Monday 25 March 2024

First impressions: Mysteries of the Ancients (part 1 – the adventure)

Mysteries of the Ancients is the first third of a huge campaign featuring my favourite bit of Traveller, the Ancients. Secrets of the Ancients (the middle section) has been out for years (I wrote about it here), and the trilogy will be capped by Wrath of the Ancients, which is in pdf now and due in hardback later in 2024.

(I am delighted that the three campaigns are in alphabetic order. Whether by luck or design, that pleases me.)

Mysteries of the Ancients is a 304-page book by M J Dougherty. It takes the GDW's 1980 adventure, Twilight's Peak, and gives it a modern refresh. This review is based on a read-through – I have not run it.

Physically, the book looks good with an evocative cover, clean design, and artwork. Most NPCs have illustrations, which I like (and was a criticism I had of Secrets). The pdf download also comes with a file of handouts, which is unfortunately sparse.

Unfortunately, I found Mysteries extremely overwritten, with a layout and structure that didn’t help me understand the adventure. I'll return to those in a later post, but first, I will talk about the good(ish) stuff - the adventure itself.

And there will be spoilers ahead. Sorry about that, but it's hard to talk about the campaign without talking about the campaign.

A mysterious package

The campaign starts with a package from an old friend, Sorrel, arriving out of the blue, containing mysterious Ancients artefacts and a cryptic note asking for help. The note isn’t helpful – it doesn’t say where Sorrel is but instead directs them to look for a starship and its captain, BK.

There are several issues here:

  • First, the old NPC friend is an overused trope. I hoped to see something where the players were driving the plot rather than reacting to a request for help.
  • Second, the note is ridiculously cryptic. Why doesn’t Sorrel say where she is rather than force her friends to go on a wild goose chase? Instead, she could give the PCs a sensible reason to find the starship – perhaps she needs something from it or BK?
  • Third, why does Sorrel ask the PCs? Why doesn’t she ask BK? (BK and Sorrel were recently crewmates since the PCs last saw Sorrel.) That would be more logical. 
  • The package contains a handgun of an unusual design. I’ve no idea why, but it feels unnecessary.
  • The package contains lumps of a strange alloy. These are never explained, although Aish Nirkha has a theory on page 66, but we don’t know if it’s correct (it may as well be). Equally strange is that the lumps of alloy don’t feature in the section where we meet Sorrel. So where did she get them from?

I’d rewrite the opening note, getting the PCs to get something from the ship. I might even have Sorrel say where she is so the PCs can go to her first if they want and give them more agency.

Ancient Hunters

The next scene (it’s not really an “adventure”) takes place at a museum of the Ancients – that, unfortunately, the PCs could miss. I say, unfortunately, because there’s information here that might be useful in the next section, and Aish Nirkha (the museum’s curator) writes to the PCs later in the campaign. So it would be ideal if the PCs visit the museum.

The GM can always force this (“You notice there’s a museum all about the Ancients here…”), but a better way would be for Aish to be a PC contact.

This is the first time the PCs meet an “Ancient Hunter” in Mysteries (although, technically, Sorrel is an Ancient Hunter.) Ancient Hunters are individuals seeking to understand the nature of the Ancients. Their theories are wild and varied – and, to be honest, a bit of a shock. The secret of the Ancients has been common knowledge (amongst Traveller GMs and players, at least) for 40 years, and it’s easy to forget that player knowledge and character knowledge are not the same.

The PCs will meet more Ancient Hunters as the campaign progresses – and they are likely to become Ancient Hunters themselves.

In Fleeting Memoriam

This is the first proper adventure of the campaign. The PCs are tracking down the ship and its captain, BK. However, there’s a problem when they find it…

This adventure is a monster hunt. A nasty monster (really nasty – you could easily lose several party members) is loose in a small village on a desert planet. The monster is tricky to defeat.

There are, however, two problems with In Fleeting Memoriam.

The first is timing – and this happens time and again in Mysteries. The PCs turn up just as the monster has escaped. Whether they are a day or two earlier or a month later, there’s no difference: the monster has just escaped. While the players may never notice, it feels contrived.

If it happened once in Mysteries, I might overlook it. But as we’ll see, it happens repeatedly.

Second, as described, the logic of the situation doesn’t work.

The adventure is set in a village of 400 people – who are going about their business without realising there’s a monster in their midst, killing people off! (There are plot reasons for this, but I’m trying not to give too much away.) However, they also ignore the dead bodies – which isn’t how the monster works.

So I would either:

  • Change the logic so anyone who sees a body also falls under its influence. (Page 35 hints at how that could happen.)
  • Adjust the text so the villagers are scared and wondering what to do – and maybe they’ve called for help? 

(This second option could be a better entry point into Mysteries of the Ancients. The villagers are under attack, and the planetary authorities hire the PCs to investigate. There, they deal with the creature, which leads them to the starship and the campaign. That also solves the timing problem – although you’d need to get the PCs interested in Sorrel and the Ancients.)

A timeline would help this section – a clear timeline of events occurring as time passes. (This is not the last time I say that...)

Hell at Perihelion

Next up – it’s time to meet Sorrel. She’s working at a dangerous experimental mining installation on an inhospitable world with really lax security. I mean, it's amazingly lax. The PCs can just walk in. Oh, and it’s an Ancients’ site – but for no reason I can see, there’s no official interest in it. (Sorrel could have given them cover IDs and badges in her package, but no. They can come and go as they please.)

Luckily, they arrive just in time (again) to rescue Sorrel. Phew! Once rescued, the PCs can progress to the experimental facility, where they discover a terrible plot to blow everything up. As luck would have it, it is timed to happen shortly after they arrive.

Luckily, the PCs aren’t in too much danger because there’s a deus ex machina waiting to save them if they need it.

(I know it’s exciting to have all these things happening just as the PCs are there to see them, but it feels contrived.)

Hell at Perihelion also needs an event timeline, and it would be better if the PC’s actions triggered the end game rather than things being in a state of suspension awaiting their arrival. Perhaps the PC’s arrival (and something they brought from the ship) is why Sorrel needs rescuing, and the terrible plot is triggered.

Oh, one other thing about this episode: it’s unnecessary. It doesn’t drive anything in the overall plot – the PCs learn nothing useful other than reuniting them with Sorrel.

NPC interlude

We then have a brief interlude where the PCs meet enigmatic alien NPCs. The purpose of this seems only to introduce them to the PCs – they take a more active role at Twilight’s Peak.

Oh, yes, I should probably mention Twilight’s Peak. Twilight’s Peak is the name of a book which some think contains a coded map to an operational Ancients base. So far, it’s barely been referred to – and while the PCs encounter the book, it never feels like part of the campaign. The PCs don’t need the book to work through the campaign.

(I would include a reprint as part of the Ancients museum, maybe in the gift shop.)

Ancient Hunter conference

Next up, Aish Nirkha writes to the PCs to invite them to a conference of Ancient Hunters set aboard a Type-M Subsidized Liner. As is now almost inevitable, the conference is timed to start just after the PCs arrive, whenever that may be. 

(They can’t miss it – they get their next clue at the conference. I wish Mysteries was less of a railroad. The PCs could have been given clues to the different episodes, and they could have chosen which order to deal with them. That would have been much more satisfying. The conference could be a series of regular (quarterly, say) Ancient Hunter conferences held at different locations around the subsector. That would have worked equally well.)

Anyway, the conference is an opportunity for the PCs to talk to NPCs and learn about the Ancients. This is a pleasant change of pace from the more action-oriented episodes, although I’m not sure how easy it is to run.

