Agon: The Kleos Cup, Dreamation '09
Judd:
Ever since reading Agon I have thought it was tailor-made for convention tournaments, like competitive deals that you read about as jokes in Knights of the Dinner Table only in Agon, because of the rules, it effin' works, man. It works!
So, it worked.
Well, kinda.
The tournament format was totally miscommunicated, so the bulk of our players were in the second slot. It was a fubar, as the second slot was supposed to be comprised of the best from the two tables in the first slot.
Ah well.
We played a nifty scenario called the Beast of Kolkoris. Nathan ran it and I played alongside Joel, a nice guy I had just met. Two player Agon is a kinda lukewarm thing but it was great to brush up on my Agon and fantastic to meet Joel.
I didn't particularly like the Beasts of Kolkoris adventure all that much. It was interesting but there is a kind of moral dilemma at the heart of it that I think is out of place in Agon a bit. I dunno. Maybe I am wrong. I just want to oil up and spear some mofo's, ya know?
While playing I found several pieces of scrap paper with quest concepts scrawled on them. They were:
Quote
Zeus wants you to kill the renegade Cyclops and give the lightning bolts back to the clouds:
- Climb Mt. Cylon
- Find out who is supplying him with molten primordial lightning
- Lift the renegade's hammer and throw it back into the heavens
Quote
Hera wants you to destroy the Holiest of Bastards, a horde of bandits who claim to be scions of her husband.
- find their keep in the Swan Forest
- Make their leader publically deny his holy lineage on the steps of Hera's Temple
- (nothing there but obviously a spot for one more thing)
Quote
Artemis wants you to set the Lion of Argos free
- sneak into Argos, past the walls
- defeat the Sons of Argos
- defeat the King of Argos
- break the Lion's chains, forged by Hephaestus
I immediately wanted to run the Renegade Cyclops adventure, so on Saturday afternoon, after taking a much-needed nap, I wrote it up before we met at 8 o'clock. It was easy but I will note below how it could have been made better and thoughts on how I would do future quest designs
Saturday, we had a table of five.
Nathan, my co-organizer, played Clear-Eyed Leonidas
Eppy, one of my many roomates for the con played Strong-Limbed Argos
Ralph, who I have managed to have several cool conversations over the years at Dreamation played Long-limbed Thyros the Mighty.
Greg played in an early 1st Quest playtest two years ago. He walked in late and asked if we had room at the table and we thought five would be a great number for the adventure. He played Wise-Eyed Gladavus.
Both Jason and Julie I had never met before. They seemed to be dating. Jason played Beast-Master Shylax and Julie played Wise-Eyed Sophia.
I wrote the strife point accounting I had done on a manila envelope and really liked that. I will write Agon adventure details on manila envelopes in the future. That was handy, to have my adventure written on the thing holding the character sheets and other play-tools.
I haven't run Agon in a long, long time and honestly, I wasn't too damned adept at it. For the first hour and a half, I just hammered on the players.
After the Oaths were done (Ralph took a beating in the oaths section of play), I just hammered on them.
"The sheer cliffs of Mt. Cylon loom before you! Who can climb its sheer rock!" Not being able to climb it just mean that I had a bonus die for the next challenge, in which the Storm Eagles attacked. Honestly, the storm was originally just a storm but I felt bad that Jason had made up a Beast-Master and wouldn't get to use him, so I tossed them in as beasts. Originally, those eagles were just a storm but I liked them being eagles that shot lightning from their beaks.
Then there was an avalanche challenge. Then the Cylon Legionaires attacked.
This was an hour or more of me hammering on the PC's. I called a bathroom break and asked Nathan for some advice on how to slow things down and shift into a different gear. Turns out, I needed to relax and just play a role-playing game a bit. I had stuck my head into these challenges and had forgotten to do so.
I described Cylon's Crown, the fell city the renegade Cyclops had made at the top of the mountain, and allowed the players to challenge each other a bit and interact with the populace. I tossed in a young hero for the players to impress. That was a huge deal.
Giving these great heroes an audience changed the game. They sought to impress him, to talk him out of joining the Cylon Legions as he said he wanted to. Eppy won the young hero's services and had him carry his helmet for the rest of the adventure.
Ralph and Sophia made short work of the Cyclops and in the final tally, even after owing everyone oaths, Ralph won the Kleos Cup and won the highest roll with 20 on a defense roll, I believe.
That was an awesome amount of fun and I'd love to run a proper tournament at Dexcon and the next Dreamation.
Thoughts:
- I'd never put just minions or just NPC's in a combat again. A mix is key. It'd be good to have statted out, some Cylon Legionnaire Minions, an officer legionnaire NPC and several eagle minions along with an eagle beast NPC. That way, for the final battle I could have had some eagles along with the Cyclops. He got cut down in short order.
- I have to get my head out of CHALLENGE-CHALLENGE-CHALLENGE and think about role-playing a bit and giving it all context and meaning.
- I wonder if the heroic trait, Long-Limbed is broken. This isn't from Ralph's well-earned win but also from the previous game with Joel, where long-limbed ruled the roost.
- I was worried that Julie didn't enjoy herself at all, not because it is my responsibility to provide enjoyment but it worried me nonetheless.
That is a damned fun game. I want me some cool little ancient-looking Greek coins to use for tokens on the battle-map.
jefgodesky:
Hi, this is the aforementioned Jason. The storm eagles weren't in the original plan? I never would've known, but thanks--I really liked that twist on it. And not just because I got +2 position vs. beasts; there's so many myths and legends of things like thunderbirds that I appreciated the bird-storm connection on that level.
Giuli is my wife. She can get temperamental about her games, though; some she really likes, some she just doesn't, and when she doesn't, she kind of, well, just shuts down, like you saw. Unfortunately, it seems that Agon simply isn't her kind of game. Don't take it personally; it has nothing to do with your game-running skills, and like you said, it isn't your responsibility to pull up the fun truck, either. It's just the way she responds when a game doesn't suit her.
Judd:
Quote from: jefgodesky on February 24, 2009, 04:44:59 AM
Giuli is my wife. She can get temperamental about her games, though; some she really likes, some she just doesn't, and when she doesn't, she kind of, well, just shuts down, like you saw. Unfortunately, it seems that Agon simply isn't her kind of game. Don't take it personally; it has nothing to do with your game-running skills, and like you said, it isn't your responsibility to pull up the fun truck, either. It's just the way she responds when a game doesn't suit her.
Oh yeah, man, I wasn't mad at her or mad at me or mad at any level. My response is akin to you and Giuli (sorry for the misspelling of her name above) coming over to my house and not enjoying my chili because it is just too spicy.
Mel White:
Judd,
Nice write-up--I appreciate the insights into the roleplaying aspects of Agon. The quest ideas are a bonus I'm filing away for future use!
Mel
John Harper:
This makes me so happy. Thanks for the write-up, Judd.
Long-limbed is... a very good heroic trait. It can be a big problem to be really good at something in Agon, but only if your fellow heroes are on the ball.
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