Swanholm - Example of Play
This is the conclusion of a series on Swanholm - a modular framework for community- or domain-level play.
Setting the Stage
We introduced Swanholm into a GLoG game set in a relatively stock fantasy medieval Europe. The main characters were either members or vassals of a minor noble family - House Setimir. Key characters for this phase of our game include:
- Adele Setimir-Strauss - A professional mourner and daughter of the Setimir's cadet family.
- Nagina Setimir - A dilettante, coincidentally placed at the head of succession following the disappearance of her older brother. Notable for carrying the Black Blade of Artur Viera Setimir, their ancient ancestor.
- Rould von Dietmar - Loyal knight to Nagina's late father, now a member of the house's inner circle.
- Sabine Setimir - Apprentice to the court sorcerer (now missing), Sabine wants to support her step-sister's claim.
We had a map of the remote village of Swanholm and the Setimir Manor just outside. I expanded that to make a small regional map, featuring two other major houses:
- Strauss is home to the Setimir-Strauss family. Long content to play second fiddle to the Setimirs, they see the death of Nagina's father as an opportunity to assert their supremacy.
- Vaelgard is home to House Avonais. The Setimirs have had a troubled relationship over the last couple of generations, alternately raiding one another and banding together against mutual threats. Their disposition towards the new Setimirs is uncertain.
Based on the events and tone of the game so far, I settled on the following list of fronts:
- The Legitimacy of the Setimir Clan - The players say they are the rightful heirs but others may disagree.
- The Coffers of Swanholm - The village survives on a stream of food, fuel, and other resources from their neighbors. Any strain threatens the whole holding.
- Neighbors with Long Memories - Nearby holdings remember the Setimirs as rivals or conquerors. A weak heir is an invitation.
- The River Road and its Predators - Swanholm sits on a trade road running through the region. Bandits, mercenaries, or worse see opportunity in the transition of power.
- The Barrow Kingdom Below - Beneath Swanholm stretch miles of corridors, mausoleums, and caverns. The undead stir below.
In retrospect, Legitimacy and Neighbors are a bit close together, as are Coffers and River Road. If I ran this game again, I would differentiate them further or condense. In practice though, these fronts started to branch with the first round of dilemmas.
Week I
In the first week, I set the table with a sampler of dilemmas from across the fronts. The party had just spent a significant amount of time exploring a dungeon, only just emerging to set the affairs of the village in order. They encountered the following questions:
Do the vassal holdings of House Setimir, the town of Wake and the Cloister of St. Velorum, respect your claim?
(4-5) Sabine conducts some genealogical and legal research and manages to find some documents that persuade the elders of Wake. The Cloister, however, thinks that Nagina has fallen under the influence of a cursed sword and rejects the party's influence.
Winter approaches. Is a critical shortage of foodstuff averted?
(4-5) Yes, but only because Adele solicits the aid of her family in Strauss. They see this as a sign of weakness.
Do the Setimir-Strausses lay claim to Swanholm?
(3-) Yes, Adele embarked upon a letter writing campaign, but Swanholm's lack of military or economic resources puts them in a precarious position.
An ambassador arrives from the mausoleums below claiming to represent the "Court of Ghouls." What do you do about him?
(3-) Nagina tries to show off brandishing the black blade and claiming to have slain dozens of his kind. He goes home without a word, seemingly not impressed.
Do ambitious raiders attack Swanholm, injuring someone important in the process?
(No die). No one attends to this problem, so when bandits attack, they slay Jurgen - a kennel boy and friend of the party. The bandits must be awfully confident to risk attacking a major settlement.
Rould opted not to focus on one of the existing fronts and instead to begin construction on a manor house of his own. He started a project, heading to Wake to recruit builders. While they didn't make much progress, their numbers did begin to swell the population of Swanholm.
We were still getting a feel for the system at this point, but this was a little too much. If I ran this week today, I would cut one of the dilemmas, and then make sure that at least two of the remaining ones were two facets of the same problem. That would help focus the story a little and avoid the situation that occurred here where the party was spread too thin to focus on any single problem.