Most importantly, the conference is an opportunity to meet (and hopefully befriend) Vlen Backett, who is pivotal in Secrets of the Ancients. Vlen gives the PCs their next clue, so hopefully they don’t upset him too much.

Off the map

Vlen’s information takes the PCs to a world that isn’t on the subsector map in Mysteries. Not because the world is secret or hidden, but as far as I can tell, due to poor cartography. It’s not the end of the world, as you can always refer to the online Traveller Map. Still, it feels like a careless omission – particularly when, 40 years earlier, the original Twilight’s Peak adventure solved this problem by moving the centre of the subsector map so it showed everywhere the PCs might want to visit.

Anyway, Vlen’s information sends the PCs to a survivor of the original Twilight’s Peak mission, who is reluctant to tell the PCs anything. Reluctant, that is, until a team of baddies launch an assault on the NPC. Isn’t it lucky the PCs are there just at the right time? (It’s unclear why the baddies are suddenly making a move on the NPC, as they weren’t aware of her before now. Like many things in Mysteries, it seems to have been thrown in to make things exciting.)

So, with the baddies approaching, the NPC tells the PCs how to get to Twilight’s Peak before going on a mission of her own. (Hmm, apart from the just-in-time theme, there’s another theme: NPCs telling the players just what they need to know.)

As the timing of the bad guys is linked to the conference, it would be better if the PCs could learn of the imminent attack during the conference – at which point it becomes a race to see who gets there first.

Like all the adventures in Mysteries, this could do with an event timeline to keep track of everything that’s going on.

So it’s off to Twilight’s Peak and the campaign finale.

Twilight’s Peak

Finally, the PCs arrive at Twilight’s Peak, the place they have been searching for all this time, even though they didn’t know they were looking for it. To nobody’s surprise, Twilight’s Peak has a fully operational Ancients base below it.

Twilight’s Peak is a complicated section. As well as a detailed alien base to explore, three other factions are involved, each with different agendas. Towards the end, everything is likely to collapse into running battles – I can see montages being useful here.

And this time, we’re given a timeline, but it’s rather sparse, and I would have liked more detail. At least it accepts that the PCs might arrive midway through events.

While the ending is spectacularly cataclysmic, it’s difficult to tell how much influence the PCs will have as more powerful entities surround them.

So what do I think?

Sadly, I was disappointed by Mysteries of the Ancients. Compared to Secrets of the Ancients, I estimate that Mysteries has about half the adventuring time but with a longer page count. It’s overwritten, but I’ll come to that next time; this post is already long enough.

The actual adventures rely too much on contrivance and coincidence. The PCs being in the right place at the right time happens too often – it’s just lazy. (There are similar contrivances in Secrets, but I didn’t notice so many.)

A big difference between Mysteries and 1980’s Twilight’s Peak is that the PCs actively seek Twilight’s Peak in the original. It’s a mystery to solve, to find out what’s there. In Mysteries, Twilight’s Peak isn’t on anyone’s radar until the end – I can’t see how the PCs can work out how to get there without the final NPC simply telling them.

So many steps in the campaign happen because someone tells them. The PCs do not need to put the clues together – instead, each time they are told to proceed to the next part of the campaign.

There are quite a few errors and typos – this thread on the official Mongoose Traveller forum picks up many. 

Visions of a better campaign

So, as I suggested above, I’d love to see the campaign restructured. I would:

  • Start the campaign with the PCs responding to a call for help in the village terrorised by the monster. As part of the aftermath of that (probably in the starship), I’d give the PCs clues about the other parts and let them decide which order to do it in.
  • Make it so the PCs’ actions drive the disasters. At Hell in Perihelion, the PCs’ arrival forces the NPCs to advance their plans.
  • Bring in the Twilight’s Peak mystery early and work out how the PCs can locate the Ancients’ base by decoding the text (perhaps with some help – maybe an NPC who served in the Third Frontier War).
  • Make the Ancients Hunter conference quarterly, rotating around the subsector. The PCs can attend whichever they want – the people might be different, but the clues and the outcome can be the same.
  • Add event timelines to each adventure so it’s easier to track what’s happening.

That’s a start. I appreciate that’s quite a lot of work, but it would be a huge improvement.

Next time, I explain what I mean when I say Mysteries of the Ancients is overwritten.

Monday 18 March 2024

Airecon 2024

Last weekend, I was at AireCon 2024, the games convention in Harrogate’s convention centre.

AireCon is lovely. There’s a great mix of RPGs, board games and other activities and a lovely, friendly atmosphere. I was there Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Friday

Friday was RPG day for me. I ran three RPGs (enough to get me a weekend pass). I ran Hillfolk (DramaSystem), Hazelwood Abbey (DramaSystem) and In Whom We Trust (Cthulhu Dark).

Hillfolk (DramaSystem)

I set off from home a little later than I planned and arrived at my table to find my three players waiting for me. Unfortunately, that was all we had – three players. I know the game was sold out, but two players never turned up. 

Of the players, one had never played Hillfolk, one had run it some years ago, and the other had the Kickstarter, but their partner had played in the game I ran at Continuum last year! They’d said it was awesome, so no pressure this time…

We spent an hour or so developing our characters and creating the network of needs and wants that drive the action. The characters this time were the Chief, the Artisan and the Curate and our story involved cave paintings, the suspicious death of the previous chief and (eventually) the successful raid on a neighbouring tribe.

Some thoughts:

  • Hillfolk with three players was fine. It wasn’t as good as with five, but it was more intense for each of them.
  • We had quite a few procedural scenes this time.
  • I introduced a few NPCs – I think I’m getting better at managing them in DramaSystem.
  • I kept track of scenes this time – we had 18 scenes in total.

After Hillfolk, I had a quick bite to eat, and then it was time for Hazelwood Abbey.

Hazelwood Abbey (DramaSystem)

Hazelwood Abbey is Hillfolk but in a Downton Abbey setting. Again, I had three players, and this time they chose the Earl, an illegitimate Heir and the (Dowager) Countess. Our story this time was driven by Dowager Countess’ refusal to accept the Heir and her eventual murder of the Earl!

Some thoughts

  • Again, just three players – but I think five had signed up. Again, the game was intense and would have benefitted from more players.
  • Only one procedural scene. When I ran it at Furnace last year we didn’t have many either – maybe that’s a feature of the setting.
  • Again, 18 scenes. I think that’s a coincidence. The situation for Hillfolk has an obvious ending (dealing with the neighbouring tribe) whereas with Hazelwood Abbey I have to judge the right time to stop – so the Earl’s murder was ideal. 
  • I played even more NPCs this time than I did last time.

In both Hazelwood Abbey and Hillfolk, the players embraced the game and the system, and we had lots of lovely dramatic scenes. And DramaSystem games are so easy to run – almost no preparation is needed. I’m now planning my next playset – this time set around a successful rock band.

(My Hazelwood Abbey DramaSystem playset is available on Itch.io.)

After Hazelwood Abbey I went to get some tea and met Philippa, a friend. I had some time before my next game, so I taught her the Villagers board game (and, um, won) before heading back to the RPG rooms for Cthulhu Dark.

In Whom We Trust (Cthulhu Dark)

I had all five players for In Whom We Trust, a one-way trip deep into the Amazon jungle. Inspired by the movies Outbreak and Arachnophobia (the scariest PG movie ever), I originally wrote In Whom We Trust as a Call of Cthulhu “tournament” adventure for Convulsion/Continuum in the mid-90s. Since then, I’ve redone it for Cthulhu Dark and made it available via Itch.io and DriveThruRPG.

