Roleplaying Games in the Classroom Trenches, Part One: The Challenge

Periodically, I run across blog posts and articles waxing poetic about the educational value of rpgs and about how they should be used in the classroom. While I’m sympathetic to such articles, they’ve typically suffered from being thick on the idealism side of the scale and thin on the practical, “rubber-hits-the-road” side. Gamers can point out a LARP school in Denmark, and we can learn from those experiences, but a 90-student boarding efterskole is a far cry from your bustling high school in the United States.

What follows here is a work-in-progress report from the front lines of teaching in America. Rather than extolling the potential of rpgs in the classroom, I want to zoom in on some actual experiences, take stock of what I’ve learned, and point the way to future prospects. For ease of reading, I’m breaking the report into three separate posts:

• Part 1 The challenge
• Part 2: The experiment
• Part 3: The club

From my vantage point, the classroom provides a vast, unexplored territory for rpgs, which makes it both exciting and daunting from a game design standpoint. It is so very easy to talk about the educational merit of rpgs: They can provide an immersive experience in a way that reading a book or listening to a lecture cannot; they can involve creative problem-solving on a sophisticated level; they can help to develop the players’ powers of imagination; and the list goes on. If we can figure out how to design rpgs that are accessible to teachers and that enrich the classroom experience, we would uncover a new path to reach and educate students, and these games in turn would encounter a largely untapped audience of young minds eager for enriching experiences which few other art forms can rival.

Lest we get carried away, however, it might be best to begin with our feet grounded in reality. Let me play the devil’s advocate and give you just five reasons why your typical roleplaying game is NOT a good fit for the classroom.

• Most roleplaying games are designed for small, intimate groups typically ranging from 3-6 players. The high school classroom is usually much larger. In my school (a private prep school), I’m working with around 18 students on average, and in some high schools the number can easily be 30 or 35 students.
• In the classroom, students are not volunteering to play the game. I teach English, which is a required core subject. My students have not chosen to be in my course; they are in there first and foremost because it is a graduation requirement.
• Roleplaying games involve intrinsic motivation, and the goal of play is typically created by the gamemaster and the players. By contrast, because of the setup of the educational systems, students are motivated above all by grades and assessments.
• The vast majority of students are new to roleplaying games, so the entire experience is one that requires careful guidance, regulation, and advice.
• The typical class lasts somewhere from 45 minutes (on a regular schedule) to 90 minutes (on a “block” schedule). The actual time for play is actually going to be less once you take into account attendance, announcements, and other matters of the daily routine. By contrast, a typical roleplaying game session lasts from three to four hours.

To state the obvious: Most roleplaying games are explicitly NOT created for the classroom environment. In fact, there is much about the usual design of these games that makes them foreign—even antithetical— to that kind of context. Imagine forcing a group of 25 self-conscious adolescents to play Dungeons and Dragons with minimal instruction during a 45-minute session in a class where they are getting a grade. I would need a 10th level barbarian just to maintain order!

So how does one confront this challenge?

During the final stretch of the fall semester, I ran an original roleplaying game based on the Anglo-Saxon world of Beowulf in my ninth grade English classes (three-sections worth).

I decided quite early that I had to rely upon my own inventiveness and forge my own path. There are some games like Diplomacy and Microscope which can be effectively modified for the classroom, but those games are few and far between. Moreover, I, as a teacher in a core subject, have specific content and curriculum requirements that I must meet, and my classroom activities need to work in conjunction with my educational objectives. I knew that I would be teaching the Old English epic Beowulf sometime in the middle of the year, and I felt that text would offer some rich material for a roleplaying and problem-solving game for my students. Yes, games inspired by Beowulf do exist, but none of those are appropriate for classroom use. So I devoted part of my summer to designing an original game—one that couldnaddress the special demands of the classroom and breathe some new life into the Old English epic.

I’m happy to share the full rules of my work-in-progress, titled Becoming Beowulf, to interested parties (just ask!), but, to keep things short, here is the basic outline of the game:

• Students are divided into Anglo-Saxon tribes, each of which is ruled by a king.
• The tribes have traits (Treasure, Resources, Mead-Hall, Loyalty, Strength, Will) which they can draw upon to deal with various crises. The values of these traits fluctuate during the game.
• The gamemaster (called Wyrd in the game) reads a card detailing a problem which each tribe must deal with. The groups then retreat to their mead-halls to discuss how they will face the situation. This involves allocating trait points to the task and framing up a scene where they will roleplay some aspect of the tribe’s response.
• Based upon their response, their point allocation, and their roleplaying, each tribe builds a dice pool. A dice roll then figures prominently into the outcome of the crisis. Tribes accumulate points of Doom and Fame as a result of these resolutions. In addition, they can lose or gain points to their traits.
• Occasionally, tribe members are eliminated due to battle, hardship, or other nasty events. Those students become members of the monstrous Grendelkin tribe. This tribe can then use the other tribes’ Doom points against them to spoil their efforts to deal with the crises they face.

