During our playtesting, I played a few sessions with only a couple of characters, and the game went well. Having only two characters of course leaves less room for possible conflicts between them; but the game holds.
In this specific adventure, we decided to explore some political conflicts between the Church of Christ and the Cult of Judas. The Iron Fist worked to convince the two sides to negotiate a truce, and finally both Christians and Judaists sent a couple of negotiators to the location designated for the talks. The characters, a Veteran and a Priest (which in the game is a follower of the Cult of Judas), were in charge of the security of the meeting, which was held in a small fortress half a day out of Jerusalem.
While the four prelates began the negotiations, which lasted for several days, the characters collected evidence of someone trying to sabotage the meeting. In one case, a messenger sent by one of the negotiators was killed while carrying a truce proposal to Jerusalem for approval from the high clergy of the Church of Christ.
Seeking a final proof of the talks being sabotaged, the Priest broke into the rooms of the two negotiators from the cult of Judas. In one trunk, he found ciphered documents but managed to get a sense of what was going on: someone inside the Cult of Judas was subtracting money from the cult, and using it to hire mercenaries. In a previous adventure, in fact, the characters have retrieved a shipment of opium that someone stole from the Church of Judas ‘ and apparently it was an inside job, orchestrated from the same man.
With this final proof in their hands, they confronted the two prelates from the Cult of Judas. They managed to obtain a confession from the guilty one, but not before he managed to poison both the emissaries of the Church of Christ. While the Priest worked to save the lives of the Christians priests and avoided what could have triggered an armed conflict between the two religions, the Veteran managed to stop the traitor from escaping.
We ended the session with the militia of the Cult of Judas escorting away the traitor, while he threatened the members of his own cult of their mistake. And in the next session, those mercenaries indeed could have proved handy when the Book of Q. moved a little army to raid along the southern borders of the Kingdom of Jerusalem… but that’s another story.
So, this was for Joseph Le May who asked for another session report. I chose this one because, in contrast to the first that presented the giant demon, the characters basically had almost no need to resort to violence for the entire session – and it was a great session even for the Veteran which is in theory a ‘tank’ playbook.
This time, our preview image is text-only: it should give you an idea of the basic instincts and GM moves for threats like the Church of Christ and the cult of Judas – http://www.daimongames.com/judas/images/preview4.jpg
And for those who’re wondering: yes, the little boxes are clickable in the pdf of the manual. I think the entire manual is quite easy to navigate.
If you’re interested in the game, check it out here: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150754/City-of-Judas
That’s really cool! I like that the factions are semi-historical.
I am (finally) seeing interest in my group regarding this game! More writeups please Davide Pignedoli !
Yes, the factions are realistic rather than historical: this should put more or less everybody at the table at the same level. There is a certain common knowledge about the history of those times and about crusades, but nobody actually needs to remember the exact facts, because we’re not playing the real history.
I guess it’s a bit of a trick: there is a predefined setting, but there is actually no need to “study” it; just see how it develops at the table.
Russell Hoyle all right, tell me which kind of adventure might sell it to your group 🙂 I’ve played a lot. I hope to have another short writeup by this evening…
Gritty, violent, political, corrupt ones 😉