Here we can chat out of character.

Uploaded the Counties map of Burgundy in the map part of the game.

Welcome player two, and for that part, player 1 as well! Grab a drink! Have a chat!

There is a possible player three. They had some concerns they asked me about first. I’ll hear back from them wether or not they still want to join and then, wether or not they join, I think we can start brainstorming the story we want to tell. I think for the kind of story we want to tell, a small cast of player characters (protagonists) might be good.

It is midnight here in Belgium and I’m going to bed. See you all, and your great and toughtful contributions, in the morning!

Also, hello, player 3!

Ooh, new grist for the mill new comrades in arms!

Welcome to everyone, this is a bit outside my usual style of games but I'm looking forward to it!

Hello! Definitely looking forward to this!

I completely agree that a small, manageable cast of characters is preferable in this case.

Say maybe a maximum of four to start? And we can adjust from there?

As far as the sort of story we want to tell. Here are a few broad strokes I will throw out for the sake of discussion.

- Knighthood

Classic adventure material. The characters are all arms bearing men  of some sort.

Perhaps they are, or were, all squired to the same Knight?

Perhaps they have aspirations of joining the Order of the Golden Fleece?

Perhaps they are what is left after saber rattling or military posturing has drawn off the bulk of the local forces?

This story may involve concepts of chivalry vs practicality, the role of armed enforcers in the feudal system, or the "disconnect" between the orders or whims of the nobility and the situation on the ground.

Despite all being somehow involved in an arms bearing trade, their personal experience, campaigns, backgrounds, superiors or cultures could provide enough diversity to prevent gross duplication.

- Courtiers

Knee deep in machiavellian intrigues, the characters are based in Bruges, and have responsibilities to their patrons, their families and the Court.

Perhaps they are trusted advisors? Related to a key figure in the ongoing situation? Or party to a dangerous shared secret after.

This sort of story would involve a lot of talking, a lot of NPC's and more of a "slow burn" atmosphere. That's not to say there could not be some foot chases, some illicit meetings, maybe a knife in the dark, but this is more of a cerebral story.

Exploring the burden of privilege, the ties that bind the characters to their families, and the life of the nobility might all be themes here. As would faith, the barrier between the Church and the state, and witnessing how government "really" works. The sausage being made...so to speak.

- Barony

"Small scale" action with limited resources.

There may be big things going on in the Capitol, but they are far removed from your daily concerns. The characters are all capable subjects of the local Baron, brought together to handle affairs in the Manor and the local countryside.

This is the sort of story where every significant NPC in the Manor could be known by name, as could the significant tradesman in the community. The sort of story where a local map could be made and utilized for the vast majority of the story.

This would also allow for a more diverse skill set in the characters in exchange for a smaller locality. They are literally just a collection of capable individuals that the Baron trusts to handle things on his behalf.

Manor house drama instead of court intrigue.

This sort of story would allow the more "common" sorts to shine, and to perhaps even advance in station depending on how they play their cards.

But it is also a "down in the mud" sort of view. You are dealing with the peasantry directly, the front line, so to speak.

---

As I said, broad strokes, and just an example of how we might go about narrowing down the story to a common theme instead of having a bunch of disparate characters pursuing their own goals.

Conversation material.

They are certainly interesting takes - my one concern would be that we'd potentially end up with a lot of characters with arcs which potentially end up fighting for space in the same area if we limit ourselves to one specific archetype of characters. Of the three, I'm more inclined to the Barony than the Knight idea, mainly because there's a relatively limited success criteria for the path to knighthood!

My suggested approach would be to start with a relatively traditional approach of 'local bigwig assembles a diverse group of individuals who are entrusted with a singular goal in the short term', which then leads to the granting of some property (such as a small run down manor) which the group then use as a base and something which ties them together in the medium term.

Especially if we design the party well, you'd potentially have a situation where everyone had a degree of an interest in working together and facing challenges that emerged (given they've got a home and potential livelihood attached which is threatened), but also can contribute something important which the others can't (so the knight might be the lord in name, but be utterly skint so requires the support of the merchant, who in turn needs the mercenary to guard his wares, who needs the witch to bind his wounds, who in turn needs the protection of the lord to keep her from being persecuted).

At the same time, everyone has space to develop their own agendas and potentially form sub-factions within the group dependent on their personal tastes, and there's further room for inter-player conflict because each individual will want to do certain things with the resources available and have different priorities and philosophies in life.