Thoughts

  • We had one survivor this time – but from what I could see, all the players were enjoying themselves. Even those that died grisly deaths.
  • The system was simple and great, as usual. One character was close to going insane – which was about right.
  • I last ran In Whom We Trust five years ago at GoPlayLeeds, and it was nice to revisit it.

After finishing, I walked back to the car past several light artworks – it was Harrogate’s Beam light festival, which was an unexpected pleasure.

Saturday

On Saturday morning I brought Megan and one of her friends to AireCon. I’d ignored the trade hall and the board games yesterday, so today was a chance to remedy that.

We played lots of games:

  • War of the 3 Sanchos (a small wargame which I enjoyed more than I thought I would – but I won, so I might be biased)
  • Forbidden Jungle (a co-up which we lost, badly – I’d happily play it again.)
  • Panic Lab (a mental agility game which Megan won both times)
  • Giant-sized Hey That’s My Fish (which Megan won – I came last)
  • A playtest of a game about finding poison antidotes (which I won – the game was fine but not stellar and we gave some feedback)
Losing at Panic Lab

Then we had to say goodbye to Guy, and so Megan and I played Woof Days (which I don’t recommend, we won one game each) before catching up with Philippa again. We played:

  • Wyrmspan (a heavier variant of Wingspan that I won but Megan was bored by – she found it slow towards the end)
  • MLEM: Space Agency (a push-your-luck game I enjoyed but came last while Megan won; but the cat-based space theme I found offputting)
  • Reef Rescue (a light memory game that I won)

After that, we entered the wonderful charity raffle. There are only a dozen or so prizes in the raffle, but each prize consists of 20 or so board games, and you stand almost no chance of winning. But if you do, you win big (and it’s up to you how you get them home)… We didn’t win, and the raffle raised over £10,000 for charity.

Waiting for the raffle

Entropoly

Finally, on Saturday, Megan and I watched Ivan Brett (from The Traitors) host Entropoly, a game where the players invent new rules each time they take a turn. The rules got crazier and crazier, with rules for wearing wigs, moving anti-clockwise, and changing the spelling of the board.

The game ended up as a co-up, with all the playing pieces merged as one trying to find the correct finish space, which had been duplicated twenty times. There was much laughing and silliness, and it was a lovely way to end the day.

Sunday

I was tired after Saturday and almost didn’t go to AireCon on Sunday. But I decided I would, and I’m glad I did, as I played in a tabletop RPG and did some networking.

What’s Old Is New (WOIN)

I took the last place in a game of WOIN, where we played adventurers with strange abilities (I was a martial artist with mysterious chi powers, another character was a mutant, and another was a cyborg) helping the oppressed. Like the A-Team. We fought vampires, met some nuns, built an improbable vehicle and smashed a sinister vampire plot. I had a good time, but I’m not sure the WOIN system is for me. It was fine but didn’t stand out – we could have used almost any trad ruleset.

After that, I found friends (old and new) and talked about Jubensha, freeforms, escape rooms, and Dune 2 before heading home.

And that was my AireCon. What will I do next year?

Monday 11 March 2024

First impressions: Most Trusted Advisors

It’s not often that I read a roleplaying game and can’t wait to get it to the table. Microscope was one (a story game rather than a “proper” RPG, but even so) and Hillfolk another (although that took me years to play). Most Trusted Advisors, a Forged in the Dark game by W.S. Healed & Citizen Abel is another.

Most Trusted Advisors

is a 54-page “comic game of feudal intrigue.” The players take the roles of a profoundly incompetent monarch’s eponymous privy council. As lords and ladies of the realm, they must keep their liege safe from foreign agents, court conspiracies, and their most dangerous enemy: their own incompetence. The GM gets to play the monarch – The Liege.

So it’s the game of Blackadder II. The GM plays Queenie, while the players are Blackadder, Lord Melchett, Malcolm Tucker, Moist von Lipwig and others.

What’s not to love?

Setting

Most Trusted Advisors is set in the fictional city of Valdrada, the capital of the feudal realm of Dulcinea. 

Valdrada is a mashup of 15th-century Florence, 13th-century London, and 11th-century Paris. It’s a city of castles, slums, sprawling streets, busy markets, theatres, taverns and brothels.

A few truths about Dulcinea:

  • It’s ruled by a Liege, a blithering royal shit with immense political power. Their Most Trusted Advisors are the ones actually running the realm.
  • The Nobility occupy most positions of political, social, and economic power. They are all to the last man either useless or malevolent, often both.
  • The Burghers, city-dwelling merchants, occupy the rest. They’re equally useless and malevolent, but usually better at hiding it.
  • The Church is a powerful institution that demands belief in their god or gods. Some people believe in witches and sorcery, which may or may not be real.
  • It’s neighboured by the Duchy of Zobia, a bitter historical enemy. A Great War has been fought, and the ink is still drying on the treaty.
  • Thousands of peasants slave away thanklessly to keep the realm running.

Plus, the players get to add their own truths as part of the game setup.

This melting pot background means never having to worry about being historically accurate – or accidentally offending someone. (And Most Trusted Advisors definitely doesn’t want to offend.)

Would Most Trusted Advisors work if it were set in Elizabethan England? I’m sure it would, but I’m not a history buff and I’m happy to set it in a nonsensical world and not worry about accuracy.

Rules

Most Trusted Advisors uses a stripped-down Forged in the Dark engine. At least, I assume it’s stripped down because there’s really only one roll: Action rolls.

Anytime a character is attempting something dangerous (or uncertain), they make an Action roll. To do this, they pick an appropriate action rating (such as Bluster to lie or bluff) and then roll a number of d6s equal to their rating. Ratings range from 0 to 4, and you pick the highest result. A six is a success, a 4-5 is a partial success and a 1-3 is a tragedy.

Tragedies and partial successes attract misfortunes, which are conditions such as Angry or Enemy of the Crown.

That’s pretty much it for the rules. There are some fiddly bits such as flourishes (sort of enhanced actions), twists (spend them to avoid misfortunes and do other things), Ducats (bennies), and arms (countdown clocks shaped like shields).

There are also fortune rolls, which are used to answer questions like “How good is the feast’s dessert?” You build these like action rolls, but really, they’re the kind of thing I would roll 2d6 for and interpret the result, high = good, low = bad. That kind of decision-making is part of my GM tookit – it feels weird to have a game specifically tell me how to make those rolls. (Yes, I realise fortune rolls are from Blades in the Dark.)

Playbooks

The six playbooks in Most Trusted Advisors are delightful.

  • The Treasurer, a persnickety, long-suffering bean counter
  • The Lover, a charming, naïve consort to the monarch
  • The Alchemist, a brilliant but unhinged occultist
  • The Hierophant, a pompous, self-righteous priest
  • The Marshal, a bold, hot-headed general
  • The Blackguard, a sneaky, treacherous backstabber

Abilities are described as “titles”, which is nicely thematic. You choose three as part of character generation, and they’re things like:

  • Keeper of the Swans: As a Twist, you can unleash angry, escaped swans wherever you please
  • Royal Librarian: You can spend a ducat and know of a book that can tell you exactly what you need to know.
  • Lord Spymaster: You have spies in every nook and cranny. As a Twist, you can reveal any NPC to be one of them

(The one I don’t like is “Noblesse Oblige: Pick a title from another playbook.” Not because I don’t like picking another title, but because it’s messy and it requires either more mastery of the game than is likely amongst my players, or too much dreary analysis paralysis. [I don’t like this option in PbtA games, either.])

So the characters are great. Don’t tell me you don’t want to play right now.

Secret societies

And of course there are secret societies! Six of them, each with agendas, contacts and even more titles. The agendas give players extra objectives – more things to do.

