[Blood Royal] Revised, up for playtesting

[Lathan]

It took me longer than I'd thought to get this done, but the revised Blood Royal is ready to be unleashed.  I've been playing it with friends, trying different ways of fixing its (many and serious) problems, and with their help finally figured out how to do it.  So yes, it works now; completely different resolution mechanic, more material on skulduggery of various sorts, some new (and hopefully more fun) Drawbacks, and slightly more detailed character creation, among other things.  

The game I'm running so far is on the fourth day of the game-week, and unfortunately stalled right now; hopefully we can pick it back up soon.  But I do need other groups' opinions on the game, too -- so if you need a quick game to play, try it and let me know how it works (and what else I need to do)!

Download it here.

[Sven Seeland]

I had a quick glance over it and while I don't feel qualified enough to really critique your game I do have a few comments/questions.

First of all I really like the idea. The rules are simple and clear and serve their purpose well (as far as I can tell).

One problem I see is the fact that all the players will be scheming against each other yet they are sitting at the same gaming table... how to you keep this from degenerating to a note-passing-orgy? Even if the characters should all end up in the same room they will most likely try to keep their actions hidden from each other. Wither you need very good players who can seperate character- and player-knowledge or you need a way to keep the players seperated. And playing the game with one player at a time seems sortof awkward to me.

Another question: Has any one of your players ever tried to assasinate the King? Just curious... I know it's a somewhat far-out idea and that it's probably not a good one either but I was just thinking about what would happen if the king died before the week has ended and an heir is announced. An "Evil GM" (TM) could even let some stray poison end up in the Kings supper and kill him "by accident". Not that this would be a recommendable thing to do, I'm just thinking through the possibilities.

[Lathan]

So far, it's only been tested over IRC, with private conversations between each player and the GM.  In tabletop play, it could easily turn into a notefest.  However, one player suggested playing it semi-LARP, with players whose characters are not involved outside the room (I could see quite a bit of trouble coming from this one too, though).  So really, anything concrete on that won't happen until it's actually played face-to-face.  And I'm currently without a real-life group, so it won't be coming from me soon (maybe in October, though, when I go off to college).

For your other question, there hasn't been any attempted regicide.  In a game I ran, I'd probably declare all the players to have "lost" as no heir was declared.  Other gamemasters could do it differently, of course, relegating succession to trial by combat or invoking the Athens rule (collect points from the populace, most points is declared the new King).