The game would then progress with a combination of organic collaborative player interactions, with the GM either piloting NPCs or throwing in the occasion quest (either top down from a quest giver like said bigwig, or bottom up by presenting a local threat that the group deal with), and the manor and its running offer enough space and impetus for downtime and investment in a common goal, as well as a strong grounding in the setting.

That being said, happy to comprimise as always - this is, after all, collaborative!

I like all the options that have been listed so far.

I have started the game. It's a slow open, a banquet. Anyone can fall in when they are ready with their character.

If anything does not work for you in that opening post P3, just let me know and I can edit.

I recently started a game of Lady Blackbird. It’s not historical at all, but if anyone is interested, we are still looking for a Captain Vance, a Kale Arkham and a Snargle.

We might also be having a fourth player join us, who asked if she could still join.

Welcome player 4!

Welcome!

Welcome to P4 - apologies for the slight radio silence, we've been having some good weather and I've also been involved in setting up another game, so it's been a bit hectic. I will settle upon a name and get my first post up shortly!

No worries! I'm still thinking about my character, taking some inspiration from yours. Let's see if we can join them in some sort of plausible team.

Why do I get the sense this really means I'll be taking the blame when we all end up in front of the Pope?

"The Flemish moneylender made me do it, Your Holiness! She's a witch! She has bewitched her father too! It was totally her idea that we poison the Castellan!"

"No, your holiness, it was that bastard daughter of Philip the Good! That strumpet was the one who poisoned the Castellan, knifed that pensioner, and unleashed that wave of pigs into the nave of Poitiers Cathedral! I'm innocent, and so is my girlfr...handmaiden!'

Hahahah. Getting some King Solomon vibes here, but I don’t think cutting a baby in half will solve this one! :-P

No one mentioned babies...

Hmmm...

"Your Holiness, she's also been trying to cut babies in two and blame it on the Castellan!"

I won't lie, releasing pigs in a Cathedral sounds like a seriously cool avantgarde performance. I'll go for it.

Right, I have a name and have done a post. I promise they won't all be quite as jam packed with exposition as this one!

And it's that kind of attitude which will get us both sent to a nunnery!

And it's an old whinge but I really wish that there was a better set of options for female historical pictures available - it's virtually impossible to find a good picture which isn't either airbrushed to hell, staring straight down the camera giving a 'come hither' pout or somewhat ruined with the inclusion of a hugely plunging neckline :(

It is a less than ideal selection, true.

Seconded, or thirded.

Yeah. You have the option, I believe, to send in a picture request, which for our sake shouldn't be too copyright restricted as it's probably renaissance painting. If you want to not use a picture, that is good for men too.

Anne's player, I had to edit your character name slightly as apparently the symbol for shortening de to d' is not accepted.

Not very Francophone-friendly, this website :P

My thoughts exactly

*Puts on his best British accent, with tongue wedged firmly in his cheek*

Well, if the French had bothered to win a few more of their wars, then some more people might speak their accursed language.

Oh, we gonna start this whole 100 year old war all over again now!

I had intended that Gerhard was speaking with Roland, but if you would prefer it could be some other member of the Order?

In reply to Gerhard de Colmar (msg # 36):

Oh, I had pictured it as someone else, my mistake!

Well done on the player selections for this one GM. Not too many, and everyone seems to be thinking along the same lines while still maintaining interesting and original concepts.

Not easy to do!

For Roland in particular, I have found that the collection of woodcuts from Der Weisskunig to be especially helpful for visualizing material for Gerhard.

It's later than our current period by a few decades at the least, and it is specifically German, but it provides a wealth of arms and armor illustrations from the period as well as illustrations depicting warfare in general at the time, i.e early artillery emplacements alongside well armored infantry formations with pole arms, cavalry, executions, etc.

I'll link it here if it would be of any help.

https://commons.m.wikimedia.or...ts_by_Hans_Burgkmair

In reply to Gerhard de Colmar (msg # 39):

Thanks!

Lovely, those are very evocative.

In reply to Gerhard de Colmar (msg # 39):

Nice! Feel free to put them on your character sheet as well as additional information! Thank you all so far for the quality and willingness to research stuff on your own. You are clearly having fun doing it and so am I. At the moment it’s midnight, but in tomorrow I’ll see how to advance the story. I’d say in the morning, but if the day is gonna be as hot tomorrow as it was today I’m gonna use the mornings to get some chores done before roasting in the sun. Lot’s of windows is fun yes, but even with the double glazing, the sun roasts us. (airconditioning is not a standard thing over here in Europe)

Sounds good, I will drop a post in within the next hour or so - it's been a bit of a hectic day of late, so just gathering myself and getting myself in the right headspace to right something properly.