  • The Hermetic Order: Secretive occultists in search of metaphysical truths
  • The Inquisition: Religious fanatics looking to punish sins, real or imagined
  • The Sky Chamber: There is no such organization as the Sky Chamber
  • Zobian Traitors: Seditious and cunning spies, loyal to the Duke of Zobia
  • The Chamber of Commerce: Wealthy burghers and merchants conspiring for profit
  • Karian Loyalists: Staunch traditionalists still loyal to a long-deposed dynasty

The Liege

The GM, meanwhile, plays the Liege, an unpredictable, irresponsible idiot. So Queenie or the Prince Regent from Blackadder. Lieges come in different flavours, each with their own playbooks:

  • The Royal Buffoon is the median wealthy jackass.
  • The Have-at-Them is an upstart warmonger.
  • The Bleeding Heart is terminally afflicted with noblesse oblige.
  • The Loathsome Toad mistakenly thinks they’re a master of intrigue.
  • The Powder Keg is a paranoid tyrant always looking for someone to behead.

Liege playbooks come with a list of characteristics and two signature Misfortunes and Mishaps. (Misfortunes happen when the dice are rolled, as mentioned above. Mishaps are things the GM can do to kick a session off, or during a lull in the game – along the lines of GM moves in other games.)

I suspect I’ll pick the Royal Buffoon for my first game, but they all sound like fun.

But what do you do?

Once characters have been created, the Liege starts everything off with a mishap. If you can’t think of anything, there’s a table of inciting incidents at the end, such as: “Your liege’s brother has claimed the throne.” As liege, you demand that your advisers sort it out – and you’re off and running.

As a player, you want to become the Liege’s most trusted advisor – the first amongst equals, as it were. Except they were never your equals.

The game ends with a footnote – where your character ends up in history. To determine your fate, you roll one dice for each of these that are true:

  • You survived until the end of the game.
  • You’re your Liege’s most trusted advisor (the Liege player decides who this is!)
  • You completed one of your secret society’s agendas.
  • You completed two or more of your secret society’s agendas.

Success lets you choose questions to answer from the legacies list (How did you permanently change the realm’s political system?); failure means choosing from the list of infamies (Why did nobody go to your funeral? What was the least convincing excuse?)

It’s worth letting the players know how the game will end so they can work towards those. Once they realise they will get dice for not dying, being the Liege’s favourite and completing their agendas, they should drive all the action.

Epilogue: There’s then a slightly odd, optional epilogue, a short mini-game called How’s it going, Geoffrey? Where you look at events from the point of view of the unluckiest peasant in the realm. It sits slightly oddly, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m sure I’ll try it when I run Most Trusted Advisors, but from reading it, I’m not entirely convinced.

But it’s not perfect

Some things are explained in a bit too much detail, as if I’ve not played a roleplaying game before. Is that likely? Is anyone likely to stumble across Most Trusted Advisors without knowing what they’re getting? I suspect not, but anyway.

Fortune rolls: I’ve already mentioned fortune rolls. Making snap decisions is something every GM has to learn – yet most games don’t cover it. Does that mean it’s missing, or is it not needed?

Countdown clocks: Most Trusted Advisors takes a page to explain “Arms” – which took me a moment or two to realise it was just a new name for countdown/progress clocks. Part of me likes the way the mechanic is renamed to suit the setting, but a bigger part of me is irritated that so much explanation was needed for something that is pretty simple (and described in many other games).

Safety and inclusion: I’ve seen so many sections on safety tools that my eyes usually glaze over them. Does every game need a section on safety tools? Can we not just point to the many excellent online web pages? Apparently not.

Anyway, Most Trusted Advisors has sections on safety tools, warns not to be antisemitic when using secret societies, includes a page on queer identity and oppression, and talks about ethnicity. Even the epilogue minigame, How’s it going, Geoffrey? is there to help reflect on how awful most people’s lives were in the Middle Ages.

I know I’m a white, middle-class, middle-aged bloke, but to me, it all feels a bit heavy-handed. But maybe that’s the point – and my slight irritation reflects more on me than it does the game.

GM improvisation: Most Trusted Advisors relies on the GM to keep things going. While character creation should result in conflict and agendas, if the players don’t fully embrace the idea that they are driving the action, the game could struggle to get going.

Why I like it: ticking boxes

Most Trusted Advisors ticks many of my boxes. The key things I like in a game are:

A plot. For me, this is probably Most Trusted Advisors’ weakest area. While there’s no specific scenario, between the initial premise, character generation and the rules for determining your character’s fate, some sort of plot should present itself. However, it’s very reliant on the players – if they falter, everything then relies on the GM.

The characters are important. I like the characters to be important to whatever the game is about (my pet gripe are convention games that just use the published pregens without tying them to the adventure). Characters with a stake in what’s going on help keep their players engaged.

Players talk to each other as characters (not just to the GM). Most Trusted Advisors is slightly player-v-player, so the players should talk to each other rather than just to me. And as part of character generation, the players create shared backstories by asking each other questions.

Other points in Most Trusted Advisors favour include:

  • It looks easy to run – most of my friends are familiar with Blackadder and the playbooks are full of flavour.
  • It’s ideal for one-shots, and I like one-shots. (I suspect it’s exhausting to run and play, so it might even be rubbish for longer games.)
  • Character generation includes choosing a friend and a rival. Why don’t more games do this?
  • For the most part, it’s really nicely written.

Overall

So that’s Most Trusted Advisors. I’m looking forward to playing it – hopefully soon.

You can get Most Trusted Advisors from the creators’ page on Itch.io, here.


Monday 4 March 2024

LarpCon 2024

Last weekend I drove down to the Whitwick & Coalville Leisure Centre for LarpCon 2024.

LarpCon is a live-action role-play (larp), cosplay, re-enactment and steampunk convention. (But frankly, mostly larp.) It’s a lovely occasion to meet like-minded people, and spend money on costume and props.

The sports hall (photo from LarpCon Facebook page)

I was there to help Ray, Simon and Nick on the UK Freeforms & UKLTA (laser tag larps) stall.

The venue

Larpcon took over the leisure centre’s sports hall, the squash courts and a dance studio. Alongside people in costume, armour and elf-ears were people in sportswear going to the gym or the pool. It made for an odd mix in the foyer.

The con started at 10 am, and I arrived just before because I wanted to make sure I could get a parking space. Parking appeared to be a challenge – although apparently there was an overflow car park, I’m not sure where it was. 

The sports hall was full of traders – and smelled not unpleasantly of leather. 60-odd stalls sold costumes, weapons, accessories and food. If I was into costuming, I am sure I would have come out much poorer.

The squash courts contained the bring-and-buy (and archery range, I think), an art exhibition, and talks. One of Sunday’s talks was about mega-games, which I wish I had known about because I’d have gone to that. (If there was a timetable pinned to the wall, I didn’t see it. I know it’s on the website, but I’m old-fashioned.)

Upstairs in the studio was the promoter area - a few trade stands and stands for those promoting larp groups. That’s where we were.

UK Freeforms and UK Laser-Tag LARP

Ray had booked two tables, one for the UK Laser-Tag LARP group and one for UK Freeforms. 

The laser tag stuff had loads of exciting equipment: guns and sensors and props. The guns and sensors worked (the guns even made exciting sounds), and the props included Orac, a beautiful demon hunting compass (that worked), a computer with clever access requirements, and the Enigma machine used in Café Casablanca. It was all very clever and drew lots of attention.

The UK Freeforms side was a little less glamorous – some game printouts and character sheets. I also brought a few books to help with the visual appeal.

While it was clear the exciting kit drew many, they were all very happy to hear about freeforming as well.

