Crescendo: Take Your Time

 

This was some of my favorite play I've ever done. Some of my playtesting of Crescendo with David was an argument and a funeral. It was two hours of discussion about ethics and hope and ultimately the sadness of death and life’s meaning. The plot moved at an absolute crawl. We got philosophical. Then we mourned the death of an NPC that Sorin, David’s character, had been forced to kill. And, despite the fact that pretty much nothing got done, it was one of the most meaningful sessions I’ve ever had the pleasure of GMing.

But first, the setup: the world’s soil has become largely infertile, for reasons hitherto unknown. This was principally shown in the widespread death of trees whose fruit gave magical power. With the death of the trees would come the collapse of the social order, and soon after everyone would starve. Sorin, David’s character, was a druid dedicated to the maintenance of the earth itself, guardian of the ways of old. He had resisted the machinations of the cult of Zodie the Fallen, who taught that meteorite dust could restore the earth… if they ripped out the magical trees, which were thought to provide life to the soil. Sorin had advocated for adhering to the old ways, of resisting Zodie and his false promises, and set out to find a way to save everyone.

And then Sorin found his long-lost mentor Yvonne. Half dead. With meteorite dust in her wounds. And the dust was definitely helping heal them. So meteorite dust was, in fact, life giving, to the utter contrary of everything Yvonne had ever taught Sorin.

The soldiers Sorin were with demanded to bring Yvonne in for examination. Sorin was on good terms with these men and begged for the chance to examine his mentor… to no avail. If meteor dust could restore people then no time could be wasted. Sorin asked for just a bit more time. 

His head swam.

Yvonne couldn’t be using meteorite dust. It was anathema to preserving everyone and everything. And yet there she was, alive. And there it was, in her arm.

Why wouldn’t the world stop spinning???

Why wouldn’t everyone shut up? He needed to think.

Yvonne.

Alive.

Hurt.

One of the soldiers reached for Yvonne. Something about taking her.

His head fell to the ground with a THUMP.

Sorin brandished the axe he normally used for firewood at the remaining soldiers. They backed off but promised reinforcements would come for him. Sorin tended to Yvonne’s wounds. They found a cave and Sorin began to bandage his ankle which he had badly sprained earlier.

Sorin found himself in a place of utter darkness, which tried to choke him. A voice in his head mocked his struggle.

And then all of a sudden Sorin found himself in the eternal battle between Facator, the creator of the world, and Leviatan, the sea, A small whisper asked Sorin what he, the defender of "The Old Ways", considered "old". The truly old ways didn't include humans at all, did they? Or the world, for that matter. Sorin responded that he was small... and then he was buffeted by something. Something huge. A dark cloak surrounded Sorin, shielding him. The small voice chuckled, telling Sorin he was apparently favored by someone.

Sorin suddenly came to. Yvonne was in need of care. So was his ankle. He tended to both a bit more. He closed his eyes, for just a moment.

Sorin saw a cave, with a dark light emanating from it. A young man sat beside the fire, one who Sorin felt was familiar, somehow. The man asked Sorin what he hoped to accomplish, given that this was an eternal cycle he was trapped in. Sorin said he knew he was small, but he had to act, he had to do something. 

The man before him became the soldier Sorin had killed.

And asked if Sorin would become a corpse, like the man he had murdered.

There was the flash of a blade and the dead soldier lunged. Sorin tried to sidestep, but he was bowled over by the lunge, even if he didn't get stabbed. The dead soldier, standing over Sorin, asked  if he was really comfortable being as small as he was. 

Hands encircled Sorin's throat.

He was back with Yvonne, in a sweat, suddenly. Somehow he got some sleep.

David and I then took a session to make a poem about one of the immortals, Elepte. We were following the dictates of the mechanics, and this is what we generated from the mechanics:

Sing to me, O Muses!

of Elepte

and her treacherous family.

They are stranded in the sky, halfway along on their journey home.

Elepte mourns her trapped clan, stranded amongst the stars

Their station chases the (her) moon, making them dizzy

Elepte's clan's treachery cannot be forgiven, which prevents her from releasing them.

But she feels their rejection, all the way down in her heart.

Before their voyage, they were free as pelicans

But Elepte looked down from her abode and saw their evil, and how they threatened the mortal races

Tehy are being judged by the other immortals

Elepte could interfere, but she will not, for she prizes her position as the moon

Elestre gave perpetual motion to the stations so they may travel

Elepte knew this action could only be undertaken by one who wished to show the deepest commitment

Elepte and her clan will continue this game until the station stops.

Elepte's regret for her folly is felt but unknown

Elepte's love for her family made her want to keep them close

Love constrains, love binds, love blinds

Elepte is afraid the tables will turn amongst her clan

-From the Recovered Scroll of Adrian the Station-Master

Yes, that's relevant, hang in there.

The next morning Mihail, one of Yvonne’s other students and friend to Sorin, came along. The soldiers had reported the incident and Mihail, who was in the area, managed to talk the local magistrates into letting him attempt to talk sense into Sorin first. But Mihail stopped cold upon seeing Yvonne. He demanded to know why she was alive and what the hell she was doing with meteorite dust in her arm.

