(Sorry if this post is a monster. Might I recommend a hardcopy and a comfortable armchair?)

I've been running TSOY as a fill-in game while our main (Castles and Crusades) game has been on hold due to scheduling difficulties. AP for the first session here:

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=24038.msg235112#msg235112

We've now run three sessions, and I think that the quality has generally improved session to session. The 2nd and 3rd session involved two of the players from the first one (M and R).

In the first session, we follow Frank T's "Snakes in the Shadows" scenario, and the second session involved two of the characters (Dancian and Amoux) arriving in the Maldorite city of Ryodan with a fair weight of the mooonsilver in tow. They found the city under the control of one General Francisco, who'd just taken the city in a coup, but after upsetting Francisco (by badly bungling an attempt to sell the moonsilver) they ended up siding with the desposed ruler (Duchess Josefina) and killing Francisco.

The Third Session
In the third session, I worked on the assumption that the PCs would try to make trading arrangements for the moonsilver. I also wanted to make sure that there were interesting things to do and respond to. I'd told the players beforehand that the action would be confined to Ryodan and it's immediate environs. This allowed me to prep with the knowledge that any NPCs I developed would remain within reach of the action. In future, I'd want to negotiate this before starting prep - the players could then choose to be somewhere else (although they'd then be committed to it)- but the game was at short notice so there wasn't really time. I did ask the players for what their plans were for the session, but that wasn't until the day before so I wasn't really able to take account of it. Again, in future I'd want to get this ahead of time.

Opening Scenes
So, I agreed with the players that we'd pick up a few weeks after the last session - I was trying to emphasise the idea that we're skipping to the important stuff. I proposed an opening scene at Josefina's court, and R was keen for Dancian to talk to Onfroi, a fellow Ammenite who had many trading concerns in the city. Onfroi agreed to introduce him to Lord Gideon, a local noble with mercentile pretensions, and expressed his concern that he (Onfroi)  get a cut of the profits. R surprised me by offering to put Onfroi in charge of the Ryodan side of things while he travelled elsewhere (e.g. back to Ammeni). I had Onfroi accept this without protest.

After that, I had Josefina take Amoux aside to introduce him to her court wizard, a wizened old elf called Wagner. Wagner quickly revealed to Amoux his plans to create an all-Elven enclave in Ryodan. His plan was to reveal this by turning goblin slaves into a horde of the Hungry Ones - goblins transformed to be ravenous slaves to their addictions. I was quite clear that there was no point hiding anything here, trying to string out Wagner's motives for a slow reveal. I also introduced Wagner's assistant, a goblin called Pip, but I backed off having her actually in a cage or being experimented on. I'm not sure why... it would at least have given Amoux a chance to hit his Key of Power by refusing to help her.

Wagner wanted Amoux to to help in his experiments by using his Zu. Amoux went along with this, and they agreed to meet at midnight at the old water cisterns out among the ruins of the city.

Interestingly, the Hungry Ones get a passing mention in Clinton's text but no further development at all. And that's great - here, as often, a name is enough to give me an idea for play, and I'm not then encumbered by a weight of complex text.

I'm concerned that neither of these two sub-scenes went to dice at any point. The players just went along with what unfolded (in DitV terms, they "said yes"). Would it have been better if I'd pushed harder, and managed to come up with e.g. unreasonable demands for Onfroi to make? E.g. had him demand full control of the operation with Dancian as merely a paid consultant? They hit the PCs keys a bit - Dancian got a point for Key of the House, Dancian a point for Key of Power (since Wagner was in a position of influence).

I'm also concerned that it was very easy to slip into freeform acting of Onfroi's and Wagners parts. This could easily lead to long roleplayed conversations that don't go anywhere. And I'm quite aware that this kind of thing is often a lot more fun for the GM than for the players - I've spent enough of gaming life listening to GMs who liked the sound of their own in-character voice. So, anyway, when I became aware of this I brought the scenes quickly to a close.

R's handling of the Onfroi scene also affected my plans in a second way. There was the possbility of a third player at the session, but he never showed. I'd grabbed the Snakes character Edmund (Dancian's bodyguard and poisoner), and given him the Key of the Mission of getting Dancian back to Ammeni, by force (drugging) if necessary. I'd planned to use Edmund as an NPC if the player didn't show, but with Dancian planning to head back anyway this was irrelevant to the story, so I dropped the whole idea. This is a clear example of why lightweight prep is desirable - it lets you plan interesting things while making it easy to discard them in response to evolving events.

