Actual Play – A Belligerant Drunkest (3/23/2012)

GM: Shaun Hayworth
Players: Sean Nittner, Kristin Hayworth, Justin Dhiel
System: Burning Wheel
Setting: Burning Theorsa

This rounds out the third and last “my character is an asshole drunk” game. It was, for unknown reasons though, a night we were all of our game. I was tired, Kristin was tired, hell, we were all tired.

The result of that was me pressing for very simple solutions hoping someone else would figure out what to do when the got complicated. Anyways…

A drunken appology

The game started with Baldric and Moya trying to explain to Lord Galen why Moya wouldn’t be coming with him as he departed Stormwarden. Oy, that was fun. Baldric, still drunk declared that he needed Moya and the decision for her to leave his service was made without him present. Lord Galen pointed out that was being he was busy pissing himself and beating his servants, an accusation Baldric (still drunk) did not deny.

Curiously though, Baldric won Galen’s blessing through tricks he picked up from Moya. The knight who started off as “Idealistic” had lied so many times he now had Falsehood open at B2. He lied a bout a letter being sent to Moya’s mentor Houdin and that the old man would be summoned and serve in her place. It was a bold lie, especially considering that Baldric can’t write (the folded parchment was blank) and that Houdin is a whole continent away, but miraculously it worked, and Galen was mollified.

Belief:  I need Lady Moya’s respect not her pity. I’ll earn it by taking responsibility for breaking her pledge to Lord Galen, as a knight should!

That didn’t quite work thought. Galen was off our back but Moya was not pleased. Yes sir, may I have another fate, I only have 29 now.

Departure

Moya made an observation roll to root out all the alcohol Baldric had been stashing with their envoy and forced everyone to make a “dry” expedition. During the trip she didn’t allow anyone to go into town or civilization either, they had been camping all the way, all in an effort to keep Baldric sober. It worked, instead of being drunk, he was just mad when they arrived at the border. I was playing off these two:

Belief:  Life is hard. It’s harder without a stiff drink. I’ll ensure our envoy is well equipped with spirits.

Instinct: Always keep a stiff drink in hand.

End result was one cranky, but sober Baldric. Which I was pretty please with (thank you Kristin).

Fatigue sets in

From there I think we all lost some imagination and creativity as we got more tired. Example, I wanted to sneak past the border patrols and into the keep. I made a stealth roll and we were there. Shaun had some ideas for encounters along the way but we just avoided that all together by playing off let it ride. I thought that was probably a lot less challenging that it should have been.

When we arrived, I had fun with a noble-wise roll stating that once you accept food from a host, you are considered a guest and both parties are bound by rules of hospitality (stolen without shame from Martin/Song of Ice an Fire). By not eating we essentially granted ourselves license to act as enemies within the Duke’s keep…. only we didn’t. Instead believing diplomacy would be a better option.

In the morning we were admitted to Duke Barec Catamere’s court (yep, the uncle of the knight Baldric killed and impersonated for so long) and when asked what a bunch of cowards and traitors were doing in his court we answered “Giving you a chance to join the winning side”.

Thoughts on the game

The claim seemed utterly ridiculous at the time, but it was oddly prophetic. Fun.

Being tired sucks. We all felt the like the game fell flat.

I’ve been methodically changing out Baldrics Beliefs and Instincts to be less and less focused on being drunk all the time, as well as less petty. Despite the session not being our finest, I’m really happy that everyone has been down with me pulling him out of his rut.

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