The Forge Archives

On Friday, the group for whom I normally GM DnD got together to play Heroquest.  I've been gently nudging at the group to try something other than d20 (because, frankly, I'm sick to death of GMing the system) and I've had a good responses from individual players in the past (with one notable exception, everyone in the game has played at least one session of what I'll lazily term a "forge game" -- four have played InSpectres (but not together), four have played Sorcerer (though, again, not together, and not the same four), et cetera -- but this would be the first time that the gaming group as a group would be trying out a more narrative (if not specifically narrativist) system.

This came about largely because one of the players couldn't make the regular game (out of town for the holidays), and we're coming close to the end of that campaign, and no one wants anyone to miss anything, so there was an opening.  We ran almost 100 percent of (list method) character generation using a player-briefing that I posted to my wiki for The Well of Souls, followed by lots of emails. Lots.  I detailed the PCs for the game in this post, and the character briefing and character sheets are viewable here.

Between the basic setup and the characters that were presented, I'm half-expecting things to devolve into a Blood Opera.

Anyway, here's brief summary of what went down.

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Play began (late, due to last-minute prep on my part and my kid having to go to the ER(!)) with Jaques de Molay riding into the Barony with his servant Duchamp trailing behind him on a mule.  Jacques has been restored to his family's ancestral estate and belongings following a harrowing and deadly winter campaign in which he distinguished himself heroically, and he is riding to meet Father Rance at the gate of said estate.  He wears his father's sword (also recently returned to him) at his side and a determined expression -- he has been tasked by the Church to be on the lookout for increased heretic and pagan activity in the area, but he has a personal goal as well -- proving to the Baron who spared his life as a child that he made the right decision -- that Jacques is nothing like his father.

Jacques passes Wells on the way into the Barony, but does not stop to speak with the Baron yet, since he wants to reach Stalos quickly.  He rides up to the gates of his estate (and the plain, unassuming carriage of Father Rance waiting outside) just after noon.  The clergyman descends from the carriage and blesses the night, talks for a bit of being glad to have another of "Saint Gerlant's good soldiers" in the Barony, and turns over the key to the manor.  He mentions that the Baron is also a member of the Order (something Jacques has known for years -- Eustef is quite renowned), and the priest conducts special services at Wells Manor regularly, if Jacques is interested.

They make their farewells, and the knight rides a circuit around the manor.  The lower windows are still boarded up -- the second story windows aren't, and several have been broken, but those that have been have also been blocked up -- so it's not that the place has been entirely neglected in the 20 years it's been in the control of the church (due to the scandal surrounding the estate, farming or using the land in any way has been prohibited; the peasants on the land were permitted to stay, but had to find work elsewhere).

Jaques dismounts at the front of the building again, and as he walks toward the entrance, it opens, and a rough-spoken peasant gimps stiffly out to meet the young knight.  This is Octave, the grounds keeper, who has been working to get things back in order since he received word the week previous.  Not a lot of headway has been made, in part because Octave has no help -- he confesses that with no money to speak of and the fear that the de Molay name engenders in the locals... well, no one's very interested.  Jacques gives the man some operating cash and the use of Duchamp's mule so that the man can make the rounds and let the closer farmstead's know that he would like to speak with them tomorrow morning.  Breakfast will be provided.  (Duchamp winces at this.)

Arrangements are made.  Jacques tells Duchamp that typical camp-fare is fine for the morning meal, but make enough for twenty or so.  In the evening, he stands in an upstairs room and watches what looks like a campfire in the distant woods.  The wolf-spirits in his father's sword howl very faintly in his mind, and Jacques imagines the ignorant peasants involved in some pagan rite, but for now he stays his hand.

-----

Jacques does not know it, but tonight is The Night of Bitter Scales, a time when the peasants come together to ward the Baron from the bad old gods that once ruled this land.  
* Near the town of Boyenne, Serge's daughter Zelana participates in the locals' rite -- it has been several years since any of the villagers worried that she might report them to her father.
* Near Mime, the centaur maiden called Eilwen is not so well accepted, but she does her part for the villagers -- she is Maslin's assistant gameskeeper and knows well enough where the peasants conduct their rituals.  She patrols the area around the old stone altar in the woods and makes sure that nothing disturbs them.  None realize she is there.

