help with IaWA
stefoid:
Hi, I rolled
a Nest of Vipers
6H: A tower of silver and alabaster, which rises from the sea under the new moon.
7H: A squat town on the banks of a wide, long river, rich from plunder, whose men raid up and down the river in their ugly boats.
2S: The unscrupulous landlady of a roadside wayhouse.
KS: A village executioner, practicing his trade on a caught burglar.
and its my first game, and Ill be GM. Im a bit perplexed as to characters for this one, as there are a lot of locations, and in fact the first element (silver tower) is nothing but a location).
not to mention, of the two characters specifically named, one is about to kill the other one and I assume has a decisive physical advantage at the start of the game. I mean, a direct confrontation would be executioner tries to chop off burglars head, but it seems kind of contrived to have the burglar escape somehow without help. but until that 'caught burglar' situation is resolved one way or the other, how do I involve the burglar in the story. I guess I have to resolve it very quickly.
When I say resolve, obviously I mean 'introduce a scene that will lead to conflict in which it is resolved'
any suggestions?
Falc:
Your post is giving me the impression that you're going to be making all the PCs and NPCs and the whole story all by yourself... Which is very specifically NOT how IaWA works. Well, okay, it could work, but that's not how it was designed.
The whole point, or at least as far as I can tell, is for the entire group of players to cooperate towards a good story. This would be why the Oracles are deliberately vague, so that every player has the freedom to latch on to whatever inspires him/her.
Your tower? One player might see it as a prison. One evening for the knight to rescue the princess kept inside. Another might think of a siren living in it, luring men to her. Neither of which might actually be played out in the game, it might all be background to the characters they're building in their head.
But if you're going to do it all for them, then I feel you might as well play another game, since you'll be losing a good chunk of what IaWA is about, how it feels to play it.
lumpley:
Yep! Don't draw from the oracle until you're all sitting down at the table together, ready to play.
-Vincent
stefoid:
OK, sure.
but anyway lets look at this example specifically - lets say we are all around the table and people select their characters and two PCs take the burglar and the executioner. I think in the rules somewhere it says someone has to take specifically designated characters.
Is not my job as GM to set up a situation which encourages the characters to pit themselves against one another. My original question still stands - in this situation, one character is going to execute the other and nothing much can happen to either character until that is resolved somehow.
what do you suggest?
lumpley:
Open with that scene. Why not?
"Okay, you, you're tied ankle and wrist, forced to kneel beneath the executive tree. You, you're wearing your hood of office, choosing from among your many strangling cords. Who does what?"
-Vincent
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