This is a sort-of continuation of my old thread, The Roleplaying Blues over in the Adept press forum. In that thread I lamented over how a game of Trollbabe had near disastrous results when introduced to a largely Gamist group. We’ve run our second session now, and things have gone much better. I’ve decided to post the outcome here, at it has more to do with the game play and group dynamics than the rules system used.

Oh, I lost a player (for the best) and I keep forgetting which player I named Player 1, Player 2, etc, so I’m just going to use name for here on out. It’s easier.

To recap:
Tony (the old Player 1) is a power-gamer in every sense of the word. He’s frustrating to game with and has ended up breaking nearly every game I have ever seen him in. However, I’m hoping in a more player driven game he’ll be less prone to try to railroad the game.

Player 2 will not be returning. He’s almost morally opposed to narrative, rules-minimalist games. Unless he has gobs of dice, 3 pages of character notes and a concrete setting and system, he’s not interested. And that’s fine.

Ruth (the old Player 3) is also Tony’s fiancée. She virtually his exact opposite in every way. She’s really excited about the concepts put forward in the game so far, and is really the only reason this game is still alive, after numerous stressful moments put forth by Player 2 and Tony.

Aaron (the old Player 4) is usually a very passive gamer. He doesn’t contribute too much in terms of in-character role playing. This game has been something of a breakthrough for him. That alone makes the whole effort worthwhile.

Premise

-The rules set is a slightly modified implementation of Trollbabe. The setting is a fantasy world with Greek and Roman influences. There is a backdrop meta-story in place, but the events that follow will be very player-driven.

I’ve taken the narrative concepts in Trollbabe a bit farther, allowing the players to have a direct hand in narrating scenery and unnamed NPCs pretty much at will. Every once in a while I’ll butt in and toss my 2 cents in. Once the Scene has been established, I pull the focus back in and take up the mantle of the NPCs once again. GMing this way is a dream come true. It is much more relaxed; I’m more a conductor then a director. So far, it has worked very well.

I’ve also bought a stack of Index cards. Every Map location gets a card, with a list of features of the location as they are defined (mostly by the players) during game play. The same goes for landmarks inside cities and people. Basically, every named Noun gets a card. It’s turning into a bit of a relational database, on cards.

For re-rolls in Trollbabe, I created index cards too, that say the type of re-roll allowed. If players gains Relationships, I simply hand them the Person card mentioned above, and it is added to their stack of re-rolls.

Ruth is playing Dione. She is the reincarnation of a dead demigod-type being named Selene who was born a thousand years ago. Selene was the daughter of the god Solace, and brought His message into the world. Selene was murdered by a jealous general in her army, and ever since then Selene has been reborn over and over through Solace’s power.

By tradition the current Incarnation of Selene should be the ruler of the Shining Empire, but she was betrayed and deposed by her high priest, Archbishop Flavius. He faked her death, locked her up and claimed a foreign power (The rival A’Lani nation) stole her soul.

Tony is playing Maximis. This character has undergone many revisions. After much discord, we’ve come up with a character concept for Tony that won’t involve him… being a dick. He seems happy with it, too. Maximis is a slight offshoot from the line of the Incarnations, being the son of a Saint (Saints are defined as children of the union between Solace and Selene. The are akin to Nephilim, beings of great power and destiny. Maximis was not raised in the Shining Empire, so he does not have the normal attitude of a devout worshipper, but his father, Saint Cassius was killed by Archbishop Flavius, so he is helping Dione out of a desire for Revenge.

Aaron is playing Guile. Guile is the son of one of the Kings of the Free Cities, and is completely lacking in subtlety and, well….guile. His father has sent him to rescue Dione and retore her to power, in an attempt to destabilize the Imperial war efforts and keep the A’Lani and the Empire locked in war with each other. Right now, under Flavius, the Empire is winning.

The Game

After much discourse, and me throwing my hands up and giving up twice, the second session went very well.

