Entry::Esdemere or A year in the City of Glass KNives

[thor]

Esdemere v 0.01
Or A Year in the City of Glass Knives

by Thor Hansen

Time 10 sessions of 1 hour
Ingredients Glass, Ancient, Emotion


The ancient City of Esdemere Lies on the coast of Isstaria where the mouth of the D’lomonte river meets the Dreaming Sea. It is a powerful trade city with many partners across the Dreaming Sea and across the Anstus Mountains to the city’s back.

Esdemere is called The City of Glass Knives because of it’s reputation for plots and intrigue, but in fact it is just a city where the majority of the business that gets done is outside of the view of those who are in the city. wealth is made on the ships and in the carravan routs

Esdemere is a roleplaying game where one or more players imagine being residents of the city of Esdemere through one year trying to better themselves, build their reputations and perhaps find true love, and another player takes the part of the Game Moderator, helping to play all of the other characters in the story and help make the challenges for the players to overcome.

As roleplaying games go Esdemere is fairly simple. The format of play has been simplified to allow the players to play on their lunch hour or before their regular gaming session. Each episode will probably take less than an hour to run, but shouldn’t run for more than that hour. The episodes take place at the major festivals of the city. They are the important times of the year when everyone gathers to celebrate what makes the city so great. Think of them as episodes of a tv show or chapters in a book.












Game Play Basics
Character Creation

All characters are defined by three stats, divide 10 points between them.

Mind – which is ruled by the aspect of the Brain and expressed in the arena of debate.
Body – which is ruled by the aspect of the Spleen and expressed through the arena of combat.
Spirit – which is ruled by the aspect of the Heart and expressed in the arena of seduction.

Character Facts
In the game we talk about anything that is true about your character a fact. The physical description of your character (height, build, sex, race, and type of dress) is one type of fact that you may feel free to create for your character. The rest are facts, which describes how much your character can do, what they have and what they care about. These are all rated in points with no upward scale.

Skills are facts about what your character can accomplish. This can be descriptions of attributes; things like strong or smart. It can be occupations or areas of knowledge, like master swordsman or cryptography.

Equipment is facts about what your character has or has use of, like swords or horses or retainers and the strength or quality of those items.

Relationships are facts that describe who or what your character cares about. Like a friend or enemy or a loved one. It can also be an organization like the church or a military unit. Lastly it could be for or against a whole group of people like hates thieves.

Conflicts and Resolution
When the character wants something that is at odds with what they have there is the potential for a conflict. If the GM doesn’t care and there are no other players involved the action is assumed to be a positive outcome. Otherwise we roll the dice. The player explains what the character wants to get out of the conflict. The GM will usually agree, but has the right to flat out say no and offer some other outcome. Then the player and the GM will determine what the arena of the conflict is: Combat, Seduction or Debate. Debate is used to convince someone to change their mind, Seduction is used to create feelings in another person and combat is used to cause them physical damage.

To begin the conflict the player will state the outcome desired (The Stakes) and the player and the GM would determine the arena of the conflict, discuss the difficulty and any facts that come into play. The character will have the number of conflict points associated with that stat plus a number of points from any applicable fact. If the character is in a sword fight the Body points plus any points for the skill of sword fighting, any points for relation with the character and any points for the sword itself could all be brought in to play.

In a conflict, if the character and the person the conflict is with have less than one point difference either way in the number of factors they have the roll will be challenging. If the difference between the number of factors is more than one in the favor of the character the roll is routine. Lastly, if the difference is in favor of the challenger the roll is difficult.

Once the number of conflict points have been determined and the difficulty set, the player wagers a number of action points on that turn of the conflict. And rolls the die.

1= the worst possible outcome
6= the best possible outcome
The rest of the possible outcomes are determined by the difficulty of the task.
If the task is routine, 2 is a basic failure and 3-5 is a success.
If the task is challenging 2-3 is a basic failure and 4-5 is a success.
If the task is Difficult 2-4 is a basic failure and 5 is a success.

