Just came back from GMing my second Rhapsody of Blood-session. BOY did we have fun.
One of the founders from session 0/1 is the new Regent and one of the characters is his grandson. It’s 1480 and we’re in Firenze, Italy. They just offed the first Acolyte Contessa Farnese (who was turned into a Maenad by the dark forces).
A few questions did appear though.
The Contessas minions was the Satyrs that drove her Eternal Carousal. One of their moves was “Pull others into revelry with illusions and tricks” so I did that as a soft move on the Reckoner.
When he said “I try to resist his illusions by concentrating on why we’re here” and we noticed that didn’t trigger any move. So he said, “I try to punch it out” but he was at a -1 in Iron so that was not probably something his character would do, then he changed it to “I try to maneuver away from him” to trigger Flow Like Water” and rolled for a full hit. So:
1. Am I missing something in the fiction here? Or is the only reaction to dangers to run away from them or to hit them due to Flow Like Water being the only “DO SOMETHING UNDER FIRE/DEFY DANGER”-move?
(Then he said “what’s the difference between ‘You’re somewhere you need to be’ and ‘Another explorer has a clear path to you’? I mean am I not somewhere I need to be if another character has a clear path to me?” Then we noticed that all stats have one exploration move except Mercury that has two.)
2. When they fought the Acolyte the players wondered if Openings are personal or shared in the group. (here we also noticed a lack of Defy Danger when a player tried to wrestle out of the Contessas iron vice grip by pulling her fingers apart)
3. What’s stopping the players from just going straight to the Regent? Why would they fight through the acolytes if there is no acolyte powering the regent?
I can answer the third question. Each Acolyte is doing one of three things: Enacting part of the Regent’s plan (on a certain clock tick), guarding the regent, or granting the regent an extra quality. In 2/3 of those cases, it’s advantageous to stop the acolyte first, either because they will ambush you anyway when you attempt to find the regent or because it will weaken the regent.
Aside from that, out of character, it gives the players more opportunities to increase their Blood or roll Drink Deep for more spells or abilities. And defeating an acolyte immediately lets everybody increase their blood. Plus, depending on their bloodline moves, the Legendary Heroes may want to try to redeem the acolytes while the Magi may want to try to harvest magic from them.
David Johnson Yeah, when you explain it like that it’s more appearent hehe 🙂 Thanks
Hey Victor! Glad to hear you’re having a great time 🙂
David Johnson has handled #3, so I’ll take the other 2.
#1: Handling Danger
You’re correct that Flow Like Water is the biggest tool for dealing with dangers, but I think you’re looking at it too narrowly. It doesn’t just cover running away, but also manipulating the environment and the actors within it. So, your player is trying to pierce the illusions. I’d say that hits See Clear, for sure. Let’s say they see that the chandelier in the centre of the ballroom is projecting the illusions. Then they try to whirl through the dance to get into a position where they can break the chandelier: that’s definitely Flow Like Blood, now acting with advantage thanks to See Clear. On a success the player picks ‘a particular threat isn’t a problem any more’ – they destroy the chandelier, removing the illusions.
As to the difference between options: the main use of ‘an explorer has a clear path to you’ is to help that explorer. If an ally is in a pit filling with acid, ‘another explorer has a clear path to you’ gets them out.
(Also this is reminding me how much I wish I had page count to spend on move examples).
#2: Shared Openings?
Yup – an opening can be used by anyone. If the player is trying to get out of the countess’ grip, the move rolled is determined by their intent. If they want to escape harm, that’s definitely Dodge. If they want to match their strength with the acolyte to distract them and slow them down, that’s Confront. If another character was grappled and they were trying to free them, that’s Stand With Me.
Basically, Defy Danger is split into three moves based on player intent: avoiding danger is Dodge, tanking and enduring danger is Confront, helping others is Stand With Me. Does that help?
Hi again Jay Iles! 🙂 Thank you so much for this great game and for being so present here!
Ok, so we got #2 and #3 squared away! 🙂 Great!
In regards to #1 and Flow Like Water I don’t think I get it. May I trouble you with this please? 🙂 The character tried to resist the mental compulsion by reaching inwards and strengthening his resolve not by reaching outward and trying to understand the situation, he understood the situation quite well! I would have loved a “Flow Like Water with Glass”-move there, because now I kind of had to shut his idea down. I suppose I could have said, “No, the magic is too strong, but maybe that amulet you have could protect you…” and make him do a “Drink Deep”?
And in regards to Flow Like Water, maybe it’s a linguistic thing, english is my second language after all. 🙂 But “When you risk danger to change your environment, or your position in it by using your ability to be stealthy, quick and graceful” could also entail reacting quickly to any threat, because it’s more their reaction speed than their fleet of foot-ness that’s being tested? So knocking the tray of enchanted fruits, meats and coins the Satyr was using as a fulcrum for the illusion out of it’s hands… hoofs? hoof-hands! could’ve also been a trigger for the move?
Thank you yet again for supporting these games with Q&As!
Sure, you could react to the tray of food being offered by knocking it away and fleeing – and that would trigger Flow Like Water.
But here’s maybe a point of clarification: When you’ve used a reaction to ‘pull them into the illusion with revelry and tricks’ that’s happened now in the fiction – they can’t retroactively get an chance to avoid being pulled in. Every action they take has to be from the foundation of having been pulled into the illusion, so while grounding yourself with a protective amulet (via Drink Deep) is a great response, negating it by saying ‘actually I wasn’t pulled in’ isn’t legit. It’s important in a game like this to be firm in the effects your reactions have had on the fiction, and make sure everyone’s actions follow on from that.
Cool Jay Iles, that explains it better! Thanks! Consider #1 squared away. 🙂
Oh, does it? I just imagined it had something to do with the hardness of the move? Since I used it as a reaction to “When everyone’s looking to you to find out what happens next.” I did it as a soft move, meaning the character had time to react by being aware of the illusion being woven around him.
I would have agreed if the move was “revel with them in an illusion already woven” or something, but that could just be me as a GM-noob, hehe.
Well, that’s the distinction, right? If you frame it as a soft reaction, i.e. ‘the dancer pushes a platter of enchanting food towards you and you feel yourself being drawn into the illusion’, then yeah they have time to shut that down by running away, attacking the dancer, recentering their mind, etc.
If you frame it as a hard reaction, i.e. ‘As you try to move past the dancers one grabs you by the wrist and pulls you into the whirling dance. You can feel most of your mind overcome by the desire to do nothing but dance. What do you do?’ then their response might have to be dancing in a way that helps them escape, clearing their mind with magic, etc.
It’s up to you as a GM how much your reactions alter the narrative, but the important thing is that once they’re made that part of the fiction is set in stone and everyone continues play based on the new situation 🙂
Jay Iles Oh! Agreed! 🙂 But that brings us back. How does one recenter ones mind in Rhapsody of Blood? In AW it would have been +Cool, and in DW it would have been +WIS.
Doing it +Mercury? As in you react cognitively fast enough to understand what is illusion or not?