We've played three sessions of the Mountain Witch and it seems appropriate to present a write-up of the action so far. The players are Ron (GM), Tim (the creator), Tod, Maura, and me. During the second session, we had the addition of Clinton Nixon and Matt Wilson who played NPC's.

In the game, you play penniless ronin who have been hired to defeat the Mountain Witch. Trust in one another is the primary trait for succeeding in conflicts. Also, each of the characters has a dark fate that will interfere with the goal to defeat the Mountain Witch. More information and an alpha version is available at Tim's website: http://www.timfire.com/

As an experiment, I will try to indicate overt author and director stance in []. My write-up is definitely biased towards the events that affect my character, so to those involved, feel free to chime in to correct or provide additional information.

1st session
This was primarily character creation. We also included the reasons why each of us are ronin and need the money from defeating the Mountain Witch. Yama Ichi (Tim) is a failed body guard. Hiroshi (Tod) is the only survivor of the violent take over of his home by a neighboring lord. Azo-O (me) has been disowned due to her refusal to marry the man selected by her parents. Unfortunately, I cannot recall Muro Bai's related background, probably because I'm using her character as the basis for Azo-O's dark fate. We played a short session where no fates are revealed and we are generally trusting of one another during combat and treacherous mountain ordeals. We discover how powerful and necessary trust is to defeat nasty undead.

2nd session
Ron introduced the first character on character conflict by having two of the characters separately encounter tengu who suggest using the password to get into the fortress. The party learns that the tengu cannot tell the ronin apart and do not know if they are speaking to the one who knows the password. All, well, three, of the ronin become suspicious of one another.

During the session, Muro Bai discovered that a decorative comb is missing from her bag. [Matt determined that something is missing from the bag; Maura decided that it is the comb.] At the top of one of the fortress walls, Azo-O pointedly refuses to assist Muro Bai, turning her back on Muro Bai as she struggles with the last bit of the climb. Muro Bai spies her missing comb in Azo-O's hair [Matt]. A confrontation ensues between Muro Bai and Azo-O with Muro Bai demanding her comb back, and Azo-O becoming furious at Muro Bai's "joke" of placing the comb in her hair; the comb Azo-O's brother had given to Muro Bai. The confrontation escalates to an impromptu duel initiated by Azo-O on the fortress wall. Hiroshi breaks it up, but not until after Azo-O is wounded. [The entire confrontation was orchestrated by Maura and myself, except where Tod cut in to break up the duel.] The scene ends shortly thereafter with Hiroshi revealing that he knows the password to enter the fortress.

3rd session
The party enters the fortress, becomes separated and are confronted by various hallucinatory events which include another sword battle between Azo-O and Muro Bai where neither character realizes that they are fighting one another. This is when Azo-O gets her second wound. (We had decided that the wound she received in the dual at the very end of the last scene carries over through this next scene.) We learn that Azo-O's brother killed himself over Muro Bai's rejection of him. [The brother information supplied by Julie.]

At the point that Yama Ichi, Muro Bai and Azo-O discover a secret stairway, Azo-O has become somewhat ineffective due to her two wounds and the lack of trust between her and Muro Bai, and Yama Ichi's has pledged to help keep Azo-O alive until after the death of the Mountain Witch when he will assist Muro Bai in killing Azo-O. It is on these stairs that the three are attacked by spiders as described in this thread, [The Mountain Witch] A Question. [Tim used trust to narrate the damage on Muro Bai to prevent her from receiving a permanent wound.] In her final conflict with the spiders, Muro Bai calls out her beloved's name, that of Azo-O's dead brother [Maura]; she is then dragged off.

Yama Ichi and Azo-O reach the dungeons where they stumble upon one of Yama Ichi's servants who explains before expiring that Yama Ichi's son and heir has been captured by the Mountain Witch. [This entire scene is narrated by Tim.]

