[TSoY] Key Scale

[Ricky Donato]

We played our second session of Shadow of Yesterday recently. (The write-up of the first session is here.) Good times were had. Of special note, the game was more fast-paced and exciting than our first session, which I attribute to building on the events of the first session, as well as our growing familiarity with the rules.

Summary of in-game events
After Tecuatl appeared at the end of the previous session, he was stunned to find Ruby in his hut with Edmund, the man he had tried to kill. He was accompanied by a churang-playing spirit named Tlaloc. Tlaloc is the sasha of Oaxata's dead father, the one who had cast her from the village when she first revealed her spirit-talking powers. This led to two important conflicts: Tecuatl and Edmund got into a chili-eating contest, Tecuatl to prove his love to Ruby, and Edmund to show off how cool he was; and Oaxata and Tlaloc got into a spiritual argument.

The Oaxata/Tlaloc conflict was done with Bringing Down The Pain after Tlaloc won the initial conflict. Over the course of several rounds, Oaxata got her ass handed to her as Tlaloc went after his intention of "Dismiss my daughter's existence as irrelevant" (inspired by The Long Bridge for that one). She bought off Key of the Pacifist to attack her father and give her an edge, but it still wasn't enough. Tlaloc spent some time pointedly ignoring her, and then attacked her with a spectral spear to demonstrate that she wasn't his daughter any more. She was terribly hurt by his anger, accumulating harm 1 to 4.

The action then moved outside the hut, when Ruby, Edmund, and Tlaloc went outside to dance and start a party. Ruby tried to convince Edmund to sleep with her, but he refused in a poignant moment, bought off Key of Disrespect, kissed her tenderly, and left feeling confused and unsure of himself. She was terribly hurt by his rejection, bought off her Key of Unrequited Love for him, and was left crying in the village square as he walked away. Awesome.

Oaxata then wandered into the woods. Lindsay suggested that Oaxata happen to meet Alexandre, an Ammeni noble who is Ruby's betrothed and had pursued Ruby and Edmund to Qek. She spoke to him for a while, learned why he was in Qek, and tried unsuccessfully to lead him away from the village. So the session ended with Oaxata and Alexandre approaching the village, Ruby hurt and angry, Edmund confused, Tlaloc still hating his daughter, and Tecuatl furious at Edmund.

Overall, we were really happy with this session. The tension is mounting, characters are making tough decisions, Keys are being bought off, and lots of goodness is flying around.

Question
As a group, we're not sure what scale Keys should be pinging. For example, Oaxata and Tlaloc entered into Bringing Down the Pain, with her intention of "Have him accept me" and his intention of "Dismiss her existence as irrelevant". His intention was aimed directly at both her Key of Outcast and his Key of Vengeance. Does this mean that on every round of BDTP, their Keys go off? That was unclear to us and I'd like to get some feedback from everyone.

[Andrew Cooper]

Ricky,

I don't know if this is gospel for TSoY or not but when I run it we've only hit the Key once per BDTP, not every exchange within it.  In fact, most of the time Keys are only hit once per scene unless there is some outstanding circumstance.  I don't think this has been a spoken rule though.  It's just sort of how it has played out.

[Jason Morningstar]

Andrew echoes my experience - I think the game was written to put those sorts of decisions on the individual play group, so you'll need to find your own happy balance.  We also have a general agreement to hit a Key once per scene, and that works out fine.  Hitting multiple Keys simultaneously?  Strictly fantastic.  Sometimes a player will announce hitting a Key, then at the end of the scene revise the award upward, based on further developments in the scene. 

[crowyhead]

We've pretty much handled things as Jason and Andy have, hitting keys not more than once per scene, with hitting multiple keys at the same time being totally sexy.  We also tend to wait to rack up our XP until the end of the scene, though, which is not actually how it's laid out in the rules, but it's something our group's fallen into.  It's not hard and fast, though; I'm sure if I was in a conflict and was like, "Hey wait, I just pinged my Key of the Guardian and Key of the Conscience hardcore -- can I take those XP and buy an advance, thus saving my butt?" no one would complain.

Kirsten