[Trollbabe] Rabaucke and Ingirid

[Jasper Polane]

We played Trollbabe last Monday, and it was fun. I was the GM, Victor and Jop were the players. None of us had previous experience with the game.

Jop is my brother, and although I've role-played a lot with him in my life (of course), I haven't played with him for over a year. He plays D&D and WoD games mostly, and this was his first indie game.

I know Victor from his postings on the Forge, and we've met in person only once before this, so this was our first time role-playing together.

So: New game, new group, no characters yet, difficult to prep. I decided to make up some scenarios for different trollbabes in different locations: The fighting trollbabe in a village, the shamanic trollbabe in the forest, that sort of thing. Prep was pretty quick (once I got the hang of it), and I ended up with 6 scenarios in about 3-4 hours. Not knowing what to expect from the game or Victor's play style, I felt a bit insecure and unprepared at the beginning of the game, but as it turned out, I was good.

Jop played Rabaucke, a number 8 trollbabe with a carefree happy-go-lucky outlook on life and carrying a big trollish axe. She met Firn, who was traveling to save his sister out of the hands of an evil cult. Rabaucke didn't want to help Firn, but instead wanted his horse so she could reach the Blood Gate faster.

Victor played Ingirid, a scary number 4 trollbabe, specialized in troll magic and carrying the skull of her mother, who was also a trollbabe. Ingirid was on her way  to Gravenford when she met two trolls tracking a thief, who had stolen a sacred stone from a troll shrine. I had a nice scenario set up featuring a little girl, a woodcutter, a ghost bear and some ancient troll curses.

Right.

Rabaucke lost her first conflict with Firn, and when Jop narrated him riding away on his horse, Victor said: "It would be cool if Rabaucke sees a stone with trollish runes in his saddleback." Nice! Now Firn was the thief of the stone Ingirid was looking for. Later on, Ingirid and the trolls walked into a magical trap and suddenly, Firn is a sorcerer as well. I liked the way the story kept evolving like that, and new elements were introduced by the player's narration and requests for conflicts and scenes.

The Trollbabe mechanics worked very well, and they have a much bigger impact then you would think from just reading them. I especially like the rules for setting the Pace of the conflict, and the way rerolls interact with that. It allowed for some pretty exiting action scenes, and, somehow, I didn't expect that.

This session ended with both trollbabes incapacitated. Jop made his final reroll, so he's allowed to describe Rabaucke's fate, but Victor failed his last roll, so Ingirid's in trouble.

--Jasper

[Tim Alexander]

Hey Jasper,

I love me some Trollbabe, and it sounds like you guys had a blast. Were you using the 'revised' rules regarding social rolls and magic? How much fighting did Rabauke do relative to magic/social? Obviously there was a strong mechanical incentive to rely on fighting and I'm wondering how much that played out. How much injury occured during the game, and how often did the players choose to give? Lastly, what were the stakes/consequences you were using?

-Tim

[Jasper Polane]

Hi Tim,

Yes, we used the revised rules on social rolls. Rabaucke had some social conflicts: She tried to convince Firn to give her his horse, which she lost without rerolling. She tried to convince a group of cultists who had captured Firn to release him, and she won (maybe with a reroll, I can't remember).

She didn't have any magic rolls this game. After the game Jop told me he didn't have any incentive to use magic, both because of the mechanics and because it didn't really fit his character, and I didn't initiate magic conflicts on her. (But that's going in the notebook: Spring magic on Rabaucke.)

Injuries were about one level for every conflict Rabaucke was in. So she slowly getting more injured while the game progressed, and ended up incapacitated after her last conflict. Ingirid wasn't hurt as much during most of the game, but in the last scene Victor asked for an action-by-action fighting conflict (his low score), and Ingirid went from being discommoded to incapacitated in this single conflict.

The stakes of the "save the sister from the evil cult" scenario is Firn, and of the "find the sacred stone" it was the thief, and this turned out to be Firn as well. The consequences are simple: He lives, or he dies. This isn't resolved yet.

--Jasper

[Victor Gijsbers]

Playing Trollbabe is a rush - so much is happening, everybody is being creative and bringing his ideas to the table as soon as they occur to them, resolution is so fast... we really had to catch out breath afterwards. The system is much better than I suspected after reading it; the reroll mechanics, for instance, seem such a small and not particularly interesting thing, but they work incredibly well. They are the strongest proog I have yet seen of how creativity is helped by working with constraints.

My first scene was rather bland and a bit boring - not because the event itself was bland or boring, but because there was no confict and we didn't use the rules. So I decided to push things, hard, and in my second scene initiated a conflict before this seemed necessary; in Jop's second scene, suggested that he claim in his 'monologue of defeat' that the runestone I had just promised to look for was in the saddle bags of the guy he had just met; and in my third scene initiated a conflict about something that hadn't even been mentioned yet ("I want to spot the magic trap in time"). Having thus destroyed any potential scenario Jasper might have thought up as well as shown to myself and the others the amount of authority the players had, I thought sit back a bit and relax... but hey, Trollbabe is a rush and there's no relaxing!

