"Hey, is that a green thing, a tree, David Bowie?" - Wino from the liquor store.

Here's my Pre-First-Meeting prep for my TSOY game: Khalien Moons.

Taking the scenario "The Enchanted Pool" From Sorcerer's Soul.

Replacing "The Village" with "The Forest" and "The Forest" with "The Green World".

Casting NPCs as being played by Glam-Rockers(David Bowie makes an obvious Goblin-King, Iggy Pop ala his role on Pete&Pete replacing Nikolas's place.). Also: Rasputina will show up because I dig them and I'm assuming all Khale music resembles Sparklehorse.

House Nolken is an influential Khale tribe which holds several other under its sway, the other Houses are replaced by whatever important groups the players hand me. I'd like to influence people towarsd setting up the houses on those big setting-conflicts(New tradition versus old or the infighting/war with Ameni.)

----------------------------

I want to emphasize activities which are normally considered Taboo in games that I've played, those being, Time-travelling and Gettin' It On.

The two elements taken from the setting and the situation respectfully that would be most relevant would be Moon-Metal, which turns people into non-time-travelling cyborgs, and The Curse, which gives everyone in this region an Anti-boner. I figure I'd combine the two by stating that people currently in the past can have sex, and in the future, most of the region is wiped out and The Curse is spreading throughout Khale.

So we have the current situation, in which there's lots of pain and dark secrets, most of which are based around the past, and the fact that going through the Green World is the only place where you can get tail, and I think that the game will very easily have a strong time-travelling mojo.

---------

Is there anything else I should immediately attend to?

You should attend to playing this, because, holy crap, it's awesome.

I think you're on a roll here, and I look forward to seeing what happens in your game.

Thank you for the compliements.

I'm quite commited to have the first session be on next Friday. Will make sure to keep you up to date on it.

Some additional prep:

I can't think of anything from TSOY that mirrors the actions of The Black Pool. I'm thinking of it being its own magical widgit, an enchanted piece of nature which acts to bring fertililty to all of the region.

Goblin King: He's the Elf leader of a powerfull Spriggan tribe, desiring loyalty from the local Goblins and is willing to make with some kick-ass drugs and hookers for it.

Wicketschulke: Replaced by three skinny, disturbingly tall and meloncholy elf girls dressed in long dark nightgrowns that seem out of place every where they go. Have been pretty much always there at any point of history. Like the fact that nobody trusts them. Allied to the Goblin King because they don't really know anybody else. Like to pass notes throughout time. They're pretty good at the Cello.

Matz and Vulp: One nice and one chaotic Goblin, usually pushed around by the creepy elf chicks. After a mean fight with a wizard they get turned into a Violater and an ur-goblin respectively.

The character generation went mostly well, except for one player that was alternatively A)Drunk B)Irreverent or C)Asleep, but I don't think I'll continue to have that problem.

So for the other two players, I got pretty good character concepts if not a whole lot of interactivity and idea-borrowing. We also established the biggest priorities in the game to be: A) Lots of stuff happeneing B) The game being "about" something.

Chris M, my brother, is playing this Bard who's all against the traditions, and wants to end this feud between a Ratkin and a human Tribe. He's like a punk rock fiddler.

Eeyore!(DaGReatJL) is playing a violent lil' Ratkin, who's really big into both his tribe -and- his family, and considers them both synonomous, which may have conflict coming for in the future. The Curse is making his tribe all riled up, and subsequently starting a feud between it and the Hawkwind Tribe. Both Rodin, the Hawkwind's tribe's chief and Eeyore's character are questing to find King Caid in order to remove The Curse, only Rodin is much more intereasted in finding Caid, his father.

Eeyore's character's mother is Africa, a kind but somewhat grim Ratkin, the leader of his tribe is Keaghan, a shifty old Maldoian rat who migrated here, and one of his little brothers is Gwawl, a small boy who's ostracized from the tribe opun account of lack of a competetive spirit and the fact that he's a bat.

We're thinking of starting the actual play 'round thursday or so.

sirogit wrote: He's like a punk rock fiddler.