Or to put it another way:

A B C D
Routine 1 2 3-5 6
Challenging 1 2-3 4-5 6
Difficult 1 2-4 5 6

A- Loose all points wagered and gain 3 negative experience points
B- Loose 1/2 points wagered and gain 1 negative experience point or loose no points and gain 3 negative experience points
C- Gain 1 positive experience point or take 1/2 points wagered from opponent
D- Gain 3 positive experience points or Gain 1 positive experience point and take the number of points wagered from your opponent.

When a non player character reaches zero conflict points the conflict is over when a player reaches zero conflict points they can call up reserves for one final volley. If the conflict is in the arena of Combat the reserves come from Spirit, if the arena is Debate the reserves come from Body and if the arena is seduction the reserves come from mind. The reserves in question are used for one final all-or-nothing attack.

After the conflict the player adds all of the positive and negative experience points and applies them to the character based on the experience table. If the player wishes to hold onto them until a later period that is ok. But, if the player is carrying negative experience around they work as a negative die modifier until they are bought off.

Experience Points

Positive experience points may be used to add new facts about the character or add to the points of those facts.
Negative experience points are bought off by taking appropriate damage. Damage can be physical damage, or damage to the characters reputation or standing, or it can be symbolic like a scar that one carries around from a fight. Generally damage can be described as facts and come in three varieties: short term, long term or permanent and refers to the number of episodes the fact is in play. Short term damage only lasts till the end of the episode and comes as -3 points of fact for every negative experience point. Long term Damage lasts until the end of the game and is bought at -2 points of fact for every point of negative experience and permanent damage lasts beyond the end of the game if the character is used again. Permanent damage is bought 1 for 1 in negative experience. Remember that the GM can call negative experience into play in any applicable conflict.

Creating and running episodes

At the beginning of the game during the first episode the player will declare one or more goals for the year. Those goals and the facts that the character has chosen will be vital tools for you to create the situations that will let them shine. Try to relate their goal and their facts to some sort of challenge. If the characters goal is to make a name for themselves as a great fighter and they have a sworn enemy by all means make the enemy the point of the episode. Ask the players where they want to take their character next and try to work that in to what you are setting up. Always make it so there are several outcomes that are interesting and whenever possible tempting offers to go against their goals.

Episodes

Episode 1: New Years Revel – Character creation and goal setting.
The New Year in Esdemere is a time for reflection; there is a revel in the City Square which spills out onto many side streets. In the first episode, if you haven’t already, create characters and set them on their paths for the year. They will need a goal for the year and can make amends to people they wronged in the year before. You can meet characters the GM wants you to know and you can get into some trouble. This is an outdoor festival with lots of mulled wine and heavy warm clothes.

Episode 2: The Feast of the Mother of the Mountains – The feast of the Mother celebrates the start of the Lamming season and the return up the mountains of the Shepherds who have wintered over in Esdemere. Some wags call it the beginning of Smuggling season others call it the airing of the town. Among the festivities are the Blessing of the flocks, A mass in the basilica, and a feast in the rectory.

Episode 3: The Feast of St. Wirrol – St. Wirrol’s Day is both a joyous celebration of the Coming of spring, the memory of the breaking of a siege in the year 859 by Prince Rupert the Grey, and a time of practical jokes. There is always a ball.

Episode 4: The Blessing of the Fleet – The time of year when everyone comes out to see the Prince Married to the sea, or as some wags call it the cleaning of the taverns. This is both a time when the great merchant houses put on all their finery and show off to the rest of the town.

Episode 5: St. Beltrams Eve – The night of the great fires. Marking the start of summer and the end of the planting in the foothills the citizens of Esdemere take to the mountains for an afternoon of picnicking and after dark dancing round bonfires.

Episode 6: The Solstice Dance – The longest day of the year is celebrated (and by some the shortest night) by an outdoor revel.

Episode 7: Carnival – The great masked event of the late summer a time when all go down to the waterfront to be who they are not.

Episode 8: Ste. Hollerids Day - A day of blessing for lovers and giving your lover tokens of your affection.

Episode 9: The Storm Kings Feast – in the fall as the days grow short this is a feast to remember those whom the sea took and share the bounty of those who he did not.

Episode 10: The Masked Ball – The great celebration of the end of the year. Not as wicked as carnival but a joyous celebration of the end of the year and an attempt to cast off the gloom of the shortest day of the year.