Thy Vernal Chieftains - a review
Thy Vernal Chieftains (TVC) is a set of storytelling rules by Paul Czege, author of My Life with Master and Bacchanal (a game I'll be comparing to TVC later in this review). TVC is extremely readable, with an approachable tone and clear descriptions of how play proceeds; however I found myself confused about how one particular element - Traits and Prices - would be used in each player's narration. After my read through of the rules, I found myself wondering if the game would succeed or fail and play: would the rules provide an opportunity for players to tell engaging stories that would grip the rest of the group, or would it lead to 'bubble play', where each player would be off in their own separate world despite the best efforts of the rules.
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
Clocking in at 20 pages, TVC is a set of storytelling rules about groups of Britons, Celts, and Romans struggling in the power vacuum after the Roman legions withdraw from the British Isles.
However, what the game really seems to be about as an examination of the philosophical basis for Western civilisation. It's asking how this society might have improved or worsened if things had turned out differently, if different cultures had dominated in the post-Roman era. Does it succeed at this goal? I'm not sure; this is definitely a case where I'd have to play the game to find out how the game works.
In Paul Czege's words, the game was "playtested, gutted, redesigned, playtested again, the art direction and setting research and graphic design was done, and it was written and laid out and put up for sale in just 18 days, in keeping with the mandate of Jared Sorenson's Indie Game Company Game Design Challenge." The resulting game is very much an 'ashcan' - very polished, with much game-craft on display, but a work-in-progress being exposed to the world for the first time.
My review is based on two reads of the rules - and the rules are very readable. I downloaded it at 6 a.m., intending to just flick through it, and ended up making my way through the whole thing. The procedures for play are clearly laid out (with one exception to do with 'Traits and Prices' which I'll expand on below).
WHAT DO THE PLAYERS DO?
Paul Czege recommends that each player to about 45 minutes browsing on Wikipedia, to familiarise themselves with the various factions and cultures in post-Roman Britain. After character creation, play proceeds in turns - with each player being given an opportunity to decide on a goal for their character and then narrating how they go about achieving that goal. The other players in the group have opportunities (both individually and as a group) to provide creative inspirations and restrictions to that narration. I've included a fuller breakdown of play at the end of this review.
TRAITS AND PRICES
After you have announced your character's goal for this turn, but before you begin narrating, all the other players had an opportunity to offer your character a Trait (like "I'm a bard", or "I speak the language of birds"). Using traits gives you more dice to roll in your turn, which gives you more chance to succeed at your goal (or at least continue narrating in the next turn). You're under no obligation to include the traits you've drawn on in your narration.
Traits also have a Price attached to them. Effectively the player who's offering you the trait says "You can have this, but only if you introduce THIS into your story." Examples include 'coming to a swordfight without your sword', or 'you're now at odds with another character's brother'.
If I'm reading the rules correctly, I believe you introduce this Price in your very next narration (after you've accepted the related Trait) - and you do that regardless of whether or not you draw on the related Trait in your dice roll.
I believe you only use the Price once (in the very next narration after accepting the Trait), but the rules don't spell that out.
The great thing about these Prices, if I'm understanding them correctly, is that they give you inspiration for how your next turn of narration can go. As the current player, you're not totally left to your own devices to invent your character's story; you're given material and story seeds in the form of powers, characters, and opportunities suggested by the Traits - and blocks of narrative events demanded by the Prices.
* * *
In the interests of space I'm going to break the rest of my observations into sections.
THE GOOD
THE INTERESTING
A POSSIBILITY
NB: Paul Czege has talked about this in this thread.
QUESTIONS ABOUT GOALS
All of the following questions may be based on my mis-reading of the rules:
A COMPARISON TO BACCHANAL
Paul Czege is also the author of Bacchanal, another game that provides a framework for telling stories to the other members, and places less importance on having in-character experiences. In Bacchanal, you place a citizen of Puteoli, a city to the south of Rome in 61 A.D. You've been accused of a crime and must escape the city with your companion. But your plans are complicated when the god Bacchus descends from the hills outside Puteoli, and infects the city with the madness of wine.
Bacchanal places strict limits on the situation of the game. There is a short timeframe, and the city of Puteoli provides an interrelated setting where characters can weave in and out of each other's plots - in fact, Bacchanal's system encourages you to do this in your narrations. Characters also share a specific objectives (escape the city with your companion).
In contrast, TVC feels more wide open in the types of stories it can tell, and the time-span it could cover. I could easily see the events in a game of TVC covering a generation. As such, the pre-play homework (studying the era) seems very important to creating interesting situations and imagining the world.
