Interlude: A somewhat rash decision

An apology, some thoughts on player principles, a choice between side stories

My apologies: Unexpectedly PTFOOO

First off, my apologies — there’s no new fiction this week. I had a long, tricky work week, and my two kiddos have been sick, which has inevitably moved on to me. As a result, I didn’t have the time to play out the session and write up my notes, let alone build them into the fiction. But I didn’t want to leave you all empty-handed, and I still wanted to spend some time thinking about our heroes and what they might get up to, and I ended up writing down some of those thoughts; so we have this (somewhat) brief interlude.

Waiting for Padrig

Last episode, the party made contact with their merchant ally Kanter, and Padrig went with him to seek out Elder Kirs, the object of their quest in the Delve. Pad sent Anwen and Vahid to secure lodging and lay low since they are trying to avoid the notice of the Delve bosses.

As I imagined Anwen and Vahid seeking out Madame Parvati, and cooling their heels while hiding out in a brothel (perhaps interacting with some interesting patrons or workers), I realized they are separated from Padrig, who is our voice of caution. Each of them occasionally has risky impulses¹, and without Pad to put his hand on their shoulders and say, “We have a mission here,” they might heed them and make a somewhat rash decision.

Just because Pad is absent doesn’t mean Anwen and Vahid have gotten stupid. They know there are risks to going out: They’re trying to keep a low profile, especially since the man they’re looking for, Elder Kirs, stands at risk of being dragged into the rapidly escalating feud between the Delvers and the Hillfolk. That said, they are at least a little able to conceal themselves — the Delve is full of seekers, after all, and they can disappear among the crowds. So we should try to understand what strong impulse might lead them to take the risk, leave whatever relative safety they’ve found, and venture out into the mean streets of Gordin’s Delve. But first, let’s talk about that oft-maligned phrase…

It’s what my character would do!

Google this phrase, and you will find a memetic rabbit hole deep enough to bury yourself in for the afternoon. Here’s the general shape of the conversation:

D&D and many other TTRPGs, are games that involve a group of competent, usually-altruistic, violence-capable people working together to achieve some common goal. That’s a pretty broad brush, and within that category, there’s a lot of variation among players, and within play groups. Some players like to portray characters that have faults and occasionally bad judgments that undermine their common goal, and they sometimes clash with players who want, first and foremost, to stay focused on the meat of the scenario and make considered, thoughtful choices about how to move forward. This often dovetails into the admonishment “never split the party”. D&D scenarios are generally balanced assuming the full party is present for every major event, so splitting the party is dangerous, and it also slows down play at the table or in the Zoom.

When I read Reddit threads or tweets about this debate, the consensus seems to be that if you break from the agreed-upon plan and instead have your character pursue another goal or make a wrong decision, your group has a right to call you out on it. If they do, the right thing to do is to have your character fall in line. Often, the advice given when people have this debate at the table is to try to think of a reason why your character would stick to the plan or go with the group rather than going their own way.

And in general, I think that’s right — particularly in a game like D&D or any other game which mixes fantasy storytelling with a fairly mathed-out tactical combat system, which rewards players who manage their resources and make optimal decisions on the battlemat.

But this ain’t D&D.

Stonetop’s Advice for Players

Make no mistake — Stonetop does reward smart, tactical thinking in players, though the way it does so is more abstract, and the math involved is much less complex. But the goal of Stonetop is to tell an exciting story — like nearly all PbtA games, it lays out an agenda for the players to pursue and principles to strive towards while they do so. Here’s the Stonetop player agenda, expressed in three directives:

• Portray a compelling character

• Engage with the fictional world

• Play to find out what happens²

And here is a selection of a few of the player principles relevant to this situation:

• Show us what’s important to you

• Make connections to other characters

• Have goals and pursue them

• Be bold, take risks

• Embrace difficulty, setback, and failure

If we were playing at a very game-y D&D table, the tactically-correct answer might be to secure some rooms in the brothel and remain in them, staring at the wall until Padrig returns. And there’s nothing in the rules of Stonetop stopping us from doing that — but it certainly doesn’t lead to a compelling story.

If we want to play a great game of Stonetop, we’ve got to be bold and take risks, and sitting around twiddling our thumbs certainly doesn’t do that. We need to show what’s important to us — obviously, we know the mission is important, but can we push that principle further? And, although we might be concerned about screwing things up and filling the countdown clock, bringing the bosses' attention down on us, we must embrace difficulty, setback, and failure. It’s a tough spot for the characters if we fail, but it's just more story for us, the players.

There’s a lot of advice for GMs on the mighty Internet and correspondingly little for players³. Most TTRPGs player-handbook type tomes do have at least a little advice on playership, scattered among dozens or hundreds of pages of character options. But, for my money, Apocalypse World and its successors do the best job here, and Stonetop is no exception. Player agendas and principles in these books are short, punchy, and highly impactful to the stories you tell if taken to heart. If you are a frequent player in a TTRPG, or run your solo game, it’s hard to go wrong if you zealously pursue these principles -- even in other games, be they D&D or otherwise.

So, with our player principles in mind: What would our characters do?

Anwen’s Friend

Anwen cares a lot about her friends and the people of Stonetop generally. For 13 years, her mother drilled into her that they were guests in Stonetop, and that their presence there hinged on the friendship of their hosts. Since we’ve followed her adventures, she’s risked her life for them over and over — she faced Great Wood and the crinwin for Blodwen in Session 1, she stormed Marshedge’s donjon for Padrig in Session 4, she rushed a storm-marked assassin with just a dagger for Kirs, whom she’d known approximately a week in Session 8.

