Sticks RPG Session 3 - Regalia

 Back in January I had the third gathering of my old high school gaming group, with the new rules that I tossed out recently. If time permits tomorrow I’ll cram in a write up of the session, but I wanted to take a minute to talk about the mechanics.

 

The move to business cards holding the character data and business card sleeves to hold the 10 data points worked really well – sped up character creation a lot, solved the problem of everyone having to copy everything over. That’s a keeper.

 

The poker chips for claiming narrative control to overcome obstacles also worked well. I’d over-complicated it with chip color determining if narrative dominance was based on fighter, rogue or spellcaster ability. The players instead just spent chips regardless of color. By the start of the last scene there was one unused chip in play and the PCs were drained of more mechanical resources, so the balance was right.

 

When spending the chips players either a) had their character start talking to NPCs or other PCs with a clear direction b) describing what they did and the effect it has on the game or c) telling me what they want to have happen and asking me to describe it. Obviously I am least happy when it’s the third, but players told me they were grateful the option if they knew they wanted but not how to embellish it.

 

Map design worked well enough. The second Sticks game had a really evocative map effect where I let them run wild and they build the whole world and PCs backstories into the map in a way that made me very happy. This time the games focused nature as an exploration quest meant there were more restrictions – rather than just evocative landmarks for us to ruff off of I needed tangible conflict points. Those ended up being just written down on the map while people sketched cities, forests, mountains and plains around them. If I had more time I might have the map sketching come first and then the conflict points written on the side and making use of the more evocative map images.

 

Originally one player tried to game the map/conflict point idea by describing the area they have to pass through as eminently calm, peaceful, comfortable, and best suited for long naps on the beds of pine needles under the shady towering trees – trying to avoid conflict. When I wrote this down on the map as The Copse of Eternal Slumber everyone groaned and realized that if their characters were going to face conflicts they’d be better served if they had a hand in it. I was happy with the diversity of the conflicts: there was a good mix of social interactions, environmental danger and sites of people/monsters who the players knew where there but didn’t know if they were going to be immediate attackers, things to sneak around, things to talk past or potential allies (and all of those options ended up coming up in play).

 

The players did plan a little bit – Chris really wanted to have a scene with their PCs sneaking past an entrenched army after the same relic just to be able to say “they’re digging in the wrong place” so he included needing to steal a map in the urban part and the army in the final part. Marilyn really likes Yeti so she put them in as a mountain conflict, and then spent chips to have her barbarian warrior deal with the threat by becoming their war chief, leading a yeti army against a later conflict point. Being able to shift to narrative control whenever we reached a point where the mechanical conflict was either seriously turning against them or when they felt things would run too long did wonders for letting us get in a whole story arc in a 4 hour session. Otherwise each map segment could easily have been a whole night’s play.

 

There was a lot in this that I’m going to cogitate on for other styles of play, but it captured the classic AD&D 7th-9th level PC adventure quest feel. I expect the narrative control chips will be making more appearances later.

Here’s some detail on the characters they built and challenges they faced

 

(Chris) Bren Monkey: Court Upbringing [Primary, +8], Ancestral Spellcaster [Secondary +6], Military Rogue [Tertiary, +4), Military Fighter [Rare, +2], Wealth and Connections. Born in the year of the Monkey his public self is torn between Forbidden Desires and Responsibility, while his secret self is a Snake, making him intelligent, charismatic, passionate and scary.  Bren is also a member of the Monkey family in the imperial court, but a second son with no hope of inheritance. His great grandfather was leader at a major military loss 80 years ago that cost the empire a large hunk of territory, and his bones and regalia are buried in what is now enemy territory. Bren is being driven by the ghosts of his family to return his great grandfather’s bones to the family crypts, but he also secretly hopes that retrieving the lost crown will improve his status in the family and let him overthrow his brother. In his public actions he has recruited the assistance of Shui and Rowan.

 

(Jen) Shui: Invocation Spellcaster [Primary +8 and Secondary +6, +14 total], Divinatory Spellcaster [Tertiary +4], Temple Upbringing [Rare +2], Devine Mandate [usable for magic, plus lets her consecrate areas and command undead]. Born in the year of the Dragon her public self is torn between Tradition or Ambition, and her secret self is also a Dragon, making her strong, intelligent and quick tempered. Shui is an aged member of the imperial temple staff who has been assisting Bren in his interactions with his Great Grandfather. She appreciate both his ambitions and his desire to see the bones properly returned to their traditional resting site and is willing to travel with him to see it done.

