On Friday night, Tom came over and we decided to give Falling Leaves a go.  TheTris is a friend and ever since he’d explained the game to me, I kept thinking about it and saw some good potential.  Anyway, to cut a long story short, Tom played one character, and I GM’d, setting the scenes.

We’re both fairly keen L5R players (I run the L5R LARP he plays in and have run the RPG for over 6 years).  With that in mind, we used that generic setting.  All you need to know is that Tom is playing a member of the Lion clan, and the Crane clan are ancestral enemies, excellent duellists and courtiers.

[center]– Akodo Akira –
Played by Tom[/center]

[center]"I fear that I will never find my place"[/center]

Scene 1:
Akodo Akira is charged with taking news of Matsu’s promotion to him, even though Matsu is less competent than him.

- He chooses to do his duty.

By doing so, Matsu achieves his potential, but fails to protect their daimyo, who dies.

Scene 2:
On the death of their daimyo, Matsu becomes daimyo.  In the war against the Crane that follows, Matsu orders an all-out assault against the Crane city, which will kill most of their men.

- Akodo Akira does not do his duty.

Instead, he challenges the Crane leader to a duel, which he wins.  By doing so, the peace will last 7 years, his actions will be appraised by a respected samurai (see further below), and he marries a beautiful Crane wife.

[center]"I fear that my wife hides the truth"[/center]

Scene 3:
Matsu sends Akodo Akira to negotiate in Crane lands.  His pregnant wife will be left behind, and she begs him to return.

- He rejects her pleas, her claim to attempt suicide, and chooses to do his duty.

By doing so, his son will not resent him, his wife has ulterior motives, his wife dies and he is appointed ambassador to the court of a significant Crane daimyo.

Scene 4:
At the Crane court where he is negotiating, Akodo Akira is approached by someone who claims that he will reveal his wife’s motives, but that he will need to leave the negotiations.

- Deciding that this is more important, and having received certain assurances, Akodo Akira does not do his duty.

By doing so, not only does he learn his wife’s ulterior motives, but also why she was killed.  He will be able to avenge her, and cover is arranged so that his absence from the negotiations goes unnoticed.  However, he will never be promoted.

He discovers that his wife wished him recalled to save his daimyo’s honour.  War with the Crane is inevitable, and by recalling him then, it would have been Akodo Akira’s shame, not his daimyo’s.

[center]"I regret that my wife died although her intentions were honourable."[/center]

Scene 5:
War with the Crane is about to commence.  Akodo Akira is sent to negotiate with the Crane.  The Crane he negotiates with was the one that ordered his wife’s death.  The choice is whether to negotiate or duel him now.  Although he would be able to duel the Crane later, his belief in avenging his wife is strong, and he does not do his duty.

- He fails to accomplish all that he sought [failed dice roll], and instead, the best and the worst of both happens.

Akodo Akira kills the Crane.  His wife’s spirit is avenged and she can move on.  However, his left hand is permanently ruined when he escapes the Crane palace.  In the ensuing war, Matsu, his daimyo, is killed and replaced by someone competent, Ikoma.  The Lion lose the war, and his son, who will become the perfect samurai, is a Crane hostage.

[center]"I desire for my son to know me.”[/center]

Scene 6:
The end of his life as a samurai approaches.  Although he has served Ikoma, his new daimyo, well, he has never been promoted.  His daimyo orders him to retire to a monastery.  However, if he does not, he will meet his son before the end.

- He chooses to defy his lord, but would not have accomplished what he hoped [failed dice roll] were it not for the fact that he pays with his life.

Akodo Akira meets his son, although his son does not know him.  He sees all that his son has become, and teaches him his duelling techniques, which is son is more capable of, having both his hands.  He goes on to teach others until he dies in a duel against a student.  Although his son never learns his father’s identity, he appraises the life of Akodo Akira [ref Scene 2].  In time, his son learns the full story of his mother’s exploits.
[center]
Thus ends the life of Akodo Akira.[/center]

[center]~O~[/center]

Well, it proved to be a most interesting game, and we both got into it quite quickly.  Tom had no problem with the way the system worked, and it was very interesting to see what we could develop off all the various leads that were generated.

When coming up with the various breaths, not having them recorded somewhere meant it sometimes took us a few moments to remember what each consequence was.  However, had we written them all down, it would have taken way too long.

Playing this game effectively with a GM and just 1 character worked quite well, if a little differently than it might otherwise have done.  It meant that we were able to concentrate on just one story, keeping the flow going without respite.  On the other hand, not having a second character meant that we had a single self-contained story, rather than having this character’s tale set against the backdrop of a larger story.

Rolling every time he chose to do something other than his Duty worked well.  Speaking with TheTris, he only envisaged rolling if there was a significant “challenge”.  However, I was very keen on always rolling, and felt that it worked much better.  Not only does it mean that there are always risks, but that there is no dispute about what does or does not constitute a challenge.

The one failed dice roll allowed me to pick bits from both sets of consequences, mixing and matching to get a more interesting and mixed result.  Tom would sometimes pick to go against Duty, just to get a better story or because one or two consequences were particularly intriguing.

Whilst there was no “hit by a train” type expressions from Tom, the decisions got much harder as the game progressed.  Tom didn’t go easy on himself, often adding in consequences on both sides that were rather difficult or unpleasant.