Middle Section
The PCs visited Lord Gideon, and arranged for him to provide transport for the Moonsilver trade and (potentially) for other goods from Ammeni. This was, like talking to Onfroi, a bit easy - everyone just agreed, so it didn't go to dice at all. I'm concerned that scenes without conflict are likely to be drab scenes. There's also the concern that with no in-game representation of wealth at all, there's little sense of the importance or value of money. I think there's another thread around here somewhere, raising the same problem in relation to the Snakes scenario and Moonsilver.

The Garden Party
Josefina invited the PCs to a garden party that afternoon, and they went along. My first intention was for Lord Christophe, a reknowned champion in the city arena, to challenge Dancian to a duel. In the second session, Dancian had made an excellent impression on Josefina with Savoir-Faire and I introducted Christophe as the major rival.

Dancian's player, however, started a scene at the party where he impressed the notables present with the tale of his adventures in the Khalean jungle. This involved painting Amoux as his loyal sidekick, which Amoux's player wanted to oppose. I struggled with this a bit, rules-wise - neither PC had orate or storytell, so I think that we ended up going from Unskilled. The value to use for resistance wasn't clear, and most significantly I wasn't sure what the effect would be. In most traditional games, I'd just make a note that the nobles had been influenced, but I feel that for good TSOY play I owe the players a more substantial, tangible results.

I then had Christophe challenge Dancian to a duel the following day, which he accepted.

Meeting Wagner
Amoux met Wagner that night, and went along with Wagner's plan to make Pip into a permanent hungry one. Amoux had the Zu word "stone/beat/hard", and I suggested he could use the 'hard' modifier to make the transformation permanent. The transformation went through, and I described Pip twisting and changing into a kiss-hungry monster with massive betenctacled lips (kisses were her original addiction). Then, tho, she started to break free of her bonds, and Wagner shouted "quick! get her into the old water cistern with the others!". He failed his initial Scrapping roll badly, leaving Amoux against an enraged Hungry One with bonus dice in hand (or tentacle). Amoux reached for his Athletics skill, leaving the Wagner to his fate and letting the monster escape.

This scene was great, really funny, and I think it was the high point for the players. My only concern is that there wasn't much of a decision for Amoux's player to make - the "get her into the cistern" bit turned it into a physical struggle rather than a tough decision. On the plus side, he got to hit the Key of Power a couple of times.

The Duel
The duel itself was a bit one-sided. Dancian made some attempt to talk to Christophe beforehand, but I never really quizzed him on his intention so that never went anywhere. It wound up with Dancian (Duelling: Adept, +1 moonsilver rapier, secret of disarm) against Christophe (Infantry: Master, Secret of Mighty Blow). Christophe's intention was to put Dancian "out of action" for a while, with a particularly attention to capping his success at Saviour-Faire. Not surprisingly, this went to BDTP, and Dancian didn't have much chance. As the rules note, BDTP favours the higher skill, and if Dancian wanted to try anything clever (such as appealing to the crowd) he had to take a parallel action, which would leave himself open. In the end, Christophe took Dancian down with a might 7-harm hit that broke his pelvis.

Amoux didn't get involved much. The player tried to get him to talk to Josefina, using a secret to extract information from her, but I think I fumbled the ball there and didn't give away enough to let Amoux's player do anything interesting. There's a widespread habit of GM cageyness that's often remarked on in Forge postings, and I think I exhibit that from time to time. But it's completely inappropriate in TSOY.

I'm still not sure about BDTP. It seems, in some ways, to be too restrictive in terms of what characters can do. One of the great things about TSOY and similar rules is that there's a huge number of options at any given point. BDTP closes those down a lot.

The player said afterwards that he enjoyed having Dancian lose for a change. I can relate to that, especially when losing doesn't mean the character going out of play for a long time.

Final Scene
In order to provide some kind of conclusion to the events of the session, I had Wagner attack Josefina's court (by leading the Hungry Ones there). Dancian was pretty much powerless to do anything, but Amoux went all bamboo warrior and drove Pip away. Wagner was captured by Josefina's guards. I'm still a little unsure on this - I might have been better keeping Wagner in hand for a possible later session. (Of course, he's not dead... Josefina might even want him around for his abilities...)