Thanks. The game is being rescheduled to Mondays. I don't want to ruin anything, but I suspect that it will be more kick-ass than you and I could possibly imagine.

Here's some sort of the created stuf for the game, specificly my brother's Fiddler:
Key of Fame
1xp for Acting to become more famous
2xp for Being inconvienced or harmed because of your fame.
5xp for Becoming more famous
Buyoff: Go into hiding

Perfect Chord, Anger
With a Resist check against Music ability, drive everyone into anger with no paticular target. Costs 1 Vigor

I understand what time travel is, but what is "Gettin' It On"?

Victor Gijsbers wrote: I understand what time travel is, but what is "Gettin' It On"?

At long last, got to the Actual Play.

First off, I want to give huge thanks to Andy Kitowski for his character sheet which the players were adamant about making use of.

One of the players(Chris H) couldn't make it. I understand his problem and don't assume him being able to come next week, but if he can, I will try to budget him in.

The other players were perfectly willing to without 'em, and the game was cool none the less. Eeyore! wanted to change his character a little bit, making him "The only cyborg(Moon-hearted)to travel back in time... and he doesn't know how." This made me think of twelve monkeys which immediately wanted me to put it in my game.

Chris M was playing Carlin, the punk rock fiddler, and Eeyore! was playing Nurf, the scrappy Ratkin.

We were playing with two Houserules, being, after a lunar forging you can switch around bonuses on Moonmetal weapons/armor just like Body Weaponry, and 2, damage dealing in combat is handled as each side taking damage equal to the other's SL. We're still not sure if thats how it is supposed to work, or if you're supposed to be damaged by the margin of success, but this way works for the moment.

------------------------

Carlin has been getting weird notes this last few weeks in incredibly bad hand-writing "You smell good. You have nice hair. You play really good songs. Carlin is traveling with some of the more annoying members of the Hawkwind tribe, a couple soldiers and another bard, when they stumble upon Ratkin beating the shit out of each other, for real with blood stains and hamburger faces.

The members of the Hawkwind tribe started insulting the Ratkin tribe, which leads to them sneering, returning the insults and escalating the tension. After awhile Nurf, who was nearby, jumps in between those Ratkin and the Hawkwind members, and tells them that they are only brave because they're 3-on-1, and if it was 2-on-1 they'd have their assess totally kicked. Nurf managed to guilt them into walking away, but the two beat-up Ratkin started a charge against the human's backs, leading Nurf to clothesline both of them and tell them what for.

Carlin went along with those Hawkwind guys for awhile, until he was distracted by a young woman trying to catch his attention. She tells him that he noticed him try to help the Ratkin, and wants to ask him a favor to escort her while she hides from her overprotective father, and some goblins that are being pretty creepy towards her and trying to get her to meet The Goblin King. Carlin agrees to help her, and just then, out of the bush trips a goblin, who stays very still, kind of sadly, and stares at Carlin with big, white, walnut sized eyes.

This has caused Anywn to haul ass, and Carlin goes with her to try and talk some sense to her. The goblin makes a sad, doggish snarfing noise as Carlin leaves.

Back to Nurf, he's talking to these Ratkin who've calmed down andsaid they got caught up in the Lust Festival and must return to it. Nurf goes with them to check it out. Lust Festival is kind of a normal thing for this Ratkin tribe, in which they fight over who will win some hot Ratkin chicks, nothing too ceremonious, its just like bobbing for apples. Except they have no intereast in hot Ratkin chicks because of the curse and therefore are driven into a bloody rage from the intense sexual frustration, thereby leading them to beating each other up so bad.

Nurf talks to Africa, the most responsible Ratkin mother, who feels unable to really do much about the festival getting out of hand. Nurf notices two Ratkin beating up a smaller Ratkin trying to escape them, who turns out to be Gwawl. This pisses off Nurf who tells Africa "There's only one way to settle this". And than proceeds to use Lunar Forging to shift his armor into vicious spikes on his body, becoming both Shredder and Splinter in the process. He kicks the tails of the two Ratkin, easily gaining Gwawl's overflowing affection, and when he tells the crowd that this festival is meaningless and they should be applying themselves at the removal of The Curse, also wins overs the poor neglected Ratkin hot mamas.

His speech goes on to say to say "Don't waste your energy fighting each other, look to your problems outside. If not than you should take it up with me."(He does have Bloodlust, afteral.)His invitation is ansewered by Worwith, a big, badgery brute of a Ratkin who wants the festival to go on and says he can wipe the floor with Nurf, and well, it's on.

Back to Carlin, he's walked with Anywyn for awhile, asking her what she wants exactly. She says that she was visisted by 3 sisters, and they told her that to find her parents, she'd have to find a bat, and that she's almost tracked him down. Carlin's weirded out but agrees to let this play out. He follows her to the Ratkin festival which has now stopped fighting to put all of his attention on Nurf and Worwith's battle. Nurf has just gotten a real mean spiked-headbutt to Worwith's face, but Worwith still isn't slowing down despite his blood loss.

Just now Anywn wants to take Carlin's attention to go see Gwawl, but he ignores her in order to give a little song in support of Nurf, the obvious good-guy to the towering Nurf. At this time Nurf tries to run between Worwith's legs to humiliate him, which is assisted by Carlin strumming a note. Worwith is now completely beaten and Nurf takes this moment to stand on top of Worwith and tell the cheering crowd to stop the damn cheering and get sensible. To which the crowd says "YAYYYY!!!!! WE'RE MISSING THE POINT!" Nurf storms off to talk to the chief, Keaghan.

After Nurf left, the Ratkin mob started to disperse, but the bard that was traveling with Carlin earlier returned, drunk as hell, and started picking a fight with the 20 or so pissed off Ratkin. Carlin tried to stop the bard from talking too much, but failing that, tried out a new Perfect Chord of his to remove the crowd - Perfect Chord of Fear, with an eerie song about the ghoul that wakes up when people kill a bard. It managed to scare away the violent crowd, as well as the drunk bard.

Removed of temporarily peril, Carlin decides to A) Cancel the song he was supposed to play for the Hawkwind tribe, B) Check out the Festival before it really starts with Anywn. Not much going on since its such a social fauz paus to do anything before the night of the Festival, but one person is front of where Carlin was supposed to play - That leaned over, big eyed Goblin, who has the most blissfull, hopefull look on her face. Behind her is a bunch of poorly written notes. "I saw you today and was happy. Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god." Carlin sneaks past her after trying to calm down Anywn.

Nurf goes to see Keaghan to tell him that whole fight. Keaghan expresses his desire to end this curse as soon as possible, and gives Nurf a rare gift - The key of Time, which if anything they know of, should empower Nurf to travel through time. Nurf expresses his gratitude and walks out.

At this time, Carlin professes his desire to help Anywyn find her parents, Anywyn informs Carlin of her plan - get the key from Nurf, which she needs to go find her parents. Carlin is unsure about that part but lets the girl go for now. He's got a show he has to put on, and he should of been practicing now.

Carlin finds his band with their equipment smashed, arrowed, and bitten, and several of the members vomiting blood and falling over. The sassy bass player tells Carlin that they were waylaid by goblins who were looking for a girl while Carlin ws "Prancin' around.", and they have no idea how they're gonna keep the gig. Carlin patches uppeople as best he can(Not very well), and plays his other Perfect Chord, Anger, to rile them up to play their gig anyway.

At the performance, Rodin has already put in a bard to play the song since Carlin was flaking, but Carlin demands that he play here. He easily wins a song-off with the other bard, but it angered him itno getting the attention of a few guards to put an end of this. Carlin was feeling pretty low at this point, so he requested some drugs from the audience before going on his solo, which turned into a wild spout against the guards and their repression fo the people before passing out. He saw the beginings of a riot before blacking out. When he came to, there was one audience member left, the big eyed Goblin. She started to clap uproarisly seeing him stand up, to which Carlin gives a salute.

Meanwhile, Nurf is met on the road by Chief Rodin, who wants to congradulate him on calming those Ratkin, and asks him to not continue to ask King Khale for a quest at the festival, as Rodin thinks that it would be better left to him alone, and doesn't want to insult King Khale with the visit of a "Metal-tainted rat." Nurf replies with an absoloutely stunning speech, that "He's from a future in which no one is alive from The Curse, because -you- went on the quest alone and -failed-!" leavig Rodin and his party utterly speechless.

-----------------------------

The game overall went swimmingly, if not -quite- as great as I expected. There were some difficulties in Chris M wanting to set up scenes, and me not quite setting them up how he wanted, but we seemed to reach a good understanding. I think Eeyore! was really involved with his character, while Chris M. was less so, but having a pretty good time.

Chris seemed to be a little unnerved when some of our miscommunications showed up, like when he asked me how to refill Vigor during the song number at the end, and said "Drugs, revelry, Food, Sex, everything that is perfectly reasonable to do on stage for you.". In which case he got the drugs, but than turned around and said "Vigor? I meant Instinct." "Oh. You refill that a different way. Excersize." "Oh. Well I wanted Instinct." "Well, that can happen soon, and you got your Vigor refilled, plus I'm giving you a bonus die for being wild and crazy from the drugs you're taking."

I think that Chris prefers to see his plans work out from Plan A > Predicted benefit, rather than me who likes to see plans twist and new benefits and complications roll in. I will try to talk to him and accomadate him more in the future.

TThe suggestions from the players towards making the game better would be "A) More of that big eyed Goblin, B) More NPCs played by Glamrockers(I unfortunately couldn't get to any of them.), C) GEt another player, knows that he's pretty receptive since the D&D game he's playing in is falling apart. All of which I think I will accomplish pretty well.

Thank yous to everyone for their posts to this thread and I hope to hear more comments.

Second session went a lot rockier than I imagined and admitively dissapointing, but it seems like it'll open up the way to some pretty intereasting stuff down the road:

We're still lacking a third player which I'd really like to have, one that is becoming increasingly hard to find. There's a very uneven sort of social dynamic at play which is usually helped with another, more average player.

Basic stuff going: Chris basicly dealt with a lot of weird consequents of his previous actions in the last session, which while amusing all of us, left him rather confused and unready for much really good contribuitions, as he prefers stuff that more forethought and certainty can be applied to. I think my lesson is to tone down the reactive NPCs for him at the moment, turn down my "Performance Artist" tendencies for the moment and make sure he has a firm grasp of the reigns next session.

Eeyore!'s was attending mostly to setting up the the big scene at the Centinial Festival, which had a lot of problems and potential.

The biggest problem arised when Eeyore! got the idea that there is special intention ability when you Bring Down the Pain, and therefore, set up a scene wherin he wanted Anwyn to try to steal the key from his character so he'd win and could declare his inetntion to be "Activate the key". Strike 1. He also was very, very determined on this pre-set conclusion and actively opposed to the -possibility- of failure. Strike 2. Finally, Chris wanted to get involved on Anwyn's side, and Eeyore! totally wanted to talk him out of it for the aforementioned reasons. Strike 3.

I realize that a minor cause of his behavior was A) My request that some effort be put into time-travelin' this session, so that hopefully when wwe get a new player he can be from a different time period getting a cool Chrono Trigger vibe. B) My somewhat relaxed use of IIEE in all resoloution that will assuredly be more fixed in the future C) The lack of emphasis on my part both that I think adversity/uncertain outcomes are really cool, and that I tend to have a policy that failure means that you save up that cool idea you had this session, tweak it abit and go at it with a bit more gusto later on.

I tried to steer the game into some discussion about how that wasn't jiving with my intentions with the game, but it was very difficult to manage the discussion in the middle of things so we settled them first.

What we have is a what was potentially kickass scene turned into a rather nervous trial due to miscommunication and lack of trust that stems from as much a few GM issues I have to work out as some of Eeyore!'s odd bugaboos.

After that scene however, Eeyore! started on a powerhouse of narration on more backstory for his character and what the key does, which we were all very impressed with. I was glad that the session ended on a sweet note.

I did my usual survey thing, which picked up some usefull criticism:
1) I dropped the ball on the featuring Glam Rockers thing again. Which is really sad because I just forgot to decsribe one as such.
2) Chris being awfully confused, because of so much happening in the story and than suddenly a big thematical divide between me and Eeyore!

I was starting to lose a bit of hope because of how things turned out, but several factors renewed my fervor for the game:

It got so big, with so many NPCs and plots created on the spot added to the complexities of different time periods for them that it becomes impossible to plan much of anything for them as a GM, but it really opened the floor for player input with a tight but expansive tapestry. This means I'm getting a whole lot more of something I really wanted, player-provided content. I got together with 'em sometime and they hatched out some really beutifull ideas:

Chris:
- Wants to go back in time, claiming at once to be some sort of personified forest-spirit to avoid time-identity issues, but than do a whole moon-prophet-with-a-message-of-peace thing, to stop the whole Ratkin-Hawkwind feud thing before it starts.

- Wants this prophet to become the cornerstone of a religion in the future, which unquestionably, fucks it all up. Insane post-acoplyptic cults ahoy.

- Get into a majorly messy love-pentagon-thing with Anywyn, some members of which are goblins.

- Bizzarre reflections on when his rival used to have a soul and how he loses his in the future.

Eeyore!:
- Wants of course, to be hit on by his mom in the past.

- A conflict to keep his parents alive.

- Meeting his dad, Keaghan, before he was the shifty tribe leader and was just the even shiftier foriegner.

- Something in the present that was caused by him being in the past without knowing it.

From my reading of the rules, you can change your intention during BDTP. Is this what the player was trying to do? You can change your intention, but have to defend for one round before you can do anything towards the new intention. The rules also state that if you are shaken or broken you can change intentions immediately without defeding for a round. How did the player interpret these rules?

Roger Eberhart wrote: From my reading of the rules, you can change your intention during BDTP. Is this what the player was trying to do? You can change your intention, but have to defend for one round before you can do anything towards the new intention. The rules also state that if you are shaken or broken you can change intentions immediately without defeding for a round. How did the player interpret these rules?

This session went pretty well.

My standard third player, Chris H, has recovered from some personal drama and joined in on the play. I think his presence made for a much nicer group dynamic.

He created a character pretty quickly: Maqa, the supposed-incarnation of a death/life goddess from a Qek tribe. She's a really cute but irresponsible 18-year old. She's got a vision of a disturbance of life within this region of Khale and has henceforth traveled to try to create an uprising to stop it(This is all in the now for her, but for the other two characters its fifteen years ago.)

She's got a lot of annoying suitors, but one in paticular, Bowdyn, is so recklessly in love with her that she's taken it on herself to see he doesn't kill himself, leading to a Key of the Guardian.

I made up a Key and a Secret for her:
Key of the Cycle of Life
1xp Assure oneself or others that Death is natural and nessecary.
2xp For taking or preserving human life.
5xp For taking or preserving human life when it is paticularly deserved or
needed.
Buyoff: Resist taking or preserving life when it is called for.

Secret of Death-Sense
The character has an innate ability to observe forces of life and death. Get a bonus die for using their special awareness in combat or other endeavors. Use Discern Truth to observe forces of life and death, with a penalty die for small forces like the death of a battalion, and 2 penalty dice in cases of individual deaths/lives.

There was a lot of scoffing when I suggested he consider buying Kayaking or Gem-cutting. Wait till Mr.big bad finds an inlet to escape to.

I emplyed two uses of Democracy in scene framing for this game. One I thought was pretty cool, when we ere trying to decide where Chris H's character should start off. Chris M said three words: In a cage. The debate was over.

The other time was when I asked who I should skip to in framing, and since Chris H and Eeyore were in the same scene and it was rather immediate, they requested more spotlight time. It was rather unfortunate because I know that Chris M needs abit more momentum usually and could of used some this session. I figure I'll hand him some major spotlight time next session.

There was a lot of chatter back and forth during this game as we were getting Chris H up to speed and improvising some neat bits for his character. Due to the fact that the character generation portion of the session took up a sizable amount of the time and we only had one somewhat unfocused hour to play, not a whole lot happened, something I am not really concerned about as I don't think the circumstances will repeat.

