The Dragon's Fire: Epilogue

 

The Dragon's Fire: Chapter Eleven

Rappa 21-25

The Queen, King Melny's wife, and their child have escaped to Sota City. Sota Fortress is fallen. Her honor guard surrounds her and the child jealously. They demand an accounting of where the king and his companions have been. The Argentum overlords are putting up with this "visiting" queen, but only because of the strength of her honor guard... and the viisuulas insisting that King Melny's family is to be protected. The Argentum general is compliant with the wisdom whales' wishes, for now...

Chapter Eleven (Rappa 26)

Moving Forward: The Crescendo Clubhouse

Welcome back! Today, we talk about turning the Crescendo discord server into a clubhouse.

It is always a question of what your goal is. Always. When I first started designing Crescendo the goal was raw: never leave that feeling I had at the end of Book of the Short Sun, and the rest of the Solar Cycle. I labored with that goal in mind. I have accomplished my goal, admirably even. But the problem shifted even as it was solved, and now I find myself at another crossroads: now that I have this game, what do I do with it?

That's a flawed question, as we'll see in a minute. Put a pin in it.

The biggest things that I got out of my time working on Crescendo have been threefold:

1. Gaming allows a form of vulnerability with people I find necessary.

2. As long as I stick with people, the project expands.

3. As the project expands, people will come on board who will want to do "more" with it, and may actually want to take point.

I do not think most people are naturally comfortable with being vulnerable with each other. I also think that people need to be vulnerable with each other. It is vital. It is not negotiable. Our culture is so bad with it, and the rift between what's expected of human beings and what's needed is now so wide that it's a wonder there aren't more suicides. Crescendo's helped with that problem, in a way that's a lot of fun, and I couldn't be prouder of what it's accomplished.

The more important point, however, has been that I simply do not have any ambition... because I like just playing with people. I like designing games and playing them with people. I don't particularly care for the business end of it. And I have found that, as long as I am playing with people and enjoying the time with them, things grow. And that's a nice byproduct of the one thing I really care about... playing the game.

The thing is, the other day one of the players just out and out suggested a mechanic that absolutely improves Crescendo. I never would have thought of it, but the idea was utterly correct. So, it's going into the 0e draft, which I'm currently working on. We'er going to playtest it, and make sure it works the way we thought it would. Now, if he can just show up and come up with an idea that I frankly could never have come up with, on my own, then someone better suited to this whole business bullshit may. I don't care, I just want to play the game with people.

And that, I think, is the real answer to the question I pinned earlier. I set out to chase a feeling I got from Gene Wolfe. I caught it. The game exists now, and it does what I wanted it to do. But the goal was never really to "have" the game. The goal was to feel that thing again, and then to share it. 

Turns out the best way to keep feeling it is to keep playing with people who make it better than I ever could alone. So maybe the next question isn't "what do I do with Crescendo?" 

Maybe it's simpler: keep showing up. Keep the table open. Keep making space for the next person who walks in with an idea I never would have had, or the next quiet player who finally feels safe enough to speak up. 

The game will keep growing, or it won't. People will run with it, or they won't. Business stuff will happen, or it won't. 

None of that is the point anymore.

The point is the table. The point is the moment when someone laughs, or cries, or leans in and says, "Wait… what if we did it like this?"

As long as that keeps happening, I’m exactly where I want to be.

Crescendo isn’t something I need to "do" anything with.

It’s something we get to keep doing. Together.

And that feels like a pretty good place to be.

So, with that in mind...

I am going to put up everything I have been developing, on Itch, and I'm going to start running them all, talking about them all. If we can get people trying these ideas, they'll help develop the philoisophy more.

So, c'mon over. Let's play some games!

Tsuro: The Perfect Party Game

 

Welcome back! Good to see you! Right this way, we’re going to talk about Tsuro. It’s the perfect party game. 

What’s a party game? I never actually knew that. Let’s go somewhere scholarly. 

“ Party games are games that are played at social gatherings to facilitate interaction and provide entertainment and recreation.”

Wikipedia

 Now that we have a technical definition. 

Tsuro is the perfect party game. Notice I didn’t say it was the best. I simply said “No notes”. If you don’t like Tsuro that’s nice. Something doesn’t need to be wrong with you to dislike it. 

But it is perfect. Here’s why.

First: rules are stupidly intuitive. Lay a tile down before your piece. The tile has a path. Advance your piece along that path. Other pieces advance down a path if you “accidentally” put a path before them while you’re laying a tile for yourself. You win by being the last guy on the board. 

Boom. Done. 

That alone is enough. It’s awesome. People can just play. 

But that’s not the end of it. See, most party games don’t have real consequences in the game. Points accrue, sure, but you don’t necessarily have the game funnel you. 

