[IaWA] Some Questions following Actual Play

[Yokiboy]

I completed my first chapter of In a Wicked Age with three of my best friends last night. It was a fantastic session, but did raise a few questions, and we also had the usual growing pains with the new game.

1) If you end a session on a cliffhanger, do you still start a new chapter next session, even though you haven't resolved any (or very few) Best Interests?

2) One player's PC dropped two dice to zero, and the player chose to have his PC drop dead. That same PC topped our We Owe list at the end of the chapter, but the player in question doesn't want to keep playing the same PC, what do we do now? Do I just erase the dead, and unwanted, PC from the Owe List and let the next highest ranked PC's player return next episode?

3) What about NPCs, are their dice used in an abstract form for indirect sources of power under their control? We had a field general (PC) go up against an opposing army lead by a ghost of a recently slain general. I simply rolled the ghost's dice for this fight, was that actually correct? The ghost's Particular Strength was to incite rebels to fight the PC general. Or should I, as the GM, whip up some new NPCs to represent the soldiers? I certainly don't want to roll for umpteen frickin' NPC soldiers as they try to outflank the PC, but how do others run it?

As the GM I totally comitted "Bad Habit #5," in other words I paced the game much too hard. It was a bit of a shame, but in all we told a very cool story, and we loved the characters, except for one of us of course (although he liked the other two characters).

[lumpley]

1. In super-strict by-the-book play, you still start a new chapter next session.

However, consider putting the cliffhanger itself onto the owe list. It's not by the rules, but I've done it.

2. In super-strict by-the-book play, tough. Your character tops the owe list, you're playing her next session. If she's dead, well, that's a thing, but wait until you've pulled your oracle entries to worry about when and where and how it can be that she's still present in the situation.

However, if you're not going to follow that rule (which I'm okay with, in this case), your solution's as legit as any other. Another possibility would be to let that player choose an oracle entry as usual, but then have everybody create new characters, including him.

3. Yes. You did it exactly right.

-Vincent

[Yokiboy]

Great replies, thanks Vincent. It really is a lovely game, and I hope to play it lots more.