I'm gonna wait today to see if Roland has something specific he wants to do before typing out a reaction to all excellent feedbacks.

About money and coinage. Of possible interest to our local merchant, Helena, and perhaps someone else:

https://www.academia.edu/26432...rgundian_Netherlands

Executive summary: total chaos, money from everywhere, my head is spinning.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:57, Thu 22 July 2021.

Also here's a decent map, because who doesn't like maps (consider only the orange and light green parts, the rest is later).

Taken from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgundian_State

which is the key article for the real, I think.


This message was last edited by the player at 17:03, Thu 22 July 2021.

Hey! Good find.

You even got Colmar on there.

In reply to The Powers That Be (msg # 44):

can't think of anything specific right now, though it doesn't help that i got like zero sleep last night. feel free to move ahead.

In reply to Anne de Arras (msg # 46):

You will find that this map is in the map section for this game as well :)

For the coinage, feel free to post it in the historical context thread/topic.

In reply to Roland de Sergius (msg # 48):

Noted, though I’ll probably not have the time today anymore. This is a quick check on the toilet. Going for a walk with my wife next and then we’re watching the desolation of Smaug together so she can get all upset with Peter Jackson’s take on her favorite book.

In reply to The Powers That Be (msg # 50):

Fair enough

In reply to The Powers That Be (msg # 49):

Ooops! My bad, I never thought to check that section before I posted.

Sorry for the late reply. I cannot seem to find my focus today, so the post was a bit rushed, just to get it out.

Don't worry, this heat is messing with my head too :) And I have an enemy now in that Catherina I guess, which is good. Always have an enemy. They are a great help.

Today got away from me unfortunately, but i'll post tomorrow

Having a bit of the same issue, will post this evening - it's been a bit of a draining week so just need to recharge the batteries before I can get something onto paper!

Weekends have a way of vanishing...

I realized it was sunday evening all of a sudden and I hadn’t checked yet. I will reply to whatever needs replying tomorrow morning.

I will try and get something in shortly - it's an unfortunate side effect of coming slowly out of lockdown that suddenly everyone starts putting on social events at the same time, and it's quite exhausting if you're a natural introvert and aren't match fit (so to speak) for extended social interaction. It's lovely to see everyone, but also does take it out of you!

I did not get to posting today. My apologies. I will try in the morning!

I will be getting my second vaccine shot today so I might be out for a few days.

In reply to The Powers That Be (msg # 61):

No worries!

Pray tell, what is a 'vacsin'? Some sort of alchemical cure perchance?

Nay, dear lady. Tis the new release from the Holy Father, a new and most disturbing encyclical on the sin of vacuity.

Prithee, thankest thee, I shalt remain in this place until the dawn. Rememberest to tippeth thy innkeepers and their daughters!

I'm doing well at the moment, but real life is acting up a bit. I might still be a bit slow. But I intend to keep this going, even if only weekly. This is just a small heads up. I will try to get to an in character post as soon as I'm able to.
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:24, Sun 01 Aug 2021.

Sorry to hear IRL is getting tricky, and tes please, don't abandon us :_(   We're just getting started...

Does everyone know where to find their character sheet on this site or have I forgotten to activate it?

In reply to The Powers That Be (msg # 67):

I know, but I'm using the Character Description instead, so everyone can see my story and traits just clicking on the name/picture. I'm keeping my dice pool in the bio, though, because it's more immediately visible.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:14, Wed 04 Aug 2021.

That works!

Now I'm tempted to roll for the dance, if only because it'd be fun to fail.

The dice roller should be updated. I had thought I'd already done that.

Me and Roland came to the conclusion that we didn't finish his character creation Story and the traits and bonuses. We're working on this now. It's almost done, at which point he can roll for things and the story can move on.

Let me give you a hand:

Weakness for blondes +2
Allergy to blue velvet +2
Likes being a pawn in intrigues +2

3 dice pool

In reply to Anne de Arras (msg # 73):

heh, though i don't think so, he's already taken

Not to be a rulers lawyer, Sergius, but your bonuses add up to 17 dice, and 15 is the maximum, not even counting pool.

In reply to Anne de Arras (msg # 75):

oh hold on, I thought i had fixed that - here's what i have.

