GM: Sean Nittner
Players: Karen Twelves, Dale Horstman, Matthew Klein
System: In A Wicked Age
We’ve continued our 00s games revival with In a Wicked Age. Here’s the oracles:
- A moongazer possessed by ten rival spirits.
- A precocious child disputing with philosophers and disclaimers.
- A baby’s birth, heralded by prophets, written of in antique books, foreseen by the wise.
- A public bathing house in a wealthy city, of very good quality, where only the worst refined and modish vices are permitted
The characters we drew from the oracles:
- A moongazer (Dale)
- Rival Spirits (10)
- A precocious child (decided this was the moongazer)
- Philisophers
- Declaimers
- A judge, also a patron of the bathouse (Mathew)
- A prophesized baby
- A mother
- Prophets
- Bath house proprietor and vice purveyor (Karen)
Player Characters
Beletsunu “Bel”, the Bathhouse proprietor. (she/her)
- With love d4, with violence d6, directly d6, covertly d8, for others d6, for myself d12.
- Best interest: Get Demet’Hereesu under my thumb.
- Best interest: Get rid of Nasharim
- Particular Strength: Meticulous ledger d8 (for myself), unique.
Demet;Hereesu, judge in the royal court (he/him)
- With love d4, with violence d6, directly d8, covertly d12, for others d6, for myself d10.
- Best interest: To corrupt Mirza
- Best interest: To control the city in partnership with Beletsunu
- Particular Strength: Throat strike d10 (with violence)
Mirza, a precocious moongazer disputing with philosophers and declaimers, possessed by ten rival spirits (they/them)
- With love d12, with violence d6, directly d8, covertly d6, for others d10, for myself d4.
- Best interest: To ruin Demet’Hereesu
- Best interest: For Beletsunu to adopt them.
- Particular Strength: Uncanny knowledge beyond my years… d8 (directly), far reaching.
Non Player Characters
Balashi, the Rival Spirits
- Best Interest: Turn Mizra into a killer
- Best Interest: Maim Demet’Hereesu
- Particular Strength: Throat Strike (one of them learned it from Demet’Hereesu when he was killed by the judge)
Aram Seen, philosopher who argues for the good of the many.
- Best Interest: Take Demet’Hereesu’s seat on the royal court
- Particular Strength: Debate
Shirat, expecting mother (being housed and protected by Bel)
- Best Interest: Convince Beletsunu to take me to the desert so my child can receive the spirits
- Particular Strength: Evoke Pity
Nasharim, a prophet
- Best Interest: Shut down Beletsunu’s bathhouse to expose Shirat
- Particular Strength: Prophecy
Mekha Eil, a declaimer
- Best Interest: Reveal Demet’Hereesu as an illegitimate child
- Best Interest: Silence Mirza
- Particular Strength: Drawing Attention
The Prophesized Child
- Best Interest: Claim the spirits from Mizra
- Particular Strength: Act Through Time
To rush up to a conflict
This is the advice from the text. I deicided to try it for our first scene.
Choose two characters who want to do harm to one another. Arrange circumstances so that one of the characters has a sudden, momentary, immediate advantage – act now and seize it, or hesitate and lose; and furthermore that if she should leave her enemy capable, the advantage will dramatically reverse.
Demet’Hereesu was exiting the Bel’s bathhouse onto the plaza and found Mizra debating with Aram Seen, and though the young child normally made compelling arguments, in this moment they were being lambasted by the philosopher for their naive perspective. Demet’Hereesu had a moment to try and corrupt them, a moment that would pass if Mirza regained their footing in the argument.
Demet’Hereesu sent over one of his servants to deliver a message giving Mizra, sharing dirty secrets about Aram Seen, tempting them to strike a low blow in the plaza. When Mirza tried to pocket the note as evidence however, the guard grabbed their wrist and tried to take it back by force!
The scuffle between them escalated and the guard tried to wrestle Mirza down, calling on others to aid, but it only soured people’s opinion of Demet’Hereesu, and he was banished from the public forum. [Consequence. Mirza on the Owe List]
To draw a conflict out
Choose two characters who want to do no harm to one another at all, but whose interests don’t mesh well or overlap. Arrange circumstances so that one has the opportunity to pursue her interests, but only by threatening the interests of the other. Also arrange it so that the other will see her do it, or have evidence that she’s done it, or have some reason to blame her for doing it – so that the offense is unignorable.
