We hope everyone's safe out there as we all bear witness to the tale of COVID-19.  Whether you're in need or free to help, we encourage you all to look up mutual aid efforts going on in your area. It is the oath of an Errant to hold fast in fellowship with others. Let that be your inspiration!

Playtests

We've been playtesting Errant Deeds since September 2019 (links here if you're curious: [part 1] [part 2] [part 3]) but we've really started picking up the pace lately. It's teaching us a lot about Errant Deeds and what kind of stories we want to tell with it. Sometimes the playtests are more experimental, like the one we did tonight.

No Innkeeper

Naming the GM "the Innkeeper" fleshes out the framing device of Errants gathered in a tavern, recounting past deeds. It encourages the GM to be a good host to the players, but it's a challenging role. For one, why are the Errants telling tales to this Innkeeper who already knows enough about the tales to describe the consequences of their actions? We've got a few ideas in store for that particular question but at tonight's playtest we tried something way different: no Innkeeper.

GMless gaming has a lot of offer, especially when you want to highlight the experience of telling a shared story. Two of us played and found it was really easy to divide the Innkeeper duties between us. We would take turns describing the story a little and then passing the narrative to the other person by asking them a question. 

"So we were camped out by the shore of Lake Echo with the quilt of the stars draped overhead. What did we use for shelter?"

"There were three standing stones but the weather was clear. They were just in case. Anyway, we'd just finished dinner when some outlaws showed up! What did you do?"

"I leapt up, grabbed my spear, and tried to Reign over them to demand that they reveal their intentions!"

And on and on. Asking questions about the environment and the figures we encountered was a great way to collaboratively build the setting. Like, that'll probably make it into the next rules revision even with an Innkeeper. As those questions revealed the world and story to us, there were moments when it became natural to challenge the Errants. Then the worldbuilding questions transformed into the position/effect conversation seemlessly.

The Forged in the Dark dice mechanic plays out as a conversation largely between the GM and the player. But all players may suggest Elven Meddling consequences already, and the possibility of teamwork actions allows other players into the conversation too. It was barely a shift to give those other players the responsibility to set position and effect and to dole out consequences.

The downside of GMless gameplay tonight was that we always needed a moment to switch between playing our Errants and playing the characters of the world. That would probably improve with practice but it's always going to be a little more complex and challenging than focusing on just one character.

All-in-all, we liked playing without an Innkeeper well enough that it could end up as an optional rule in the final game. It definitely deserves some development and additional playtesting!

We hope you've enjoyed this look into our process. No promises about when the next one is coming but we've got ideas for additional posts. Let us know if there's anything you want to learn more about!