I'm going to title this game "The Oni."
While in the cellar the boys were able to lift the door enough to slip the sword they found under it to get some leverage on opening it. Melo's hand slipped and cut his palm pretty badly, his screams of pain caused mom to uncover and open the door. Del-yin took the opportunity to escape while Melo was being bandaged. Melo then tricked mom into looking out the window long enough to make his escape.
Del-yin and Melo messed around in the field, again. This time with the sword which turned out to be rather unimpressive. Piko summoned an imaginary dragon which Del-yin fought, but could only defeat after Melo intervened and speared it in the side.
The boys met up with their father at Ichi's house. They still had the sword, though they shouldn't have, but Del-yin hid it rather well, until they were back home and they had to reveal it to their father. The boys got a stern talking to and as punishment had to clean up the cellar and then kneel on rice during lunch. The rest of the day was uneventful.
The next morning the boys and their father woke up extra early to meet up with the rest of the men in town to leave for the Azuma. It was a long and boring two day walk. During that time father was trying to enplane what he did for the town and why, but he was rather unsuccessful. Piko who over heard the conversation spoke up and gave a rather surprising but very good explanation. The first night after camp was set up father lead the group in practice with bow fighting giving the kids their first exposure to combat training. The fathers spared with each other after and father defeated all the other father in one on one combat.
Late in the second day of travel they arived at the Azuma's town, the light the lantern at the waiting post and sat waiting for a messenger to arrive and welcome them to the town...
Better gaming through discussion
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Nice work on the quick post Janz!
ReplyDeleteThough it wasn't the most eventful session some very good things did happen. The most important for me was the shattering of our father's image as being "a ruler with an iron fist". Del-yin is still totally into how father acts, but Melo is disillusioned. As we wait for the messenger I think it would be a good time for Melo and Del-yin to have a quick discussion about ruling with words vs. ruling with might.
Also, what made last session less eventful is that we are fast hitting our limits with our characters as children. We don't have skills to help us with what we want to do, and we don't have much freedom to choose a future for ourselves. I am hoping that this up-coming session will reveal the major conflict of this campaign.
For a moment it seemed like our quest might become: find all of the swords that were used to revolt against the Oni, which could be fun. I really liked that our father down-played the sword, his reluctance to act, and be, powerful is fuel for my character's frustration!
What did everyone else take away from the session?
One thing that I keep on feeling is that although I'm the bigger brother, I end up getting overshadowed by Melo. He can beat me up a little, and he is the one that had to help finish off the dragon. Granted, those are determined by dice rolls, but perhaps that is part of the reason why our father is leaning towards Melo suceeding?
ReplyDeleteRegarding overshadowing:
ReplyDeleteI designed my character to be have the aspect "Attention Starved". Melo is constantly looking for attention. He tries to be involved in everything, and take charge because by birth-rite you are older, and he is trying to compete with you.
So yes, Melo is attempting to overshadow Del-yin. In terms of player vs. player overshadowing, I don't want to overshadow you (Bill as a player). I was talking to Janz about that before the session. I was feeling like my decisions were the driving force behind most of the action in the game so far.
What I'm doing is 'side-questing'. When I suggested to play King of the Hill, that was a side-quest. When I dragged you into the cellar, that was also a side-quest. Side-questing is what players do to explore their characters, score Fate points, create interest.
Janz is responsible for pulling us through the main plot, but we as players need to create sub-plots, by introducing emotional dynamics (such as sibling rivalry, or injury and suffering like my hand being cut). The GM tells a story to the players, and the players should tell a story back to the GM, while still using the elements of the GM's big plot. That's how things stay fresh.
An opportunity for a side-quest would have been when we were traveling for those two days. It was boring so we fast forwarded. However if Piko had decided to become distracted by some rare thing-a-ma-bob in the forest and wandered off, and got lost we could have had a side-quest which would have added some flavor to the trip, or perhaps Del-yin could have brought up to his father the question of leadership when sitting around the fire one night. He could have asked leading questions to his father about why Melo was being groomed for the role of leader and not him. Del-yin could get some answers, and also raise the stakes between the brothers a little higher.
Bottom line is: the players need to interject, interrupt long fast-forward situations, and explore as often as downtime presents itself. The more active you are as a player the more your character will come to life, and the stronger the world and plot becomes.
Bauer, for only having played a short time, and having no training at all, you are doing incredible. You are right at the point were you are about to come into your full potential as a player. I am probably overshadowing you more than I would like right now, but that is only because I am trying to give you examples of what is possible, and what the limits of roleplaying can be.
It's not my intention to step on your fun, I want to make it better for you, and everyone else at the table. Forgive me if Melo's outgoing aspect is taking the spotlight too much. Hopefully what I wrote makes sense, and next session you can find a side-quest of your own to explore and spearhead.
I have some more thoughts on the brother dynamic, but right now I'll leave this information to be digested, and I will myself, go digest some lunch!
