Deeds: Rethinking Acts for your Artesia Games

Right now the Book of Dooms is reactive to the players actions and gives them a little drive in developing their character. By rewarding certain important actions the players may then develop their characters in a certain way. What if we took those actions (or Acts) and made them more pivotal to the story at hand? I mean, currently the Guide establishes what sorts of adventures and situations the characters face. What if there was a way to have the players direct input in the sorts of stories they want to participate in and reward them for it?! That's Deeds!

Each character has three Deeds. Each Deed dictates what the player wants for his character and how the character will develop through it. Be careful. Do not assume this is an easy process. This could very well be the most critical part of character creation. It takes some finesse and practice but after a short while the play group will get the hang of it. For those with experience in games like Burning Wheel (duh!), Hero's Banner, The Shadows of Yesterday and Star Wars SAGA some of these ideas should sound familiar.

A Deed has four elements to it. Arcana, Focus, Approach and Acts. Arcana is the first piece of the puzzle and it describes, simply, which Arcana is influencing the Deed. Basically, if the character were to act in accordance to the Deed's approach what sort of Arcana would the character gain? The Arcana Influence should, of course, match the meanings behind the twenty-two major Arcana in the Book of Dooms. If, when you've completed the Deed, you find it no longer fits the initial themes you set out to cover then you can either switch to an Arcana that may seem more appropriate OR rework the other elements to better get in line with the Arcana's influence.

Secondly is the Focus. There are four Foci - People, Places, Gods and Objects. Your Deed centers around this focus so your Approach should reflect what you want out of the Focus. Deed Foci centered around people dictate what you want out of a relationship or membership in a group. Deed Foci about places emphasize discovery, ownership and great events as well as centers of cultural significance. The Gods indicate worship and the God's Influence in your life in a more or less direct way. Objects tend to generate Deed Foci that revolve around heirlooms, valuable items, powerful magics, and sentimental trinkets.

Approach tells everyone what the final goal is. An approach should detail a specific resolution and what the player wants from that resolution. Does she wish to marry the roguish hero? Does he seek to clean out the bandit's forest? Does she search for the Sword that killed her father? Does he wish to cleanse himself of his sins against the Divine King? Describe what the goal is and why it's so important to the character and you have an approach. The group should all agree that this is an interesting goal and one they are interested in exploring. Try to be sensitive to the needs of the group as a whole. Try phrasing the Approach on a way that meshes with the groups scope and mode of play. I suspect that each Approach will be tweaked in reflection of the other players own Deeds.

Finally, the Acts display the same information Acts do on the Major Arcana in AAKW. However, these Acts revolve around actions you do in direct relation to the Approach and the Deed's Focus. We're naming names and ironing out details. This doesn't mean you'll say "I will walk down the hall and kill my brother in his sleep" but it may say "kill my brother before he knows what hits him." Every Deed should have three Acts and may develop more if appropriate. One should be a minor act dedicated to your goal. A second should be something that will cause the character some significant problems if he carries out the act and the third is an act that resolves the Deed in some way. The character gains 2 Arcana for minor Acts, 5 Arcana for Major Acts and 10 Arcana for resolving the Deed's Approach one way or the other.

Next: How to play with Deeds...

convention characters: all in the GM's hands or a little player input?

In which our heroine finds herself wondering about character portrayals and if providing entirely complete player characters is a bad thing.

A:AKW is a traditional role-playing game in that it has a GM driven setting. I don&'t like to drive story, rather I enjoy setting up a world in which the player characters explore and interact. I don't sit down and GM with an ending to the story in mind so players have a lot of freedom in the directions they may take.

This is all well and good during home games as the players get a fair amount of hand with the setting when they create and explore their characters. As the beliefs and desires of their characters change and develop, I happily go with the flow and run the world they are ultimately changing around them.

Convention scenarios are different. Unlike a home game, the characters and their driving beliefs are born from my imagination. I'm not so certain if this is what I want to continue doing. By putting the same pieces on the table at each session, the same situations and story come about nearly every time. I'd far rather players have a bit more "hand" in what unfolds.

Here's the rub: character creation is too complex to do before a game.

Maybe I should I leave one of the characters' beliefs blank. Player characters have 3 beliefs, one regarding what they want, one regarding another player character, and one regarding the world around them. It may be interesting to leave the "other player character one" blank.

I already start a session describing the characters and their place in the local society. Once players choose their character, I can then have them read the backgrounds and ask them to write a belief about another player character that is in play. The last part is important as very often I don't have a full table of 6. Sure, Lagaine would naturally have a belief in regard to his sister Jaila. But if Jaila isn't in play for the scenario, the belief isn't important.

If a player has trouble coming up with ideas, I could always have a list of possible beliefs that they could use.

Would this be something of interest to players in a convention environment? Tell me - I'm curious.