I'm after the first full-session playtest of Absolute Destiny Apocalypse, my Game Chef entry. Information about the game and link to the document itself can be found here.

It was a prep session, and it lasted about four hours. Fleshing out the setting took us an hour or so, primary Personae creation roughly two hours, creating secondary Personae slightly above half an hour, and the rest of the time we've spent working out the web of relations between the Duelists and their supporting cast. We didn't finish the last step, as it was already late, but as it turns out it would be superfluous anyway.

We've been playing via Skype, and I suppose things would go a bit faster face to face. For example, I've been busy writing everything, and sometimes I had to read things aloud, cause other players were noting down only their own characters. I imagine it would be easier if we could simply pass the sheets around the table, and draw the relationship map for everyone to see. We should have used a wiki or something to facilitate online prep, but this thought came up only after the session (normally when we play online we do just fine scribbling stuff).

My players were Kamil, Sylwester and Jacek. Kamil took part in Game Chef, too, but didn't finish his entry before the deadline; he was the only one who had read my game in whole, anyway. Sylwester has been playing with us via Skype for some months now, but he is still strongly rooted in the “traditional” gaming mindset, and is probably the less spontaneously creative of us (we're making some slow progress with him, fortunately). Jacek designs games and digs “indie” stuff, and it was his first Skype session ever.

The Academy

Fleshing out the Academy took us roughly an hour. I've been expecting it to take this long, so it went according to my estimations (it's possible it would have went faster if it wasn't our first time, or if everyone read the chapter before the session). We went through the guiding questions and discussed the setting. During later steps, we've been coming back to some issues a few times, and we've added some things.

I definitely need to give a short summary of the process in the next version of the game, and include an Academy worksheet.

The idea of situating the Academy in Berlin during the first days of World War II came up some days before the session, and after making sure we're all OK with this and discussing how we'll handle the issues of Nazism we've settled on this concept. Note that historical accuracy wasn't our aim, and there are things we've approached rather loosely.

We decided that the Academy is a large palace near Berlin, surrounded by a forest. One wing of the palace is used as the dorm, and most students live there. Despite there being electricity, the palace is illuminated mostly by candles and lamps, due to an old tradition. Someone proposed that there are paintings hanging everywhere, and I find it a great idea, as it makes it possible for us to frame scenes with allegorical images in the background. This basically handles the issue of symbolism.

Important locations we came up with include:

-a small ruined castle on a nearby hill, with wild roses growing everywhere (the usual place of the duels).
-sparse vine cellars under the palace.
-a monument of the founder on the courtyard, with the dueling code inscribed on a big tablet.
-a bed of roses on the courtyard, with white roses surrounded by red. With the passage of time, some of  the white roses will start becoming black, slowly forming a swastika in the middle of the flower bed.
-there are stables in the Academy, and students can enjoy horse rides (this one was added after creating one of the NPCs).

The students come mostly from aristocratic or wealthy families, with some children of foreign diplomats in the mix. With a total disregard for historical accuracy, we decided that it's a coeducational school and that not all of the students are Hitlerjugend or BDM.

The Duelists are chosen and ordered to duel by the Academy's governing body. The duels are fought in secret, and take place in the nearby ruins, with only Dramatis Personae as witnesses (well, teachers are probably witnesses, too, but as per the rules they can't actively intrude into the story or even be directly narrated). There was a proposition that for the time of the duels, the spirits of old heroes enter the bodies of the Duelists. Consequently, some “ghostly” special effects are possible (e.g. the dueling students can cast shadows of fighting knights onto the walls, and things like spectral auras, glowing eyes and strange sounds can be narrated). The exact purpose for the dueling is not given yet, but there's an air of approaching change everywhere around the Academy.

The decadent sect is a group of students who enjoy special privileges from the Academy's governing body, as they willingly partake in its secret pagan practices.

The agents of the sacred order belong to Thule Society. They know of the coming Revolution and try to hinder it for an unspecified reason.

(Yup. Teenage occult ninja Nazis.)

The primary Personae

Creating the player characters took us roughly two hours, and this is at least an hour longer than I expected. Oddly enough, the purely mechanical choices at the end were pretty fast – what took the most time was defining concepts, Desires and Shames. I suppose what slowed us down the most was that Sylwester and Jacek had only browsed the game before the session, and were not fully familiar with the archetypes. Kamil was done with everything in no time. However, even taking into account that this was the first time and some explanation was needed, this part definitely took too long.