In Bacchanal, inspiration for narration is provided by the type of dice that come up with the highest results. In TVC, it comes from other players and a limited palette of thematic tokens (which I describe below).
There is the danger of an early endgame in Bacchanal (if you have a certain combination of Soldier and Accuser dice). That's not so much of a threat in TVC - each character's story will continue until at least one character has achieved enough goals to trigger the endgame.
SUMMARY
Thy Vernal Chieftains provides an intriguing structure for a game. As I mentioned, it was produced as a competition entry, under tight time constraints (you can read Paul Czege's account of how it nearly killed him, here). For people that enjoy creating stories more than playing a character, Thy Vernal Chieftains provides a lot of support - while still requiring each player to make exciting and thought-provoking contributions in order to create a worthwhile story.
I admire the way Prices shape the story, and I'm excited by the primal nature of the Tokens (see below).
Thy Vernal Chieftains is attempting a difficult thing: critquing modern society by exploring the best and worst of the past. The game's ambition fascinates me - but the setting doesn't quite excite me yet. I'd prefer more guidance about the possibilities of this particular moment in history; seeds of story, setting, and starting situations. It's at this point that the tight time-constraints of writing the game come into play for me; if the game included anywhere from 5 pages of finely-tuned inspirational material to 25 pages of essays and story seeds, I think that it would be lifting the roof of my head right now.
As it is, Thy Vernal Chieftains doesn't engender 'must play right now' enthusiam in me yet, but the style of play intrigues me, the subject matter catches my imagination, and the game has put "Research post-Roman Britain on Wikipedia" surprisingly close to the top of my to-do list.
Thy Vernal Chieftains is available for $1 until Jan 31 (US Time).
A MORE COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF PLAY
WHAT'S IT ABOUT?
Clocking in at 20 pages, TVC is a set of storytelling rules about groups of Britons, Celts, and Romans struggling in the power vacuum after the Roman legions withdraw from the British Isles.
However, what the game really seems to be about as an examination of the philosophical basis for Western civilisation. It's asking how this society might have improved or worsened if things had turned out differently, if different cultures had dominated in the post-Roman era. Does it succeed at this goal? I'm not sure; this is definitely a case where I'd have to play the game to find out how the game works.
In Paul Czege's words, the game was "playtested, gutted, redesigned, playtested again, the art direction and setting research and graphic design was done, and it was written and laid out and put up for sale in just 18 days, in keeping with the mandate of Jared Sorenson's Indie Game Company Game Design Challenge." The resulting game is very much an 'ashcan' - very polished, with much game-craft on display, but a work-in-progress being exposed to the world for the first time.
My review is based on two reads of the rules - and the rules are very readable. I downloaded it at 6 a.m., intending to just flick through it, and ended up making my way through the whole thing. The procedures for play are clearly laid out (with one exception to do with 'Traits and Prices' which I'll expand on below).
WHAT DO THE PLAYERS DO?
Paul Czege recommends that each player to about 45 minutes browsing on Wikipedia, to familiarise themselves with the various factions and cultures in post-Roman Britain. After character creation, play proceeds in turns - with each player being given an opportunity to decide on a goal for their character and then narrating how they go about achieving that goal. The other players in the group have opportunities (both individually and as a group) to provide creative inspirations and restrictions to that narration. I've included a fuller breakdown of play at the end of this review.
TRAITS AND PRICES
After you have announced your character's goal for this turn, but before you begin narrating, all the other players had an opportunity to offer your character a Trait (like "I'm a bard", or "I speak the language of birds"). Using traits gives you more dice to roll in your turn, which gives you more chance to succeed at your goal (or at least continue narrating in the next turn). You're under no obligation to include the traits you've drawn on in your narration.
Traits also have a Price attached to them. Effectively the player who's offering you the trait says "You can have this, but only if you introduce THIS into your story." Examples include 'coming to a swordfight without your sword', or 'you're now at odds with another character's brother'.
If I'm reading the rules correctly, I believe you introduce this Price in your very next narration (after you've accepted the related Trait) - and you do that regardless of whether or not you draw on the related Trait in your dice roll.
I believe you only use the Price once (in the very next narration after accepting the Trait), but the rules don't spell that out.
The great thing about these Prices, if I'm understanding them correctly, is that they give you inspiration for how your next turn of narration can go. As the current player, you're not totally left to your own devices to invent your character's story; you're given material and story seeds in the form of powers, characters, and opportunities suggested by the Traits - and blocks of narrative events demanded by the Prices.
* * *
In the interests of space I'm going to break the rest of my observations into sections.
