Shadowdark Taught Me Much
Running Shadowdark last night was a blast! Thanks to everyone who played with me. I definitely had a good time, and realized I had been running Crescendo as a "conventional" RPG for too long, and that I hated doing it that way. We'll get back to what that means in a bit, but for the moment, just put a pin in that.
The Method Behind My Madness
So this time, we’re going actually break down what I’m doing when I make the prompts I use for my players to respond to. I have a calendar and astrology I use to generate them, which is in the Heranyt setting. I use themes derived from the astrology of my setting to make prompts for the players.
- The three universes in rough orbit with Arvoita.
- The month's theme
- Whether Eous is waxing or waning
- The brightest planet in the sky, whether it's waxing or waning.
Yes, I will attempt to explain what I'm talking about.
The End of an Age
One of the things unique to Heranyt is that is part of a multiverse set up... all of which move in orbit around each other. These universes will bleed into each other, slightly. All Heranyt campaigns, from here on out, are when the orbits of the three universes closest to Arvoita (where Heranyt is) change. So we always start with three universes in conjunction, and then at some point I decide when the change begins.
Conjunctions at the Beginning
At the beginning of The Dragon's Fire, we had three Daughters (universes) in conjunction:
- Paritay, the Loving Daughter. She's leaving orbit, which means love and sexuality are just flat out bad. Weak.
- Kilpaya, the Daughter Who Competes, usually thought of as war. She's in full orbit, which means competition and warfare are good and actually solve problems.
- Jaoday, the Indulgent Daughter. She's the one who dispenses plenty. She's the one coming into conjunction, which means that providing and giving fixes things... at a steep cost.
Conjunctions Now
But, at some point, it has to change. And now is the time. So we "move" everything down:
- Kilpaya, the Daughter Who Competes, is now leaving orbit. Warfare and competition is now bad, and its consequences are just a disaster.
- Jaoday, the Indulgent Daughter. The problems of the world can now only be fixed by giving and being generous.
- Sarray, the Grieving Daughter. She's about discipline, structure, and giving space to sadness. She's now coming into orbit, which means her ways solve problems, but at a steep price.
Nothing is Painless
Changing conjunctions should be painful. And this one's gonna be. Just the change, on its own, should do something. So we're going to lump that atop whatever's going on this time.
A comet streaks through the sky, and the earth quake, cracks open right through Sota City, draining the lake around it into the Undermaze, releasing the undead army into the land above. The Undermaze is flooded.
The Rest of the Astrological Times
- Starting in March (Kakusa), we move to communications as a theme.
- The bright planet in the sky is Ihanaus, which is ascendant, which means its theme is “good” or “strong”. Ihanaus is about love and sensuality and loyalty.
- Eous, the fell green moon that hangs over the planet Heranyt, is waned, so we get a “good twist” in there somewhere.
Key these Themes to Locations
So I take these themes/beats and apply them to whatever locations the players are at. And, this time, they all are in the same location, as far as the scale is concerned.
Kaksusa 2-6
The Undermaze Proper
A comet streaks through the sky, and the earth quake, cracks open right through Sota City, draining the lake around it into the Undermaze, releasing the undead army into the land above. The Undermaze is flooded. This drowns everything and everyone right below the lake, unless you take actions to save those around you, but that will give you a level 1 Concusssion.
Players all either drown or spend Fate to reduce Exhaustion level 6, that's a Mortal Condition, so it impacts HP.
You're all washed further down into the Undermaze. You're back together. Somehow. You're in a giant underground lake, and it's cold as hell. Level 1 Hypothermia, which is Mortal.
A queensling finds the three of you, pulling you all out of the lake. There's soft phospherescent muhshrooms nearby, granting you light. As she stands above the three of you, she vanishes.
Raphael
Raphael burns Fate to refuse the Exhaustion, so the level 6 mortal exhaustion never takes hold. When the lake collapses into the Undermaze, he moves with the current instead of fighting it, keeping control and guiding himself and the others through the rushing water.
As he’s thrown toward the rocks, Raphael turns his body and takes the impact on his shoulder and arm, protecting his head and avoiding a concussion.
