Last weekend and this one, I've played some sessions of this RPG with @thefutilist. It's a two-player game, where (speaking roughly) one player plays the protagonist, and the other establishes the situation and plays the antagonist(s) and other characters.
I say "roughly" because the narration rules are a bit more fluid than how the previous sentence describes it. To quote from the rulebook:
As that rules text suggests, the key "NPCs" are the Lover and the Monster, who are established by the "GM" participant as part of their prep. Sitting alongside the back-and-forth of Goes is the progress of the protagonist towards their goal, their relationship (if any) with the Lover, and the threat and attacks from the Monster. The first two of these allow the "player" to roll dice; the last allows the "GM' to roll dice. After a certain number of dice from the GM, the totals are compared together with a comparison of high to low dice, and this dictates how the situation resolves, with the player having to make choices from a list of options.
There are also rules for recurring protagonists. We've played two sessions with @thefutilist playing the protagonist, and one with me doing so. I was Sir Yvain: a lordly knight, respected by all (this text came from the rulebook, selected by me from a list of options), and tall, armoured, with visor lifted my steely gaze is evident (this description was authored by me following the instructions from the rulebook). I chose the basic setting (again, as per the rules, and from a list provided), which was the humble villages where demons fear human evil. My goal was to find my mother. (I chose the goal before the name; and while @thefutilist did his prep, I found a list of Knights of the Round Table on Wikipedia that include Sir Yvain the bastard, which seemed to fit.)
@thefutilist did a very nice job of introducing the setting, with bleak moorlands and brooding hills with stone monuments and tors, and a party of two men and two women, on horseback, armed and armoured and wearing black, riding towards a village. The initial scene was our interaction: I established that I (that is, Sir Yvain) was on foot, but was unperturbed when I turned to confront these mounted soldiers. I cowed one of them and made him lend me his steed so that we might travel together. The rules require the "GM" to introduce the Lover in their first Go, and the way @thefutilist played Quess, one of the two women (the wiry one, as opposed to the regal one) made me think she was the Lover, and that guess turned out to be correct.
To use the rulebook's terminology, @thefutilist and I play fairly loose - although at some points on my Goes I did look to him for answers or descriptions pertaining to setting and "NPCs". We also tend to allow certain key social actions - like compelling requests for aid, or forthright instructions - to count as forward-moving events. (When we were speaking afterwards, I reflected that this issue of when "talking" counts as "action" is one that we have been engaging with quite a bit over the past couple of months, since we've been RPGing together.)
This means that I can remember the events of play better than the precise back-and-forth of who had the Go - though a bit of the back-and-forth can be seen in the demon attacks, which were all narrated by @thefutilist on his Goes, allowing him to roll his dice:
At this point, the 4 monster dice having been rolled, we performed the main mechanical operation of the game. My dice total was greater than @thefutilist's, meaning that Sir Yvain achieved his goal. But I was only able to select two options from the following list:
I chose to save Quess, and to permanently imprison the Monster. This meant that the Monster would hurt me severely.
Once this was worked out, we went back to have our final Goes, to bring things to a conclusion:
There are a couple of "endgame" steps that then happen:
I therefore rewrote my description: Tall, armoured, with visor lifted mysteely gaze is evident scarred and blinded eyes are evident. I am known in the village as Versy’s son, as well as the heir to Sir Ector. My prayers can ward off demons.
But there's another bit to the endgame that I think we didn't fully appreciate, although I've thought about it since:
So @thefulist "won", insofar as he succeeded in making me choose to stay with Quess! (And Versy, my mother.) And on the first adventure! (@thefutilist's protagonist in our other adventures, Alstrom, seems far less emotional or romantic than Sir Yvain. I will need to come up with some more cunning plays than I have so far, if I am to persuade Alstrom to stay with a Lover.)
From my perspective, at least, this was a great session. The colour was compelling, with a vibe of King-Arthur-meets-Solomon-Kane. The characters made sense. The demon was fearsome. When I had to think about how it would severely hurt me, the blinding was obvious. And the choice to stay with Versy and train Quess was the only choice that seemed true to what had happened - being blinded I would no longer be useful in Sir Ector's battles; and Quess had already spoken about her need to be trained, so that she could defeat demons herself.
In addition, the game includes this rule, as part of the rules for the "player" rolling Lover dice:
In the interactions between Sir Yvain and Quess, sexual interaction had not come up - we were too busy fighting the demon! Sir Yvain training her by standing behind her, guiding her hands and feet by touch, seemed like a subdued but nevertheless genuine way of acknowledging the intimacy that had emerged between them.