THE GOOD
- I've already mentioned that the rules are extremely readable
- I'm fascinated by how this game will play
- It requires some interesting, primal components (a nugget of silver, a bloodstone, a piece of polished bone) that lend atmosphere to the game
- Great cover art, and interior page-border design.
THE INTERESTING
- TVC is about telling stories, rather than being in character. The rules provide you with lots of inspiration for developing each piece of your story, but not many opportunities for role-playing with other people in your group. I have concerns that this could create "bubble play", where each player would be off in their own separate world despite the best efforts of the rules to provide material that the other players will find interesting.
A POSSIBILITY
- The introduction talks about how Western culture was influenced by the Saxons following the withdrawal of the Romans. It feels that these should be more of a force in the game - perhaps a source of adversity in players' narrations, perhaps a source of mechanical adversity when it comes to determining how your characters have affected the modern world (in the endgame).
NB: Paul Czege has talked about this in this thread.
QUESTIONS ABOUT GOALS
All of the following questions may be based on my mis-reading of the rules:
- Can you create a new goal at the start of each turn?
- Does that mean your character may end up having multiple goals?
- Are there any consequences for having multiple goals open?
- Any guidance for determining which goal you follow at the start of your turn?
- Any mechanical advantages to closing a goal?
A COMPARISON TO BACCHANAL
Paul Czege is also the author of Bacchanal, another game that provides a framework for telling stories to the other members, and places less importance on having in-character experiences. In Bacchanal, you place a citizen of Puteoli, a city to the south of Rome in 61 A.D. You've been accused of a crime and must escape the city with your companion. But your plans are complicated when the god Bacchus descends from the hills outside Puteoli, and infects the city with the madness of wine.
Bacchanal places strict limits on the situation of the game. There is a short timeframe, and the city of Puteoli provides an interrelated setting where characters can weave in and out of each other's plots - in fact, Bacchanal's system encourages you to do this in your narrations. Characters also share a specific objectives (escape the city with your companion).
In contrast, TVC feels more wide open in the types of stories it can tell, and the time-span it could cover. I could easily see the events in a game of TVC covering a generation. As such, the pre-play homework (studying the era) seems very important to creating interesting situations and imagining the world.
In Bacchanal, inspiration for narration is provided by the type of dice that come up with the highest results. In TVC, it comes from other players and a limited palette of thematic tokens (which I describe below).
There is the danger of an early endgame in Bacchanal (if you have a certain combination of Soldier and Accuser dice). That's not so much of a threat in TVC - each character's story will continue until at least one character has achieved enough goals to trigger the endgame.
SUMMARY
Thy Vernal Chieftains provides an intriguing structure for a game. As I mentioned, it was produced as a competition entry, under tight time constraints (you can read Paul Czege's account of how it nearly killed him, here). For people that enjoy creating stories more than playing a character, Thy Vernal Chieftains provides a lot of support - while still requiring each player to make exciting and thought-provoking contributions in order to create a worthwhile story.
I admire the way Prices shape the story, and I'm excited by the primal nature of the Tokens (see below).
Thy Vernal Chieftains is attempting a difficult thing: critquing modern society by exploring the best and worst of the past. The game's ambition fascinates me - but the setting doesn't quite excite me yet. I'd prefer more guidance about the possibilities of this particular moment in history; seeds of story, setting, and starting situations. It's at this point that the tight time-constraints of writing the game come into play for me; if the game included anywhere from 5 pages of finely-tuned inspirational material to 25 pages of essays and story seeds, I think that it would be lifting the roof of my head right now.
As it is, Thy Vernal Chieftains doesn't engender 'must play right now' enthusiam in me yet, but the style of play intrigues me, the subject matter catches my imagination, and the game has put "Research post-Roman Britain on Wikipedia" surprisingly close to the top of my to-do list.
Thy Vernal Chieftains is available for $1 until Jan 31 (US Time).
A MORE COMPLETE DESCRIPTION OF PLAY
- Create a personal goal for your character.
- Other players offer traits and prices.
- Roll on the table to see whether your narration will:
- end this turn, unresolved
- continue, with you making progress towards your goal
- continue, with you facing a setback to achieving your goal
- close a goal, either successfully or not.
- Narrate, based on the results of that roll
- at this point the group gets the opportunity to offer you one of the thematic tokens on the table, representing magical experiences, song, food, bloody events, secrets, fellowship, and remembrance.
- If you accept, you must use the token in your narration.
- You are under no obligation to include your traits in a narration.
- If you accept enough traits from other players, you become chieftain of your tribe. You can now create goals have a broader impact on the world.
- If you achieve enough goals, you end the game. You then play a "What If" game to see how your exploits affect the world.