19th
Feb10
By Sebastian Hickey
This week in Playtime I’m going to talk a little about what you shouldn’t do when playing in a game of In a Wicked Age. Specifically, this is about what I shouldn’t do, but since we’re all family here maybe you’ll glean something useful from my mistakes.
Last month we started a game of In a Wicked Age (IaWA), Vincent Baker’s indie RPG of Sword & Sorcery. If you haven’t heard of it, think (Conan + D&D) x Hippies. It’s the type of game that tells interesting, multi-generational stories of heroism and betrayal. Like Dynasty with more punching.
Here’s what I learned.
- Do not ignore the setting
- Do not scheme
- Do not parley
How did I make all of these mistakes? I played a lawyer. Have you ever read/watched Conan? Remember the barrister guy from the first story?
I could end this post there, but I’ll expand for clarity. Sword & Sorcery means fighting and magic. It’s all about man-handling and sweatiness. I ignored the setting, chose to play an unusual personality—who belonged in another kind of story—and then mewed against the system when my character didn’t fit. You see, what I really mean when I say “do not ignore the setting” is “the setting is baked into the system.” Like many indie games out there, IaWA is a collection of tight rules aimed at delivering a specific experience. If I try to steer around it, I’m essentially trying to break the rules.
Furthermore, as a lawyer, I tried to scheme. IaWA shines best when players allow for the unexpected. When two players want opposing outcomes, you get this fabulous negotiation which can spit out unforeseen results. “I want to kill the girl!” “You can’t kill her. But let’s say you think she’s dead.” When you plan, you lose your flexibility, and in a game of sex and violence flexibility goes a long way.
Finally, and this jumps back to the first no-no, IaWA is most fun when people are fighting with their bodies, not their words. As a lawyer, you really put yourself in a tough position. However, that’s not the worst of it. You also drag the rest of the group down. When I try to coerce you to do me a favour, I’m bringing Wormtongue to the table. You can’t fight Wormtongue with fists. It’s not interesting. So players end up in conversation. The lowest common denominator.
Having said that, there were lots of things we did right. Maybe I’ll talk about those next week.
You did slit a sleeping queen’s throat, lawyer-man, so it wasn’t all bad. Your nefarious scheme especially vis-a-vis the young prince was quite delicious. Also, and you may not have enjoyed this, but you kinda played the straight man to my naïve child-warrior and Joe’s always drunk Da Vinci type. I’m sure this made our characters much more fun to play.
But yeah, next time around? All violence, all the time.
But that throat-slitting was the build up of four sessions worth of talk. As the session drew to a close I basically blew my proverbial load. It was my fault for disobeying the game, so I don’t fault the system. But I do think it’s a lesson learned.
I did enjoy playing the straight man, to a certain extent. But I’m more looking forward to playing the hot blooded vengeful prince (in the next session).
Totslly looking forward to Chapter 3!