The game design aims at creating a rhythm: Students spend some intense minutes in their smaller tribes discussing and planning their response to a crisis, and then the entire class comes together to watch the framed scenes and to determine the outcome. It also works to keep students active: No one is ever eliminated from the game, and the small size of the tribes means that everyone can play a vital role.

I initially thought I would use this game alongside our reading of Beowulf or as a fun post-reading activity. The more I thought about the game, however, the more I feared that students would be swayed by the epic and simply replay the responses and events of that narrative. I didn’t want the game to turn into a shallow practice in imitation.

So I zagged: My students played Becoming Beowulf as a preparation to reading the text itself (which will occur in a couple weeks at the start of the second semester). Now, when students encounter the epic, they will read about situations which they previously faced as players in the game. Often, they are going to discover that the characters and tribes in the epic took very different approaches than the solutions tried out in Becoming Beowulf. That should open up some rich discussions about the strategic, cultural, and dramatic situations that factored into those differences.

In a traditional book, the path of the narrative is set by the author and the reader has no choice but to follow along. But the openended nature of the roleplaying game means that the players can explore alternative pathways, and these can give them some valuable alternative perspectives when analyzing narratives. I will be heavily exploiting this resource in the coming weeks. When, for example, we read about Hrothgar offering asylum Beowulf’s outcast father, my students will not see this act of charity as given or inevitable, for they will have already explored different ways in which a tribe might deal with a foreign fugitive seeking help. That, at least, is the idea.

How did Becoming Beowulf fare on the actual field of battle? For that assessment, read on to Part 2: The Experiment.

Demihumans Session 8: An Unexpected Alliance with Orcs and a Two-Front War

Session Opening: Establishing Questions and Moves

I opted to open the session as I did our last one with some establishing questions. That means, after the commonweal move, I asked each member of the company to provide some information about the enclave, their activities, and notable events. Each question was followed by a modified move. Here are my notes for the questions and the accompanying modified move.

• Zuk the troll: Ugluk (orc) and the other halflings whom Ugluck had saved are hanging out in the orchard glen. What do they do to show their deep bond with you and how have you reciprocated? (Intimately share knowledge with Ugluk). 
• Neris the halfling: Jasmine (the halfling family matriarch) has returned with the other halflings who had apparently fallen under the power . What was the reaction of the halfling clan when she returned (fathom a soul).
• Kane: What is the latest visible sign that human antipathy is on the rise? (assess a situation)
• Donna: Breevane (a dwarven follower of Wycraft) visited you when you returned and explained his concern: What was he concerned about? (compel honor)

I like this way of getting the ball rolling. It helps to refresh the memories of the players, it gets them thinking about their role in creating the fiction, and it has them working their moves from the start.

An Unanticipated Company Strategy

The company started by meeting up the tavern--which is also the headquarters in the enclave for the makeshift militia organized by Donna (the dwarf). The company is facing a curious two-front war: The humans are becoming visibly restless and dangerous, and Wycraft (a mysterious elf) has some powerful magic, but it is warping and twisting the natural order. Wycraft is monomaniacal in her hatred for humans, but she is willing to destroy the natural order to satisfy her hatred.

The decision they made was surprising: They decided to try to forge some type of alliance with the orcs ruled by a seasoned chieftain named Madoc Torg. One strategy that I am learning to use more and more: When I don't know what to do as a GM, I turn responsibility over to the company. For example, when the company entered the orc camp (which I had no notes for), I asked them to describe various facets of what their characters saw.

This was a session where there was plenty of discussion and debate. The brief summary of developments:

• The orcs have sealed a blood promise with the company to assist in keeping Wycraft in check.
• The company (finally!) used their boon of the library and has discovered a possible way to use Wycraft’s magic elven stones against her.
• BUT . . . to do this, they need an elven mage, and they decided to attempt to resurrect Eforis Nei (a previous member of the company who is an elf). The resurrection involved using some residual magic from some of Wycraft’s animal mutilations, some orc blood magic (courtesy of Kane the traitor) and, to stir the pot even more, Zuk the Troll used a fruiting bodies move.