 

(Jeff) Rowan: Military Rogue [Primary +8], Urban Fighter [Secondary +8], Scholarly Fighter [Tertiary +4], Urban Upbringing [Rare +2], Marked [Rowan has one tattoo for every man he has killed, and is covered with hundreds of terrifying markings]. Born in the year of the Rooster his public self is torn between Ambition and Loyalty, and his secret self is also a Rooster, making him dexterous, tough, conscientious and bold. He was in the reconnaissance unit that Bren commanded during that latter’s time of mandatory military service, and once he exited the army become Bren’s bodyguard. Unknown to Bren Rowan accepted that role in the pay of Howell, Bren’s older brother, to watch, direct and ultimately deal with the troublesomely ambitious younger brother. Rowan’s one emotional weakness is his love for Revelin, the enslaved circus acrobat.

 

(Rachel) Revelin: Entertainer Upbringing [Primary +8], Natural Spellcaster [Secondary +6], Invocation Spellcaster [Tertiary +4], Divinatory Spellcaster [Rare +2], Casts an Animal Shadow [Revelin is a snow leopard that has learned to take human form that she might experience human love and culture]. Born in the year of the Monkey her public self is torn between Forbidden Desires and Responsibility, while her private self is an Ox, making her strong, wise, gentle and dangerous when angered. Many years ago she was captured and bound with a magical collar that holds her to the circus of Tennen, where she is the star act. Rowan has been searching for a way to free her that will not compromise his position and has convinced Bren that Revelin’s help is essential on the mission ahead and he must free her.

 

(Jesse) Fred: Scholarly Upbringing [Primary +8], Exploring Rogue [Secondary +6 and Rare +2, +8 total], Natural Spellcaster [Tertiary +4], Brother to Jackals, Companion to Owls [Fred’s life is endless and cursed – nothing will kill him but danger and ill-fortune follow his companions]. Born in the year of the Pig his public self is torn between freedom and responsibility, which his private self is a Rat, making him dexterous, intelligent, resourceful and crafty. Fred has been alive so long he has forgotten much of what has happened to him, and has had so many people die suddenly around him that he now takes it as the natural order of the world and thinks little of it. He is a font of obscure facts, ancient connections and lost knowledge. Bren and Sui have approached him as they learned that he was one of the few survivors of the lost battle and need his knowledge to find his great-grandfather’s precise resting place. Fred is often accompanied by ….

 

(Marilyn) Wyck: Wild Rogue [Primary +8, Secondary +6, 14 total], Nature Spellcaster [Tertiary +4], Barbarian Upbringing [Rare +2], Balanced Chi [has transcended the need for tools – can heal with a touch, climb without ropes, etc.] Born in the year of the Pig her public self is torn between freedom and responsibility, which his private self is a Rabbit, making her dexterous, charismatic, sexy and talented. Wyck is an outsider, living on the edge of Imperial society, who makes her way but constantly exploring and expanding her knowledge, selling maps of her discoveries to the imperial library. When she can she visits with Fred, drawing upon his knowledge to send her in new directions for new discoveries. She just happens to be with him when this particular adventures comes calling.

 

The players then tackled the map now that they knew their final destination, their skills and their shared backstories. The map is divided into 4 parts – urban start, wilds one, wilds two and the final destination. Claiming narrative control is relatively easy in the opening two quadrants, harder in the 3rd and hardest in the final quadrant. After some discussion the players came up with the following conflicts:

 

1st Quadrant Challenges: Urban environment. Revelin’s Circus, Securing map fragment and grandfather’s skull from temple crypt, Bren leaving without detection.

2nd Quadrant Challenges: Deep forests. Revelin’s stalker fan, Copse of Eternal Slumber, Feathered Serpent Men.

3rd Quadrant Challenges: Mountains. Terrain issues, Yeti, Weather Wizards guarding the enemy border.