Please respond to this. I will be posting later to bring up the brothers and leadership.
Regarding the brothers dynamic:
ReplyDeleteIt started with the revelation that Melo was being groomed for leadership, not Del-yin. It was always thought that Del-yin would be the successor. Now Melo knows that he is the one to take over.
Del-yin, thinking he was going to be the successor wouldn't really be worried about questions like, "what am I going to do when I grow up". Melo on the other hand has wondered this his whole life. It's what drives him to crave attention; it fuels his curiosity to know what it is that he needs to learn, so that when he is an adult, he can do his part for the village. He has focused on being a warrior, since he always saw his father as a great warrior.
If Melo became a great warrior, perhaps a better warrior than even his brother, then he would earn the respect of the village, even if he wasn't the leader. He would have a purpose, he could defend his brother and the village. Dominance and power appeal to him, it was the only way he ever thought that anyone would take notice of him, since he always thought he would be standing in either his father's or brother's shadow.
Last session Melo asked his father what their family does, since everyone else learned a trade and they never did. He was told that they lead. Melo, never gave much thought to how somebody leads. Yet there must be something that his family knows or is able to do that nobody else could.
Melo believes that power is what keeps his father in charge. His father can beat any other man in a duel, his father is the most powerful, therefore he leads. Powerful men lead, Melo will need to learn to be the most powerful man in the village. With power he will lead.
Now that Melo knows what his future holds, its Del-yin who is left to wonder what role he will play as an adult.*
*Of course we know that Melo will tragically never be able to fully lead, but the boys don't know this.
Ok, I've digested this a bit more now. I'm not sure what is going to come out, but I do know that it was tasty going down.
ReplyDeleteAdam, we discussed on the phone the other day about the "prodigal son"'s role. I mentioned that surely our father or grandfather have or had siblings, and they had to have done something, right? Whatever it is that they did, surely one of us would so the same as well. Maybe they were advisors to the leader? It's something to think about, and it doesn't necessarily need to be addressed.
In hindsight, I should have a conversation with my father. To clarify, my "hero worship" aspect was meant for admiring my father. I don't think I meant it for myself to be heartbroken or dismayed by not suceeding the throne. That's not to say that I wouldn't be; all I'm saying is that I look up to my father, and whatever decision he makes, I will probably agree with.
Perhaps there have been advisers in the past, perhaps not. That's not really the point though. The point is that Janz was trying to introduce conflict between our characters. He said at the outset of the game that he wanted our characters have the same goal, but disagree on the how to achieve that goal.
ReplyDeleteThe issue of succession is meant to be the catalyst for future disagreement as adults. If your character is laissez-faire about the whole situation it kills the conflict.
Your current reaction is by no means a deal-breaker in terms of the game, but it is a missed opportunity to investigate a rich emotional aspect of your character.
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As I said on the phone, I want to play a mini-game with you sometime soon. It's roughly based on a RPG/Improv Game called "A Penny for My Thoughts". I have tweaked the idea to make it more flexible, but I think it would be a blast to run through with you in a one-off session. It will help us both get better at playing off each other, and it will also open us up to the idea of introducing conflict and complication in storytelling and character interaction.
We need to hear from Janz if we are playing next week, and if not, I suggest we play the one-off game as a filler.
I was re-reading the blog to familiarize myself with what was happening so that the transition back into the game is smooth.
ReplyDeleteIn this series of comments I was urging Bauer to bring his character to the forefront of the game by establishing his long term goals. Above I talk about how a laissez-faire character cannot be a main character. I talk about conflict and how critical it is in terms of creating interest for the players and the GM. In the end I suggested that we play some Penny Games to help better understand how to become more involved in the storytelling as a player.
Well, we have played some Penny Games, so my question is: Do you feel like you have the tools to really flesh out Del-yin, and step into this next session with a goal and purpose? Are you prepared to risk something, are you prepared to take a stand, are you prepared to engage in meaningful conflict?
To Bauer and Janz:
Let's apply what we learned from the Penny Games to this next session, and every session thereafter. When we start we should start at, or just before the moment of conflict. Penny scenes are never wasteful, they begin at a critical point in the narrative. There isn't down time, its all exciting. Each scene introduces a small conflict, and at the same time, expands the BIG conflict of the story. Everyone contributes, nobody just watches it unfold.
In short, lets all come to the table with goals and motivations for our characters and the game as a whole; lets throw our concepts at one another, and lets create something excellent together.
Janz:
Episode 11 of Narrative Control is called "Scene Framing". Time permitting, listen to it before the next session. Next session will require two bits of scene framing on your part. The first will be the conflict at the Azuma meeting. The second will be how you frame us into the game/conflict as adults when we fast forward again. Scene framing is going to be huge next session, there are going to be two OPENING scenes. I think having a good plan for both scenes will make this next session really fun for everyone.