How to run DoW.

[christoffer]

Ok, I searched the forums after a thread that told me exactly how I should run a Duel of Wits, but I can't seem to find one. So, here it goes.

Our problem is this: When we roleplayed out an argument between characters before we started playing BW, we usually used the roleplaying to get bonuses and then when a conflict/roleplay reached its peak, we rolled and then roleplayed out the result.

With DoW we find ourself it is very choppy, we don't really get how we are going to switch between roleplay, declaring maneuvers and rolling the dice and the interruption we experience makes me think we're doing something wrong. So is there a DoW for dummies somewhere? Cause I want to love DoW and I know I will, I just need some help to wrap my head around it.v

[pseudoidiot]

Have you seen the scripting sheet from the wiki? Having all that in front of me, especially the matrix on the 2nd page has really helped in understanding how everything in a DoW works.

[luke]

We play it this way:
Announce action, roleplay, roll dice for effect, rinse, repeat. I've found that for speed and drama, that's the best way to run it.

-L

[Mel White]

I've used the Duel of Wits as the subject for a few episodes of Virtual Play. These episodes include excerpts of the DoW. They may be useful to you in hearing at least how my friends and I mesh roleplaying, scripting, negotiating the terms of the DoW, and the use of the scripting sheets. The primary episodes are Episode 26; Episode 4; and all the way back to the beginning of Virtual Play, Episode 1.
Mel

[christoffer]

Thanks alot for all your answers! The BW-forum is one great place! Tomorrow we will play BW again and I got a few bangs that could leed to a DoW, we'll see how they work out. Meanwhile, I got more questions:

How much restriction should one put on the roleplaying in regards to what has been scripted? I think what we find the hardest is how what I have scripted at the end often seems so out of place when we get there. It locks up ones argument and feels kind of strange.

For example, I script Point, Rebuttal, Incite. When I come to Incite it could fit perfectly in with the roleplay or it could be just a random outburst, it all depends on what the other person scripts and how the roleplay evolves in volley one and two. How should we think about this? Are you only scripting responses on the first volley? We have talked about scripting volley for volley, but it seems like it takes away a lot of the strategic elements of the DoW.

BUT, I should point our, we have only done a few DoW and they have all been in prep for our campaign, so a lot of this I guess is due to inexperience.

[Verrain]

Well there is an advanced option for DoW mentioned in the rulebook, namely you let the two players roleplay the argument for a few sentences and then based on what was said determine the Duel of Wits maneuver that was used and roll the dice. I've never tried it myself so I can't say how well it works but it sounds like it might fit with your groups play style.

For me at least it helps if you think of the Duel of Wits as just another kind of Fight. No one ever talks about how their groups got ten minutes into describing how cool their sword fight was and then going to the dice felt awkward. Short statements of intent delivered with flair and then right to the dice.

[Suicide King]

Make sure to build on each other's arguments and your own. It's perfectly valid to respond to an opponents point in the next action and remember that an incite can take many forms - it just has to be something that's intended to give the other pause or make him loose control.

Let the skill you're using, the situation and what's happened so far colour the roleplay... which sounds really simple when I'm saying it, but it also feels pretty simply for our group, but we've been playing for a long time. Perhaps it's just a question of getting used to it and feeling comfortable with it?

[ThisIsVictor]

So I always make the active player(s) stand up during a duel of wits. It really focuses the attention on them and getting everyone into the action. And if the conflict isn't worth standing up for, we probably shouldn't be having the duel.

Also, if it's a duel I'm not that invested in as the GM (I.E., it's something important for the player but not for my story) I'll hand the NPC off to a player to run. Keep more people engaged and the watching players generally prefer watching another player instead of staring at me, which they do a whole lot of.

--Victor

[Paul B]

The thing I find hardest for my players to do well is to incorporate the actual content of their argument into the rolls they're making. Like, they could just as easily roll out the papers-scissors-rock game and call it all good at the end.

I think it's hard to smoothly talk toward the roll you're about to make, while actually listening to what the other side's saying. As often as not in actual play, we do end up just kind of tossing in some one-liners and "oh snap!"s. For me, the biggest indication of this being a problem is that I've *never* heard a player refer to something actually said during a DOW. It's like the text is just decorative, since the rolling is all that "matters."

The final outcome, of course, sticks out and people will talk around the victory and compromise terms, but I have yet to hear one of my players actually say something along the lines of, "remember when we were arguing about whether to invade Gelderland and you called my mother a pox-ridden sow?"

p.

[pseudoidiot]

Oh, man, I still think about one of our first DoWs in our current campaign, where I ended (and won) with a Dismiss, telling my younger brother, "I am the eldest and you WILL listen to me!" It was awesome.