[Ganakagok] (Dexcon) Legacy of the Ancient Ones

[DocMMedia]

Bill, having read the rules through today, I wonder if there isn't a lateral solution to your problem: represent the mana in spirit pools, medicine, and current adversity with glass beads or (possibly preferably) piles of dice. I was sat next to you, and still found myself peering across the large table to the metaplot sheet. Having heaps of dice or tokens would give the players a big visual clue as to what resources are available (in spirit pools) and which of Ganakagok, the People, and the other players are drowning in bad medicine.

I think this is a great idea. I know it sounds really jerky to say I had a similar idea...but...well...I did. The folks I've been playing Exalted with made a "visual" sheet to track Essence and Willpower (which could be analogous to mana here). Having that visual to see the pools could be really helpful. Not to mention giving that added tactile side to things. I was thinking how different playing Magic:The Gathering was when beads were used to track life instead of doing it on paper or in your head. I imagine that it would also make for easier accounting for the GM, too.

Dave

[DocMMedia]

I'd agree that it introduces complexity that might take longer to resolve than a regular game, so that'd be a factor.  I think I'd put the messenger feast earlier rather than later in the game, so that the results had resonance - a bad marriage, an ill-advised rivalry, or an evil curse could play to its logical conclusion before the dawn.  Having both groups build their communal R-maps together is a good idea and would front-load conflicts.  I'd try to set it up so that at least a couple of players permanently changed villages at the feast.

I agree with Jason on this. Making some way of having the two clans interact would be important. To some extent you could treat the clans as whole players...contributing to the whole story of Ganakagok. It might be interesting to have both clans contribute to the Ganakagok pool collectively (ultimately added together at the end). And the People pools would track separately allowing for different fates for the two villages. Perhaps if players change tables, that might get reflected in the People pools of each table...making it more or less likely for the People to do well. I'm thinking it might be worth having two times where the tables interact directly. The feast could occur at the end of the Night phase (start of Pre-Dawn). The in game logic could be that the impending change the villages are noticing result in calling the messenger feast, but other results might come out of it (marriages, clan shifts, exchange of Gifts, etc.). "Our village can tell something's happening. How about yours? Can we do something about it?"  The second time might be late in the Dawn (if it made sense) or in the Morning. The bottom line would be allowing the final narration of Ganakagok and the People(s?) be openly shared between the two tables. The final narration could even be given by someone from the "other table"...an interesting twist on the end game.

I'm totally into this idea.

[Jason Morningstar]

I see where you were coming from on having the feast end at the dawn now, Bill - you'd definitely want the whole group to come together at the end of the game and work together.  The coming of the dawn would probably force this anyway, and the feast could be the time to hammer out joint plans of action regarding the coming mystery. 

[Shawn De Arment]

I wish I had been able to play Ganakagok at Dexcon, but there were just too many cool games scheduled for the Saturday evening slot.

You can sign me up now for 2 village Ganakagok, if you do it at Dreamation. I think it would be good to put it in an afternoon slot so there is a 2 hour break before the next slot, just in case the game goes a little longer than 4 hours

[Iskander]

Book the morning and afternoon slots, and have the feast meeting at lunch.

Fresh seal liver anyone? It's still warm.

[Bill_White]

I'm seriously considering running the messenger feast, as a two-table double session of Ganakagok at Dreamation.  I bet we could get at least 8 people to play, and that would a really cool game.  Let's talk about it here.