First time playing Hero's banner tonight.  Lots of good fun.

I was GM to two players, none of us had played the game before.  I have considerable experience with indie and nar games, the others have less, but had no difficulty grasping the concepts.

Rather than going with the default setting of 'The Cross,' I asked the players what sort of setting and setting issues they wanted.  One was interested in a decaying and hidebound noble class fading before inevitable historical forces.  The other wanted a bloody-handed tyrant.  We eventually settled on a Russia-like nation (called Roosya) where a progressive Czar-figure is consolidating power away from the aristocracy.  The setting has gunpowder, but not handguns, and in Roosya only the Czar's forces have cannon (which are a big threat to the nobility's castle fortifications).  Supernatural forces were declared to be both rare and subtle.

I made a point of saying that the players had to choose whether the noble families they came from were older conservative stock, or cronies of the Czar recently raised to their position.  This first choice put the players squarely in the middle of the modernization crisis of the country, which I think helped to establish the mood nicely.  Speaking of mood, I found a copy of Vangelis' 1492, which provided eerily appropriate music.

Before I begin, I would like to say that the players took to the game like ducks to a pond.  They took a firm hand of the reins of the game as presented to them, controlling the pace of Passion increase almost instinctively.  They also knew before I told them that keeping more or less even in Passion was good for the play experience.  I should also say that there were too many awesome correspondences and confluences for me to record all of them here.

First character, Nicholas Ysilovitch, of an old established noble family, yet himself a progressive, who recently inherited the rule of his House when his conservative father was murdered on the Czar's orders, to the purpose of having a more sympathetic noble in power.  Hero Influence is Ysilov, the founder of his family, a glorious hero (Connection is a Sanctuary, the hall of heroes where Ysilov's statue rests).  Blood Influence is revenge for his murdered father (Connection is a Representative, the Czar himself).  Conscience Influence is Progressivism (Connection is a Representative, a progressive poet named Trelakov). 

Second character, Vanya Ivanovich Turgenev, of an old established noble family.  Hero Influence is Vashnevskaya, a mighty warrior who won great distinction fighting the Turks of old (Connection is a Relic, a shamshir trophy of victory).  Blood Influence is the wellbeing and goodwill of his estranged brother Tennya, a progressive in the Czar's new Naval Academy (Connection is a Sanctuary, a coffee house the two of them have frequented in the past).  Conscience Influence is the preservation of the traditions of his country (Connection is a Representative, his grandfather who serves as steward in his absence). 

Interestingly, both players chose old established families, both chose families with members divided by the conservative/progressive conflict, and they also chose to have their characters' sympathies on opposite sides of that conflict.

The first round of conflicts saw Nicholas in the Czar's court, brought to take his pledge of fealty.  The player chose to support Revenge, taking the Oath to curry the Czar's trust.  Meanwhile, Vanya publicly proclaimed his support for the Czar's modern navy, to get in good with his brother.

Next round saw both PCs at the same party, hosted by the Czar.  Nicholas introduced his romantic prospect Katrina (who was also established as Vanya's sister) to Trelakov, winning her sympathies to Progressivism.  Vanya took offense at the compliments paid his ancestor by visiting Turks, and browbeat them down.

At this point, I suggested raising the stakes.  I was not disappointed, as the players proposed a gunpowder plot from the most reactionary of the Conservative faction.  Nicholas tried to join with the plotters, but lost his stomach for such a cowardly tactic.  Vanya coshed his brother to prevent him from being killed in the fighting and escaped into the country.  At this point, the Czar, maimed in the explosion, truly became bloody-minded, and with many of the plotters escaped to raise troops, ordered Rakolnik (his Chief of Secret Police) to execute random suspects.

Nicholas is given Imperial troops and sent out into the country to round up and execute suspected traitors, which he does, clearing out Conservative elements.  His sweep also catches the Turgenev brothers, and he delivers orders to Vanya, who chose a soldier's loyalty to his commander over the traditional friendships of his house, and led his troops against his neighbors.

Next up, Vanya risked his brother's life in a daring military maneuver, while Nicholas (notes missing).  Then, Nicholas failed a loyalty test from Rakolnik, while Vanya returned to his ancestral home to find his grandfather has died of shame, and his castle is immediately beseiged by Conservative troops.

In the final conflict pair, Vanya trusts his brother with an important sally mission and Nicholas storms one of Trelakov's salons, rescuing Katrina who was being held prisoner there, as leverage against Nicholas himself.  Nicholas suffered the only Breakdown of the game, attacking and killing Trelakov in a manner that put a great risk to Katrina's life, and stabbing the poet's corpse over and over.