As seems usual, the first scene takes a little while to get into, as a new player gets to grips with the game and you both try to get a feel for the character.  By the second scene, we were ticking over nicely.  By the time we reached scene 6, we had decided that it would be the last one in Akodo Akira’s life, and it meant that we could look to rounding out his character.

Tom commented that giving the scene setter both first and seventh breath was powerful, but worked very well.  It allows them to control the scene and also turn options round.  The seventh breath is the great one, allowing you to completely change matters without allowing any “escape” for the character.

It requires a fair bit of trust between the two players to not mess up the character with something inappropriate, and it is important that both players have reached an agreement about the type of game they are playing.  In our case, we really wanted to keep it “small scale”, and not turn it into an empire-wide crisis.  We wanted something that would not have a major impact on the rest of the “world”, whilst still telling an important yet personal tale.

Tom did also point out that it would have been pretty difficult for his character to go on for many more scenes, given the number of dice he would be rolling to oppose his duty.

I can’t really see being able to have very extended “campaigns” of Falling Leaves with the same characters, but there’s several things I’m interested in trying.

First, I’d want to play three generations (say grandfather, father, son), with each new generation basing their FDR (Fear/Desire/Regret) on the life of their ancestor.  I reckon that the layers this could produce would be amazing, especially as each life could be viewed in so many different ways, with very varied reactions to it.

Second, I’d use it to aid with character generation for other games (in my case L5R, but you could apply it to many other systems and genres, be it Vampire: the Masquerade, Ars Magica or Pendragon).  Rather than playing your character, I’d suggest playing between 1 and 3 of your ancestors (see my suggestion above).  This would give you several things: a story-rich ancestry and a grasp of the setting.

Whether a GM would pair off their gamers to do this, or run through this with them one-to-one is up to you.  Everyone together, possibly with GM moderation could be amazing, as everyone can interlink some ancestor or other (“Didn’t our grandfathers fight side by side at the Battle for the Landbridge?”) or set up potential rivalries and “kharmic ties” (souls that knew one another in a past life).

Good job, TheTris.  I think it’s pretty much there.

Thanks for posting this Mark!

One thing I really liked was the awesome result of the foreshadowing in the first scene.  When I read that his son never knew his father, but was the important samurai who appraised his actions...wow.

Unless someone else has a compelling argument against this, then rolling whenever you choose not to do your duty the new official rule.  This means more interesting failure, as well as being more thematically sound (it doesn't matter what you are trying to accomplish, the burden of your past deeds weighs just as heavily - there is no reason that slaying an opponent is harder than writing a poem).  It does also, as Mark says, prevent any ambiguity about whether a certain task requires a roll or not.

There are a couple of ideas Mark has come up with that I'd like to talk about:

Firstly the "GM/Player" style of play - obviously you can still create a pretty cool story playing like this, without the one character for each player that's written in the rules.  You do miss out on the intertwined stories that I've found emerge when you all have a character, but it still works well, I think.  Mark - did you feel you missed out on anything as a player by not having a character in the game?

I think Mark's right that extended campaigns with one character aren't likely to work.  If anyone who's played the game has an example of how wrong I am, I would love to hear it.  I don't think it needs a campaign mode.  I can see how playing three generations of Samurai over three sessions would be cool, but three sessions is hardly a campaign :-)

Using it to generate background and ancestors for other RPGs also seems pretty cool, I want to play Falling Leaves with a few people, and have our more traditional table-top characters have ancestors who were all part of some history, and who we can each see as characters we cared about.  I'm not sure it works so well for other genres though.  My girlfriend and I played a pretty heartbreaking tale of Indian girls growing up in London, and although the story was cool, The "Seven Breaths" "Empty Circle" "Die to succeed" all made little sense.  Does that matter?

Talking about using Falling Leaves in other settings, the premise is obviously geared towards a samurai/bushido background, but I think it works in other settings/systems.

The basic conflict is between what the character should do and what they want to do.  The premise is that it is "easy" to do your duty (since you cannot fail), but what the consequences or your emotions guide you towards is that harder choice, the one where they might be failure.  To an extent, it is opposing the rules of the setting (whether it be the law, honour, an elder) with what be a "better" way (whether this is morally or for self-gratification is variable).

I can easily see this being used in numerous different circumstances and backgrounds.  Do "7 Breaths" make as much sense?  No.  Is "dying to succeed" always relevant in a non-samurai context?  No.  However, the basic idea remains sound.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it is best suited to play out the stories of samurai, but it is well suited to play out many other stories.

re: GM-style play

Did I feel I missed out?  No, not in what we were attempting.  After all, we wanted a single very personal and "insular" story.

However, I'm very interested in trying this as a 2-player game.  I think we would get a richer game-world than Tom and I established, since we would be able to see links and establish additional "tie-ins".  It would be a different game, as I believe the breaks between playing your character and setting scenes for the other might change your feeling of immersion, making a little more detached.

I think what it boils down to is that Falling Leaves does not require two players.  It requires a scene-setter and a player.  In this way, it is rather different from, say, Breaking the Ice, where two players are necessary.  You could increase the number of people playing, but whilst stronger interlinking would be possible, I believe that the delays in playing your character would change the feel, reducing immersion and individual identification.  On the other hand, people would be better able to empathise with whatever character is in the spotlight at the time.