As members of the Steel Watch, the Watchmen pit their blades against those of the criminal syndicate the Night Lords, and now in a ten-month crack down, they’re playing for keeps. Together with your team of fellow fencers, coordinate your moves and strategies for maximum effectiveness against an enemy that never seems to run out of criminals. Do you and your fellow players have what it takes to take down the forces of anarchy, or will the Kingdom fall on your watch?
Object of the Game
Each player controls one member of a team of the Steel Watch, arresting criminals in the name of the King. The game takes place over a ten-month period during which the King is cracking down on a criminal syndicate known as the Night Lords. Each month the Steel Watch is sent out to arrest a new batch of criminals.
Every session begins at the Tower of Blades, the headquarters of the Steel Watch. In the first session, this time is used to create characters, which is framed as the characters arriving at the Tower of Blades for the first time. In later sessions, this time represents the Watchmen recuperating from their last arrest and preparing for the next, spending the Victory Points that they earned in the last session. Players usually spend about ten to twenty minutes at the Tower of Blades.
The rest of the session concerns the Arrest, where one of the Watchmen takes Sentry, observing the battle from the perimeter to watch for criminals who escape. That Watchman’s player controls the Criminals while the other players control their Watchmen, trying to subdue the Criminals before they escape. The role of Sentry rotates through all the players.
If, by the end of the ten arrests, the players are actually able to arrest all sixty-five members of the Night Lords, they will be hailed by the King as heroes of the law, and awarded titles and lands that will preserve their family names for generations. If they can’t get all sixty-five, well, there’s always more mercenary work to be had somewhere.