The amount of control players have, even in conflicts, is incredible. In the evening's final scene, I could have used magic and asked for a single-roll conflict, and I would have won, 90% chance. But instead I asked for an action-by-action fighting conflict, which I knew I would probably lose, but which I also knew would allow me to use my reroll oppurtunities with 95% certainty - and I had such nifty ideas for the found item and the sudden ally. :)


Over the Edge - Later, when I walked to the station, I thought about how cool it would be to return to the sudden ally (a cultist who owed me a very large debt - his life) and the found item (the tip of my right horn, which had been broken off who knows hoe long before, and which this cultist wore about his neck), and find out how the debt and the broken horn came about. Of course, to do this, one would have to play an extended flashback.

And then I got the idea that maybe my trollbabe could die in a future session, and we could from that moment on play the two trollbabes at different times: Jop's in the present, mine in the past, having adventures in the same locations, with the same people, and so forth. Think of the possibilities for interaction that this would open! It would be an extremely interesting experiment. Well, we'll see.

[Tim Alexander]

Hey Guys,

This game sounds like it was a blast. Few more questions:

The stakes of the "save the sister from the evil cult" scenario is Firn, and of the "find the sacred stone" it was the thief, and this turned out to be Firn as well. The consequences are simple: He lives, or he dies. This isn't resolved yet.

So it's clear that the two stakes sort of blurred together during play. Initially though, was Firn's life actually at stake, or was it the sister's? What's the status of Firn as an NPC. You mention sorcery, but how does he fit into the landscape as a whole relative to the stakes? I'm really interested in seeing how closely people use Ron's suggested prep and then how much they deviate from the results of it in play.

I could have used magic and asked for a single-roll conflict, and I would have won, 90% chance. But instead I asked for an action-by-action fighting conflict, which I knew I would probably lose, but which I also knew would allow me to use my reroll oppurtunities with 95% certainty - and I had such nifty ideas for the found item and the sudden ally. :)

If you're using the newer magic rules it disallows the snapshot use of magic, which makes it a non viable option in a lot of situations. Even without that the GM could have modified the pace and forced you to take a few rolls at it. Last, your chances with a single roll aren't really 90% if your number is a 4. All that is sort of pedantic though, and what I really want to know is how much mechanic strategy did you use during the game? I would include the above in spite of your strategy being to have less of a mechanical advantage. Did you find yourself doing it a lot?

In terms of flashbacks and time shifts, and reusing elements created through rerolls, it's one of the things that really makes trollbabe shine. It sets a framework that really allows you to very easily hang new elements from. The reroll opportunities keep your focus tight, and makes what could be a really demanding engagement in creativity manageable.

-Tim

[Jasper Polane]

So it's clear that the two stakes sort of blurred together during play. Initially though, was Firn's life actually at stake, or was it the sister's? What's the status of Firn as an NPC. You mention sorcery, but how does he fit into the landscape as a whole relative to the stakes? I'm really interested in seeing how closely people use Ron's suggested prep and then how much they deviate from the results of it in play.

Firn's life was on stake the whole time. It was designed to be more of a traditional fantasy scenario, but with a twist: Firn's sister is a member of the cult, and him "rescuing" her is because he thinks she's being brainwashed and drugged by the cult. But she doesn't want to be rescued, and her life's not really at danger. Firn, however, would surely die if nobody helped him.

This was about what I started with. During play Ingirid walked into a magical trap placed there by the thief of the rune stone. So that's what made Firn into a sorcerer, and it helped me decide why he stole the stone in the first place: To use in a magical spell against the cult. So now, instead of being a fighter in a fight too big for him, he's a sorcerer meddling with powers too big for him.

So that's the only thing that's changed, I think. There are some different reasons for the trollbabes to keep him alive (he's got some magical knowledge Ingirid wants), and maybe the cult has another reason to want him dead.

For prep, I pretty much follow what's in the Trollbabe rules: Just a simple situation and some NPCs. For next session, I just list some things I want in there: Magic on Rabaucke, Action-by-Action social conflict, bring back Ingirid's sudden ally, etc.

--Jasper

[Victor Gijsbers]

If you're using the newer magic rules it disallows the snapshot use of magic, which makes it a non viable option in a lot of situations. Even without that the GM could have modified the pace and forced you to take a few rolls at it. Last, your chances with a single roll aren't really 90% if your number is a 4.

What does it mean to disallow the 'snapshot use of magic'? What is and what is not possible?

