I've said before that games are vehicles for conversation, and that the best games are those that enable the best conversations. Some games enable this conversation by giving gentle nudges and then getting out of the way, with the players supplying the rest. But some games are not about "getting out of the way". They have more tools for the conversation and can become the focus of it, to varying degrees. There are moving parts in the design that start moving depending upon triggers in the game, and sometimes require a lot of finagling outside of the game's fiction to figure out. BWHQ games are on this side of the spectrum, to varying degrees. Miseries and Misfortunes is a game unlike the other BWHQ games, in that it uses a different engine from the rest of its brethren.
Miseries and Misfortunes (henceforth known as MnM) is the second of Luke Crane's attempt to adapt Basic Dungeons and Dragons (BDnD) to 17th century France.
Yes, that's odd. No, I don't get why he did tried to merge 17th century France with BDnD. Tough. Move on.
The first time he did it was for a Zine. This is a more concerted effort on Crane's part to make a coherent game. The game now has a passing familiarity to BDnD but that's about as far as my memory goes, so we'll leave those comparisons here. Well, for the most part. We'll get there.
MnM does not have a core mechanic. A variety of dice and methods for using them are covered. As of the first reading I saw at least three different ways of resolving rolls, with mechanics attached to those differing roles. That means there's a lot more mental overhead than most games and I do question why on earth Crane kept all these disparate systems. I won't say I understand it, even now, but there is an intuitive logic to it. Skills roll dice from d6s, d8s, 10s, and then d20s, trying to equal or roll under the skill rating that the character possesses. Attack rolls and saves are to roll a d20 and then beat the target number. There are even some moments when you have to roll a d20 and roll under their stats. This is honestly what looks like the biggest hurdle to learning the system. Is it possible to streamline these myriad possibilities? I don't really want to say yet, because read-throughs only go so far. When I play it I'll write an actual review.
As mentioned before, MnM is a heavy game and boasts a number of sub-systems. If you don't like heavy games you will probably have a bad time here, because doing one thing can set off any number of these systems, all at once. But for me? This stuff is heaven. Of the many systems that are of note are the Mortal Coil, Duel of Wits, and the Obligations system. Mortal Coil allows you to get rerolls, at the cost of spending years of life, which can then knock your character out of the narrative for months at a time. Once you've used up your Mortal Coil you really should retire your character... but you don't have to, per se. It just means that fate no longer protects you and it's possible for him to die at a moment's notice. Oh, and you're not allowed to know how much Mortal Coil you have. Each and every time you spend it you may very well run out. And that's awesome. Duel of Wits is the d20 version of the Burning Wheel system, and it is every bit as awesome as what I was hoping it would be. Different approaches allow you to react as you wish to these arguments as you can, meaning that the people who are making the "attacks" have to be careful, because each move opens up a new set of possible consequences for the defender. And Obligations are the things that the world has heaped upon, usually unfairly, for just existing. There's too many. It's going to crush you. You can't just sit around, because the world is going to destroy you for just breathing. And I love it.
Like most BWHQ games I find myself at a loss to adequately desribe MnM. All of the systems add up to its own thing. No one mechanic can be said to be more important than the other; it's the sum of the parts that matters here. It's part of the reason why I refuse to give any sort of actual opinion about the game other than "It looks intriguing", cause it does! But I don't know how the parts add up yet. I'll let you know when I get to find out. I can't wait.
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