 Promising Young Knight of the Golden Fleece (+3)
Hero of the Hundred Years War (+1)
Sir Jaques de Lalaing's savior
Looking to fulfill his chivalric oath and seek glory

does that still add up to 17? i'm brand new to the system (the ones without a number next to them are +0)

That should be good, with five pool dice remaining. Make sure to note that down somewhere too. Some people do this in their character bio lines.

looking at the dice-roller I have figured out a way for it to count successes. The only problem is that it looks for target number or higher. If we change the number to roll to a 6 it's the same idea as counting the 1's rolled, right? Anyone object to this?

Anne, that was beautiful!

He he he, thanks. Had to make it worth forfeiting a die ;)

Apologies for the delay in posting, I can honestly say that this has been an absolute bastard of a week in terms of finding annoying stuff for me to waste my energy dealing with. And not a nice bastard like Anne, with the shapely and well seasoned ankles and the salty tongue.

I will hopefully get a post out in the next half an hour - my rate should be acceptable for the coming week, but it might not be daily - I'm leading all day training sessions for three days and it can drain me even at the best of times.

I'm ending the end of summer vacation as a teacher, which means I'm gonna start prepping for school and then in September be beginning with school as well. I'm comfortable with daily-is answering of questions or asking for rolls, but I will most likely only do weekly big updates, in which I parse everyone's actions in a big post.

I blogged about the pool and my experiences with it over here: https://thebeardedbelgiansplay...ing-out-at-pool.html

Also, one of the first posts I did was about a gorgeous comic that fits our type of game/story I think. Read about it here: https://thebeardedbelgiansplay.../the-golden-age.html
This message was last edited by the GM at 11:58, Mon 09 Aug 2021.

Nice write-up! Interesting how it does the opposite of Lady Blackbird: ace the roll and you keep the dice, instead of keeping them if you fail the roll. Not sure which one I prefer, but The Pool sure feels more unforgiving of a fail, losing all "gambled" dice and no refreshment scenes. This makes me think I should go "all in" every time to avoid losing dice (which resulted in Anne losing her whole pool in her second roll, as we know). Still learning how to go about it, mechanically - but it's a lot of fun so far :D

Thank you and yes! Lady Blackbird uses one of the first hacks of The Pool, called the Anti-Pool, which is indeed more forgiving. I've been reading up on things. (the game is old enough that you have to go to the archived internet on the Wayback Machine. We can discuss what we want to hack after the first session ends. I'm thinking of seeing wether or not this entire feast deal has been good enough to count as a session and do end of session stuff soon. Then we can see what we do as to rules accommodations. Wether we all are game for a second session, what we would change, etc. I mainly wanted to try things out with the Pool, rules as written, before I started messing with it. I've got several suggestions.

this is where I started reading more: https://web.archive.org/web/20...epoolvariations.html

I'm always open to discuss variations, although I perhaps am a little bit less sold on the Anti-Pool approach. I may be missing something, but it doesn't really seem to make gambling worth it (because either outcome seems to bite you - if you lose the roll, you keep your dice, but if you win, you lose your opportunity to gamble in future), or indeed an actual gamble.

If that's the case, as a player I'm liable to simply play it safe for the entirety of the game until the climax, or indeed deliberately try to fail rolls in order to game the systerm, at which point I just throw all my accumulated failures into the ring at the finale happy in the knowledge that they'll get refunded immediately.

Again, this may just be me still getting into the spirit of the game and learning the rules - I'm looking back and I don't think I'd realised that I gambled my whole pool on simply picking up rumours - in my defence, it was half 11 on a Tuesday night!

Tuesday, 23:30 - the heroic time for heroic decisions.

I will attempt to update tomorrow, but the day is going to be quite filled.

Why am I reminded of Sir Humphrey Appleby's definitions of the words 'controversial' and 'courageous'?

I'm waiting for a post from Roland before moving on. I know he's active so it's not waiting in vain.

In reply to The Powers That Be (msg # 91):

Alright! Sorry about that, will get something up ASAP.

No worries. Just checking.

That was probably my last post for the session, setting up the next session for a big hunt, if that is okay with all of you. The floor is yours to answer and react, then we'll do end of session stuff, advance characters and talk about possible rules clarifications or changes.

Sounds great.

Ready to move on when you are.

Same here, I'm chatting but happy to move it on.

Apologies for the slight delay in posting, I got second jabbed yesterday and am definitely feeling it at the moment. Should be back on my feet shortly but not sure if I'll be able to get a post up tonight - we will see!

Congrats on that second jab!

Nice, yeah, second jab was a bit rough on me as well. I didn't notice at first, but got very sore muscles and very tired after a few days. Take your time!

