Christmas Games part two

On the 29th we had a substantial gathering of gamers at Stately Counterpane Manor to play out The Liberation of Pavis - a multi-player Song of Blades and Heroes game. Regular attendees Jamie, Ron, Gus, Sam and Josh were joined by old friends Tom and Matt whom it was lovely to see after far too many years.

The Liberation of Pavis was the latest of a series of games set in and around that Gloranthan city. The players were read the following introductory text:

For those of you who aren’t Glorantha fans, a little back story.

Glorantha is a fictional world invented by the late Greg Stafford. At the time of our game, the history of Glorantha will turn upon the battle for dominance between the followers of two gods; Orlanth the storm god and The Red Goddess of the Moon. The storm-worshipping barbarians and the Lunar empire cannot co-exist peacefully and the long-foretold Hero Wars seem to be upon us.

The Hero Argrath Whitebull has emerged as a leader of the fight against the Lunar Empire and it seems his first act will be to capture the frontier city of Pavis. 

For weeks his motley army of nomads and Wolf Pirates has besieged the city but now they have broken in. How? Surely they know nothing of siegecraft? Afterwards some will say that the city was betrayed from within, others that magical plants, grown overnight, pulled down the city walls and yet others that the Sun Dome templars turned against their former Lunar allies.

Whatever the story, Argrath’s fighters are flooding into the streets of Pavis…

Those of you familiar with the setting may like to know that I based my scenario on the book King of Sartar, on the Chaosium website The Well of Daliath, and on Jeff Richard's Chaosium house Runequest campaign on Youtube.

In the game, Tom took the rôle of Halcyon var Enkorth, the Lunar Governor of Pavis. I knew that Tom was familiar with this character, who in our youth was the Provincial Overseer's representative in Balazar (from the Runequest campaign pack Griffin Mountain). I guessed that Tom hadn't kept up with the latest in Gloranthan lore and that Halcyon turning up in Pavis would be an amusing surprise for him. And so it turned out.

Ron would play Jaxarte Whyded, a recurring character in my Pavis games. By the time of the fall of Pavis he should have been at home in the Lunar heartland but I couldn't resist bringing him back to the city for one more fight (fatal as it turned out). Jaxarte's ticket out of the city (potentially) was the Lady Jezra who, it was hoped, could parlay a connection with the Eiskoli family into a safe place to hide from the invading nomads.

Finally on the Lunar side, Josh would play an isolated group of Lunar peltasts. They hoped the higher-ups would come up with some wonder weapon to save them but they were prepared to sell themselves dearly if need be!

The opposition was also in three groups. Gus was to play Rurik Runespear, well-known to Glorantha fans as the original RQ2 example character and now a Runelord of Yelmalio sworn to kill the Lunar Governor in single combat. I knew that Gus, as an old RQ player who ran up against Halcyon back in Balazar decades ago, would appreciate this task.

Jamie led a group of mounted Praxian nomads of the White Bull Society. I gave him the task of riding around the city carrying out rituals that were needed to bring the city under the control of the warlord Argrath Whitebull.

Finally, Sam ran an assorted group of Wolf Pirates who just wanted to loot the city and slaughter its inhabitants.

Wolf Pirates versus Lunar Hoplites

A confused melée developed in the streets made all the more so by the intervention of assorted non-player characters. I ran some of these but Matt was the main embodiment of the Disorder rune in this regard.

I invented a house rule whereby a gaming gem was placed in a mug every time a player rolled a failure on their activation dice. Each gem could then be spent my Matt or me to attempt an activation by a non-player character. These might be rampaging nomads or Wolf Pirates, additional isolated Lunar defenders or martially minded citizens of the city. We allowed the umpire team to spend these at any time, even if it meant interrupting a player's turn.

Lunars, Sun Dome militia, Praxians and
Wolf Pirates - a confused melée indeed!

Osrtrich Riders threaten fleeing Lunars

At the end of the game nearly all of the Lunars remaining in the streets were corpses. 

Jamie had completed the objective of the White Bull Society and activated a ritual coving about a third of the table. The ritual was deemed to have some greater significance to be discovered later but an immediate side-effect was to give all invaders within its area the special rule Hate Lunars!

Gus-as-Rurik managed to catch and kill Halcyon var Enkorth. Or so he thought! In reality, and in line with events described in King of Sartar, Halcyon and his lover Marusa the Shrew escaped the city. It turned out that Rurik had killed Halcyon's look-alike! Never mind though, both Gus and Rurik are still claiming the credit for victory.

The Lady Jezra eventually reached the Eiskoli house to claim sanctuary. She did so, however, without the company of Jaxarte Whyded. His promising career was brought to an end by a nomad javelin on the dusty streets of Pavis.

-o0o-

The game worked well despite having eight people around the table with varying levels of familiarity with the rules. We started off with one player at a time activating figures but after just one turn everyone was sufficiently au fait with things to allow us to run all three players on one side simultaneously. Having experienced SOBH player Matt on board (he was volunteered into the umpire team on his arrival) helped enormously when it came to keeping things moving.

The system of activating NPCs worked fine. I think I'll keep it in my arsenal of techniques for future SOBH games where a third force needs to be represented.

All in all I was very pleased with the day. It was great fun to bring to the table top characters many of the players had previously met in classic RPG adventures like Griffin Mountain, Sun County, and Borderlands. 

Thanks to all who came along to play in the game and chat afterwards. A Happy New Year to all and to those of you reading this!