As my children grow older, I have been trying to think of ways to integrate them into my gaming hobby.  I don’t want to have games be a thing that is separate from my being a husband and a father.  Rather, if possible, I would like them to be a part of the family culture that I am trying to encourage.  This has been working fairly well in the world of boardgaming.  I have played games like Reiner Knizia’s Lord of the Rings, Heroscape, El Grande, and Blue Moon City with my children, and as they grow older, I introduce them to other games of mine.  But roleplaying has been a trickier beast.  Several years ago, I tried playing The Pool with them, and I just don’t think that they were quite getting what was going on.  Plus, I went into a roleplaying slump for a while, and boardgames were easier to teach them.

Cut to a couple months ago.  I’m feverishly working on Dirty Secrets when my daughter Arianna comes into the room.  She’s nine, and very much a daddy’s girl.  So, of course, she wants to know what I’m doing, and starts asking all sorts of questions about detective fiction and noir and roleplaying and the like.  She says that she wants to play Dirty Secrets.  I’m not sure that she’s really up for it, so I encourage her to try reading The Maltese Falcon to get a feel for the genre and to see if she would like it or not.  I’m also painfully aware of the sort of topics that get addressed, so I’m wanting to ease her into things and see what questions come up.

She gets bored with The Maltese Falcon, and I sigh in relief.  Another bullet dodged.  Still, though, I know that she wants to be involved with what Daddy is doing, and I want to honor that desire.  When we start working on August Moon, she will definitely be in the loop, but that will be a while.

Cut to this weekend.  I’ve been recovering from GenCon, and I’m feeling that my children are needing some time to reconnect with their father.  So, I figure, let’s try out this roleplaying thing again.  I’m stoked from GenCon, and I just got the promised playtest copy of Ben Lehman’s game-in-development, Land of 1000 Kings.  I had a chance to play at GenCon, and at that time, I had commented, “I could see myself playing this game with my children.”  So, we wrap up the chores for the day, and I sit down to play with my three oldest children.

How did it go?  Really, really well.

Players

First, let’s introduce you to the players.

Seth—This is me.  Of course, to my players for this game, I was “Daddy”.

Arianna—My eldest, and my only daughter.  Age 9.  Loves fairies and butterflies and things that are pink.  If you know me at all, you are already laughing at the total irony of this.  Already, she can draw better than me.  This means very little, because I embarrass myself making stick figures, but I think that Arianna will be quite good someday.

Isaac—My oldest son, and second in the birth order.  Age 7.  Loves monsters and superheroes and swords and ninjas and things like that. (That’s not a typo.  My children’s understanding of ninja really does categorize as ninjas.)  He is our budding engineer, which resulted in some early bumps in play as Isaac slowly engaged his imagination.

Samuel—Third in the birth order.  Age 6.  Loves swords and knights and ninjas.  A very protective guy, who is concerned about taking care of others.  Also thoughtful and caring.

Sharing Memories

In Land of 1000 Kings, you play yourself.  After all, the whole conceit of the game is that you yourself are going to the Land of 1000 Kings.  But you don’t create your own character.  Rather, you help create everyone else’s character.  As described by Vincent over here, you start the game by going around the table, sharing real memories about each other.  Each memory needs to demonstrate why you think that the other person is Strong, Brave, Sharp, Kind, or Beautiful.  It’s the opposite of Best Friends, in a way.  You are allowed to give yourself one memory, but that’s it.  Also, you can only give two memories to another player.  So, the best way to improve your effectiveness in the game is to get other people that you know to play.

As Ben commented to me in IM, “The game is an evil viral marketing strategy for itself.”

So, we spent some time getting this going.  Samuel caught on pretty quickly to what was going on, but Isaac needed some help.  In short order, though, we managed to get our initial character sheets ready to go.  I picked up some points as well, even though I was going to be the gatekeeper for our trip.

This was a neat experience.  I was able to tell my children stories that I remembered about them, like when Arianna was born or when Isaac fished a chair out of the pool.  Plus, my children all learned this use of the word “Sharp”.  Later that day, I heard them talking.  “Well, I can’t fool you, because you’re sharp!”  Gaming and vocabulary.  We all win!

Opening the Door

When you are visiting for the first time, you’re supposed to tell the gatekeeper one thing about where you would like to go.  Samuel wanted to go to a castle filled with people.  Arianna wanted to visit fairies.  Isaac wanted to go to a castle filled with warriors.  He was still finding his way in all this, so I’m not particularly surprised that he didn’t come up with anything particularly original.  But it worked out pretty well.

I couldn’t find this in the rules, but when we played at GenCon, Ben commented that not all the players should be together, nor should they all be separate.  The division line seemed obvious to me; I would send Arianna to the fairies, and I would send the boys to a castle filled with warriors.

But what would they do once they were there?  Uh.  Um.  Er.  I cast about frantically.  At GenCon, Ben had Vincent and Julia judge a contest.  I’ll do that!  Contests!  Those are always good!

So, Arianna met the Fairy Queen and helped judge a beauty contest, while the boys impressed the Castle King enough to be allowed to enter a tournament to be declared the Greatest Warrior in the Land.

