I don't believe that I've cross-posted this over here. This is the account of a session of Alyria that I ran. The original thread (including questions) can be found at the Gaming Outpost here
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For everyone who has wondered what an Alyria storyline might look like, here is the setup for the Alyria playtest that I am about to run.

Basically it is set in the small freehold of Haven, which is out in the wilderness somewhere.
About twenty years ago, a little boy named Uriel was born to Victor and his wife. Uriel grew up normally and became especially close to Jochebed, the wife of the leader of the freehold.

However, Uriel began to manifest signs of the Blessing. The villagers demanded that he be killed. Jochebed did not want this to happen, so she browbeat Victor into sending him into the wilderness instead. Victor was too scared to stand up for his son but he didn't want to kill him either, so he went along with it. The villagers thought that he was killed. Both Victor and Jochebed resigned themselves never to see him again.

Time passed. Uriel did not die. Instead, he came into his own in the wilderness among the animals, sustained by his iron will and burning desire for revenge.

Now the time is right. Uriel has gathered an army of animals that he has molded and shaped with his power. Now he will avenge himself on the freehold of Haven.

All is not well in Haven, either. Jochebed is now the leader of the freehold since her husband died. However, she does not hold the respect of the people. Rather, Victor is slowly earning
their respect and the vague discontent of the people may yet be sparked.

Victor has continued to live in fear that his secret will be discovered. What he would do to preserve it is anyone's guess.

The youth are also restless. They sense that "Grandma" Jochebed is losing the reins of power and are not pleased. The quiet, happy village is about ready to explode from the underlying power struggle that is slowly unfolding.

Then a lone villager from the annual convoy to market returns. He has been tormented and he bears a message. "Uriel has returned...."

Some Points to Note

In no particular order

--I did not come up with this structure. My two players hashed out most of this. I only offered editorial commentary, which was pretty nifty. Alyria is being designed with this methodology in mind. Rules structures will be in place to facilitate the process.

--Let's play a game. Spot the PC! Here are your choices. Pick all you think apply:

1) Uriel
2) Jochebed
3) Victor
4) None of the above

Okay. Time's up! What did you choose. If you picked 1 and 2, you'd be right! If I had a third player, he would play Victor. As you can see, Alyria storyline design incorporates the characters into the story immediately. In a way, the story is developed first and then the characters are formed around it. In many ways this is "backwards" from the normal methodology found in many RPGs.

--Haven. Does it sound familiar? Well, it's about two weeks travel from Longville, the nearest trading post. Hmm. Ever hear about Longville in a Dreaming Out Loud column? Of course not. That's because they were crafted specifically for this storyline. All the landmarks and physical features of the setting were crafted with the story in mind. For the record, this was all accomplished (from concept to completion) in about 3 hours. In other words, just take your first gaming session and get everything squared away. It's a lot easier than you think. Crafting your own setting details is just that simple.

So, any comments? Questions? If the group would like, I can give brief reports as playtest sessions are run. I just thought that people would be interested in seeing the kinds of stories that I envision.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf