At first I didn't think it would be possible to deny mechanical rights. Like if someone has the right to roll bold instead of weird in this situation, they always get to do it in that situations. However, I'm beginning to wonder if that's true. My main thought comes from the idea that rights have to "come from somewhere." That there is an in game narrative reason you have this right, some justification that provides the reason people respect you, or let you impress them with your boldness as opposed to your interpersonal skills.

Perhaps it's a custom, like the right to hospitality of hall, hearth, and board. Perhaps it's a legal tradition, ala anointed heir to a crown The right to inherit the crown upon its fall. Perhaps it's the god's themselves, give someone the healing of your god or gods. Or perhaps it's simply the nature of the world, Fate, karma, whatever you call it, The Ta' veren nature of our PC's. Regardless, that's how I see rights as working.

This implies that if there is a cause, a reason a person has a right, if that cause or reason vanishes, the right would vanish as well, including mechanical ones.

Even without that reasoning, the simple existence of the denied right move could be justification that mechanical rights could be denied. Not really sure that I have a point with this, just some thoughts I've been pondering

So I've manage to write up about halfway into our second session. It's Really Really long. I have audio of it as well, that we're currently editing. The group would like to put it up for public consumption with your permission. Regardless if you're interested I can send it to you. I'm going to do another post(I feel like I'm spamming) with just our concerns and questions pulled out so people can see and discuss them without reading 6 pages and so it will be easier for you to see the things we felt we had issues with.

anyway

Play report from 1.5 sessions over two weeks.
5 players with various AW experience, all with experience in at least on hack, primarily Dungeon world.
MC(Me) had little experience in AW, never ran it. Decent experience in various hacks, ran DW a few times.
 
Fucked up right from the beginning. Passed out character sheets and players picked their playbooks before stronghold. I feel this actually was a problem as one player became the keep liege and the rest of the group had a different view of the stronghold and inhabitants that affected his character particularly his view of his wife was over-ruled as she was a notable character and the rest of the group wanted something else for her.
 
After they picked character sheets we created a stronghold. We were initially confused on whether a stronghold was a holding or not. While proceeding it became clear that multiple sheets were needed so the players could all see the different options. This came up frequently during that first session.
 
We picked defending a trading town on a road, with archer outlooks and watch towers. We went for the 4 cheapest armaments, only enough for 10. As mentioned earlier, there seems to be no mechanical OR NARATIVE benefit for taking the steel options.  I consider this a problem as you are trading mechanical power and appear to be getting nothing in return besides the warm fuzzy that you’re people look historically correct. That may be enough for some people. Not me. I‘ll likely house rule a difference in future games.
 
We put off creating our enemies until after we created our people. Again, needed more peoples sheet as reading it out loud and passing did not work.  We lost one our players in the middle and decided to go on without him. I do not suggest this. When coming back he had missed a few details that the rest of us agreed to that  caused minor hiccups in the RP when he said things in character that were clearly false.
 
We ended up with an odd combination. A land locked trading clan populated by a people based off the Vikings. For the most part that went without issue. Creating the notables was a bit harder as consensus was difficult to reach. Next time I think I will let each player create a single Notable, or give each player a single option in creating each notable instead of trying to reach consensus.
 
When we finally finished we had a trading town on a small lake next to a major road, populated mainly by a close family tribe all descended from a hero, Ulfgar, rumored to be a werewolf. We were enemies with an invading force very loosely based on the Francs and a sister tribe descended from  Borgicar, the brother of Ulfgar.
 
The players were mostly able to create characters on their own without issue. We were confused on households and whether they referred to family type units or to literal domiciles. I advised them it was the former for both peoples and character creation. All told this took at least 2 hours, it probably didn’t have to take so long but still felt a little bit too long and cumbersome. May have been adjusting to new system jitters though.  After creation we had
 
Geir(pronounced gear) the Peasant Beauty, head of a household on the lake. Spent the season performing Rites

Rollo, The War Champion, a member of Alfgar’s House, Spent the season Soldiering

Alfgar, the Keep Liege, head of the ruling household, Spent the season having a child

Rasmus, Spent the season traveling, a member of Alfgar’s household

Odd(pronounced ood) who spent the season hunting, a member of Geir’s household.
 
