[BW] The Gift at JiffyCon, June 2009

[okeefe]

I ran The Gift at JiffyCon yesterday. This was my first time running Burning Wheel, although I ran Mouse Guard at the March JiffyCon to great success.

We had a full group of eight; genders changed below to reflect those of the players.

-*-

The Elves look into the throne room while the Dwarven cousins, the Narn, give increasingly elaborate gifts. When announced by the herald, the Elves stroll in, the sunlight streaming from the high windows of the hall, their fair skin and finery making them almost glow in the light. The Dwarves notice the mithril chainmail on the Elven Princess as they approach -- the Uncle and Seneschal opt to Drool. The Dwarven Prince immediately makes the suggestion that the chainmail would be a fine gift, to the horror of the Elven Princess.

After they introduce themselves, I clue in the Loremistress that she forgot the gift. The Elven Princess player overhears this, and I explain that the gift is entirely the Loremistress's responsibility.

The Princess defers to her Loremistress for the gift giving. The Loremistress spins that they will give the gift tomorrow.

The Dwarven Seneschal and Prince start a duel of wits to discuss whether this is an insult and whether they should demand the gift immediately or wait until tomorrow. With help from the Uncle and Warden, it's resolved in the Prince's favor that they wait until tomorrow: he's annoyed that the Seneschal would bother him on such a matter and reiterates that he's the one in charge here! After looking at his sheet, the Prince closes the scene by requesting the Elves' appearance, if they wish, in the gaming room for some gambling later. While they discuss the topic of Dwarven games, the Elven Ranger uses the Threne to move up and whisper a message to the Warden that he'd like to speak with her, privately. The Uncle notices him there, but none of the other Dwarves do.

There's a quick interluding scene where the Warden and guards escort the Elves to their rooms. The Ranger, wanting to start some trouble, privately claims to the Warden that they were ambushed on the way to the Hold and the gift was stolen by "someone you know."

The Warden, picking up on this, starts a rumor in the Hold that the Seneschal ambushed the Elves for the gift. As the game progresses, this rumor is slowly picked up by the Dwarves: Uncle, Prince, then finally the Seneschal, who eventually traces the rumor back to the Warden. (The Elves completely fail to overhear this rumor.)

At the game room, the Uncle Oxen attempt to liquor up the Elves. The Elves share some mirrorwine. Most everyone is involved in games of chance of little consequence...

The Elven Ranger uses the Threne again to leave the game room. He finds the Seneschal's room and his knife, stabs himself with it twice leaving blood all over it, then replaces it. Nigh-simultaneously, the Warden tells a Dwarven guard to steal some items from the Elven rooms (which ends up being some Pointy Elven Shoes) and place them in the Seneschal's room. While the Ranger is leaving the Seneschal's room, he gets to watch this happen.

The Ranger sneaks back into the game room and that scene ends. The Dwarf guard reports success to the Warden, who then escorts the Elves back to their rooms and asks to speak with the Ranger privately. The Warden then leads the Ranger into an unused room, closes the door, pulls her axe and makes a surprise attack. First Fight! The Ranger scripts several Withdraw/Avoids while Opening the Door, and (spending artha) manages to escape without getting hit!

Neither the Ranger nor the Warden mention this to anyone! Out of character, everyone knows the fight occurred, but no one knew about any of the earlier dealings, as it was handled via note passing.

The Uncle picks up on the rumor about the Seneschal. He eventually reports it to his Prince. Shortly thereafter, the Warden also relates this rumor. The Prince and Warden go to the Seneschal's room to look for evidence (the Prince's idea!). They find the shoes and bloody dagger. The Prince pockets both, swears the Warden to secrecy, and they leave. In the halls nearby, they run into the Seneschal, and the Prince and Seneschal confer privately about the rumor and issues of trust.

At some point, the Seneschal also confronts that Warden about the rumor (without letting on that he knows she's the source) but the Warden player, with a straight poker face, claims not to know anything about it. The Seneschal orders the Hold's servants to arm themselves(!) and pair up with the Dwarven guards, which they grudgingly do.

