[TSOY] Working the Kinks Out

[Brennan Taylor]

The Warlords of Maldor campaign got started last night. For a recap (setup details in the Anvilwerks forum here), we have six players:
-   Swann, a female human Maldorian warlord in the shattered remains of Maldor. All of the other characters are her inner circle. Her keys are Power and The Nemesis.
-   Crystal, a female human Maldorian courtier and psycho ex-girlfriend. She is a close associate of Swann, and her keys are Unrequited Love and Glittering Gold.
-   Perrin, a female goblin Maldorian warrior (of a sort). She is addicted to pain, and her keys are Masochist and Glittering Gold.
-   Gaff Gamji, a male ratkin Maldorian hoarder. He is the procurer for Swann, and his key is The Litter. He has adopted the group as his littermates.
-   Dacian, a male human Ammonite assassin. His keys are Renown and Vengeance against the Ammonite assassin's guild he left behind.
-   Moira, a female human Khalian smith, infested with moonmetal. She is an exile from her own land, and her key is Conscience.

I had completed character creation a few weeks back and had some time to contemplate the upcoming adventures. I only sketched in the briefest of backgrounds and plot hooks, and decided to wing it from there. This is typically what I do even in systems that supposedly require more prep time on the part of the GM, and my initial impression of TSoY is that it is very good at facilitating this type of play. A lot of what happened was driven by player input, which is good.

This group of players is experienced, and open to new games. All had volunteered to try a new system. They were very impressed with the character generation system, and really liked the Keys. Everyone had a strong sense of ownership and control over their characters, and I think they all came into the game already feeling good about it. I was not too familiar with the system when we started, so I fumbled through it a bit, but by the end of our first "Bringing Down the Pain" conflict, I think everyone had the hang of it.

The game is setup to revolve around Swann and her attempts to increase her personal power. Her nemesis is the Prince of Gormenfell, whose lands border her own and is starting to take notice of Swann's success. Swann is gaining territory at the expense of other lords in the area, and the session began with Gormenfell's initial move to limit Swann's powers. He has moved some troops into an ancient Maldorian citadel called Dinevor. This place is a forbidding black stone tower overlooking the river between Gormenfell and Swann's lands, and is thought to be haunted and is shunned by the locals. One of Swann's patrols in the area disappears, which gets us rolling.

The main problem we had, which was mostly worked out by the end of the session (we'll see if it crops up again next time, though) was with the conflict resolution system versus the task resolution they were all used to (and I am still pretty much used to as well). There were a number of attempts for people to frame intent in too limited a way, rather than state what they were really after. This lasted until three of the characters got into a physical conflict over a boat.

The characters found evidence of the missing patrol, scouted some activity in Dinevor, and hailed the Gormenfell soldiers on the other side of the river. What was to happen next is a bit unclear, but a couple of characters initiated a brawl with the soldiers. The scouting party consisted of Perrin, Gaff, and Moira, but the other players watched with great interest (and a bit of relief for not having to be the initial guinea pigs for the system, I think) and made comments as we went along.

There was some shock with the very first conflict ended as rapidly as it should have. Moira decided to headbutt a soldier and knock him unconscious. She succeeded, and boom, he was unconscious. The group, used to blow-by-blow game systems, sat back collectively and said, "That's it? That's all she needed to do?" I said, "Yup." After a moment of reflection, everyone agreed that this was cool, and moved on.

Perrin, of course, with Key of the Masochist, was the first to Bring Down the Pain. She realized that in order to gain the XP, she needed to Bring Down the Pain. She decided to fight with one of the soldiers on the boat, and purposefully threw the early rounds of combat to rack up damage. Her intent was to throw him in the river, and his was to eliminate her as a threat so he could move on and help his friends. The soldier wasn't that great (a 3 in Infantry Fighting), so he was popping her for 1 point over and over again. This scene was the one where we had our main struggle with the system, with Perrin's player taking three or four 'rounds' of the conflict to really figure out how to state intent. She had some difficulty wrapping her mind around it, but I think it eventually sank in. As players, none of us were used to stating how we wanted things to end up, we were all used to stating our intended action that might or might not lead to the desired result.

Finally, she took enough damage to be bloodied, and then the next exchange she was broken. This was a bonanza for Perrin, who got 4 XP in one go, but she gave up rather than get smacked again, and floated down the river in a state of dubious consciousness. This allowed the other players to pull in their Keys as well, as Gaff helped Perrin against the soldier right before she went down, and Moira splashed into the river in order to drag Perrin out. One of our little rules mishaps occurred here as well, since no one was sure how to help someone in a Bring Down the Pain scenario.

We had to call it there due to time, but everyone was really enthusiastic about the system. They like it, they like the concept of conflict resolution, even though we are still struggling with the implementation, and they are all eager to play again. Next session will bring in the other group of characters and a lot more social conflicts, as Crystal and Dacian are planning to go to the front door of Dinevor and see what they can discover from that side. I think it will be really interesting to see how they react to Bringing Down the Pain in a social context.

All in all, good stuff, and I am very impressed with the game design at this point. Thanks, Clinton!

[James_Nostack]

One of our little rules mishaps occurred here as well, since no one was sure how to help someone in a Bring Down the Pain scenario.

I think technically you've got to get in on the ground floor, so to speak: if you don't indicate when the Pain starts that you want to get involved in somebody else's stuff, you can't step in.  On the other hand, the masochist had already given up by then, so maybe the Pain was over(?)

they like the concept of conflict resolution, even though we are still struggling with the implementation

Oy, welcome to my world.  It's a real shift of perceptions.

[Brennan Taylor]

I think technically you've got to get in on the ground floor, so to speak: if you don't indicate when the Pain starts that you want to get involved in somebody else's stuff, you can't step in.  On the other hand, the masochist had already given up by then, so maybe the Pain was over(?)

Well, the issue was that the other player wanted to get in on the conflict before it was over, but hadn't decided to jump in at the beginning. Part of the problem here is that no one knew how it worked, whether you had to get in at the beginning, or if you could jump in later. He definitely would have committed to joining in at the beginning if he knew that he couldn't start participating halfway through.

By the time the masochist gave up, yeah, it was over, and the other character, at that point, was able to act on the antagonist. He wanted to get some credit for helping, though, for his Key.