So Eforis Nei now is returning to health, and he will be handled now as a Demiurge character. Eforis Nei now has both elements of Wycraft’s evil magic coursing in his veins, but there is also some of the troll’s magic at work (and the troll has some different strong magic coursing through his sap in the form of a strange pseudo-sentient algae).

Demiurge Concerns and Plans:

My sense of these sessions is that there is a kind of oscillation: It seems like we get one session (like this one) which is more about making plans and others which are more about the heavy-hitting action. The planning sessions are intriguing: The players get deeply into the roleplaying and the deep consideration of different angles. They are the type of sessions which probably come off poorly on camera, but there is so much complex thought that I find them satisfying and engaging.

I sometimes worry about the players, however. I enjoy philosophy, ethical dilemmas, and other heady material, but so many people get into RPGs for the action. One thing that softens this concern for me is how the spotlight was getting so equally shared. During the session, I was consciously tuning into how much “screen time” the characters were getting, and it was remarkable how everyone what participating, taking the spotlight, but then also generously pacing the spotlight onto another player.

I was also happy to see how the collaboration was working. When the company met in the tavern at the start of the game, I had some possibilities in mind in case they didn’t run with the ball, but I was both surprised (and very happy) when the company obviated my possibilities and went in an unexpected direction by going back to the orcs. All of us were improvising on the spot, and the session ended at a destination that none of us could have predicted.

What now? The sense is clearly that there is a three-way showdown building where the company will be squaring off with Wycraft and the humans. An analogy would be that famous scene in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly--the one where Blondie, Tuco, and Angel Eyes engage in a three-way shootout in a cemetery. It’s exciting that I’m not sure exactly where the story will go. To add one more wrinkle, I’m thinking of throwing in a little climatological drama into the mix (in the form of a hurricane). And it's probably time to bring Squire Prador and the mounting human antipathy into focus. But aside from that, it will be up to the company to decide how they want to proceed with their two-front war.

Things seem to be building to some type of apocalyptic moment for our next session. There are so many things that are hanging in the balance.

Demihumans Session 7: The Swamp Chimera: Ally or Menace?

After a two-week hiatus, I had four players reconvene for another session of Demihumans on Sunday.
The main focus of the play became a fateful meeting with Wycraft, a mysterious elven mage. It became apparent as the play progressed that Wycraft wants to take the fight to the humans of Florageist, but to do so, Wycraft is warping the magic of the swamp. So the characters of the company faced a major dilemma: Do they join forces with Wycraft (thus harnessing that powerful magic), or do they oppose her (and hence make another enemy)? No easy choices!

The session ended in dramatic fashion with Wycraft revealing a large, dangerous Swamp Chimera, a monstrosity cobbled together from pieces of bear, alligator, snake, and other creatures. Wycraft is monomaniacal and was insisting that the members of the company (along with many members of the Neris the halfling’s family) join in a pact. Surprisingly, it was Donna (dwarf) who was most in favor of joining forces with Wycraft. But, in the end, Zuk the troll used Garden Pathways to spirit away the members of the company and a couple halflings. This left many other halflings, including their family matriarch, to deal with Wycraft and her Swamp Chimera on their own.

One other twist: Ugluk, a half-orc who was healed by Zuk’s Fruiting Bodies move and who now has the strange pseudo-sentient algae inhabiting her body, was involved in the action. She told Zuk to leave her behind to assist with the Wycraft situation, and, as the company fled Wycraft, they saw Ugluk running to some of the halflings and wiping some of the algae from her shoulder wound across their faces.

A few notable game play situations and recommendations:

Given the fact that we were coming back after a hiatus, I thought it would be nice to have players fill in on some developments that had been transpiring with their characters or the enclave. So, after the session preliminaries and the commonweal move, I had each player make a pseudo-custom move (involving a roll with modifiers) to explain developments. For example, Donna explained what she had been doing to help train the enclave members who had taken the Adamantine Pact. She failed her roll, by the way, and this resulted in one of those Adamantine Pact members falling into the party with Wycraft. The traitor, meanwhile, got to explain what was happening as a result of Human Antipathy increasing and got to ask some “Assess the Situation” style questions about what the humans were doing. This procedure got everyone immediately involved in the game play, and it helped to set some themes and stories in motion.

