Our group's Dragons of Blood and Water game has finally come to a conclusion after three ingame years of politics, sorcerous war against the Unmakers, and a final act of revenge (or treachery, depending on who's telling the story). Rules changes to the game are in bold, Ryan's other official decisions and interpretations in italics. (Used to distinguish Ryan chatting from Ryan the Voice from Above.)

We had five players and one GM (Ryan, my rival Dragon from any who remember my apocalypse girl game). The choice of GM was of course a signal that we wanted to be encouraged to hate one another, and Ryan complied by making the first rules decisions (before and during character generation):

New Rule 1: The PC families are the only Families in the Valley. No using Influence to get NPC families to back you, no NPC families to be group enemies. You five -are- the Valley.

Well, that was a baldfaced statement that explained Ryan's style. He was going to make sure that we had to fight both external threats, -and- we'd fight each other over the benefits of any such victories, -and- we'd probably break up in the middle of the first battle to fight the second.

It's so easy to do with you five. When you fail to beat a problem I give you, I'm usually confident that you could have beaten it if you'd gotten a clue and worked together, but each of you was playing for your own position. Luckily we've got the girls to keep the group from disintegrating completely whenever I GM. ::evil grin::

New Rule 2: Rule Zero is applied to the distribution of Scion Points as written. Instead, you get stat*3 points in each stat pool to increase either of the stats by as many -single points- as you want. If anyone puts too many points into a scion, I'll let the other players police that.

New Rule/Ruling 3: You may put 0 points into Stronghold. It's not much point in having a weak stronghold, anyway. If you do this, and Dark Times come, you'll be washed away like a sand castle in a tsunami, though.

New Rule 4: There's no such thing as Wealth in the Gear stuff. Your house's wealth is the lower of Vigour and Holdings, after all, and that's how much large-scale wealth you have. Scion-scale, all the families have enough money to buy anything that can be bought...which is nothing of importance. Master-crafted items take points, of course.

New Rule 5: Yes, during annual Advancement, you may farm out Vigour or Holdings to other houses to make use of unused stats. Influence contest if you can't decide who gets the advancement point.

New Rule 6: On damage recovery: Living Scions recover lethal damage between adventures if they have a month or so to rest, and nonlethal after a good night's sleep. Effigies and Dragons need points of repair work. Get back to me on Armies.

New Rule 7: You may upgrade Dragons with family Advancement points.

Here are the starting families and important scions, in no particular order.

"House Elunia:" Geneva's family. Started with Influence 2, Lore 4, Army 1, Vigour 1, Holdings 2, Stronghold 2. The main scion was the young witch...er, sorceress, Tara the Wise, who headed the house with her Wit, Will, and clingy robes. Secondary roles were played by her Effigy, a high-Wit-and-Speed talking winged cat familiar, and her muscular bodyguard and cousin Kael. Dragon was a cunning and well-armored, but rather weak, giant tiger, awakened in the second battle, obviously powered by Tara's magic spells.

"House Ironback:" James' family. Started with Influence 1, Lore 2, Army 1, Vigour 2, Holdings 2, Stronghold 4. The head Scion, Lucius the Mysterious (later Lucius the Mad), the golem of course being a combination Effigy and Gear to provide Might, Speed and Armour to the combat-helpless but Machiavellian Lord Ironback. The dragon was a giant turtle, mega-armored, awakened in the first battle, and powered by blood sacrifice.

"House Lizardclaw:" Kara's family. Influence 2, Lore 2, Army 2, Vigour 2, Holdings 4. The head scion was a ten-year-old girl, Tirla (no epithet yet), who didn't really do much besides direct the Great Labour to awaken the dragon, the adventuring scion was another muscular cousin also known as "the guy with the scimitar." The Dragon was a metal-and-mud whats-it that looked funky but was involved in both Dragon-scale battles, with solid results where it did show. (The Labour was getting the clockwork to stand up...)

"House Trevellan:" Michael's family. Influence 4, Lore 1, Army 1, Vigour 3, Holdings 2, Stronghold 1. The main scion was a strong-willed older man, Lord Trevellan IV, Trevellan the Just, who nonetheless could handle his magic Lightning Bow, with no other scions of importance arriving. Dragon was a classical wings-and-fire, except it was lion-headed, and awakened for both battles on the prayers of Lord Trevellan.

"House Steinheim:" Mine, of course. Influence 1, Lore 1, Army 3, Vigour 4, Holdings 3. Two bastard scions who overthrew their father's House ruled jointly: Bron the Invincible, the thick-skulled and iron-muscled axe warrior in harness, and his sister the seductive, witty and completely amoral Liriel the Cunning. The Dragon, a moronic mud-and-metal colossus similar to an upscaled version of the Ironback Armor, was involved in the first dragon-battle, raised by religious rites.

Ryan and the group got into questioning everyone's family stats and rationale after families, scions and dragons were made. The first target was the kooky old wizard in Ironback Castle. "So why does your Vigour match your Lore? Shouldn't you switch a point over?" "He's not impoverished, guys, in fact, he's pretty damned rich, look at the stronghold. But for all the kooky-old-wizard routine, he's really more of a competent Shaper than anything else." "So where does he get all his money? He doesn't seem to be doing much to keep his people working, healthy and happy." "His people are craftsmen and merchants, living in his stronghold-cum-town. As we know, cities work better when they're mostly left alone."