I'm feeling better today, but was totally bedridden yesterday due to fatigue, headaches and muscle pain - worth it (obviously) and I'd planned to take leave for the day anyway, so that went well :)

Helena, if you want to add something to episode 1 still, you can, I will leave it open for now. I don't think it's needed, but an ending inner thoughts section wouldn't be bad. You're good at those.
We might roll for Helena's trading agreement and Roland's friend to come aid with the hunt. Or, depending on what we do with the rules, I'll just decide.

Otherwise we can review the session. Was it what we expected, was it not? What did you like, what did you not like? What would you like different? What did you find interesting.

I like the system, but think it doesn't quite give a lot of handholds as to how to use it. I've been treating the 'give 1-3 dice' as a difficulty measure but the game doesn't state that's the case.
Also, giving you a roll for something gives you a lot of narrative control, which might mean that you could do extraordinary things if you choose to take the Monologue Of Victory. (like killing a dragon in one blow or something). This means that the system doesn't give me a lot of tools to let the dice decide on what happens when I'm not sure. I think it kind of assume I just decide, which is not a style I'm very used to, so I might just make some tables or lists or use a fate die to decide certain things, but I think I might also have to learn to just decide what happens. In this game, the GM might not really be a passive and objective observer. So that's what has been on my mind for the system.

I agree with most of that, and I'd add: the system seems to rely A LOT on players and GM being in perfect sync as to where the story is going. On more than one sense.

At one level, it's a matter of let's say scale: your dragon-slaying example, or Anne deciding that her Monologue of Victory allows her to not just shame Catherina but also totally enthrall the castellan and make him forget Marie.

But not even going there, we also need sync in let's say direction: not just avoid Mary Sue-isms like that, also know what the GM intends for this scene. I sent Catherina away, but I have no idea if she was needed/wanted in the scene for some plot purpose. But anyway, now she's not there. Because (so far) we don't know where the story is going, we don't know if sending Catherina packing is advancing or hindering the plot. So our actions can end up feeling a bit directionless, just doing cool stuff for the sake of doing cool stuff, not feeling like we're going anywhere.

Not saying it's happening just yet, but it might quickly go there. All in all, I like the system but it's extremely barebones: we need to put some flesh on it, story-wise if not mechanics-wise.
This message was last edited by the player at 11:56, Wed 18 Aug 2021.

I will get a post up probably this evening - certainly within the next twelve hours just to round the scene off.

In terms of the session and the system, I do genuinely like it, although I accept the points that have been raised thus far, both by our GM about the 1-3 dice and Anne about scale and direction.

On the whole, I do like the fact that it manages to encapsulate a lot of character traits in a simple and narrative system. The 1-3 dice is similar to the GM's role in something like WoD (i.e. taking the raw character data and putting it into the context of a roll, rewarding players for thinking tactically and not biting off more than they can chew).

I think the scale issue can be resolved by both the player and the GM being very clear about what each roll is for. The GM can then apply or withold the bonus dice as much as they wish depending on how realistic they think the scope of the action is, or even put their foot down and say no if they think the action or intention is too unrealistic. This then sets the guidelines for a Monologue of Victory.

I suspect the Direction issue is possibly the bigger one, albeit again I think that's where a GM needs either to be agile or just limit the extent of what can occur in the monologue. I certainly agree that the GM needs to be quite an active participant, but then that's a style I'm used to myself and look for in a game, and that should probably be part of the enjoyment.

At the same time, I think it also encourages players to communicate with one another behind the scenes (which is easier when you have separate PMs and OOCs) to co-ordinate their plots and intentions, or indeed to identify areas of drama and push towards them.

Overall, I like it, but I don't object to having a bit more flesh put on the bones and I'm happy to discuss it further. I think your challenge is going to be finding ways for us all to be involved in the same situation, but I'm sure we have ways of getting there.

I'll be upfront in that I'm generally a player that likes a lot of granularity and mechanics.

My personal rule is that I don't do "freeform", generally because I find that collaborative storytelling without any real "conflict" either gets stale quickly, or that even with a modest cast of characters the chance of having one that verges on a "Mary Sue" is high in my experience, kind of ruining it for the most talented players.

That being said, from what little I have seen of this system, it's not bad. I am curious as to how it will hold up over a "novel" length story as opposed to a short chapter.

I think the "slaying the dragon" example is quite good. There is no real limit to the amount of power the PC's can leverage outside of the GM limiting bonus dice. Thankfully with a good group of players, it's easy enough to pick out things that our characters "shouldn't" do for the good of the game.