The Elves retire to their room and develop increasingly more elaborate plans on what to do. At one point, the Ranger suggests giving the Loremistress as the gift! The Loremistress wants to know more about their visit and the newly crowned Prince. She eventually pieces together a more-or-less correct history of the Uncle's retrieval of the crown from Orcs. "Ah ha!", they think, "This is someone we can trust!" The Captain and the Loremistress cook up a backstory that the gift was going to be a retrieval of the crown, but that the Uncle beat them to it. They send one of the Dwarven guards to ask for a private meeting with the Uncle, who accepts, and the Captain and Loremistress meet in the kitchens where the Uncle is cooking. The Uncle sings to them his story about the retrieval of the crown, and the Elves are greatly moved by it.

The next morning, they meet again in the throne room. It's not clear if the Elven Princess was ever told the crown retrieval backstory, but she ends up confessing that they have no gift. After much bickering, the Dwarven Prince orders everyone out of the room except the Princess, who agrees and orders the other Elves out.

Choice quote from the Prince, incredulous, wanting to believe the Princess but not quite believing: "Why would you come without a gift, unless you wanted to die?!"

The Prince claims he will not be satisfied unless blood is shed, and he is angry that there is someone among the Dwarves that is clearly out to get him. The Prince and Princess agree that there should be a duel, where each picks the other's champion, to satisfy the Prince (and perhaps flush out the Dwarven traitor).

They invite everyone else back into the throne room and share this plan, which outrages everyone else. The Dwarves pick the Elven Captain (they don't trust the disappearing Ranger), and the Elves pick the Uncle whom they trust to be honorable. Terms are agreed: no armor, only weapons are to be knives, and the end condition requires both blood and surrender (or death). The Captain complains that blood has already been drawn against him (shows off his wounds) and that he has been defeated by the Dwarves (does not mention explicitly that he fought and fled the Warden) and then surrenders, but this doesn't satisfy the Prince, who demands the duel. Another choice quote, this time from the Princess: "The duel between my Captain and your Uncle [should settle things]." The fight is the next morning. During the night, the Warden passes a note to the Captain that he should kill off the Uncle for the good of both the Elves and the Dwarves.

The morning of the duel. Combat is scripted.

The Captain, concerned that killing the Uncle would lead to war (and Grief 10), scripts Let 'em Come / Surrender across all volleys! Completely independently, the Uncle has scripted the same!

The Dwarven Prince gets upset that no blood was shed, which is required before the surrender!

A new exchange is scripted.

The Captain scripts to stab himself and surrender in the first volley! Independently, the Uncle has scripted the same!

The Prince and Princess start arguing about what this all means, when the Warden throws her axe at the Princess -- which is deflected by her awesome mithril armor. Not knowing what's going on, the Prince, Warden, Princess, Captain, Ranger, and Loremistress(!) script for Fight!

This ends up with the Princess Avoiding, the other Elves scripting Block to defend the Princess, and the Prince and Warden duking it out! The Prince scripts to Draw axe, Strike, and Push; the Warden opts to Strike with fists (since she's now weaponless) and Disarm. The Prince loses his axe while knocking the Warden to the ground. The next exchange, the Warden gets up while the Prince retrieves his axe. As players, we determine that the Prince can't easily hurt the Warden because his weapons skill isn't so hot, and the Warden can't easily hurt the Prince without a weapon, so after another exchange, guards come and restrain the Warden.

The Captain produces the note that the Warden wrote asking that he kill the Uncle, but the Prince is not convinced that the Captain is doing this with the best of intentions. The Warden blurts out everything as she is carried away, which satisfies the Prince that he's found his traitor.

In closing, the Warden gets beheaded, and the Elves' promise to return with a suitable gift is accepted by the Prince.

[luke]

Did everyone have fun?

[okeefe]

Did everyone have fun?

Every player had their moment to shine during the game and got to see how their actions directly affected what happened next.

One of the notes to me during the game included, "This game is fucking awesome!" Two had played BW before, one related, "It was definitely my best experience with the game ever." Another player who had heard of BW said, "Duel of Wits kicks all the ass it was promised to!"

I think everyone had a blast, Luke.