My closing thought for this post, which I just had as I was typing the previous paragraph: when I next play this, my protagonist will be the child of Quess and Sir Yvain. That could be interesting.
I say "roughly" because the narration rules are a bit more fluid than how the previous sentence describes it. To quote from the rulebook:
we embark on an alternating, ongoing sequence of Goes, each consisting of descriptions and one significant forward-moving event. We use a simple turn-token, passed back and forth to indicate who has the Go and therefore must provide forward motion to the events. During a Go, both of us may talk, but the owner of the Go is the primary contributor and the only one who may fulfill that requirement. . . .
My Goes [the "GM"] typically consist of various characters' actions as well as events of the location itself, and I may introduce the Monster. Your Goes [the "player"] typically consist of your actions and words.
As we proceed back and forth, however, we must both maintain flexibility and extend authority to one another's spoken realm. You may describe the Monster's or Lover's responses to things you do and say on your Go, and I may say what happens to you and what you do to some extent on my Go. We always build on what has been previously stated. . . .
Every Go includes a forward-moving event. Whoever currently holds the Go token must provide it.
Forward-moving Goes use kinetic imagery. They include responses, such as whether the Monster grunts with pain or seems to ignore a wound, or how the Lover reacts verbally and emotionally. They include physical consequences, such as whether you easily fend off a blow and press forward, or are slammed into the canyon, tumbling over and over, but eventually rising and struggling on to challenge the foe again. . . .
Playing tight means that you describe things about what you do and say, bringing in aspects of physical locations, objects, and timing only with my permission, and describing other characters' actions and presence only with my permission. It also means that although I have authority over everything else, I provide a little bit of chat about you at most, subject to your veto.
You and I may play fairly tight, with our respective roles only brushing in the details of one another's contributions, but too tight won't work. Goes will be too limited in content.
Playing it loose means we both have authority over one another's respective domains during our Goes, such that you "borrow" my Monster during your Go, for instance, and I accept your contribution as collaboration with an equal. We can both invent characters and have full authority over physical space and time. Along with brushing in each other's work, we also lay our hands upon it where the other left off, and extend it.
We should go as loose as we want, but no more. . . .
We each use and enrich what the other person says. We do not negate it or render it ineffective, and we do not suddenly redefine the situation or characters into things which had no antecedent in earlier scenes. During your Go, I listen receptively, willing to be entranced. On my Go, I take whatever entranced me during yours and I make sure we see more of it, in action or in depth or both. You are doing the same with me. . . .
Especially when our Goes are well-stated and we play a little bit loose, I describe your hero's response to violent and stressful actions, and you describe my Lover's or Monster's response to your hero's actions.
As that rules text suggests, the key "NPCs" are the Lover and the Monster, who are established by the "GM" participant as part of their prep. Sitting alongside the back-and-forth of Goes is the progress of the protagonist towards their goal, their relationship (if any) with the Lover, and the threat and attacks from the Monster. The first two of these allow the "player" to roll dice; the last allows the "GM' to roll dice. After a certain number of dice from the GM, the totals are compared together with a comparison of high to low dice, and this dictates how the situation resolves, with the player having to make choices from a list of options.
There are also rules for recurring protagonists. We've played two sessions with @thefutilist playing the protagonist, and one with me doing so. I was Sir Yvain: a lordly knight, respected by all (this text came from the rulebook, selected by me from a list of options), and tall, armoured, with visor lifted my steely gaze is evident (this description was authored by me following the instructions from the rulebook). I chose the basic setting (again, as per the rules, and from a list provided), which was the humble villages where demons fear human evil. My goal was to find my mother. (I chose the goal before the name; and while @thefutilist did his prep, I found a list of Knights of the Round Table on Wikipedia that include Sir Yvain the bastard, which seemed to fit.)
@thefutilist did a very nice job of introducing the setting, with bleak moorlands and brooding hills with stone monuments and tors, and a party of two men and two women, on horseback, armed and armoured and wearing black, riding towards a village. The initial scene was our interaction: I established that I (that is, Sir Yvain) was on foot, but was unperturbed when I turned to confront these mounted soldiers. I cowed one of them and made him lend me his steed so that we might travel together. The rules require the "GM" to introduce the Lover in their first Go, and the way @thefutilist played Quess, one of the two women (the wiry one, as opposed to the regal one) made me think she was the Lover, and that guess turned out to be correct.
To use the rulebook's terminology, @thefutilist and I play fairly loose - although at some points on my Goes I did look to him for answers or descriptions pertaining to setting and "NPCs". We also tend to allow certain key social actions - like compelling requests for aid, or forthright instructions - to count as forward-moving events. (When we were speaking afterwards, I reflected that this issue of when "talking" counts as "action" is one that we have been engaging with quite a bit over the past couple of months, since we've been RPGing together.)