At the end of the session, Nicholas stood at Glory 29/Revenge 71/Progress 0, and Vanya stood at Soldier 67/Brother 33/Tradition 0.  At the moment, our two heroes seem to have abandoned their politics. 

At the end of the evening, I must say I had had a wonderful time.  The discussions of motives, of fatal flaws, of decision points and relationships... it felt like A Song of Ice and Fire, or HBO's Rome.  I loved watching Nicholas compromise his principles over and over to maintain his insider status, becoming ever more disillusioned.  Similarly, I loved watching Vanya's simple good-hearted nature get misunderstood and disappointed at every turn.

My only real regret is that we didn't manage to fit in any magic.  The other players felt it wasn't necessary, and I followed that lead, but I think with just a hint of magic in the air the setting could have really shone.  As it was, it just felt like a historical piece.  Enthralling? Sure.  But not the kind of subtly wonderful it could be.

Anyway, really looking forward to session 2.

Jules,

Very nice!  I love the Russian setting you guys came up with.  It has a slightly different fantasy feeling to it -- in a "just historical enough" sort of way.  And of course the Russian Empire was rife with the sort of political maneuvering that fits a Hero's Banner game quite nicely.

There's so much I could comment on.  However, if I can skip to the end of your post, I find it very interesting that both of your players chose to keep points in their Glory/Revenge and Soldier/Brother influences, while ignoring Progress and Tradition.  From those scores and your description, it sounds as if the characters are very wrapped up in the immediate events surrounding them as opposed to the larger picture.  I'm curious to find out if either of them chooses to make a last minute switch after their Passion tops 100.

When it comes to magic I may have a suggestion for you as well.  If what you're after is subtle effects that only appear rarely, then you're probably fairly close to the way I usually run magic in my games (check out the section on Magic and Miracles in the book for example).  What I usually do to involve magic, if it's not an explicit part of the story, is allow myself a bit more freedom when narrating conflict outcomes.  If a character is riding into battle, I'll throw in a glowing sword.  If he's arguing with his mother I may make his eyes change color.  Subtle stuff.  Essentially I take the stuff I may describe with metaphor and make it literal.  It's all just an expression of what I perceive the character's emotions to be at the time.

Finally, I noticed that one of your players took a Sanctuary as his character's initial connection.  Under the standard rules, players are limited to Representatives during character creation.  The idea behind the rule is to create a close-knit web of relationships right off the bat, especially because first connections are the hardest to lose.  As most of your group's connections were Representatives, I imagine one Sanctuary didn't change things too much, but may I ask if the player had a specific reason for taking the Sanctuary over another Representative?  Did the Sanctuary become an important element of the game?

Anyway, I'm glad things worked out for your group.  I can't wait to see how the whole story shakes out in the end.  Keep me posted.

Regards,
- Tim

Tim wrote: There's so much I could comment on.  However, if I can skip to the end of your post, I find it very interesting that both of your players chose to keep points in their Glory/Revenge and Soldier/Brother influences, while ignoring Progress and Tradition.  From those scores and your description, it sounds as if the characters are very wrapped up in the immediate events surrounding them as opposed to the larger picture.  I'm curious to find out if either of them chooses to make a last minute switch after their Passion tops 100.

Tim wrote: When it comes to magic I may have a suggestion for you as well.  If what you're after is subtle effects that only appear rarely, then you're probably fairly close to the way I usually run magic in my games (check out the section on Magic and Miracles in the book for example).  What I usually do to involve magic, if it's not an explicit part of the story, is allow myself a bit more freedom when narrating conflict outcomes.  If a character is riding into battle, I'll throw in a glowing sword.  If he's arguing with his mother I may make his eyes change color.  Subtle stuff.  Essentially I take the stuff I may describe with metaphor and make it literal.  It's all just an expression of what I perceive the character's emotions to be at the time.

Tim wrote: Finally, I noticed that one of your players took a Sanctuary as his character's initial connection.  Under the standard rules, players are limited to Representatives during character creation.  The idea behind the rule is to create a close-knit web of relationships right off the bat, especially because first connections are the hardest to lose.  As most of your group's connections were Representatives, I imagine one Sanctuary didn't change things too much, but may I ask if the player had a specific reason for taking the Sanctuary over another Representative?  Did the Sanctuary become an important element of the game?

Oops, this bit got truncated...

angelfromanotherpin wrote: Nicholas always strongly considered the Progressive influence, but in the end couldn't stomach