[AG&G] The life and death of Rama, bandit-king

[Clinton R. Nixon]

So, we played Vincent's new game, Art, Grace, and Guts again. It's officially my game I'd take to a desert island, not only because it's more fun than anything I've done recently, but also because it's infinitely extensible, which I'll talk more about later.

This was my normal Monday night group, Jason M, Remi T, and me. (Yes, it's the Durham 3.) We managed to fit in two "chapters," as the game calls them, which are analogous to "adventures" in another game. However, because the characters don't necessarily carry on to the next chapter, and because of the system mechanics, and because of the creative constraints of a chapter, each chapter is way more like a chapter of a book or a short story than an "adventure."

Our two chapters were set five years apart and had many of the same characters. The first chapter involved a bandit's treasure buried in a remote village. Rama, the lead bandit, had hidden this treasure and wanted to use it to retire, taking over the village. (played by Remi) Pradeep, a 14-year-old soothsayer in the village, had forseen great ruin coming out of this. (played by Jason) Shyama, a magistrate of the emperor, and a great warrior woman, had come to reclaim the stolen treasure. She also had a flock of hunterbirds that served her! (played by me, the GM)

And, man, this game plays quick and makes it happen! We only had a few conflicts before this was over. Rama moved in, mock-hanging Pradeep so that he'd be scared into telling the villagers that Rama should take over. Shyama rolled up in the middle of this and tried to put a stop to it, but the village rejected her, giving her no support and no place to sleep. She set her tent up in the middle of the town square in the pouring rain and vowed to find the treasure and the one who stole it upon the morning.

That night, Rama came to her tent. He'd come to kill her, but seeing her in her perfumed silks, his heart took over, and he tried to seduce her. Pradeep had come to warn her, and he was hidden in the tent. The two of them then conspired to get Shyama to sleep with Rama, but she was sworn to warrior-woman-virginity, and I really managed to beat both of them down with my dice. Remi offered me the arrest of his 40 thieves instead of them being thrown out in the mud and exhausted (the mechanical term for losing effectiveness), but I rejected it - true justice would be mine!

So he decided Rama, rejected, would flip out and destroy the town. He and 40 thieves descended and set the place aflame. Try as we - Shyama and Pradeep - might, we couldn't stop him. In the end, he had us over a barrel, and I accepted his offer: Shyama wouldn't be toasted if she joined his bandit troup. Something really cool mechanically happened here - both I and Jason had different goals for our characters, but both were against Remi. The outcome of me vs. Remi meant I was back in the conflict, helping him against Pradeep. This was awesome!

And that was the end of the chapter. Jason was a bit worried at first - man, Pradeep got screwed - but when we looked at it as the beginning of a story, we saw Rama's bloody rise to power, and the two people who ended up joining him for his journeys, and that was cool.

From start to finish, making characters and all, this took us about one hour and 45 minutes. What I found most cool about it is that we didn't know who the story was really about until it was over. With the last conflict, we knew the story was about Rama, and what levels he'd go to.

I'll post about chapter 2 soon.

[Jason Morningstar]

Worth noting that my concerns/complaints about losing not being fun is an attitude issue, not a mechanical one - once it clicked that the game was highly episodic and that character ownership was really a false goat-trail toward happy play, everything fell into place.  This took playing two full episodes to really soak in - the first game we played one and outlined a follow-up, but that wasn't enough to highlight this feature of the system.  Also, not playing wrong helped a lot - in the Rama game losers were trying hard to suggest interesting alternatives. 

[lumpley]

More with the probing, super-directed questions:

How often did anybody cross a name off the list for a reroll?

How often was it irritating or a waste of time, vs. how often did it add more fun?

-Vincent

[Remi Treuer]

More with the probing, super-directed questions:

How often did anybody cross a name off the list for a reroll?

Uh. Heh. We didn't. Wow, guys. We totally ignored that rule!

[Clinton R. Nixon]

More with the probing, super-directed questions:

How often did anybody cross a name off the list for a reroll?

Uh. Heh. We didn't. Wow, guys. We totally ignored that rule!

We didn't ignore it - I even considered it once, but it wasn't worth it.

- Clinton

[Jason Morningstar]

You'll notice that I got zero owe love, so I didn't have a chance to do any crossing off.  But in the other game with Lisa, there was a goodly amount of it going on.  Lisa crossed off twice in a row at one point.

[lumpley]

Yeah, I kind of think it's a bad rule. I'm thinking hard about other useful things you might could spend your characters' names for.

A bonus d6 with pips would be better than the reroll, but it makes me narrow my eyes.

-Vincent

[Jason Morningstar]

A bonus pip die seems super powerful but also more fun.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Yeah, I kind of think it's a bad rule. I'm thinking hard about other useful things you might could spend your characters' names for.

A bonus d6 with pips would be better than the reroll, but it makes me narrow my eyes.

-Vincent

This is like eighteen times more awesome. A re-roll has too much capacity for total whiffing.

[lumpley]

I'm not sure that more awesomeness in resolution is what's called for. I'd rather let you cross a name off for something nifty else, and let resolution stand on its own terms.

Maybe something specialization-related. Still thinking.

-Vincent

[lumpley]

Let's go forward with the bonus d6 with pips after all. I talked myself into it.

-Vincent

[Jason Morningstar]

We can try it that way Monday and let you know how it goes.

[Jeph]

Hey guys,

What did the Clinton Oracle come up with for this one, and how'd ya'll use it in play?

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Seeing as we're playing again tonight, I wanted to finish this up.

Chapter 2

Ok, so Shyama was "owed" from the previous chapter. This mechanic sets up which character will definitely be in the next chapter. Her player from the previous chapter (me) gets to pick an element to be in the next chapter, and I slyly chose "the accidental death of a highly regarded war-captain." I fully intended this to be about the time Rama was present when an imperial captain was killed, and it was pinned on him, but no! The other players immediately said, "Rama dies." Ok. We've established he became a war-captain before we even start playing, which means his thieves became mercenaries after burning the village, which says so damn much. We established this was set five years later, and were ready.

You play even when prepping for the next chapter! It's nuts.

So we had an awesome second chapter, with Shyama's mook who killed Rama going down in a brutal scene where he was buried alive, and the ghosts of the past literally came down to torture everyone. Remi played a farmer full of avarice who ended up possessed by Rama - who was a specialization mechanically! - and he broke Shyama's Betrayers' Blade before killing her. The negotiation built into resolution worked well here - I agreed that she'd die as long as she achieved redemption. The black birds that followed her when she served the Emperor came down from the heavens to envelope her dead body and spirit it away. It was totally boss.

Tonight, we're kind of hoping that we'll have chapters in between Rama's life and death, but we'll see what we draw. Shyama's still at the top of the "we owe" list, so it seems likely that's what we'll play.

[lumpley]

Who's the GM? Or are you going through with no-GMing?

-Vincent