If one's number is four and one's action is magic, one has a 68% chance of winning an action-by-action conflict without use of rerolls. With use of rerolls - well, that is more complicated, but it certainly boosts the probabilities quite a lot.

All that is sort of pedantic though, and what I really want to know is how much mechanic strategy did you use during the game? I would include the above in spite of your strategy being to have less of a mechanical advantage. Did you find yourself doing it a lot?

Yeah, the above was certainly an instance of mechanic strategy - I wanted to disadvantage my character, and I purposefully used the mechanics to get what I wanted. On the whole, though, I generally went with what best fitted the situation - although one leans, of course, to the ability in which one is best.

[Ron Edwards]

Hello,

Victor, check out [Trollbabe] A first adventure and Trollbabe rules clarification.

Best,
Ron

[Tim Alexander]

Hey Guys,

Firn's life was on stake the whole time. It was designed to be more of a traditional fantasy scenario, but with a twist: Firn's sister is a member of the cult, and him "rescuing" her is because he thinks she's being brainwashed and drugged by the cult. But she doesn't want to be rescued, and her life's not really at danger. Firn, however, would surely die if nobody helped him.

This was about what I started with. During play Ingirid walked into a magical trap placed there by the thief of the rune stone. So that's what made Firn into a sorcerer, and it helped me decide why he stole the stone in the first place: To use in a magical spell against the cult. So now, instead of being a fighter in a fight too big for him, he's a sorcerer meddling with powers too big for him.

This evolution is really nice, and I think your thoughts on what to bring back are solid stuff. Let me ask you, as GM, did you find yourself using the pacing rules as mechanical advantage? Besides framing conflict they're really the big mechanical nudge that the GM gets. I'm really curious as to how much you and the players sort of pushed and pulled to get what you wanted mechanically.

Yeah, the above was certainly an instance of mechanic strategy - I wanted to disadvantage my character, and I purposefully used the mechanics to get what I wanted. On the whole, though, I generally went with what best fitted the situation - although one leans, of course, to the ability in which one is best.

Same question, did you find yourselve pushing pacing into single rolls much? I'm trying to get a feel for how much leaning went on in the direction of your best trait. Any social issues as a result of it?

I'm very jealous of the game BTW,

-Tim

[Victor Gijsbers]

Same question, did you find yourselve pushing pacing into single rolls much? I'm trying to get a feel for how much leaning went on in the direction of your best trait. Any social issues as a result of it?

Yeah, I used single pacing a lot, but I think I based my choices mostly on whether I thought it would be more interesting to have an extended conflict, or more interesting to have a small one and go on to the next one. When it came to big confrontations, I chose blow-by-blow conflicts.

I guess 75% of the time I used Magic, my best trait. I don't think I used Social. But I used Fighting, my worst trait, about 25% of the conflicts. (These numbers are pretty much a guess, of course.) So yeah, I did lean to my best stat.

[Victor Gijsbers]

So, we played our second session yesterday. Good stuff, though I noticed a bit more hesitation and "hm, what should we be doing now" then last time. This probably had to do with the fact that we were trying to accomplish the same goal as the first session (destroy the evil cult), in basically the same way (kill the prophet), and there's only so mant setbacks you can have before it starts feeling like you just have to come up with one more slight variation on the same theme. It makes me think that perhaps the Game Master should ensure that between sessions, either the stakes or the obvious way of achieving them should change.

The above souns too negative though; as I said, it was a good session. Rabauke was torn in two and eaten by the evil squid god (Cthulu, basically) when Jop failed three fighting rolls in succession (his number was 8) and decided it would be contrived to think up yet another narrow escape from almost certain death. Afterwards, he narrated how Rabauke found herself to be transformed into the wolf spirit, a bit of metaphysics that was tied up with earlier events, but is not as yet fully explained within the game. (Can the wolf return to earth? Are all trollbabes infused with the essence of an animal? Was it something in her past?) He made up a new trollbabe, with number 6 and a past as a nun in a convent, but we stopped before she got into play.

Ingirid escaped from almost certain death by playing on the greed and stupidity of her guards, then released a prisoner whose name temporarily escapes me. While he was on guard, she contacted the spirit of her mother. (She had been carrying her mother's skull as a Troll item all along.) Her mother told her the way to destroy the prophet, but Ingirid used up most of her strength during the ritual and fell unconscious once more. The only way she was able to get some rest was when she was helped by a very sweet and innocent cultist girl, Hilde, who knew that she was going against the orders of the Cult, but thought that after all "we are on earth to help each other". (Ingirid at first mistrusted her and tried to attack her, but lacked the strength to do so.)

