[Trollbabe] VoIP Play Session 3

[Chris Gardiner]

Session 1: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=19034.0
Session 2: http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=19075.0

Slightly rough session last night. We started late, were kinda tired, and I was not at my best.

Fire-Eyes and Mountain-Cloud's adventure finally reached its close. I set the great stone god at a higher scale than the campaign's at, so the players were limited in how they could affect it. In the end they helped the trolls evacuate and worked a magic to awaken the forest, intending it to bind the god. Since the god was out of their Scale, I qualified their victory, saying that the binding would only last a certain amount of time (which I specified as being until the campaign reached a certain Scale - I'm not sure if this an appropriate use of the rules, but I like that it gives us a solid deadline for the situation becoming a problem again).

Afterwards, Fire-Eyes' player reduced her number to 2, to represent the magic she'd learned. Neither player chose to increase Scale. Pansies.

Monolith raced to find Cullen the skinchanger before the hunters in a conflict over several days, having to draw on a couple of rerolls - we narrated the Discommoded stage as a snowstorm and obscuring the tracks, and the injured stage as Monolith having to shelter in a cave and getting frostbite. At that point the player ducked out and accepted the failure, narrating that she found Cullen too late to keep him from the hunters, but that they captured him and left a trail she could follow. She tracked them to their steading, used her relationship with the bear from last session to cause a destraction, and rescued Cullen, setting fire to the hunters' collection of trophies on her way out.

Breaker became embroiled in a showdown between a travelling troll cult and a fanatical group of human eremites. The trolls need to get to the Festival of Vagrant Gods within thirty days, and the humans - guided by the visions of their leader - are resolved to prevent them. Both are bound by oaths of pacifism.

We're all getting a better grip on their rules - players called for healing scenes and scenes to refresh rerolls (like unchecking "A Remembered Spell" after spending a scene reading a book of spells), used failure authority to their advantage, and negotiated stakes.

I think the big problem with the session was that it was slow. And when VoIP Trollbabe is slow, it means a chunk of the players are sitting around twiddling their thumbs, since VoIP isn't friendly to kibbitzing and chipping in on other people's scenes. I think scenes ran for between 25 minutes to an hour, which is out of control. I need to drive scenes harder, cut down the time spent discussing conflicts, and look for more opportunities to cut to other players. I also think that sometimes players are still showing quite cautious behaviour, looking for GM confirmation of details they could simply be stating; I need to communicate that the pace of the game is something they contribute to, and to make the most of each scene. Does anyone have suggestions on how to convey or encourage this?

Also, all the characters are currently headed towards the same location and event (the Festival of Vagrant Gods at Otun's Belch). This worries me. I'm not sure how things will work with everyone in the same place, and am leery of the campaign turning into a party-based game.

I think part of the impulse behind the players gathering might be that they think it would make the split screen-time issue easier,  but I think I'd rather try to resolve that with pacier, shorter scenes first. On the other hand, getting to choose where you're going next after you finish an adventure is a big, cool thing in Trollbabe and I don't want to be overturning or undermining it.

As usual, all comments and advice will be received with showers of rose petals and the praises of an adoring choir.

[Jon Hastings]

Hi Chris,

I'm no expert, but I am a big fan of the game and I've encountered some of the same issues that you bring up in my own games.

As far as increasing the Scale goes, if you really want the players to increase the Scale, the fallout regarding the Larger Scale stuff in the story needs to be pretty brutal.  In one of my games that was at the personal scale, the Trollbabes managed to prevent the murder of a local noble, but they couldn't stop the countryside from descending into anarchy and chaos in the aftermath of the attempted coup.  Their powerlessness in the face of this made them want to increase the scale.  So, while I'd guess that your ending narration regarding the Stone God is kosher by the rules, I think it might be a little wishy-washy: I'd make the consequences more immediate and pressing.  (But this might just be a matter of personal taste).

As for pacing, I have adopted a technique that Ron Edwards has written about in many of his AP posts: I'm trying to cross-cut from Trollbabe-to-Trollbabe until all of them have reached a point of conflict and then everyone rolls at once.  This might be a little too confusing over VoIP, but you might be able to tweak it somehow so it suits the format.

Finally, I don't think there's anything wrong with all the Trollbabes being at the same location.  I did run a game where the two players did not want to split up and the low number Trollbabe player felt kind of redundant (all the conflicts were resolved with Fighting or Socialbefore magic could be brought into play).  However, I think this was due to a sameness both in the conflicts I presented and in my narration of successes.  If how the Trollbabes deal with a conflict is important to the story, then the kind of redundnacy issue I encountered in my game should be defused.  However, Trollbabes are so effective on their own that teaming up can be overkill.

Hope this helps.  I've really enjoyed reading all your AP posts on this game: they're extremely cool and they've given me tons of ideas to borrow for my own games.  Thanks!

-Jon

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there,

Jon, one way to avoid the redundancy issue, or to be more specific, to keep Fighting and Social from pre-empting Magic, is to announce Magic-based conflicts as GM. Works perfectly.

Chris, I suggest putting the notion of "party bad" out of your head just as thoroughly as you have already put "party good" out of there. More than one trollbabe in an area is often a fine thing, as they kick ass so thoroughly ... yet in not too much time, generate serious conflict between the two of them. Trust me on that one.

Also, just because they're at the same locale (and hence have consequences on one single Stake), doesn't mean they will be in the same scenes and participating in the same conflicts.

Best,
Ron

[Chris Gardiner]

Chris, I suggest putting the notion of "party bad" out of your head just as thoroughly as you have already put "party good" out of there. More than one trollbabe in an area is often a fine thing, as they kick ass so thoroughly ... yet in not too much time, generate serious conflict between the two of them. Trust me on that one.

Ok - that puts my concerns to rest. We'll make the Festival of Vagrant Gods a big thing, then, and I may generate a couple of situations to be unfolding there at the same time. It'll give me a chance to play with Weaves and Crosses, too, which I've not been able to much, yet.

As far as increasing the Scale goes, if you really want the players to increase the Scale, the fallout regarding the Larger Scale stuff in the story needs to be pretty brutal.

Hi Jon,

I'm not too worried about upping the Scale yet - at the moment, I'm content to let the players take it at their own speed (hence the time-delay on the stone god becoming a problem again). If it hasn't increased after another session or two, though, I think I'll start getting more proactive.

As for pacing, I have adopted a technique that Ron Edwards has written about in many of his AP posts: I'm trying to cross-cut from Trollbabe-to-Trollbabe until all of them have reached a point of conflict and then everyone rolls at once.  This might be a little too confusing over VoIP, but you might be able to tweak it somehow so it suits the format.

That's interesting - it gets everyone focussed on each others' conflicts. I'll have a think about that, and how it'd work over VoIP.

Thanks for the help, guys!