Once dragged from the lake, he immediately forces himself into motion—wringing water from his clothes, rubbing his arms, and staying on his feet near the faint warmth of the phosphorescent mushrooms. By keeping his body moving and his blood circulating, the cold never settles deep enough to become hypothermia.
So Raphael walks away soaked and battered, but without Exhaustion, concussion, or hypothermia—pure stubborn survival backed by Fate.
As he’s thrown toward the rocks, Raphael turns his body and takes the impact on his shoulder and arm, protecting his head and avoiding a concussion.
Once dragged from the lake, he immediately forces himself into motion—wringing water from his clothes, rubbing his arms, and staying on his feet near the faint warmth of the phosphorescent mushrooms. By keeping his body moving and his blood circulating, the cold never settles deep enough to become hypothermia.
So Raphael walks away soaked and battered, but without Exhaustion, concussion, or hypothermia—pure stubborn survival backed by Fate.
King Melny
I spend a fate so the exhaustion never takes hold, after washing up, I make sure to reveal what I know to my friends. I do the same as Raphael. Always staying busy.
Addressing My Issues
Crescendo is a game about theme and analogy, via challenging Beliefs. A game about Wolfe shouldn't be plot-focused. I enjoy the Archetypes system I came up with, but honestly I want images. They do analogy and theme in a way that no table of text can do, and frankly I got tired of having to use my brain to get to my gut, when I could just look at a conceptually-rich image and just... feel. That's where I'm at my best.
Enter the tarot deck, which I had been given as a Christmas present. I think it was a gag gift? I mean, Kyle and I have shared interests in esoteric stuff, and so that was probably Kyle just giving me something light and fluffy.
The System
This is actually pretty simple. We divvy up some of the Major Arcana, based upon the Beliefs, and put the rest back in the box. We use those to ponder some themes, and use them to inspire Hitting the Books. The Minor Arcana are used to help adjudicate outcomes, based upon how the player's actions match the Myth and their Beliefs.
I pulled out some Major Arcana that represented the gods most active in the player, generally around 9-12. At the end of each Chapter, I'll draw a Major Arcana and just... sit on it. Pull it out, over the week, and look at it, ponder the image, just in and of itself. Since the Arcana was derived from the Belief, that will actually put in ideas about challenging the Beliefs themselves.
The goal is to provide an environment that makes acting upon Beliefs dramatic. For all you old-school types, I am literally taking your principles and trying to apply them in a spiritual/anagogic context. The Weaver is trying to produce an anagogic environment for the players to thrive in. This is because, if you focus on the Beliefs themselves, you'll burn out. Trust me, did that with Burning Wheel, and I have no interest in going back to nitpicking someone's verbiage to death.
True conversation happens by way of analogy. So let's just do that.
Chapter 6, Kaksusa 7
So last night nobody showed up for the first 45 minutes! Jesse messaged me about 35 or so minutes into the stream and went "Can we do tomorrow?" and I told him, "No, we can't, because I have four kids and they'll be adapting to Daylight Saving's Time tomorrow." I was coming up with a "Just the Weaver" Chapter ideas...
And then Jesse showed up.
Like a freaking boss.
I pulled out the Tarot deck.
And we got started.
Reflections
Having conceptually dense images to look at and flip up during the session really helped me stay on track. This was, by far and away, the closest deliberate execution for weaving Crescendo I have ever done. And it ended extremely well. I love how Jesse engages things, and it was great just playing off of him.
Making something genuinely new and unique is hard, folks. But man, that was gameplay that actually stood alongside the more literally-minded Shadowdark. I still feel like I've barely touched the surface of what the narration/interpretation gameplay of Crescendo can do. And I can't wait to try and sharpen that next time!
Addendum
There are times when you can feel that an epic is coming to a close. And that has begun. Melny has declared his identity, and the only question now is whether or not Jesse can keep that up. Tasha's getting ready for it. I think Cal will be ready, but he's gotta get working internet to get Alistair there.
The end of Crescendo is when players start declaring who they are, not what they believe. It's a fine difference, but it's important. When that starts happening, the end is upon you.
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