[TSoY] Fox Bridge, or "I was a sexist GM"

[KingstonC]

This is my second time playing TSoY. The first two sessions we ran through "rat moon rising". The PC's were revolutionaries who rescued a regement of imperial troups lost in an abandoned city in order to avert an empire enriching war, but only after killing another group of troups (the garrison of their hometown) hoping to cause the war for personal gain. This adventure focues on the concequences of their actions.

Cast
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M- A vagabond and revolutionary leader. Stong in combat and thevery. Keys are revolutionary and guardian (his younger brother).
J- A bar wench and revolutionry spy. Strong in social skills. Keys are revolutionary and guardian (her niece)
A- A ratkin thief and ranger. Strong in illict skills. Her keys are revolutionary and the precious (likes to steal).

The game
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The players return to their home of Fox Bridge as heroes for rescuing the troops. There is a partyA emperial captian shows up, seeking the lost regement. Having found them, but disovering the towns garrison gone, he decides to stay. PC's think about killing him, but decide that it would be too conspicuous. The captan shows himself as noble man trying to do good despite being an emperial running dog, futher complicating matters. M tells the captian about seeing the site of their ambush on the way back from resuing the regement. J's niece is found necking in the bar with a too old farm boy, causing a fight between J and her niece.
M's brother takes sword fighting lessons with other town boys from captian, making M jellous.
J serves a group of Ammeni traders at the bar. She turns a trick with one of them in return for a bolt of black silk. The trick turns violent, and welches on payment. J responds with a "revenge is a dish best served cold" internal monolouge, memorizing every detal about the traders for when they meet again. *
The captian summons A, J, and M to the scene of their ambush of the garrison. M succedes in convinsing the captian that they had nothing to do with the ambush.
J learns that her niece has run off with the farmboy, who we discover has some unsavory friends who live in the woods.
The session ends with a cutscene where the niece and her boyfriend are at the camp of a group of vagabonds who plan to sack Fox Bridge, now that it has no garrison.

Post Mortum
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The good
1) I love the Key system. It has never been easier create conflicts that interest the players and that the players have a stake in resolving. The fact that players must use their keys to gain experience is "key" to this.
It made it easy for the players to "get into" their characters motivations.

2) The system was fun and easy to use. No player brought down the pain in this session, so I cannot say if BDTP has become easier to use with experience or the optional rules. It seems to have just the right amount of gamer crunch. Unlike many narritvist games which are said to be designed for "normal people" (as opposed to gamers), TSoY seems to be designed for gamers as a "gateway drug" to narritvist play. It works.

The wierd and shocking
1) The scene with J and the Ammeni traders got away from me in all sorts of ways.  I was planning on using the scene as a way to futher depict the captan as a do gooder, having him "rescue" J from the bad men who expected her to turn tricks, just because she worked in a bar. I did not expect J to accept the Ammeni offer. And, having the trick go bad as a way to bring the captan in again, I did not expect J to react the way she did. Although J said that I delt with the scene sensitivly, keeping the details of her plight veiled, while letting her react to the issue, I am not so sure. I was, despite her words to the contrary, a sexist GM.
Looking back on it, I deprotagonised J's character by putting her in that position. J took her progonism back by refusing to act like a victim.  She was a survivor, holding her anger and fear in and plotting her revenge. I am profoundly embarrased by my behavior as a GM, and very proud of J's behavior as a player.  I sure as hell will never pull the "woman in peril" schtick out again as a GM without express permission of the player.

Conculsion
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It's been said that Naritivist gaming, when done right, teaches us things about ourselves and other players. I sure learned things about J playing this game. And things about myself. And thats the most one can ask of any game, I guess.