For the most part this was not enough to start the game.  There were a number of problems. I asked each of the players what happened during their move but very few gave anything with any real meat on them. I, for my part, did not ask enough leading questions about the seasonal moves to really draw out a story. So a story could have developed but it wasn’t a natural occurrence of creating the element and selecting moves.  It also may help with more players making their own household. It seems like those without their own house seem to have less stake in the town, giving them more vague motivations.
 
One problem was I was not aware enough of the households of the players as I spent this section creating the enemies. Because of this there were a number of potential hooks I missed out on that I could have used. I also think that there isn’t enough in the rights and household to generate interesting story elements without actively going into them. I think instead of spending time creating the enemy people the MC should spend the character creation portion asking questions looking for story. Things like why do they have the rights they do, where did they get the things in their house, how their drinking cup describes them. I think that will help all members have a clearer idea of who the party is and provide a more natural jumping off place.
 
There was little action for the first 30-60 minutes. Rollo ended up being owed back pay from his soldiering so he went to confront Alfgar,which could have been great drama, but ended up happening off screen with Alfgar simply promising to pay him later. Alfgar offered nothing interesting about his child and paused when being prompted about pay. I decided to give him time and moved on.

Geir combined the move about rites and his Right to receive offerings as he had essentially been holding festivals. We had some back and forth deciding what the festivals were, and opened a scene with him directing his thralls to set up his hall for a festival/feast. The Outranger, Odd, came in bearing some of his bounty from hunting, a boar for the festival/feast. There was some quick RP and I moved onto Rasmus, our troll killer.

I asked Rasmus what his season move had been and he said traveling and asked me what information he learned. I came up with a story about some kingdom across the sea claiming the holdings land. I wanted it to Show Evidence of What’s Coming and made it to far in the future saying it would take months to get ready. I also failed to ask where he had been traveling, which kinda left the move flat. I suggest changing it to tell the MC where you traveled. The MC will tell you what you learned in your travels.

Rasmus decided on returning it would be better to give his news at the gathering rather than give his news to the Keep Liege. As Alfgar had not picked demand and require someone bring themselves forth, it does not seem like his right was being denied, but that being spurned as such might have been a denial of right didn’t even come up at the time, which I think in retrospect it should have. Regardless it didn’t, Rasmus went to the hall and gave his news. I had planned to cut back after this to see the resolution of Rollo’s backpay, but they decided to do it off screen and by the time I came back, just said, “He decided to pay me later.” :(

So they march on down to the feast, Alfgar makes an offering and I ask Rollo what he brought to give as an offering. He said he would offer nothing. I took this to mean Geir, our Peasant Beauty was being denied his right to receive offerings on behalf of summer, earth, and the lake(yes we changed it from the river. The type of water seemed less important than that it was water). Quick discussion, we all agreed, and we had our first Denied Right. Woo Hoo.

Gier offered him the choice to serve him for a year(something I thought was extreme, but hey what the hell, not my move) and Rollo actually accepted. Nothing else interesting was happening at the feast so I said they all went to bed.

Picked the move show evidence of what’s coming with the principle think offscreen. One of the enemies had been patrolling in the Forests north of the Town and disturbed a dragon that was now rampaging. The town woke up to alarms and saw part of the forest burning. A quick Take S   tock let them know it was one of their watch posts on fire.

Geir grabbed some men and ran into the forest to chase after what he was sure were invaders. Due to poor reading comprehension, I had missed the inspire others part of Leap into Action so I went with Muster warriors, despite it not really fitting. Wooops. Anyway, we cleared that up later. Odd tried to scout around the fire, triggering yet another take stock, but he failed and gained pretty much nothing with his question. Rollo and Alfgar, climbed up to get a better view, trigger to more Take Stocks, with two more failures. I probably should have made 3 moves, but I just combined it into one really hard move.