So it was after convincing Hilde that the cult dod not exactly conform to her maxim, that Ingirid, Hilde and the ex-prisoner wnet in search of the prophet, and found the secret entrance to his domain. There, Ingirid confronted him in a magical duel, which consisted of sitting across each other next to a deep well in the floor, trying for over an hour to batter down the other's mind and make him/her jump into the well. Ingirid finally won, the prophet was immediately swallowed by his god, and Ingirid went on to destroy the unholy icon that was the artifact that kept the entire cultist city afloat.

Unfortunately, it turned out that the ex-prisoner was not to be trusted after all, as hew was a rival to the prophet and wanter power over the cult. He put a knife on Hilde's throat, and said to Ingirid that he would only release Hilde if Ingirid kept the icon intact. This was a very difficult decision. Ingirid had not been compassionate until then. She had sacrificed people without a second glance. And yet - this girl had helped her, had saved her, from the goodness of her heart. I was torn as a player, knowing that I would probably lose the conflict if I wanted to achieve both my goals... and in the end Ingirid chose to save Hilde. So while the new prophet was relishing his power, Ingirid and Hilde fled the isle. (Where Ingirid even did another quietly noble deed that has put her own life very much at risk, but it would go too far to explain all of that.) So Ingirid turned out to be much more heroic and sympathetic than I had originally expected.

Great Sword and Sorcery stuff, I'd say.

[Ron Edwards]

Wow!! A trollbabe death? Not a trivial matter.

One thing that will help, I think, is for you to start playing your NPCs as individuals who can make choices of their own. Is everyone getting tired of trying to kill the cult leader? Perhaps the cult leader is tired of leading the cult. Or remember, always go back to the Stakes ... what is someone going to do?

Reviewing Vincent's advice in Dogs in the Vineyard is very helpful; the scenario creation for these two games is identical, and the Dogs text walks you through it at a finer grain, especially in terms of what the GM actually does and presents during play.

Best,
Ron

[Jasper Polane]

Yes, this session was a bit more difficult, but the resulting story was very good.

I think the main problem was in the conflicts we set for the trollbabes. We had a conflict with the goal "Does Rabaucke find the secret alchemical laboratory of the Prophet" and she failed. At the same time, Ingirid was hiding from the cultists, and she succeeded in her conflict. As a result, there were no follow-up conflicts, and the trollbabes had not much else to do than wandering around the temple.

Aggressive scene framing will help a lot, I think: The Prophet works in his laboratory when suddenly Rabaucke kicks in the door and who cares how she got there! So I think the prep was okay, but we didn't initiate interesting scenes to show it.

Wow!! A trollbabe death? Not a trivial matter.

It seemed like a random and trivial death to me when it happened, but Jop insisted in killing Rabaucke off. However, his narration of her ending up as a wolf spirit in the mystic otherworld was perfect, and the event will have a big impact on the further story of the campaign for sure.

--Jasper

[Ron Edwards]

Hiya,

These points might help as well.

You can propose conflicts too. Conflicts may be introduced by anyone. So Rabaucke fails to find the secret alchemical laboratory? That doesn't mean that the alchemist can't find her. Ingrid hides from the cultists? That doesn't mean she doesn't find something.

I am wondering whether you have really thought about the idea that every NPC will want something from a trollbabe. She is a big hunk of effectiveness, and they'll see her as a danger or a potential ally regarding what they want about the Stakes.

The conflicts you propose should be all about the NPCs' actions regarding that very point. Trollbabe isn't InSpectres - the situation is not improvised into existence based on the players' decisions. You should have NPCs, Stakes, and very clear sense, as you play, of what they are determined to do about those Stakes at any moment.

At the moment, it seems as if you were playing the NPCs as if they were either unaware of the trollbabes, or just hoping they'd go away.

Best,
Ron

[Tim Alexander]

Hey Guys,

I've got a question, and just a note. Obviously Ron's got some useful stuff to say above, but:

I think the main problem was in the conflicts we set for the trollbabes. We had a conflict with the goal "Does Rabaucke find the secret alchemical laboratory of the Prophet" and she failed. At the same time, Ingirid was hiding from the cultists, and she succeeded in her conflict. As a result, there were no follow-up conflicts, and the trollbabes had not much else to do than wandering around the temple.

The "Do I find" conflicts suck. They always suck. They suck for exactly the reason you describe in that failing that conflict is a stoppage, not a step. Luckily there's an easy way to fix it, just make sure you have both outcomes set out in the free and clear stage. So, the real conflict becomes, "Does Raubaucke find the secret lab, or does she draw the attention of the Alchemist." Or, "Does Raubaucke find the secret lab, or is she ambushed by the cultists," or anything else really as long as both winning and losing the conflict moves the story forward. It's one of those naunces of framing conflicts that sort of comes with time. Sometimes I still suck at it.

My big question though, is did what's at stake change? What happened to Firn's life? Trollbabe is built with that narrow focus of stakes/consequences in mind at all times, and the progression of scale is explicit for a reason. It really helps keep that focus.

-Tim