The Valley doesn't have enough of an economy for merchants and cities. However, I agree about the craftsmen...the specialized craftsmen of the Valley would positively love a guy who provided a big, safe pile of rocks to live in, taxed moderately, and otherwise let them be. That's Lucius' Vigour and the source of his wealth.

Geneva then asked why Michael's Vigour was higher than his holdings. "You're supposed to be a sort of King Arthur, oldest and mightiest of the families, right? So why are you overstuffed with more vigorous peasants than you can find land for?"
Ryan's suggestion: "Wait. B.J. said that his family has recently seized power after what amounts to a coup d'etat. There's probably been a huge shakeup in the valley, given how much land he's holding right now. Were the Trevellans the ones he rose against?"
I thought about it. "No, I imagine the revolt taking down the old house, though certainly Trevellan got the short end of the stick...but what about the Elunians? Their Vigour is-"
"Tara's parents were morons. They let the whole place go to hell before Tara took the helm, and they left her with the check. It'll be fixed soon."

Kara didn't attract much questioning, beyond Ryan asking her if anything made her house stand out enough to have such rich holdings. House Lizardclaw held the big iron and gold mines in the mountains, and had a chronic labor shortage, and then it hit me. "Say, Kara...would Lizardclaw have been a little sister house before the war?"
"What do you mean?"
"Idea. House Stahlwind, the house Steinheim was the old Big Royal House before the revolution. So Steinheim's revolt, by the time Trevellan gets involved, has become pretty huge...Lizardclaw gets drawn in as well, moves to protect the mines..."
Ryan: "Slow down. I think I can see that the Steinheim revolt was the defining event of recent history. How long ago was this, B.J.?"
"Um...Last year?"
"Perfect. So, you're suggesting Stahlwind held the mines before the war, and after all the shaking up and boundary redrawing was over, Lizardclaw ended up in control? Kara, sound good?"
"Sure. Daddy was probably something of a bandit...y'know, grabbing the land because he was there...help me out here?"
"Bandit's a good word. Land grab on the part of Father. How'd he die, then?"
"Fell from a horse. Mom died in childbirth."

Ryan turned to Michael. "Okay, so the Trevellans were Stahlwind allies?"
"Yes, and the rebels defeated both armies in the field. Lord Trevellan was forced to retreat from the field to his castle, which was besieged in the autumn, and ended up ceding about a third of their lands to the new house."
"Sounds good." Ryan then looked at James and Geneva. "What were your families doing?"
James: "Busy sitting out the war, keeping the forges running, getting rich."
Geneva: "Father was killed backing the Trevellans, at which point Tara pensioned Mom off. The family was just paying off a debt, so they weren't heavily involved in the war."
"Pensioned Mom off?" Ryan gave that evil grin which suggested that Geneva had inadvertently given him an idea, then turned back to me. "Okay, so you've got four houses jumping on your rebellion. How the hell did you win this?"
"The Lizardclaws were busy "protecting" the mines from me. The Elunians were making a half-assed effort and not providing significant help. The Stahlwinds had their back broken by the time any help arrived. And, Bron is named "the Invincible" for a reason. He was playing Legolas and Gimli with the enemy armies as much as he was generalling."

Okay, so the Steinheim revolt defeated the Families' armies, who were forced to agree that they were the replacements of the Stahlwinds. Lizardclaw and Steinheim ended up splitting the old lords' land, Trevellan was left inheriting the First among Equals mantle despite losing big when the Stahlwinds fell. Despite this, the Trevellan house is led by a powerful and active lord and hasn't descended into ennui. The Lizardclaws go from minor cadet family to the big time, then leave a little girl to run the place, while the Elunians' daughter is stuck cleaning house after Dad gets killed. The Ironback citadel has been peaceful to the point of boring, and the Steinheims are busy consolidating power after this. Now all we need to talk about are the Dragons. What role did they play, and do we need to redo this because of them?

I chimed in. "The old Stahlwind dragon took to Bron and accepted him instead of the Stahlwinds, sealing their fate?"
Ryan nodded. "Works."
Kara: "Um...would the old Lizardclaw dragon have gone to bits, and Tirla built a new one?"
Ryan shrugged. "I don't think the Lizardclaws had that kind of resources on hand, but it's possible that the dragon took damage and Tirla decided to do some work on repairing the thing, putting in her own improvements. The sketch you made looks like something at least partially cobbled from spare parts."
Kara: "Yup!"
Michael: "Weren't the Lizardclaws not involved?"
Me: "There was probably a dragon-battle between the Stahlwind dragon and at least Trevellan. Lizardclaw could have been attacked earlier."
Ryan: "How is the Stahlwind beast going to take two dragons?"
"Easy. Look at the stats of the beast...it was probably higher Might before the battle. It's presently damaged but serviceable. Similarly, the Trevellan dragon is also mildly damaged."