I’ve noticed that the boons, banes, and wants are not consistently coming into play. Players should be reminded of their boons at the start of the session. Even with that notification, they still are forgetting their boons. Here’s what I’m going to do next session: I’m going to remind them of the boons and then note that they are constantly forgetting them in play. The solution? I’m going to suggest that they look for opportunities to use them early in the session: Even if a boon was used for a minor advantage, that would be preferable than not using it at all.

As a demiurge, I’ve been much better at using the wants and banes that are more dramatic. In our next session, I’m going to do the following: For each want and ban in play, I’m either going to state the cost of that bane/want at the very start of the game play OR I’m going to think of the want or bane as a kind of move. I’m even going to consider asking a player exactly how a bane/want is manifesting itself in the enclave and how that directly impacts the members of the company.

One thing that is working well: There is so much drama being generated from the fact that the enclave has different factions with very different ideas about how to deal with the humans. If the demiurge does some good work at establishing some political intrigue and ethical dilemmas at the start, the game will flourish and the players will be faced with some deeply probing dilemmas. By the end of yesterday’s session, I had players jumping out of their seats, pacing, and knocking over chairs--all of this in a good way. They were thrilled with the complex choices that were continuing to bud and blossom.

The special moves are high points of the game play, but they do not get used often. The basic moves are doing their work, but part of me would like to see those special class moves more frequently. The plus side is that those class moves are very special when they are used, and the players are invested in giving them added meaning and import which is quite satisfying and dramatic.

Despite the impression of some of my players, I don’t know where the fiction will take us, but the game continues to generate a level of thoughtfulness and complexity that I have seldom encountered in an RPG. I had my doubts as to whether my play group would go for Demihumans with its melancholic tone, but they are energized by what the game is generating in terms of both the game play situations and in terms of the story.

Robert Bohl's Demihumans Playtest :Session 6 Competing Magics Mystify the Company

+Robert Bohl's Demihumans Playtest :Session 6
Competing Magics Mystify the Company

The Flower of Human Antipathy sheds another petal, and the Company doesn’t know what magic to
trust!

The Company has sparked some of the demihumans of Bilgeton to prepare for a more direct and violent encounter with the humans from Florageist. The tavern at the center of the enclave has become the headquarters. During the start of this tale, the imprisonment of the elf Eforis-Nei (who is in the clutch of the cruel Squire Prador) was foremost in the company’s mind

The company drew upon the help of Neris, a young female halfling whose family is involved in petty burglaries in Florageist. (Neris is a new character being played by the player who had been playing Eforis-Nei). Neris and her family live in a particularly run-down section of the enclave, and she has a curiously close relationship to Zuk the troll (Neris is helping to raise a human orphan named Lily, and Zuk periodically takes Lily on outings into the swamp).

Zuk, Neris, and two other halflings set out to invade the barracks prison where Eforis Nei is being held. There are clear indications that a major storm (a literal tropical storm) is in the process of ramping up as they set out.  As they approach the building, Zuk’s pseudo-sentient algae radiates some vague type of unease. Neris uses “assess the situation” and gets a reading on the probable location of the prison, but also suspects that something strange is up in the barracks, which is oddly quiet. The three halflings make their way up to the second floor, and they discover a number of soldiers unconscious. Making their way to the prison, they discover the cell of Eforis-Nei open. Inside, she discovers Wycraft, a mysterious elf, who is engaged in some type of strange magic. Eforis-Nei is seated on the floor, but non-responsive.

Meanwhile, Zuk is waiting out in the swamp (using Unseen Sentinel). Ugluk, a half-orc female, appears on the scene: She is weak and delirious. Ugluk had previously been severely injured by Kain the Traitor, and was on the point of death, but had been healed by Zuk’s Fruiting Bodies move. Zuk makes itself visible, and notices that the large wound in Zuk’s shoulder is now inhabited by a colony of glowing pseudo-sentient algae--the same type of algae that Zuk treasures and keeps secured in its mouth. Zuk feels the algae she holds radiating a sense of rightness, and suspects the colony is a result of the Fruiting Bodies move.

Neris talks to Wycraft who says that she is there to free Eforis Nei, and that she has been successful. “Eforis-Nei is free and will always be with us,” she says. She then asks Neris and the other halflings to join her and to exit. Neris (using Fathom a Soul) feels that Wycraft is being genuine, but also realizes that there is much that is being left unsaid or unexplained. Wycraft seems intently interested in establishing some affinity or trust with Neris.

