[Circle of Hands]

[Judd]

Here's Gerdawend: http://indie-rpgs.com/adept/index.php?topic=416.0

First game! I had finished reading the book that morning and the details were still fuzzy in my mind but I know from learning past games that the only way to get the mechanics into my blood is to play, possibly incorrectly and non-optimally, and then re-read some parts and do better next time.

Monday was an odd day. I met with Witt and Rob earlier but only had time to make up characters, hoping to play later.

I was pretty confident about chargen when I got to Thor's place, where we (Thor, Bret and Keith) sat down and made characters. I was a little intimidated; Keith and Thor have more historical knowledge and when Thor corrected me on the pre-medieval/early medieval it became a joke about pain-in-the-ass players, rather than as source of simmering tension.

I described Gerdawend, saying that it was a town that was having some kind of trouble with a unicorn. Maybe that wasn't the way to phrase it - maybe that made it sound like the unicorn needed-a-killin' a little too much. Everyone chose their characters, no one chose their wizard for this, everyone's first game. I mentioned that Gerdawend was in the hills of Rolke, built near an ancient standing stone and had been a battleground between two warring wizards in recent years. They approached with their roadies and I described the sheep dotting the hills.

Then Thor used that historical knowledge and helped me out immensely. He asked what season it was and when I told him, he outlined what would be happening in a community in late fall - separated those from the herd the shepherds didn't think the town could support through the winter so they could be slaughtered and eaten. I hadn't considered that when I had considered the town and it helped give everything some context.

The Circle

Thor's character:
Sigiswald
Martial (low)
Freeman

Keith's Character
Wulf
Merchant/High Martial
Professional

Bret's character
Edith
Outdoorsman/Low Martial
Freeman

Meeting the Locals
They first came upon Ralf one-eye, and I forget who approached him but I had them make a Charm roll. It was a success. I had them use 2 dice, not seeing any reason for any particular disadvantage. So, I am seeing my first possible error. With most of the NPC's, I had the initial PC make that crucial charm roll. For whatever reason, I always saw them as making it with 2 dice, never at a disadvantage. The players approached the NPC's in a proper way, not riding into town strapped down with weapons or armored.

Ralf talked about the unicorn when asked, explained that it had taken his eye and that he had been hobbled and left for dead because he'd beaten someone who needed a beating, as he saw it.

Next was Geert, who had come into the town some years ago as heard of a wizard's guard. When the wizard died, he stayed in town and used the unicorn as a punitive measure. Again, the character who made initial contact rolled 12+ and I didn't have each PC roll, which would have made the game potentially more complicated. Taking a note from the book, I had a successful roll mean that the players were taken in as trusted cousins. Geert's daughter served them food and drink and showed them to their roooms.

I had Geert assume that Edith would be helping with rounding up sheep. Bret asked why that was. I told him they could tell he was a freeman and in my mind, Sigiswald was some kind of bodyguard for Wulf whose profession was soldiering, whereas they could tell she had experience as an outdoorsman.

A local boy showed Edith around and they brought some wayward sheep to Gisela. Again, a successful roll but more than that, Bret said something really interesting to Gisela. She confided that she was dying and the unicorn had driven off death from her bed. Edith said, "What did that cost ya?" and that seemed like a perfect question. Gisela broke down and told her about how the unicorn had killed her eldest son and his entire family.

Edith said that she'd kill the unicorn and avenge Gisela's family and the old lady said she didn't want vengeance.

The Unicorn

Meanwhile, Sigiswald and Wulf were on the hill where the standing stone was located, where Ralf and other outlaws were hobbled and left for dead. The grass was all dead and the bones of outlaws were still there, no scavengers had come to scatter any bones. It was all almost too clean.

Some magic was cast, which was neat, a skeleten was animated and talked to through Walk and Black Speech. Some more info was gleaned from the dead but not much. Because of the successful rolls and apt play, I had handed over the information freely, old Dogs in the Vineyard instincts kicking in.

Sigiswald and Wulf realized that tracking down the unicorn was going to be difficult without Edith and her skills. They sought her out and hunted down the unicorn. One Wits roll later, they followed dead, sterile patches of land to where the unicorn was staring down the boy who had met with Gisela earlier with Edith.

The fight was rough. I can see that the combat will be neat once I get a grip on it but I wasn't aggressive with the unicorn spending Brawn to jump in line and so the players spent brawn and kept it at bay and killed it with successful rolls. I had trouble figuring out how much damage a crossbow did and it took a little while to realize that everything did Brawn and the different damages were really about how weapons interacted with different armors and situations.

In the end, with the unicorn dead, Bret mentioned he wanted to ask Ralf One-eye to come with them and join the Circle Knights. If we had continued that game, I'd really want Ralf to be in the pile of PC's but I'm not sure exactly how that'd work.

It was fun, I'm intrigued to read the rules over again, make more ventures and play Gerdawend again.

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Judd,

It's always hard to respond to these. I can never tell if the person wants critique, or rules clarifications, or what, or if I should say "Thanks!" and see what they do next. So, Thanks for sure, and ...

If I could request anything, it's two things: (1) play again with these guys, using the Circle you've created. You have six knights there. In the next session, each player can choose from all seven which each one didn't play this time. That's one of the intended experiences of the game design and even more than Trollbabe, it'd break my heart to see people play a one-shot focusing on a half-learned combat system and wander away, over and over. (2) Don't re-use this venture with the other group. Make a new one. Making and prepping ventures is its own kind of fun and has its own learning curve, and I think it's important to keep moving forward with it.