Final Quadrant Challenges: to my original dismay Chris’ backstory set the final scenes on… a large, flat former battlefield. Fortunately players put in some interesting stuff – the enemy army’s military units also looking for the regalia, the haunted obelisk at the final battlefield and the cursed lands around where the regalia was buried.

 

This character, world and plot creation sequence took about an hour while people were finishing dinner. 

Sticks Improv round 4: Flight of the Pornicorns

A quick write up of the session:

(Jesse) a lost child raised by the three bears, Thistle has a sweetness of heart that makes animals love him and do as he suggests. He’s also charming and perceptive, and is looking for ways to reconcile the fox gangs with the rest of the wood.

 

(Marilyn) Abudda is Thistle’s monkey companion; she is remarkably dexterous and perceptive and, having been stolen from her tribe at a young age, become a capable thief. She acts as the brains of the pair.

 

(Lucas) Xilli is the seventh son of a sevenths son (actually I think he was supposed to be a she originally, but we lost track of that), the unconscious magic of the world flows through this simple Xarmish farmhand, whose strength is that of 10 because his heart is pure. We likened him to Lil Abner, which Lucas, being 19, didn’t get.

 

(Steve) Alexander is the most beautiful charming and pure knight in the realm, facts that he uses to hide his cowardice. Once he has been blooded in battle his ability to command others is unmatched, so he has a reputation as a great leader.

 

(Jeff): Xander is the greatest knight and swordsman in all the realms, having mastered all of the arts of swordplay and much secret lore in the quest to avenge his extended family on the man who killed their father. “The eldest got the farms, the 2nd got the priesthood, 3rd got the army posting… as the 6th all that was left to inherit was the vengeance quest.”

 

(Rachel) Xalia is the future countess of the northern plains and set to inherit her families’ vast horse breeding estates, but in her heart she wants more land and power in the kingdom. She is smart, agile, dexterous, well trained and has knows how to whistle for the wind and sing for the weather.

 

(Jen): Apples is Xalia’s companion, a unicorn Pegasus (dubbed a Pornicorn when everyone was on a 2nd or 3rd glass of wine) who has a horse’s strength and a natural ability to navigate the fairy realms with kindness and courtesy. She is the only one of her kind she knows of, and the quest for more Pornicorns drives the adventure.

 

(Chris) Prince Xavier is 2nd born to the ruler of Xalland, the empire at the end of the alphabet. Educated & charming, trained in the paths of midnight, it is his job to keep his idiot older brother alive and ready for the throne. The dying king has changed Xavier with finding more Pornicorns as the gods have given the king a vision of ascending into heaven on a young Pornicorn’s first flight. The king also revealed that he had sent his heir, Xesmond, on a nonsense quest to rout the fox gangs to keep him from bumbling into Xavier’s quest.

 

Following his father’s orders Xavier collects his travelling companions: his cousin and her steed, the two greatest warriors in the realm and 4th person he speaks to that day. Due to a mix up as to whether the king counts as the 1st person or not that 4th person is not the mighty court wizard but the humble farmhand come to negotiate this years’ crop sales[1]. After the team building montage[2] the group set off on Xander’s boat to the Plateau of the Pornicorns, known to Xander’s vast knowledge of secrets and hidden paths.

 

Unfortunately they fall under attack by the ironclad raiding ship of the little men to the west who had been capturing and enslaving magic al animals of all types to work in their gold and silver mines. Xalia is able to drive them away by singing up a storm to break their masts, and Apples spies them heading into a forest inlet for repairs. The group decides to follow them now rather than face them later.

 

Thistle and Abudda feared these little men, as they feared the foxes, and after a few encounters driving off the fox gangs (with and without Xesmond’s oafish assistance). The drama chip rules this time were 2 chips for any claim of narrative control, or 1 chip if you set it to a Disney style song. Jesse drove off the foxes originally by telling the animals not to fill their hearts and hands with hate, just throw what you defecate! The Foxes fled from the sudden shitstorm to wash out their gang jackets and re-slick their hair before meeting with the ironclad. Abudda, having followed them, learned that the little men were more foxes, and their leader bore the distinctive scar that Xander’s father left on his killer.

