The Horselord Prince and the Khan of the Steppes

[Judd]

That's the thing with rolling dice out in the open and pushing on their Beliefs until they make rough decisions: the story might end up being a tragedy.

Shahin had a quiet moment with his wife and then asked the ghost of the khan's murdered brother the khan's style of fighting. He was told that his brother hated a fair fight and would at best sneak in and kill someone in their sleep, at worst get someone else to kill them but there was too much face to be lost here. So, he would often attempt to out-fight his opponent but if he grew frustrated, he would charge in and attempt to hold the enemy down and kill them close (lock). Unfortunately, we never saw the khan grow frustrated.

We had discussed together what kind of lifepaths the khan would have come from, how to build him. I did not burn him up so that he was a combat machine. I burned him up so that he was a sneak and a murderer with decent ability to intimidate his people into doing his bidding.

Storn thinks I out-scripted him but that isn't so. He got a Great Strike in when I had a Fient but my dice were ungodly. I never rolled less than 3 of 4 or 4 of 5 for my armor checks and in half a dozen or so solid hits, I rolled a single 1 that deteriorated the chain mail. Looking back, maybe putting the khan in chain when Storn had no armor training was a bad idea. But I don't think so.

The Khan wore down Storn's armor and got a brutal shot in on him. The single shot took him right out, though we didn't realize it and played through a while longer.

Prince Shahin's death changed the face of the world. The steppe nomads saw the duel as the khan proving his worth as a leader, extinguishing the last of his rival's seed (but not of his blood!).

I would like to think about ways of creating NPC's that does not mean burning them up like PC's. They mention this kind of thing in the back of the book but it is something I'd like to think about more, like using the burning lifepath process as a kind of guideposts.

I was rooting for Shahin but I think he came to a good end., a solid death but make no mistake, it was a downer. Shahin's beliefs, instincts and traits shaped the setting and his blood changed the world.

Those games were a damn fine way to spend a half a dozen evenings at a table with a friend.

More to come from the 13 Cities...

[pema]

I would like to think about ways of creating NPC's that does not mean burning them up like PC's. They mention this kind of thing in the back of the book but it is something I'd like to think about more, like using the burning lifepath process as a kind of guideposts.

I recently started a game for two people and, having experience in the past with first-timers being overwhelmed by the CB, I wrote down a series of questions for them and then used their answers and the MoBu to figure out their numbers. For stats I went with their base for age, then gave a mental or physical point for them to spend, depending on their history. Similarly, for skills I chose a few required ones, then a short list of potential ones, then gave them some points & general points to spend. I think it worked really well & though it was for PCs, I have begun to use the list to burn the NPCs in the game too.

Check it out

[Sempiternity]

Awesome game - very inspiring! I just love the sword & sorcery feel a lot of the long-time BWers' games seem to take on.

I'm looking forward to seeing how your future play in the same setting adds to the story, too.

[Storn]

I have to say I'm quite bummed that Shashin died under the hands of such a despicable murdering scum of a Khan.

But, wow, because the Khan now gets the Scimitar of Swords, the mystic weapon that can tear asunder the Wall that separates the Steppes from the 13 Cities, and hungers for conquest... boy does it light a fire in the world. We go from having a balance of power in the political scheme of things, to a very unbalanced situation.

It's neat that Judd came up with the idea of starting his Sammesh's story at the same time Shahin's starts. This way, we have 8 months to play with the character, and then the barbarians are indeed, coming OVER the gates!

Do we in 8 months, game time, use magic and warfare to stem the tide? Or do we have this "life during wartime" happen in the background? Sammesh has a very strong Belief in bringing back the dead/missing god of Sargon. Sargon is quite some distance from the front lines. So it will be interesting to see where the fiction weaves its way.

Just out of curiosity, I know that there was some talk when Burning Empires came out to have a mass combat system for fantasy/BW. Is there any thread or web resource someone could point out to me?

[Judd]

Just out of curiosity, I know that there was some talk when Burning Empires came out to have a mass combat system for fantasy/BW. Is there any thread or web resource someone could point out to me?

We had lots of mass combat in the Trinity game and boiled it down to a simple roll of the leaders' Command skill along with any Fight! or Range & Cover's that were relevant. It lead to some neat stuff, such as the general of the other army being butchered but the players' army losing the battle. Neat stuff.

I'd rather keep it simple than get into any kind of extended conflict mechanics involving battle.