I think we have enough. The Steinheims go from upstart warlords who've grabbed land, to upstarts with control of the ancient mega-behemoth of the leading family, who've razed castles to the ground and grabbed land. Two dragons used to be a lot more powerful but are now in bad repair, particularly Trevellan from the looks of it, and the Lizardclaw dragon was nigh-destroyed and rebuilt by a child prodigy. It's late, so next session we'll get on with the first adventure. There'll be two yours-truly-created adventures a game year, plus any deviltry you arrange yourselves in between. Try not to monopolize my blue-book time though.

Me and Michael, in unison: "Who us? Blue-book? Naaaaaahhh."

Stay tuned for the next installment.

I should say something insightful and game-designery here.

ROCK.

Hey, Ramidel (name?)

Sounds really cool.  Are there any other places where you've been discussing this design publically?  I'd be interested to see and hear more about it.

yrs--
--Ben

Ben,

Dragons of Blood and Water was a November Ronnies entrant.

- Alexander

Thank you, Iskander. Ben, name's in signature.
--
Year 1: Getting our feet wet...in an undertow.

The first adventure was to be something placidly Scion-scale and cliched. There had been reports by farmers of...something standing...outside the Valley! An ancient structure, apparently, so Tara calmly noted her expertise in old stuff (and in supporting the males' morale) and assumed leadership of the expedition. Bron, Trevellan, Lucius (and golem) and Mr. Lizardclaw (whatever his name was) rode along with her, while the true leader of the group (the winged cat Effigy) rode on Tara's shoulders.

This was probably Ye Olde D&D Adventure redux. We go to the ancient metallic ruin, fighting off Unmakers along the way. Once there, the door is locked and there's a panel with ideographs over it. Geneva looked at Ryan. "So what is it?"

An excuse for you to make a Lore check.

She checked Lore.

It's apparently a sign of the ancient people called the Hannese, or something like that. You're not sure, but it looks like it may be nine nines. The pad's numbers have a different language, but they all have the same numbers as used in the Valley below the different ideographs.

"Okay, I find the number 9 on the telephone. Tap tap tap, tap tap tap, tap tap tap."

Beeeeeeep! The door swoooooshes open into a stark metal corridor.

Inside the ancient lab, no Unmakers were found, but a lot of computers even Tara couldn't figure out, and some security robots for Bron to put the axe to. At the bottom of the lab was an ancient message...in Chinese of course, which Tara couldn't translate this time. There was a suite of rooms inside, along with a storage room with several odd black gems and a black metal stick. Ryan rolled some dice, passed notes to Michael and Geneva. Trevellan suggested that the group all get some sleep in these rooms, and promptly curled up with the beautiful Lady Tara.

In the morning, Lord Trevellan revealed that the metal stick was a magic lightning bow, and that neither he nor Tara could figure out the gems. So Tara was going to take the gems away for study before distributing them and Trevellan, as the finest archer in the land, would get the lightning bow. Bron protested.

"Wait a minute. My sister Liriel is a far finer archer, my dear friend Trevellan, than you are."
"I don't think any of us want some upstart bastard girl to have this."
Tara smiled. "Lord Trevellan is a proven friend of our Valley. My dear friend Bron, we don't know you. I think that Trevellan should have the gun."

Influence check, contested. Kara, James, who're you backing?
Lizardclaw: "I think...hmm, you two can figure it out.
Lucius: "I think I'd rather make sure Trevellan doesn't get his way all the time."

Dice roll. Trevellan gets the magic weapon.

They left the facility after an encounter with a big boss security bot, which Bron personally tore to bits bare-handed. The lightning bow never got into play.

As you ride away, Tara, you remember the meaning of the letters on that door. "Danger! Quarantine!"

Everyone looked at Ryan with murder in their eyes.

In the wind-down after the game, I spoke up. "Ryan, this isn't like you to run an adventure like that. It's pretty standard dungeon-crawling."
Ryan shrugged. "I needed to get a handle on the system before doing anything too cute. Now I know what I'll need to do if I want to avoid getting my boss monster gobsmacked by Bron in a couple rounds. It'll be interesting to see what happens if Bron ever has to face the laser."
--
Adventure 2
Tara eventually figured out that the gems were energy cells for the lightning bow, but kept that info quiet for the rest of the campaign. Her "research was interrupted" by a plague of Unmakers springing up within the valley proper, and a more conventional plague as well, which was hitting hardest in her lands and Trevellan. This adventure was not done by a doughty band of heroes, but instead as a Family-scale problem. However, Bron, Liriel, Trevellan and Mr. Lizardclaw did engage in Legolas-and-Gimli hacking of the Unmaker armies and whittling them down with attacks (Ryan allowed for the impressive abilities of the bunch and cut down the size of the enemy armies appropriately). Steinheim's and Elunia's united army quickly squashed the Unmaker problem in both regions while Lizardclaw and Trevellan did the same. (Ironback, of course, just sealed the Stronghold and waited for all of this to blow over, which it did.)

After the army battling was cleared up, Tara discovered the plague cure and spread it as a public service...well, okay, she demanded that one of the two overstaffed Families farm her lands with an extra Vigour and give her the wealth from that.

