tension (and resulting mayhem) to combat that I enjoyed a lot. Every round felt like I was dropping my character into a giant blender of steel and claws with absolutely no guarantee that he would make it out alive.

Now, I have some game books to order.

[Thor Olavsrud]

This is great! Like clock-work, every Poisonous Ambition seems to begin with getting the Named food, and inevitably he gets poisoned! Of course, his Forte is so freakin' high that it does absolutely nothing to him.

It's really interesting to see how it went with only four players. I've played it twice, once with 7 players and once with 17. I think it adds a lot of depth to the scenario when the Named is a PC, and it's especially important to have the Whisperer as a PC, I think.

When I played the scenario with 17 people, everyone that didn't get an important orc played Nightseekers (I played one). That utterly changed the dynamic of the game, I think, because we wound up with a lot of pressure from the bottom, as the low-rank orcs used their information gathering and judicious whispering campaigns to really push their agenda. As a Nightseeker, I wound up delivering the deathblow to He Who Bears the Lash through this.

Oh, and don't even get me started on the most horrible thing that ever happened in a Poisonous Ambition game. urbwar (who posts here occasionally), who was playing the Troll, managed to convince the Named to give him a whip...

[urbwar]

Oh, and don't even get me started on the most horrible thing that ever happened in a Poisonous Ambition game. urbwar (who posts here occasionally), who was playing the Troll, managed to convince the Named to give him a whip...

And when Luke learned of this, he grimaced, shook his head at me, and said "That's like having a Balrog in the game".

Of course, the Nightseekers likely wished that HwbtL was still around after that, because I made good use of that whip on a few occassions. Though I wish I had done like you suggested after the game, and whipped the Named when he went into single combat with the Follower. Much better than him being swarmed by Wargs, and running away....

I have to saw that PA was once of the most fun demos I've played in, both times.

For Instance: the first time I played PA, I was the Black Destroyer. Most times, people sit back with the character, and don't plot. However, I saw the sheet, and he hates He who bears the Lash. I got him killed via plotting. Of course, all the plotting caused BD, Astride the beast, and the Knower's warg all fled back to Orc lands. The Named left the rest behind, and tracked us down, where in glorious combat, the named, Black Destroyer, Astride the beast, named and BD's wargs all died. Man, it was a great ending to the demo. The rest of the pc's were at the table, actually rooting on the Named, though they had all plotted against him. One guy quipped "Now you're all going to die", to which I retorted "At least we die like real orcs, in combat!"

The second time, i was the Troll, which Luke says is very hard to play. As Thor pointed out, I schemed to get the lash, because I didn't want to feel it's sting any longer. Once I had that whip, even the Follower didn't try to lash me. They feared me. Well, except for the Black Hunter, who I begged permission to kill. The named refused, which was a big mistake. In the end, it was the troll, the named, his wolf, and 2 nightseekers vs the rest. We had them beat in skirmish mode, then the named went after the follower, and the troll and Named's wolf got forced back by the rest of the clan (our two nightseekers were dead by now). If he had not done that, we might actually have won. Because he did, the rest of the clan slaughtered him. Bad move on his part.

You guys really should try the Gift as well. Not as necessarily ending in violence as PA, but it can go that route. It's very fun, and like PA, allowed me to break some of the stereotypes people tend to follow with their characters.