 

Thistle, seeing the Pornicorn spying on the island, calls for it to come down and the two groups connect. Xander learns that his father’s killer is on the boat and demands immediate action over Alexander’s warnings. Xander dives overboard and swims to the boat, eliminating a half dozen foxes with surprise until he is surrounded by some twenty more. The swordsmaster is saved by Prince Xavier’s stepping through shadows with Xilli to stand at his back and the foxes are beaten back and finally defeated when Thistle calls the birds of the woods to peck their eyes out, reconciliation now being impossible. They take one fox captive to learn how their leader escaped, to learn that he too knows secret paths, the warrens under the world. Cursing his ill fortune Xander is at a loss again, but Xalia finds several pornicorn sized magical silver and gold bridles in the ships hold. This, and things like them, are how the foxes control the other magical animals[3]

 

Leaving Xesmond to clean up the mess Xander drags the rest of the party to his ship, where Xalia provides them favorable winds in the race to Pornicorn Plateau to face the fox lord. There they find a massive fox army using controlled elephants to construct a road up the plateau (ala the Romans attacking Masada). Apples drops Abudda into the camp for a night infiltration and the clever monkey finds the Fox Lord in the middle of a pentagram, hovering and cracking with magical power. He somehow senses Abudda’s presence and the monkey, seeing this, flees back to the others. They realize that the Fox Lord is seeing through Abudda’s eyes, but Thistle is able to break the connection by politlely but firmly insisting that the stop. They hear the enraged Fox Lords yells from some distance away and know time is against them.

 

Finding an entrance into the warrens under the world Xander gets Xilli to lead half the party into them by telling the farmboy it is a cave and trusting his stupid powerful magic will fall for the ruse in the dark; perspective wins over physics and the group are able to sneak to the Fox Lord’s presence while Alexander, Xalia, and Apples fly in to distract its attention – Alexander’s cowardice is overcome by his desire to mount the beautiful beast.

 

The two pronged assault enrages Fox Lord, who has grown to 30 feet in height and is summoning a thunderstorm. Xalia counters that with her own weather magic while Apples and Alexander charge at the beast with lance and spear and Xander clambers to its face to stab at its eyes.

 

Thistle attempts to calm the beast lord, but barely fails to do so and is knocked a country mile for her efforts – Apples and Alexander fly after her to attempt a rescue. Deeply wounded and with its weather magic failing the Fox Lord still has the upper hand, preparing to crush the distracting Prince Xavier when Xilli lifts him bodily – all 30 fee of him – and hurls him to the ground. What appears to be an earth tremor is revealed as the stampede of elephants freed by the good hearted Thistle, which trample down the beast lord. It nearly vanishes in the confusion but Xander holds fast to it even as it shrinks to normal size and tries to flee into the warrens. Xander stabs it again and again, and with the beast lords’ death his army disperses, driven off by elephants and a flight of angry pornicorns.

 

Once everyone is back at the kingdom the young farm boy is knighted for his heroism, Xalia marries Xander in a loveless marriage so that she might be closer to the crown and have the affections of Alexander on the side while Apples settles down her pick of stallions. Thistle and Abudda return to their happy little forest glade, and Xander wonders what his life will become now. Perhaps piracy?

 

 

[1] This was actually a really funny bit Chris, Lucas and I ad libbed out, and why I like playing with the improv group.

 

[2] In which Steve got some great bits, claiming that he knew Xander was a fearsome swordsman, and that when the two of them dueled he could tell Xander’s life path greater required the sense of victory and so determined Alexander’s path, which is a really nice way of sayin ‘he kicked my ass’ without sayin’ it, and Alexander swore that the most beautiful knight in the realm must have Apples the pornicorn as the most beautiful mount, opening the door to some strange bestiality polyamory side jokes.

 

[3] Feeding into the bestiality polyamory jokes, Jen dubbed this plotline “fifty shades of neigh.”

Weekly Book Recommendations (September 20)

It's been a while since I've had the bandwidth for the blog stuff, but here's a catch up on the books front

My Brother's Keeper by Tim Powers: Powers returns to his classic poets series - previously seen with Lord Byron and William Ashbless in Anubis Gates, Christina Rossetti in Hide Me Among the Graves, and Byron, Keats, and Shelley in Stress of her Regard - focusing on the Bronte family. When I tell people I'm reading a book about the Bronte family it makes it sound escholarly and me erudite. When I add "Fighting Werewolves!" it makes it sound awesome and me like a huge nerd. This is not peak Powers, but aside from Anubis Gates I've never been as sold on these secret history books compared to his others. Still, I enjoyed it quite a bit. 

