Author: Bryant Durrell

Writeup from our third session is linked — what follows here is my notes as a GM. This was, FWIW, about three hours of play plus some downtime played out over email.

Three sessions in and it feels like the game is really starting to click. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this was the first session in which I really embraced the sandbox. I randomly rolled up a score which I linked to one of the PC’s background, but once we got to the table the crew decided they needed to expand their wine business.

So they scouted out locations and I handed them the Gray Cloaks, mostly because they were in Six Towers. This meshed nicely with the crew’s connection to Lord Scurlock. Obviously, the webwork of relations between the factions is what makes this particular sandbox hum — there’s enough there so that your imagination is likely to catch on one detail or another.

From there they could have gone in hard and violent or tried subterfuge, but in the end they decided negotiation was the best approach. OK; I could have treated that as the entrance point for a social score but instead I decided to roleplay it and when one of the characters suggested that the Gray Cloaks might have been set up, I ran with it. That’s where Phin’s betrayal came from.

Once I decided what Phin’s current situation was, the characters came up with the rest and the unexpectedly violent showdown at the restaurant happened, um, unnaturally.

The switch from “someone shows up and hires you” to “what do you want to do in the world” was great. The first two sessions were important for learning rules and figuring out who the characters were, but we’re in high gear now and it feels more natural. If the characters want to look for work, it’ll be readily available, but if they want to do other things that’s easy too.

https://innocence.com/games/shadows-over-six-towers/Sessions/Session03

Shadows over Six Towers actual play report and wiki: https://innocence.com/games/shadows-over-six-towers/