This means that I can remember the events of play better than the precise back-and-forth of who had the Go - though a bit of the back-and-forth can be seen in the demon attacks, which were all narrated by @thefutilist on his Goes, allowing him to roll his dice:
* The leader of the demon hunters asked me what I was doing, as not many knights come through these parts. In answer to that, and then later on in speaking a bit more intimately with Quess, I built up some backstory: I had been found as a babe by a riverside, and taken in by Sir Ector, as he and his wife were unable to conceive. I was Sir Ector's heir, but when I came of age (ie 21 years old) he had told me the truth of how he found me. Once I was able to take leave of him, after victory in the most recent battle, I had followed the river up into these hills, looking for my mother.
* Quess told me that her group were demon hunters, and that the villagers keep the demons at bay by sacrificing their firstborns, but that a demon had escaped. From this, I inferred that my mother would be the one who had not sacrificed her firstborn but nevertheless survived. I told Quess (and her comrades, I guess, but I was focused mostly on her) that there would be an old woman in the village, at least twice my age (so late 40s plus, given that I was imagining myself as mid-20s), who knew how to hold the demons at bay by prayer alone. I wondered which of the hill-top tors was the one where sacrifices were performed.
* I (pemerton the RPGer, not Sir Yvain) asked @thefutilist about any churches or temples in the villages, and he answered that there were some, but they were empty and run down. I (Sir Yvain the protagonist) was from lands where the churches were full of people, and I knew a prayer to ward of demons, and so I led us to an abandoned church to sleep for the night, and spoke a prayer to keep us safe.
* This was the first appearance of the Monster: a demon, in the form of a pale-skinned and naked man, but 10' tall, with wings hanging limp by its side (but later on it became clear that nevertheless it could use them to fly, in some uncanny fashion), and three faces on its head. It was wielding a great axe. I drove it off long enough for the four of us to get to the horses and ride to the village proper: this time I rode Quess's steed, and had her ride with me, seated in front.
* The demon did not attack again right away, and in the village we found the house of Versy, the old woman who had not sacrificed her firstborn. She was in a stupor or deep trance (my memory tells me that I'm the one who narrated this - I think my "metagame" reason was that the rules of the game preclude me from definitely attaining my goal before the Monster dice have all been rolled, and I wanted to be able to keep rolling Goal dice; but the in-fiction reason for it was not established, although the horror of the demon's attack was probably explanation enough). I sent Bount (one of the demon hunters) to fetch water, and asked Quess if she was carrying thyme or rosemary - I wanted clean, sweet vapours to rouse Versy, driving out the evil that had afflicted her. Quess said that she had none, but had seen some rosemary growing outside - it was definitely @thefutilist who made that contribution and it set up his next Go.
* I (Sir Yvain) went out with Quess to pick the rosemary, and the demon attacked again - running at us out of the forest. And (narrated by @thefutilist) Ques ran to hold him off. (Earlier, Quess had told me that she lacked the skill to defeat a demon in combat, though she believed she could learn it.) Building a bit on the prior interaction between the mounted demon hunters and Sir Yvain afoot, I (pemerton) described my deployment of a technique used when fighting afoot against a mounted foe - that is, one attacking with the same height and weight advantage as this huge demon. I rushed forward to protect Quess, holding my shield up and angled, and then doing a swift sword-strike over the top of the shield, cutting the demon's arm and causing lurid purple ichor to spray forth. (I, pemerton, know very little about sword-fighting, but have seen Arthur and his knights use the manoeuvre I described on the TV show Merlin.)
* The demon was driven off again, but somewhere in there @thefutilist had narrated Quess being struck by it, and so I had to take her into Versy's house. With the water boiled and the rosemary leaves, both she and Versy were roused. I confirmed that Versy did, indeed, know the prayer to hold off the demon, which was why she had not had to sacrifice her son.
* My memory of the next bit is a bit hazy. The demon attacked again, flying this time, and picked up and killed one of the demon hunters (the regal-looking woman, who I think was named Halia). But we nevertheless were able to get up to the stone on the hillside, where Versy would recite the prayer. @thefutilist described her prayer beads, but also narrated the demon's final attack (ie his 4th monster die) - and the demon had also somehow possessed Kale (the leader of the demon hunters), who was growing extra faces. Bount fought of Kale, and with Quess I held off the demon, while Versy spoke the prayer.