The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy L Sayers: I was split on including this but felt I enjoyed it enough at the end to merit a recommendation. Sayers style is... odd. There's a density to the text that requires more work than, say, Christie, and she is so rooted in the class mores of the British interwar period that it felt even more class conscious than Christie (which I did not expect) and emphasized how much the past was another country; it felt at times in this (and in the one I'm currently reading) that it's a SF/F Novel where there is world building being done that has to be absorbed and applied to make sense of the puzzle being presented. The biggest issue is that so many of the characters, even the admirable ones, were just mean spirited towards some of the others for reasons that mostly make sense in the UK class sense. Still, it was a solid, fair, nested mystery with a good resolution. 

The Complete Flash Gordon Library volumes 1 and 2 - On the Planet Mongo and The Tyrant of Mongo: If you can get past, like, the first few panels of the series include some really jarring racial caricatures from the 1930's before our heroes get to Mongo this is really good. It's never free from the yellow peril tropes but the artwork is as good as Hal Foster's on Prince Valiant (the highest compliment I can give for a comic strip) and stories rollick along. Ming is a great, smart, long term villain where Flash develops a plan and Ming see through it and blocks it, rather than having him be a buffoon who is perpetually outwitted by the hero where you can't tell why they're still in power. Does it rely on too many formula beats that suffer when there isn't a week of time between each strip? Yes. Every place they visit has a beautiful princess who falls for Flash and does things that make Dale jealous; they never get anywhere without crashing their ship, Flash is reduced to near death about 6 times in these two volumes. Still, it is solid storytelling in the pulp vein. You could do worse than emulating it in your pulp heroes campaign. 

Emirikol Session 4 Prep

So the last thing the players saw between sessions was the Scornbul Observer article about the death of the Cardinal and Sebastian being framed for it. I had commented that this was part of Reme's plan, but looking back over my game notes this wasn't the case....

Unfortunately for the Republic Reme learned of the collapse of his plans (he was elsewhere in the caves, and planned to meet with his pirates after the PCs arrived - with his invisibility & expeditious retreat he gathered information and escaped before the rumors were able to circulate) and has initiated a new stratagem. In disguise as Sebastian he infiltrated the water temple, stabbed the venerable Cardinal of the West with a dagger laced with Bloodbee Poison then slowly killed the paralyzed man, making sure to be in sight, trusting that the Cardinals would try to speak with his spirit. He then fled, again making sure he was seen to exit. 

After he performs the killing he will use his hag's eye to contact the Coven and let them know. Reme then waits for his chance to kill those who could identify him in court (the pirate and Johann the gnome cook). He might still have destroyed Sebastian's reputation, and certainly murdered one of the Cardinals of the church. His attempts to murder the pirate will doubtless be successful, but the PCs have a chance of saving Johann if they keep him close. 

The Coven, once they hear, will not be thrilled with the change of plans. The Sea Hag, Signora Huera, will take steps to try to remove Sebastian from the others pirate hunters so that the deception might continue (killing a dolphin in view of the priest, so that he has to isolate and ritually cleanse himself). 

Reme isn't thinking as clearly as he might: this outrage will weaken the church, yes, but it will also rouse the sleeping giant that is the Paladins against the pirates who make up the cannon fodder for the Red Tide and the Coven. In doing so he will be disrupting one of the Coven's plans in the swamps - the slaughter of the keepers at the Seawall Lighthouse and the creation of a false light to cause ships to founder - and perhaps even lead to the destruction of the covey's second member, the powerful Annis. 

So this is the advantage of keeping tabs on the villains broad goals and personalities in this sort of sandbox play. The PCs moved to disrupt the villains, the immediate villains change plans, this wrong foots other villains, and so on. This is the conversation Melas was overhearing between the Coven members at the end of Scornbul by Midnight. The outcomes would have been completely different if the PCs had skipped the library, or moved immediately afterwards. 

