Trials of the Grail: WWII

[Jasper]

Last night my summer game group started prepping for a Trials of the Grail game. In the last couple of months we've played Dogs in the Vineyard, Pantheon, and a bunch of board games (I missed it, but Betrayal at House on the Hill was a big favorite. We also played my space wargame Anaxis). Since we only have a couple of sessions left, everyone decided to see what this crazy game of mine was like. The players are Jeff, Dave, Dan and myself.

First I presented them with the three example set-ups in the book, but none of these grabbed them--they said "A Dark Gray Land" was intriguing but probably too heavy, and I agreed. Then we talked about the setting examples from the first edition of the game. Jeff said he'd like to do something like the "American GIs in France during WWII" set-up, and we went with that. We played with the basic scenario a little: their CO has been grievously injured and their unit is cut off from help during one of the major offensives, whittled down to just a dozen-or-so men. While the bulk of the unit stays put, the Questors are sent out to find help--French Resistance, Allied forces, a radio, whatever. The original set-up is very specific about what the Grail is (the secret grotto of a French saint) but they wanted to keep it up in the air. The King is obviously their CO, and the Land is their unit. It's all fairly low on the "mystical" continuum.

Next we talked about Virtue and Wisdom. I described Virtue as the metric they would judge the Questors by--putting a lot of emphasis on their (the players') judgment. They opted to judge the soldiers by their own ideals: a down-to-earth, gung-ho American idealism, embodied by the stereotypical square-jawed, glittering-smiled, propaganda-poster soldier. There was no talk of Christianity per se, so religion may play a small role in this game--it seems that cultural values will be king here. They chose Wisdom to be a well-developed moral compass. It was hard to come up with anything more specific, but it's not a big deal.

Then characters. We already decided that Jeff would play the Lead, Dan and Dave Supporting Questors. Even before most of the above discussion, they began talking about military roles, with Jeff playing the second in command, Dan with a medic, and Dave with a sniper type. This labels seemed to provide something to latch onto, though I was a little afraid of overly pigeon-holed stereotypes.

I explained the basic character traits and gave them points to assign. I think the lack of character differentiation, and assigned niches, surprised them (less Jeff since he's read the rules). The total lack of any equipment rules especially. Like, when Dan decided on "medic," I think he imagined having medic skills and medic equipment--but there's none of that in TotG. I explained a little of that, and hinted at why, and they were cool with it; it's just different. I sense, though, that comprehending that difference now is one thing, and actually playing it will take some more getting used to--maybe a lot more: I anticipate them thinking a lot about equipment and the supposed skills they each have, and trying to use those in Trials somehow. And it may take a little work to demonstrate that you don't need to care about that stuff; the game works fine without it.

They assigned some points but didn't write descriptions of their aptitudes. The creative juices were kinda there but not on full tap (for all of us). Everyone had a hard time coming up with Strengths, so we decided to mull it over for a week and finish making characters next time. The last pieces of char-gen are often hard, so this wasn't surprising. Strengths, Weaknesses and Mysteries are wide open and you have to have a good sense of your character before you can really write good ones. I won't really know where this game is going until I see them, especially the Mysteries. My job's so much easier if they write good ones. I'm very curious.


While no one had a really solid character concept, beyond military role, everyone seemed pretty excited about the game, especially how different it is from other games, so I'm excited too. My only (minor) concerns are, again, the newness of the rules and the real lack of anything mystical. Mystery's got to get in somehow, even in the back door, or it's not a Grail Quest, and Virtue and Wisdom won't mean anything. But the Questor's own Mysteries may do this. We'll see. For newness, Narrative Points are going to be a big deal, maybe a hang-up for a while. It's a lot of director-stance responsibility to have dumped in your lap. I'm not planning on pushing that too hard at first, but slowly ramp up the pressure to use NPs. Everyone going to have to get over the fear of wreacking "the GM's story."


In preparation for next week's game, Jeff suggested we rent a particular WWII movie for inspiration (I can't remember the title now). Does anyone have any recommendations for other inspirational-material? Preferably movies, since I only have a week to view it. I'd also appreciate ideas for running a WW game in general, especially any that could tie in with the Grail Quest theme. I can't decide what the Grail will be (at least not at this stage) but cool ideas for obstacles or interesting situations would be much appreciated.

[Keith Senkowski]

Jasper,

There are so damn many great WWII movies to choose from.  Lots of them with elements that would fit Trials rather well.  Here is a short list of more quest oriented movies (Saving Private Ryan, The Great Escape, Kelly's Heroes, A Bridge Too Far).  Also check out Band of Brothers.  Several episodes would be great inspiration for a WWII Trials game.

