[Shooting the Moon] Three Heroes of the Dragon Wars

[Emily Care]

Hello all,

I played Shooting the Moon this weekend with Rachel, Heather and Saif in New York.  We chose a fantasy setting, modeling it on Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince or Dragon Star series.  It turned into a heroic saga with magic, dragons and special guest appearances from the Fae.

This was Heather's first role playing game experience, and she shone. Her character Guenlian was an introspective and cunning noble woman, hobbled with a lame leg, but aspiring to transcend her noble birth by magic and adventure. Saif gave her character the trait "cruel" at the start of the game, and Rachel's character received the matching trait "cold", to put them into the tone of the harsh clannish societies we set the game in. Heather turned this to her advantage, giving cruel straight talk throughout the game to the Beloved Saif and I played, the incredibly vain would-be hero, Ian, who spoke with Dragons.  This kept his interest and eventually won his heart.

Rachel's Suitor, was different from the others--the trait "homely" got spun into being mis-understood because she was from another culture.  We determined that the home culture was Celtic here, and Rachel's character, to be named Bjork, was a nord.  Another trait she had, "amazing hair", became a running joke, as the dark and flame-haired Celts made fun of her wan yellow hair--yet we would describe it as a perfect, golden mane flowing in the wind. Bjork was a warrior maiden, and called to Ian to remember this aspect of his heritage. She helped him fight off a young whelp dragon by singing to it a teaching song of honor, which eventually became the beginning of a new tradition of Dragon-singing.  Guenlian also began a new tradition of Fae-talking, and became an emissary between the Fae, human and Dragon folk. 

When we began the game, Ian, the Beloved's Dream was to have an epic saga written about him. It was a joy to see the two women suitors rise to take their place at that fabled level as well.  In the end, they all attained their dreams, and a goodly tale had been told.

It was great to run at Big Apple Con. NerdNYC made a splash at the brand new indie rpg scene. (Thanks, Rob Tekatana!) This is a big, primarily comics oriented con, held at the Penn Plaza Pavilion in NYC.  I ran two games, so didn't get to see much more than our gaming area, but it was well attended and a great first showing. I look forward to going again next year.

best,
Emily