Greetings:
This is a summary of a Ganakagok game at MACE.  We had four players and GM, which was a good number based on the time available.  The players were Jason, Andy, Tanith, and Jeremy, with me (Mel) as the GM.  Jason, Andy, and I had played Tenra Bansho Zero (a great game itself!) earlier in the day.  Jeremy and Tanith were a couple that jumped over to play Ganakagok instead of the D&D game they were signed up for, so after that, the night was a success regardless of what happened! 

In character generation, I think the initial response was from everyone, myself included, was ‘what have we gotten ourselves into?”  There is a lot going on at the start of the game.  Characters are generated using the Ganakagok tarot deck as inspiration, good medicine is divided up into gifts, bad medicine is divided up into burdens, a character map is generated, the world map is created, and the Ganakagok tarots are used to determine what’s going on in the world at large, and in the village of the characters.  Interpreting the cards is a lot of the fun of being the GM, and the experience at MACE makes me think that the players would enjoy more opportunities to interpret the cards. 

The characters were (from youngest to oldest):
Tarlanegaq (Tanith) Rebellious hunter shaman, daughter of Amikvik
Truth Vision—sees change coming in the behavior of the animals and the nature of the environment
Change Hope—That the people will grow strong and lose their complacency
Change Fear—That the people will continue to be weak
Tornliaq (Jason) Crippled Outcast
Truth Vision—Sees change in reading the stars
Change Hope—The people will be punished and will regret making him an outcast
Change Fear—All will be destroyed, the punishment will go too far. 
Anitahu (Jeremy) Regretful mariner
Truth Vision—The sea serpent that killed his sailor followers spared Anitahu with knowledge that the sun is coming
Change Hope—That he will be reunited with his dead followers after change comes
Change Fear—That he will be reunited with his followers but that they will still resent him for leading them to their deaths
Amikvik (Andy) Cautious (?) Chief
Truth Vision—He senses change coming, without knowing exactly how
Change Hope—Change will lead to prosperity for the village ( I think).
Change Fear—(?) [Ugh—I’m drawing a blank—sorry, Andy]

I decided that we would play one round each for Night, Twilight, and Dawn stages, ending with the narration of each character’s Fate at Morning.  In a normal game, Stage change occurs when the mana levels in the magic spitit pools reach a certain level.  But in the four-hour convention timetable, we would not have enough time to do that.  The format we used worked out well in that we were able to get to morning in just under 4 hours (we ended after midnight but we started late).     

Here is a summary of how the game progressed, although I know I have misremembered some scenes, and I welcome any comments or corrections. 

Night
Tarlanegaq—Returns home from the hunt to learn her mother forbids her to go out onto the ice and has arranged her marriage to Adulop.  Adulop and his parents will shortly arrive for dinner, for the bridegroom to get a look at his future mate and decide if he wants to proceed with the marriage.  If the bridegroom rejects the bride, this can cause great scandal in the village.  Tarlanegaq does not want to get married, so she wants to convince Adulop to reject her, without bringing shame to her family.  In the Face test that follows, Tarlanegaq succeeds.  Tanith narrates Adulop postponing the wedding, a not unusual occurrence, so that both bride and groom can determine their true feelings.
Tornliaq—While paddling in his kayak, Tornliaq encounters a large party of kayakers sailing south.  The party explains they are coming from the north, seeking Tornliaq’s village, Anagutokuq.  Tornliaq offers to take them to the village, and reveals that he believes the Sun is coming.  The northerners are offended, and reveal that they were coming to seek alliance with Anagutokug against heretic sun worshippers.  The northerners decide Tornliaq must be killed.  Realizing he cannot flee, Tornliaq reveals his Lore of the People of the South, who are rumored to worship the sun, and convinces the northerners that the People of the South are a more dangerous threat and should be defeated first.  Anitahu joins Tornliaq to help deter the northerners.  The northerners head south. 
Anitahu—Distracted by the northerners, Anitahu (and Tornliaq) finds himself trapped in a circular ring of ice.  Anitahu realizes that this is not a natural formation of ice and that it is the Sea Serpent sending the ice to claim him.  Anitahu uses his Soul to call upon the Sea Serpent to come take him itself.  The Serpent comes, and in smashing its way through the ice, distracted by the flashing of the aurora called by Tornliaq, opens a passage through which Anitahu and Tornliaq can flee.
Amikvik—  At resttime, while examining the stars, Amikvik sees a villager running to the north.  Amikvik chases and catches the villager, Nerguyuk.  Nerguyuk explains that he is being drawn north by a vision of a ball of fire burning in front of his eyes.  He must go to the Mountain of Ice.  Amikvik tries to convince Nerguyuk to return to the village, but fails.  Nerguyuk continues north. 

