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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 9051113" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Had an interesting last few sessions of Thousand Arrows (Warring States Japan PBtA) that illustrates some of the best dynamics of the fiction and gamestate going pear-shaped for Story Now games where the characters and situation unravel but the game itself is made significantly more interesting for it.  While the Yagyu Clan (Allegiance) Farmer (Playbook) was away from the terrace farming valley where he is landed gentry (securing muskets for the defense against Hojo Clan attack), another PC (Kukami Clan Samurai Knight) was at the farmstead with his Section of marines overseeing security for his absent friend.  During one series of morning ablutions and martial practice, three young farming boys from Yagyu (a clan renowned for their duelist capabilities) were overtly mocking a pair of lower rank Kukami halberdiers who were sparring to improve their skill and offense and this was quickly turning into notice and offense taken (soft move).  A series of fiction + GM and player moves and results later and things had unraveled.  I want to say it went something like this:* Reconnoiter to "Read a Sitch/Person" which got a 6- when the player read the situation; the pair of halberdiers were noticing and their instructor, 1st Halberdier, has walked over and is now in a full-fledged confrontation with the trio of boys (who all have farm implements and are both (a) capable duelists and (b) of the age that they're apt to do dumb young male stuff).  * Single Combat (duel conflict mechanics for the game) for the Samurai to quickly dispatch his grappling training partner to enable him to intercede immediately.  Needs to win this outright on first pass.  This was successful (mooks only get 1 point to spend and player got a 7-9 which equals 2 points to spend which allowed him to defend the attack and disengage).* Samurai Order the Troops to get his men to stand down and he'll handle it.  Got a 7-9.  His men stand down but I choose a complication; an officer (1st Halberdier) is wounded.  The most belligerent of the boys (Kido) doesn't take the admonishing well and cheap shots the 1st Halberdier in the thigh.  Exsanguination is a serious threat.  * A series of fiction and moves later and the final resolution to the scene is (i) 1st Halberdier is saved but is out of commission for a stretch while he recovers and (ii) the Kukami clan marines want something between Kido's head on a pike and serious corporal punishment.  The Kukami Samurai decides to not enact punishment, but to wait on the return of the Yagyu farmer for him to resolve the situation.[HR][/HR]* The next session has first scenes with the Farmer and the Samurai together and handling the situation.  This is a few weeks later after the return voyage from the south and purchase of arms for defense of the valley.  * The steward brings Kido forward.  Here is (imo) the most interesting part of this whole thing and where things pivot wildly.  This game is mostly about relationships (Drive, Self, Bonds) and the gamestate : fiction intersection of these as they move down their track, recover, or spiral into obsession (and that impact upon play or PC retirement; whatever that means).  What is set up by the player of the Farmer is a "training session" with Kido where the boy is going to spar with the standing 1st Halberdier (the actual 2nd, but 1st while the other reccovers) while the Farmer sternly "corrects the boy."  So the contrition is imposed humility + indirect flogging.  Here is the thing though.  The Yagyu Farmer has a Bond with the Kukami Samurai Knight:Kukami Noritaka wants access to my duelists and the martial prowess my school unlocks.So this Bond is definitely in play here.  Will the farmer fall prey to his inclination to teach and show off the prowess of his school to the Samurai Knight in such a way that does a runaround on what is supposed to be an act of correction and serious punishment for the boy?  The interesting thing about this game is they have inverted the normal paradigm when you Resist the Temptation to Indulge Your Attachment; On a 6- you mark xp and act as normal...but on a 10+...you indulge your Attachment but you get a boon (if it applies to the fiction...didn't in this situation)...on a 7-9 you act as normal but you increase your Attachment by 1.So the farmer finds himself "getting in his own way" as he ends up turning what is supposed to be corporal punishment/public humiliation and contrition (not just for the boy but for the Yagyu Clan to the Kukami Clan) into an actual teaching session in front of the assembled Kukami marines.  The farmer continuously gets in the way of the way of the new 1st Halberdier's forceful reprisals to the boy's failures in sparring.All hell breaks loose as massive offense is taken.  The marines are incensed.  Just going to copy and paste what the Samurai player wrote about the sitaution (with a few amendments!): This escalated to my 1st deciding to take matters into his own hands and beat the kid mercilessly, and a fight with the Farmer who successfully protected the boy from being beaten to death (first pass of Single Combat) but got the worst of it on the 2nd pass (of Single Combat).  This "worst of it" led to his eldest daughter (an adult, barely) charging in to save dad and jumping on my 1st's back.  The pair go tumbling down the valley slope with her trying to gouge his eyes out and my 1st threatening her life physically.  That ended with the 3rd PC (a Samura Courtier from Clan Shimazu; gunsmiths and tech-savvies from the southern isles) shooting my 1st halberdier in the head as he was about to beat the life out of the Farmer's daughter.  Earlier, I (the Samurai Knight) failed my move to stop this before it started, and then had to deal with that escalation of my section being about to riot as another of my marines decided to get involved in the beating, going to the river to grab a reed for a switch.  The Samurai Courtier (who had just crossed the river on his horse as the commotion in the valley was apparent from his Shimazu encampment across the river) tried to intervene, my man unhorsed him, they fought, and the Samurai Courtier beat my marine badly (shattering his wrist in Single Combat).  That all happened in parallel to my 1st going off the rails and the calimtous tussle with the Farmer's daughter so after the Samurai Courtier beat my marine he then did the shooting.  I managed to get my men in line before a general riot (which would have been bad), had the marine that unhorsed the Samurai Courtier arrested for daring to attack a noble, and pinned the entirety of the discipline problem with my men on the clear undermining of my trust by my new 1st who had hidden his perfidy from me; the situation skinned as the new 1st Halberdier effectively conspiring to beat the at-fault boy to death and escalate the situation.  One of my playbook moves is about pinning the blame on others, and I nailed it. Anyway, good last few sessions and this last one in particularly well-illustrates how internal PC struggle going wrong (in the way that it does in life...you don't get to opt out of your own "blind spots" or "limbic system hijacks"....they just happen...to you and to the people around you and to the deterioration of situation sometimes) in these games can lead to really dynamic and explosive play.</blockquote>

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