GenCon 2005 - Otherkind
Games - Otherkind
So when both of my two indie games were cancelled on Thursday, the Boozehounds took pity on me. They not only bought my dinner and drinks, but offered to play anything I liked that evening. After a little thought, I hauled out Otherkind and ran them through a short intro game in the Omni hotel lobby which I thought went pretty well! It was good - very faerie tale stuff, though most of the guys always put their narration dice to me at first.
Dan created a dwarf named Earthson, who weilded an Artful hand-pick, was a Graceful sculptor, and possessed a Powerful earthsong which allowed him to learn where things were in relation to the ground.
Bill created an orc named Akbak, who had a Powerful two-handed sword, was a Powerful grunter (in terms of communication) and could Gracefully speak with animals.
Joe created a troll named Ruut, who weilded an Artful warhammer, was a Powerful flirt (described as overbearing but commanding), and who was an Artful shaper of earth.
I informed them that they stood within a faerie ring atop a rath which overlooked a town of humans. The blacksmith of the town had come into possession of a ring forged of moonlight and Numina, which he intended to place into an iron crown for the Baron of this place. Their job was to get it back, come what may.
In the first round, Joe wanted to take a horse’s shape to be led into the town by the humans. He rolled and assigned his dice as Narration 3 / Motion 2 / Life 1 / Safety 6. In game terms, this means that I narrate, he is blocked in motion toward his goal, he kills the humans against him and he is totally unhurt. I described how Ruut came down the fae hill in the pure white shape of a horse, but that the humans knew the legends of the Pooka, the Kelpie, and the Ghost Horse of the Hills. They surrounded him with their lances, and he struck out with his mighty hooves, smashing skull and bone in his haste to flee capture. As he had taken life, his Connection to Life dropped by a point, and Joe described how his hair now resembled the falling leaves of autumn - trailing behind him as he raced back to the top of the hill.
Dan went next, wanting to learn where the town might be unguarded with his earthsong. He rolls and assigns as 2 / 6 / 5 / 4 - I narrate, he gets exactly what he wants, nobody is killed but he is hurt in the process. After a moment’s thought, I tell him that the eastern watchtowers are guarded by drunks and fools, but as he sings to the earth an iron plow is dragged across the fileds, rending deep cuts into his arms.
On Bill’s turn, he wants to sneak close to town to attune himself to the smith’s heartbeat, that he may always know where the villain is. He rolls and assigns 3 / 6 / 3 / 3 - I narate, he gets what he wants, he hurts or kills a human and he is in turn hurt. I describe that he creeps ever closer, the heartbeat of the smith sounding like a hammer on the forge before him, but he is waylaid by hunters looking for the ghost horse. Their arrows pierce his flesh as he responds, swinging his mighty blade to cleave one in twain and driving the others away. As he’s now taken a life, he must describe some food he can no longer eat, and he responds with “squirrel.” I’m not positive this is kosher by the rules, but Bill’s having a little trouble with the round-robin scene thing so I let it pass.
Joe comes next. Now that they can follow the smith’s heartbeat, he wants to shape the earth into a tunnel that runs beneath the town and emerges in the smithy. He assigns 4 / 5 / 4 / 4, the first time any of them has taken narration on as a chore (and you’ll note he didn’t have any dice to make me narrate, either.) He explains that his arms grow weary as he tunnels, and he comes too near the surface - a farmer’s son, out carousing, breaks through the tunnel and cracks his skull upon the stones below. Ruut has just taken a second life, but that’s not enough to reduce his Connection (it progresses 1, 3, 5, etc …)
Dan, seeing how narration works, wants in on the action. He wants to intimidate the smith into showing where the ring is kept. He rolls a 5 / 6 / 3 / 5, and describes how he emerges into the iron-heavy home with a shudder and is faced with an apprentice.
I decide this narrates an introduction of Iron, and assign the apprentice a value of 2. Dan’s amenable to that, so we reduce his Motion die to 4, meaning that he is somehow blocked in his quest. Earthson splits the apprentice’s skull with his pick, his first kill and thereby activating the dwarven curse that he can no longer resist a creature comfort. To no great surprise, Dan picks Booze ; 0
He picks up a vertebrae of the apprentice and fashions a ring similar to that which the smith has. Again, by the rules this is likely unkosher, but it’s a neat scene and very faerie-tale so I allow it. He shows it to the smith, preparing for sleep, and spots the man’s eyes cut to the wooden chest at his bedside.
Bill’s turn - he wants to remove the smith from the scene. He rolls a 1 / 5 / 4 / 4; and I use the smith’s 4 Iron to reduce his Safety to 0. The smith lunges forth, declaiming the end of the Faerie Nights and the birth of Man’s Dawn. He throttles Akbak with his mighty hands, but the orc is able to take up his sword and thrust it through the man’s belly. He gains +1 radiance for killing a smith (more or less my decision, to show them how the reward mechanic works) and Bill describes how a bust of Akbak will be placed within a holy grove in the Otherworld - with gloves carved around the neck to show the danger he faced.
Joe is getting the narration bug now, so he wants to get that ring. He assigns 5 / 5 / 2 / 3, and I use the 2 Iron of the lock to reduce Safety to 1, as it’s getting later and the lads look ready to wrap up. He uses his shaping of earth to convince the chest to become a tree once more, growing strong and proud within the bloodied smithy. I love it!
But, I tell him, the foreign items are expelled. The ring he catches, but the iron lock flies forth and is embedded within his still-beating heart …
In a campaign I’d probably go on to find a way to remove the lock, but Joe was really grooving on it. Dan, I think, was reserving some thoughts until he got a little more sleep or had some time to mull them over. Bill was the hardest sell, which doesn’t surprise me. He’s a good player but I think that while he wants to influence a story, he doesn’t really want to tell one.