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Jaime Lawrence
Australia
Sydney
New South Wales
See Below.
Evil Bob: Lawful good since 2038!
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Here we go then, my first session of Shakespearead (pronounced Shakespeare - ee - ad) got played last night and I can confirm to you that it works. Of course, this comes with a couple of disclaimers:
1) It works for the group it was designed for
2) I will be making some revisions to the game after further playtesting - it doesn't work perfectly.
If you're just interested in the 'win Geekgold part, scroll down to the bottom, but be warned, you'll need to scroll back up afterward. 
The game began with character creation. My 'Go-to crew' of Benj, Rhi and Luke showed up ready to go. I told them we'd be playing a comedy, set on the Island Nation of Illyrisea, known for its sailors and fishermen, where the benevolent king, Alonzano, ruled generously. I told them I was looking to engage the themes of 'The effect of Magic on Mortals' and 'Mistaken Identities'. They seemed down with all that.
Now, I should make it very clear that they knew they were playtesting and they set out to try and break things a bit.
This stated with Benj saying "OK, I'm the Queen of Illyrisea!" - not a problem for me. Luke responded with 'If you're Queen, I'm Freddie Murcury". Moments later, Sir Frederico the Mercurial was coming to life. Rhi decided to play with the 'sailors' bit and be a pirate captain, Lorenzo the bold - who was a woman in disguise.
At this point, I wasn't worried. A cross-dressing pirate, stupidly named knight and a queen with an odd husband are all good for Shakespearian comedy.
They established stats and hubrises - Lorenzo was all about Romance and had a hubris of pride, Queen Clementina was also a romantic and 'loves not wisely, but too often' and Frederico had Comedy as his big stat and a hubris of 'mercurial' (quick to change his mind).
They bought some characteristics - all three of them opted for 'opportunist' and all three of them spent five points or less on characteristics, meaning they had Plot Points aplenty between them.
Finally, they narrated some connections between their characters. This caused a little confusion initially as they weren't sure of the process - I'll have to clean up the wording here. The process is that each player writes a connection between themselves and the player on their left, then passes their sheet to that player, who gets to add a complication to the relationship. Through this, we ended up with:
Frederico desiring to be the Queen's 'favourite at court' (read 'lover of the week') with the complication that he is actually her long-lost son.
Queen Clementina being head-over-heels in love with Lorenzo, whose head the king has put a bounty on.
Lorenzo owing gambling debts to Frederico, who wants Lorenzo's ship, 'Bohemia's Rhapsody', in lieu of payment.
Now I was almost ready to panic. My original plot had involved the king's son/daughter becoming besotted with a PC and violating a law, forcing a moral quandry. Now I had a family drama on my hands and the only eligible character in disguise as the opposite sex...
A little creative thinking later, we were ready to roll. The basic plot was that King Alonzano had sent his navy to help his English neighbours fight off the Spanish Armada and 300 of his finest officers had been lost at sea. Distraught, he declared that there should be no joy in Illyrisea for the next three years. Here's the original plot description vs the altered one once I saw the characters:
Original
Act I: A PC falls in love with Alonzano's daughter/son.
Act II: The King discovers and forbids their love.
Act III: A resistance movement, including the court magician Thelonius, is formed to oppose the new law. They contact the lovers.
Act IV: The king declares that his daughter/son is to be executed for their part in the resistance unless Thelonius surrenders himself.
Act V: Comedic resolution, dependant on the players.
Altered:
Act I: The King's son, Carlos, meets Lorenzo and tries to escape the island on his boat
Act II: Thelonius and the PCs make contact with each other
Act III: The PCs are on the run from the King's guards
Act IV: Frederico's true identity is uncovered
Act V: Comedic resolution, dependant on the players.
Here's how it played out:
Lorenzo arrived in port and scuffled with the Harbourmaster, who 'he' dumped in a barrel. He then headed into the city to recruit a few new crewmembers. Frederico arrived just in time to help the harnourmaster out of the barrel and get him to hire some brutes to blockade the Bohemia's Rhapsody until he could settle the score with Lorenzo.
Meanwhile, Clementina was consoling her son Carlos, who was morose due to the new law - he had previously been a light-hearted, jovial fellow, but now his life was empty. She suggested he seek a bride, but he said he had to find the right one, an adventurous, bold woman. He headed out to the market to see if he could find anything to distract him from the daily trudgery of life.