Talking to punters

This wasn’t Ray and Simon’s first time at a con like this, and they happily started talking to anyone who showed even the slightest interest in the stall. Me, I’m more reserved, so I took a while to get going.

I found it tricky to pitch freeforms – but I know it’s not something I’m good at. But after a while I got into the hang of it – asking people if they’d heard of chamber larps or parlour larps, or sometimes I used murder mystery games as an example.

(I wasn’t there to promote Freeform Games, although I mentioned them once or twice.)

Then I talked about the range of genres that freeforming covers: pirates, Jane Austen, wild west, modern, future, musicals and many, many more. (One benefit of not being too focussed on costuming and props, I think.) Oddly, the idea of a Father Ted larp seemed very appealing to many.

I then explained how the games worked: prewritten characters with detailed backgrounds and (conflicting) objectives. Up to the players how they do things. Combat light – some rules, but depends on the game.

Then I explained about Consequences and the Facebook group and gave them a business card that Ray had brought with the links.

Everyone was friendly, a couple of people had already heard of freeforms, and I would have sold a copy of Writing Freeform Larps had I accepted credit cards.

(And that all sounds much more coherent than it actually was.)

Next time

I think next time, more signage would help. Ray had put photos of freeforms on the wall, but we could have done with a vertical display stand for more pizzaz.

I would also have a few flyers available on the table. Some ideas:

  • A one-page summary description of the games themselves.
  • A list of typical games of different sizes and genres. Including a few that can be downloaded (either free or paid for) – and some good games for beginners to run with friends.
  • A list of events where freeforms are played. (We mostly talked about Consequences and Retford, but we should have had a poster with Consequences, the weekend games, Continuum, Bristol Games Day, Sheffield’s The Box Northern Larp Festival, and London’s The Smoke larp festival and even Peaky on it.) It was noticeable that because laser tag uses an established larp site, it sometimes got the response, “oh yes, I know where that is.”
  • A summary of where to go to learn more. The Facebook group, the mailing list, the uk freeforms Discord, maybe the wiki and Peaky Games. It would be nice if UK Freeforms had a proper website.

(And maybe turn that into a little 4 or 8-page booklet?)

Anyway, something to think about for next time.

Tuesday 27 February 2024

Good Society at the table

Two years ago, I wrote a review of Good Society based on a read-through of the rules. 

Now, finally, I have played it. Here’s how it went.

The players

We have four players:

  • Thomas playing Samuel FitzgGeorge (old money)
  • Terry, playing hedonist Louisa Trotter
  • Jon, playing meddler Elspeth Blackstone.
  • Me, playing the socialite, Captain George Wetherby (I’m aiming for a Wickham/Willoughby sort – I’ve called him Wetherby because Jane Austen’s rakes often have surnames beginning with W).

Thomas is also facilitating. I’m not running it because I wanted a break after As the Sun Forever Sets, and Thomas was happy to bring Good Society to the table.

We also have a range of minor characters (known as connections) – for example, I’m also playing Louisa’s friend Hettie Bower.

Online with Trello

We’re playing online using Trello as our virtual tabletop and Discord for video chat. We have a weekly two-hour slot, but we don’t always play every week (because life sometimes gets in the way). 

That doesn’t mean two solid hours of playing, however, as we’re often slow in getting going as we start with some social chat and then have to remember what happened last time. (This is especially true if we’ve had a break of a couple of weeks.) So, on average, I guess our sessions are about 1 hour and 45 minutes of playing time.

Backstory (session 1)

In our first session, we set up our game and created our major and minor characters. 

As this is our first game, we’re keeping things simple and playing the Farce playset, which is light-hearted and suited for beginners.

Create major characters

These are the PCs – the stars of the show.

Set up the playset: Normally this would consist of choosing desire and relationship cards from a deck, but Thomas had done his homework and had put everything we needed on a Trello board.

Choose desires: We then each chose our character’s desire. I picked “A large income is the best recipe for happiness I have ever heard of” – my character wanted money! This then came with a relationship – a rival! Picking this desire also gave me my role (Socialite) and I chose the Military background.

Form relationships: We formed relationships by giving our relationship card to another player. I suggested that Thomas (who was playing the New Arrival) might want to be my rival, and he agreed.

Flesh out the major characters: Now is the time to collaboratively fill in the blanks and work out how the characters actually know each other and what has happened in the past. And while we did that, we filled out the rest of the character sheet.

Introductions: Finally, the characters are introduced. (And in our case, add appropriate illustrations to the Trello board.)

Part of our Trello board

Create connections

Connections are supporting characters – and we created two each. You can either use the deck of connections or use the potential connections on your character sheet. We did the latter. I created my father, Fitzwilliam Wetherby and Lydia Bennett, who has a huge crush on George.

Complete connection sheet: Fill out their name, their relationship with the major character, what they think of that character and so on.

Select a connection to control: Then choose a connection to control – ideally one that’s not linked too closely to your major character (because talking to yourself is awkward). I picked Hettie Bower, Louisa’s best friend.

And as that had taken up our entire evening, we left our first scene until the next session.

Playing the game

The game is played over a series of cycles, each of which is broken into phases.

  • Novel
  • Reputation
  • Rumour and Scandal
  • Epistolary
  • Novel
  • Rumour and Scandal
  • Epistolary
  • Upkeep

Cycle 1 (sessions 2-4)

Novel chapter: We started with an “event scene” (one where everyone is present) at a ball at Templeton Grange, held to celebrate Simon FitzGeorge’s return home. That gave everyone a chance to start to get to know their characters and interact with others.

Reputation phase: With the dance over, we checked whether our reputation had changed. There are mechanical ways this happens – and my reputation hadn’t changed.

Rumour and scandal phase: We then each had two actions where we could either create or spread a rumour (or create two rumours or spread two rumours). The rumours could be about anything, and in this cycle, we created rumours that were mostly true. In the following cycle, we started creating rather more fantastic rumours designed to help us achieve our goals.

Spread rumours get resolve tokens that can be spent to affect the game (although we took a while to understand how this worked). Rumours that weren’t spread eventually faded and dropped out of the game.

Epistolary phase: Letter writing! We each wrote two letters – mostly to other characters or sometimes to new ones. I wrote a letter to my father (a connection played by Terry) asking for money, and another letter to Elspeth (played by Jon), my old flame.

It’s fun writing the letters (they don’t need to be actually written out – you can just describe what they say), and I think the limit of two per player is to stop this phase from getting out of hand.

Novel chapter: And back to roleplaying. While our first chapter was an “event” (everyone present in one scene), this time, we had a “visitation” chapter. This consisted of individual scenes of the characters calling on one another to further their goals.

As Cpt George Wetherby, I struggled to work out how I would get money. The traditional way would have been to marry into it, but my old flame’s ardour had cooled and I wasn’t sure how best to proceed.

Reputation phase: Another reputation phase.

Upkeep phase: We ended our first cycle with an upkeep phase. First, everyone spends monologue tokens – which are used to get a character to speak their inner thoughts. Nobody had used a monologue token at this point, so we spent those. Then all the resolve and monologue tokens reset, at which point we realised that nobody had used a resolve token either.

(We aren’t using inner conflicts, which are also progressed in this phase.)

Cycle 2 (sessions 5-7)

I resolved to engage more with the mechanics in this cycle.

Novel chapter: Another event scene – this time a picnic. I was keen to try out the mechanics and burned through both my resolve and monologue tokens.

I arrived at the picnic with Lydia Bennett on my arm and spent a resolve token to make Elspeth (my old flame, played by Jon) jealous. There’s some negotiation with resolve tokens (in case you’re proposing something the other player objects to), but in this case (and perhaps because it was our first resolve token of the game), Jon accepted it.