Arianna’s storyline was almost completely lifted from the GenCon session.  I had my own little twist to see what Arianna would do.  Three fairies were in the contest:  Rose, who was pretty but vain; Tiger Lily, who was somewhat pretty but not arrogant about it; and Ragweed, who wasn’t really pretty at all.  I wanted to develop Ragweed as a kind and tender character, but it didn’t really work out that way.  Oh well.

Anyways, Arianna judged that Tiger Lily was the prettiest one and crowned her with the victor’s crown.  Later that night, she came upon Rose beating up Tiger Lily as revenge for winning.  Arianna grabbed Rose and punched her in the face, but not before Rose raked her fingernails across Arianna’s face.  Now she has three glowing scratches across her face as a Wound.

Samuel and Isaac found themselves in a castle preparing for a large tournament.  They wanted to enter the tournament, but they needed to demonstrate that they were capable.  So the Castle King declared that they needed to fight a couple of knights to prove that they could.  Both Samuel and Isaac handily defeated their enemies.  Indeed, this was the point that things clicked for Isaac.  He described how he grabbed the knight by one of the horns on his helmet and flipped him through the air against the wall.  Condition:  crying.  Reception:  everyone is laughing at him.  Samuel defeated his opponent as well, but he picked up a small wound:  Hated by Sir Brute 2.

I decided that I would let them romp through the tournament until the final.  So they were fighting side-by-side against Sir Brute and his friend.  But, as they entered the arena, they saw that the knights were using real swords!  Nonetheless, they managed to defeat the cheating knights and expose them.

At this point, Samuel chose his Artifact:  the Sword of the Castle King.  Isaac wanted to get a helmet that shoots laser beams.  (He was recently exposed to Cyclops from the X-Men.)  I didn’t want to hand over an item like that, so I said that he could quest after something like that.

But then, it was time to return to our world.  The children said good-bye to their new friends and returned home, just in time for supper.

A Return Visit

As soon as we finished, the children started begging me to take them back to the Land of 1000 Kings.  So, the next day, we decided to take another short trip.

This time, after a little more memory sharing, we jumped right in.  We didn’t have a lot of time to work with, and I wanted to make sure that we could finish in a timely manner.

Isaac wanted to quest after the helmet.  Arianna wanted to return to the fairies.  Samuel wanted to go to a castle full of dragons.  I wanted to scramble their expectations a bit.

See, I didn’t want them to think that everything in the game would be an easy pushover.  I also wanted to encourage them to broaden their horizons.  So nothing went quite right as they entered the Land this time.  Arianna and Isaac ended up back in the Castle Realm.  Samuel used a different entrance and found himself on top of a mountain, exploring the cavern of the Dragon King.

Samuel and Arianna were both disappointed about their locations, but I pointed out their fateright, that something would happen, regardless of where they went.  Plus, if they want to go somewhere, then they should just go there!

In the meantime, Isaac heard a rumor about a Black Knight with a helmet that shoots lightning from its eyes.  He was going to quest after it, but then Arianna decided to explore the castle.  That seemed like a good idea to Isaac, so they went together.

It was neat to see Isaac embrace the game this time around.  He was much more receptive this session.  In part, I think that it’s because he understood how the game worked and was more comfortable with what he was doing.

It was during these segments that the children first faced defeat.  Arianna wanted to explore the dungeon to find out if there were any fairies down there.  When they tried to talk their way past the guards, it went poorly.  The Castle King became angry with them and locked them in a cell in the dungeon.

At the same time, Samuel was discovering that the Castle King and the Dragon King have been feuding for some time now.  The Dragon King hates the Castle King, because the Castle King keeps sending knights out to kill the dragons.  So when Samuel turns to leave to go to the castle of the Castle King, the Dragon King tries to stop him.  Initially Samuel defeated the Dragon King, but then he was cursed by the dragon’s hoard that he discovered.  Then, he took chutzpah to a new level by going back to the Dragon King to ask for a ride to the castle.  The Dragon King took to this request…poorly…and captured Samuel, dragging him off to the secret meeting place of the dragons.

Back to the castle. Isaac and Arianna were rescued by Reginald, the King of Rats, who took them back to his home in the walls of the dungeon.  Reginald appealed to them, saying that the Castle King kills his people.  Instead, Reginald wants to lead them away to another land.  Arianna described what it means to be a pet, and Reginald said that lying around all day, being fed by someone else, sounded like an ideal existence.  So, Reginald showed them to a doorway out of the Land, and they promised to help him upon their return.

Meanwhile, Samuel managed to escape from the dragons and arrive at the castle, prepared to rescue his brother and sister.  Sadly, he was overwhelmed and captured.  The Castle King was angry with him and ordered him to be locked in the dungeon.  But, as the guards dragged him away, he made a sudden departure from the Land.

Just in time for supper.

Post-game reactions

The game was an unqualified success.  After both sessions, the kids were clamoring to return.  Even after the second session, where I didn’t give them what they wanted, they were fully engaged fairly quickly and enjoyed what actually happened.