Michael: "Certainly! I'm sure the vigorous young lads from Steinheim-"
Me: "Ha! You're her ally, you pay for it!"
Influence check.
Geneva: "I don't care who does it so long as it gets done." General agreement around the board. I lost the check, and stipulated that Bron would come supervise the Steinheim workers personally. "I'm sure Bron has his hands full...how about Liriel?" Laughter echoed around the table as I agreed.

The Unmakers and plague in full retreat, everybody was surprised when the Swallower of Thunder appeared on the horizon...but nobody was surprised at the solution. Geneva stepped out with an old book in hand, chanted Words Woman Was Not Meant To Speak (in her own words, insert necessary jokes about whether it was Cthulhuese or Anglo-Saxon), and it was sent scuttling back out of the Valley. "But my hair got messed up from all the wind!"
--
During the advancement season, I built 1 Vigour and repaired two Might on the Dragon, "bringing it to full repair and making it ready to improve." Trevellan had an influence duel over whether he or Kara would profit from shared Vigour/Holdings, and he of course won. House Lizardclaw promptly built 2 Vigour so she wouldn't have to deal with that again, and a land rush in the Stahlwind Mountains began. Trevellan raised Influence by 1, keeping the streak alive, and built his Dragon up one Might and one Speed, while the Ironbacks made their Dragon's Might rise by 2. Finally, Tara let her house's Vigour remain down, and instead worked on raising Influence to 4, building alliances with the Families...and building a temporary relationship with Liriel, for the duration of her stay. (The only characters Tara didn't sleep with at some point were Lucius and Lady Ironclaw, actually.)

Next installment will feature the tumultuous second year:
* Steinheim begins fighting to expand the Valley and push back the tide of the Unmakers!
* Elunia and Trevellan bid for hegemony in the wake of war!
* Ironback Dragon awakens in the blood of the damned!
* And more! Stay tuned!

Shock and awe.

You guys played the game without Gareth knowing about it? And posted here? That is the best. I do the Ronnies dance.

I'm looking forward to the next post about what happened in the fiction, and especially what you guys decided to do with the Scions.

Best,
Ron

::grins:: Always glad to be of help turning 24-hour RPG into lifetime obsession. ^_^
--
Year 2: The Masters of Darkness Emerge! The Fall of a Noble House!

Here, the GM modified his original adventure plan to include my own Little Scheme. I had decided that, since the Unmaker horde had been so effectively kitty-kicked when it attacked the Valley, the Steinheims (keeping the rest of the families -out in the cold-) were going to see if they could start carving out an empire and bringing definition to the Wasteland. As a result, Bron was able to wrangle leadership of the new expeditionary force to a place just outside the Valley that seemed to be radiating raw Unmaking. Gullheads were to be the least of their worries.

You pop this little boil and develop it Vigorously, two Holdings are yours. If the other families try to muscle in for a cut, that's your problem, so you should probably try to keep this quiet.

As a rule, the mookzilla combats mostly revolved around protecting Tara from harm. Given the fact that Bron had an effective Might (counting the Steinheim Axe) of 18 (and that's saying nothing about the Ironback Armor), even a swarm of Gullheads was worthless against their superhuman strength, but the Gulls...knew this. They never went for the Invincible or the golem, but seemed to unerringly attempt to swerve around them and get to Tara. So, of course, the physical sorts formed a circle around the helpless Tara and shield-walled. After the second such encounter, Lucius commented that these were -extremely- organized Unmakers, and someone had to be behind it...

Whatever makes you think that? ::grins evilly::

The war against the Gullheads seemed to slacken off as we neared the nest, and we had to do some detective work. The whole place was twisted and apt to shapeshift at a moment's notice, and let's not forget what happens when the golem gets stuck in quicksand and Bron and Mr. Lizard have to team up to pull it out...that -really- had James sweating. Yet our luck finally turned when we finally found an underground passage into what amounted to a hive. (Ryan commented afterwards that this had been sort of a joke...ant farm of formless chaos.) Corridor-to-corridor combat with one mook battle, a couple Lore checks on Tara's part, the feline Jameera doing some scouting ahead, and a battle with a multi-limbed monstrosity that had Mr. Lizard forced to stand down at Might 1 and actually injured Bron...and what's more, it regenerated until Trevellan finally lost patience and lasered it. In our intrepid heroes went to the inner sanctum, to discover...a very tall, completely naked, and inhumanly stacked woman.

Geneva: "Do I check Lore or Wit to determine what the hell she is?"
You know, she could just be there to have you four sex-starved kids fight over her.
"Not with that rack, she's not."
Good catch. The fact that there's blood on her mouth might also tip you off...and Lucius, who isn't busy staring at her chest, realizes that there is a bone-chilling cold around her, as if his life was being sucked out of him.

