the magical land of yeld

so last Saturday i ran a game of the magical land of yeld, one of Jake’s little projects. Jake did i write up on the session for his blog so naturally i stole it and put it on mine.

here it is. enjoy:

My Sat group got back together for the second session of our Magical Land of Yeld game. The first session had our characters discovering the door to Yeld and taking our first steps into that mysterious land. This time the rotating GM duties fell n Nick, and I was freed to really play my character Murial. Gabe joined us as well with his new character Marvin. Marvin is an older kid who is just starting to notice girls. Gabe choose Murial as marvins best friend.

Gabe/Marvin, 12 year old Bully
April/Jesse, 12 year old Tom Boy
Jake/Murial, 11 year old Brat
Travis/Heather 8 year old Princess
Nick/Dino, 6 year old Know it All
Woody/Ralph, 5 year old Liar

Last week we had decided that we wanted a Moderate adventure, giving the GM 30-40 dice to lay with. We choose the title “The burnt Forest of the Wolf King”.

The game started at Jesse and Heathers house, with the girls joined by Murial, Ralph and Dino. The kids all sat watching The Lone Ranger. Murial and Heather complained that the show was boring, and Murial announced that she wanted to go back through the door and explore for awhile. She left to get her “supply kit” from her house, running into her friend Marvin on the way back.

In the house Jesse and Heathers parents had sent Ralph and Dino home and put their daughters to bed (early!). laying in bed, Heather heard a strange animalish sound coming from the crawl space that led to the hidden attic and the magical door. Scared, she called to her sister for help. As she does, the head of a wolf emerges from the crawl space.

Murial tells Marvin that she wants to show him something secret. As they head back to Jesses house they run into Ralph and Dino, and find out that the girls have been put to bed early. Sneaking around the back of the house, Marvin and Murial start throwing rocks at the girls windows. Jesse opens her window, and Murial throws her a rope from her supply kit. The friends climb up the rope just as Heather starts screaming.

The friends rush into Heathers room to see the wolf has emerged from the crawl space. Everyone but Marvin has seen the wolf before, so only he is suprised when it speaks. The wolf tells the friends that they’ve been summoned by the Wolf King and must come right away. After some arguement, the friends aggreed to return through the door and meet th Wolf King.

On the other side of the door the friends found that the field and forest had been badly burned. The wolf told them that the fire was caused by the torches they left behind after they fought the goblin. The Goblins body was still there, and when Jesse searches it she finds a Goblin Knife (+1 Fast dice). There was no sign of Huck’s body, which we had left behind after the fight with the goblin.

Th wolf led us through the burnt foret to a small village where children and wolves both lived.We were told that the children were wolf children, and that when they were older they would change into wolves. The Wolf King, an 8 foot tall wolf, greeted us and offered to answer our questions. We asked s many as we could think of, but we found the answers to be vauge and unhelpful. The Wolf King had never heard of New Jersey, and couldn’t tell us where we were in relation to it. He did not know how the door worked, although he told us we were not the first people to step through it. he explained that we could understand his speech because we were children. All children could understand the speech of animals. 

After our questions were answered, the Wolf King made his demand. The Wolf King said that we were responsible for burning down his forest, and that we must make amends. We tried to protest, saying that it was the gOblins fault. The Wolf KIng explained that Goblins were neutral and could not be held accountable, so it was indeed our fault. WE would have to travel to see the new Tree Prince and bring him a vial of river water. This would be an offering on behalf of the wolf tribe to the new Tree Prince. The Wolf King explained that the tree Prince was a person from our own world. Once the Tree Prince agreed to regrow the forest we could return home.

After a huge amount of complaining and argueing we set our on our way. Two wolves accompanied us, and with their help we were able to travel at wolf speed. We would first have to travel to the river, then through the Spider forest and Bird forest to reach the Tree Prince. The journey to the Spider forest took much of the day, and once we arrived the wolves warned us that we had to be quiet and polite, because the spiders were not their allies. As we walked through the dark forest we saw scurrying shapes in the trees. A child (who the wolves identified as a spider child) lept down from the branches to speak with us, before returning to join it’s enormous, one-eyed spider mother.