At first Tony was being very difficult with his character. He developed a series of preconceptions about the other player characters and the setting and would NOT budge from them, deciding that the whole game to be set up as a monumental failure if someone of HIS caliber were to play in it. At least he was honest about his views on the matter. Sheesh. Maximis was originally an NPC, defined as Dione’s childhood friend and personal confidant. The character became, in time, Tony’s character, but Tony interpreted him as Dione’s ‘slave.’ He claimed the only way the character would work is if HE was the real power behind the throne.  I REALLY don’t feel like running a political game, and that violated Ruth’s character’s concept, so I axed that right away.

Finally, we created Maximis version 3.0, giving him his own “Special Powers” and removing him from any preexisting obligations or chain of power or prestige. He seems happy. For now.

(Ever watch a documentary about people living at the base of  a volcano? I always laugh at those people. The fools! They are just asking for trouble. I feel like one of them now.)

The game was set 2 weeks after Guile rescued Dione from her prison and met up with Maximis right outside of a town on the mainland. As the players discussed their next move, they began to define their surroundings. It was hesitant at first (this is a large departure from “traditional” role-playing for them) but they started to get into it. Pretty soon we had a good feel for the town, and a description for the city they chose as a destination.

Note that except for the Temple, all locations in the town were created by the players. I’ve just filled in the named NPCs to help guide the game according to the player’s vision.

This was a key moment in role-playing. Aaron really started getting into describing parts of the town, some back history for the inn, casual NPC actions and little pieces of flavor text. I really haven’t seen him get that invested in a game before.

The action takes place in rotating scenes, cutting to each character in turn.

Maximis ponies up to a bar in the inn and started chatting with a few off duty guardsmen, looking for info on booking passage back to the empire. He is pointed in the direction of the garrison to speak with the Officer in charge.

Dione sneaks out of the farmhose and makes her own way to town. She ends of staring at a girl her age sweeping leaves outside her father’s shop, (Dione has never really been this close to the ‘common folk’ before and ends up accidentally befriending the girl and gets invited to a secret barn party that night. THAT is going to be a good scene. I can tell already.

Guile ends up accosting a drunken guard in the outhouse behind the inn, bulling the SAME info out of him that Maximis just got. Guile ends up killing him and stuffing him down the latrine. (Just because Aaron’s role-playing is improving, doesn’t mean his judgment is)

Maximis goes to the garrison and speaks with Officer Caius. He learns that passage to the empire is exorbitant, and he needs to raise a great deal of coin. Caius mentions Officer Markus in a town to the north is looking for freeswords, and has a number of bounties posted. The local Bishop also is also looking for work, and while he can’t offer much coin, he might be able to write off passage for the group. Maximis heads to the Temple to speak with the Bishop.

Meanwhile, Dione heads back to the farmhouse and attempts to tie up her hair in a scarf. Her long blond hair stands out in this part of the world, and her forehead is marked with the Mark of Solace, so she is trying to “blend in” for the party. After a few attempts of utter frustration, she managed to tie herself up in a laughable turban.

Guile shows up at the farmhouse, wondering aloud what Dione is doing. She scowls at him. I suggest to Aaron that maybe his people sometimes wear head-scarves, and maybe he could help her. It could be a bonding moment between two emotionally distant characters. He shrugs. “Nah”

The young girl from the store shows up, and offers to help Dione prepare herself for the barn party. Dione accepts (Dione is still a bit confused by all this direct social interaction with commoners, but she’s socially starved). Dione leaves, telling no one where she is going, or when she will be back.

In the end, a very good session. I had fun, the story is developing nicely, and after some initial bumps, the players seemed to have had a good time.

Oops! I forgot to put in the reason I was sharing this game with you. This is the first truely narrative style game I have ran. My group was very hesitant and a bit hostile to the idea. After actally running the game, it worked VERY well. My main point of of conversation (and a personal point of pride) Was how well opening up traditional GM resposibilites worked in this group. Sinse the rules have no real stats or attributes, and players were encouraged to define their surroundings, it really opened up the group to a new roleplaying experience.

All in all, I think it was a breakthrough.

Glad to hear it went well for you, especially after having so much trouble with the first session. (I think that kind of adjustment is common, and as you can see, the effort is paying off.) Congratulations on getting Aaron  to buy in and contribute more.

I like the index cards idea; I'm going to try that.