Tara and Lucius checked Wit over the honor of being the one to make the wizardly announcement of her evil, and Tara won. "Beware! This creature is of Unmaking!"
"My daughter, why is that a problem?" Everyone looks at Geneva. It was the mommy she'd pensioned off. After a touching reunion that turned into a spitting catfight, the woman stood up and smiled, her voice starting to break apart. "Commmmmme. Fiiiiillllll myyyyy dreeeeeeeeeammmmmmssssss."
Will+Lore checks, all. Very nasty difficulty.
Everyone rolled. Ryan looked at the rolls, rolled something himself.
Okay. Lucius and Bron are partially effected...they stand there with their hands on their head and very stiff organs. Trevellan breaks into an aroused sweat but he can keep his cool...Tara's just disgusted. Now, as for the lizard guy...he's helplessly in her thrall, and begins walking towards her as she opens her arms and mouth, revealing very pointed teeth...

Michael: "Lord Trevellan smacks him on the back of the head with the rifle butt. Nonlethal damage, knockout."
Right, roll you two.
Trevellan wins the opposed Might check by 3.
Lizardclaw slumps down unconscious. The Lady Elunia screeches in anger and a shield of dark energy surrounds her, as she focuses on Tara. A duel of wills begins as she attempts to unmake her daughter in body and soul. Tara instinctively begins to wield Unmaker-banishing magic against her mother.
Michael looked at Ryan. "I'm going to see if the shield protects against the laser."
::roll:: Shot impacts. The shield flickers and she seems to waver a bit. Apparently, the magic of the ancients can harm her evil will.

A battle of Will vs. Will (similar to a Might-vs-Might combat) between Tara and Mommy Dearest began. Laser shots battered the shield, and a bit into the battle, Bron and Lucius overcame their spells (though as I noted, Bron was still horny as hell). Bron immediately took the axe to the shield.
Electric shock knocks Bron on his ass. One nonlethal damage. Apparently, the magic of Bron's axe isn't enough.

James: Lucius know any spells that might help? Or hell, if the Golem will?
Lore check. Check. The Golem is without volition of its own, it's as useless as cold steel. As to fighting Unmakers with magic...that's not Lucius' specialty. He's out in the cold, sorry.
James: You said something about Will...?
Yup.
Lucius: Cat! Your mistress needs you!
Geneva: "Meow!" Jameera leaps at the shield!
Okay, this Effigy -has- Will, though not a lot. Sharp thinking, Lucius...Geneva, the cat gets an attack in the Will-war as he claws at the shield.

Between the wild feline Effigy, the soon-emptied laser, and Tara's own will, Mom was overcome, though Tara's strength was near the breaking point.

Tara sways for a moment as the creature's shield dissolves, and the woman begins to shudder and shift, her skin turning night-black. There is a rumbling, as the order of the Hive of the Nothing loses the will that gives it structure.

Bron slung Lizardclaw over his shoulder and everyone ran for it. The Hive entrance collapsed on the chasing creature. The return home was uneventful, not counting events in tents. Once they were back, Elunia exchanged a crystalline recharge for the laser for a promise of Vigorous assistance in the harvest.
--
The old GM-planned adventure went by the wayside for the second part of the year as Bron, Tara, Lizardclaw and Trevellan began a clandestine exploration of the Ironback fortress' inner chambers on Liriel's hunch. James and Ryan team-drew the map, including the Dragon's chamber and the secret library (both objectives). Tara and Liriel met with one of the senior guards (on their backs) and got him to take a bit of leave with them, give Tara the map, and then drown in the River. (What silly things people do for a threesome...) James was fuming, Ryan was amused.

Things actually went pretty much without a hitch this time for most of the way. However, Trevellan assassinated a patrolling guard and forgot to hide the body midway through. Note-pass from James. Sagacious nod from Ryan. Hearts beating faster. Alarm bell raised just as they reached the dragon's chamber.

The dragon was of course sleeping, so Tara took the chance to Lore the little thing before the guards show up.
Its mouth is bloody and there are runes of Unmaking. Looks like Lucius has more mastery of the dark arts than he's let on.
"How do I open the dragon's exit?" Lore roll. Exit opens as Lucius, golem and guards arrive.

Lizardclaw began to make hash out of Lucius' guards, while Bron began his long-awaited duel with Lucius and his sacred armor to determine which of the two great warriors would reign supreme...or -not-. For four rounds, Bron consistently took heavy golem-punching...for the first two, his Armor 3 soaked the whole difference between their rolls. Then he got smacked for 2 Might, then 3, and he and Mr. Lizard decided it was time to beat feet along with the rest of the crowd.

We paused for some delicious pizza, then awakened our Dragons. The Trevellan ensign was raised to the sun as the winged beast rose into the sky, screaming and breathing fire. The ancient and massive gears were wound, and the hybrid beast that carried the Lizardclaw name rose from its slumber. Dark spells were chanted and the family of the treacherous Ironback guard were fed to the gigantic turtle of the House. And mightiest of all, the ancient metal god of the Stahlwinds rose from its slumber to the ecstatic cries of the Steinheim settlers. (Tara calmly begged off the fight. "My Dragon is more of an advisor than a war engine, really. That's what I've got you guys for.")