Neris meets up with Zuk, but Zuk’s algae prickles at the appearance of Wycraft. Neris, meanwhile, is quite suspicious of the half-orc with a colony of glowing algae sprouting from her shoulder wound. Other members of the company had previously been suspicious of Zuk's attachment to a magical algae. The tropical storm continues to build  . .  .that can’t be good for an enclave mired in a swamp, can it?

Robert Bohl's Demihumans: Session 5 Adamantine Pact Fails, Then Widens Its Scope

+Robert Bohl's Demihumans: Session 5
Adamantine Pact Fails, Then Widens Its Scope

As the demiurge, I encountered a gordian knot in this session. Here were the factors at play which put
me in a difficult situation (Note: to fully understand, you might need to read the summary of the session that follows):

1. There was an Adamantine Pact in effect: A rag-tag group of ~20 demihumans agreed to defend Eforis Nei’s abode, but not to do anything stupid in carrying out this defense.

2. One bane of the enclave is that “one of the company may have a demand made upon him by the patron (Squire Prador) or his agents once this tale.” This bane was directed at Eforis Nei. (So this bane is in tension with the Adamantine Pact.)

3. When Squire Prador appeared to alert the elf that he needed to appear at an inquest,  I didn’t predict the encounter would escalate the way it did due to Eforis Nei’s diamond refusal to give Prador any satisfaction.

4.Squire Prador’s personal appearance would have been a surprise to the enclave, and it’s not like the enclave demihumans are trained military. Opposing him would have meant violence, and it would have mostly been violence between demihuman characters.

5. Donna the Dwarf (the origin of the Adamantine Pact) was not personally present to direct the demihumans.

Quite the conundrum! I’m still not sure whether I played this out correctly. My compromise was eventually to let Squire Prador have his way, but the demihumans were chastened by Donna due to their refusal to follow through on the Pact. Now I’ve allowed the Pact to have a more broad effect in favor of the Company, especially when Donna is around to direct the demihumans. Those under the influence of the pact are ashamed of their behavior and will go above and beyond to make up for their cowardice.

The company was not as vigorous in seeking to use moves. I’m not sure why this is. As the demiurge, I kept trying to give them opportunities, but there were many situations when they didn’t take the bait, and I was reluctant directly to tell them, “Why don’t you consider a ‘Fathom a Soul’ move. Note to Demiurges:  Be sure to emphasize the use of moves at the start of the session! Players need to plant that idea and hold onto it. I’m going to put this in my beginning-of-session matters that I cover at the start of every session. The players need consciously to think of seizing opportunities to make moves. I’m also going to suggest that they think of “intimately sharing culture” moves and using those as opportunities to create custom cross-cultural moves.

Eforis Nei the Elf was inflexible in his refusal to give any ground to Squire Prador and the humans. In practical terms, this landed him in jail, and it also derailed the attempt of the other company members to enact a prisoner exchange. This was frustrating on one level, but also illuminating of a dilemma faced by those who are marginalized: Do you keep stooping to humiliations for strategic reasons, or do you at some point stand up without backing down? I tried to give Eforis Nei chances to stay or get out of jail, but all those chances involved giving some type of concession to the humans, and he wasn’t willing to cave in.

Here's a full breakdown of the key events:

Battle Aftermath

Zug the Troll retreated into the swamp after the battle with the orchid-raiding Orcs (perhaps to meditate, perhaps to track down Burz the half-orc). Donna the Dwarf and Kain the Traitor had an extended conversation, weighing their options. Initially, they were going to split the magical orchids they had found with Verik Tork with the agreement that they would be sold on the black market for a profit rather than destroyed. But after a more careful weighing of Verik Torg (using a move) they figured that that course would be dangerous due to Verik’s untrustworthiness. They finally agreed to stay the night and then to walk with the two wounded orcs (Verik Tork and Ugluk) to the enclave.

Eforis Nei the Elf Jailed

Before Donna and Kain arrive, Squire Prador descended on Eforis Nei’s (the elf) home with an armed squad. He told Eforis Nei that there was an inquest being held tomorrow morning. The elf was suspected of some mysterious, possibly magical attacks occuring against humans. Eforis Nei refused to give his assurance that he would appear, and when Squire Prador had his men move to put him in shackles, he attacked with Eldritch Might. This escalated the conflict. The Squire was losing his cool, and it became apparent to Eforis Nei that continued escalation would put other people in the enclave at risk, so he eventually agreed to go off with the Squire and his squad.

The Dwarf and the Traitor Confront Squire Prador

Donna and Kain return and hear what has happened, and Donna criticizes the demihumans for falling back on the Adamantine Pact that was sealed (more on this quandary and inconsistency later). They had a lengthy conversation of what to do. Finally, they decided to go to the army barracks in the city of Florageist with a battalion of demihumans who were feeling shame from having let Eforis Nei down. They plot was to spill the beans on Verik Torg and Ugluck: They would let Squire Prador know that the orcs were destroying magic orchids instead of harvesting them for humans to use. Prador was intrigued by the news. The dwarf and traitor said the elf prisoner (Eforis Nei) would corroborate their account. But when the Squire went to speak to Eforis Nei at his cell, Eforis Nei attacked him with more Eldritch Might and he piled on the insults! Squire Prador returned to the dwarf and traitor, trying to regain his composure. He turned them away without exchanging prisoners, and he’s going to increase the stress placed on Eforis Nei.

Orc Chieftain Appears

At the close of the session, Madoc Torg appeared. He is the chieftain of an ancient orc clan which lives in the swamp. Madoc wanted to retrieve his son Verik, but he was  also ashamed of his son for selling magic orchids to humans. He’s also not happy that Verik was on an orchid-destroying mission. Madoc realizes that nature magic is under assault, and he is disturbed by his son’s involvement. He ended up having a private conversation with Kain the Traitor. While the two have been enemies in the past, Madoc knows that Kain holds orc blood, and he was eager to exchange information. There are signs of evil magic on the rise. Kain let him know of Wycraft, a mysterious elf in the swamp, who may hold the key to some of these developments.

We agreed to carry over the session next Sunday. It’s fair to say that human antipathy will be on the rise. It’s also fair to say that the orc clan and the mysterious elven mage will be figuring into next Sunday’s game.

Robert Bohl's Demihumans Playtest: Session 4 A Magic Orchid Raid Turns Violent

+Robert Bohl's Demihumans Playtest: Session 4
A Magic Orchid Raid Turns Violent

After a more tame, focused session last week, today's tale brought plenty of fireworks and dramatic
turns. In attendance were Kain the Traitor, Donna the Dwarf, and Zug the Troll. At the end of the mayhem, the Flower of Human Antipathy withered a petal, the enclave united behind the Company, and a heady brew of dark magic was uncovered in the swamp.

The Company was able to dip into a number of special moves: Endless Fury (orc move), Fruiting Bodies (troll move), Garden Pathways (troll move) and Adamantine Pact (dwarf move) were all activated. I feel that the Demiurge and players need to be in sync to make those moves maximally effective in terms of the fiction.

We did a pretty good job of this with 3 out of 4 of those moves. The one that I fumbled on was Fruiting Bodies, and this was mainly because it was used at the end of the session, and there were two characters in need of healing. The move ended up seeming too much like a D&D cleric healing spell than something really special, which it should be. I might add some pseudo-house rule make sure that the "invoking the unreal" moves count for more. It was cool that it was the troll player herself who brought up this at the end of the session.

Garden Pathways, Adamantine Pact, and Endless Fury were all dramatic and full of spice.

Key developments:

Donna (dwarf) and Zug (troll) were awoken in the very early morning to the sounds of screams coming from the edge of the enclave. They met a halfling and his companion, who led them into the swamp. There, they came upon the mutilated hanging corpse of a giant snake whose body muscle had been removed. There were burn marks laying about and the signs of evil magic. Donna was able to spot some polished stones resembling those worn by a mysterious elven woman magician named Wycraft.

The troll ended up fleeing the scene using Garden Pathways (this was in part the result of a negative reaction from the semi-sentient algae life form she keeps on a rock under her tongue). She rolled a 7, and chose to leave something unwanted behind. This "unwanted thing" ended up being an unnatural grey and cancerous tree growing in the center of the scene where the giant snake's corpse was hanging.

Donna (dwarf) returned to the enclave and awakened Kain (traitor) about Wycraft. The traitor knows the elf lives somewhere deep in the swamp. He advised the dwarf to join him later in the day to set out with an orc named Verik Torg who is leading a magic orchid hunting expedition which will take them deep in the swamp.

Still in the morning, a posse of humans appeared in front of the home of Eforis Nei (elf). They reported a brutal attack that has occurred on two humans (one of whom was killed), and they are convinced that evil magic is at work. (Note: the commonweal move resulted in the want of "horrors" being active.) They were wanting to take vengance on the elf. The members of the Company appeared and, using some Coerce with Violence moves, they got the posse to leave . . . but with threats of letting Squire Prador of the human army know!