But that becomes more fuzzy when we approach goals that could be considered very difficult, but feasible.

The process of trying to have the character make a good impression at a party, and having the character do something truly difficult is much the same. Roll your pool. How that works with the story going forward, I guess we will see.

So yeah, I think restricting the scope of a Monologue of Victory is something we seem to agree on should be better defined. So far it's not really been a problem, but there's secrets to Catharina that might have resulted in different behavior. Still, it was a good Medieval Mean Girls scene, so I wasn't too concerned. (Be assured Anne now has a page in Catharina's Burn Book ;) )

One approach would be to ask for limits before making a Monologue of Victory. Another might be to have more of an "everyone's a director" approach, which I guess is more like the original game might have intended. In that case everyone might know the general gist and secrets about the scene, the NPC's, etc. It would be more like writing a story together, being able to grab absolute no-veto power over the story when you do a Monologue of Victory. We might find a way between as well if we want, because if we take the "everyone is a director" mode I'm not sure if a games master/referee is still needed. And it's fun to be surprised by revealing secrets, right?

Maybe in each scene, I could set a theme and goal and some things you could try to unlock with a Monologue of Victory. I could also give important NPC's short write-ups that might guide describing actions in a Monologue of Victory.

That's my brainstorm post for this. Does anyone want to add something, voice support/concern for certain options, etc?

I would probably go for setting a limit on the monologue of victory - it doesn't have to be very detailed, and would probably be easily communicated to the player at the same time as letting them know their dice pool for the roll, so it wouldn't take up extra time.

As much as I like the concept of a genuine 'everyone's the director' scene, I think we're at a disadvantage because it's PbP rather than IRL, and thus it's a lot harder to communicate and check with everyone around the table when coming up with something, and I'd rather we didn't end up in a situation with 5 OOC posts for every one IC. I also agree with the GM's point about wanting to have some secrets.

I also can't say I'd be particularly in favour of having a set theme/goal for every scene, because I suspect that would both put a lot of pressure on the GM to accomodate and foresee everyone and everything, and I'd also worry about feeling railroaded myself. There's no reason why the GM can't informally give some pointers or discuss the matter with the party beforehand or in the OOC, but I don't think formalising it would be that helpful.

Oh, also, everybody gets to add to their story. You get 15 extra words to add. The rules don’t say it has to do with the play we did (I guess you can also understand more where your character is coming from through how you played them) but any things you have done will only have an impact when you can make them into traits (like contacts, reputations, unknown dancing skills, etc.)

Also, because the nature of our setting I’m going to be a bit more liberal with the word count. Every title or name of a thing counts as only one word, rather than the entire string. We’ve got a lot of titles eating up words. Any words that you get extra can be added to the 15 words. If you don’t have anything to change, you an save the 15 words. I will rule that any words left over with the previous counting and the adjusted counting also are still free to use. So, to summarize:

• 50+15=65 words max for each story.
• Your own character’s name is not counted.
• Any title or nameing convention is counted as only one word for counting.

There’s a discussion we can have on wether or not we need a word count at all. I think it’s useful to keep things summarized and that it doesn’t give me pages of text to read, summarize and process.

I am out of town for a weekend with my wife, so I will rarely be online.

I know one thing that happened for me that was unexpected was that Anne kept mentioning Gerhard's stature, and likening him to a big bear of a man.

In his original write up he was described as "a little over average height", but I think we kind of ran with it and now it's "head canon" for me.

I think I will add. "A great bear of a man, he is perhaps best known for his herculean stature."

I am determined to have his summary read well, despite not being "optimised" for bonuses.

As much as I would like to include his new pen pal in Limburg, I may find a way to add him after the next chapter.

Ah, sorry if I mischaracterized you, Gerhard. Perharps Anne is just very smol, being a Medieval woman and all that, so you look gigantic to her.

No, no. I like it. It's one of those things that just kind of happened, and now the character is more than he was.

Master, what is the mechanical effect of adding 15 words to the description? Does it imply we can add traits too?

We're going to end up in a situation where every description of Gerhard is just going to make him larger and larger until he's literally banging his head on the walls and struggling to hide behind medium sized hillocks, aren't we?

Also, I'm probably not going to use mine at the moment, and save them until I get a bit further along. To be fair, I could probably get away with:

'Externally placcid, Helena's internal monologue has been the subject of eight Papal Encyclicals and two crusades.'

