Entry: The Ancient & Venerable Art of Tippling

[Joshua BishopRoby]

I got this idea while reading Graham's very neat design for Euthymia, which should create some powerful and engaging roleplay. This game will not provide any of that.

Ingredients: Ancient + Emotion + Glass
Time Constraint: One session, two hours, god willing.
Players: Three or more

In this game you take on the roles of fantasy dwarves who are practicing the eponymous ancient and venerable art of Tippling, that is, drinking and boasting in equal and immoderate measure.

Character Creation
Set up entails giving yourself a name, which always includes an Honorific (Sigfreid the Stout, Margaret Trollcleaver, Jericho Many-wives), and the honorific always has a short story behind it (I emptied the King's larder, I killed a lot of Trolls, I married an entire clan of women). Each character also declares their Sorrow, a topic of conversation that pains them given their history (my dear mother and her cooking, the Greenfoot tribe of trolls, my seven hen-pecking wives at home). You have one numerical stat, Empties, and this always begins at zero.

You see where I'm going with this yet?

You will need at least one glass for each player, and something alcoholic to drink (probably a lot of something alcoholic to drink).

You see where I'm going with this now?

Scene Framing
Play begins with whoever wants to go first. They fill everyone's glasses and start in narrating some overblown exploit that they claim to have performed in their past. Perhaps they forged one of the Ten Swords of Legend, fought off a dozen ogres single-handedly, or dug all the way to the Oriental Adventures supplement. Bad scottish accents are not necessarily required, and will quickly become superceded by slurring, anyway.

The other players interject Protests, doubts and criticisms to the tune of "But where did you get all the mithril?" or "But what of the ogre's dark magicks?" or "What about the terrible monsters that lurk beneath?" The speaking player must allay the protest by addressing how he got around it or overcame it. He may not deny any protest (Ogres don't have magic!), he must always explain his way around and through it (I had a lucky pendant from human lands.).

I'll Drink To That
If one player offers up a protest and another player concurs, he may shout, "I'll Drink To That!" and take a quaff of his drink. This engages the resolution mechanic -- a bidding war of drinks. Once challenged, the narrating player must respond, "Aye," take a drink, and respond to the protest. Any of the other players may then respond, "Aye," take a drink, and offer another criticism of the narrating player's response. To which, of course, the narrating player must respond, "Aye," take another drink, and respond to that protest, and so on. So it looks something like this:

Seth: "And so I climbed up to the peak of Mount Bel'Teton..."
Ben: "But the face of Bel'Teton has no purchase for a climber's grip!"
Josh: "I'll drink to that!" (and drinks)
Seth: "Aye," (drink) "but I had with me pitons of cunning design and sturdy construction."
Ben: "Aye," (drink) "but the noise of pounding them in would alert the harpies that roost there!"
Seth: "Aye," (drink) "were it not for the tiniest hammer, no more than a thumb's width, which I used to pound in the pitons very very slowly."
Josh: "Aye," (drink) "but that would take years to climb an inch!"

And so on, until the protesters quiet down and let him tell his story, dammit.

If, however, the narrating player decides he really doesn't want to press on, he is rendered In his Cups and pauses to rethink his memories. Another player takes up narration and frames a new scene.

Alternately, any player can decide to Go Bottoms Up, drain his glass, and explain away or worsen all of the complications and pile it all up into a cliffhanger. If the narrating player Goes Bottoms Up, he passes narration to another player while he refills his glass and scores one Empty, which can be tallied on bar napkins or naively entrusted to the players' memories. If any other player Goes Bottoms Up, he refills his own glass and commences his own story.

Players may join either side of a protest -- you are perfectly welcome to drink and respond to a protest so that the narrating player does not have to.

Sorrow
If, during the course of anyone's narration or protest, someone mentions a player's Sorrow, that player must then Drown their Sorrow by interjecting something maudlin, vengeful, wistful, or a combination of all three, and quaff of their drink. Players are perfectly able to make themselves Drown their own Sorrow, and players are welcome to offer protests involving the Sorrow, forcing the narrating player to drink twice to respond to the protest. This can get ugly.

Quaffs
What exactly constitutes a "quaff" should be determined as the game begins, and should take the beverage into account. A quaff of pale ale and a quaff of Everclear should, dear god, be very different in terms of volume.

Endgame
If the players make it to the two hour mark, the player with the most Empties is lauded as the best Tippler and is allowed to finish up his story (or stories) to a happy ending, which usually means making it to the pub for a round with the boys.

So. Who wants to playtest this at GenCon?

[Graham Walmsley]

[Mark Bravura]

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If the narrating player Goes Bottoms Up, he passes narration to another player while he refills his glass and scores one Empty, which can be tallied on bar napkins or naively entrusted to the players' memories. If any other player Goes Bottoms Up, he refills his own glass and commences his own story.
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A totally kick asphalt spin on an old drinking game "B.S.". I love the sheer audacity of the game!

M.B.

[pfischer]

My God, it's Munchausen with alcohol! What an explosive combo.

This could be a classic. Skål!

[Joshua BishopRoby]

I forgot to mention, I'm thinking of dubbing this a "Roledrinking Game"

I can't decide whether it should be 'published' either as a single sheet of laminated paper decorated with condensation rings, grease smudges, and spatters of ale-maybe-blood, or see about printing it on the outside of a stein/pilsner/what-have-you. Does Cafe Press do glasses beyond coffee mugs?

Edit: Ah ha, cafepress does both as well as ! Could I reduce the game to 4.25" x 4.25"? Maybe as a set. Hmm, challenging!

[Mark Bravura]

[Joshua BishopRoby]

C'mon, Mark, what's the fun in making up games if you don't find a way to share them with other people? :)

Straw Poll: I like offering this as a set of tile coasters. Should it be laid out on a set of four coasters (Introducing Your Character, Boasting, I'll Drink To That, and Bottoms Up/Drowning Sorrow) or a set of six coasters (The prior four, plus an Introduction and Quaff/Endgame)?

[MikeSands]

I'd say six coasters - it's going to be hard enough to read anything in big bold print by the time you are halfway into this game.

If you could do the same in a matched set of steins.... well, that would be sublime.

[GaryTP]

I bow to you. I must rethink my entries.
If only I'd had this game when I was in college.

Perhaps now I can substitue caffeine for beer.

[Kevin Allen]

i cant wait to "play test" this.

roledrinking game is perfect.