Keith

[Jasper]

Thanks, Keith. I know I've seen some of those, though probably not for a long time. I'm sure some of them can be had from my local video store.

Know any with strong mystical aspects? I.E. with "quest" involving not just searching but spiritual/moral/religious elements?

[Keith Senkowski]

Thanks, Keith. I know I've seen some of those, though probably not for a long time. I'm sure some of them can be had from my local video store.

Know any with strong mystical aspects? I.E. with "quest" involving not just searching but spiritual/moral/religious elements?

Hmmmm.  That's a tough one.  I can think of nothing overt off the top of my head.  Most WWII movies that cover concentration camps and such deal with moral/spiritual issues.  The second to last episode of Band of Brothers comes to mind.  I don't remember the name of it.  It is one of the hardest things for me to watch...

Two other movies that come to mind though are Stalingrad and Das Boot.  Both excellent movies that I'm sure will spark the imagination.

Man I own way too many WWII movies.
Keith

[Ethos]

I believe the name of that episode is "Why We Fight"

My favorite of a truly awe-inspiring series.

[Jasper]

Thanks, guys. I rented the first four episodes of Band of Brothers and those helped get me in the mood. I'll probably get the rest before our next play session. In case you're interested, Jef reminded me of the movie he suggested: A Midnight Clear. And while I was busy researching WWII material, Jef went about reading little-known (historical) variations of the Grail quest. This is generally a good group to play TotG with, since Jef is a medieval historian, and Dan and Dave are well-familiar with the Romances.

We played our second session last night, including "real," in-game play. We took about an hour to work on characters first. Strengths and Weaknesses took a little doing, but weren't too bad. At my suggestion, both Dan and Dave backed up their military-roles (sniper and medic) with appropriate Strengths, though I think Weaknesses fleshed out the characters more.

Mysteries proved hard. We took a long time just mulling them over, with everyone trying to help everone else out. Dan had a good one right off the bat, "What are the lights I see following us?" which indicated he would have no trouble with some director-stance type power. But in the end, we had to leave a bunch of points undefined, since I think we could have sat there the whole night and not come up with any more, so I decided to move on. In particular, personal Mysteries hard to come up with, given that with the premise of the quest, the Questors are cut off from their families and the rest of their unit. The players also kept veering toward yes/no questions, which tend to be too simple. At any rate, here are the characters as of the beginning of play:

Sgt. Frank Ordenowitz
Lead Questor
Played by Jef

A draftee who quickly earned his way to Seargent.

Aptitudes (talent / skill):
Manner   t4 / s0 - aura of command
Survival t3 / s0 - will to live
Wits     t5 / s0 - lateral thinker
Fight    t6 / s0 - tenacious

Potential: 20

Strength: defense of the weak

Weaknesses:
- unable to demonize the enemy
- crisis of faith

Mysteries:
- What was our mission? (5 pt)
- What will happen to my mother, while I'm at war? (5 pt)
- undefined 5pt

----------

Pvt. Glenn Blackwell
Supporting Questor
Played by David

A college drop-out who drifted in and out of music before enlisting, looking for a place for himself.

Aptitudes:
Manner   t3 / s2 - a little gruff
Survival t2 / s3 - sheltered city boy, former boy scout, military training
Wits     t2 / s1 - intelligent, difficulty focusing
Fight    t5 / s4 - highschool wrestler, natural talent with sniping

Potential: 4

Strengths:
- when enemies [that we're engaged with] are far away
- rivalries

Weaknesses:
- decisions
- alcohol

Mysteries:
- Will Ian, my highschool rival, make it in the war? (4 pt)
- What will mom get me for Christmas? (2 pt)
- Did the Germans see us when we landed? (4 pt)

----------

Pvt. Erich Weiss
Supporting Questor
Played by Dan

A German-speaker with immigrant parents.

Aptitudes:
Manner   t2 / s2 - blond, blue-eyed
Survival t2 / s3 - boy scout
Wits     t3 / s6 - med. school prodigy, attentive
Fight    t2 / s1 - army trained

Potential: 6

Strengths:
- injured people
- ambushes

Weaknesses:
- when under explosive fire
- pain (my own)

Mysteries:
- What are the lights I see trailing us? (5 pt)
- undefined 5pt

I'll post the first bit of in-game play in a little while.

[Jasper]

Before we began, I reiterated the Tenets of the game, as we'd discussed them last time, and briefly discussed Creative Agenda. This wasn't necessary, but was potentially useful. Everyone seemed clear on what Narrativism meant and could draw easy parallels to DitV, which we'd just played.  Jef also made an interesting analogy about playing TotG.

It's like surfing. You guys [the Supporting Questors] are like the surf board. I [the Lead] am like the surfer, riding along. And Trials of the Grail is the wave underneath us.

His point being (I think) that the Lead takes a central position in the story's resolution, but he has to be carried to it by the other players, and it's all made possible by the rules of the game.


Next we set the stage (mostly me, but with input): The Questors are paratroopers and had landed in disarray, in mid-winter, without much idea where they were. Their platoon has taken heavy fire from surrounding enemy, and has lost a lot of men. Their main radio was lost, and they only have a "handie-talkie," with very short range and no Allied contacts. The three Questors set out, leaving 10 men and the wounded behind in a farmhouse, to get help.

Now regular play begins. The Questors strike out at night, trying to find cover and just cross as much ground as possible. I threw Trials at them fairly rapidly, though with low stakes initially, just to get them used to the system. Jef made use of the Complication rule early on, so even while they stayed out of site of a German patrol, it was right in their way. Dan was also generally inclined to make everyone's life more "interesting," read: difficult. At one point, and also as part of Trial Narration, he inserted a Squad of Germans coming up on them from behind. Much more significantly, we had a cool scene where Ordenowitz was climbing up into a tree to get the tags from a dead paratrooper. So what does Dan do? He narrates in a sniper in a nearby building. Ordenowitz gets shot at as part of a Trial, but Dave Shields him and takes a level-3 Infirmity. At that moment, I think the seriousness of losing Trials became apparent. But Dave played it well, returned fire and took the enemy sniper out. For taking the hit, I give Dave a Virtue roll, though he didn't get any.

At about the same time, Jef has a cool little Rambo action as he rushes up to the side of the house. There are some Germans there, and I tell Jef the Trial to shoot them will be Difficuilty 2, Complexity 1, since he's running. Since Ordenowitz has no Skill, Jef doesn't like that Complexity much, and says "Can I even it up a bit by using a grenade?" I say sure, and lower it down to zero. Jef wins and describes a cool action sequence. Ordenowitz then goes back up the tree for the tags. Since he risked himself doing that the first time around, we all (except Jef) discuss what kind of Virtue roll that warrants. We settle on 2 dice, with a Target of 5. Jef roll two Virtue. He could have gone about trying to heal his single Infirmity, but says he'll wait on that until he needs a really big Epiphany--which is good.

As the last action of the session, Dave spends a Narrative Point to have his character, Blackwell, have a quasi-vision of people moving around inside the distant church, one definitely a woman. We'll see where that leads.



So how did the session go? It began a little slow but picked up in the latter-half. Partly, I needed to get into gear as GM, and start everyone out. If we'd made character earlier, and I'd had more time to think about the Mysteries, I could probably have used them more immediately as quasi-bangs. But moreover, this was definitely a session for the players to get familiar with the rules. And by the end of it, I think that had really happened, so that next time there won't be much question about how it all works.

Most perilous moment: Jef seemed totally broadsided by a hard Trial I hit him with. Some more warning from me, before he committed, would have been good. But it did also bring home the seriousness of Trials; perhaps just that Trials are "bigger" than task resolution in a lot of games, with more at stake in a given Trial. And in the end, I think Jef was fine with it (especially since Dave's Questor Sheilded him).

Best part: My fears about director stance power were pretty much unfounded. A little initial shyness regarding Trial Narration was quickly overcome, and both Dan and Dave spent Narrative Points (Jef never had any to spend). What's more, they used them to make the story interesting, never, in fact, to make it easier.

What I'm looking forward to next time: getting more into character. Not necessarily in terms of "acting," but just developing the GIs' personalities more and seeing them come up in play. I also want to see some Mysteries get resolved and some Epiphanies. I'll be interested in seeing how the players narrate those.

Big question for next time: Will we actually get to the Grail? We only have this one upcoming session left, and then we have to call it quits for real-world logistics isues. I've run a full quest before in just 3-4 hours. We can do it again, I think, but we'll have to really burn points left and right, tie up Mysteries like mad, and then have a big climatic scene. I'd like to get to the Final Trials, but not at the expense of rushing the journey itself.

For their part, my players said they enjoyed it, and appreciated how different TotG was from other games, especially regarding the Narrative Points. I had worried that with having spent so much time learning the rules, the game might have seemed too abstract, but apparently that wasn't an issue.