I am, alas, a word over the limit, unless I can get away with ignoring my own name.

I'm not sure what else to add to my description for Roland.

So yeah, the added words give possibility for new traits. It looks like you can add traits whenever you want, even in the middle of play or right before an important roll.

So does our dice pool of 15 (minus traits) go up, or do we just stay the same and we've just got the option of sacrificing some of our pool for the solidity of traits?

I think the game says that it goes up to 9 if not at nine or above on the next session. At least, I'm reading it like that. So, even if you have less than 9 now, at the end of the session, you start with 9 at the beginning of the next.

Can we use those 9 to buy more points for traits? How does it work for traits that already had points in them?

If that's the case, though, then what would be the point of not putting all of your dice into traits, so you had 15 points of traits, square in the knowledge that you'll get a new 9 at the start of each session?

I fear I'm getting terminally confused.

I think I picked up an extra die after my roll in the last scene, which would put my total on 6 (5+1), but if I'm getting nine, then why would I bother doing anything more than going for a MoV, given I'll always get booted up to nine? Or is the nine just quoted because that's the maximum amount you can gamble from your pool at any one time?

Again, probably missing something here, but this is doing my head in.

It's kind of very double-or-nothing system... You'd take the +1 in hopes of being over 9 at the end of the session, so you can carry those extra dice over... But then on the other hand, sooner or later you'll fail a roll and lose everything. A lot hinges, in my opinion, on how long the "sessions" are.

(Another thought is: this was an extremely impromptu, extremely experimental system that has been later refined. That's why I was mentioning Lady Blackbird earlier, it feels like a much more polished version).

Anyway, we going hunting or what?

I hope so. Ready to go!

I will try to get things started today, but with the start of the school year things might be going a bit slow for a week or two. I'm not dropping this though. I'm enjoying this way too much.

Fair enough. I think I certainly like the bare bones of the system (the easy access character creation, the choice between a betting build or a trait heavy build, and the way of resolving differences in a more narrative way, but I do feel the way it's set out doesn't always make sense, and I do think it needs a bit more polish for things like progression to make sure we can keep growing the characters in a way which is both narratively satisfying and balanced.

And we're off, sorry for the delay. I hope to be able to pitch in again this weekend or next Wednesday with a bigger update. I'll try to keep up and check daily between then, but I cannot promise this. We seem to be a good group though, so if needed and I'm not responding, talk amongst yourselves and reach a sensible conclusion. Once I pitch in again I might see if I need to correct some things in case it conflicts with hidden story points and secrets. So far, I haven't really had all that much set in stone. Of those present in this start, I don't think I have many secrets. They are all still blank slates besides what we know about them. Other people already established can be called upon if it makes sense. The Jew might join, Catharina likely does not want to show her face, but could show up. I have plans for her, she's the one NPC I've got a plan with, and there are other people that would make sense to be there, like a master of the hunt, some foot soldiers, courtiers, nobles, etc.

Hope you don't mind the introduction of another historical personage GM, but the dates and names just lined up so well that I felt I should go for it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogier_van_der_Weyden
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 18:46, Wed 01 Sept 2021.

In reply to Gerhard de Colmar (msg # 124):

Does he do nudes? Asking for a friend.

(For clarity, I have spent 4 points on Avid Huntress +2, so I have 5 Pool.)

Nice! The cream of the top from these parts of the world in this period.

For me? Darling, you shouldn't have!

I'm going to pay for it with your money, so I thought, you might as well enjoy some tiddies <3 I'm too good, I know.

I mean, I think I've already established that my issue is not the spending of money, it's that it's not been invested in sound business ventures, so this makes Helena much happier.

I feel with this sort of thinking we might have avoided The Hundred Years War, or numerous other conflicts entirely.

It's like, Edward, chill thy princely self, take a look at some of these oil prints.

I mean, to be fair to him, Edward III didn't exactly lack for things in that area, given the quite magnificent number of children he sired.

Also, I suspect Anne may just have declared war. Or at the very least, earned herself a hefty hike of borrowing fees in the future. I will expect some grovelling!

Or our good Duke, the magnificient slut! He had an inordinate amount of bastards, hence the inspiration for Anne's origin story.

What, Anne's just giving you a fair chance of earning a tip. Which will also come from your pocket, why do you ask.

I mean, thus far, you're one of the few people I haven't leant money too in court, albeit I'm sure your income has probably been facilitated by a couple of dopey debtors who don't see through the facade of purity to the callous core within.

And I suspect you may be foregoing the tip.