I then spent my monologue token to hear Samuel FitzGeorge’s inner thoughts. He was concerned about the upcoming local elections, where he was the Tory candidate. I then struck up a conversation with Samuel, where he expressed his concern about the upcoming election. I then bided my time and, in a later scene, spent my last resolve token to get Samuel to accept my help in preparing for the election (and hopefully skim some cash for myself).

While this is going on, the others are also progressing their characters’ schemes – although some with more success than others.

Reputation, rumour and scandal: More of the same – my reputation is still unaffected.

Epistolary phase: My first letter was to Samuel from George, with various ideas for the upcoming campaign. My second letter was from my connection (Hettie) to a friend in London, seeking information about Samuel’s political rival.

Novel chapter: Another chapter of lots of little scenes with characters visiting each other. We also had a montage of Samuel and George campaigning for votes. During this phase, I figured out how to use rumours.

Samuel was showing an interest in courting my sister, Lilibeth. However, there was a rumour that “Samuel and Louisa spent some time alone in the Orangerie during the ball.” So I mischievously warned Lilibeth that I suspected Samuel and Louisa had an “understanding” (were secretly engaged) and spent the rumour’s resolve token attached to affect the story.

This immediately created chaos and several new scenes:

  • Lilibeth has heard the rumour and tries to get Samuel to confess it, but Samuel does not know what is going on, and Lilibeth storms off.
  • Lilibeth calls on Elsbeth and confesses her situation with Samuel, Elsbeth advises her to ask Joanna (Louisa’s sister) about it, as surely she should know.
  • Hettie asks Louisa about Samuel’s proposal. Louisa denies it, and Hettie suggests Louisa should be more circumspect when keeping company with men. Hettie asks Louisa to make sure Samuel doesn’t think he’s proposed to her.

That ended our session – and I thought the chapter. Unfortunately, we continued the chapter in the next session, and I felt the scenes were less directed and full of padding.

Reputation phase: Check to see if our characters have done anything to affect their reputation. I may be playing George a little too safely, as I haven’t earned any reputation tags. However, Jon’s character has three positive reputation tags, and so he chooses to have Joanna as Elspeth’s protégé. (This is like Emma Woodhouse taking Harriet Smith under her wing in Emma.) This has lots of story potential and makes me wish I was finding it easier to earn reputation, good or bad.

Epistolary and upkeep: We ended with more letters and an upkeep phase where resolve and monologue tokens were refreshed. We also agreed that, as things seemed to be heading towards some kind of conclusion, the next cycle would be the last.

Cycle 3 (sessions 8-9)

Our last cycle, and things started getting crazy. In a good way.

Novel chapter: We start the third cycle at the election hustings, where my father finds out that I’ve been skimming from Samuel’s campaign funds. Later on we have a stand-up row, and he disowns me.  However, I spend a resolve token to impress Joanna (who has just come into an inheritance – something that was only revealed last cycle), and end up challenging George McDonald to a duel to defend Joanna and Louisa’s honour. (Yikes! A duel!)

At a post-hustings soiree, I kiss Joanna – and she seeks advice from Elspeth on what to do. Elspeth confronts me and I confess my fondness for Elspeth, but we fall out badly. Unseen by either of us, Lydia overhears… We ended the scene before the duel – and decided to refer to it during the epistolatory phase. (I have no resolve tokens left and told my fellow players that I was happy for my fate to be in their hands – to be decided in the next session.)

This was a superb session – lots of fast, punchy scenes and drama. Brilliant.

Reputation, rumour and scandals: My reputation took a hit this time! I showed strong emotion (a negative criteria for me) but I also stood up for Louisa and Joanna (positive criteria). Not enough, yet, for it to affect play though. (Technically, this being the last cycle, we should have skipped this phase. But we missed that rule until the end.)

Epistolary phase: More letters. Samuel spent a resolve token to have me wounded in the duel because my opponent cheated and shot early. (As well as wounding me, this let him achieve his political goals.) So that was the topic of several letters. Samuel was most surprised to receive one from Elspeth suggesting that he should propose to her!

Final novel chapter: My character arc was more or less complete – all I needed to do was propose to dear, sweet (and now very rich) Joanna. I was still out of resolve tokens, but the other players didn’t interfere. Instead, the chapter was mostly about Samuel’s dilemma. He had been courting Lilibeth (my character’s sister) but the letter from Elspeth had put his head in a spin. He decides to let fate decide, by racing two of his favourite horses bearing their ribbons. However, Elspeth spends a resolve token to turn his head in her favour, and we end the chapter with Samuel proposing to Elspeth. 

So a happy, Jane Austen-y ending!

Final epistolary phase: Set some years later, this functions as an epilogue to the game. Samuel and Elspeth are together and spend lots of time in London. Louisa continues to weave her webs of deceit, and George and Joanna are living in America celebrating the birth of their fourth child.

And after all that, what do I think?

We had a slow start to Good Society, mainly because it’s a different style of game to how we normally play. It’s collaborative and, at the same time player-v-player; play is directed generally towards other players rather than the GM/facilitator. That’s how I like to play, but for others, it was more of a shock, and it took us a while to get going.

I’m sure we’d find it easier with more practice. (We said the same about Fiasco.)

Players: I suspect Good Society sings when everyone is familiar with the Jane Austen tropes and stories. Unfortunately, only two of us were familiar with the stories – and while that wasn’t essential to have a good game (and we had a good game), I suspect things would have been smoother had everyone been on the same page. I would like to try Good Society with a different group.

(The fact we are all blokes, mostly beardy and towards the end of middle age, may have hindered our embrace of the romantic side of the game.)

Characters: During character creation, we should have been more specific about our character’s background. For example, Terry told us that his character (Louisa) and Jon’s (Elspeth) were former friends, until Louisa’s cruel actions ended the relationship abruptly. However, we didn’t initially drill down to find out exactly what those cruel actions were – the specifics would have helped the game. 

Scenes: Sometimes, we found scenes a little troublesome. They weren’t always clear, or they dragged on a little. Scenes are common in a lot of indie games – but rarely do they have good advice for setting scenes, and Good Society is no exception.

As we are so used to traditional RPGs, some advice on scene setting would have helped. I found my scenes were most satisfying when I kept the following in mind:

  • Where is the scene set?
  • When is the scene in the timeline?
  • Who is present?
  • What do you want?

However, we didn’t always do this (I wasn’t facilitating, and I didn’t want to step on Thomas’s toes). Consequently, I found some scenes saggy and dragged on.

Who calls? Who gets to call the next scene isn’t clear. I noted that in a couple of novel chapters, it seemed as if a couple of the players hadn’t called scenes. Their characters had been in plenty, so it seemed as if they were having a lot of spotlight time, but they’d not called scenes themselves and so weren’t necessarily progressing their desires. I wonder if having a randomised turn order (like I’ve been doing in Hillfolk) would have helped.

More care with names: We had too many similar names in our cast: George Wetherby, George McDonald, Samuel FitzGeorge, and Fitzwilliam Wetherby. The two Georges were a particular challenge, particularly in the ongoing game log, as occasionally it wasn’t clear which George was being referred to.

The system: the system isn’t particularly clunky, but it’s a bit fiddly and took us a while to get our heads around. Once I understood how resolve tokens and rumours and reputation worked, things were much simpler – but I’m not sure everyone did, as we had plenty of unspent resolve tokens at the end of the earlier cycles.

Would I play again?

Yes, definitely. Ideally with a group of players more familiar with the setting and tropes.