The Ironback beast gave a -very- good showing of itself, even damaging the Steinheim monster for two Might levels and knocked the Lizardclaw engine apart (down to Might 1). Meanwhile, only Steinheim and Trevellan (latter with ranged attacks) could actually damage it much. It finally went down, though, despite that freaking Armour 6. After that, the armies of the Ironbacks quickly surrendered as Lucius and his battle armor fled...time to distribute Vigour, Holdings, Lore and that wondrous Stronghold.
Influence checks to determine your votes. Ruling coalition gets to decide where the spoils land...however, either Steinheim or Trevellan could singlehandedly beat both Elunia and Lizardclaw, so they can't be left out. Therefore, one or both -must- be in the winning alliance.
Influence votes went as follows:
Trevellan: 8
Elunia: 8
Steinheim: 7
Lizardclaw: 5

So, the possible coalitions were Trevellan-Elunia, Trevellan-Steinheim or Elunia-Steinheim, with Lizardclaw being surplus to any coalition. I immediately turned to Geneva.
"You want 4 advancement this turn?"
"Sure..."
"Take everything but the Stronghold. I want that pile of rocks for me, and a kiss to boot."
Michael looked at Geneva. "Want the Stronghold? I just want the Holdings."
"I can -build- the Stronghold myself with the Holdings if I want it. I think Steinheim's given me the best possible deal for both of us." And she pecked me on the nose.

Fume, rage. Trevellan objected to Elunia getting anything ("she wasn't in on this!") but Ryan nodded to the distribution. Vae Victis, guys. Liriel's bedroom diplomacy cut out the old Power that Was, and the Ironback craftsmen shelter under the wings of the progressive House Elunia.

Trevellan looked at Ryan. "Okay, I'm backing out of the deal to give her the Vigour."
Fair enough. -1 Influence till debt is repaid, but I can see that happening. Oh, and by the way, word reaches the other families that the land where the Hive had been has been settled by the vigorous and strong Steinheimers. +2 Holdings to Steinheim starting next year.

Michael and Geneva looked at each other. Kara looked at Michael. Michael looked at Kara. Everyone looked at me angrily. I grinned innocently. Geneva looked at Michael. "Want to pay that debt now?" Michael frowned and nodded. Ryan laughed. Okay, so Steinheim gets a shiny new Stronghold 4, Elunia gets Holdings and Vigour 2 and +1 Lore. "+1?" Yeah. Tara has forgotten more than Lucius ever knew, so only his blood magic books were new Lore. Still useful for Unmaker-banishing.

So, the advance at year's end: Steinheim 3, Elunia 4, Lizardclaw 4, Trevellan 3.
Lizardclaw wealth went to Dragon-Might, as the little grease monkey got to play Ms. Fix-It again. Elunia upgraded to Influence 5, Vigour 4, and the tiger's Speed went up 2. Ryan approved Tara studying the laser energy cells and developing eye lasers for the little tiger along with the new Speed. Trevellan turbocharged the Dragon with +1 Might and +2 Speed. Meanwhile, I just raised Stronghold by 1 and added 2 Armour onto my own battered beast of war. Lucius and golem, o'course, were still hanging around somewhere...

Tune in next time for the climactic Year Three!
*The Dark Queen returns in thunderous fury!
*Shadow war between lovers as Tara and Liriel face off!
*Unity of the Valley sundered by treachery!
*And more!

Apologies to my devoted readers for the hiatus. Midterms have kept me from being able to get the impressions of the other players together, and given how much blue-booking happened in the first segment...
---
Year 3: Return of the Dark Sorcerers! Rise of the Traitor Queen!

The first pre-planned adventure was completely replaced by something spawned by blue-booking. Both Michael and Kara had tried to do some quiet development of the Outside, so Ryan called me up and told us that this period was quiet, what were we going to do? I went for wasteland exploration as well (in ignorance of the other two.)

Now, a cat and mouse game began with none of the players aware whether they were playing. The first part of the adventure was done between players and GM with only a couple of meetings between players, so I'll give a transcript "the whole story" from the GM's seat.

First, the early birds got a lot of missing-persons and strange noises in the night, so of course they went monster hunting around the work camps. After Michael found a suspicious -lack- of Unmakers he immediately got the idea that one of the other three was involved...actually, it was James, who had known of a powerful ley line nexus in the area and had staked it out, and was killing people who spotted his golem. Anyway, Michael did some outriding and discovered the Lizardclaw camp, and immediately realized I was setting something up. So he invited Kara's man over for some lunch, cue a meeting between the two.

Anyway, Geneva had learned about the nexus while trying to find something in Lucius' tomes, while B.J. was out for more holdings to set up and milk. Of course their armies met midway there, and B.J. started Bron's chest-beating routine. He had a bigger army and a much bigger Dragon, but Geneva used Influence to get him to agree to wait and see if the other families were there. She just wanted the nexus after all.

Kara and Michael don't usually fight much, and this time wasn't an exception. Pact to divide the land and merge camps, and now let's find out what's causing the trouble. Of course, then a huge army from the other two practically trips over the encampment, and Michael rousts out -his- forces. Leaders meet face to face, it gets clear that this isn't another of B.J.'s games, and everyone agrees that something extremely strange is going on.

After this point, the cat did some snooping around and found some very deep footprints leading to a suspicious stone cottage with a larger attached stone...stable? Curious, so four heroes go in to find...yup, old Lucius Ironback.

