DramaSystem/Hillfolk Playtest Part 3

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8 [Weise Schildkröte] Dramatic
Weise Schildkröte calls his son into the priest’s cave (by now an often used location) warning him of Falkenauge’s ambitions and urging him to move pro-actively against his rival – though he remains ambiguous and unclear of what Silberblick should do exactly. He can’t really convince his son, and receives a drama token from him.

9 [GM] Dramatic/Procedural

As Zornige Löwin and Dunkeltot prepare to leave for their mission to Trident lands, a number of tribesmen lead by Lodernde Flamme (the recurrent NPC smith) drag the Grasseater smith Eiserner Arm* from the caves, pelting him with fists and stones. Lodernde Flamme repeats his accusations of curses and treachery, now confronting the chieftain with his demand for recognition as the sole smith of the tribe.
As Silberblick refuses to believe Lodernde Flamme’s claims (supported by the well-known gossip “Schnelle Zunge”), and the GM bagged a drama token, the scene drifted into the first procedural action, as Silberblick asked his father to refute the claims of curses and calm the tribesmen. We tagged this unto the end of the scene, with Weise Schildkröte easily defeating the medium difficulty challenge (GM used his yellow token) with his strong Talking ability. No one used a procedural token to force a redraw.

10 [Seestern] Dramatic
Here we saw the first use of a benny in our game. Seestern uses the one she gained last session to jump the queue and have her scene before the scouts can leave on their mission.** Seestern draws her friend Zornige Löwin aside and begs her to take a message to Prince Silbergischt of the Tridents (her lover before her capture). She gives Zornige Löwin her iron (see the theme) starfish amulet (Seestern = star fish) as a token of recognition.
Although she is uncomfortable with the additional dangers this would impose on the mission, Zornige Löwin agrees to the request, earning a drama token from Seestern for it.

11 [Zornige Löwin] Dramatic
Zornige Löwin now had two drama tokens and decided to use them. Taking advantage of the delay caused by the smith’s quarrel, she confronts Weise Schildkröte and demands that he stops Falkenauge and Silberblick from going at each others throats – and that he protects her from becoming a prize or tool in this struggle. After some wriggling, Weise Schildkröte finally promises to help find a peaceful compromise between the two, although he remains skeptical whether he can be successful.
He gets the two drama tokens spent by Zornige Löwin.

12 [Silberblick] Dramatic
Silberblick – being the careful and moderate character that he is – tries to clear the air with Falkenauge. He offers to take Falkenauge’s advice and make him an important advisor again. The scout balks at first, deriding Silberblick’s leadership as indecisive, but then offers his support if Silberblick will take Zornige Löwin as his bride. It’s all a fake though – he just wants to wed his family to Silberblick’s before removing his rival. Falkenauge (the character) doesn’t realize this and accepts the offer of marriage.
While outwardly Silberblick’s petition was granted – in reality it wasn’t at all and he received a drama token from the kitty (Falkenauge having none).
In retrospect we could have read this as a double petition, with Silberblick granting Falkenauge’s attempt at deception (and earning yet another token), but we didn’t see this clearly in game.

13 [Dunkeltot] Procedural
To everybody’s surprise Dunkeltot didn’t describe his and Zornige Löwin’s mission as sneaking into Trident territory. Instead they rather openly sought out Prince Silbergischt to deliver Seestern’s message. An easy procedural challenge allowed them to meet with him, despite Dunkeltot’s weak Talking ability. The prince’s reaction to the message was double-edged though. While he was excited and glad to hear from Seestern, he also made his intention clear to see and take her home as quickly as possible. He bid the two wait in his gardens as he left to gather his men.

14 [Falkenauge] Dramatic
Falkenauge moves to gain more support for his plot against Silberblick. He talks to Seestern, suggesting that, if Silberblick and Zornige Löwin married, they would surely free her from slavery. Seestern is intrigued by this and – although torn by her knowledge that this isn’t what Zornige Löwin wants – agrees to support him.

* Funnily, the name “Eiserner Arm” (“Iron Arm” in English) was the name of my character in the Dragonmeet Hillfolk session, also a smith. The players came up with it without knowing this.
** I thought it wasn’t 100% clear from the rules whether this was an extra scene, or whether her scene was just moved in the precedence order. But we thought it more appropriate if wasn’t an extra one, so we skipped Seestern later when it would have been her normal turn.

Comments
We really got into the game by the second round, and there were so many dramatic intentions. that it took quite a while for the procedural scouting scene to emerge, and then it happened in quite an unexpected way.

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