Lorenzo and Carlos met and began gambling, Carlos trying to win passage on Lorenzo's ship. They were interrupted by the arrival of Frederico, who demanded the ship be turned over to him. Thelonius revealed himself and took the three back to his chambers in the castle.
Thelonius told the PCs to sort out their differences - they agreed to give Lorenzo until sunset to repay his debts or the ship would be Frederico's. Thelonius then ushered them out and spoke to the queen, who had been hiding behind a curtain listening to their conversation. The two discussed how to get Lorenzo's death sentence revoked. The Queen ordered Thelonius to stop the sun from setting today. Thelonius also cryptically announced that Carlos' destiny lay on the Bohemia's Rhapsody, but that he didn't need to sail to find it.
Outside the room, the Castle guards spotted Lorenzo and began chasing him. Frederico decided to help him escape so that he would be able to get the ship later.
The Queen disguised herself (poorly) in order to sneak aboard the pirate ship and see Lorenzo. Lorenzo disguised himself as a floozie and tried to sneak back aboard the ship to escape. Frederico headed back to the ship with the Queen, but it was Carlos who arrived there first. Using his role as prince, he made the guards part for him and strolled onboard. Lorenzo got his attention and went on with him, but Carlos didn't realise who he was and fell in love with him.
The Queen and Frederico arrived and made their way onboard. A misunderstanding occurred and the hired muscle, under orders from the harbourmaster, began to storm the ship, which immediately cast off.
Carlos soon realised he was no longer in Illyrisea and became cheerful and adventurous. Clementina embraced Lorenzo, willing to elope with him. Frederico, however, convinced the others to try and sail back under cover of darkness and sneak back onto shore. The Queen then revealed that she had ordered Thelonius not to allow the sun to set and all seemed lost.
While searching the ship to try and discover his destiny, Carlos found one of his family's signets. It was soon discovered that Lorenzo had won this gambling - from Frederico, who revealed that his real parents were unknown to him and he had been raised in an orphanage in Bohemia.
Frederico reclaimed his birthright, but they were left with the problem of Lorenzo's death sentence and the law forbidding joy. It was decided that the group should return to Illyrisea, where the joy of discovering his long-lost son may be enough to have the King repeal the law. Moreover, the Bohemia's Rhapsody was to become the flagship of the new navy, with Lorenzo in command. Lorenzo didn't like this idea, though as he wanted adventure on the seven seas. Doubt was also expressed about exactly how joyful the king would be about all this, as he is quite a dour man.
There was only one way to ensure his joy; Carlos would have to marry, but that meant sailing until they could find the perfect woman for him. It was then that Lorenza revealed her true identity. She and Carlos could return to Illyrisea, get married and sail out again the next day, oreder would be restored and Frederico could become the favoured son - a happy ending!
Over the course of the session, it bacame clear that Plot Points were too plentiful and that they needed another function - the ability to re-roll a die (there were a few total failures because someone rolled a '1' and even a plot point couldn't help).
It also became clear, embarassingly, that Combat TNs don't actually do anything in the game. Suffice to say the combat system is slightly under review.
All in all, though, the game did all that I hoped it would and it was fun. For our next session, Luke is going to try writing a game - a tragedy - and we'll see how it works for someone other than the designer!
Now, the competition: This 'play' had a very Shakespearian feel to it (also a slight Gilbert and Sullivan feel...), so the system does what it's supposed to; but this little adventure in Illyrisea didn't have a name. Post some suggestions here and the one I like best will win 3 and the honour of having named the first new Shakespeare play in 400 years!
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Steve Donohue
United States
Allen Park
Michigan
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
The Pirate's Bounty
Refers to the bounty on Lorenzo and to "his" suprprisingly bountiful chest which really drive the story and its eventual resolution.
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Bruce McGeorge
United States
Lawrenceburg
Indiana
Hey you kids, get off my Avatar!
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
The Last Day in Illyrisea
Of course referring to the magic spell... and I always liked how Shakespeare played with genres; it sounds like a "tragic" name, but of course it's the opposite.
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Eric Dodd
New Zealand
Martinborough
Wairarapa
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
Voyage of the Queen's Knight
or
The Knight Comes Down (for the play on a song from Queen I)
or
Reign Must Fall (for the play on a song from The Miracle)
or
The Joyless Court [courting]
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Jaime Lawrence
Australia
Sydney
New South Wales
See Below.
Evil Bob: Lawful good since 2038!
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
Forgot to mention - I'll finish the competition when this session report slips off the recent list...