I described Gerdawend, saying that it was a town that was having some kind of trouble with a unicorn. Maybe that wasn't the way to phrase it - maybe that made it sound like the unicorn needed-a-killin' a little too much.

Seems OK to me. When you're landed a one-component venture with something as obvious as a monster, it's hard to phrase the basics any other way.

"Roadies" – ha! As good a word as any, maybe even the best.

Sigiswald, Martial (low), Freeman / Wulf, Merchant/High Martial, Professional / Edith, Outdoorsman/Low Martial, Freeman

I can see that the whole Charm and NPC interaction concept is a part of your learning curve. I think the best I can do at the moment is to wait on your next experience of play.

One bit of advice: moving in. I may be mis-reading your post, but it seems like they showed up, and met The Guy, and The Guy told them The Stuff, so now they went to go have The Fight. Like a Call of Cthulhu game without all the poking around in "nothing here" corners.

Here's my thought on that: Coming to a steading community of this kind, they might expect to be met by the chief or at least main man, at a place where they'd be at a combat disadvantage, there to say hello and let them know where they'll be staying, probably have the professional treated with professional respect, and have a day or three go by in which nothing happens, asking the players how the characters interact with normal life there. Then go for the Charm rolls

Definitely a whole Charm roll per PC per NPC. That complication you mentioned is really the backbone of play, when and if they all line OK, or all punk out, or some mixture.

I like your call with Edith and the sheep – the message to the players is, "don't try to hide who you are from people, they know exactly who you are, as far as cultural background and life-experiences go." The conversation with Gisela emerged from the work situation too, which is spot on.

I love your unicorn zone. Did you use the rules for confusing locations, though? You really should. Once there, the Amboriyon-ness of it all is totally about getting lost. I bet people have starved to death in there, wandering around in circles among the so-pure patches thinking "it's just over the next rise."

The skeleton and Black Speech stuff is so glorious, yes, that's the way to do it, and yes, with that kind of thing going on, information flows. I think you really nailed it with the Gisela and skeleton scenes.

Bows and bolts: difference from 12 + 6. The difference between the two lies in their interaction with armor (bolts ignore mail).

In the end, with the unicorn dead, Bret mentioned he wanted to ask Ralf One-eye to come with them and join the Circle Knights. If we had continued that game, I'd really want Ralf to be in the pile of PC's but I'm not sure exactly how that'd work.

I totally dropped the ball on this, because it showed up in playtesting all the time. It needs to go into a "thoughts about the rules" section at the website. My thinking is that such events be treated very seriously, and yes, unless further events prevent, such characters do indeed make their way back to the citadel in Rolke. But they shouldn't become player-characters or later NPCs. It's a nice, rules-soft, but real accomplishment that the players can experience.

It's funny who it turns out to be, too, not predictable at all. In one case, it was merely an unnamed person who was ascended via resisting a Hate spell, then was defeated but not killed in a fight, then was strongly affected by a Charm roll. I said, "That guy's not going to stop running until he finds the citadel and Rolke so he can sign up." It meant a lot to the player. In another, in a venture which I ripped off a bit from Moreno's post about the ghouls and the girl, it was actually the potential ghoul-girl whom the knights suggested they take home with them, for Circle training.

[Bret Gillan]

I can sort of see the pattern of Meet the Guy, Find Out the Stuff, and Go Have the Fight here and it might have cast its shadow over what was happening, but I knew that we didn't have to kill the unicorn. The people here seemed totally okay with it for the most part. But I was feeling out Edith, and I knew that she wanted to kill it from the moment she heard about it. Too dangerous. Too weird. And fuck Amboriyon and its sick tricks. She saw it like a monkey's paw, and why give anyone the temptation. I don't know how the rest of the group felt. The Circle Knights never actually had a conversation about whether to kill it or not, and when they found it I think the perception was that it was threatening the boy and once Edith fired her crossbow the decision was made.

The only conversation they had like that was when Edith suggested maiming Geert and using him as bait for the unicorn. Nobody else liked that idea, but Edith had an itch in her gut to kill him and didn't really know why, so she didn't push it.

I really wanted to bring Ralf with us and my only disappointment from the game was that we were too tired and done for me to have a conversation with Ralf. I could see Edith feeling a kinship with him - the violence, being scarred by Amboriyon. And there was also an unfairness to his situation. He had paid his price, and he'd even escaped the unicorn - the only person to successfully do so - but people still treated him like shit. She didn't blame the people, but she thought Ralf had a purpose somewhere. Just not here.

Edith being asked to work was great. She protested a bit but only because:
a) the other knights weren't asked to work and
b) she's a warrior and a woodsman, not a shepherd
but I figured being called on to find lost or strayed sheep is a totally legit thing for shepherd to ask her to do so she went with it. I loved the scene with Gisela, and with pretty much everyone in the town really.

I love characters in this. I love the rough outline character creation creates, and then the details you spend the session figuring out and filling again. If we played again I'd love to play Sigiswald. I loved his self-aware ignorance, and his shrugging disdain for his comrade's lives. I want to find out more about him.

[Judd]

(1) play again with these guys, using the Circle you've created.

I'm not sure if this posse is going to gel again but more CoH play is on the horizon. Bret is going to start running for our Friday group next week and a few buddies made characters on the same day we played this one.

(2) Don't re-use this venture with the other group. Make a new one. Making and prepping ventures is its own kind of fun and has its own learning curve, and I think it's important to keep moving forward with it.

I've made another venture; it is really fun.

Did you use the rules for confusing locations, though?

I did! They made their roll, using the rule about helping. One made it and the other didn't, so they made it through the mist-shrouded hills.

Good stuff! I'm looking forward to reading the game text over again, then playing more, player-side and GM-side.