The only three numerical values describing the character are freely chosen by the players, but Kamil pointed out that there might be a tendency to use 9/6/3 spread. Currently, Sylwester is the only one whose virtues don't match this spread. Remarkably, everyone set Love low – there will be plenty of tragic consequences in conflicts connected with interpersonal relations. After one session it's impossible for me to say if the game indeed encourages such choices, however.

The primary Duelists and the supporting cast the players created are as follows:

Ivo, Rosa Tenebra (the dark rose) – Sylwester
Concept: A spoiled aristocratic kid.
Appearance: Tall, dark haired and with black eyes, elegant. There's a visible aloofness in his manners.
Desire: Dear Diary... The world changes and becomes prone to influence. It's an opportunity for me to take things in my own hands, however, there are “obstructions” in my way. I need to eliminate them. I'll demonstrate I'm the only person worthy of doing this. (Note that everyone quickly adopted the “Dear Diary...” formula for giving an insight into the character's head.)
Shame: Dear Diary... As the world becomes prone to influence, so do I. I hate it and I won't allow anyone to manipulate me.
Virtues: Faith 8, Hope 8, Love 4
Fencing style: Fast and agile movements, precise attacks. Fights with rapier.
Initial technique: Fleche
Intermediate technique: Lunge
Supreme technique: En Garde
Supporting cast:
-Clara (The Giver) – the most popular girl in the Academy, blind to everything that is not connected with Ivo.
-Otto (The Schemer) – a junior student impressed by Ivo, learning his ways. He knows that Ivo is a bastard child, however.

Edgar, Rosa Foetida (the orange rose) – Jacek
Concept: An aggressive free spirit. (I find it interesting how Jacek interpreted the “addiction” of Rosa Foetida as a desire for demonstrating individualism and freedom here.)
Appearance: Dark hair in disorder, eyes constantly glaring into the distance. He wears an orange scarf.
Desire: Dear Diary... The life is like a growth over garden. Despite there being many paths I can walk alone, there are other roses that can appear in may way.
Shame: Dear Diary... I'm afraid that the path I take will lead me into denser woods.
Virtues: Faith 9, Hope 6, Love 3
Fencing style: He attacks furiously, with wide swings, often damaging scenery. His combat stance would make for an impressive sculpture. Fights with two slightly rusted sabers.
Initial technique: Riposte
Intermediate technique: Lunge
Supreme technique: Fleche
Supporting cast:
-Alexa (The Instigator) – a girl that talks Edgar into disobedience.
Duelist link:
-He can't stand Ivo, seeing who he is.

Gudrun, Rosa Chinensis (the red rose) – Kamil
Concept: A strong aristocratic girl.
Appearance: She's well-built and although her hair is redish, she'd make for a perfect Aryan otherwise.
Desire: Dear Diary... I've found my ideal. It's the person that should be example for all of us, but she's so fragile.
Shame: Dear Diary... This time she went too far. Do I really have to defend her in every situation?
Virtues: Faith 6, Hope 9, Love 4
Fencing style: She fights with a foil, aggressively and with precision.
Initial technique: Bind
Intermediate technique: En Garde
Supreme technique: Beat
Supporting cast:
-Astrid (The Beloved) – her younger sister. She's capricious and moody, but Gudrun fails to notice this.
Duelist link:
-She respects Rosa Mystica, as she is wiser and knows what she wants.

The secondary Personae

Round robin creation of two secondary Duelists along with their supporting cast took us half an hour or so, and players liked it. Oddly, the process took us much less time than it took individual players to create their own characters. It may be because everyone was adding aspects into some already determined context. (Sylwester was visibly focusing on choosing fencing techniques, which didn't require him to be creative, so he didn't have creative blocks he often experiences, hmm...).

Since there was no set order for determining things, we've been fleshing out these aspects of the character that were most exciting to us in the first place. E.g. I started creating Rosa Mytica from her supporting character, and I think it's fascinating how the way I defined The Admirer influenced our later choices.

Also, somehow I find the secondary Personae more interesting than the main characters. Maybe it's because I had an actual input here, or maybe they really are.

Marliese, Rosa Mystica (the blue rose)
Concept: A talented violinist.
Appearance: Deep blue eyes, fair hair in a bun, wears glasses. Always deeply in thought, often seen reading a newspaper.
Desire: Dear Diary... How come people are so unpredictable?
Shame: Dear Diary... I'm afraid that Hitler's rule will not bring anything good to us.
Fencing style: Observes her opponent's movements carefully, looking for openings. Pure logic. Fights with foil.
Initial technique: Riposte
Intermediate technique: Lunge
Supreme technique: Feint
Supporting cast:
-Ralf (The Admirer) – a Hitlerjugend who always invites her for Nazi parades.
Duelist link:
-She sees Rosa Foetida as an embodiment of chaos and unpredictability.

Katarina, Rosa Gallica (the purple rose)
Concept: A fanatic Party member.
Appearance: She's wearing a violet velvet riding cloak and gloves. Often impatiently beats one glove with another.
Desire: Dear Diary... I want to be admired by those who believe in the power of the Reich like me.
Shame: Dear Diary... I can see all the lies of our Fuhrer very well. However, I'll continue to lead our brothers and sisters according to his orders. The Reich needs a strong leader.
Fencing style: She advances constantly, leaving no chances for a counterattack, never retreating. Fights with a Karabela.
Initial technique: Lunge
Intermediate technique: Bind
Supreme technique: Fleche
Supporting cast:
-Kai (The Assistant) – a young Jew devoted to Nazi ideals.
-Mathias (The Rival) – a fanatic of Hitler who knows Katarina does not believe in their leader and sees her as a traitor.

The relationship map

At this point, for every Duelist we should have defined one or two links with other Duelist's supporting characters. The problem is, I wasn't drawing the relationship map during previous steps, being too busy with noting down stuff (representing the map online was problematic, too) and we've been in a hurry as it was already late. We've found ourselves going over the titles' descriptions quickly, and I've been re-reading my notes about the supporting cast many times. It was all very confused and disorganized, especially that we've been all tired.

So, I decided that Katarina has indirectly used Otto once, causing him disciplinary problems. Sylwester decided that Ivo saved Astrid from drunken students in the past, and now the girl supports him. Kamil decided that Ralf is a childhood friend of Edgar, worried about his apparent moral decline. And then, we wrapped things up. It took us almost half an hour, and there were still five relations left to define. It was taking us too long, and was too confusing without a relationship map before our eyes.

We decided to leave it for the beginning of the next session. However, we probably won't do it, as this step is superfluous, I think.

Conclusions

All in all, it was a good playtest, as some issues to deal with came up.

-After the session, everyone agreed that round robin NPC creation is cool, and more fun than creating one's own character alone. I think it's better if I make this a default method for creating all characters, and not only secondary cast, however drastic change it is. Everyone will be choosing one title to flesh out (with three players, the host will be choosing twice, with two players, both will be choosing twice). Then, players will be choosing their characters from among the prepared cast, determining their virtues at the very end of Dramatis Personae creation.

-As a finishing step of initial prep, defining additional relationships seems superfluous to me. I can just as well leave it for the play itself. Since there are ten or eleven aspects to define for each character, there is always someone who gets to define less aspects than others. This player will gain the authority to define extra relation listed for the archetype at any later moment in play (if the given rose title has only one supporting character, two players left at the end of the queue get one relation to define each). Such relations will be defined abruptly, potentially changing the meaning of past events, just like with revealing hidden allegiances.

-There seems too be a bit too many characters in the initial Dramatis Personae. There's definitely more of them than needed for the first session. I think I'll set the number of starting Duelists at four (instead of players' Duelists + two secondary Duelists). The initial relationship map will be easier to manage that way. Later, new Duelists will be added to the relationship map the group is already accustomed to.

-Every Duelist gets a relation to one another Duelist, and this gives the relationship map a structure of the enneagram. I'm wondering if it's good for these relations to be defined in the book. They ascertain some dynamisms between the characters, but may be too constraining. Maybe it's better if these relations are freely defined by players (with examples given in the text).

-The rose titles most probably need some broadening. I want them to provide a strong structure for creating a conflicted relationship map, and ascertain a specific variation in the cast. However, they should still leave a lot of space for customization. Or maybe I should leave them more or less as they are, but ask the group to draw inspiration from titles' descriptions instead of narrowing the niches down?

-I definitely need to include a pre-made Academy and cast in the book, to remove the necessity of prep for pick-up games.

-A minor aesthetic issue. I think I need to enforce the group choosing if it's the Duelist's hair or clothing (or both) that must match the rose's color, so that it was consistent across the board.