Tsuro funnels hard. Each tile you play creates branching paths, which takes up space on the board. You can’t get around this. Eventually you’ll find that your choices are viciously constrained. You run out of tile choices. You’re picking up the tiles of the fallen, hoping they’ll give you just one more turn. But eventually you run out of time. 

And you have to take yourself off the board. 

Most party games? They're yelling matches or mean-spirited roasts. Tsuro's elegant. Zen-like paths on a gorgeous board. A touch of strategy—block 'em, dodge 'em, pray for that perfect tile—but mostly pure, shared chaos. Everyone's in it together, watching the board shrink like a noose. 

May the best one evade it. 

"Consequences!"

And here I must leave you. If I don’t see you next week, I understand. It is no easy road. 

The Dragon’s Fire: Chapter 10

At this point, I am convinced of three things:

1. 1:1 time is essential for adapting Wolfe. Anyone who doubts this really needs to reread Wolfe a dozen times.

2. That Heroes simply don't care about what happens between... even if it's important to the world's response to the Heroes. There's times it really matters... and then there's the rest of it.

3. I don't want to model that out alone, and refuse to do so.

So we're going to make two more games. Coz I want to model Wolfe, and Wolfe is about 1:1 time, and Heroes don't care about it enough to make it worth throwing stuff at them.

More on that in next week's blog post.

Rappa 4-19

 For the past two weeks:

For Alistair and  King Melny, the entirety of  the Undermaze lights up with this powerful blue light. You start seeing visions of ones you love, striving and suffering and pushing, all for you. And then, on this last Sunday, a powerful blue flash happens, right at midnight... and you both bump into each other a few minutes later

And then, somehow, there's blue footsteps, leading you further.

Tell me about some of what you saw

Tasha saw that I hadn't made a prompt for her. I responded that she had walked into Faerie, and that time didn't work there like it does in the material plane... so nothing yet.

Alistair

As we follow the footprints it's like a dream where places are melded together, like when it's your bedroom but also a pool. I see Natasha's home but it's also the forest where I died, and the cave where I found the sword all at once. It's all places connected to both Natasha and Telos. It doesn't feel like a message but a reference. Like the index of choices and inevitabilities that brought me here.

King Melny

I see visions of all my past friends and rivals. From my first day in the company to the current day. I see the faces of the soldiers, the captain, the lieutenants. All of them meld together before melting away to reveal Alistair and Raphael. Signifying they are my true friends that have remained constant. Before I awake, I see a vision of my old self. He simply bows and tells me good luck before I awake.

Chapter 10 (Rappa 20)

After this Chapter, Cal and I talked and agreed that he was now a Legend. His acceptance of the reality of Natasha still being with him, regardless of what was actually going, was the trigger.

So now we're left with Raphael.

We're almost there, and the bittersweetness is so good.

RIP Junior. You're my favorite gentled demon son.

Dark Souls: Initial Report Session the Last

 

With their mission clear ("find the dragon and stab it with the magical spear, so you can whittle it down"), Hazbil and Fizbun come into a large room, filled with pillars and a vaulted ceiling. There's a wooden bridge at one end of the room, leading out into the utterly frozen wasteland, with another tower across the way. There's holes in the ceiling big enough for "their" dragon to poke his head and roast them alive.

I announced the DC for Stealth to go check out the wooden bridge: 24. Hazbil and Fizbun about burn out all their Position passing the check.

They get to the bridge, which is exposed to the cold that killed them almost instantly earlier. I make them a deal: they burn enough Position, they can cross the bridge, but it destroys their Stealth Check.

The dragon comes up behind them as they cross. They roll Initiative, and fail just closely enough to where they can burn the Position necessary to go before the dragon.... and thus roll for their combat Position. Hazbil has a higher Strength than Fizbun, so he lugs the spear right at the thing, and passes the thing pretty easily. With the spear that keeps the dragon's Position from resetting firmly lodged in it. Normally, I would make the rest of the campaign about them leveling up for this one boss fight. I certainly could have prepped that.

But the guy playing Fizbun really wants to run some Pathfinder, and I don't get people wanting to run games for me terribly often.

So.

We skipped that part.

We guessed it would take about eight tries to take the dragon down. The dragon began to disintegrate under the influence of the Flame. Fizbun, being a pyromancer, volunteered to take the Flame on, as he had some Flame resistance. But he needed help getting up the stairs to the Kiln. So they stumbled up to the Kiln, and Fizbun, the asshole who closed doors, fell into the Kiln at the top of the tower.

Hazbil looked down from the tower. The ice was starting to melt... and there was a ton of it. He would need to move fast if he wanted to get to the nearby mountains.

