2019.06.19 Hearts of Wulin

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:03.560 Hey everybody, and welcome to just played. This is the podcast where I 2 00:00:03.640 --> 00:00:08.480 recap the tabletop URPG's I've recently participated in as player or game master. I'm 3 00:00:08.519 --> 00:00:12.960 Jim Crocker and today I'll be talking about hearts of wool in the first part 4 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:18.359 of a two session game that I played on the Gauntlet Rpg community. Hearts 5 00:00:18.359 --> 00:00:23.440 of wiillin is a game of Romantic woosha melodrama. So think Kung Fu movies 6 00:00:23.519 --> 00:00:28.079 like crouching tiger, Hidden Dragon, house of flying daggers hero, as well 7 00:00:28.120 --> 00:00:33.479 as ongoing Chinese and Korean martial arts soap operas. System is powered by the 8 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:38.280 apocalypse, so uses the same system as games like masks, urban shadows and, 9 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:41.000 of course, a pocups world itself. In this case we're playing a 10 00:00:41.039 --> 00:00:47.079 two episode feature on Gauntlet hangouts and our facilitator, MC is Shane Leebling. 11 00:00:47.280 --> 00:00:52.280 As far as characters go, Sarafina was dancing smoke, who is a bravo, 12 00:00:52.520 --> 00:00:57.439 using the gallivant role. Eli Played Yan, who was a student in 13 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:02.679 the younger sibling role. Dan Played Dang, also known as acid lute, 14 00:01:03.119 --> 00:01:07.159 unaware, in the traveling SEAFO roll, and I played inspector shun, who 15 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:11.000 is a loyal in the official role. Now, of course, I based 16 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:15.799 inspector shun pretty closely on Detective D for Any of you who have seen those 17 00:01:15.959 --> 00:01:19.760 classic Wusha movies sessions starting state, one of the things you do when you 18 00:01:19.760 --> 00:01:26.000 started giving parts of w win is create a complex web of entanglements, both 19 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:30.640 romantic and entanglements that arise as a result of our participate getting in the Marshall 20 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:33.400 World. So when we started out there are multiple weddings in the works, 21 00:01:33.519 --> 00:01:38.359 but our basic starting state was with me and dancing smoke, who I'm engaged 22 00:01:38.400 --> 00:01:42.560 to. That's one of the weddings, but we both love other people. 23 00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:45.760 So the two of us are playing chess at our little villa that we live 24 00:01:45.799 --> 00:01:51.280 in together in separate rooms. Dang, an old friend and traveling seafoo whose 25 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:55.519 sister limpid flute. I cannot express my love for. My old friend Dang's 26 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:57.599 sister is the one that I'm actually in love with. But of course our 27 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:02.319 understanding that it is my duty to marry dancing smoke means that that love goes 28 00:02:02.400 --> 00:02:07.879 unrequited for the two of us. So my old pal Dang was returning from 29 00:02:07.879 --> 00:02:12.719 one of his journeys around the countryside and my little sister Yan who, unbeknowns 30 00:02:12.759 --> 00:02:16.280 to me, serves an unrighteous faction. She has been sneaking out to learn 31 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:21.039 martial arts and has fallen in with the wrong crowd. She has been assigned 32 00:02:21.039 --> 00:02:25.360 a mission by her teacher, the nefarious criminal known as Winter Fox. So, 33 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:29.240 as far as the plot goes, because we spent the first ninety minutes 34 00:02:29.319 --> 00:02:31.560 or so engaged in character and world building, like you do in a Pubta 35 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:35.439 game, we only had about ninety minutes of play. So this a little 36 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:38.319 truncated, but you know, we still got a lot done. So our 37 00:02:38.360 --> 00:02:44.520 story opened with Dancing Fox assigning Yan to find and steal the starlet branch, 38 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:49.360 which is this legendary sword that the Peach Blossom Island faction will deliver as a 39 00:02:49.400 --> 00:02:54.360 wedding gift to the Green Bamboo sect. When Limpid Fox, who is yen 40 00:02:54.520 --> 00:02:58.520 sister and, if you'll recall, the woman that I am in love with 41 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:02.879 but can express it to, when she marries their librarian leaping son. So 42 00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:08.319 it turns out that dancing smoke and inspector shun, we are engaged but not 43 00:03:08.400 --> 00:03:13.719 really acting like a couple that loves each other. We have this game of 44 00:03:13.800 --> 00:03:19.599 chess, and we play by making one move each. Each night, when 45 00:03:19.639 --> 00:03:23.680 we return home from whatever it is we're separately doing during the day, we 46 00:03:23.719 --> 00:03:27.879 meet in the courtyard this chess board that's under a little pagoda, and each 47 00:03:27.919 --> 00:03:31.039 of us makes one move on the chessboard before we then retire to our separate 48 00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:37.120 chambers, and that's our contact. But this evening the game was interrupted by 49 00:03:37.159 --> 00:03:40.879 a gang of thugs from the twelve linked fortress faction. Now that is the 50 00:03:40.879 --> 00:03:45.120 faction that Yan is secretly a member of. I don't know this that she's 51 00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:49.000 been, like I said, sneaking out to go do martial arts training. 52 00:03:49.080 --> 00:03:53.159 So, as inspector shun, I advised to them to leave peacefully and, 53 00:03:53.240 --> 00:03:57.759 dancing smoke, excused herself to her chambers for any conflict could break out, 54 00:03:57.800 --> 00:04:01.199 because she doesn't need to be around for that, only to discover that Yan 55 00:04:01.439 --> 00:04:06.319 has snuck in the back and is tearing apart her chamber searching for the sword. 