Eventually w came to a river, and we had to climb up into the trees and continue along the spiders avenue-like pathway of branches and webbing. The spiders and their children mostly ignored us or gave us curious glances, but eventually two of the children stopped us and demanded that we pay a toll in order to go further. they wanted coins, which we did not have. One of them wore a bow accross his back and had a knife in his belt. As Jesse and Marvin argued with him Woody rolled Smart dice to have Ralph steal the knife. Nick opposed the roll with his Adventure dice, but it wasn’t enough, and Ralph was able to take the knife as his own. Ralph offered to trade the spider children the knife back instead of a toll, but this just made them mad, and a fight broke out. Ralph pushed the child with the bow out of the tree, and he fell and hit the ground below. Murial and Dino ran along the pathway to the far side of the river, butbut before the others could join them the spider child who Ralph had pushed called for it’s parent. A giant spider lifted the child onto it’s back and came after the children. The child drew his bow and shot at Jesse. April rolled Fast dice to get out of the way, but she failed, and Jesse lost a Tough dice as the Arrow struck her in the shoulder. 

Marvin fought off the spider as the rest of the friends joined Murial and Dino on the other side of the river. As the spider chased them, ralph turned and stabbed at the child riding it. Woody rolled Fast dice to hit the Child, and Nick (having already created the spider child using the Monster Formula) rolled Fast Dice to avoid. the child wasn’t fast enough, so Woody rolled Strong dice against the childs Tough dice to see if Ralph did damage. Ralphs attack hurt the child, costing him his only tough dice. Woody got to narrate the scene, and described how Ralph stepped forward and stabbed the spider child in the throat with the childs own knife! 

The spider howeled in grif over her dead child, as other spiders started to chase us. We ran to the edge of the spider forest and into the bird forest, where the spiders had to stop chasing us. After some negotiation the birds agreed to give us shelter and escort us through their forest to the Tree Prince. Because we traveled under the protection of the birds we were forced to travel at bird pace instead of wolf pace. Birds walk slow.

The birds forest gave way to praire, and a great tree looked before us. This was the home of the tree prince, and the pathway that led into the tree itself was guarded by giant elk. We were met by a badger who led us into the tree and up  a winding set of stairs. Below us we heard a crash at the door, and saw the giant Spider King crash through the entrance way and start to climb the stairs, demanding an audience with the Prince. Elks blocked hi path, but he tried to fight hi sway through.

As we entered the Princes throne room we were suprised to see Huck, alive and well and sitting on the throne. The badger explained to us that the new Tree Prince had just recently taken the Throne. We talked to Huck, who was very much alive, and just as much a jerk as ever. He didn’t seem to rememebr being stabbed by the goblin. He also didn’t seem to be very clear on his duties as the Tree Prince, but was enjoying the royal treatment and didn’t want to go home. We tried to explain what had happened and that we needed his help to get home. That the wolves wanted us to ask him to regrow their forest. At first Huck refused, and Marvin tried to rough him up. An Elk stepped in and knocked Marvin aside. While Marvin distracted the elk, Murial and Heather bet Huck that he couldn’t even regrow the forest if he wanted to. Huck fell for the trick, and moments later the friends felt a small earthquake that Huck claimed cmae from the regrown forest. Giant birds were arranged to transport the friends back to the wolf village. But just as the friends were about to leave the the Spider King burst in to the Princes hall and demanded an audience, accusing the friends of killing a spider child. The friends immideatly claimed it wasn’t their fault,a nd that the wolves had made them travel through the spider forest and not protected them from the spider children bully or told them what to do. The Spider King raged and declared war on the wolf tribe, then stormed off back to his own forest.

The children flew on birds back to the wolf village, where they found the forest had indeed been regrown. The Wolf King, having heard news of the war, expressed his diapointment in the friends and asked them to leave his forest. The friends returned through the door, having been gone for almost a day and a half.

So, that was our seacond session. Because we choose an average adventure we recieved 3 Reward dice. these were distributed to Murial, Jesse and Marvin. I spent Murials die to acquire the Run Special die. During the game I had decided that Murial was on the track team and could run nearly as fast a s wolf anyway. I also think that Murial is a bit of a coward, so Run should go well with her other Special die, escape.

During the game I tried to use Murials Cook Special die to create Berry Pies, Sushi and other mechaniclly beneficial food items. Each time I failed the roll! This was definetly a case of bad luck, but I’m eager to try again. My vision of Murial as a coward chef will come true somehow!

