Tag Archives: conflict

After the Fighting’s Done

By | | Dresden Files Playtest, What's he playing?
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So, Friday night I ran the second half of the group through the conflicts to test the system. Now that I have no more secrets to keep from the players, I’ll give you some more detail on how things went.

For the Mental conflict, I chose trying a case before the Triumvirate of the Council of Ghosts. The set-up was that the ghost of a woman was released from the Vaughn Street Jail after evidence came to light that she was wrongly convicted of murdering her children back in the 1930’s. Citing this release as precedent, four other executed murderers were suing for release, with the aid of a ghost lawyer. The characters had certain knowledge that the four would take vengeance on the city, rather than move on as the woman had done, and so had to convince the Council not to release them.

For the Social conflict, I had five einharjar from Gimli come into town and start tearing up the local bar where the characters were gathered. The characters had to convince the einharjar to leave. Simple and straightforward.

And for the Physical conflict, I had the daughter of one of the lead detectives of Operation Clean Sweep kidnapped by the Mad Cowz, and held in a drug house guarded by a dozen gangbangers led by a hyena lycanthrope. Straightforward, but not so simple.

Because of time limitations, we only got to run two of the three conflicts with each group. For the first group last Monday, I ran the social and physical conflicts. For the Friday group, I ran the mental and physical conflicts.

We got off to a slow start, mainly because I had to teach the conflict rules to people in both groups. There was also the expected learning curve delays, as people tried to get their heads around some of the concepts and options they had available to them. Both those factors are to be expected in any system, so we knew they were going to crop up.

Once things got rolling, it was fun. Everyone got to try doing interesting things, and events flowed in a fairly interesting manner.

We did run into a bit of trouble because of the restrictions I put on each conflict, forcing players to stick to either mental, physical, or social tactics. Of course, in a real game, I wouldn’t restrict things this way, but the idea was to test the systems independently of each other.

Anyway, I’m compiling my impressions and reports from the players to send to the Evil Hat folks to let them know how things went. In the meantime, here are a couple of moments that really worked nicely:

  • Anne using her skill at chemistry to spike the einharjar’s drink, making him talk in a squeaky voice, and embarrassing him to no end.
  • Crazy Iris realizing what a huge combined advantage a shotgun and surprise can be.
  • Artemis deciding to use his Lore skill to bluff the einharjar with the threat of Odin’s wrath.
  • Boniface, so careful not to kill any Mad Cowz, accepting a compel to kill one who had almost killed him with a gunshot.
  • Sydney using a combination of Conviction and Lore to stand up to a ghostly lawyer, while Jim’s police training allowed him to lay out the evidence to undermine the case, and Boniface kept the lawyer off-balance with his knowledge of the hidden crimes of the past. Good uses of declarations by all players, filling in details of the Accord of Two Waters, the lawyer, and the criminals.

All in all, we had a good time. The more we try the system, the better things look.

This Just In…

By | | Dresden Files Playtest
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A comment from one of the players in the session last night, referring specifically to the physical conflict:

“The fighting comes across as realistic – people get stunned, slashed, scared and confused. We all limp away from a fight, whether we won it or not.”

Sounds a lot like the Dresden Files books, doesn’t it?

And that’s a good thing.

Thanks, Sandy!

About Last Night

By | | Dresden Files Playtest
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I don’t want to get into too much detail in this report; I still have another group of players to run through the conflicts. Some general observations:

  • Conflict in this game, physical or otherwise, is very much narrative-driven. This is a real change in perspective for players who are used to D&D’s very mechanics-driven combat system. It requires a different way of looking at conflict.
  • No matter what the system, a sucky roll is a sucky roll, and it can still make you sad. Or dead.
  • Getting to choose your own injuries and consequences is a very interesting choice. Watching someone try to decide where the machete hit them or how bad the bikers scared them is a lot of fun.
  • The key to conflicts in this system seems to be co-operation. One character (or more) uses a maneuver to stick someone with an Aspect, and then the finisher comes in, tags the Aspect(s), and strikes home.

On Friday, I’m running the conflicts with the rest of the group. Once I get everyone’s feedback and have consolidated it and forwarded it to Evil Hat, I’ll post a more specific report.  I’m not sure how much detail I can include, but I’ll tell you what I can. I just don’t want to give away anything for the other group, or prejudice their comments too much.

Conflicted

By | | Dresden Files Playtest, What's he playing?
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So, tomorrow half my group comes over for our first test of the conflict system in the Dresden Files RPG. It’s very similar to the Spirit of the Century system, but with a couple of tweaks to add a little detail (like weapons and armor) and scale up the grit a bit. It looks like DFRPG conflict is going to be a little nastier than SotC, more of a noire feel than a pulp one.

Both systems allow for different types of conflict. There’s the common physical conflict system (i.e. combat), of course. But they also allow conflict in the mental and social arenas. So yeah, your character can lose an argument by using the mechanics. Or get embarrassed in public. Stuff like that. There are rules for your confidence and your reputation taking a hit and affecting you throughout the game. Or longer. Man, I love the Aspect system in this game. That’s where this kind of flexibility comes from.

Anyway, these tests aren’t going to be a full-on game, just a stress test of the system. I’m coming up with one of each type of conflict, and we’re going to play through it, and see how it goes. Postmortem on the play, then maybe run them again to see if different choices in play make a big difference in the outcome or if the stats and skills on the character sheets determine winner. Depends on how much time we have.

All this means that, today, I’m trying to come up with one of each type of conflict to play through, based on the Magical Winnipeg setting and the characters we’ve created. The physical one is easy: I figure a bunch of Mad Cowz led by a hyena lycanthrope. I’m struggling a little with the mental and social conflicts, though. I’ve got a number of options, and I’m trying to work out which ones will work best for a group. Here’s what I’m toying with:

Mental

  • Arguing a case before the Council of Ghosts in the Vaughn Street Jail.
  • Out-thinking the Corn King spirit manipulating a corn maze on Hallowe’en and finding the way through to the centre.
  • A riddle contest with trickster faeries.
  • Persuading Operation Clean Sweep to hold back from a raid on a Manitoba Warriors club house until the Warriors take down a Mad Cowz shaman.

Social

  • Negotiating a cease-fire between the Indian Posse and the Deuce.
  • Persuading a group of Gimli Einharjar to stop trashing a bar and go home.
  • Convincing the Spirit of Two Waters not to grant a boon to a necromancer.
  • Revealing a White Court Pentecostal preacher to his congregation as the emotion-sucking vampire he is.

Now, all these things are doable with the system (and how great is that?), but some are going to be more interesting than others. I’ve got to put together encounters where everyone has a chance to contribute, and not everything hinges on a single roll, or a single skill. While things like that might work in a normal game, it doesn’t fairly test the system, which is the point of all this. So, I’m thinking.

I’ll let you know what I come up with, and how people handle it.