The Company set out with Verik Torg and two half-orc women on an expedition to destroy magic orchids. When they came across an especially rich growth of the rare orchids, however, the troll sensed the wrongness of destroying the magic, even if it would make the area less appealing to humans. The company got into a heated, testy debate (the best kind, with good-spirited role playing in full force).The troll and the traitor ultimately turned against the orc and half-orcs while the dwarf reluctantly joined in. The session ended with a dramatic battle, two severely wounded orcs/half-orcs, and the large magical orchids saved.

Robert Bohl's Demihumans: Session 3 Squire Prador Blackmails a Gnome

+Robert Bohl's Demihumans: Session 3
Squire Prador Blackmails a Gnome

I had two player's for our last session, and the events involved the introduction of Squire Prador, a
cruel, sadistic military leader (Demiuge character) who has been given charge of monitoring the enclave of Bilgeton. The scenes of the session have set up some intrigue: The Company learned that there is a psychodelic mushroom drug of unknown origins (it is not manufactured by the Company's gnome) being used in the enclave , and Prador is using that drug (and its nasty side effects) to blackmail the gnome. Specifically, Prador is requiring the gnome to devote resources to fighting a swamp fever that is infecting humans.

There was some nice interplay between the Company's gnome and dwarf. The gnome used her Polymorphic Corpus move to become trollish, but in so doing, she required the Dwarf's artisan-adept hands to help manipulate lab equipment. The use of that move was gratuitous to some extent, but it set up some good role playing moments.

I was working as the Demiurge to give the Dwarf opportunities to use some of her moves to rally some forces together (I mentioned on a number of occasions that there was a sizeable enclave crowd), but the player of the dwarf is somewhat reserved, so she's taking some prompting to fit into her dwarf leader mode. I do think she's primed to step up to the plate in our next session.

Our next session is set to have all the players of the Company in attendance, so there will be some developments along multiple fronts.

A more complete breakdown of last Sunday's session is below:

Last week, Donna the Dwarf and Sansi the Gnome were attending to a halfling adolescent named Nob. He was suffering the effects of some type of mushroom drug that has psychotropic powers. Nob's father supplies mushrooms of various types to Sansi (and in addition harvests edible mushrooms for sale). The mushroom in questions, however, is not one that Sansi uses (though Sansi does know about that variety). Sansi used her Polymorphic Corpus move that allowed her to transform into a troll.

During the drug investigation session (with Donna serving as a lab assistant because troll hands are not so adept with fiine motor activities), Squire Prador showed up. He effectively bribed Donna: He threatened to spread news that Sansi was the origin of the mushroom that caused the negative effect on Nob and he suggested that there have been other negative reactions happening in Bilgeton. He has forced Sansi to turn her attention to finding a drug to help humans with outbreaks of swamp fever, and in return, Squire Prador will hold off on spreading the news that Sansi is supplying dangerous addictive drugs to Bilgeton. Squire Prador seems to have knowledge of many things about this drug situation (How does he know so much?), and he is cruel and sadistic. Sansi ended transforming back to her Gnome form (which was grotesque and somewhat terrifying), but Prador looked upon that transformation as an amusing, entertaining Gnome trick.

So the Company is set up for some confrontation with Squire Prador. There is some drug intrigue on the radar . . . and there is that evil magic involving the mutilation of an alligator lurking in the wings.

Demihumans: Session 2 A Multiated Alligator and Pseudo-Sentient Algae

Demihumans: Session 2
A Multiated Alligator and
Pseudo-Sentient Algae

I completed the second play test session of +Robert Bohl's Demihumans, and the game has produced some story lines that cut deep.

The game of Go has taught me to pay close attention to fuseki (a Go term referring to the very opening moves). As the Demiurge, I have been deliberate in the world building and the set-up of the enclave--both because I want to get the game right and because I know that work will pay off royally in the development of compelling story lines.

So, in our three-hour session yesterday, we didn't get the actual stories rolling until the very end. We had a new player (and thus a new character) to add to the mix, which took some time. Also, in our first session, we had not yet gone through the boons and complications of the enclave. This actually turned out to be fortunate, as Rob was doing some further tweaks of those options, which we were able to incorporate into our game play.

I also made some clarifications of the rules, and the traitor made a few modifications. A note: While not required, the traitor should probably decide if she wants to play as a human or if she wishes to work with the moves another rulebook. If the latter, then I would suggest going all-in.

