[Trollbabe] A sleepy scene ...

[Zak Arntson]

Introduction
A few weeks ago I mentioned to my wife that we could try Trollbabe. It was a hopeful throwaway comment, considering she shows no interest in roleplaying games and hasn't played one for at least ten years (though we do often play other social games with friends). To my surprise she said, "Yeah! Let's try it." So I read the rulebook through, re-read some parts, and promptly spent two weeks too busy to play.

Then one night we're in bed and I suggest to her we can play Trollbabe or I can read (to her and the baby due October) before sleeping. Again, to my surprise she says, "Let's play Trollbabe!' So I grab my notes and we begin.

My notes: Personal scale. "The captain of the watch's sister is a necromancer and secretly sacrificed his daughter, making it look like a trolls' doing." Consequences being: "Captain kills the framed troll or not."

Character Creation
Here is the order in which she created her character:
Hair: Reddish-brown, curly.
Horns: Curling Ram's horns
Clothes: Human clothes too tight for her huge frame
Troll Item: A gnarled hunk of a tree for a club. When I asked if it had, say, troll runes on it, she said, "NO!! It's practically an uprooted tree!"
Human Item: A pair of eyeglasses (she initially thought of a cellphone, but we both decided to keep a Beowulf technology level. Though it's a great idea. Reminds me of the Yamara comic.)
Number: 8 (after I explained 2-9, low is good magic, high is good fighting)
Magic: 9-10, Human-Magic
Social: 8-10, Feisty
Fight: 1-7, Hand-held weapons

Actual Play
We finish the character and I tell her that we're done! Next time we play, she'll pick a location on the map and the adventure starts. She looks disappointed, "Can I pick a location now?" I figure we're both tired, but she really wanted to start playing. She selects the Blood Gate. I ask her where she's coming from, a human island community or the troll-filled mountains. She immediately says the mountains and names them the Bloody Hills.

"I'm hungry," she says. And so we begin a scene with her sitting down at an inn in Blood Gate with a big meaty haunch in her hands.

A man comes in, puts his helmet and sword up on the bar and the barkeep gets him a flagon of mead.

The barkeep asks, "Any luck finding your daughter?"

No answer, but the man's head hangs lower.

[Note: At this point I tell my wife that the man's daughter's been kidnapped by, presumably, trolls. She tells me happily that's just what she was thinking, so the good news is that we're already on the same wavelength. And, not being ingrained with gamer habits, she has no trouble knowing all sorts of typical "Secret DM backstory"]

He grabs her arm, "Hunh. A troll."

1st Conflict (Social): "Let me eat"
Fail. No re-roll. Man grabs her arm and she drops the meat onto the floor.

[Note: I should point out that there was some time spent with me looking up the rules and discussing with her the consequences of failure. Also, because her back was turned and she was pretty tired, I was rolling the die.]

"You should know where my daughter is."

She ignores the man and says, "Get me more meat."

He draws his sword and levels it at her.

[Note: I tell her that I'm planning on initiating a Fight conflict where the man will try and subdue her for questioning, and she can decide to start it instead. She doesn't really want the rules to interfere with what's happening. I push ahead and we start a conflict, and what's her goal?]

2nd Conflict (Fight): "Remain unsubdued"
Success. She swings her club and the sword embeds itself a few inches into the ceiling.

[Note: At this point, my wife is very tired. When I wanted to create another conflict, she resisted, saying "Conflicts are boring! Let's continue with the story." So I figure it's soon time to end the scene and call it a night.]

The man gets her another haunch of meat and puts a little doll on the table, hoping to appeal to her human side. "I know the trolls have her. Help me find her."

She demands payment, now and later. He gives her a gold-inlaid bracer from his arm. "My daughter is worth everything I have." She finishes eating, puts the doll in her belt, and gets up to leave. The man says, "I'm coming with you."

"No. You're no troll."

"Then I follow you. I don't trust you."

End of scene. I tell her she can add a relationship, and that it helps immensely with rerolls. She adds the man as an unfriendly follower.

Post Mortem
What went right:
* She obviously liked making her trollbabe, and relished filling out the details.
* Her enthusiasm for play. Several times after she told me she wanted story and not conflicts, I suggested we stop for the night. We compromised on stopping when the scene ended.