Thoughts on the System

By the end of this session,  the players had come to a different appreciate of the Position system. At any point in time, they could pass a roll. It was a question of whether or not they had the resources to do so. This means that the game becomes a series of rough calculate risks.

Or it could.

Could.

But, if you're not running the game as an old school mudcrawl.... this system just isn't going to work. Period. If you're not pitting the time against the Position of the players... there's no tension. The usual railroading 5e is known for just won't work here. You have to present real choices that require constant dice rolls for the system to function.

Will We Run This Game Again?

Fuck yes we will. It's not perfect (I made up the encounter dice), but my goodness it does mudcrawling so well, and I will happily draw up another map for it. However, I would do a few things differently:

Assign more random tables to different parts of the map. I only really used two, and that was a mistake. Players need more zones, where they can go and hide, or grind and level up. Things like that.

I would want to actually come up with a good boss fight "mechanic". Not sure how to do that, yet, but the core choices in this game  warrant some extra work. I think I would set up a BOTW/TOTK style map, with factions set up and whatnot. I can't really get other players to do faction play in the world, due to physical constraints, or I would.

I'll write a bit about Pathfinder 2e next. I have my own very loud and snooty opinions on that game, so we'll see how that goes.

The Dragon's Fire: Chapters 8 and 9

 

Kaksusa 22-28

The Weaver's Prompt(s)

On Kaksusa 23, a giant squid attacks the sub, which is badly damaged, requiring the sub to surface. The sub's engines are badly damaged, and can't submerge. The week is spent with the now openly-android crew fixing the sub. They ask for some help, specifically in calibrating the sub temperature, as their own systems were damaged in the attack.

When asked, they claim they're taking the three of you to see the dragon. The real one. It took them awhile to find a passage to her, and they want your help, to finally end the infinite undead army. To end Legion, who is going to win if nobody does anything. "It is not time to raise the Apocalypse Ship, for Uriel has not returned yet."

King Melny

On the feast of the Lunar Announcement, Elise tries to corner you. She's hot for you. If you redirect her, she suddenly screams and falls to the ground, dead. Something... other... something blackened, comes out the corpse. And it charges. Its body leaves burn marks as it burns a hole in the hull and escapes.

Alistar

Natasha takes you out into the Outer Abyss in a series of dreams, to the Mountains Beyond the Mountains, the places that border Seitsemann. Untold beauty is shown you by her. Waking up from these dreams is saddest thing you've ever done, but she comes to you, night after night, showing you the beauty of the Spaces Between the Daughters, The Outsider's Country.

Raphael

Ifan shows up, briefly, and tells you your sword's name is Sydanelma. "Do not bring it into the light of day, for it does not exist yet, and light is not kind to things that are necessary, but cannot yet exist. Come. Find me. Cut a hole in the world and step through. Get me out of Faerie."

If y’all could write your responses by Saturday

Raphael

Raphael freezes at the voice, eyes narrowing.

“Ifan?” He doesn’t move right away. The name Sydanelma sits wrong in his mouth, like something placed there on purpose.

“Faerie lies,” he mutters, pacing once, thinking. “It wears faces. Says the right things. Gets you to open the door yourself.”

He looks at the blade—half there, half not.

“…But you knew the sword’s name.”

A long pause.

“If you’re not him… then I’m about to make a very bad decision.”

A faint smirk.

“…and if you are, you already knew I would.”

He grips the blade, testing the pull of it against the world itself.

“One way to find out.”

Raphael cuts the tear anyway—slow, deliberate—and steps through, ready to either pull Ifan out… or kill whatever’s pretending to be him.

Alistair

Natasha is sending me messages in my dreams, but when when I awake she has no memory of our walks through the glens and atop the mountains. It physically pains me to leave the dreams, but the Natasha of the real world comforts me when I awake.

King Melny

I'm just gonna say Melny would follow the group and say "Can we have one normal day? It is this normal now?' as he leads them to relevant safety.

Chapter Eight (Kaksusa 28)

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   Chapter Nine (Rappa 2)

So, after the disaster that was scheduling for Chapter Eight, we got Cal on for Chapter Nine. We knew Jesse would be unavailable, but Tasha accidentally slept through the session (given they happen at 10 pm CST, that's understandable).

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I think the 1:1 time is not quite working, at least not as I have it implemented. Part of it is that we started implementing it in the last book of this epic, and that probably wasn't a good idea. Missed session mechanics are definitely a good idea, and I have those already. The deeper issue, however, is that Heroes do not inherently care about time in the way that 1:1 time works. The source material skips large sections of time, and then implies the changes that happen between those two points, because of changes in the setting.

The central conceit, however, is that the background elements matter, which means time is important. 

The only way out is through.