The Forge Archives

Aw hell, I will at least do a something here, and Lance I am not doing the whole thing but just what I remember and from Ravens point of view.
As I recall Raven was having a bad day to begin with. He spilled his coffee pot in the fire, Red his horse got into his saddle bags and ate the last three apples and half a can of coffee, and then it started to rain. As we went along the trail we came upon the ruins of an old city with the road sign reading "New River Pop. 40,000 censuses 1995" which is also the place where New Newriver is to be found. As we get closer to the community we pass corrals loaded with cattle to where Raven remarks: "at least I can get a steak later." Thaddeus replies joking "Raven at least your priorities are strait." After yelling at Dog to get away from the cattle they continue into town as the rain gets worse.
As we go we see a light up ahead waving at us. As we gat closer we are gruffly greeted by a mutant holding a lantern by: "are you the Dogs? Follow me." And we are led to an old style church that is being used as the temple of the town. We are greeted by the steward Brother Jethrow who scolds the mutant about his manners when dose not show respect to Thaddeus when asked to put the horses away. We are led into the temple and introduced to his daughter (forgetting name, Lance I need help here) and we proceed to hear the news of the town. There was a plague of the pocks that swept through town and that there was a level of unrest now hovering over the town. There was a woman that was beaten by her husband. And there was a few other things that was concerning. Also it seemed that the Steward was hiding something from the dogs.
As the time wore on the steward left to prepare for evening services and the dogs where led to there rooms. Malachi heads off to investigate this beating and Thaddeus is asked by the steward's daughter to talk alone. And Raven wanting to prod the stewards' secrets by going to help the steward with the services. As the time passes Brother Thaddeus busts out telling Raven to stay and keep an eye on the steward then he dashes out the door into the storm. Worrying about his friend he sends Dogg to help Thaddeus out and begins to pace the floor. Raven hearing a crash out in the distance his nerve breaks and he grabs his things and go out as well into the wet. As he reaches the stables grabbing Red and yelling "GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE RED" over the storm and wind. Frustrated with the weather as he starts out Raven yells to the heavens in a booming voice "BE STILL" and the rain slows to a stop. Too mad to care Raven jumps on Reds and bolt in the direction of the crash and hears gun shots and Dogg howling in fear. When Raven finds his friends there in a great maelstrom of weather being obviously caused by demons. Coming upon Thaddeus he sees him praying over Malachi and collapsing on to the ground suddenly. Chasing away the demons trying to take his friends he sees Thaddeus's broken bleeding leg and whips Thaddeus's belt out and ties off the bleeding then tosses both his friends on Reds back and heads for the temple.
Kicking open the door to the temple and yelling at the top of his lungs asking for help, Raven prepares to treat his friend's wounds. Now in the light he can see that both men were attacked by demons and that more that standard care was needed. And when the steward started to look at the men and not noticing the demonic wounds he knew something was up. Raven asked the steward to treat one of the men to see if he was right and when the steward failed he pushed him aside and did it himself. After his friends were treated Thaddeus was put into bed and Malachi insisted to stay for the rest of the services.
Raven decided to finish the services that he interrupted by giving the attendees a big bible thumping about hell and damnation and the seeds of evil that are in there town. (Raven can make a grand inquisitor look like a Sunday school teacher) As he gets half way into his lecture Brother Malachi stands up recognizing someone in the crowd and starts heading towards the man. Seeing this Brother Raven not skipping a beat in the sermon asks two men to help his friend to the front of the temple not knowing what was going on. One of the men refuses to help so Raven moves to his friend to help, giving the disobedient man a dirty look. Leaning to Malachi ear asking what is wrong and Brother Malachi tell Raven that the man that refused to help was the one who nearly killed him. Hearing this Raven turned his sermon to saying "there is a sinner in this very room" and turns to the man (sorry I do not remember his name) and points to two men next to him. "HOLD HIM" and approaches the held man. "ON HIS KNEES" grabbing a fist full of hair and pulling the mans head back "you sir are to be judged for an assault and attempted murder of a Dog of the faith what do you have to say for your self" the man spit in Ravens face pissing Raven of more. Raven taking his hand and wiping his face and slapping the man all in one stroke. "SPEAK or I will judge you now!!!!" the man spits blood in his face, Raven pulling his head back more "give me a reason not to kill you now". The man caves and tells Raven that Brother Malachi came to him asking why he beat his wife and responded that she did not please him in bed and that it was his right to beat her. And when Malachi objected he began to beat him with a sand bag then he left him for dead. Raven holding himself calls to Malachi for his side and confirms his story.
As Raven turns back to the man Thaddeus stumbles into the room and say that there is some other issues to be handled including something about the steward. Raven tells Thaddeus that he knows and that it will be handled after this. Raven turns to the man and says: "(mans name) you're to be judged for your crimes first no man has the right to strike there wife or vice versa if there was a problem you should of came to the steward or asked for a Dogs help. For this I annul your marriage and bane you from remarrying. For crimes against a Dog you are excommunicated and giving life in prison at Vineyard. And tomorrow you will be flogged in public as an example to the people by Brother Malachi".
"Now is there anyone to speak on this mans behalf to sway my judgment." Looking around at the people then grabbing a set of chains and tossing his bullwhip to Malachi and chains the man and sends him away to a holding cell.