What went wrong:
* She was tired, so I rolled the dice for the conflicts. That's a BIG no-no in my book (i.e., the way I see it, Trollbabe is all about player empowerment), but she wanted to play and I didn't want to disappoint. I think it went well, considering we openly discussed rules and goals, and we played a fairly short session.
* Names! I forgot to get her trollbabe's name until late during play (Trina, by the way). I also never gave the man a name. Next time we play I will have the name list in front of me. I mean, names are even mentioned specifically in the rules! D'oh.

What surprised me:
* Brandy seemed uninterested in play at times, because her trollbabe was so surly. At one point, she must have detected that I was having trouble coping, and she asked, "Is it okay? I'm not causing trouble?" I then instantly realized she wasn't upset, but having fun with this big, strong, no-nonsense trollbabe and told her that no, it was perfect!

In conclusion, we're looking forward to continuing play. So thanks, Ron, for Trollbabe!

Addendum
I talked to my wife about this article, and she wanted to know what went wrong. I told her it was mostly that we were tired and I wanted her to roll her die next time. She wants to know why she has to roll the die, and why can't I do that part. I'm not sure where to go with that. Hopefully I'll run another session and we'll see how things work.

[jrs]

What went wrong:
* She was tired, so I rolled the dice for the conflicts. That's a BIG no-no in my book (i.e., the way I see it, Trollbabe is all about player empowerment), but she wanted to play and I didn't want to disappoint. I think it went well, considering we openly discussed rules and goals, and we played a fairly short session.

And then,

She wants to know why she has to roll the die, and why can't I do that part. I'm not sure where to go with that. Hopefully I'll run another session and we'll see how things work.

How interesting!  I agree with your wife, why does she need to roll the die.  It's not like there is any competition between your die and hers.  It's just one die, and she's already chosen the important stuff, the actual number relevant to her trollbabe.  I can see that whether its your hand or hers that throws the dice could seem so trivial as to not be an issue.

Julie

[colin roald]

I can see that whether its your hand or hers that throws the dice could seem so trivial as to not be an issue.

Except, it sort of ties in with this:

[Note: At this point, my wife is very tired. When I wanted to create another conflict, she resisted, saying "Conflicts are boring! Let's continue with the story."

Refusing to touch the die sounds like it might be a symbolic gesture of resistance to the idea that you're playing a role-playing game with rules, rather than just making up a story freeform.  I can see why Zak might want her to go along with it, or rather, to buy into it.

[Callan S.]

Hi Paul,

I agree on the GM doing the dice rolling being kinda icky. When you go to a casino, the guy at the table doesn't take chips out of your hand and lay your bet down for you. You go through the ritual act of laying them down yourself. Although I've written this analogy before and some people...well, I think they see a dice roll in much the same way as the GM putting on an accent - it's merely enjoyable color to them.

With the rolls your wife made the conflicts boring. In each example, she set the winning condition to 'nothing happens'. Go check and you'll see that her win condition never adds anything to the story, they just preserve whatever was already happening (which wasn't anything...eating some food). She might not have gamer habbits, but this is text book turtling behaviour.

You might want to stress to her that conflicts let her grab for something exciting that she wants, rather than preserve what she has? Why a haunch of meat when she could demand a feast fit for a king? Why even that? Why not something bigger!? She needs to get greedy! She needs to stop holding onto what she has now (which everyday life has taught us all to do) and instead throw that away, it's crap, she deserves more! Shoot for something bigger! Embrace change!

A bird in the hand is not worth two in the bush! Because the two in the bush are far more exciting! Then again I posted a gamist mechanic like this recently and - I dunno, I might have an unusual handle on what exciting is.

[Zak Arntson]

Julie,
I'm a fan of playing by the rules as presented first, then changing things later as desired. Especially with a game like Trollbabe, where there is one kind of die roll, I figure there's a strong reason for it.

Colin,
It wasn't so much a resistance to roleplaying, as it was a resistance to doing anything physical. Like I said, we started pretty late and she was already lying on her side. She did read this thread, and I'll ask her about it, though.

Callan,
I see what you're saying there. That's a very good point, that you can use a conflict to escalate what's happening and push towards goals that don't seem obvious or even present before the conflict started.

Thanks for the replies! I'll definitely keep them in mind when we play next.

-Zak

[Arturo G.]

I'm with Callan.

I would also add that you were presenting your wife with an "adventure hook", and then pressing her to get interested on it by provoking her with conflict.

However, I think it should be the other way around. You should present the situation as story possibilities and let her choose what she really wants from it. Then, you will be able to easily introduce conflicts which will be relevant to her; mainly opposition to get what she wants.

Arturo