"Corrupting the World's Youth, One Penis at a Time"

I just got back from GenCon where I ran a couple of successful AKW games.

The first session gave me the quote of my weekend. Of the three players at the table, two were a father and his 14-year-old son. Before passing out the Arcana cards I mentioned to the father that they contained some nudity.

His response? "As long as it's not male nudity."

I was floored, said nothing and just passed out the cards.

Oddly enough, the cards knew the situation: The son received The Hermit, The Emperor, and The Sword - all featuring fully clothed images, the father received The Sword, The Emperor and The Sphinx, only one featuring female nudity, the third guy received The Lovers, The Hermit, The Empress and Death cards which had both female and male nudes. Creepy.

The Beliefs worked out well and elicited some fantastic role-playing. I've tweaked some characters since Origins (adding a sibling religious conflict and other pc paranoia) and the players jumped on some of that.

The 14-year-old played a character that I've unfortunately spent less time on than I'd like. However he did a great job in making him his own. I'm probably going to add a belief to the character that came about as a result of the awesome job the player did.

The second session was just as cool. All the players got into character quickly and again latched onto a lot of interpersonal play that I had hoped for from the beliefs. Arcana points were earned and used, AND they went to a NPC fortune teller and had a reading done. Fun stuff.

Both groups said they had a great time - I hope they were honest with me. I'd hate to continue to run a dull game for folk only because no one wants to tell the cute woman the truth.

Both sessions ended with discussion about the system and talk of future game supplements. Also, everyone was in agreement that Mark Smylie needs to publish and sell the Arcana cards as a deck.

Things to Change:

Both sessions (and the sessions at Origins) covered one of the possible 4 plots going on in the scenario. My next goal is to strengthen some of the "side plots" hinted at in character beliefs in the hope to make them more important for PCs to accomplish.

Aquatic zombies are fun and all but I'd like to try something new. ;)

Oh, and I've decided to up the creepiness of The Flower Pool when viewed with Second Sight:

Beside the pool grows a huge black tree. Its roots twist and undulate into the red water like the tentacles of a squid. Among the roots, floating on the water surface are toothy mouths that sing a high pitched and discordant tune.

The trunk of the tree is broad with bark like a reptile’s skin; a blue black shimmer on the craggy surface. Someone may notice a slight pulsing under the bark, like blood flowing beneath skin. From the tree’s limbs hang ropes of fire; strange flowers blooming from the branches.

On thicker limbs, some of the fiery ropes have been formed into nooses and from them hang strangled demons. Acrid black smoke rises from the demonic flesh but doesn’t burn through. The bodies sway in the still air of the Otherworld. Examining the demons may reveal that their hands are burnt and scared from forming the nooses to hang themselves.

Do you think it's too much?

Artesia: Adventures in the Known World

I run single-session scenarios of Artesia: Adventures in the Known World (AKW) at conventions. This means I have a limited amount of time to introduce a table of players to the world of Artesia and the game system. It also means the players won't be terribly invested in their characers, setting and story we are sitting down to tell. As such, I've started adding elements to my games that aren't a part of the written rules.

Beliefs

Each character starts with two Beliefs: one pertaining to something they want to accomplish and one dealing with a relationship to another player character.

Anisa
Belief (The Lovers): My lover Ainge should have returned from hunting by now. I think he may be ost in the Erid Wold. I must find him.

Belief (The Empress): Jaila may show a natural connection to the Goddess, but I am the one being trained as her Priestess. Jaila will always be but a simple midwife.

The examples above immediatly tell the player some things about their character. First, Anisa is concerned about the safety of her lover and is determined to find him. Second, Anisa is very proud of her Priestess training and when confronted with Jaila's natural connection to the Goddess, she is possibly both jealous and condescending to her friend.

Area Knowledge

Local Expert is an existing skill in AKW. However, in addition to points they may have in the skill, I like to give each character a piece of that knowledge as an additional belief.

Anisa
Area Knowledge (The Hermit): Close to the southern edge of the Erid Wold lies the Belbog. It's a marshy place where at some point past, Ninava, your teacher, sent you to pick water plants. At the time, she warned you away from the northwestern edge of the bog. You have since overheard Ninava speak of "That crazy witch in the bog". You now believe someone is living out there.

With this sort of knowledge, each player gets an opportunity to, without GM prompting, describe a piece of the world during the adventure.

Arcana Awards and Use

In AKW, characters advance by earning and spending Arcana Points. In a single-session game, advancement isn't terribly important and can be easily overlooked. However, I believe the Arcana are far too important a game element to leave out. In an effort to show their importance, I use the Arcana as an "artha" or "hero point" system.

Each character starts with 3 or 4 business card sized Arcana cards each with a d10 to represent the number of points available. Each card will have a brief list of ideas relating to that Arcana.

Anisa
The Lovers: 4
The Empress: 2
The Hermit: 1
Death: 6

In the example of Anisa, the first three cards are linked to the character's Beliefs and Area Knowledge. The last card, Death, is related to part of her history and subsequent Grief Binding of 4. Anisa has witnessed a lot of death in her lifetime.

Let's look at The Hermit:

(click below to see a larger image)


During play, if Anisa does something particularly Hermit-like such as leaving the group to explore something alone, she will receive additional Hermit Arcana Points. Those Arcana Points can be spent at any time in ways particular to the Arcana they represent. Again using the Hermit example: Anisa could spend points toward improving her self-reliance for a scene, or give herself a bonus to figuring out a puzzle.

This is of course all under development. As I run games at conventions and for my group at home, I hope to flesh out what I'm doing as well as show more examples of use.

Players have asked where I got the cards I've been using. Actually, I emailed Mark Smylie and asked if I could use the Arcana as cards in my games. He didn't mind and was kind enough to send me a document with Arcana already formatted as business card sized images.