As I commented about last session, having the idea of what was happening let me move immediately to them doing things I had considered for this session, so I found my notes were all full of attacking the pirates on the dock, which was already done. 

The timetable after that was the complaint that several ships coming from the west have gone missing over the last couple of weeks - including the one that Johann the gnome was on - which makes the governors suspect that the pirates are lurking to the west. Sebastian and several paladins led ships out that way just that morning, but with these new events the governors want to send forces through the swamps do a visual check for pirates there and to check on the family that tends the lighthouse at Seawall. Ships have reported that the lighthouse is operational and they have seen the wife in the distance, but it never hurts to be sure. Honesto requests that the PCs be one of these groups. (This is the thing the Coven was worried about, above.)

My intent was that the PCs voyage to the swamps, encountering a handful of animal, and then have the choice of heading south (where they'll encounter pirates) or north to the lighthouse (where they'll encounter the Annis and some ogres polymorphed to look like the murdered family). Either encounter is overwhelming, but the PCs have some advantages: with the Pirates they can pick the opposition off, lure it away, confuse it or what have you; with the Annis they will have an avenue of escape or, if they can maintain their cover, can buff the Annis into thinking they don't know what's going on; in both, their foes would rather keep them alive for torture and questioning so there's time for the other group to mount a rescue attempt. I have faith in their ability to survive it. 

Once that's over we'll definitely have to have a few days pass to keep this whirlwind of activity from dominating the game. The PCs will have skipped up levels rapidly (now hovering around 3-4) and are now readily able to handle themselves. Plus, I'm hoping that some of the city stuff will work nicely for a few sessions. I'm hoping the swamp time will only take up a couple of hours, but I know that it will be longer than that. Ah well. 

Things Players Said They Wanted to Do

• Hang around the library.
• Visit the Cardinals of the Endless Ocean over the remains, and about the impersonation of Sebastian.
• Explore the city as gawking rube; 
• Visit the Legerdemain. 
• Revisit the gnomish swordsmith about getting a masterwork rapier blade for the training rapier hilt.
• Meet with Aslan Nightshade? 
• Locate the men who went into Hightower Tor?

Things I Want to Move Forward 

• Get invited by the paladins to follow up on the Pirates the in the Swamp connection. 
• Bear witness in a Republican Court to the plot concerning Sebastian d'Ferrantino. 
• Battle with the Hag or the Pirates
• Have Cybele get isolated and braced by her halfling mobsters. 

Scornbul by Midnight Overview

This was a fascinating experiment for me because it was the first time I had successfully run a PBEM sequence. I had played in them before (R Jean Stevenson's masterful Star Change game for Spelljammer, primarily), but my attempts to run them myself fell apart because I tried to exert too much authorial control. This was a great training ground before I went on to run my X-Men and Legion of Super-Heroes games. 

It helps that Jim is a professional writer who was engaged with the idea, so the story moved pretty smoothly on his end. That and PBEM play is near perfect for single player work. 

Jim, Melas' player, was going to miss two monthly games and I didn't want to have his PC be out of the action for that long, so I cobbled together a side plot that showed what the villains behind the current villain were doing: the coven of Hags who were pushing the pirates and assassins to work against Emirikol. Hags have always been one of my all time favorite villains in d20 Fantasy because of their diversity of powers, their cooperation, and their mutual antagonism - it just makes them great villains The Sea Hag, ostensibly the weakest of them, has such a gothic power in their grotesque visage saps the strength of others, that I wanted to stick her into a gothic story bit. Add in the visuals of the blinded former pirates working for her in the darkened house and it gave everything a horror scenario vibe. 

I tried to stick to the D&D mechanics as much as I could for resolving the plotline, and that she only had 16 HP made it possible for Melas to win a fight once he got close enough and got a weapon. Sea Hags are classic Glass Cannons in that they can really mess you up damage and ability wise, but they aren't bags o' HP, and that worked great for the action economy of a single PC against the monster. If memory served he walked out of that house with 3 HP left. the 3E mechanics, again, did everything I would have asked them too. Escape Artist checks, even! 

Rereading it as I posted it I'm really happy with the mood, atmosphere, and character work of this, as well as how it gave the PCs more information from an oblique source. Melas dealt a serious blow to their main adversaries without really knowing what he had done.