Mortal Coil really speaks to me, so I chose it as the first game to GM after a 15 year hiatus. I wanted to try it out in a fantasy setting, and to counter all the free publicity pirates have been getting recently, I decided the players would be Vikings. Also, to get this one-shot scenario started, I decided that the players were all members of the same community (but they could decide what kind) and that the community had lost something or somebody, and needed to get it back.

The four players - Frank, John, Saif and Jack - were all experienced and creative roleplayers. They quickly united on a bleak Arctic setting. Together we figured out that they'd been up north fishing over the summer along a desolate coastline. Now the days were getting shorter, they'd sighted the season's first icebergs, and it was high time to head south. But their chieftain, the navigator, was missing. And the characters were just teenagers, so they were really up Shit Fjord.

They wanted a "gritty" tone, and a Low Magic setting. So who was the villain going to be? I cast out some examples: trolls, giants, elves, other Vikings etc. They settled on one of the most prosaic, the indigenous Sami reindeer herders. The Sami have a tradition of shamanic magic, so that suited me fine.

With that established, it was time to move to character generation. We started with Passions, and I gave them an extra instruction: for each character I wanted at least one Passion to relate to their chieftain or the Sami, and at least one to relate to another player character.

to be continued..

The players created four Novices with the following Passions:

Sigmund (Saif)
Hate: I want to kill a man
Duty: I must obey my chieftain (Sigurd)
Fear: Permafrost/Far reaches
Duty: never abandon Gardur

Gardur (Frank)
Love: Frigg, the chieftain's daughter
Fear: of being alone
Duty: Help Sigmund kill a man

Torvald (Jake)
Love: my brother Ketil is the best
Fear: the natives and their magic
Duty: Protect and sustain our people

Ketil (John)
Fear: We will die here. We must flee with the food
Duty: I know I'm better than them. I will prove it.
Hate: As the oldest, I should marry first

Noticing that Frank's character is in love with the chieftain's daughter, I decided that she's missing too.

The players finished up their characters. Only one, Ketil, had a magical skill - Runecasting. Of course, we didn't yet know what it could do.

Play starts: They're in the boat with the last catch of cod, heading back to the camp where they've spent the summer. They're expecting to see Sigurd and Frigg greeting them from the shore, but there's no one there. The camp is empty. There is no sign of a fight, but there are tracks leading inland through a patch of newly fallen snow. They spy a Sami hunter silhouetted on a distant hill and decide to head after him.

At this point I already have a plot in mind: Frigg has fallen in love with a young Sami, whom the Viking group has been dealing with over the summer. With the departure south approaching, she fled to the Sami village to be with her love. When her father discovered where she'd gone, he went after her, got into a fight with the Sami, and was shut, wounded, into a cave. Not a bad plot, but looking back, I may have been a little hasty in settling on this - it didn't jibe so well with the players' concept of the Sami, as we shall see. Maybe I should have kept a more open mind.

to be cont....

I am always really interested by people's passion choices. I like that Sigmund and Gardur have a relationship that is based entirely on Duty (something you do because you feel you have to, not because you want to).

I also love this one of Ketil's: "Hate: As the oldest, I should marry first."

John, Ketil's player, didn't really take to the Love/Hate/Duty/Fear categories. I'm the one who's shoehorned them into the categories. But it worked fine anyway.

Looking back, however, I wish I'd gotten more of their Passions into play. However, the players could have been more active in this respect too. I think a formal link between Passions and rewards might help.

boredoom wrote:
Looking back, however, I wish I'd gotten more of their Passions into play. However, the players could have been more active in this respect too. I think a formal link between Passions and rewards might help.

Brennan wrote:

boredoom wrote:
Looking back, however, I wish I'd gotten more of their Passions into play. However, the players could have been more active in this respect too. I think a formal link between Passions and rewards might help.

There is a formal link between Passions and winning conflicts. They are actually worth a great deal in terms of the conflict resolution system. I wonder why your group didn't try to call on them more.

boredoom wrote:

Brennan wrote:

boredoom wrote:
Looking back, however, I wish I'd gotten more of their Passions into play. However, the players could have been more active in this respect too. I think a formal link between Passions and rewards might help.

There is a formal link between Passions and winning conflicts. They are actually worth a great deal in terms of the conflict resolution system. I wonder why your group didn't try to call on them more.

They did call on them quite a bit, but it was more like the Passion was something that helped once they were in a particular situation, rather than a reason to guide the story in a particular direction (which would make the job easier for me). I imagine an "XP award" tied to getting Passions into play would help, but I could be wrong.

Damn this lack of editing.

Post editing, I mean. Damn it again.