Meanwhile, Hiroshi is taken to an audience chamber where he is confronted by a haughty nine year old boy who attempts to act as intermediary between Hiroshi and the Mountain Witch. Hiroshi eventually learns that the boy is Yama Ichi's son. Hiroshi delivers the requirements of his pact with the Mountain Witch, but upon leaving he is captured by tengu and finds himself hanging in the tengu pantry unarmed and unarmored. Before he can be served for dinner, a ghost of one of his family arrives to scare off the tengu. [The ghost had been previously created by Tod. Julie spent trust to initiated the discussion that narrates the ghost makes an appearance at this time. Actually, this happened in reverse, I suggested something like the above, and Ron decided it had such a huge impact on the conflict that it deserved the expenditure of trust.]

I am enjoying this game immensely. I like that the complexities of any conflict are in how players choose to have their characters interact with one another. I also like the way the dark fates affect play. I was struggling with how to bring mine into play, but thanks to Matt's assistance as described above, I had the perfect opportunity to introduce Azo-O's desire for revenge. I can't wait until the next session; I don't know yet if Azo-O will recover from her shame and fury to assist the others.

It is really interesting test-playing a game with the creator as one of the players. Occasionally, Tim has commented that a certain result are not what he intended, or suggested courses of action that none of us would have considered.

Julie

Hello,

What I like about The Mountain Witch is that I, as GM, am fully empowerered to assault the player-characters with no holds barred.

- I can fling foes at them
- I can introduce complications among the foes
- I get tons of new NPCs and back-stories as the players develop the characters' Fates
- I can mess with their minds (Yama Ichi played one scene inside his own head, at one point)

The same goes for games like Unaris, in which I can do incredibly awful things as a GM because it's up to the players to ameliorate the situation via their empowered mechanics. In this case, it's the Trust as well as the players' willingness to introduce their Fates into play.

The longer the players' keep the Fates relatively secret (or raise them but then fail to resolve them), the more I simply hammer their asses, and eventually they'll run out of Trust and die. But if the players keep those Fates lively, and utilize the power to create NPCs and situations via the introduction and resolution of their Fates, then play becomes very exciting and scene changes occur - and Trust replenishes (and can be shifted around).

Two observations.

1. All the players are enthusiatically crowing over how they have no idea how this scenario is actually going to play out. They are enjoying that great feeling when you're two-thirds through a movie and realize that you don't know just who is going to kill whom, who is going to turn out to be a good guy vs. a bad guy, and you like all the characters even though some of them are probably going to die like dogs. And to be absolutely clear, I'm talking about a movie that does not rely on revelations and twists, but rather merely on character choices and crisis situations.

2. I've been role-playing with Tod, Julie, and Maura for over five years. This is the first game out of at least twenty we've played in which Julie's and Maura's characters are continuously and dynamically interacting. I've said before and I'll say it again: The Mountain Witch makes better friends out of its players.

Best,
Ron

Thanks guys for the write-up, this is the first time I've been a player, rather than the GM, and I'm definitely finding it fun and fulfilling as a player. As a designer, I've been extremely pleased with this playtest, the mechanics have all worked as intended as far. The game is running just as it should.

I, too, wanted to say how much I'm enjoying the interaction between both the characters and the players. I love how every single conflict, there's this moment when Ron (the GM) asks, "Is anyone going to join in or help?" and everyone just sorta eyes one another. You can tell everyone is weighing their options. I also love how people say "no" just as often as they say "yes"!

The conflict in the game really isn't about whether the Witch will die, it's really about how the characters will interact and respond to one another. I admit to not having played that many games, but this game really forces me to interact with the other player's much more personally or intimately than I'm used to. I'm curious whether you guys feel the same.

I think it's also worth mentioning how Trust was awarded throughout the game.

First, we assigned Zodiacs randomnly, and ended up with Maura, Tod, and Julie all being allies (starting Trust 3 towards each other) while I was simply neutral to the rest of them (starting Trust 2).

During the first scene, my character was stand-off-ish and grumpy, though everyone else was relatively friendly and cooperative. The other three all increased their Trust with each other, though Tod (Hideyoshi) was the only one that increased his Trust with me (Yama-Ichi). I raised my Trust in everyone.

The second scene, I started off still being stand-off-ish, though I started warming up to people after Tod aided me in the fight against the tengu. Now remember, that scene ended with a duel between Azo-o (Julie) and Marubai (Maura), as well as Hideyoshi (Tod) revealing that he had some sort of deal with the Witch. Predictably, Azo-o and Marubai both dropped their Trust with each other to zero. I think everyone increased their Trust with Yama-Ichi (me). Now everyone dropped their Trust with Hideoyshi, but interestingly, only by a point or two, despite the fact that he had a pact with the Witch!

The third scene, Azo-o increased her Trust with Marubai to 1, but Marubai still couldn't Trust Azo-o (0). Azo-o increased her Trust in Yama-Ichi, because he helped save her a couple fo times. I don't think Marubai increased her Trust in Yama-Ichi. I don't think anyone changed their Trust with Hideoyoshi. Yama-Ichi didn't change his Trust with anyone.

So now we have the situation where people actually have more Trust in Hideoyoshi (Tod - pact guy) overall than anyone else! Everyone else has pretty moderate levels of Trust except for the two women, who have almost no Trust between them. Azo-o actually has growing Trust in Yama-Ichi, I think.

I think it was Clinton who commented that the Trust levels created a matrix that mapped out all the character's relationships to one another at any given time. Looking at the current Trust levels, they definitely mirror what has happened between us all so far.

Ron Edwards wrote: 2. I've been role-playing with Tod, Julie, and Maura for over five years. This is the first game out of at least twenty we've played in which Julie's and Maura's characters are continuously and dynamically interacting.

Ron, Julie (Tod and Maura if you're out there), if I may ask you guys a question, MW has been credited as a 'pick-up & go' sort of game. Do you guys agree? In all my playtests there has been an issue with the players understanding what the different degrees of success look like, and to a lesser agree how abilities work. (They always get over this after a scene or so, but still.) So do you think it is 'pick-up & go,' or is it deceptively simple?

Thanks!

Hi Tim,

I haven't played yet, but I thought about this reading the rules. I just wanted to offer that I think you need a BAJILLION VARIED EXAMPLES of Success and Abilities. Going in all directions so we really see range of permutations and ideas and novel creativity that's possible. Really over do it.

Most game rules give one quick example of a rule, and can afford to, because you're going to be using the damned thing pretty much the same way each time. Not so with TMW.

Oh, and I had a specific thought about the introduction of Abilities.

I don't know if there's a Forge term for this yet, but the notion of "Evocative" came to mind.

Here's the breakdown:

On a thread about ready to play games (or games for new players...something nearby), someone said that templates are good because it prevents players from getting caught up choosing which skills to use and simply freezing.

Maybe. I think the problem is, confronted with a big skill list, and having no idea why your character matters yet or what one does with the character, you're thinking, "Do I need to be a better Driver? Accountant? What?"

But with TMW, the abilities are not just skills. They are -- like HQ and Pool abilities -- things that define you're character not just in terms of "power" or whatnot -- but also color, individuality and interest. In my thinking, they are Evocative.

Contrast this with the checklist of skills on the average PC sheet. Do I look at the Vampire sheet of skills and go -- "oh, yes. I see my guy!"

But if I say, "Hishiro is baby faced giant, able to discern lies with his simple thinking, use his massive muscles to perform heroic feats, and get aid in knowing which way to travel from a beautiful beetle he found once in the forest" -- I get a Cool Guy I can SEE.

I'd suggest that the Ability section is still written too typical RPG -- dry, mechancal. It's all about function. I think you need to front load the Evocitave nature of abilities first -- because that's what's going to engage the players. (I'd argue its this lack of compelling engagement with the typically skill list that freezes players, not the list iteself.)

Then break out how to use them -- with a bazillion examples -- different skill, with different uses, produces all sorts of permutations of results. It'll eat up page count, but I think it will be really worth it.

Christopher

timfire wrote: Ron, Julie (Tod and Maura if you're out there), if I may ask you guys a question, MW has been credited as a 'pick-up & go' sort of game. Do you guys agree? In all my playtests there has been an issue with the players understanding what the different degrees of success look like, and to a lesser agree how abilities work. (They always get over this after a scene or so, but still.) So do you think it is 'pick-up & go,' or is it deceptively simple?

Thanks!