In the manor of Wells, the Baron is having dinner.  In attendance are his three sons, Lady Colette, Sir Serge, Alfan, Etienne and Guy (as Guilbert's guests), and Emilie (serving Guilbert at the table to learn the ins and outs of etiquette).  (In other words, a number of NPCs and three of the PCs.)

Eustef pushes each of his sons hard -- it is his nature to require the utmost of each of them, give small praise for accomplishments (so as to avoid complacency), and deride failure in harsh and unforgiving terms.  Tonight, he is particularly harsh.

He begins with Guilbert, informing him a young knight (Sir de Molay) has recently returned to his family's estate near Stalos and will need to be acquainted with the locals of importance.  Guilbert is to leave for Stalos in the morning for a fortnight, during which it is his duty to accompany the knight and make sure he is familiar with the Barony.  

Guilbert opines that there's few enough people in and around Stalos, and it should only take a week.  (Subtext: there's nothing to *do* out there.)  Eustef mentions the trouble that the de Molay name carries with it, and since Guilbert is so adept at making something horrible seem like something palatable to the peasantry, he's ideal for the task... however, if he finds the work too difficult, he's should by all means bring along his two 'aides' (here, by his tone, Eustef means either "parasites" or "crutches") -- Etienne and Guy.  Guilbert seems to know when to leave well enough alone, since pushing Eustef usually only makes things worse.

(The players -- all the players -- are basically wincing at this point and getting a very clear picture of Eustef.)

Eustef then turns to Hugo, opening a conversation that seems harmless enough, asking what Hugo thought of last week's visit to the neighboring Barony of Dormand.  Hugo states things simply, like his father, and says that he thinks Dormand wants Spring Fountains wealth, and that he thinks it would be a good idea to station small garrisons at key points along the border -- for instance, in the pass through the hills where bandits from Dormand have recently been moving stolen sheep from the shepherd villages in Trymirwal (note: this goes back to the test run I did last week, using a combination of the Barony background and the HQ "Sheepless Nights" scenario).

Eustef nods at this, as though expecting it and begins to grill Hugo on how exactly he'd want to accomplish this:  take men on extended leaves from their families for months at a time?  Conscripts?  Take some of the standing troops from the main roads and towns?  Train and arm the shepherd boys in the hills?  The questions come quickly and Hugo isn't prepared to answer them, which only seems to tick Eustef off more.  He mutters something and moves to Lucas.

Pooooor Lucas.  Eustef has gotten his sons summary papers from the Academy and he is not pleased.  Father Rance sponsored the boy, and Eustef paid for his education and, while Lucas did attend, he failed to achieve the scores necessary to be admitted to any one of the four primary 'advanced' academies within the Rokari School (which, granted, is because he was studying the Black Path secretly).  In the Baron's opinion, this meant the Lucas wasted several years learning to read the Abiding Book... which he could have done at home.

"What good has this done the family, Lucas?  What good will you be in supporting your brothers when the time comes?  Did you learn anything useful at all?  Please, enlighten me."

Lucas is in a bit of a bind.  He can't display his secretly acquired learning, and there's little of use in the Abiding Book, unless he's rash...  but father's words are harsh, and Lucas' instinct is to "show him".  So the player announces that he's using "Harm Foe" on his father.  He jumps up, whips out his wand, and levels it at the Baron.  

Now, there had been a couple contests up to this point, but obviously this one got everyone's attention pretty strongly.  Lucas was using an augmented skill at about 6w (with bonuses for Arrogant and penalties for "Loyal to Father" thrown in), and Eustef is resisting with the magic of the Order of Saint Gerlant... which is... formidable, to say the least.  Lucas is out. gunned.

I was already envisioning a scene in which Eustef's magical riposte with his talisman causes Lucas wand to burst into flames, as a matter of fact.

Then the player rolled a 1.  Critical.  Granted, Eustef's level of mastery over Lucas also gave him a critical, but Lucas' roll was better -- clearly, he "showed" his father -- a marginal victory, but a victory.  Eustef stood, his blade out of it's sheath to parry, flames licking along the length, but the blow was far stronger than the Baron expected -- he did not grunt or give, but the blow slide him backward along the floor a foot and knocked over his chair.  Lucas' eyes were lit up -- it was clear to everyone he had proven his abilities.

Eustef sheaths his weapon and straightens his tunic.  "Well done," he said.  "It's very valuable to know that, when things become difficult, you can be counted on to attack your family with great ferocity.  Perhaps we should station you in one of Hugo's imagined garrisons, so we know you're not standing behind us."  He looked around the room.  "This dinner is over."

