Encounter is such a mellow sounding word… Sscientists say there are likely to be things we’ll never fully discover but we know @Mark_Watson was exposed at some point and soon became radically contagious. A strong regime of other systems and him living some distance away kept me safe for a while, but I finally caught it after I moved closer to him.
The Sword. Two player game run by some mook with excellent facial hair. I was the dwarf. From what I recall, we managed to resolve it without coming close to brutal violence.
First character I created was a young country noble whose father believed a noble’s role was to make decisions that protect and improve the estate rather than to rule over it; so he had all his children spend some time working with various commoners before they became adults. My character had just finished that and so should have been appointed his eldest brother’s squire in order to add a bit of noble/world experience. However, about a day after the two of them set off together using the family barge that his father had given him so he could learn management skills, a bunch of shouting figures charged toward them from the woods. My character charged to defend his brother, cutting one of them down but was knocked out. When he woke up, he was in a young commoner woman’s hut, having been nursed back to health by her. They (because who doesn’t want to add drama) fell in love but my character couldn’t leave his brother in trouble so, instead of staying with her or heading home, found the (fortunately unstolen) barge and sailed hard down river away from home seeking clues. Thinking the fight through as he recovers, he realises he can’t be sure if the person he cut down at the head of the attackers was gleefully leading the charge or fleeing from a group of thugs.
So:
Born Noble > Pedlar (Peasant) > Barber (Village) > Desperate Killer (Outcast)
Relationship: Girlfriend (Forbidden, Romantic)
Relationship: Father (Forbidden — he has killed someone and fled so getting in touch is “socially problematic”)
Belief 1: Find my brother!
Instinct 1: Never strike first
After chasing the cult that kidnapped my character’s brother and thwarting them in the first city we stopped in, we discovered my brother seemed to now be working with them. So, we raced after him to a wine growing region where we discovered he was apparently visiting with a group of religious zealots who were there to deal with a grape blight. Some spying uncovered that the vineyard that was under investigation was actually just using “good” fungus that is normal in viniculture but the one that was supposedly “clean” had tiny demonic presence in the cellar and evil ritual magic on the press.
Obviously, these religious types were the bad guys, but we couldn’t take them down with the entire (apparently innocent) town supporting their plan to save them from the evil rot. So, I came up with a plan to break into the mayor’s house, hide (most of) the loot in the fake zealots’ rooms, then tip off the mayor. To avoid the issue with my brother recognising me and/or getting arrested, I suggested we kidnap him the same night.
So, we break into the mayor’s house, steal a bunch of stuff, break into my brother’s room and kidnap him, plant a few bits of stolen stuff to look like they were dropped/missed by someone scooping up their loot and fleeing, then retire to a warehouse to question him.
He, being a cultist, tries to open a portal as soon as he wakes up in the warehouse. We make him unconscious again and investigate. On the other side, we find ourselves deep in a forest under stars that don’t seem right, near a hut that has my brother tied up in it. So we return to our side, now with two brothers.
A bit of effortful questioning later, I determine the one in the hut is (not that surprisingly) my brother and the other one is a cultist using powerful magic to steal his face. We stash them safely and grab a few hours sleep before going to the mayor early next morning with “our suspicions” about the zealots.
The mayor, us, and concerned tool-holding citizens turn up at the inn. The zealots are having a pleasant breakfast having just assumed their missing leader hasn’t got up yet, so are caught utterly off guard by the sudden unfriendly faces. Despite having very little sleep, the group sells the “your group robbed the mayor then your leader double-crossed you and fled in the night” so well that the zealots half think it’s true and they just weren’t in on it.
Based on our valiant uncovering of the “thieves”, the mayor put us in charge of uncovering what was happening in with the vines. So we purged the cult’s plan to sell tainted wine and put the untainted winery out of business.
Recovering my brother and foiling the cult’s plans in two places was Deed worthy.
I’m very much a character-driven rather than optimal-build roleplayer, so the whole shebang of BITs and failing forward pleases me.
However, the heart of my joy is probably Duel of Wits. I’ve argued cases in front of courts across England and Wales, so know first hand that debate is hugely complex. Many systems talk about social interaction being at the heart (Vampire: The Masquerade, for example) but BW is the first system I’ve encountered that treats non-violence in as complex and nuanced a way as a random brawl in a pub is treated in most systems.