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I recently had the chance to GM my first session of Chronica Feudalis. The system and (suggested) setting were a great fit to some research I have been doing on a small area of north-central England in the late 4th century AD.
My two players set up their characters independently, and they could not have been more different. One had an archer, a hunter, and a thief as mentors, and the character had aspects that marked him as anti-establishment (like "Despises Authority"). The other character had a knight, a monk, and a courtier as mentors.
While they were both not nobility, there was an obvious class distinction to play with. We talked it over, and my players decided to play out how on earth they came to be a group with (at least outwardly) a single purpose.
For the "prequel", Guthred (the knight-trained player) has taken the job of guarding a small merchant caravan as it makes its way from Venonis to Bannaventa, a distance of about 17 miles.
Morcant, the thief-trained character, had let me know privately that he and a hired thief (whom I considered an Agent in the context of the rules) would rob the merchant train about halfway through the journey. So we quickly narrated through the first day's rather dull journey, and an uneventful night.
Just as the caravan was about to start out on the second day, there was a cry from one of the cart drivers, and two figures were seen fleeing up the road, apparently with several bags of stolen goods. Guthred was about to mount up, and so quickly jumped onto his horse and gave chase, though without all his gear.
I wanted the thief I was controlling as GM to behave randomly, so when the time came for the chase, I put down four directions (left into some brush, right into grassland, forward down the road, or back towards the caravan), then rolled a d4 to see where he went. Morcant the player-thief went into the brush, while the GM-controlled thief decided to keep going down the road.
We decided that creating a new Setting for the chase to the thief would be silly, and simply allowed Guthred to cover the distance down the road quickly since there were no obstacles.
He then rolled to trample the thief (5 from d6 Ride, 14 from d20 for the horse). The thief's feeble response (3 on a d6 Dash) gave Guthred a double success, and dropped the thief's Vigour to zero. He collapsed on the road (with no wounds, happily for him).
Guthred then turned his horse into a small opening in the brush and went in search of Morcant, the player-thief.
Morcant, meanwhile, had used his Dash and soft shoes (both d6) and had a double success on the scrubby terrain (also d6). He then dove behind a low wall of stones, apparently put up by some farmer in years gone by. Thus he gained a Concealed d8 condition.
Guthred, though he knew he had little chance, rode slowly around the area using his d4 Sense, but after several rounds failing against Morcant's d6 Sneak/free-invoke d8 Concealed combination, he decided to return to the road.
As he turned his horse to go, Morcant stood from his hiding spot and aimed his longbow at Guthred's back. Morcant was feeling irritated at this guard, and used is d8 Aim, d8 longbow, and used an Ardour point to invoke his Despises Authority aspect, resulting in 6,5,3.
Poor Guthred's single d6 Fend was one of the more exciting rolls of the game, and failed him completely with a 2. Having lost all Vigour, he dropped from his horse.
This is already long enough, but they then had a Parley conflict in which Guthred's d8 Entice and a few well-placed coins secured Morcant's undying gratitude and loyalty 
It's been quite fascinating to see how flexible this system is, and very enjoyable getting to know it a little better.
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Posted Fri Aug 12, 2011 9:39 pm