Session 1
We did character-creation during the first session (took maybe 30 minutes, not in the video for obvious reasons). The Marshal and Fox playbooks each have some "backstory" questions in which they establish something of their character's and the community's past. I asked the Marshal (David) to make his "War Stories" about the recent nighttime raid by the crinwin, and that was really all the nudging I needed to do in order to make everything line up with my plans.
We did a very abbreviated version of Introductions. Normally, you can spend the whole first session doing intros, asking and answering questions and establishing NPCs. Because of our time constraints, and because I wanted to dive into play fairly quickly, I just decided on a couple important NPCs in advance and then set the scene with Saraid the Fox already interacting with them.
Most Dungeon World games, especially con games or one-shots, start in media res, with the players in a fight or at the door to the dungeon or otherwise already on the adventure. Stonetop, by contrast, starts with a little slice-of-life and lets the town breathe a bit, then drops a crisis or opportunity in the PC's laps and says "what do you do?" There's a whole procedure for it: The First Adventure.
This session also let us see some of the Steading Moves in play: David rolled Deploy ("When you send the steading's people into danger or rally them against an attack...") to establish how things went a few weeks back when the crinwin raided the village, and he rolled Muster ("When you press every able body into the defense of a steading...") when the PCs headed out and left the town in a state of readiness.
We also got to see some of the procedures for Expeditions in play: Charting a Course, making some preparations (though they didn't Outfit), and actually heading out into the Great Wood. Stonetop doesn't use the Undertake a Perilous Journey move from Dungeon World, instead making the journey itself a significant part of the adventure—and ending with an ambush from darkness-infused crinwin!
Session 2
This session gives us a lot of action, and a lot of missed rolls. We see a lot of the Marshal's crew in action, a fair amount of mindfuckery used against the PCs, and a lot of fumbling around in darkness.
I particularly liked how the backstories of Ameer and Saraid emerged in play, as the Darkness kept seeping into their brains and drawing forth unpleasant memories.
Of note, Greg had Saraid revealing a Marshedge that's quite a bit different from the notes I've written up for it, where Brennan and his Claws (before coming to power) weren't bandits preying on traveling merchants but rather a criminal syndicate inside the township itself. I really enjoy when players introduce that kind of twist to the "established" world.
This part of the adventure played out a lot more slowly than I expected, largely because of the recurring misses but also because I just didn't keep an eye on pacing. At the end, I offered them the chance to abandon Saraid and just flee with the child, but the other PCs refused and left on a cliffhanger.
Session 3
The scene in the Maw concludes, and (almost) everyone gets away, but not without cost.
There were some great moments in there: Macsen clearly banking on his Shell Game of the Souls ability to stand against the Darkness... the whole desperate struggle being illuminated by flashes as Macsen repeatedly smashes a hunk of unnatural black obsidian with the Mindgem... White Tree binding the blind crinwin with roots and vines while it tried to kill the baby... Heledd not quite making out of the hole... so much fun!
We got to use the Keep Company move on the road home, which worked exactly as intended and prompted a bit of reflection and interaction.
We only had a couple hours left, but we got to experience a number of elements of the longer-term play that Stonetop is really built for.
They leveled up, and I really liked how David tied the improvement of his crew's armaments to their improved fictional standing in the community. I also really liked how Horst immediately had White Tree make an amulet for Saraid, to help protect him against the evil influence he picked. Sadly, I accidentally stopped recording right as that scene played out, so the recording is missing some great roleplaying between them.
From there, we got to see the Seasons Change and how it influences long-term play. David rolled boxcars for the town's fortunes, so summer saw blessings and bounty, both of which are numeric/mechanical improvements to the steading. That meant they weren't reacting to anything, so they got to set the agenda. After looking at the possible steading improvements, they decided to try and capture and tame wild horses from the Flats, and that led to White Tree spouting lore, Saraid calling on one of his old contacts among the Hillfolk, a fun little bit of worldbuilding, and finally a short little scene where they fended off hunting drakes out in the tallgrass prairies of the Flats.
We were out of time, so we wrapped up with a quick epilogue from everyone, including White Tree bargaining with the horse spirits, a hilarious new "pet" for Ameer, a rather grim future established for Saraid, and Macsen ending us off by getting up to his old tricks.
It left us all wanting more, and I think that's a good sign.
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