Travis will be running the next session. I can’t wait!

sea dracula power 19!

a few weeks ago jake filled out the power 19 for sea dracula.

this is what he wrote:

“Nick and I have been working on a small card based rpg called Sea Dracula. This started as a joke, then became a project to see if we could make a game in about a week. We were pretty much able to come up with the complete game in about 48 hours, and we’ll start playtesting it before the end of the month. Our goal is to  get the project finished as soon as possible. Why the rush? Both of us want to see how fast we can do this. Will the rush hurt the finished product? I don’t think so. We won’t release a crappy or unfinished game. I think we can produce a really simple game like Sea Dracula really quickly and have it turnout well.

We started talking about the concept a few months ago, but we sat down to actually work on the game for the first time on may 29th. So now the clockis ticking…

I still don’t want to say too much about the project yet, but I thought posting the Sea Dracula Power 19 would be a fun way to hint at the kind of game we’re making.

1.) What is your game about? Strange animals with weird names (like Sea Dracula) that serve as lawyers in fierce courtroom battles!

2.) What do the characters do? The characters are lawyers that also investigate crimes and protect their city from monsters using their unnconventional dancing abilities, bribery and parties.

3.) What do the players (including the GM if there is one) do? There is no GM. Players build the case that their characters will argue in court by planting evidence and witnesses during the investigation scene. Later, players will improvise a court case using these props. Players are also required to dance.

4.) How does your setting (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about? The game is about having silly fun. A town full of animal lawyer that dance and fight crime helps reinforce this.

5.) How does the Character Creation of your game reinforce what your game is about? Again, the game is about silly fun. Choosing a random animal card, giving it a silly name an assigning it stats by coloring it with crayons helps reinforce this.

6.) What types of behaviors/styles of play does your game reward (and punish if necessary)? The game rewards improvisation and dancing skills.

7.) How are behaviors and styles of play rewarded or punished in your game? This is one part we’re still working on.

8.) How are the responsibilities of narration and credibility divided in your game? Everything in the game comes directly from the players, and each player is expected to contribute in every scene. The game starts with an investigation scene where the players create and introduce evidence and witnesses that will be used to shape the court case later on. During the Court scene players can interpret the evidence as they see fit, and assign the rolls of different witnesses to different players. PLayers can break the court scene and frame a new scene by asking the judge for a recess (new scenes can either be a boss fight or a party).

9.) What does your game do to command the players’ attention, engagement, and participation? (i.e. What does the game do to make them care?) The game is broken up into three phases (Investigation, Courtroom, After Party) that play very, very quickly. Each phase is improvised within certain guidlines using information established in the previous scene. We think that this makes for engaging play, but we’ll need playtesting to be sure. If the improvision doesn’t work, the crayons and dancing should hold players attention.

10.) What are the resolution mechanics of your game like? A conflict only happens when one player objects to the action of another. If the player whose action was objected to insists on making that action part of the game, then he must suffer the Sea Dracula conflict resolution rules. The player draws a dance card from the deck and dances the dance illustrated on the card. Some cards have further instructions for special situations. A dance must be danced to the satisfaction of the player who objected to the action. If the objectionable player is satisfied then the action is a success.

11.) How do the resolution mechanics reinforce what your game is about? The game is about being silly. The resolution mechanics are silly.

12.) Do characters in your game advance? If so, how? Lawyers gain “lawyer points” which can be spent on new dance moves.

13.) How does the character advancement (or lack thereof) reinforce what your game is about? See answers to similar questions.

14.) What sort of product or effect do you want your game to produce in or for the players? We want Sea Dracula to be a fun, short experience that players can enjoy with their hot geek girlfriends.

15.) What areas of your game receive extra attention and color? Why? The dancing gets a bit of extra attention. We wanted a conflict resolution tool that was both silly and unique. I was also challenged to make a game with dancing.

16.) Which part of your game are you most excited about or interested in? Why? The dancing and the coloring. Crayons come packed in the box!

17.) Where does your game take the players that other games can’t, don’t, or won’t? I don’t think any other game takes player to a magical city full of dancing animal lawyers. Wait, isn’t that what “Agon” is about?

18.) What are your publishing goals for your game? Cheap cardboard box of 50 black and white cards plus 4 reastaurant-kids-menu-style crayons.

19.) Who is your target audience? I don’t know. I also don’t care.

There. I’m sure that was more confusing then informatve.”

Jake

holy handjob batman!

that’s right panty explosion shirts! when Jake showed them to me i almost cried…        heres the sexy link!

I’m gonna get this one: