Thread by @Epidiah

I'm going to chat a bit more about #LincolnGreen🏹 this morning, even if it isn't #Greenwoodensday.

I want to talk about the Oaths, advancement, design goals & something I'm going to awkwardly describe as player in-roads into GM territory in a traditionally GMed game. 😐

So #LincolnGreen🏹 is "traditionally GMed" in that there's a player, called the Game Warden, in a GM role that 30 years ago Eppy would recognize. Well, 32 years ago—before the Bullwinkle & Rocky Role-Playing Party Game. Or 1 BBRRPPG as we in the industry like to measure time.

BBRRPPG I understood GMs to be benevolent, but darkly mischievous, near omnipotent totalitarians. Give or take a little on each of those dials, of course.

The Warden is a similar role. The Warden knows the world and represents it to the other players.

In contrast to something like the roles of Overplayer and Rogue Players in #SwordsWithoutMaster⚔️ where the Rogue Players are revealing and representing the world almost as much as the Overplayer.

Outlaw Players in #LincolnGreen🏹 have control over their outlaw & that is it.

Only that isn't it, is it?

There are ways for players to change the world, to tidy up dungeons and remove dragons in even the most traditional of GMed games. It's practically the whole point. Given these roles and restrictions, how are you going to make your mark on the world?

And what will that mark be?

Many of the Robin Hood tales most endearing to us are about the Merry Folk trying to affect a change upon the world. It's one of the reasons why I chose to design in this dichotomy of roles.

The Outlaws vs. the Warden.

Yeah, but the Warden kind of holds all the cards, right? They're in charge of the world and in charge of adjudicating almost everything. I want this to be a challenge, but a fair fight.

Enter the Oaths.

Warden’s Oath

"Upon my oath…

"⤜…when given a choice, I shall choose the sensible path over the more interesting one. I shall favor of what is most likely to happen over what might entertain.

"⤜…when asked a question, I shall answer as true as the asker may know. I shall favor telling all I can tell over suspense.

"⤜…when making decisions on behalf of the many folk of this land, I will choose for them as they would, for their lives may depend on it. Only those who do not love safety and comfort will plunge ahead needlessly.

"⤜…I shall always keep in mind the greater pressure of society. The sheriff’s people risk their lives because the sheriff will hold them responsible for their failures.

"The sheriff pits his will against the Merry Folk because the prince holds him responsible. The prince risks outright rebellion if he cannot control a band of rabble."

(I'm rambling a bit here, but I do want to point out that one of the purposes of this oath is to turn that darkly mischievous dial way the fuck down. It's not the Warden's job to be mischievous in #LincolnGreen🏹. That's a job for the Outlaws and we need to make room for that.)

I'm trying not to swerve into a rant here, but sometimes you have to steer into the skid. Apologies, but I need to digress for a moment.

I give my GM roles cutesy names like Warden or Overplayer or Host or Duke Vulku because if you want to do right by them, you need to strangle that amorphous generic GM you have inside.

You need to step away from "universal truths" about GMing and embrace the game before you.

Skills that might make you wonderful GM in your favorite system are going to fuck you up when you Overplay #SwordsWithoutMaster⚔️ and a different subset of skills for GMing that favorite system are going to fuck you up when you Warden #LincolnGreen🏹.

So much design work goes into breaking those habits.

In #LincolnGreen🏹 the Warden needs to let the Outlaws bring the adventure. We're here for the plots and schemes of the Merry Folk, not the sheriff.

So Wardens need to abandon certain hopes.

Like the hope that your big, juicy plot twist will awe the players.

Or the hope that your ability to "yes, and" and "no, but" absolutely everything will create tantalizing story.

Neither of these are your job as the Warden. Your job is spelled out in your oath of office.

::dusts off suit jacket::

::adjusts tie::

Okay, where were we? I think I want to talk a bit about advancement in #LincolnGreen🏹.

But before I jump into that, a bit on terminology. I'm going to talk about points now & they might not mean what you think they mean.

The word "point" in this game almost always means the sort of point you make in an argument. Like in this example of play:

Warden: The sheriff's guards catch you.

Outlaw: Wait, Estrilda the Fleet is an anthropomorphic rabbit born to these woods!

Warden: Good point, you escape!

Experience Points are specific sorts of points. They are events or facts about your experience that you codified in the rules. You write them down so you don't forget them, and you grant them 2 mechanical benefits to celebrate them.

Like, Estrilda being a rabbit is probably an Experience Point. The fact that she's a anthropomorphic rabbit is something her player can use throughout the game to win over the Warden in situations it might help her. Or hinder her.

But in addition to that, it might also be accompanied by 2 benefits like a Saving Grace vs. being detected at twilight and the ability to always ask the Warden “What perils would have gone unnoticed were it not for my keen nose and ears?”

There's a whole slew of these benefits arranged into different types. Some are fairly straightforward, like ones that give you an advantage in a particular type of game or contest because you're so quick with the quarterstaff or good with the bow.

Some, like the Saving Graces, guarantee you a chance to pull your ass out of the fire in certain situations.

Some, like the Bonds, give you a chance to pull your fellow outlaw's ass out of the fire.

Some won't make sense unless you really know how the system works.

But all of them have to be attached to an Experience Point. Which means they have to be attached to a specific event or vital part of your character's experience.

And after your character is created, most of these are tied to specific events.

So here's an experience point like that: "Barely beat Joshua of Northampton in a glorious wrestling match!" Granting you the benefit of an Advantage in wrestling matches & a Beloved Reputation with the folks of Northampton who witnessed the match and still talk of it.

Somewhere at the top of this thread I said something about player in-roads into GM territory and advancement and oaths, so I think it's about time I start bringing all that together.

Some of these Experience Point benefits are in-roads. That Beloved Reputation, for instance.

"Beloved/Nefarious Reputation—Say why you are loved or feared and who specifically loves or fears you. This may be a village who loves you because you championed them in a contest...

"...or it might be those whose hearts melt for a good romance who love you because you are right now the embroiled in a known love affair. Or it might be the wealthy monks of an abby who know to fear you on the road.

"Those who love you will seek out ways to aid and comfort you. Those who fear you will follow your commands to the letter to avoid what they believe the consequences will be or will become obsequious in their thirst for favor."

Once you lock in that Beloved Reputation with the folks of Northampton, that's it. The Warden cannot turn them against you. Even if the Warden locks in a Nefarious Reputation in Northampton for Guy of Gisborne and has old Guy pushing people around...

…they will still always seek to aid you while following the letter of Guy's command.

By winning that wrestling match & turn that victory into an Experience Point, you've made lasting change to the world that you can depend upon, no matter the machinations of sheriff or Warden.

All of these nonsense is to say, I just realized yesterday that I could make adding a line to the Outlaws' or Warden's Oath one of these benefits you could attach to an Experience Point.

And I'm pretty excited about that possibility.

Imagine added to the Warden's Oath a line like, "…describe the splendor & bounty of every feast, meal or morsel laid before the Merry Folk. For every pot of ale and hunk of bread is a celebration."

I mean, they were probably going to describe it anyway, but now it's an oath.

Or adding to the Outlaws' Oath:

"…seek romance wherever we may find it.
⤜Whether it's with one true love or many.
⤜If we are ready or have hard lessons yet to learn.
⤜Among the common folk or among the noble, far away or by our side all along."

Because you want to see everyone fall in love at least once.

(As long as the rest of the merry band agree.)

(

I woke up at 4 AM this morning just because my brain wanted to be conscious and ponder this more. Someone's excited.

While I have your attention, here are some #LincolnGreen🏹 thoughts that kept me up late last night.

First, I have to say, you'll want to watch Creed II. And you'll probably want to watch Creed, if you haven't seen that yet.

And then, if you're anything like @emilycare and I, you'll be like, "Wait, shouldn't we watch all the Rocky films, too?" "Um, hell yeah?"

So last night, we watched the original Rocky and it has me thinking a lot about #LincolnGreen🏹.

For several really good reasons, too.

So many Robin Hood tales are actually sports stories. His prowess with the bow is NOT about how good he is in a fight.

Nor is his prowess with a stout staff.

Nor is his fighting prowess, actually.

These tales are often about the contests, wagers & tournaments, not battles.

I mean, a lot of medieval sport was also about battle—specifically preparing a population for war. Archery practice was compulsory & contests were held to encourage this so that the king would have trained warriors to conscript whenever the need arised.

This is the culture the Robin Hood stories begin in. It can be hard to see that when you come from a culture were archery is mostly about shooting Boromir.

So we don't think of Robin Hood stories are sports stories. (Also, I think because 90% of our sports fiction is about underdogs, and Robin is no underdog when it comes to archery.)

But they are & if I want to do them justice in #LincolnGreen🏹 I need to have good sports system.

There's a parenthetical in the Fahfrd & Gray Mouser tale "Adept's Gambit" that I'd like to share with you:

"After 'the business' (which turned out to be much more complicated than had been anticipated, evolving from a fairly simple affair of Sidonian smugglers…

"…into a glittering intrigue studded with Cilician pirates, a kidnapped Cappadocian princess, a forged letter of credit on a Syracusian financier, a bargain with a female Cyprian slave-dealer, a rendezvous that turned into an ambush…

"…some priceless tomb-filched Egyptian jewels that no one ever saw, and a band of Idumean brigands who came galloping out of the desert to upset everyone's calculations)…"

I often think about this parenthetical, what's being done here. It's a tale within a tale, but not quite.

I mean, it's more of a list that implies a tale. And it does its work. You don't actually know the nonsense that the pair got up to in "the business" but you know precisely all you need to know.

It's a bit like a montage—which will bring us back to Creed & Rocky in a moment.

My sports system inside #LincolnGreen🏹, which many of you know as the Butt System, is a game within a game, like how that parenthetical could be considered a tale with a tale or how some montages could be considered movies within movies.

It needs to clearly convey the feel of a game or sport being played, but it needs to do it concisely, without the moment-to-moment playback.

It should feel different, so that you understand that the expectations are different from the rest of the game, but it needs to feel a part of it.

So the Rocky films are kind of the go to example for training montages, right? And with good reason. But that fight at the end of the first Rocky, that's largely montage as well. It's about watching two men fall apart over the course of 15 rounds of boxing.

And it tells that story so well!

Creed II has this wonderful training montage in it does so much more than get you from point C to point D in the plot. I mean, it does that, but it also:
↣Harkens back to Rocky IV
↣Reveals or reminds us of the inner struggles of the main cast

↣Presages the fight to come, preparing us so we understand why things are important
↣Reinforces the roots between the Rocky & Creed movies while opening Creed up for its own path
↣And is just a blast to watch.