Gier and the men he took got to the fire and noticed it was pretty much exclusively in the trees. As they were trying to figure out where it could have come from, a ring of fire roared up around them(Dragon breath). Geir attempted to Consult the Other world by asking his god’s for help. He failed and his answer came in the form of a flaming branch falling and crushing one of the men he came with. Odd once again tried to Take Stock, looking for ways to get them out of the fire. With his questions he was able to come up with if he soaked his rags in water he could probably run through the fire uninjured.

Rasmus decides to consult the other world and basically narrates stepping across the vale. As that seemed like a the Step Out of Your Earthly Life right I wasn’t sure what to do(still not) but he changed it to just peeking his head in. I was tired so I gave no poetry or imagery just told him straight up it was a dragon.

Around here I ran out of steam as it was 2 AM. We’d only been “playing” for 90 minutes or so, after completing the set up. I will say that the set up was fun, but felt a bit clunkier than say, a FATE set up. It took a little too long, to get too little good meaty narrative details. It also took to long to get to a interesting moments after creation, but that may have been partially us not really embracing our roles.


Session 2.

So, we start the second session with some people missing. At the last minute we find out that Odd, Alfgar, and Rasmus can’t make it till much later. We decided to go on without them and start where we left off.
I have at this point stated the dragon as having 6 harm(Modest claws +3 and size 3:1 +3) and 6 Armor(Skin as hard as iron +3 and size 3:1 +3). This one eviscerates all invaders in it’s home and can vomit out fire.  It’s fire was 5 harm, no size bonus. I also made it invisible instead of being smart or flying or anything, because why not? Anyway, This proved to be a problem. 

Rollo organizes the people into filling all buckets with water in case the fire spreads than head off in the direction of Gier as it was narratively convenient for them to get together. So he heads that way. While he’s traveling Gier attempts to get the his men to jump through the fire, he will stay behind and be the last one to leap through to make sure they all get out ok. I forget if I triggered a move here or not. Either way a man jumped through and the rest are able to see him almost land safely when he jerks in midair and there is a scream and wet crunching noises as the flame block him from view.

Gier realizes this won’t work and because I had informed them(mistakenly) that anyone could use enchantments(see some thread on rights) Gier thought he’d give it a try. In order to keep it a bit protected I didn’t tell them what types of effects he could get or how many sacrifices he had to make, just that he would have to describe a sacrifice. If he gets it wrong, bad things happen. However I realize that won’t really work as after a few session of casting enchantments players will learn a basic formulae.

Anyway, he convinced two people to give blood and he did himself(got 3 harm total). He called on the god’s to put down the fire, and since creating fire was an enchantment(example?) I let it work. The blood poured from them, growing as hit the ground and it continued to pour forth from them, more blood than any human body could contain. It flowed to the fire and hissing and boiling began to put it out. So they were now surrounded by a circle of blood.

Rollo showed up and they both caught a glimpse of the dragons shape, though they couldn’t really make it out. The beast fled after Rollo’s magic spear(may inflict wounds that never heal) actually hurt it. Rollo and Gier chased after the dragon, both undertaking great labours. Rollo succeeded at cost and the moment he almost had to quit was swimming a river and almost drowning in his armor, so he had to take it off and leave it in the water. Geir however failed.

I decided to narrate it as he had managed to get lost and the dragon, in the minutes that Rollo was slowed in the stream, had circled round to hunt him. He feels the warm breath on his back and turns round to a mouth full of fire.

Gier pulled up his shield to block it. I allow it, despite being wood, and trigger undertake great labor. He manages to succeed. Meanwhile Rollo has caught up and sees his friend and new liege being roasted. He throws his spear at the Dragon triggering Leap Into Action. He choose harm as established and I believe startle. I realize at this point, 6 armor 6 harm is too much. They’ll never be able to do anything, so I drop it size 2:1 and beastial strength for 4 harm and armored skin like crocodiles for 2 armor(I forget to put in the size bonus).

The spear deals 1 harm, but the startle + magic  suggest more to me. The spear actually goes fully through the back of it’s jaw and out it’s mouth getting stuck in Gier’s shield. This stops the fire. The Dragon turns and charges at Rollo. I decide to call this single combat.

I ran single combat slightly wrong. I want to make something kinda evocative of the setting so I got some polished stones that I thought would look like playing pieces for a dark ages game and used them to represent the spend. I had Rollo put out three pieces of paper, each with a different option upside down so I couldn’t see them. I did the same. We each put stones on the paper to represent the spend. However this had the unintended consequence of allowing each person to see if the other had a strategy of concentrating all options or spreading them out. Not sure if this is a problem or not. All but one player seemed to think it worked well. Will try without this week for comparison.

Anyway, Dragon gets 3, cause it’s a dragon, and spends all on harm, because it’s an enraged hateful monster. Rollo got 4 spend(3+ the 1 bonus due to his Right as a War Champion) he puts 1 defense, 2 harm, 1 in position. So he ends up dealing a total of 6 harm, Dragon takes 4 after armor. He takes 3 after armor, which made me panic a bit as I didn’t want to kill him in the first real session. Retconned to 2 spend cause I’m a pussy GM and he ends up with only 2 harm.

During this Gier asks if he could pull the spear from his shield and stab the dragon with it. I allow it. Before he does he asks if he sees a weak spot. A Size Up roll fails and I tell him that the hole left from the spear has no armor and a stab there will deal harm unreduced. He does so. However, because he failed, I decided the dragons death release was actually an explosion of Fire.

Again I give both a chance to undertake great labor to survive. Rollo makes his no problem, but Gier gets a 7. He makes it fine but Rollo’s enchanted spear burns in the fire. I’m not sure about my decision here. Should I have given him a choice instead of deciding the outcome? Does taking something away as a move count when the 7-9 results really only ask for a narration of when they almost broke? I don’t know. I love the story it provided but I think I may have cheated.

Anyway, Rollo’s right is clearly being denied. He decided to take issue with Gier and demands that Geir fix it or make a new one. Geir agrees to do so, to the best of his ability; if he can find a way he will let nothing stop him, but only if he finds a way. I thought this was weaker than the oath could have been but Rollo accepted and we moved on.

Gier, who is mostly uninjured goes to fetch Rollo’s chain shirt. He runs into a foreigner wearing full plate(not technically accurate to the period, but Rollo’s player really wanted it to be a thing, so Rollo could kill an armored knight) and they talk. We realize the problems with having people who don’t speak the same language interacting and wonder if there is a better way than just deciding if players speak other languages.

Regardless we get over the hurdle and I call for undertake great labor to swim down to the bottom of the river and retrieve Rollo’s shirt. Perhaps this was a bit frivolous but it seemed right at the time. He failed and I was unsure what to do. I get a hard move but does he necessarily have to fail? Can he succeed and something else bad happens or does his failure mean he fails? Our most experienced AW players was currently absent, so we went with he could succeed and I get to make a hard move, but that doesn’t feel right.

So he rises from the river to find himself surrounded by men with bows. They capture him and take him with them.

Back at the dragon the men of the village have finally caught up to Rollo and Gier. They build a sled to carry the dragon back. Rollo takes a few to go look for Gier but there is no sign of him at the river. He decided to head back where he divies up the dragon amongst the people claiming the hide and skull for himself.

He decides to try getting enchanted healing from our priestess. He asks her for help in searching for Gier. This probably should have been an Ask For Their Blessing move, but it wasn’t because I forgot people’s moves were a thing. Sorry. Anyway, he makes some sacrifices, I decide to have the enchantment go off without a hitch, because like I said, I’m a pussy MC.

At this point the rest of the group arrived. I'll do that in another post.