Feedback - Havenshine

So, I'm reading in preparation for my game friday. I'll update it then, of course, with anything that occurs to us.

First though!

• When someone helps you, why do you say what they need to do and not they say what they do?
• There's no catch all risky thing move, not as much as Act Under Fire was. There's Hold Steady, but it doesn't feel as general. Intentional?
• "It will be a terror to our children and theirs."... "theirs" is who? Itself?
• The link to "Improvising NPCs: ‘X but Y’" fails (goes to a different page on the same site)
• The word "might" in (mostly) the Troll-Killer is a bit troubling. For example, "Might protect you from creatures whose claws or teeth pierce iron."... who decides that? The player? The MC? Or is "Might" meant to be a conditional thing, like "Might protect you from creatures whose claws or teeth pierce iron, if you've bathed it in a moonlit lake in the last fortnight"?
• War-heralds need to muster after winter. I assume if you don't let your warband disperse for winter, it's almost always giving them an order they'd rather not obey?
• Wise in council and supplicant stack?
• Is the Wolfspell ceremony intentionally blank?

I think that's it!
Thanks,

- Alex

I'm guessing that theirs refers to the children, as in "It will be a threat to your children and the children of your children".

Oh, yep, right on!
I mean, the implication that monsters are usually a terror to their own children would be kind of interesting, too.
But the children of your children makes a lot of sense.

- A

Here's another two points!

• Helping mechanic, no interfere? It seems weird not to have an interference move, either basic or playbook?
• In the playbooks (available, plus inferred from the todo names), I don't see any one who's like the string-pulling manipulator, maybe a spymaster or merchant, type. Or a kingmaker. Is this an intentional omission, because it seems pretty fitting from my seat, but what ever do I know?

- Alex

Just as a worldbuilding factoid - in many places, winter is actually one of the best times to attack. Rivers are frozen over, the terrain is sturdy and good for long marches, and there is little else to do - as in, no crops that need tending.

Summer is another good time, as the weather is less adverse, and, again, you can move your bands through ground that isn't wet and slippery. Most of the work, sowing and reaping, is done during spring and autumn respectively. If the day-job of your warrior band members is agriculture (and if we're playing feudalism, it is), those are the times when they'll least want to actually fight for you.

<b>DWeird:</b> That's very good! Consider it changed.

-Vincent

Aces! I rather like that idea.

Here's another I haven't seen elsewhere?

• Can a player swear an oath to an NPC? I see no reason why not but I'm not sure if it'll break the game.

- Alex

Alex: I haven't decided. The rule there would be that you can get one XP mark from the GM for any oaths you've sworn to NPCs - one XP total from the GM, no matter how many oaths to NPCs, not one XP per oath.

-Vincent

That sounds pretty alright.
Following on from that, is there really any criteria for what a good oath is?

Like, could someone be all "I swear to make you sandwiches", and then just make a sandwich every session (although, you wouldn't remark it until they clear)...

- Alex

EDIT: Broken out into another thread

How long does a furlough need to last for the war herald to erase the marks?

There's an important new design feature coming in the revision, which is "the rest of the season." The idea will be for play to continue until sort of everybody or just the MC or whomever is ready to say "okay, for the rest of the season, here's what." Most or all of the playbooks will have "when you spend the rest of the season..." moves, the way many playbooks have "at the beginning of the session" moves in AW. (There will still be some "at the beginning of the session" moves too, of course.)

Furlough is for the rest of the season.

Even without this idea, though, an important feature of furlough is that you have to muster your war-band back together when it's done. It doesn't count as furlough if it doesn't make sense to muster them again afterward.

-Vincent

Personally, I think Oaths should be between PCs. It semester like it would strengthen the bonds and heighten the tension. Like, sure, swear as many lower-case oaths as you like to NPCs. Go ahead and break them, too- that'll get tidied up in the game fiction. But a capital-o Oath to a PC? That's something else. That's the real stuff.

I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work both ways, mechanically. Just a different emphasis.

Just as a worldbuilding factoid - in many places, winter is actually one of the best times to attack. Rivers are frozen over, the terrain is sturdy and good for long marches, and there is little else to do - as in, no crops that need tending.

Summer is another good time, as the weather is less adverse, and, again, you can move your bands through ground that isn't wet and slippery. Most of the work, sowing and reaping, is done during spring and autumn respectively. If the day-job of your warrior band members is agriculture (and if we're playing feudalism, it is), those are the times when they'll least want to actually fight for you.

This is not strictly true. It depends on the winter. Being on the march in winter conditions will end visibility, slow travel, require enormous food supplies, hinder or prevent resupply, cost more, and of course: provide the army with an additional new threat. There is also the fact that food is more valuable during the winter anyway, and any sieges you might set-up will be harder pressed to win since the castles will be full-stocked on food-stuffs from the recent harvest.

In fact the best time to attack was when harvest was coming in, (assuming you are invading and have a good harvest already stocked yourself) because the armies of your enemies might be scattered and you can reap and pillage food and supplies as you go. They stockpile for horrible winters.

Now as I said before, this is all dependent on where. The climate, weather, and terrain all matter here and changing any variable will change the result. If one were to make moves involving war, I would suggest making them more general, a read over of the Art of War (short+free) may provide excellent food for thought.