Tonight we got our chance to try out the first look, and it was a ton of fun.
We ended up with:
Dundas St. Culdesac the Outlaw Heir
Thalin of the Red Sword the War-Herald
Saoirse Bloodmouth the Dragon-Herald
Skot Flaremaester the Wicker-wise
We started as spring turned to summer, with a fortunes roll...and almost everyone botched it; which gave us lots of fuel for an interesting situation immediately. We had bandits from the new blood nobles who stole our heir's land stirring up troubles through our various holdings. This culminated in our protagonists tracking them down and slaughtering them in a great battle.
We had a couple of questions come up during the game. Several of them have already been answered, or hinted at in other posts, but the things we found ourselves asking were:
- How to buy additional things if you wanted them. (Maybe you have a bounty of coin, etc?)
- How does XP work for the War-Herald's Lieutenant and other prominent members?
- What's the deal with Wolfspell
- Why would you choose a lower rank? Shouldn't there be some explicit advantage to balance out what people of a higher rank get?
Dundas's player liked the elegant way the written materials evoked a world. He didn't like the oaths; found them restrictive and formulaic. He was surprised by bounties and wants, in that he wasn't sure exactly what they did or how they worked.
Thalin's player liked the holdings and the backgrounds. He found that some of the moves weren't as clear as he would like. (When to use Take Stock vs. Take your Bearings.)
Saoirse's player loved her cult and the oaths. Didn't like how complicated the character sheet was, compared with other AW games. She was most surprised that there was no Sex Moves.
Skot's player loved the experience system. Didn't like the layout of the character sheets; Wardrobe being the worst offender - It takes up a lot of space on the sheet and doesn't provide enough value to warrant it. He was most surprised Holdings and Interests worked to almost instantly create a story.
For my part, I loved the basic moves; I think they highlighted cool parts of what makes a fantasy Dark Age game different from an Apocalypse World game of a Monsterhearts game. I didn't like that I have to wait to get the finished game. ;) (I look forward to almost all of the topics to get covered in a little more depth.) I was surprised with how easy it was to come up with an adventure on the spot that tied to each of the characters in a vital and interesting way. (Most of which I attribute to the work Holdings and Interests makes you do up front to have the adventures emerge from the changing fortunes of the characters.)
Hope this was helpful. Looking forward to trying out the next iteration of the rules!