Hi,

this weekend, Frank T ran Rat Moon Rising for us. In short: The game rocked! Players were Martin, Ron (our Ron, not Ron Edwards), and me. Martin and I had made up our characters the week before, and Ron had his prepared, all being discussed via email. Our characters got 10 advances as this was only planned as a one shot. Martin played Parthas, a reformed maldorite mercenary, renowned for his big nose, and the fact he stands in for the weak and defenseless (Key of Renown, Key of the Outcast, Key of Conscience); Ron played a Goblin with an unpronouncable name (Crütchh or something like that) with had definite house-elf qualities (Key of the Loyal Servant, Key of the Coward, Secret of the Addiction - Punishment) that was a brutish creature otherwise (vigor 7). I played a Ratkin scavenger, goodnose, and hit the secrets hard (secret of rat companions, rat vision, hidden pocket, throwing, rat familiarity).

It was easy for Frank to set up the situation for us to be on three sides of the impending war, which gave us something in commin, without setting us into direct opposition. Ron gave a great show of the snivelling, groveling servant that cared for his Master Gerárd most, and also cracked some tough situations (meeting the orphans, for one) by exposing polished manners and etiquette. In fact, it added to the tragedy of his character, showing the limited frame set in which he'd move (I expect changes in future play, though).

The first half of the game got us used to the system and was pre-occupied with staking out the grounds, so we knew who wanted what, and such. I think part of the 'this is the situation, deal with it!' attitude was a DiTV residue (which I think is a good thing, by the way). After that we had quite an extensive break where we managed to get most of our pop-cultural needs fulfilled, along with some food.

So, the big task was getting the game up to speed after that, which was very easy the moment I realized I could just go on and show some of the strangeness of the ratkin culture. Although I fought with and killed Sqall for his insubordination to Nightpaws, I challenged the Ratkin litter chief directly after showing off the spoils of the duel, since in fact Goodnose also thought the Ratkin needed to act on the human menace, but in a totally different way than Sqall and wanted to stay within the established rules of the culture.

As it is with TSoY, the plan went well, without the resolution being boring. Subduing Nightpawn in the ritualistic duel was only one part of the puzzle - we also had to handle the hostage Noble, the former mercenary colleagues, and of course we didn't want to have an angry goblin in our midst.

Martin handled this with a brilliant idea - the mercenaries were bought off, the noble died at the hand of treacherous humans (as will be reported to the relevant people, at least), the goblin was dismissed by his disappointed master ("Then he called out one last time and told that this would be your last chance to follow him. I think he doesn't want to see you anymore...") and stayed with Parthas in lieu of any other person taking responsibility for him.

The awesome:
Goodnose getting himself to hand over loot was the moment to buy off the Key of the Precious (which had already provided some fun to the group, but that would have gotten stale quickly) - which put me into position to buy the secrets and keys I needed to win the fight with the Litter chief!

Ron getting XP after XP for staying in the servant role, regardless (or rather, just because) of the problems it brought him.

Martin getting XP for being the folk hero he is known to be also was cool.

This all boils down to 'what the characters do is relevant and has a lasting effect on both themselves and the game world'. I dig that. I am looking forward to change Near into the world made by Parthas, Crütchh and Goodnose in the near future!

Thanks Clinton! Thanks Frank!

Cool, Harald, good write-up! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Your character was really the one to tie best into the Rat Moon Rising scenario, and you managed to grab that opportunity with both hands. I really liked the thematic impact of your decisions: “Squall, you are breaking the rules of our society, die! Oh, by the way, I agree with you and now I challenge Night-Paws as well, only by the rules.”

Heck, there is no line in the TSoY rules that even says these are the rules of Ratkin society. And I didn’t say so either (just mentioned something of a duel at full moon). It was you who decided that your leader justly represents the community’s interests and therefore you are bound to obey him, unless you challenge him in a proper way. I was just leaning back and watching the show. You know how in classic games with detailed settings, the GM would have said: “No, you’re not doing it right, Ratkin laws actually say that blah blah”? Screw that.

By the way, “the orphans” are not really part of the scenario as written, I just invented them in order to hit Martin’s Key of Conscience. On the other hand, I left some stuff from the original scenario out that did not tie in so well. Yet, anyway. Since we will continue playing, it wasn’t a single session run after all.

- Frank

Frank and Harald,

I don´t know a lot about TSOY (besides skimming through the free version), so could you briefly explain to me why and how the rules enabled Harald to determine that bit about the game world? Is it just the setting leaving a lot of space, or is it any actual rule? Oh, and Frank, can you run TSOY next time I see you?

- Jasper

Hi Jasper, I will be running TSoY at GroFaFo Rally on Friday evening, I believe you are running UA at the same time, but maybe you can drop by for a bit.

Harald making up that part about the rules of Ratkin society was not governed by an explicit rule of TSoY. Rather, the setting leaves this stuff open, and we all just accepted Harald’s interpretation.

- Frank

Frank,
I know that I was just riffing on the idea of the rites and rules, but I think we bounced ideas off each other lightly before going on. And we didn't establish the rules for overall Ratkin society either - only for this litter. Right? But if they are different, I am fairly sure the group's ideas will be why. Or it will be to hit a Key.

Jasper,
in the rules, Clinton writes 'Near is yours to explore.' He deliberately decribed the world in only broad sketches to allow people filling in the details and to give the PCs the freedom to influence it in a meaningful way. There isn't much in there that would prohibit you from trying to become lord over a whole part of Maldor, and there is the real possibility for a character to unite Maldor. Imagine that in scripted worlds like Grehawk, DSA's Aventurien, or others with a high 'census-style detail' level.

It's not as if the freedom would come through explicit scene framing director stance techniques or some such - TSoY is pretty classic in the player/gm setup, only the gm gets better input regarding the players' interests by way of Keys (and secrets, to an extent).