OK folk I am going to pass the torch here for the next part belongs to Thaddeus (Lance) to tell. Forgive any bad grammar and tell me what you think. This ends Ravens current part of the story. Farewell

Hiya,

Actually, that writeup was a dead stop for me. Can you tell me about the single most interesting or fun rolled conflict you guys played during the session? I'd like to know what you rolled, whether you Saw or Raised, whether you Took the Blow, what Fallout your character got ... all that stuff, but from your point of view, not the character's.

Best,
Ron

Okay, I'll recap a bit more specifically.

First off, this is a continuation of the game detailed here

The cast of the town, so far:

Br. Jethro, Town Steward
Br. David, the man who beat his wife
Sr. Naomi, Jethro's sister
The Daughter of Br. Jethro, who's name I can't remember.
Sr. Delilah, Br. David's wife

The town, by the way, was actually New Riverside.

The scene where Malachi spoke with David and his wife:

Malachi first spoke to the wife, finding out from her why her husband beat her: She wasn't pleasing him in bed. Needless to say, this wasn't considered worth a beating, so Malachi went 'round back to talk to David. The conversation grew heated, and eventually David swung on Malachi. Malachi did his best to keep it non-violent, but when David nailed him in the groin with a sandback, Malachi reached back to Vineyard to give David a beating he wouldn't forget. In the face of the Dog's anger though, David gave, and told Malachi what he wanted to know. About that time, the adrenaline stopped, and Malachi dropped like a rock. (weapon fallout, serious injury) David kept Delilah from treating Malachi, and they went on to meeting.

The scene where Dove spoke with the Steward's daughter:

Dove was in his room, pressing bullets when the daughter knocked on the door. She wanted him to bless her baby, but when he commented he didn't know she was married, she grew dodgy and tried to leave. This became a conflict about whether or not she'd tell him the whole story. Eventually by intimidation and calling on his station as a Dog, he convinced her to tell him; The truth was, the father of her baby was her father, the steward. When the pox had taken her mother, she'd stepped up to take on the wifely duties, as it were. Before Thaddeus could recover from his shock and begin preachin' he began to get flashes in his head of a man lying prone in the rain. When a flash of lightning, coinciding with real lightning outside, revealed the man as Malachi, he got up and left, with nothing but his coat and his guns.

The conflict with Dove against the demons: Thaddeus, with nothing but his guns, his coat and his long underwear, was going through the rain, following his visions to find Malachi. Suddenly, lightning struck a tree causing it to fall toward Thaddeus. From out of the dark, Dog, who'd been sent off to help, charged Thaddeus, knocking him to the ground and clear of the tree. Unfortunately, Thaddeus' foot had slipped in the mud, and when the dog hit him, snapped at an unnatural angle just below the hip (judged as "weapon" fallout, serious injury) Still, he dragged himself through the rain, until he found Malachi, with the demons trying to coax his spirit out of his body.