General Throughts
I'm particularly pleased that I've needed very little prep for these games - maybe 1.5 hours for the 2nd session and 1 hour for the third. As a core, I'm using the technique presented by Clinton in the TSOY rules:

I take out a sheet of paper and write down the character's names on it, each in a separate corner. I write down all their Keys around them, and the Secrets they use the most and their best abilities. ...

Hey Rob,

it seems as if you and your group ease into the system quite well. Just because the system is in place doesn't mean you need to use it. That said, tough choices and hard places are the natural habitat for BDtP. Nobody should BDtP over a random picking of a pocket, but if it's about the keys to the dungeon where your loved one suffers, all bets are off.

BDtP as a 'last resort' also takes away some of it's edge as a system that limits your choices regarding to in-game events. But if you stay lenient with your interpretations of how the character's actions fit into the frame work, all will be well. Regarding the duel: Was Dancian's player aware that giving was a real option, which would have helped with the mechanical side of losing BDtP big time?

Here is a sample spell based on three corner magic that will change someone into a hairy beast twice their normal size:

Hairy Beast:
Transforms the target into a hulking, hairy beast with thick, leathery skin. +1 Armor, switch best skill with scrapping, double size. Cost: 3 Instinct.

It's fairly easy to expand on this, changing the addiction key's focus from whatever to still warm, human flesh  and adding an area effect (which would put the spell into the 5-6 instinct cost range, but who's to say Wagner doesn't have obscenely high pools? Also, NPCs in need of refreshing their instinct pool make for *interesting* situations, if you play it right).

oliof wrote:
BDtP as a 'last resort' also takes away some of it's edge as a system that limits your choices regarding to in-game events. But if you stay lenient with your interpretations of how the character's actions fit into the frame work, all will be well.

oliof wrote:
Regarding the duel: Was Dancian's player aware that giving was a real option, which would have helped with the mechanical side of losing BDtP big time?

oliof wrote:
Here is a sample spell based on three corner magic that will change someone into a hairy beast twice their normal size:

Caveat: Most of this post is only conjecture. It is an idea of how things might have been handled, without the intention to belittle your efforts (again, you seem to do quite well!).

A hypothetical regarding the Duel: Christophe could have changed intentions while Dancian was appealing to the crowd, limiting him to a defensive action. Now, instead of just taking him out, he might have opted to follow Dancian's lead to manipulate the masses. You see, apart from a mechanical advantage, the actions in BDtP also have in-game relevance. If Christophe cut open Dancian while Dancian was talking to the people, he might succeed in taking out Dancian, but what do the people think of Christophe? Maybe Christophe could have realized it's more effective to stop Dancian by getting folks not to regard him as a trust-worthy person…

On giving: Giving early would mean Dancian still loses the BDtP, but on more favorite terms (he could have avoided that shattered pelvis); which means a comeback/follow-up conflict might be feasible more quickly. (Quick strategy to get into a BDtP on better terms: heal back lower-rung harm with pool points, give, have harm collapse to the lower levels, seek to confront your opponent in a way where his superior skill does not apply – i.e. at a feast with the king). Oh, and you deny your opponent the chance to change intentions and killing you with a spoon after having poked a sharp knife into your face a few times just to humiliate you.

Further pondering on the Hungry Ones: I think your idea that one needs to combine different magical traditions (especially Three Corner Magic and Zu!) to get something as gross as the Hungry Ones is far better than a detailed but prohibitively expensive stand-alone spell. This sense of cooperation being mandatory for success is an essential sentiment of TSoY, IMHO (even if it is for evil purposes this time). Regarding size and fighting ability: You're right that a size change has no mechanical effect, but in the game world, the beast doubles it's height from diminutive four to impressive eight feet nonetheless. If you want it to have some mechanical clout, have this result in bonus or penalty dice for the first conflict such a beast is involved in.

oliof wrote:
On giving: Giving early would mean Dancian still loses the BDtP, but on more favorite terms (he could have avoided that shattered pelvis);

Christophe's intention was to put Dancian "out of action" for a while,

oliof wrote:
I worked from this description of intent, which doesn't necessarily end in a world of pain, only in a world of delays and wrong turns… as SG, it's best to give SGCs strong, but mutable intentions.