Twilight
Tarlanegaq—Hunting on the ice, sees ice wolf tracks and decides to follow them.  The tracks lead to a nude man, sitting on the snow.  The man reveals himself to be Kotoye, a god, and he needs a mortal body.  Tarlanegaq agree to give up her body, but indicates she is not a worthy vessel and could find Kotoye a better form.  Kotoye agrees, and shares Tarlanegaq’s body as she finds him a new vessel—Adulop, her former suitor!  Kotoye leaves Tarlanegaq and takes over Adulop.  [This scene ended here without conflict.  I should have said that here is the conflict—can Tarlanegaq convince, subdue, or otherwise defeat Adulop so that Kotoye can take over Adulop’s form.  Ah, well.  It was cool nonetheless.]
Tornliaq—[I’m a little confused as to what happened here.  I messed up during the turn.  It started as Tornliaq’s turn but led to a conflict for Amikvik.  Tornliaq returned to the village and instigated the actions in Amikvik’s scene (below).  Tornliaq did not face a conflict of his own.]
Anitahu—Word comes to the village that more fishermen are trapped on an iceberg at sea.  If they are not rescued they will die.  Anitahu leads the charge to rescue the villagers.  Tarlanegaq (who is now the village chief, in accordance with Amikvik’s actions) and Tornliaq are also present.  Arriving at the scene, Anitahu realizes that the men are once more trapped by the hideous Sea Serpent.  The people struggle valiantly to free their comrades from the beast, but are defeated. The fishermen are lost.  Anitahu and the others return to shore.  Anitahu feels the loss most keenly. 
Amikvik—The village is restless.  The people see the changes occurring, they see other villages moving, they hear of strange incidents at sea, and they are concerned.  A group of villagers confronts Amikvik to see what he wants them to do and why isn’t Anagutokug (the village) doing something.  Amikvik reassures them, saying he knows what he is doing.  Amikvik believes that the coming change is good, thus no action is necessary.  But the people are worried, and Kotoye (in Adulop’s form) starts calling for a new chief.  Tornliaq joins in!  Amikvik’s leadership is at stake as he must convince the people that he knows what is best.  Amikvik wins the Face challenge in the ensuing debate, but then appoints his daughter Tarlanegaq as the new village leader

