Art, Grace & Guts
Beginning Play
anyway.
A Penny for Your Thoughts
Beginning Play
Way beginning: the first chapter
Chapter procedure
1. Consult the Clinton Oracle for four elements.2. List out all the explicit and implicit characters you get.
3. Go around the table, and every non-GM player chooses a character. The GM player gets all the rest.
4. Write up your character (your characters if you're the GM player), using the character sheet procedure that follows.
5. Write up any significant non-character things as specializations, using the specialization procedure that follows.
6. Go around again, starting with the GM player. Say your character's interests in the situation. (GM player: say only one character's interests on your turn, but jump in and take another turn whenever you want. Say the rest of your characters' interests at the end.)
EG...
Interests
Non-GM players: the way you play the game, it's to your long-term advantage to give your characters interests that are at odds with other characters' strengths.EG...
GM players: your characters should overwhelmingly have strong interests at odds with the other players' characters'. If you find yourself naming mostly your own characters when you announce a character's interests, STOP. Go back and try again. You should be naming mostly the other players' characters instead.
It's not to your advantage to have to play out a bunch of arguments and fights with yourself.
EG...
Use the non-character elements you got from the Clinton Oracle as focal points for conflicts of interest.
EG...
At the end of every chapter
1. Check out the "we owe" list. Which character's name is on top? That character's automatically in the next chapter.2. That character's player gets to choose any one element from anywhere in the whole chart of elements, which will also automatically be in the next chapter. Write it next to the character's name on the "we owe" list.
The second and subsequent chapters
Chapter procedure
1. Cross the top character name off the "we owe" list. That character's automatically in. So is the thing her player chose from the element list.2. Consult the Clinton Oracle for three more elements. List out all the explicit and implicit characters.
3. Go around the table. Every non-GM player, choose either a) one of the characters from the list you've generated, or b) your own character from last chapter. If you choose the latter, cross your character's name off the "we owe" list, the first time it appears. (If your character didn't make it onto the "we owe" list, you can't choose to play her now.)
4, The GM player gets all the rest of the characters.
5. Write up your character (your characters if you're the GM player). If you're playing a returning character, choose one of these:
* Add a specialization to your character sheet. You can choose a specialization that someone's already created, you can create a new specialization, or you can detail a specialization someone else has named.
* Reassign your character's dice and stats from fresh. Keep any specializations you've written on your character sheet from previous chapters, but divvy a fresh set of dice among your stats, and write out your endeavors and assign stats to them anew.
Notice that choosing this option lets you recover any dice you've lost as the consequences of actions in earlier chapters.
* Create a one-time character sheet for your character specific to this chapter. For instance, you might create your character as a young person, or your character transformed into a leopard, or your character's immaterial presence, as the chapter calls for.
EG...
6. Write up any significant non-characters as specializations, as always. Go around the table and say your interests, as always.
Beginning with the third chapter
When you create a new character sheet, you can add a specialization to it if you want.At the end of the chapter, you can, if you want, cross every instance of your character's name off of the "we owe" list. This character's done.