Learning the game with Duchy Verdorben

[Ville_H]

Hey, new here!

We started Twilight in the Duchy Verdorben yesterday. I explained the setting and the rules to the players, and after the Belief/Relationship workshop, we had time for about two hours of play. The session ended in the attic in a frantic fight in the dark, with a skinning knife on the captive Daniel’s throat.

We approached the game openly in the manner of “let’s play this slow, check up every rule we’re unclear about and ask a lot of questions”. That really helped! I’d stressed quite a lot about this game every time I’d tried running it before (and bitten way more than I could chew). We’re using the Hub, plus Faith and I also checked up Weapons, Armor and Shields & Anatomy of Injury.

We focused on Intent/Task, Let It Ride, Versus, Advancement and Help. I didn’t even want to introduce Linked Tests yet since I have difficulty grasping them myself. Some questions arose.

1. The faith in the attic was dark enough to warrant +Ob2 to everyone involved. Using simple versus tests for Brawling, does the increased Ob factor into play in any way? What about Bloody Versus? I couldn’t think of any reasonable way to implement it.

2. Daniel found the bear tracks in the village. He pressured Marten with unskilled Ugly Truth by laying down cold facts about what will happen to his dear village if nothing is done. Ugly Truth is always against the Obstacle noted on p. 306, right? Not against the target’s Will?

3. Gunter unskilled-Intimidated someone (Angar maybe?) and Daniel wanted to help with unskilled Ugly Truth. The context made sense and it was basically stat helping out a stat. Was this correct?

The players had some trouble coming up with Beliefs, but we settled on good enough and started playing. I’d appreciate comments on these. The third Beliefs are from the scenario and included here for ease of reference.

GUNTER

1. No need in benefit of demonic corruption should ever go unpunished.
2. The lowborn chief [Marten] should be replaced with a noble.
   [3) I have sworn to my duke and my baron to serve as a loyal and honorable vassal. I shall uphold their word and law in this land.]

DANIEL

1. I can give my mother a better life than what my brother could have offered. [The mother lives nearby and has done some trading with the village.]
2. I want to help everyone whose goal is the good of the village.
   [3) This village is symbolic of all the other villages in the duchy. If it falls to evil, the whole duchy will fall as well.]

THEODEN

1. Banishing evil is the most important thing for this village.
2. Cousin abbot must hearly only good thing about me.
   [3) Tudom is the light; Tudom is justice. I am an instrument of His Will and shall serve Him until my dying breath.]

We’ll next be playing in two weeks and I’m so happy to finally play this.

[StubbsPKS]

We have our 4th session (second real play session) this weekend and I am stoked. I don’t have answers to your questions, but I can talk a little about the beliefs.

My group also struggled with beliefs. For the most part, everyone has one or two pretty good ones and the rest are still being shaped. We did the same as your group and got them to the point where everyone kind of understood the intent of the beliefs even if they weren’t worded perfectly and we will fill them in more as we go.

[luke (Luke Wheel)]

1. Essentially it means a -2 success penalty for everyone in the fight!
2. Usually, but the obstacle and skill systems are flexible enough for the GM to modify obstacles for tests on the fly.
3. Yes. Unskilled and skilled can help unskilled. Only skilled can help skilled.

[Ville_H]

Excellent, thank you!

In my desire to play RAW, it seems I’ve also lost sight of the good ol’ interpretation and flexibility.

I also sent some suggestions to the players regarding their Beliefs, namely adding an underlying assumption/belief to a goal; and a more concrete goal or method to something they think.