I’ve just started running a TSOY game set in a non-historical Dark Ages Britain.  It came about from wanting to do a fairly low-prep game, and me liking the look of TSOY a lot, but not being that struck with the Near setting.

Anyway, I pitched the idea to my group, and they were up for it, but I realised that the only ideas I had were a vague setting (kinda Arthurian I guess… um) and a notion that transcendence could be extended to NPCs and be literally ‘going off with the faeries’ – that the fair folk, or at least some of them, were post-transcendence humans.

Anyway, I made it clear that I had a very sketchy setting, and so we all sat down together and did setting details and characters pretty much together.

The details we arrived at were:

1 – Arthur is recently dead (well, transcended probably).
2 – the Saxons are out and about raiding and causing trouble now that Arthur’s gone.
2 – The patchwork of cultures is still very distinct (the Romano-Britains still live in villas and drink wine, the Picts are tattooed and savage).
3 – Christianity and the pagan faiths are in active conflict.  This was a big thing for some of the characters.
4 – there’s a distinction between the hairy Celtic fringe and the more Frenchified civilised kingdom that Arthur used to run.

I’m sure a lot more will come out in play, but that’s how we started things.  I’m glad it was a co-operative effort, and that I managed to rein in any impulse to nudge things my way.  I was genuinely surprised that people wanted Arthur out of the picture, but it seems to make sense in that the setting is now more open to change by the PCs, and it makes the game less like Pendragon.

On to characters.  The creation process was quite a lot of fun, with lots of ideas flying around the place and people helping each other out.  I was a little concerned, as the group isn’t experienced with indy games, but some successful DitV one-shots had convinced people to get into this style of things, and I was really happy with the set of characters that came out.

We have 6 PCs:

Gwegor the young Pictish champion.  He’s the son of a chief, and has been favoured by his dead ancestors to the point where one of them follows him around and can affect the real world. He’s on a religious pilgrimage to re-enact great feats of the god Lugh, after a mighty vision-quest on his behalf by a great druid.

Bran the shepherd of the dead.  A scion of a druidic sect that deals with spirits of the dead, both as a conduit to speak with ancestors, and putting errant dead things back in their place.  He’s looking for the source of a great disturbance in the lands of the dead, which he thinks may be something to do with the spread of Christianity.

‘Eleanor of Astolat’.  A peasant girl who’s taken the identity of a slain noblewoman, with the help of the dead woman’s servant.  She’s out to make her fame and fortune, mainly through romantic manipulation of men.

Pelasius.  A Romano-British veteran traveller and deal-maker who’s married into what passes for the patrician class, and is all about house and family loyalty.  Currently concerned with saxon incursions into the local villas.

Menna.  A changeling peasant girl who was about to marry into the local gentry, but who turned into a giant shaggy black dog on her wedding day (in the chapel, no less).  She got run out of town, and is after finding out what the hell is happening to her.

Din.  A druid of the ‘wild cackling seer with antlers on head’ variety.  He has visions, and one concerning the drawing of a ‘black excalibur’ is troubling him greatly.  He’s come out of his cave in Cornwall to sort it out.

The main thing I have to say is that I’m totally impressed by how easy it is to represent all sorts of wacky characters in TSOY.  Nobody had to fiddle their concepts to fit the system, and all the custom keys and secrets people wanted were the work of a few moments to sort out.  The system is a thing of beauty.

What kinds of keys do they have?

After some examining the system, the group decided that lots of keys was a good thing.  And they didn't hold back - most of their 5 advances went on keys.

Gwegor has:  Conscience, Bloodlust and Mission (become a great champion of Lugh by achieving a great feat of harping, crafting, poetry, swordsmanship, heroism, sorcery and one secret thing)

Bran has:  Faith, Shepherd of the Dead (xp for dealing with the dead, ensuring proper rites and such.  The buyoff is basically becoming a traditional necromancer) and the mission (sorting out the lands of the dead)

Eleanor has:  Impostor, power, vengeance (Men) and Broken-hearted.

Pelasius has: Mission (safety of his area), Love (family), House (the ammeni one – his father-in-law’s patrician household) and competitor (Saxons).

Menna has: Outcast, Vengeance (Christian society), Mission (find out about her faerie heritage), Mission (guard the doors to the other worlds – this is something to do with her Black Dog shapeshifting, as her player has decided that the black dogs are guardian beasts)

Din has: Conscience, Coward, Vow (use natural materials only – no metal) and Mission (deal with the threat of black Excalibur)