Boom.  Hugo left immediately.  The rest took their time, but within a half hour, everyone was moving.  Guilbert led his men (and squire) into the courtyard (where they disturbed Hugo, who left without a word), and announced that he was going to have a 'proper night' before being banished to the pigsty of Stalos to babysit some bumpkin knight for a fortnight... it's off to the Hen's Lips!  He then toasted his father (mockingly) and asked his men to give him a moment at the Spring Fountain to 'pay his respects' (there is some joking at the table about Guilbert may be relieving himself in the Fountain).

Night.  Etienne gambols and dances and sings... Guilbert sits and drinks a shocking amount of clear potato liquor from a stoneware jug.  Emilie packs his things for the trip (selecting the more uncomfortable, woolen clothing), judges that her knight has 'had his fun' and rides down to the bar to retrieve him.  She's been taught how to carry a wounded man off the battlefield, and uses the same technique with Guilbert.  Etienne is ensconced in 'negotiations' with a tavern wench, so Guy accompanies her back to the manor, and everyone basically goes to sleep.

At four in the morning, Alfan begins waking people up at Colette's behest.  Eustef won't wake up.

----

Cutting to the chase: everyone is assembled.  Riders are sent to the outlying towns.  Jacques is making some headway with 'his' peasants (dropping an HP on his speech) -- proposing that they can all have a good relationship once 'this ridiculous paganism' is given up, and that he wants a prosperous estate and happy folk working the land... when the rider arrives during his prepared breakfast (oatmeal and camp bread) and says the Baron has urgent need of him.

A rider comes to Maslin, who calls for his HORSE (not carriage) and asks that Eilwen ride with him, so that she can later serve as messenger and, for now, keep his old bones from falling off his horse.  It is obviously quite urgent.

Little Ionni comes to Zelana's room and says that there's a rider there from Serge, calling her to Wells.  Ionni is to ride with her and provide protection.

Hugo is the first one at the bedside.  Emilie and Guy get Guilbert basically upright and Guy manages a marginally successful Sobering spell on Guilbert's still-massive drunkenness -- the heir can walk, talk without slurring (much), and doesn't smell too strongly of alcohol... unfortunately, Hugo picks up on his brother's drunkenness and the cover-up from Guy and the two bicker.

Lucas shuts them both up and tries to discern if the cause of Father's coma.  He is UTTERLY shut down -- gets nothing.  Father is not at home.

Other's arrive.  Zelana is ushered in by Serge, who explains she's a trained leech and might be able to suss out a cause.  Zelana tries both medical and magical sensing, but also gets nothing -- she's never seen anything like this.

Finally, Father Rance arrives.  He doesn't even try anything by himself -- he calls for everyone to join hands and follow him in his prayer.  Many many augments roll in.  Rance gets just what he needs, and Eustef's body is revealed to be surrounded with a writhing mass of spirit-snakes (thankfully, none are inside his body... yet).  Rance collapses into a chair from the effort, but the answers are there: something magical was done to the Baron.

Serge steps in and starts moving people around.  Zelana is assigned the job of familiarizing Jacques with everyone.  Lady Noella has just arrived, and Hugo and Guilbert are dispatched to meet her. Guy is supposed to arrange for guest rooms for the Lady and her Daughter (who seems more impressed with Jacques than either of the sons), and to keep things QUIET.  Emilie follows Guilbert tensely, wondering what he might do in his half-sober state.  Maslin dispatches Eilwen with messages for Xander and Brier, and Lucas heads for the Barony's meager library.

-----

And that's where we left it, barring a few straggling bits here and there.

The good:
- The players all wanted to keep going, although it was midnight by the time I handed up HPs.  They made sure we'd established when and where we could make this a 'regular' game to continue play before the night ended, rather than letting it be 'play it by ear'.
- The conflicts, even minor ones with the de Molay grounds keeper or the peasants, were interesting and picked up a lot of color by virtue of what attributes were being used to augment the rolls.
- Players (few of whom had played HQ even once before) made a point of reminding each other to pick out the augments that could help them -- that they should never just roll the skill -- great that they picked this up so fast.
- The scene with the Baron and Lucas just POPPED.
- The gamist combat-tactician (Jacques) is really looking forward to some physical conflicts, but is really enjoying all the conflicts.