Week II
In the second week, the consequences of the party's prior actions came home to roost.
Witchhunters from the Cloister begin making unsubtle inquires about the Setimirs. Does this damage their reputation?
(4-5) No, not exactly. Thanks to counter rumors circulated by Sabine, the rumors focus on Nagina's (potentially cursed) sword, not on the house itself.
Do Rould's workers get paid or do they start to get rowdy?
(6) Rould returns from Wake and pays them a pittance in silver looted from the mausoleums. This is enough to assuage them and work begins on his manor in earnest.
In light of recent threats, do the Setimir-Strauss' send troops to "secure" Swanholm?
(4-5) No, but only because Adele negotiates a marriage to bind the families together. Adele must marry the missing Rechtold or Nagina must marry a junior member of House Setimir-Strauss.
Does the ghoul emissary return to challenge Nagina to a duel for her wrongs against his people?
(No die) Yes, the silent creature emerges only to slap one of the family's retainers with a rusty, antiquated gauntlet.
Nagina opted to start a new project, sending their steward, Johann, to track down her older brother once and for all. He responds with disquieting news: Rechtold is alive but is either hostage to or leader of a band of marauders based out of the woods to the northwest.
This is a better pace for a week: enough irons in the fire that the players have to make hard decisions with their time but not so many that they can't get anything done.
Week III
The third week was structured something like a prestige TV show. We set the "A plot" and high fantasy drama of the immediate threat from the Court of Ghouls against the "B plots" of Swanholm's other relationships.
Does word of Rechtold's rumored captivity weaken your claim?
(3-) Yes, despite Adele's efforts to one-up the rumors by suggesting that she and Rechtold were engaged. In fact, one wonders where these rumors originated from. As of last week, everyone thought Rechtold was dead!
Do the Setimir-Strauss' leverage their food aid into financial oversight?
(4-5) No, though public opinion begins to sour on Setimir rule as resources stretch thin. In a last ditch effort, Rould goes adventuring in the nearby mountains, finding an ancient shrine to St. Jarmouth filled with snakes of all description. He hacks his way through and recovers the legendary plate of St. Jarmouth which never empties, but is severely wounded in the process.
Does Nagina avoid fighting a public duel versus the ghoul's champion?
(3-) No! Despite Nagina's best efforts to flatter and evade, a date is set. As the challenged party, Nagina gets to choose the weapon and location. She chooses swords and a specific fountain room in the mausoleum complex below the town.
Roald's adventure would normally be a great opportunity for a dungeon crawl, but for the purposes of this playtest, I homebrewed a quick PBtA-style move:
When you delve into an adventuring site, roll a test that reflects your approach. On a 15+, choose 3 of the following. On a 10-14, choose 1.
- You don't receive a grievous wound.
- You find 1000 SP in treasures.
- You find a rare artifact of power.
- You find out something interesting about a front. Take +1 forward to a front of your choice.
We resolved Nagina's fight with the ghoul duelist (dhoulist?) using GLoG-y combat rules. What started as a lopsided fight against a dangerous adversary quickly turned into a farce as Nagina used the powers of her magic sword to siphon holy water from the fountain onto the ghoul and his entourage. She walked away victorious, but without resolving the core conflict with the Court of Ghouls.
Week IV
After the climax at the end of the previous session, we decided to turn our attention briefly to the other problems facing House Setimir. The story with Rechtold in particular comes to the fore and governs the remaining sessions.
Does the miraculous Plate of St. Jarmouth becoming widely known cause problems for Swanholm?
(6) No, much the opposite. Adele positions herself as gatekeeper to a pilgrimage starting in Wake, both limiting the flow of new arrivals and establishing her influence among the faithful. Roald recruits the new pilgrims into a militia and leads them into an inconclusive hill war against the bandits plaguing the hills to the north. Nagina sets up a philanthropic system, using tithes from the shrine to pay for the upkeep of the town.
Are the bandits to the north led by Rechtold Setimir?
(3-) Yes! Rould sees him in a skirmish to the north of Swanholm, but is unable to make contact before the Setimir heir flees on horseback.
Does Rechtold express interest in bethrothal to Adele?
(3-) No, this loose end from a previous week turned out to be a lie told by Johann the Steward to try to smooth over the bad news of Rechtold's fate.
Nagina starts a project to use her new tithe system to project an image of benevolent rule. This works, but only at a cost, draining the Setimir treasury.
By their combined efforts, the party manage to resolve the "Coffers of Swanholm" front. This felt like a big milestone at the table after weeks of effort in and out of the fiction.
Week V
At this point, the game has settled into a steady rhythm with clear concerns, a recurring cast of NPCs, and a nice balance between character-level scenes and community-level moves. Cutting back to fewer dilemmas each week gives more room for the players to collaborate and attempt new projects.
Does someone important get hurt when Rechtold stages a daring raid on Strauss?
(4-5) No! Rould leads a troupe of pilgrims, newly drilled and outfitted to fight them off. Nagina manages to meet her brother on the battlefield, negotiating a deal where he will help her battle the ghouls and rein in the raids against Swanholm and Strauss in exchange for a carefree life of glory and adventure. Rechtold is clearly not in control though, as the bandits still mount an ineffectual assault on Strauss.
Does the Court of Ghouls accept Nagina's victory as honorable or claim the duel was invalid?
(No die) The latter. The Court break their ominous silence with a declaration of war. Horns are audible in the depths as the Court marches to war! The world underground becomes a crisis!
House Avonais is throwing a feast. Does someone go and do they give a good impression?
(4-5) Adele attends House Avonais's feast, but arrives in funeral garb. She leaves a striking if mixed impression. Reeve Avonais, patriarch of the house, is intrigued by her and sparks fly.
The biggest success of this week was splitting the party's attention between two geographic locations: Vaelgard in the southeast and Straus in the northwest. The party felt this keenly and made a plan before splitting up to resolve their separate issues.
Week VI
With one of the fronts in crisis, the game takes a dramatic turn. This week, every dilemma is about the impending battle with the Court of Ghouls.
Do you know where the army of the Court of Ghouls will emerge?
(6) Nagina sends Rechtold and his "rangers" down to scout the honeycomb of caverns and corridors underground. They report that the old battlefield west of Swanholm is a likely point for an army to emerge and that the enemy will likely follow the course of a nearby underground river, rather than risk the traps and narrow chokepoints of the mausoleums the party had explored previously.
Do you make any preparations for their arrival?
(4-5) Yes, Adele heads to Wake and manages to rouse a mob of pious peasants. "The Wake" as they come to be known mobilize to defend Swanholm. Sabine spends some time researching a pair of hellhound hearts recovered from the catacombs on the party's last major expedition and unlocks the secret of replicating them, but can only fabricate a few.
Do House Setimir-Strauss' or House Avonais send aid in time?
(4-5) Adele sends a messenger pigeon back to Strauss requesting aid from her family. Word arrives they will send reinforcements but it is uncertain if the troops will arrive on time.
We concluded this session with the Battle of Swanholm, a mass-combat using another system of mine well beyond the purview of this example of play. In brief, the Setimirs scraped together a unity of levy spearfolk, two mobs of armed pilgrims, and a skirmishing force of Rechtold's bandits led by Sabine. The Court of Ghouls emerged from the catacombs below piecemeal, perhaps expecting to catch the village unawares.
Despite battling waves of skeletal infantry, undead trolls (trouls?), and ghoul knights, at the end of the day the Setimir's held on. Their allies arrived just in time to see the last of the undead flee back into the earth.
In the last throes of the battle, Sabine arranged for one final intrigue. In one of Swanholm's back alleys, two of Rechtold's bandits knifed him in the back, securing Nagina's succession.