Dawn
Tarlanegaq—Kotoye, in Adulop’s form, tells Tarlanegaq that he wants her to be his wife to savor the experiences of mortals.  Tarlanegaq agrees.  Kotoye then tells Tarlanegaq that the Sun is coming, and if the Sun should rise, then Kotoye will disappear from the world.  In order to prevent the sun rising, he needs mortal form to travel to the Mountain of Ice, and he needs many mortals to go with him.  Therefore, he needs Tarlanegaq to convince the People to travel to the Mountain of Ice.  Tarlanegaq doubts the sincerity of Kotoye, and makes a Soul challenge to determine if the god has good intentions or bad intentions for the village.  She succeeds, and realizes that Kotoye has the peoples’ best interests in mind. [The scene ended there, but I should have continued it to see if Tarlanegaq would move the people to the Mountain of Ice—however, Morning to follow!]
Tornliaq—Tornliaq, having sabotaged all the village kayaks but his own, kidnaps the object of his love, a young woman of the village, and takes her to the mountain of ice.  There he discovers a grand chamber.  In its center is a huge circular altar from which come many channels cut into the rock.  Torliaq struggles to determine what the purpose of this chamber is.  He wins a Mind challenge to realize it is a refuge—perhaps a place of safety for the coming change. 
Anitahu—On the village shore, Anitahu is examining his damaged kayak when from out of the water shamble the bloated, fish-eaten, undead bodies of his former fishermen friends and followers.  They have come to claim him for the Sea Serpent!  Without his boat to escape, Anitahu’s fate is sealed—the cannibal ghouls take him!  Anitahu faces a Soul challenge to determine if he faces eternity as a ghoul remembering his past mortal life, or if he dies at peace, atoning for losing his followers by himself being eaten by the Sea Serpent.  In the challenge, Tornliaq helps Anitahu with magic, but to do so Tornliaq must abandon his love for the young woman.  He abandons her in the Mountain of Ice!  [Cool!]  Anitahu wins the Soul challenge and so we see the ghouls carry Anitahu to the waiting Sea Serpent except as Anitahu breathes in that first breath of cold salt water he stands and walks into the maw of the Serpent!  [Cool again!]
Amikvik—Amikvik’s wife, comes to him to talk.  She notes the changing of the environment, the stars disappearing, and rumors of other villages picking up in their entirety and heading north.  She doubts the wisdom of having made Tarlanegaq chief.  Amikvik is in conflict with his wife—he wants to reassure her of her doubts and convince her that he knows best and has acted properly.  Amikvik wins this Face challenge, and the wife is mollified. 

Morning (at this point, the fates of Ganakagok, the People, and the characters are revealed. 
Ganakagok—18 Bad Medicine vs 16 Good Medicine (narrated by Tanith).  The rising sun wreaks havoc on the land melting the ice and causing much destruction and death.  Pockets of humanity remain, struggling to survive.
The People—10 Bad Medicine vs 8 Good Medicine—(narrated by Andy).  Having found refuge in the Mountain of Ice, the people survive physically.  But eventually they emerge into the light and, being the only coherent force in the world begin a campaign to rule all others in a cruel and merciless autocracy.  The people have lost their humanity. 
Tarlanegaq—(Narrated by Tanith) A positive result (more good medicine than bad medicine):  Tarlanegaq is the dictator that leads the People to domination.  Her change hope has come true—the People have become strong.
Tornliaq—(Narrated by Jason) A negative result (more bad medicine than good medicine):  Tornliaq dies on the ice as the sun rises, trying in vain to reach the Mountain of Ice in order to see once more the love he forsook.
Anitahu—(Narrated by Jeremy) A negative result.  Anitahu’s soul exists in lonely solitude, never gaining the forgiveness of the sailors he led to their deaths. 
Amikvik—(Narrated by Andy) A negative result.  Amikvik survives the refuge but lives out his days horrified by what the People have become. 

All in all, a grand time!

Mel

Wow, you're fast, Mel!  I really enjoyed playing, although I was physically exhausted and not at my best. 

Ganakagok has a good amount of complexity that demands explanation up front, and were I Bill I'd try to find ways to address this in play, perhaps through some procedure akin to initiations in Dogs, where the important bits are introduced methodically but gradually.  We had a sub-optimal situation (Tanith arrived late, people were eating, it was a chaotic room full of noise) and things got explained, re-explained, and occasionally lost or missed.  All this, and the game itself does not really conform to a four hour block effectively.  Mel did a good job under the circumstances.  I think a "convention version" could be developed that adjusts rules (as Mel did on the fly, by necessity) to make it punchier and faster at the outset.

This was the first time I'd seen the cards and they are nice, although the purist in me chafes at the indiscriminate mixing of iconography from Northwest Coast to Athabascan to Inuit.  The books themselves look great, too. 

The most interesting thing for me was observing the two players who fell into the game more or less by chance, showing up to play D&D. They obviously found Ganakagok very accessible and at the end of the night expressed their intention to buy a copy. 

Wow!  Cool game!  I particularly enjoy the gender reversal, where it is Tarlanegaq the rebellious female hunter-shaman who becomes chieftain and then ironically leads the People to conquest and domination, while the male heroes meet their dooms out on the ice.  And I am moved by the fate of Tornliaq.

Mel wrote:
In character generation, I think the initial response was from everyone, myself included, was ‘what have we gotten ourselves into?”  There is a lot going on at the start of the game.  Characters are generated using the Ganakagok tarot deck as inspiration, good medicine is divided up into gifts, bad medicine is divided up into burdens, a character map is generated, the world map is created, and the Ganakagok tarots are used to determine what’s going on in the world at large, and in the village of the characters.  Interpreting the cards is a lot of the fun of being the GM, and the experience at MACE makes me think that the players would enjoy more opportunities to interpret the cards.

Jason wrote:
Ganakagok has a good amount of complexity that demands explanation up front, and were I Bill I'd try to find ways to address this in play, perhaps through some procedure akin to initiations in Dogs, where the important bits are introduced methodically but gradually.  We had a sub-optimal situation (Tanith arrived late, people were eating, it was a chaotic room full of noise) and things got explained, re-explained, and occasionally lost or missed.  All this, and the game itself does not really conform to a four hour block effectively.  Mel did a good job under the circumstances.  I think a "convention version" could be developed that adjusts rules (as Mel did on the fly, by necessity) to make it punchier and faster at the outset.

I decided that we would play one round each for Night, Twilight, and Dawn stages, ending with the narration of each character’s Fate at Morning.  In a normal game, Stage change occurs when the mana levels in the magic spitit pools reach a certain level.  But in the four-hour convention timetable, we would not have enough time to do that.  The format we used worked out well in that we were able to get to morning in just under 4 hours (we ended after midnight but we started late).     

This was the first time I'd seen the cards and they are nice, although the purist in me chafes at the indiscriminate mixing of iconography from Northwest Coast to Athabascan to Inuit.  The books themselves look great, too. 

The most interesting thing for me was observing the two players who fell into the game more or less by chance, showing up to play D&D. They obviously found Ganakagok very accessible and at the end of the night expressed their intention to buy a copy. 

You know I'm an anthropology wonk, so don't mind my complaining about the cards.  That said - dude, hook up with an Inuit artist who can work in the vernacular.

The game would have been a thousand times better in a quiet room, without any distractions, without people eating dinner and playing at the same time.  Too many distractions.   

My favorite bits were my grandstanding, hateful screeds, where Tornliaq laid into the entire community, scolding them and criticizing their behavior while begging them to listen to him.  That was great. 

I've had the exact same experience of two D&D players sitting down at the game when another session folded. And they rocked it like crazy. It's interesting to hear that Bill has seen D&D players take up Ganakagok easily.

Bill, do you see D&D players having an easier time grasping Ganakagok? Like, more so than White Wolf players, for example?

Bill_White wrote:
What were the moments where playing the game was cool, or conversely, a drag, beyond that initial steep learning curve of "This is how we're going to do it right now, for this game" or even within it?

Mel wrote:

Bill_White wrote:
What were the moments where playing the game was cool, or conversely, a drag, beyond that initial steep learning curve of "This is how we're going to do it right now, for this game" or even within it?

Bill,
One concern I had during play was that Jeremy would not be able to participate in the in-game activities because his character, Anitahu, began the game with 2 good medicine and thus only 2 gifts.  During play, as we carried out each player turn, I could see that Jeremy wanted his character to do something to influence the results of the other characters' conflicts, but he couldn't unless Anitahu was present.  I've been thinking that if this is a problem, some solutions could be to have a floor for the amount of gifts a character starts with, allow the character to draw an additional card for gifts, or provide an opportunity for the players to trade gifts and burdens at the start of the game. 
Mel

Andrew wrote:
I've had the exact same experience of two D&D players sitting down at the game when another session folded. And they rocked it like crazy. It's interesting to hear that Bill has seen D&D players take up Ganakagok easily.

Bill, do you see D&D players having an easier time grasping Ganakagok? Like, more so than White Wolf players, for example?

Jason wrote:
My favorite bits were my grandstanding, hateful screeds, where Tornliaq laid into the entire community, scolding them and criticizing their behavior while begging them to listen to him.  That was great. 

The cards offer so much latitude that I often had a good idea the direction I wanted to go before the reveal.  So nothing got in the way, and the main phrase was often very - weirdly - appropriate. 