The bad:
- Not much. We got started late and slow, due to outside concerns, but things really focused during the dinner.  Some (well, one) of the players is trying very hard to turtle up, but grabby NPCs are negating that quite a bit at the moment.

The prep:
- I want to play again RIGHT now.  The next morning I took what had happened and dressed out bangs for everyone.  The one I'm particular looking forward to is when Guilbert assaults Lucas in the manor (just as soon as he can find him) and starts beating him, shouting "What did you do?!"  Really, I think I've got a good solid bang for each of the characters, and they've got stuff they want work on as well... it's going to be very interesting.

It KILLS me that we won't be able to play until the new year :P

Hi Doyce,

Wow!  It's utterly fascinating to me to see how other people interpret the various NPCs and characters...  I really like Eustef as the "Never good enough" father figure.  I look forward to hearing more about how this turns out.

I can't remember exactly where in the HQ rules, but there is mention of giving Hero Points before play as well as after, although whether that's supposed to be per session or per "adventure" I can't recall.  It's worth remembering if you find that your players are hesitant to spend HP on their characters or actions.  And... I'm sure you'll be upping the conflict and adversity, so they may find themselves wanting to spend them. :)

Chris

One of the reasons I did this was to give all of the sons 'motive' -- I also made a point of placing both of the NPC sons near the fountain that evening... Lucas, I didn't need to bother with, what with him conveniently choosing to ATTACK Eustef.

As for the uber-demanding Eustef, I have to confess that I got my inspiration from a Dale Earnhart movie playing on ESPN while I was at the gym -- I was just reading the subtitles from the muted TV, but the way he raised his kid... whoa.  I have no interest in nascar at all, but that's some drama.  When I needed a model for Eustef that would show how his iron will and demanding, always-striving nature had held onto the barony, using that as a model just leapt out at me during play and I went with it.

Everyone at the table was wincing, or muttering about how glad they were that they weren't there (or, in Jacques case, commenting that they liked Eustef even more, now :).  It was pretty cool.

I was just talking to my wife the other day about running NPCs.  The way I usually make an NPC memorable is to observe people in real life and pick something about them and put it in a game.  It doesn't always have to be someone that the players know but sometimes it is.

Example:  In a modern mob game I ran there was a character who was an erand boy for the russian mob.  In real life I know a russian guy who's fairly well todo and kind of acts like a gangster.  This real life person is a big braggart and always talking about his father who was a famous russian figure scating coreographer.  So my NPC was very much modeled after this guy and the PCs really hated this kid because he was so annoying!

Another instance is a bartender I met not long ago.  In a fantasy game I ran I made the NPC bartender adopt one of this guy's traits.  That of creepily smiling ALL THE TIME.  I mean this guy never stopped smiling.  It made me feel odd and I think the emotion carried over to the players.

Actually, reading Stepping Away from the United Party Mentality did remind me of another "bad" during the session.  I did have one player engaging in a lot of passive-aggressive behavior whenever she wasn't on stage -- details aren't relevant, suffice it to say the behavior was noisy and designed to disrupt the play that wasn't going on.

I know that she's had problems in other games where non-party play was the norm (Amber, etc.), but I'd never experienced it directly myself (at least not in a game -- we've known each other a number of years and she can be like that in real life as well).

Generally, I tried to play around it, but next session I'll have to do something to mitigate it.  Has anyone ever had this crop up when they switch to non-party-oriented play?

The one thing I noticed is that she was completely engaged during the dinner scene, though she wasn't in it -- holding her head in her hands and saying "i'm so glad I'm not there" -- which I think might be her way of asking to be included in the scene -- next time I'll have to frame her in and involve her.

Doyce, social level problem. Use your social skillz.

Which for me would probably be something like, "Shut the fuck up, we're playing a game over here. Want to join us?"

Mike

Fair enough: considering only her behavior, I have to agree with your assessment.

At the level of 'only does it during non-party play' -- I'm curious about how often people run into this sort of ingrained resistance.

As for the STFU solution -- works fine for some of my players.  This particular person is (treatably) bipolor (a.k.a. manic/depressive) -- so that's probably not an option :), cuzzzzz WTF knows what might result?

(And no, this isn't 'making allowances in order to play', this is 'making allowances for your friends' -- equally screwed up, but not a worthy subject for the Forge. :)