Monday 19 February 2024

All Flesh is Grass - on Itch.io

All Flesh is Grass is now available to download for free on Itch.io.

All Flesh is Grass? What’s that?

All Flesh is Grass is a short freeform-larp for 13 players set in 1965 Wisconsin. It takes around two hours to play. 

It is August 1965. Yesterday, the residents of Millville in Grant County, Wisconsin (pop. 164) woke to discover a mysterious barrier around their village. Through trial and error, they found that the barrier lets no life pass through it – only inanimate objects.

Yesterday evening, a short story about the barrier appeared on page 3 of the Fennimore Herald.

Today, at lunchtime, Senator Wilson and representatives of the federal government meet with the mayor of Millville in a large tent erected across the barrier on the road to Bridgeport.

The barrier itself is invisible but stretchy. Trying to walk through it is like trying to walk while being pulled back by elastic bands. Eventually, the force is too great and throws you back.

That sounds vaguely familiar


All Flesh is Grass
is based on the 1965 science fiction first-contact novel of the same name by Clifford D Simak. There are a few differences, but if you’ve read the novel, you’ll know what’s going on.

That doesn’t mean you know what to do about it, of course…

Didn’t you write another alien larp recently?

Yes, I’m writing a series of first-contact freeform larps, all in the same universe and featuring some of the same characters.

The first was The Roswell Incident, and that has been published by Freeform Games.

Coming up after All Flesh is Grass is Children of the Stars (set in 1983), Messages from Callisto (1993) and The Stars our Destination (1999) – and more planned, but at this point are little more than twinkles in my eye.

Sounds great! Who do the players play?

The players play either villagers or members of the government who are here to help.

Millville folk

  • Morris: Retired carpet sales rep and Millville’s head council member
  • Constable Martin: A police constable
  • Carter: A real-estate/insurance business owner
  • Sherwood: A gadget manufacturer
  • Preston: Local reporter and council member
  • Flanagan: Retired school principal and council member

Out-of-towners

  • Senator Wilson: Senator for Wisconsin
  • General Billings: US Army general.
  • Shaw: Aide to the senator
  • Dr Blake: Government scientist
  • Captain Yip: USAF officer
  • Agent Franz: FBI agent
  • Jamie Flanagan: Chicago doctor

One player gets to play two characters – Jamie Flanagan and Captain Yip.

Huh? Why make give two characters to one player?

This occurred during the writing process and was an accident. 

When I started the project, I was talking about my ideas with a friend who suggested I should write the games for the same number of players. I thought this was a good idea, and as The Roswell Incident was for 13 players, so was All Flesh is Grass (and all the games since).

As I started writing, my original plan was that all the characters would be played by one player, and The Voice (the mysterious character not in the list above) would be an NPC or played by me. But as I wrote, I realised it would be better if The Voice were played by a player.

Ahah – that means you have 14 characters and 13 players!

Exactly.

I looked at merging characters, but I realised that two characters could easily be played by one person. I’ve played two characters in the same freeform before, and it has been a lot of fun. (It’s also a design space I think we can do more with.)

So I decided to keep all 14 characters and have one player take two.

I’ve run the game twice so far, and in each run, the players adapted to the situation without batting an eyelid. Feedback suggested that my approach worked well – and so I didn’t feel the need to change anything.

How did you decide who gets to play the split character?

I made it clear in the signup and casting forms that one player would play two characters (and which ones they would play), helping the players decide whether they wanted to play two characters or not. More on that here.

Sounds great! Where can I get it?

You can get All Flesh is Grass over on Itch.io.


Friday 9 February 2024

West End Lullaby

Earlier in February, I played in West End Lullaby, a weekend freeform for 77 players and is based on musicals such as Chess, Fiddler on the Roof, Cats, School of Rock, Our House, Bugsy Malone, Matilda, Les Miserables, Return to the Forbidden Planet, Starlight Express, Sister Act and many others.

I played Aaron Burr (from Hamilton), who has a side-order of Sam from Mama Mia! Essentially, Burr is a lawyer who is also one of the three fathers in Mama Mia!

This is rather long, so TLDR: It was great, I had a wonderful time. When can we do it again?

This and other photos of the game are by TsiJon Photography.

West End Lullaby was written by Matt Freeman, Hanbury Hampden-Turner, Ray Hodson, and Daniel Taylor (with additional material by Rei England, Simon Clark, and Kate Ashford). James Goodman and Mike Nudd helped as GMs. 

This will be my third musical freeform. Will I sing? The picture above suggests I did...

Oh yes, and an obligatory spoiler warning. I will talk about some plots – I’ll try not to give too much away!

Pre-game character summary

West End Lullaby had the best pre-game character summary I’ve seen. In addition to telling me who the character was, the GMs gave me what they thought my game would probably look like (so lawyerly stuff to begin with, easing more into politics and potentially a rivalry with Hamilton – and maybe a duel).

(In freeforming/larping circles, this is often called a casting “hint”. “Hint” never seemed the right term – this was a summary, not a clue or indirect indication.)

The GMs also provided costuming advice: “Characters come from across several hundred years of time, so other characters will be wearing anything from 18th-century formalwear to post-apocalypse glam rock. In keeping with the ‘musicals’ theme, conveying the emotional feel of the character is the most important thing.”

So I took the easy route and wore a frock coat I already had. (While I love the effect that costumes produce, I find costuming very stressful. My perfect costume would be for someone to say, “Here, Steve, wear this.”)

Character sheet

The full 20-page character sheet was issued later than some would have liked. I know that stressed some people out, but personally, that works fine for me. I’m used to reading character sheets at the last minute, so two weeks was still plenty.

There are often typos in character sheets, and these were no exception. None were awful; the worst was the omission of a key piece of information that could have been much worse for my game had I not realised. (As it was, I accidentally blabbed it to someone early on, but they were an ally anyway. And then I let the GMs know so they can correct it for the future.)

Rules

The rules arrived a few days after the character. I gave them a quick skim, knowing that I’d read them in more detail during the game when they would make more sense. The rules were mostly standard, but there were nice points I particularly liked:

Play to lift: Styles of Play covered playing to win and playing to lose (both fine) but emphasised playing to lift. Try to support other people’s visions of their character, letting them, in turn, support you. Try to roleplay in a way that encourages the players around you by accepting their view of their character. That’s probably a freeform (if not roleplaying) metarule. I know many people do that instinctively, but it was nice to see it in the rules.

Pickpocketing: Pickpocketing is divisive as it can ruin your game when someone steals that vital item you’ve been spending all game hunting for. West End Lullaby solved the problem by letting the victim decide what had been pickpocketed. So you could lose something trivial or just make something up. (And it was easy to get an item – just go to the market and buy something. I bought books and CDs and flowers.) That also meant the GMs weren’t involved – it could be handled entirely by the players.

Evidence: I liked the idea that all criminals left evidence cards with their names on them. (That includes pickpockets.) Arresting a suspect for a crime involved gathering enough evidence cards (severe crimes needed more evidence).

The evidence cards didn’t have to come from the same crime – it was all damning evidence. This might have been a bit strange, but from what I can see, worked out well in practice.

(One of many memorable moments was frustrating Inspector Javert (Alex) in arresting Dandy Dan (Nathan) for murder when I used my ability to point out inconsistencies with the evidence (which meant they needed more). I suspect Javert didn’t make the same mistake twice.)

Relationships: The relationship rules covered romance and were the “heart tasks” that many games have used. West End Lullaby brought interesting tweaks, though. 