So now the gang's all together, and Lucius explains the situation. "Yes, I set this up, and yes, I killed your workers. They were poking their noses where they shouldn't. I'm just trying to do my research in peace without all of you bugging me!"

Bron of course loudly denounced that and told Lucius that he would have to face justice. Lucius responded by calmly moving into the stable/garage. Of course everyone follows, but now Lucius was next to his armor and asked the gang to please be reasonable..."I wouldn't want to have Bron break his axe on my armor, now." He then turned to Tara. "I'm sure you could use someone to help unravel the mysteries of the nexus without you living out here? I'm of no harm to anyone."

Geneva frowned and nodded, then looked to the rest of us. General shrugging...nobody wanted to fight that golem. I asked Ryan how many Holdings the area was worth.

Right now? It's worth one Holdings if someone claims it, or you can let the nexus be studied. Trying to do both may put workers or nexus at risk.

General agreement was that the families would entrust the land, sans workers, to Lucius until he could decipher the nexus. Each Family deployed a trusted Settler to help watch the rogue Lord.

---
The second half of the year, Lucius had begun to make progress on the Nexus his work was cut short by Unmaker attacks. Lucius left the Settlers to die while he returned to the Valley with golem and advance warning, and the Valley raised their armies to defend the Valley...nothing came. So Bron went to scout the nexus alone. He found a horribly disfigured naked woman there, seeing her chanting a ritual of dark power. He ran back to the Valley, then to the new Steinheim stronghold.

Liriel called Tara over to the Steinheim stronghold for an "urgent" meeting over some tea (which was a session with just me, Geneva and Ryan...insert suspicion). Once at the Stronghold, there was a test of Wit against Wit...Tara lost, and didn't notice that Liriel had drugged Tara's drink. The sorceress awoke in a cell...with the cat chained in a cell on the other side of the stronghold. I hummed to myself and mentioned the Evil Overlord rules.

Of course, the other players were suspicious when Tara couldn't be found and a gigantic woman-shaped shadow was flying toward the Valley, but they couldn't do anything. None of the other families produced any results when searching for an anti-Unmaker spell...dragon time. I passed Ryan a note as Lucius stood in for Tara when waking up the Elunia Dragon.

Okay. Three dragons arise. Elunia, Lizardclaw, Trevellan.

Michael looked at me. "What about..."

It isn't here. Maybe their ritual failed.

Everyone laughed, then they started fighting Evil Mommy Elunia. And started getting crushed. All three Dragons fought bravely, all eventually went down...-then- the Steinheim colossus got working, and made short work of the damaged Unmaker.

"And now," Liriel commented pleasantly at the meeting of the Family leaders (including Tara), "House Steinheim is assuming control of the Valley. Lady Lizardclaw is to marry my brother and produce the heir to the throne, while I'm marrying the beautiful Lady Elunia. No Dragons may be built except by our family and our family's command. All resources may be taken by our command. Any resistance will be crushed...literally."

That was a wrap for the game.
---
Some points we looked at.

1. We don't know whether the Designer had intended it to be played with NPC families or PC-only. The consensus, however, is that there should be a finite number of families. Too many families, and Influence becomes -the- valuable Family stat, while military might and Dragon power becomes valueless. Five may be a good, balanced number, but Michael commented that it was too easy for the minorities to force out the majority with five.
2. On Dragon stats, we never found a single use for Dragon mental abilities. Simply put, Dragons are morons compared to Scions, and they don't -need- intelligence anyway when their main purpose is to destroy things. Perhaps this needs some thought and reworking. Also, Waking was valueless but that's because our Family stats picked up the slack. Finally, and this never came up in game but was often on my mind, all dragons must be able to fly or none can. Otherwise, some smartass flying Speed Dragon -will- be strong enough to make hash out of a ground-bound beast (as was demonstrated in the Ironback battle).
3. On Scion stats, Effigy is -hugely- overpowered, to the point where a smartass PC can make a combat effigy that can beat the tar out of a Might PC without even breathing hard (so to speak). There's really nothing, in fact, that can damage such a war-engine short of Dragon-scale damage. Otherwise, Gear, Body stats and Mind stats seem relatively balanced.
4. Family stats: Armies are mostly there to look good. You don't ever need more than Army 1, that's what the Dragons are for. Stronghold is strictly an insurance policy. While "a" family with Lore is necessary, you don't need more than one Loremaster family that can provide the Valley Archmage (more may cause a dangerous dilution of Dragon strength in the Valley). So what matters are Influence, Vigour and Holdings. Advancement thus becomes a careful resource-management dilemma: Do I expand my Vigour to make my family grow more next year? Do I expand my Stronghold to provide insurance? Influence so I can influence people? Or do I build the Dragon to break things?
5. Stats in Summary: Resources is the most important stat, for it provides Holdings and Armour for Family and Dragon, and it is also a major provider of combat power. Mind is hugely important for Scions, for Families it can be taken or left. Body is useful but can be completely compensated for on the Scion scale, and mostly compensated for on Dragon and Family scale, by a strong Resources.

