Ahey, :)
So the gang and I met last Sunday for game setup, and there were a few stumbling blocks:
1) One of the people sheets has a section for their warriors, but all the peoples have some warriors. Are we supposed to define them always, or are there circumstances in which they can be left generic?
2) If we do decide to define the warriors for a people, how do we go about it? Are there limits as to what defines them?
3) When a people is the main one in a stronghold, is there or should there be any relationship between the definition of their warriors and the contents of the armory?
4) In the playtest document, under Begin Play, it says that there's a season move in the peoples' sheets. If there is, we couldn't find it. Is there? Or was that sentence a leftover from previous versions? (Or better yet, there isn't still, but there will be...?)
5) The playtest document calls for the creation of a war company. Is there a procedure for that anywhere, or do we just fill out the sheet and wing it?
6) Speaking of the war company sheet, what is the meaning of the little circle under each of the lines of the people that make up the company?
7) When building a company and adding warriors from a people, does that subtract from the warriors the people is given as per their size, or is that just more warriors that happen to come from the same people? Likewise, if a people has its warriors defined, should there be any relationship between that definition and its participation in the war company, or are those meant to be independent and independently equipped "units"?
8) In the household and belongings sheet, under arms and armor, there are a few options one can take if one is wealthy. How do we know if the characters are wealthy? Is that a decision left to each character, or does it depend on the definition of the main people?
9) Not so much a setup question, but more a general note. Would it be possible to see a couple of examples of maps created using the little Voronoi diagrams? I'm kind of at a loss visualizing a stronghold or pretty much anything else over that pseudo-grid... :)
Anyway, that's it for now. It took us about two and a half hours to create the stronghold, the initial people and all the PCs, so we decided not to delve into actual play right away.
It's interesting to note that all three PCs selected travel as their initial season move, and since they created three enemies for the stronghold, I decided each of them came home with news about one of the problems and I plan to just let them go to town with it, so I don't foresee any difficulties jumping into the action. Still, I can see how different setups and season moves might leave players floundering. I guess it can be left to each group to figure out a setup that leads to action, but a bit of guidance on that angle in the final text might not go astray. :)
Cheers,
J.