O Gamer, Where art thou?

[mahoux]

Okay, here is our first "official" (read post-release) run for Knights of the Road.

First, our players:
Two I.W.W. union members- Hank Pearson and Jimmy Waldo.  Hank and Jimmy have been travellin' for a while together, mostly following the harvests and manual labor.  Hank is "responsible" for Jimmy because Jimmy has a pretty big drug habit.  Jimmy is the finesse man when it comes to recruiting new members, but he loves the laudanum and codeine.

Two 'boes on the road- Soapy Jones and Titus.  Soapy is a bit of a con artist and Titus is very well-travelled.

And Emmy Perkins- recently out on the rails, Emmy wanted to be a country and western singer, but found things difficult.  So she was with an old Airedale, Suitcase McGraw.

The group actually abandoned the arsenal mentality of DnD, opting for more social creatures.  Emmy can sing and play guitar, while the Wobblies are both set for union organizing.

To start out, I went with September 1932, before FDR's election.  East central Texas, not quite the Dust Bowl.  I used one ofthe scenarios from the book to kick things off, with Suitcase dying and giving Emmy the wooden nickel.  When the yeggs showed up, she actually used her brains (and a frying pan).  She threw grease at the yeggs and held them off until the Wobblies caught sight of the situation.

From there, they decided to help her out and travel with her.  They figured out what to do with the body of Suitcase McGraw, and sat around talking.

Soapy and Titus just got sprung from jail, and decided to hotfoot it out of town before they joined the Brazos work farm.  All five ended up on a westbound train, headed to California.

First stop was Lubbock, Texas, where Soapy got a little work and Emmy got groceries and drugs for Jimmy.  She had to use her feminine wiles to convince the druggist that he should give her prescription medication just because she asked him for it.  Soapy knocked at the back door and swept out the storeromm for a trade in goods.

Meanwhile, Titus went to the warehouses looking for work.  He would miss the first train, but as he put it, "there'll be other trains."

So now Soapy and Titus are in Lubbock, and the other three are bound for California.  And what did we learn?

People actually stepped away from the DnD mindset.  No one is imbued with magic and no one knows how to fight.  AND everyone seems more willing to role-play than roll-play.  (kind of cliche, but considering how things went in other games, this is a nice break.)

Until the need for actual skills comes around, these folk have pretty good generalized attributes.  It's easier for them to do things like hop a freight, although there was one scene where Hank- carrying a shaking Jimmy- got Jimmy on the train only to fall down himself.  He later recovered and jumped aboard.

Next week comes the Yonder for some, and a cattle drive for others.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi there!

I'm curious to see, over time, whether the mechanics of the game actually produce a functional blend of "roll" and "role," which is what's happened to the groups that I've played Pool and Pool-derived mechanics with.

I also wanted to reference the excellent graphic novel Kings of the Road for this game. It's buried in my boxes (due to my recent move), but when it emerges, I'll post publisher and author and so on. Great Depression-era drama.

Best,
Ron

[Ron Edwards]

Hey,

Oops - I got confused between Mike Gentry's hobo game and Aaron's Gentry-inspired hobo game. Dammit ... (but seriously, thanks to Clinton for yanking my collar)

OK, anyway, Kings of the Road is a great graphic novel and I recommend it to anyone playing a hobo/Depression game. There.

Best,
Ron