Now, to Gareth as Game Designer:
Very good 24-hour RPG! A mix of strategy, intrigue, and monster-hacking await the players if the GM is on the ball. We did find several issues in the rules, though (the Rulings, at the start, were the decisions made after the First Run-Through By The Clan). I'd like to request your comments on those decisions, as well as any other rules interpretations or slides we made in the gameplay.

Also, a ruling that wasn't explicitly made, but became de facto with Ryan as GM: Influence was used as a "say yes or roll dice" mechanic, where the better-connected families gave orders that were obeyed. Was that the intent of the stat?

Again, applause, and I hope that you'll consider continued development of the game!

Thanks very much for this.

To be honest, I hadn't considered doing much more work on the game, but this campaign report has made me reconsider that. I've always loved dynastic games, ala Pendragon, and I'm now really tempted to build on DoB&W, turning it into something like D&D meets Pendragon meets Gormenghast/China Mievelle does a Song of Ice and Fire. Hmm. Time to buy another game design notebook....

As for the questions - while I hadn't considered the number of families, I agree with you that it needs to be kept small. I wouldn't be adverse to NPC families, but they should probably be fewer in number than the total number of PC families.

Dragon mental stats - yeah, that's because of the whole "keep splitting the same point total idea", which in retrospect is a bit of a bad one. Dragons can stay mindless mudmecha in future. As for flight, I think I'd probably do some sort of point-buy thing for dragon abilities if I was expanding this to a full game. Flight, better armour, breath weapons etc.

As for the stats - all very interesting. I'm surprised that Armies were so little used - my conception was that your Dragon was basically your nuclear bomb, your last resort, and that Armies would be used a lot in skirmishing and raiding other Families.

You asked for commentary on your rules. Here we go:

New Rule 1: The PC families are the only Families in the Valley. No using Influence to get NPC families to back you, no NPC families to be group enemies.


More of a GM call than a rule. Personally, I like the idea of NPC families, but I see where he's coming from. Good for a short campaign, would probably get wearying in a longer one.

New Rule 2: Rule Zero is applied to the distribution of Scion Points as written. Instead, you get stat*3 points in each stat pool to increase either of the stats by as many -single points- as you want. If anyone puts too many points into a scion, I'll let the other players police that.

I suspect most of the point-distribution rules in the game are hopelessly first-draft and/or broken, so this looks fine.


New Rule/Ruling 3: You may put 0 points into Stronghold. It's not much point in having a weak stronghold, anyway. If you do this, and Dark Times come, you'll be washed away like a sand castle in a tsunami, though.

Hideously risky, but cool. I think it might actually be ok to remove the rule that mandates one point in every stat.

New Rule 4: There's no such thing as Wealth in the Gear stuff. Your house's wealth is the lower of Vigour and Holdings, after all, and that's how much large-scale wealth you have. Scion-scale, all the families have enough money to buy anything that can be bought...which is nothing of importance. Master-crafted items take points, of course.

In retrospect, having a currency in a tiny valley surrounded by chaos horrors...probably not the best idea. Good point.

New Rule 5: Yes, during annual Advancement, you may farm out Vigour or Holdings to other houses to make use of unused stats. Influence contest if you can't decide who gets the advancement point.
Oooh. Nice.

New Rule 6: On damage recovery: Living Scions recover lethal damage between adventures if they have a month or so to rest, and nonlethal after a good night's sleep. Effigies and Dragons need points of repair work. Get back to me on Armies.

Yep, seems fair. I think my intention for Armies was that you have to rebuild them when destroyed, although it probably makes more sense to say that half of any Army losses regenerate after a season).

New Rule 7: You may upgrade Dragons with family Advancement points.

I'm not sure about making upgrading a Dragon that easy (and I'm wondering if Army wouldn't become more important if Army was the cheap-and-easy way to military might, and a bigger Dragon was the hard-but-rewarding method). Maybe tie it to the Family's Lore?

As for the stats - all very interesting. I'm surprised that Armies were so little used - my conception was that your Dragon was basically your nuclear bomb, your last resort, and that Armies would be used a lot in skirmishing and raiding other Families.

There -really- isn't a lot of incentive for ghazi-type warfare in the rules as written. As it stands (and this would be a good thing to try to change), our group had three levels of escalation: Sweetheart deals without dice, Influence-peddling, and Defcon One. This may be just our group's preference to avoid stabbing until we can stab to kill, but part of it may have to do with the fact that a good Stronghold protects against any significant losses.

Thus, families don't skirmish or raid. When combat happens, that's a sign that all else has failed, everyone in the Valley goes to Defcon One, and there's likely to be more than one family falling before it's through. It may be better to try to set things up so that there's a reason to raid the neighbors rather than invade them. (Possibly temporary seizures of a family's Advancement points for the year?)

Mytholder wrote:
To be honest, I hadn't considered doing much more work on the game, but this campaign report has made me reconsider that. I've always loved dynastic games, ala Pendragon, and I'm now really tempted to build on DoB&W, turning it into something like D&D meets Pendragon meets Gormenghast/China Mievelle does a Song of Ice and Fire. Hmm. Time to buy another game design notebook....