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Young & Lawful Good
United Kingdom
Redhill
Surrey
Support comes in many forms: community involvement, forum posts, submitting data, word-of-mouth advertising, financial donations... All of these are vital to this site, and you have my sincere thanks for participating in any of them.
Currently: banned as per http://rpggeek.com/article/9104203#9104203
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
"All At Sea" (because lame puns are a staple of the genre)
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Young & Lawful Good
United Kingdom
Redhill
Surrey
Support comes in many forms: community involvement, forum posts, submitting data, word-of-mouth advertising, financial donations... All of these are vital to this site, and you have my sincere thanks for participating in any of them.
Currently: banned as per http://rpggeek.com/article/9104203#9104203
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
Now to the session itself, good stuff!
I saw the "develop relationships" part of character creation to be the bit that would really drive the plot (player-driven plot, which is an excellent thing in my opinion) so I'm completely unsurprised that your predefined plot needed fundamental alteration. It's good that you had an idea of what to do in advance though, as otherwise you may have stalled. But I'd suggest that you should expect your initial idea to be radically reformed following character creation.
Did you feel that the players railroaded themselves at all? By which I mean, given that they knew there was a particular ending required, and that they could hear (out of character) the plottings of the other characters, that they happily moved co-operatively towards that end goal? I wonder, if this is the case, how Shakespearead would work with less helpful players. I suspect that a disruptive player could sabotage the game to a large extent, and that a requirement is having a co-operative group of players.
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Jaime Lawrence
Australia
Sydney
New South Wales
See Below.
Evil Bob: Lawful good since 2038!
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
Quite true, it isn't a game I'd try with just anyone!
The players generally acted in the way that produced the most comedy (one of them told me at one stage that what I was narrating couldn't happen, it wasn't funny enough) and they DID try to railroad Lorenzo into revealing herself and marrying, which she resisted with passion for some time!
I also like player driven plot, but I have a mission here; I want to craft a narrative RPG that a) isn't GMless and b) still has the feeling of a traditional RPG. Mechanically I think I'm getting there, I just need a few tweaks so that, if a difficult player should come along, there's some way for everyone to be happy.
Benj (Clementina) has suggested that the current genre of the game have a blanket effect on the play (eg if the game is a comedy, you get a plot point for making others laugh), but I'm not sure that works with the fluidity of genre I'm looking for...
Anyhow, we'll see how things progress. Luke (Frederico) is writing a tagedy for us currently, which we'll be trying out in a couple of weeks. For me, this is the real test; will it work for someone else? 
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Maciej Sabat
Poland
Kraków
Małopolska
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
It's definitely The Love Barque 
And for the AP - brilliant game, I'll play it for sure (some day...)
l.
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Benjamin Davis
Australia
Summer Hill
NSW
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
I'll turn it into a comedy (in 30 minutes!)
No, I'm keen to see how it goes. But my quip does go to the heart of my concern: genre fluidity is a really interesting idea that I'm not convinced works yet. Maybe it's just our group, but we didn't flip-flop at all throughout the play (we came fairly close to nudging it into Tragedy, but it never happened and we probably would have swung back quickly). I'm concerned that it's too easy to stay where you are.
I still think the idea of blanket effects by genre would go further to make the play feel like it's in the current genre.
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Jaime Lawrence
Australia
Sydney
New South Wales
See Below.
Evil Bob: Lawful good since 2038!
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
Jlerpy wrote:
I still think the idea of blanket effects by genre would go further to make the play feel like it's in the current genre.
The bloody GM should be going far enough to do that!
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Benjamin Davis
Australia
Summer Hill
NSW
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Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
Hida Mann wrote: Jlerpy wrote:
I still think the idea of blanket effects by genre would go further to make the play feel like it's in the current genre.
The bloody GM should be going far enough to do that!
I think it's good to give the GM tools.
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Jaime Lawrence
Australia
Sydney
New South Wales
See Below.
Evil Bob: Lawful good since 2038!
-
Re: I finally got to play it - name the session and win Geekgold
And the winners are...
1st place: The Last Day in Illyrisea (Brumcg)
2nd place: The Pirate's Bounty (Sdonohue)
=3rd place: All at Sea (Stelio) and The Joyless Courting (RedWinePie)
Thanks to all who played!
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Bruce McGeorge
United States
Lawrenceburg
Indiana
Hey you kids, get off my Avatar!
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WOOT!
I completely forgot to keep an eye on this. Thanks Jaime!
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Steve Donohue
United States
Allen Park
Michigan
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Thanks!
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