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For this playtest, we had the same group as in our previous test: George, playing Asher the nineblood thief, and Beth, playing Gorrak the troll savage. We didn't have a lot of time, so I knew going in that this would have to be a focused session.
My goals were to focus on how Love and Fear drive the story and to test-drive the talent system.
The session started off with a bang. I picked the
scene, and I wanted the players to see how their Loves and Fears were
influencing the story. Count de Borchgrave invited the two adventurers to
dinner and spelled it out as plain as the wortberries in the firefish sauce:
he wanted Gorrak's armor, and he was willing to burn down the forest to get
it. This led to a great dialogue of escalating threats. de Borchgrave tried
to instill Fear in his guests, and I described how he cut up a
still-wriggling forest quail on his plate while he issued his ultimatum.
Gorrak and Asher were caught offguard, and though they tried to turn the
conversation around by posturing and bravado, they were ultimately
intimidated. They chose not to acquiesce, and left the dinner in terrible
moods: shaken, on edge, and afraid.
We had a lot of fun with this scene. Beth in particular likes the
"Rude Gesture" maneuver in social combat. The Mood mechanic is working well.
I still feel that the story is driven too much by me and not enough by the
players' Fears and Loves, although perhaps that is a reflection of the types
of players that Beth and George are (Beth is a casual gamer, and George is a
fairly gamist guy who likes some story mixed in with his gaming).
It was now clear that the Count wasn't going away. Both
Gorrak and Asher had Loves that were threatened. Gorrak chose a scene that
was in keeping with his savage nature: he started calling together a savage
horde to defend against the count. Mass combat can be a large part of
Spellbound Kingdoms, so I was happy to see it come into play so quickly.
Asher took a more subtle approach. He tried to spy on
the Count and determine what it was that the Count Loved or Feared. Just as
with Gorrak's scene, we narrated and resolved this quickly, with a single
roll influenced by the fact that George had narrated his investigation to
suit the theme (fear), his Loves (gold), and his occupation (thief). I
narrated the obstacles he came up against, also preying upon the atmosphere
of fear. The Reason characteristic is used to guard and discover secrets in
Spellbound Kingdoms. We rolled Asher's Reason (modified by his narration and
mood) against the Count's (modified by his use of Fear), and Asher won. He
was able to learn from a turnkey in the dungeons that the Count actually
loved the Countess's sister (and not the Countess).
This scene was what I was looking for. The characters were planning
on attacking the BBEG through his Loves and Fears. The way that Loves and
Fears work, it's very difficult to take down a BBEG (or a PC) permanently
unless you first take away their Loves or drive them crazy with Fear. So I
was excited to see that this mechanic directed the PCs to focus on the
BBEG's loves the same way I was focusing on theirs. The issue right now is
that it feels more like Gorrak's story, with Asher just tagging on. I think
I should add a mechanic that gives the characters some sort of incentive to
share loves. If that were the case, the main narrative might feel more like
a shared story than a "Gorrak with Asher helping out" story.
Unfortunately we had to end it right there. As I knew, we had limited time. Next time I'm looking forward to seeing how mass combat plays out, assuming that Gorrak follows through on his plan to flood the streets of the city with a savage troll horde!
See you in the forums!