Shirat watched all of this from behind Bel. Meanwhile the prophet Nasharim shouted outside Bel’s bathhouse that it was a den of vice and sin, trying to get her to expose Shirat to him. Shirat ran her hand over her very full belly and asks Bel for perhaps the hundredth time if she would help her to into the desert where her prophesized child must be born. “Give me a day.”
To circle a conflict
Choose two characters who want to do harm to one another. Arrange circumstances so that they have to interact, but so that neither of them have any upper hand, and in fact so that if one should attack the other, she will do so at a significant disadvantage.
Beletsunu could not leave her bathhouse while the prophet was still chasing away her patrons. She visited the royal court and Demet’Hereesu immediately dismissed the other cases that had been brought to him for the day and cleared the tent for Beletsunu, though many guards and courtiers would still listen through the tent walls.
Bel asked Demet’Hereesu to stop the prophet Nasharim from harrying her and her business further and the judge gladly offered to help, in hopes this would make Beletsunu more willing to be his partner.
Demet’Hereesu called for the man to be brought to them. Nasharim thought this was finally his time to make his claims about Beletsunu, but when he arrived and saw how they conspired he realized the tides were turned against him. He watched as Beletsunu and Demet’Hereesu talked about him as though he was not in their presence. Finally, infuriated, he picked up a cup of hot tea and made to throw it in in Beletsunu’s face so that her face would be as ugly as her soul.
Beletsunu dodged the burning water, drew a blade, and slashed at his hamstring, dropping the prophet to the ground. He offered his life but she would not make him a martyr (consequence rejected) so he was instead injured (both his pride and his leg) and sent away. [Beletsunu added to the owe list].
A refusal
Demet’Hereesu hoped his support of Beletsunu would make her willing to become his partner, but she refused to accept. Secretly she knew that she would only partner with him if she had leverage over him. When pretty words failed, he sent guards to inspect the bathhouse, clearing out the patrons and throwing open the windows. Beletsunu did all she could to contain the guards, blackmailing them to use more discretion but the damage was done and her bathhouse was closed while the inspection continued.
Demet’Hereesu offered to make all of this go away if she simply agreed to partner with him, but she would not be controlled, and instead suffered loss of income and reputation [Injured consequence. Demet’Hereesu added to the Owe list].
Thoughts on the game
As a first time run through, I struggled with a few things
How quickly do you drive towards conflict? We wanted to test out the system so I encouraged conflicts, but it felt quite cutthroat and perhaps we needed more interstitial scenes to let the relationships develop.
Who proposes the consequences? How are they countered? It looks like anyone can propose the outcomes and anyone can offer alternatives, and anyone can say, no, I’m just injured or exhausted, you choose which one. I had a hard time determining if that was true or not but we went with it.
Does Particular Strength affect the owe list? If two PCs face off and one has a d12/d8 and the other has a d12/d8/d8 (because of a particular strength) is the former eligible to get on the “we owe” list if they survive the first round?
How do you count determine the low die when a particular strength is used? Do you take the lowest die rolled, or the higher of the two lower dice? Example: If I rolled a 9, 6 and 3, the High die is 9, but is the low die 6 or 3? If 3, the particular strength can actually be a liability instead of a strength.
No dice for words. All three of the player characters are used to accomplishing their goals through words. Discussion, debate, persuasion, manipulation, or one of many other forms…but all words, which In a Wicked Age specifically says does not constitute a conflict. So when Demet’Hereesu realized he couldn’t convince Beletsunu to partner with him, we had to take a moment to determine how someone like that would force another person to work with them. We came up with using his station to ruin her livelihood, which was much more impressive to see in play, but was also a very aggressive move that tipped his hand.
Is a best interest to convince someone a bad idea? Demet’Hereesu won the contest against Beletsunu and wanted to force her to be his partner (satisfying his best interest). When she refused however and took and injury instead, he felt that even though he won the contest, he lost because now he had destroyed their relationship. Would it be better if he had a best interest simply to steal her underworld connections? Or to destroy her? We talked about this quite a bit and I don’t think we had a satisfying answer.