The conflict to save Malachi's life: Dove's experience as a Deputy Marshall had given him some rudimentary first aid skill, so he was able to tell that Malachi's pelvis was likely broken, and there was some internal bleeding. Realizing that there was nothing he could physically do, he Called Malachi by Name, and made the Sign of the Tree, driving off the demons, and calling upon the King of Life to heal his friend. As the demon's fled, the combined stress of his wound (now a complex fracture, with the femur sticking through the skin on the inside of the thigh) and of healing Malachi put him down for the count. (I took temporary fallout during the healing conflict, so for narrative purposes, I took the option to "go away for a while")

The conflict with David: During Raven's sermon about demons and sin, Malachi saw the man who had nearly killed him. When Raven found out, he went a little nuts, and had David on his knees. It was judged to be a talking conflict, even with Raven's fist in David's hair. David immediately escalated to physical but not fighting when he spit in Raven's face. Raven in return escalated to fightin' and belted David across the face. In return, David spit again, blood this time. Before Raven can hit him again, he finally gives, and confesses the whole story, just as Malachi said. The outcome has David imprisoned, awaiting a public flogging the next morning.

Picking up where Zach left off: Dove, recovered somewhat, but still in pain, gathers up the steward, his daughter, and his sister, who had a strong resemblance to the daughter. The Dogs suspected she might have been the mother, but this turned out not to be the case as Thaddeus laid accusation and drew confession from the father and daughter. A brief discussion about the fate of the father and daughter, and of the town ensues, where Raven pushes to have the town burned to the ground, and Thaddeus pretends to consider it. At the time we ended, the fate of the town hadn't yet been decided, but the Dogs would be going over things with a fine tooth comb the next day. Br. Jethro was imprisoned to await the judgement of the Dogs, and his daughter was to be sent to Vineyard to be watched over by the Dogs there until her child is born. It's determined that for a child born in such sin, the center of the Faith is the only safe place. As we close for the night, Dove borrows Raven's big ol' Book of Life, and settles down to save the daughter's soul.


High points:

The fact was, there was no real reason for either Dog to go looking for Malachi, but without medical attention, he would have died. So I decided to call upon the fact, from Dove's backstory, that he'd had visions before to come to the rescue. Then the scene with the daughter came, and I was totally floored. It ended up being the next scene, afterward, before I could do anything.

Raven's conflict with the storm was another high point. This was the session for escalating the supernatural aspects.. In the first session Malachi had set the tenor by Healing the bloody mutant. This session raised the bar considerably.

The fact that, as a result of my fallout, I have a relationship with one of Raven's "possessions", something he doesn't. For some reason, this amuses me greatly.

This will be the second town in which we've annulled a marriage. I've gotta wonder if this is going to become a theme.

Questions:

While this didn't actually come up in play, it was brought up, and I could easily see it happening in play. If a conflict occurs where winning the stakes involve one party surviving, but he takes lethal fallout, what do you do? My call would be that the stakes override the results of the fallout; They'll take any and all associated fallout, but they'll not die.

I'm interested in the "official" stance on this question, though.

I can't think of any other questions or problems, but when/if I do, I'll certainly post them. Hopefully Zach or Lx can bring up any questions or issues I've missed.

Ok I admit I got a little too deep into story telling but this session was a short one and there was mostly just that...story. There only two major conflicts that had Raven involved. As for mechanics I do not remember that much about the rolls. Although the conflict with brother Raven and Brother David was very one sided on the dice favoring Raven. And for one my dice curse seemed to be on vacation. I can't wait to finish the town.

Hey Folks,

So how did this sessions compare to last session in terms of mechanics and such? Sounds like you guys worked out some of the kinks that you had the first time around, but is that accurate? Any other player conflicts about how the dice or the game worked beyond Lance's one question about stakes/fallout collision?