Crystal and Gabrielle have both expressed an interest in playing, but life didn’t line up properly for them to join us for these games.  Samuel was trying to persuade both of them.  I’m pretty sure that he’s figured out that the only way to increase his Attributes is to get other players to play.  That’s pretty cool.

Arianna was deeply touched by the events of the game.  She was very distressed to have to leave her new friends behind, even though she knows that they are make-believe.  I think that the simplicity and sincerity of the Land of 1000 Kings was appealing to her.  She is already starting to learn that the world is a dark and complicated place, and the simple honesty of a rat was pleasant for her.

For the kids, the biggest speed bump was the Recollection dice.  For those who don’t know, in an action, any player can contribute a real memory that is thematically connected to the action somehow.  This gives him the right to contribute a die to any player in the action.  This was a bit challenging for the kids to get, though they were starting to get it.  I think that experience will overcome this somewhat.  Also, as one of them said, “It’s not fair, Dad.  You have more memories than we do!”  There’s some truth in that.

Playtest feedback

This is a playtest, so here are some thoughts I have on gameplay, both generally and specifically as it relates to my children.

First, I like the “playing as yourself” bit a lot.  It’s one of those things that has been “done” in gaming a lot, but I think that making it a major feature of play, including the actual memories of the players at the table, is a big deal.  I think that it creates a positive environment of trust that draws the players together.  Also, I think that it helped my children to connect to what was going on.

As a general principle, I like the dice system.  You roll your dice pool and (generally) take your highest die to see if you won.  If you tie, you reroll.  However, all 1s and 2s are set aside to contribute to the magnitude of the result of the action.  This is all very cool.

However, I’m not sure if Location, Condition, and Reception is working out.  Now, that’s a real “I’m not sure”.  I’m going to keep playing with it and see if I change my mind.  I’m not sure what I’m concerned about, really.  Maybe it’s because it feels simultaneously constrained but too open.  Also, sometimes one of the categories didn’t seem to make sense in the context.  For example, if you’re by yourself, why does Reception matter?

Also, sometimes the amount of currency that was generated could be overwhelming.  As an example, there was a conflict that had something like 11 currency available to the winner and 6 available to the loser.  The winner was able to establish Location, Condition, and Reception for everyone involved, plus throw out a hefty Wound.  What should the loser do?  Wounding the opponent was locked out by Condition, so a Memory was all that remained.  Then the player left soon thereafter and couldn’t keep the Memory, since you only get to save one from visit to visit.  So I felt like he was cheated a bit.  Any thoughts on this, Ben?

Veil of the World seemed too large.  Eight dice is a big deal.  I actually felt guilty grabbing more than four dice for the Veil, especially if I could also grab dice from a Realm.  Maybe more guidelines here would be handy.  Or maybe it would be different if we were using more powerful characters?

I’ll have to read over the rules on Realms.  At least on the surface, they make sense, and I did use them in play, but I’ll analyze them closer and see if anything jumps out at me.  I like the idea, though.  It seems to give some guidance to difficulty and to the shape of the experience.  Doing this thing is against the Law of the Realm, so it will be harder.  Doing this thing works with the Law of the Realm, so it will be easier.  So I’ll be keeping my eye on it and see if anything else turns up.

At the end of a visit, the gatekeeper is allowed to put a memory “on the world”.  What’s this?

There was one other thing, but now I don’t remember what it is.  Grr.

So, in conclusion, this is a nifty game that will doubtless propagate like a virus throughout the indie scene.  And, if that is so, I think that we will all be the better for it.

Hi Seth! Thanks for testing this.

Mechanical notes:

"Memory of the World" is the ghost of an old draft. Replace that with "Memory on a person of consequence."

1) The veil of the world is large! I usually only use 6-8 dice when:

a) The character is doing something scary dangerous, but there's no other character opposing them (like, say, jumping off the moon.) That needs at least 6 dice, I'm sorry.

b) The character that they are facing down is serious bad news (like King Drug.)
Usually I stay in the 2-4 range.

3) I waver on "condition, location, reception." Ultimately, I stole them from Vincent. They belong in a different game. But for right now they work pretty well. I like that you can't ever dictate someone's internal state for more than a bit.

4) There is no condition which negates the possibility of wounds, just restricts them. So, for instance, the condition "I'm fine" coming out of a fight could lead to the wound "reputation as a good fighter" so then people are scared of the character. Additionally, leftover currency can be used to eliminate your own wounds, or attack the opponent's memories (I think? Is that rule still in there?), or say what happens to the inconsequential people in the scene.

5) Be very careful with the "where do you end up" rules. Note how there are specific restrictions in how and why the doorkeeper can screw with your destination.

6) The between sessions rules are due to change drastically...

yrs--
--Ben

I'm sure that I'll have other questions, but I have a quick one right now.

Does that "not all together, not all separate" restriction still apply?  I know that we played that way at GenCon, but I don't recall seeing it in the rules.

GreatWolf wrote:
I'm sure that I'll have other questions, but I have a quick one right now.

Does that "not all together, not all separate" restriction still apply?  I know that we played that way at GenCon, but I don't recall seeing it in the rules.

Ben wrote:
Yup! It's a good rule, I think. Unless you can think of a reason it should be otherwise.