At this point, the 4 monster dice having been rolled, we performed the main mechanical operation of the game. My dice total was greater than @thefutilist's, meaning that Sir Yvain achieved his goal. But I was only able to select two options from the following list:
• Ward off, avoid, or recover from the harm the Monster does to you / Otherwise, the Monster hurts you severely
• Kill or permanently imprison the Monster / Otherwise, the Monster lives, although you escape it
• Save someone in danger, including the Lover (if the Lover is indeed at risk) / Otherwise this person dies (this option may be bought more than once)
• Achieve something else / Otherwise it fails
I chose to save Quess, and to permanently imprison the Monster. This meant that the Monster would hurt me severely.
Once this was worked out, we went back to have our final Goes, to bring things to a conclusion:
* As I narrated, once again Sir Yvain used his manoeuvre for attacking a taller, more powerful foe - but he misjudged his timing, and the demon struck his head. And because it was knight time, and dark but for some torches, Sir Yvain was not wearing his helmet - so the demon scoured his face, blinding him in both eyes. However, Versy's prayer succeeded - and, as @thefutilist narrated, the demon was sucked into the stone, where 3 stone faces appeared.
* @thefutilist narrated that the binding of the demon saved Kale, and thus Bount. (It may be that, as people whose lives were in danger, they should have died - given that I didn't choose to save them. Consider this a moment of GM fiat!)
* It took hours for the blind Sir Yvain to be led down the hillside back to the village. Versy recognised me as truly her son. "These villagers aren't worth your sight", she said. But I think she was nevertheless proud of me.
* The final scene was Sir Yvain, blind but otherwise recovered and still in the village, training Quess in fighting techniques, directing her - by touch - how to manoeuvre with her sword.
There are a couple of "endgame" steps that then happen:
After an adventure is wholly concluded, revise your ten-word description as you like and add to it as follows.
If you achieved a Goal, then you gain prestige and social power. Add a brief sentence about what you accomplish to your description.
If you killed or permanently injured a Monster, then you gain prestige and capabilities. Add a brief sentence about what you can do to your description.
If you were harmed by a Monster, you are badly scarred or otherwise irreversibly marked by the experience. Add a brief sentence to your story to describe the effect.
I therefore rewrote my description: Tall, armoured, with visor lifted my
But there's another bit to the endgame that I think we didn't fully appreciate, although I've thought about it since:
During the Goes after the end of the Match, make sure that the Lover's fate is accounted for by making permanent any one of the same parameters as the Lover dice during the Match, to repeat:
you must choose one of the listed options. . . .
Now we change roles as "I" and "you," for another hero's adventure. When we switch back, you'll return to your hero, and then after that adventure, I'll return to mine. . . .
When you stay with a Lover, your character's story is ended and your play as "you" wholly ends.
Over time, as adventures proceed, I try to make you choose to stay.
• Abandon them to a grim fate / Bring them with you when you leave / Leave alone, gracefully / Stay there with them . . .
you must choose one of the listed options. . . .
Now we change roles as "I" and "you," for another hero's adventure. When we switch back, you'll return to your hero, and then after that adventure, I'll return to mine. . . .
When you stay with a Lover, your character's story is ended and your play as "you" wholly ends.
Over time, as adventures proceed, I try to make you choose to stay.
So @thefulist "won", insofar as he succeeded in making me choose to stay with Quess! (And Versy, my mother.) And on the first adventure! (@thefutilist's protagonist in our other adventures, Alstrom, seems far less emotional or romantic than Sir Yvain. I will need to come up with some more cunning plays than I have so far, if I am to persuade Alstrom to stay with a Lover.)
From my perspective, at least, this was a great session. The colour was compelling, with a vibe of King-Arthur-meets-Solomon-Kane. The characters made sense. The demon was fearsome. When I had to think about how it would severely hurt me, the blinding was obvious. And the choice to stay with Versy and train Quess was the only choice that seemed true to what had happened - being blinded I would no longer be useful in Sir Ector's battles; and Quess had already spoken about her need to be trained, so that she could defeat demons herself.
In addition, the game includes this rule, as part of the rules for the "player" rolling Lover dice:
One key action toward the Lover is:
"Embrace" means explicit sexual interaction. Openly rebuffing the Lover's implicit embrace also counts for a die.
• Will you / Won't you embrace the Lover?
"Embrace" means explicit sexual interaction. Openly rebuffing the Lover's implicit embrace also counts for a die.
In the interactions between Sir Yvain and Quess, sexual interaction had not come up - we were too busy fighting the demon! Sir Yvain training her by standing behind her, guiding her hands and feet by touch, seemed like a subdued but nevertheless genuine way of acknowledging the intimacy that had emerged between them.
My closing thought for this post, which I just had as I was typing the previous paragraph: when I next play this, my protagonist will be the child of Quess and Sir Yvain. That could be interesting.