Yvonne then dropped the news that the stations above, which dropped a blue mist upon the planet every week, had been fertilizing the planet with the mist. And the stations were running out of said fertilizer. She didn’t know why. She had barely made it up onto the abode of Elepte’s family once before, fleeing after learning the truth. That was all she could ascertain. The nutrients in the blue cloud were concentrated from meteorite dust.

Sorin immediately made ready to find a way to get into the stations in orbit around the planet, but Mihail protested: he had given his word that he would bring Sorin back to the magistrates whose soldier Sorin had killed! If only Sorin explained what he was doing then Mihail was sure he would be let off. Sorin explained that if he played by the artificial rules of society that he’d be waylaid, possibly prevented from accomplishing his task. And then where would those people be? Those people whose laws he’d broken? 

Something changed in Mihail. Sorin noticed but couldn’t quite place it. But Mihail agreed to come along and help, so Sorin shrugged it off.

They heard a commotion and looked out the cave mouth. A group of satyrs were heading north, towards the town of Titular, with weapons and a bag of seeds. Curious, Sorin, Mihail, and Yvonne followed behind at a distance. The satyrs saw them and did not care. They sang lustily about destroying Titular and using its lands to plant more of the dying magical trees, particularly the farmland. Mihail remarked sarcastically they were definitely going to let the satrys do as they wish.

To his surprise Sorin agreed. Titular was well-guarded and the three of them would add little to the town defense. They would go back to get their things and bury the soldier Sorin had killed. He deserved that much.

They laid the soldier in a shallow grave, piling rocks above him. Sorin said how sorry he was that he had killed the soldier. The man was trying to do his duty, a duty that had put the two of them at odds but a duty nonetheless. They both wanted the planet safe; Sorin would see to if that the soldier’s death would not be in vain.

A flower pushed up between the stones. Somehow, some way, Sorin hoped that was some sign of forgiveness.

Now to figure out how to get to the stations in orbit. Sorin hadn’t even known that was possible. But it was.

For all their sakes he had to do it.

***

I wrote that out because it’s one of my favorite RPG stories. Each decision and happenstance was the result of a situation that had no clear cut answer. I didn't plan a single bit of this out beforehand. Not one bit. This was all game mechanics helping to craft situations on the fly. Mechanically, David was handed situations about Sorin’s psychology and he had to pick what he thought was the least worst option. The honest option. And each time he made a character choice neither bad or good. He was just a person, trying to figure things out as he went. Did he do wrong? Oh yes. Did he do right? Definitely yes too.

I want to make RPGs that touch something real. I want moments of humanity to be front and center, where all there is is the reality of the situation and the inability to really judge what’s going on. For there to be moments of helplessness and vulnerability, where people can just be people.

I say all this because I’ve not met David. 

He’s not even in the same country.

We met up online, via Discord, and he graciously agreed to playtest. What has resulted is a friendship between us that I didn’t expect. So this game doesn't require you to have met your players, so long as you're willing to be open! We've both been really happy with how things are progressing.

Some of the friends I’ve met before and gamed with have agreed to playtest too, and I’ve found the experience enlightening with them as well. Each session of play has let them play characters in such a way that honesty is required. And it’s revealed a lot of good, a lot of empathy in new ways I figured I wouldn’t be finding new sides of.

But why write this now? If the game is as good as I claim wouldn’t I have tons of stories like the above? Actually I do. This is the first of the thirty or so sessions of Crescendo I’ve tested where I didn’t think it could have been a fluke. I’ve spent the last year writing and revising Crescendo absolutely refusing to let myself believe it was working. I was able to do this because I was constantly patching mechanics in play, so it was possible it was just the players being good at what they did. The last few sessions with David I haven’t felt that way at all. Oh sure I need to write a much better draft and whatnot but the mechanics themselves?

We used them unaltered for the above. That was us playing the game. That story above had a mechanical prompt for every line written. And it was simple without being dumb, and soulful without breaking boundaries. David and I played a game and got a story about the fragility of life and the pain of that fact. No, we didn’t talk about it. We didn’t say “Hey, let’s do something about mortality!”

Nope.

We played a game. A slow game where in five session barely four days have passed. Hell, in the other playtest game thirteen of the fourteen sessions that were the first arc happened in the space of less than a day! And yeah, that was a lot to do. Most “storygames” play out in one to eight sessions, for the whole story.

One arc of this game can take more than eighteen sessions.

Yeah.

That’s just one act. 

But it’s been incredible. Every session has felt different, even when the broad range of mechanics in Crescendo repeat themselves. There’s something deeply engrossing about the range of deeply personal and mythological themes Crescendo has you explore, from having to explain why an otherwise calm and detached man would snap and decapitate a soldier to exploring the messed up dynamics of a goddess and her crazy family. And realizing the stories are not just related, but about to collide.

For you see, man cannot be understood without his cosmos, his inner and outer stories must be known to make any sense of him.

I can say that Crescendo makes finding out about both fun. Provided you’re willing to put in the time. I can finally say that, after a year of writing and play testing.

And damn that feels good!

If you wanna hop onto the Discord and see the myriad drafts of this game, as well just hang out, click here!