The Forge Archives

Playtested Otherkind this Sunday afternoon. Are we the first in the world?

Preparation:
I've read the Otherkind rules by Vincent/Lumpley several times, and printed two copies for player reference. I designed a combat interaction table for reference. The players were two GMs (Medwyn & Kris), one experienced player (Simon), and myself (Andrew) as GM.

Characters

Medwyn:
Boris the Nubbin, Artful handaxe, Powerful Poetry, Graceful Stealth. Nubbin otherkind connection with life is Good luck & Bad luck, with the effects of fading away as the life connection fades.

Kris:
Honeysuckle the Troll, Artful Unarmed, Graceful Flirting, Insidious Mind Magic. Added personality notes from player: Might makes right; Over-confidence; The end justifies the means.

Simon:
Simon the Orc, Powerfull Morning Star, Powerfull Oratory, Powerfull Recurved bow.

There was some discussion about the descriptor word to attach to skills, resulting in Kris' use of "Insidious" for his character's mind control skill.

We played one encounter, based on the example in the rules, of a band of human soldiers camped around a numinous spring. We soon discovered that it doesn't make any difference stating what the plan is before rolling the dice. This mechanic isn't really Fortune in the Middle, it's more Fortune at the Start (FatS). It's only after the rolls have been made that the players can narrate what actually happened to their characters.

We discovered the following:
* Need non-combat interaction chart. Current chart is for combat only, and with the other chart for Numinous door making, this points out the need for a non-combat chart to guide interaction.
* Very quick interaction -- the GM needs to have far more content for an adventure session, as a combat encounter can be over very, very, very quickly.
* We felt that Otherkind was more suitable for one-off adventures. We felt it unsuitable for long term campaigns. Note that this was our initial impression. We haven't proved this.
* We thought that the game system/setting would be unsuitable for several players in our group, about five in total. These other players would feel totally lost, we felt.
* We felt that an Otherkind session would be good for a change of pace between other games.
* We felt uncomfortable with the roll dice then decide what happened mechanic, as the Otherkind system didn't reward plan ahead. On thinking about it now (after the session), I as GM, should have thrown in colour dice for thinking ahead and coming up with a good plan. Perhaps the GM could be reminded of this in the rules?
* PCs acting together and rolling more colour dice was quickly discovered as the best way for players to achieve their aims, with me as GM providing sound effects and NPC reactions.
* We thought that the game system didn't allow enough variety between the characters, as there's basically only otherkind race and three skills as descriptors.

Would we play it again? Perhaps. I'd like to see some more races/otherkind, perhaps Wise Wolves, Sprites/Fairies, Treemen, Unicorns & Giants. We would like some more significant differences between characters, and a way to allow planning to work; like adding colour dice for a good plan.

I felt a bit adrift as the GM. I was unsure how PCs found out about where Numinous artifacts, creatures and places were. Perhaps some means of allowing PCs to generate a Numinous thing and it's opposition. Something like the Donjon rules, maybe?

Thank you, Vincent, for providing your Otherkind system and setting.

Hey Andrew!

First in the whole wide world!  Thank you!

I've been thinking hard about how Numinous thingies enter the game, and I'd like to have the players contribute to / create Numina, but the GM control opposition (I think of this as the Paul Czege approach, justly or unjustly).  Maybe just have each of the players write a couple of sentences each about Numina of her own creation, then pass them all to the GM to arrange.  The GM would make the people and circumstances surrounding them.  You could have it that the otherkind already know about and remember them: they aren't just wandering around hoping to happen upon Numina to protect, they're setting out with a list.

I intended to not reward planning ahead, so I guess that bit worked out, but it sounds like the game fell down in other ways.  I'm not surprised that three otherkind working together would be pretty much unbeatable; tactically it's kind of a nothing-burger.  What kind of Iron did you put them up against?  Did you try to split them up or anything?

Plus -- hm -- if the PCs work together, the biggest source of differentiation between them, that is, what decisions they make about the dice they roll, disappears.  Maybe I'll do away with the working together rules and make everybody roll for them own selves.

Did anybody kill anybody?  Did anybody reduce their Connection to Life at all?  If not, you missed the actual conflict in the game, if there is any.

I gotta play me this thing.

Thanks again, Andrew.  This is a couple now I owe you.

-Vincent