Anwen has a friend in Gordin’s Delve: Rheisart, the young blacksmith, who stood with her at her initiation in Session 5.6. We haven’t envisioned their history together — all we know is that they’re close enough that he was right there next to her at one of the most meaningful moments of Anwen’s life.

We can also imagine Anwen is antsy right now — she’s waiting to meet Kirs’ father, and she partly blames herself for Kirs’ death. Gordin’s Delve is crowded, and she faced a deadly⁴ attack and a high-stakes flight in the dead of night only a few days ago. She’s away from her home for the third time ever, in her life. And she’s also seen that Gordin’s Delve is a dangerous place, and one of her closest friends is here in a time of rising danger. If she doesn’t see him, she may have another chance for years, perhaps ever, if he were to remain here or travel elsewhere to ply his trade.

All of that might mean that Anwen is willing to take the risk and seek him out. She knows he is a smith and can Ask Around where his fellow tradesfolk do their work or where they live and take their ease.

She is, of course, aware of the risks she’d be taking on and that Pad might disapprove. But not too long ago, Padrig told her to lead with her heart, and he’d have her back. She’s heard that the smithies are closed, and that Gordin’s Delve is unkind to people who can’t earn their keep. She misses home, is worried about Rheisart, and knows a skilled smith — even with only a year of extra training under his belt — would make a big difference to the village.

Vahid’s Curiosity

Vahid is a curious fellow. In fact, on his character sheet, his Instinct is marked ‘Curiosity: To seek answers you maybe oughtn’t.’ In Session 5, he braved the ruins beneath Stonetop, facing dangerous magics and animated guardians to discover a potent arcanum left by the legendary Maker, Indrasduthir, also known as Stormcatcher. He trusted a nomad spirit-talker he’d known for a day and a night, ate some clearly magical mushrooms, and saw a vivid vision of the past. All these things are as wondrous as the things he spent his young life learning about in the Lyceum and researching in the great libraries of Lygos.

Vahid is feeling curious right now. The town they’ve been walking through is built on, around, and into the ruins of the ancient Forge Lords, masters of fire, metal, and artifice. Surely, there must be great wonders here — even just a cursory study of these ruins might yield insights unknown by his peers back in their comfortable homes in Lygos.

And, when last he played it safe and stayed behind in Marshedge back in Session 4, he missed an opportunity to see a massive, as-yet unstudied arcanum left there a millennia ago by the Stone Lords. Anwen described it to him on the road home⁵, and Vahid lamented the missed opportunity even to have a brief glimpse at it, to read the runes and inscriptions, to learn some forgotten knowledge, and perhaps even record it and be counted among the giants whose works of history and natural philosophy he has read his whole life.

All of that might mean Vahid is willing to take the risk and seek out the ruins — as they moved through the city, Vahid might have observed sellers of Forge Lord trinkets and oddities. He may have even laid eyes on the strange and alien Ustrina — small, strange, nonhuman creatures, always fully robed and wearing masks, who frequent the town and are said to have once served the Makers long ago.

The Ustrina. Worldbuilding source: Stonetop // Jeremy Strandberg. Illustration source: Midjourney

He as well is aware of the risks. He stands out, though so far, he’s been able to keep his unusual features — his solid blue eyes, his strange, burnt hand — hidden from view. In the back of his mind, he knows that he never saw Cicatrix, the assassin sent to murder him, perish, though Vahid has no way of knowing that the man survived and has been captured by the Hillfolk⁶. But he has always been willing to take risks to learn more about the Makers. And, at times, Vahid has started to see Padrig as having a narrow view of their current situation. Padrig sees Cirl the hdour as a leader of an army arrayed against them, but Vahid understands that Cirl also commands terrible arcane power. Despite Pad’s tactical skill, he can still be outmaneuvered by things he doesn’t understand — as he was by Brennan (who was under some mystical influence) in Session 4 and the supernatural nosgolau on the road to Marshedge in Session 3. To match the hdour, power against power, Vahid needs all the help he can get, and Gordin’s Delve might hide some opportunity.

Making a somewhat rash decision

I don’t think both characters can go haring off into the Delve — one will need to stay behind and wait for Padrig. So which perhaps foolhardy decision is about to be made? I leave the choice up to you all. This week, we’re going to try to use the new poll functionality within Substack, and we’re also going to experiment with public vote counts! If you have thoughts for or against either of those decisions, please let me know in the comments.

As always, thanks for reading — I hope this brief meditation on player principles was at least a little interesting and hopefully a bit useful in either your solo games or at your gaming table with friends. Next week we’ll play to find out who goes out and what goes wrong.

1. In the last episode, for example, Anwen had an impulse to rescue the Hillfolk prisoner from Jahalim’s bravos, or at least confront them about his mistreatment, but Padrig held her back.

2. Hey, that’s the name of the project!

3. I don’t have a hard source on this, but it seems to be the consensus among the various RPG communities. Here’s a reddit thread discussing the whys of the phenomenon.

4. Quiet Quill died, Anwen’s compatriot in the Companions, as well as emigres whom Anwen had been traveling with and sharing a campfire with for days.

5. You can refresh you memory on that scene here, in Session 4.6.

6. This was the last scene of Session 10.5, a brief interlude where we envisioned a scene that none of our player characters were privy to.