Hey, some other questions --

Mel wrote:
Twilight
Tarlanegaq—Hunting on the ice, sees ice wolf tracks and decides to follow them.  The tracks lead to a nude man, sitting on the snow.  The man reveals himself to be Kotoye, a god, and he needs a mortal body.  Tarlanegaq agree to give up her body, but indicates she is not a worthy vessel and could find Kotoye a better form.  Kotoye agrees, and shares Tarlanegaq’s body as she finds him a new vessel—Adulop, her former suitor!  Kotoye leaves Tarlanegaq and takes over Adulop.  [This scene ended here without conflict.  I should have said that here is the conflict—can Tarlanegaq convince, subdue, or otherwise defeat Adulop so that Kotoye can take over Adulop’s form.  Ah, well.  It was cool nonetheless.]

Tornliaq—[I’m a little confused as to what happened here.  I messed up during the turn.  It started as Tornliaq’s turn but led to a conflict for Amikvik.  Tornliaq returned to the village and instigated the actions in Amikvik’s scene (below).  Tornliaq did not face a conflict of his own.]

Amikvik—The village is restless.  The people see the changes occurring, they see other villages moving, they hear of strange incidents at sea, and they are concerned.  A group of villagers confronts Amikvik to see what he wants them to do and why isn’t Anagutokug (the village) doing something.  Amikvik reassures them, saying he knows what he is doing.  Amikvik believes that the coming change is good, thus no action is necessary.  But the people are worried, and Kotoye (in Adulop’s form) starts calling for a new chief.  Tornliaq joins in!  Amikvik’s leadership is at stake as he must convince the people that he knows what is best.  Amikvik wins the Face challenge in the ensuing debate, but then appoints his daughter Tarlanegaq as the new village leader

Bill_White wrote:
The point is, once the player has committed the character to a course of action whose outcome depends on how others react or respond, you've got a roll. Will that work, do you think?

Bill_White wrote:
Did Amikvik's turn come right after Tornliaq's (or during it), or did you play out Anitahu's turn first?
If I understand correctly, here is where Jason-playing-Tornliaq went back to the village and shrilly demanded that the People heed him, in direct response to a situation card. How did you frame that for him, Mel, do you remember? 

Actually Andy narrated himself into the scene and moved forward with a compelling bit of narration, changing things a bit - I was glad to step back and let him have a conflict there.  I didn't see any reason to enforce rigid turn sequence - it seemed natural.

Jason wrote:
Actually Andy narrated himself into the scene and moved forward with a compelling bit of narration, changing things a bit - I was glad to step back and let him have a conflict there. I didn't see any reason to enforce rigid turn sequence - it seemed natural.

Mel wrote:

Jason wrote:
Actually Andy narrated himself into the scene and moved forward with a compelling bit of narration, changing things a bit - I was glad to step back and let him have a conflict there. I didn't see any reason to enforce rigid turn sequence - it seemed natural.

Jason was very gracious about my messing up the turn sequence.  But I do like the turn sequence, I think it's an important aspect of the game.  That is, younger characters act first so that older characters can choose to base their actions on what they saw happen to the younger character.  We saw a little bit of this in the game at MACE.  In the first turn, where Tarlenagaq was confronted by her mother (Mom forbid Tarlenagaq from going out on the ice to hunt).  At this point, Andy introduced his character Amikvik (Tarlenagaq's father) as being present.  It was Amikvik (played by Andy) who brought up the idea of marriage for Tarlenagaq and indicated that he was discussing the marriage with Adulop's parents.  That inspired the idea of a pre-wedding dinner to showcase the bride-to-be. 
And in Tornliaq's first scene, in which he was confronted by the northern paddlers, Jeremy suggested that his character, Anitahu (who was an older village fisherman) would also be there.  So, in Anitahu's scene immediately following, he and Tornliaq start off together.   
Now, that's not to say that younger characters can't seek to be present in older character's scenes, but the turn order builds the dynamic where it is the 'youngsters' get themselves or the village in trouble, or set the scene, and their older and wiser compatriots who come to the rescue or provide some element of wisdom to move the story towards the endgame. 
Mel