  • You could write your own tasks to suit how your game is going. I love that flexibility.
  • The same approach (and often the same tasks) was used for other relationships – close friends, rivalries, etc.
  • You didn’t have to give tasks out – you could just track them and decide for yourself whether you fell in love or decided someone was a good friend (or rival). (I suggested this in an old post – maybe the GMs thought it was a good idea.)
  • Relationships weren’t exclusive – you could give your heart to more than one person (although it would have been nice to have different heart abilities for the different types of relationships.

As with most romance rules, you have a target number, and when that number is reached, you give someone your heart (which means sharing your game with them – and they get a neat ability).

So how was my game?

But enough of the rules, how was the game?

In short, awesome. And tiring.

Aaron Burr, sir?

It was lovely being so well known in song. Many people started their conversation with me with “Aaron Burr, sir?” I never stopped enjoying it (although, ironically, I don’t really like the song).

Important lawyerly business with Dandy Dan

As a respected lawyer, I got involved in lots of stuff. Some examples.

  • I served papers on Bill Snibson (Simon)
  • One character (Tony) asked me to certify them as legally dead. In the next session, someone else (sorry, I forget who) approached me and started to explain the other side of the story. For a moment, I thought there was a conflict of interest until I realised that I could simply give them a copy of the death certificate.
  • I successfully defended Paula Gill (Victoria) from a breach of contract lawsuit. The contract may have been very one-sided, but it had been signed by all the parties and had been legally fulfilled, and the judge agreed with me. (Unfortunately, Hamilton (Jon) was supposed to be on the other side but was unfortunately held up and missed it – I was annoyed for Jon, but there were so many timetabled events we couldn’t wait too long.)
  • I wrote a couple of wills, including Jean Valjean’s (Ezzy).
  • Stacee Jaxx (Graham) and Penny Vandergelder (Elyssia) approached me to assign the ownership of the Stacee Jaxx name to Penny. For that, I needed Graham to sign their character’s real name. They were unsure about that. “We have to trust someone,” said Penny. So Stacy told me. I looked up and shrugged – I had no idea who [name redacted] was.
  • Helping Gomez Addams (Rich) with his financial planning.

I also trained a new lawyer, Sarah Wyre (Kat), to whom I would direct players when I couldn’t help them (sometimes due to a conflict of interest, often because I was busy). Sarah said she was grateful that I sent her extra work, but also could I stop because she was getting so busy.

The Room Where It Happens

If the GMs had a planned arc for Aaron Burr, it was for him to become more influential by becoming a city councillor and maybe even Mayor. 

Becoming a city councillor turned out to be fairly easy. Between the Friday night and Saturday morning sessions, I re-read the character book and the rules. (I find everything makes more sense once I’ve started playing.) And I discovered there were two spare places on the council – these hadn’t been explicitly stated in the rules (or my character sheet), and I felt like I’d done my own legal legwork.

Not all council meetings were this dull...
(With Maria and Sir John Tremayne (Chris) and Horace and "Fat Sam" Stacetto (Mike) in the background.)

So I started the Saturday morning session by asking my friend Jean Valjean (Ezzy) to propose me to the council. I also sounded out Mayor Falco (Nick) and other councillors. To my surprise, Maria, Duchess of Dene (Lisa), wasn’t against my selection – despite my betrayal of her love 20 years earlier. And so I joined the city council – followed by Hamilton, who took the other vacancy.

I decided not to run for mayor. I had so much on that I didn’t need to be any busier, and when I saw that the wonderful Mrs Blitzstein (Janet) was standing, I correctly guessed that she would win.

One thing that didn’t happen was a rivalry with Hamilton. We barely saw each other for much of the game. I had a chat with Jon (who played Hamilton) before the game, and we agreed that we’d see how the relationship/rivalry played out. But I was so busy I didn’t have time or energy to put anything into the rivalry, and I don’t think he did either. And in our game, there wasn’t anything to be rivals over. (Maybe if I was a fan of the musical, things may have been different.)

Mamma Mia!

The other half of my game was all about the romance. Aaron Burr played one of the three dads from Mamma Mia! As per the musical, Sophie (Natalie) had invited me and the other potential dads to her wedding. And unfortunately, her mother Donna (Sarah), had never forgiven me for a terrible misunderstanding all those years ago. But Aaron had never forgotten Donna and wanted to mend the broken relationship. But did she want him?

While Sarah (who played Donna) had played in some big larps in Europe, West End Lullaby was her first weekend freeform. One week beforehand, she gamely stepped in when the original player dropped out. On short notice, Sarah did a fantastic job.

As I didn’t know Sarah, it was hard to judge how to play mending the broken relationship. I took it slowly – but I never really knew what Donna was thinking. Even when I finally proposed on Sunday morning, I still didn’t know if she would say yes or not. (She did!)

Sarah told me she was taken by surprise by my proposal. I suggested that had she played in one of these games before, she would have seen the arc from a mile off and known it was coming.

The romance mechanic: Curiously, if we stuck to the mechanics, it was almost impossible for Donna to win Aaron’s heart. First, his heart score seemed high (8), and second, the suggested relationship tasks weren’t very Donna-friendly (debate politics, ask me to be your second in a duel, enlist my help in a difficult court case, etc). So I created lots of new ones: Be Donna, accept my gift, dance with me, and so on.

Aaron Burr's romance tasks...

(I find that romance mechanics are often better thought of as guidelines rather than strict rules.)

The three dads

As for the other two dads, one kept a low profile. When I found out who they were and we spoke, they wished me luck with Donna. The other was the charming and wonderfully over-the-top Count Fosco (Paul). He had his own romantic plot but delighted in flirting with Donna in front of me.

As for who the actual father was – Sophie tore the DNA test results up at her wedding, so we never found out.

Actually a double wedding - Sophie bullied myself and Donna into getting married as well.
(The Mother Superior (Ingrid) marries Sophy to Bugsy Malone (Ewan), and me to Donna, while Dennis Dupree (Haven) looks on.)

Other highlights

New faces: While it was lovely to see old friends, it was also lovely to meet new faces. Four of my close contacts (Donna, Sarah Wyre, the Duchess of Dene and Jean Valjean) were played by people who hadn’t played a weekend freeform before, and I didn’t know any of them. I hope they enjoyed themselves and that we’ll see them again.

Singing "You're the One That I Want" with Donna

Singing: I sang “You’re the One That I Want” (from Grease) with Donna, which was nerve-wracking and exhilarating. Friends came up to me afterwards, surprised that I’d sung. (We sang that late on Saturday night. Afterwards, I wished I had sung Abba’s “SOS” to Donna on Friday evening. But I wasn’t feeling confident enough then.)

The war case: I helped Dolly Levi (Alison) with her investigation into General Stanley’s war record. Well, I say I helped – she did most of the work and told me how it was going. But I enjoyed being part of the investigation.

The Casey Street Market negotiations: I was heavily involved in the Casey Street Market negotiations, which involved Mayor Falco (Nick), Patty Klineman (Clare), William Pressman (Ben), Horace Vandergelder (Kevin) and the stall holders themselves. The end result may not have satisfied the developers, but it felt right.

The Battle of the Bands: I spent a large part of Saturday evening watching the music contest – it was so good, everyone threw themselves into it.

I’ve only scratched the surface; there was so much more I wasn’t involved with. Mad science, space and rockets, superheroes, time travel, crazy fire newts, chess tournaments, and so much more. It would be an easy game to play again – so maybe in a few years, when the GMs have forgotten how stressful it can be, they will run it again.

A final thank you

So, as I hope you can tell, I really enjoyed West End Lullaby. I had a wonderful, exhilarating time. It was great seeing old friends and making new ones.

So thank you to the writers and GMs and players and everyone who made it so wonderful. Let’s do it all again soon!