Even Roland can appreciate a nice pair, and he's gay, so...

In other news, I've been stuck on what else to add to my description - any ideas?

Tit Appreciator +2

You never know when you'll have to tell Helean's apart from mine's in the dark.

I mean, that's easy. Yours are in easy reach and have a welcome mat out the front. Helena's are nowhere to be seen (as is right and proper), and exist on a higher plane of infinite self righteousness and no small amount of hypocricy.

God, this is going to end up very Aveline and Isabela, isn't it?

And in answer to the original question, you might want to put in something about his friendship with and patronage from Pepin, given it's potentially likely to carry some weight and might have some benefits either reputationally or financially.

They're a bit more than friends &#128563;

In all seriousness, I'll add something like that and then I need to figure out what else to add to his description. Thanks!

You say that, but five centuries of historians afterwards will claim that your relationship is just that of Alexander and Hephaestion, and Achilles and Patrocles, and that you will just be 'good friends' with a 'platonic relationship' that 'only men of a certain status and purity of mind can enjoy'.

In reply to Helena of Ghent (msg # 139):

obviously just very good friends

I read and caught up on everything. You are doing just fine. I don't see the need to add anything today. I will try to check in tomorrow to see if I need to move things forward a bit, but will let this scene play out a bit more. Great writing/playing everyone!

Sorry for the posting delay, it's been a bit of a strange weekend and one which has been rather more exertive than I was anticipating. I will attempt to post either in the next twenty minutes or the next twelve hours depending on sleeping patterns etc.

Apologies for the small absence, IRL stuff has been a bit prominent.

In terms of brief character development, I've added to my existing trait regarding the advice and financing of the Castellan (so that's now a +2), and added an additional trait reflecting my additional 15 workds which are below:

A constant at court, she subtly weaves a web of contacts among the castellan's subjects.

Alas, I didn't have space to add 'and unsubtly pours wine on other women's clothes', but that'll probably come up next time.

I will try and get a proper post up today.

In reply to Helena of Ghent (msg # 143):

nice! I'm just thinking on my traits

Roland, what action do you take for the start of the hunt?

In reply to The Powers That Be (msg # 145):

let me get caught up, sorry about that

Heads up that I'm going to be very, very busy in the next coming months. Should be better after February, but that is a while. I feel like I'll be better able to guide this if we put it on hold until then, since I can rarely bring up the energy to provide you guys with the good stuff. Is postponing something you want to do or is that time too long a stretch for us?

Sorry for this. Life decided to crank things up to eleven.

It's entirely up to you and the rest of the players - I've been there as a GM and the choice is hardly enviable, between trying to find the energy to get posts out or risking a long hiatus and the issues that can entail.

I'm happy with whatever.

Given our current rate, I would just say call it.

It was a fun little experiment, but I dislike watching games die on the vine.

In reply to Gerhard de Colmar (msg # 149):

I'm fine either way. Personally I'd like to continue even if we have to wait, but I understand if no one else wants to.

I can't really say - I'm interested in the fame right now, and I'll be interested in it in the near future, I can't really say about 4 months in the future. Be a shame to leave it like this, though.

Alternatively someone else can take over as GM in the mean time. But yeah, I’m happy to just close it while we’re good. Just sad I couldn’t get a second chapter out.

So, unless someone wants to take over I will close the game.I am not going to delete it so that I can find you players again in the future. You guys are great people to play with.

I will admit I've never found transferring GMs works particularly well for either the new or the old GM - it tends to end up with two visions going to war with one another, and especially at this early stage, I'd rather have a new GM with a clean slate.

That being said, it might be worth keeping updated of each other's usernames? Makes it easier to co-ordinate a follow up or a spin off depending on individual interests. I know after a decade or so on the site, I've been trying to keep a go to list of players I've enjoyed working with and would like to work with in future.

In reply to Helena of Ghent (msg # 153):

I agree. My username is thattripletguy.

Totally agree. I'm InQueli.

I am deadtotheworld22.

Anachronist here. Best of luck, was fun.

Frili is mine.

Has anyone here played Wolves of God? it's made by the same guy who did Stars Without Number, but in Post-roman britain.

Sounds intriguing, say more?

In reply to Anne de Arras (msg # 160):

Well, it is an OSR hack, based in a fantasical England. Let me see if I can find the old kickstarter link, but it's one of my favorite systems.

Here's the kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/pr...n-dark-ages-england/

Sooo, who's GMing a game of that, then?

;)

I hope everyone is doing well