The outline of what happened is: Knurf stumbles through the Green World to fifteen years ago, at which he promptly collapses, and hazily sees a figure take the Key of Time out of his armor. He roams around before spotting a mobile prison of some sort made up of cages(Enter Maqa) moved along by soldiers and elks. Because Hawkwind's behind it he assumes that he should be opposing it, and soon unlocks the cages by jamming a spear into the lock, causing mas chaos as people spill out and the soldiers try to catch the escapees/Knurf. Knurf tries to get the escapees together to forge an attack, but they become scattered by the soldiers.

Fifteen years in the future, Carlin is wondering with Anwyn and Gwawl, when the trio are beset by those creepy Wicket sisters(Here I played a sample of Rasputina's "Tourniquet" as an example of their kind of music, a move that was pretty well receievd and will probably be repeated.)
Due to some bad rolls on Carlin's part he's ushered out of their conversation with Anywyn and hit by a Perect Chord of Sorrow while they talk to her.

Anwyn's abit shaken by their request, to go see the Goblin King, and he's unsure of any advice to give her. they have an arguement which results in Carlin improvising an insulting ballad about her, which escalates into fists and Anywyn running off into the night, with Carlin going after her. After a failed roll and a night on that road, Carlin wakes up to Anywyn's dad, Kelvin(played by Iggy Pop), looming over him with a mean Moon-metal weapon and a vengeance for his daughter, the one that Carlin swore to protect from Kelvin.

My immediate concerns for the next session are: Chris H has bought off key of the guardian with Anywyn and wants to get Key of Love with her. Sounds awesome. Depending on how this goes he might have to take Unrequited love.

I think I want to take some care on how to treat the conflict with the Soldiers and Eeyore!.
A) They're really tough sons of bitchs, having good training, weapons, armor and numbers. I'd want to makre sure Eeyore! knows that'd it be a really tough fight, and this is something hsi character would be very hard pressed to win straight on.
B) I figure their first action would be to intimidate/question him on his motives, since I figured it would be cool to bring it to focus. Here's a thought through my head; If they're successfull with a Sway roll, can they force an action on a PC? Normally I'd say no, but it hit me that the BdtP rules work very well for a system to resist losing control of a PC if it really mattered. Could I get some thoughts on this one?

I'll post again soon with my "Key scenes" for the next session.

Carlin's Key Scenes:

A) This is a little tricky. I have in my mind kind of an "exploding" scene, where in which new people are added to it and further complicate the situation. This would take place in either indscriminite "Turns" among the narrative or within the rounds of a BdtP situation if it occurs:

1) A last game ended, with Ophelia jumping to headbutt Anwyn's father, screaming "He's mine!"

2) Anywn jumps out of somewhere, and says rather emotionially "Is this it!?!" to Carlin, probably wants to moderate the fight between her father and Carlin at that point.

3) Gull'll run into the scene, and try to get Ophelia to come with him to protect the Pool. Upon hearing mention of the "pool", Anywyn'll freak, and Kelvin'll try to descredit the little weirdos.

4) Morgan'll come out to try to control Ophelia and Gull with their addictions(Hard liquor and weird shoes, respectively.)

This seems like an awful lot of stuff to happen for just 3 xp. I'm thinking of giving 3 xp for the scene in general, and 1 xp for every additional character that jumps out before the scene is over.

B) The Hawkwind dudes are mad at him, and want him to play back-up to his rival as an apoligy for the concert he crashed.(2 Xp)

C) His rival issues a challenge: Any sort of musical competetion that Carlin can win. Loser can no longer be a bard of Hawkwind. (3 XP)

Knurf:

A) The soldiers he's fighting with try to make a plead to grant him safety if they can keep the female Ratkin(3 xp)

B) Gwawl starts convulsing in pain, glowing white and changing form, probably while something else important is happening(2 xp)

C) Africa says there's something weird up with her suitor, Keaghan. Is considering not pairing off with him, and expresses intereast in Knurf. This oughtta effect Knurf, because they're his parents.(2 xp)

D) Keaghan's shacking up with a mysterious human woman(2 xp)

E) Another run in with the guy-in-black, probably after another murder. who asks him to make sure nothing bad happens to Rodin and Caid(1 xp)

F) Rodin's kidnapped son, Jon, makes a plead for help from him(2 xp)

Maqa:

A) The whole situation with her and the soldiers(3 xp)

B) Something Chris M. Plans to do her that I am rather unaware of.(1-3xp)

Obviously I really don't have enough slotted for Maqa, due to the fact I haven't got a really good feel for her yet, but hopefully that will be resolved in the future.