After those preliminaries, we took a break, and that left about 1.5 hours to begin our tale in earnest. If you are planning to run Demihumans in some type of campaign mode (as we are), I would suggest a 3.5-4 hour opening session, and alert the players that that initial session will be devoted to the world building, character creation, and enclave creation.

In terms of the opening developments of our first tale, real fireworks were lit. They botched their opening Commonweal roll out of the gate, so they knew there would be some difficulties to face.

I had the sun rise on the enclave of Bligeton on an early work-week morning. Each player explained what their characters were doing, and this then allowed me to group the Company together in pairs.

Here is what happened:

The dwarf and troll ran into a brutally desecrated body of a giant alligator (dark magic is in play for the enclave). The troll, who has empty eye sockets, licked the carcass in an "assess the situation" move (rolling a 7): It picked up on the dark magic, but doing so also negatively affected a pulsating, glowing algae she keeps in a cavity in her jaw. It is her precious thing (I can't believe the player didn't think through that lick)! The algae is some type of pseudo-sentient life form (think Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach wierdness), and has responded in odd and unexpected ways to a troll "fruiting bodies" move and an elven "mind whisper" move. The player (my daughter) initially thought the algae idea to be a humorous addition . . . but it's turning out to be much more serious and consequential.

The traitor and elf were approached by an orc (demiurge npc) orchid hunter. Orchids are being harvested and used by the humans because they contain remnants of magic. The "hunter" had a deep-seated animosity for the humans, and, with the help of the traitor and elf, he's planning to secretly destroy orchids on his next expedition and hence make the area much less valuable to humans. The traitor and elf have agreed to help. (The elf has not yet realized the devil's deal he has made, since he has agreed to destroy precious magic in the land.)

The traitor was in a bar when a halfling adolescent went through a seizure. The traitor (using "assess the situation") noticed flecks of some viscous purple substance in the sputum of boy, and he's now taking the halfling (still unconscious) to the company's gnome (who manufactures drugs) and is being followed by the adolescents' companions. This story line is working into a want of the tribe which involves illegal fencing.

There's some rich world building and character creation going on: This is a game that involves a lot of opening thought. But I think I have this thing firmly on the rails. I was impressed that those story lines developed in the span of one and a half hours. As a Demiurge, I am swimming in a bounty of ideas that are sure to result in heroism, tragedy, and deep play.

Stay tuned for next week's developments!

Demihumans Session One: Introducing Bilgeton

Demihumans Session One: Introducing Bilgeton

We have completed our first session of +Robert Bohl's Demihumans, and it went beautifully!

We've got an enclave (named Bilgeton by the humans) set up next to a city (named Florageist). It is located on a sprawling peninsula that consists largely of swampland in a subtropical climate . . . similar to Florida). One of the main economies of Florageist involves harvesting rare orchids which contain remnants of magical power.

The company consists of:

• a gnome involved in manufacturing drugs (for both medicinal and recreational use . . . she is not particular, though she does take pains to ensure that those purchasing the drugs aren't harmed by them); 
• a disillusioned traitor who used to do military service for Lord Coval, but who now hangs around in a tavern taking odd (and sometimes shady) jobs and struggling with his guilt; 
• a troll who keeps a secret garden in the nearby swamp and who hides a rock with a strangely glowing algae under her tongue; 
• an elf who is upset by the way the humans are disturbing the ecosystem of the swamp and who is both curious about and unsettled by the gnome's magic. 

In terms of enclave preliminaries, I went once around the table with each of us setting up one detail about the enclave and its environs:

I established the geography/climate; one player thought of names; another established the proximity of the enclave to the city; a third came up with one aspect of the city's economy (the magic orchid idea); another one set up a general government for the city. Finally, player decided on who the original founder was (it turned out to be orcs, though the elves then took things over before the humans came).

The "once around the table" idea isn't quite by the book, but I think it served a nice purpose: It went fairly quickly, and it gave some players some footholds for thinking about their characters.

We then went into the character playbooks and then did the work of setting up gnosis and legacy.

For our next session, we will go through the enclave surplus and needs choices, say a few more things about the adjoining human city, and then we will be off to the races with some role-playing!

Rob has shared some of his most recent innovations to the enclave materials, so I'm going to be incorporating that material. I'm also going to be focusing on specific character moves to see how those work out in actual play situations.

The group is excited about the next session on Sunday, with many casual conversations about the game occurring during the week.