-Tim

The rules question is "what if stakes are 'do I live through this,' and I win the conflict, but I Take a big Blow and wind up rolling 14d10 Fallout, and thereby die?"

Is that right?

The rules answer: consider the stakes not-fully-resolved until you've rolled your Fallout dice. Yes, you can win the conflict but still die from Fallout.

-Vincent

Hm. Well, thanks for the official stance. However, I can't say as I like that. Purely preference, though, so I think I'll just discuss this with the group and see how we want to do it.

Either way, it seems best to prevent the question from coming up by never phrasing stakes to include whether or not someone lives, if the possibility for lethal fallout is there.

Mleh. On writing that, I realize I don't like that solution either. ::shrug:: Oh well.

Thanks!

Lance: usually people try to kill you for a reason. Generally you can make the reason the stakes and leave the killing to Fallout.

-Vincent

So, for example, Brother Micah wants to prevent Brother John(a Dog) from reporting a crime.

Brother Micah ambushes Brother John in a dry gulch.  He's got his rifle out, and immediately escalates to shootin'.  They roll their dice, and Brother Micah comes out hugely on top.  

If Brother John gives, before even bothering to see the first raise, does that mean he dies?

Understood. My main concern is actually for the occasions when I feel it's really important that a given NPC survives a confrontation. I wouldn't use such stakes lightly, because it would cheapen the risk of death, and lighten the impact of my character's "talk or shoot; there ain't no middle ground" beliefs.

I want to accidentally kill someone one day. Or rather, my character, not me. But sometimes it's important to the story unfolding that a given character lives, and I'd be just a bit annoyed to have them die through a fluke of the dice.

edit: Crossposted with Vaxalon.

Vax,

I can answer that, I think. If that's the stakes, yes. But as Vincent points out, it's best to leave the killing and injury to fallout. My only beef with that way of doing things is in the exceptional cases mentioned above.

Lance: I don't get it. Does "don't try to kill NPCs you don't want to kill" answer your concern? If not, why not?

Fred: The stakes are "does Bro Micah keep Bro John from reporting the crime?" right? If Bro John's player Gives without Taking a Blow, then a) Bro Micah keeps Bro John from reporting the crime, b) Bro John doesn't take Fallout, and c) Bro John doesn't die.

-Vincent

So, somehow, if Brother John gives, he has convinced Brother Micah that he won't report the crime if Brother Micah spares his life?

This kind of situation might have some implications, in that, the mechanic state that something happens, that none of the participants can work into the narrative in a believable way...

Fred, your interpretation is one of many possible interpretations.

Brother John retreats into a cave, and Micah blocks the entrance.  Or he runs from the gunshot and sprains his ankle.  Or he just plain runs, and therefore doesn't get there in time to report the crime.  Or a grazing bullet to the temple knocks him unconscious.  Or he loses his nerve and decides he won't even try to report the crime, lest Micah get a second shot at him.  Or he realizes how important keeping the secret is to Micah, and decides it would be immoral to report the crime.  Or he gets angry, kills Micah, and then can't report the crime without implicating himself (that one's when Micah wins, but with lethal fallout to himself).  Or....

List goes on and on.  In practice I've never seen a problem with interpreting what happens, as long as people were honest at the start about what's really non-negotiable.

Hello,

Fred, I've never seen that problem arise in any situation, with any players, when using a game of this type. (Dust Devils, Universalis, Elfs, Trollbabe, My Life with Master, Fastlane, etc, etc)

I think you're letting your imagined notions of what would break down in play get the best of you. Your statement

Quoteif Brother John gives, he has convinced Brother Micah that he won't report the crime if Brother Micah spares his life

is reasonable, playable, fun, and interesting.

Best,
Ron

I thought about the same issue. Then I realized that, if I give without a fight, it's up to ME to explain why my character did that. If there's no reasonable explanation, I shouldn't give. So the decision to give is made with an understanding of what that means, either that my character is a coward, or has changed his mind, etc.