Ran again last monday. It went very well, which I'd contribuite to the

A) Having three people, which happily seems like it'll be a habit.
B) Not having to wedge character creation in there.

Chris M, Carlin's player, didn't really fly off of his key scenes as much as I'd hope, wanting so many breaks to consider his actions that I didn't get to spotlight his character nearly as much as I wanted to. It doesn't look like a major problem, I figure if I keep trying to put the spotlight on him that it ends up evenly divided between the players.

I sadly didn't really develop Chris H's key scenes much at all. It worked out pretty well this session due to his intereast in helping Eeyore!'s character get his shit together, but I'd like to give him a few more personal issues.

The first half of the session was pretty much spent on the guard situation, which took long to be resolved for several reasons, all of which are deeply interconnected:

A) Lack of bringing Down the Pain by players. Partly because it wasn't on people's minds, partly because I didn't state the guard's intention's aggressively enough.

B) Lack of aggressive intention stating by guards. I was avoiding saying "Their intention is to quell this rebellion." or "Incapitacitate Knurf", in favor of things like "Intimidate you.", "Surround you", or "Stick Knurf to the ground with spears.". Because the players argued resolving most of those problems with uncontested ability checks, they didn't have much effect.

C) Lack of offensive action from the guards. There was some confusion on how to handle time-sensitive actions outside of BDTP: After a player's action which failed, I'd want to drive the conflict towards conclusion with something like "The guard's get stabby." and the player'd be like "I want to do this other action first.", and I didn't want to start an arguement without knowing a solid rules soloution so I let them, which led to the scene going longer without getting any consequences.

D) Chris H wanting to haggle for ability applicability on an uphill battle several times.

E) Eeyore! trying to casually break the rules "That didn't do anything? Than I'll take my gift dice back", and myself reminding him thats a bad diea.

F) The number of stakes involved: Who's being freed, what's Africa, Gwawl, or Bowdyn doing, leading to me trying to guide a lot of rolls towards these situations. Players arguing about the posistions of the various NPCs in favor of putting themselves in favorable posistions.

G) Player's squirreliness towards things not going their way; Whenever an opponent succeeded Eeyore! acted incredolous and wanted a breakdown of how I achieved their success level, which resulted in taking more time. Whenever a rule seemed to go against what Eeyore! wanted to do, he demanded it be looked up, which took more time. This generally influenced me to go into "Balance pressure and impeding risk with player's comfort-level", which as well as being a drag, makes things go on longer.

---------------------

After all that, its a wonder the session turned out so well at the second half, but it was mostly due to some very nice progressions of events towards the ends, which turned into some very cliffhangers.

Knurf's mom Africa has the hots for Knurf in the past > She's being courted by Keaghan, Knurf's father, who wants to be "married" in order to establish a tribe of Ratkin in Khale, but Africa distrusts him and suspects something is up > Gwawl has some sort of serious mystical problem > Knurf goes to spy on Keaghan, and finds out that Keaghan's making the same kind of proposal he made to Africa to a human woman whom he already has a child with, whom he changed into a bat(Gwawl) in order to avoid suspicision towards its parentage.

Anwyn finally met those goblins wanting to take her to the goblin king, but was willing now that she was tempted with clues towards "The Pool of dreams", some sort of obsession of hers, and wanting to get away from Carlin after their fight > Carlin goes into the green world to try to re-take the key of time for Anwyn, wants to find a guide from folklore to assisst him in traversing time, and it turns out that guide is The Wikcet Sisters, who instigated the fight between him and Anwyn in the first place.