56 00:04:06.360 --> 00:04:10.479 So meanwhile, Dang has gone to his sister, Olympid flute, about 57 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:14.639 the problems with her impending nuptials and his bad feelings about them. So he's 58 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:17.600 basically trying to talk Rut of getting married and he drops my name into it 59 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:23.279 and that just makes her mad. She just gets upset with him and basically 60 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:27.959 tells him to get lost. Now she is angry with him, so he 61 00:04:28.199 --> 00:04:31.160 just decides he's going to go visit his old friend, inspector shun and of 62 00:04:31.160 --> 00:04:36.120 course, by pure coincidence, arrives just as the fight between shun and these 63 00:04:36.199 --> 00:04:42.040 goons breaks out. So inside, dancing smoke, unaware that it's yen who's 64 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:46.240 invaded her chambers, easily bests the conflicted bandit in a duel, sending her 65 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:51.480 fleeing across the rooftops, but not before she loses half of her two sections 66 00:04:51.480 --> 00:04:58.240 sword, a weapon that was once wielded by our brother who was murdered a 67 00:04:58.360 --> 00:05:01.839 decade ago, and that's the only case that inspector shun has never been able 68 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:05.920 to solve. So meanwhile, back outside, Shun make short work of the 69 00:05:05.920 --> 00:05:11.279 bandit's, sending them home bruised, battered and weaponless, their weapons kind of 70 00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:14.199 strewn about the courtyard. She's just sort of knocked them all out of their 71 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:18.720 hands with his steel ruler that he uses as a weapon and Dang make sure 72 00:05:18.759 --> 00:05:24.720 to usher all of them out into the street. With some gentle mockery as 73 00:05:24.759 --> 00:05:29.000 they go. So or ending fictional state is that shun and Dang are united 74 00:05:29.000 --> 00:05:31.319 and we have to get to the bottom of the attack. Yan has fled 75 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:35.480 and not returned to her master because she needs to try and figure out what 76 00:05:35.560 --> 00:05:39.160 to do next now that her mission has failed. She doesn't want to go 77 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:42.560 back to him and report that she blew it. So she's trying to figure 78 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:46.040 out what her next step is, and dancing smoke has found her weapon and 79 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:50.079 kind of secreted way so that she can do some snooping of her own and 80 00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:54.120 not leave it there for me to find. So that's where we ended our 81 00:05:54.160 --> 00:05:58.079 session. So my favorite other player moment was the fact that it was actually 82 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:00.879 Dan's first game on the gall it. None of us would have known that 83 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:06.399 if he hadn't volunteered that information. But I was a particular fan of the 84 00:06:06.399 --> 00:06:14.879 way he narrated his characters kind of comedic farewells to the beat up thugs that 85 00:06:14.920 --> 00:06:18.439 he ushered out of the door of the inspector's home, and he immediately followed 86 00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:21.800 this with a suggestion that this was just how it went every time we get 87 00:06:21.839 --> 00:06:26.160 together, that one or the other of US inevitably got into some kind of 88 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:29.160 brawl. I thought that was really pretty cool. As far as my favorite 89 00:06:29.199 --> 00:06:32.000 gimming moment goes, I always love playing with Shane. He was one of 90 00:06:32.040 --> 00:06:35.120 the first people I played with on the Gauntlet and it's always a pleasure and 91 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:38.839 a treat to get into one of his games and of course, this time 92 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:43.759 no exception. In particular the way he pivoted on a dime when that gang 93 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:46.920 attacked us and he asked Yan if she was in on it, her not, 94 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:53.319 and when she said yes, he then spun her presence into two simultaneous 95 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:57.800 fights, one which was a PC versus pc duel in dancing smokes chambers, 96 00:06:57.800 --> 00:07:01.160 and the other PC versus troupe fight, which was me fighting all the mookes 97 00:07:01.160 --> 00:07:04.079 happening at the same time, kind of cutting back and forth between them. 98 00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:09.439 That was pretty inspired and a really neat moment and very cinematic and and something 99 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:12.399 this game is great at, and Shawn J zero right in in a way. 100 00:07:12.439 --> 00:07:15.519 That was just really perfect when it happened. As far as missed opportunities 101 00:07:15.560 --> 00:07:17.560 go, we only had ninety minutes to play, so it chanced to dig 102 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:24.279 into our relationships with NPC's was pretty limited. Now Arts of Wilyan relies pretty 103 00:07:24.279 --> 00:07:29.959 strongly on having some juicy MC character drama along with the Inter character and tangle 104 00:07:30.040 --> 00:07:32.399 months, so I'm hoping for a lot more mixing it up with some of 105 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:36.560 those other characters that chain is going to get a chance to play next session 106 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:41.279 so that we can really make those soap oper relationships nice and complicated. So, 107 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:44.519 finally, a thing I noticed. I've run a couple series of hearts 108 00:07:44.519 --> 00:07:47.120 of woolen and played in a couple more, and I've definitely come around to 109 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:53.600 the idea that two sessions of this game of three to four hours each is 110 00:07:53.639 --> 00:07:57.920 a perfect form factor. If you're trying to replicate the feeling of a feature 111 00:07:58.000 --> 00:08:03.720 length film like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or house of flying daggers for satisfying 112 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:09.040 one shot, I'm pretty sure you'd need pregenerated pcs and situations then have to 113 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:13.720 hard frame like crazy. It had certainly working be fun, but by necessity 114 00:08:13.759 --> 00:08:18.680 it had limit player input into the starting game state unless you only wanted to 115 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:22.560 get in a couple hours of actual play. More than a couple of sessions 116 00:08:22.600 --> 00:08:26.160 and it had start to sprawl. It had turn into is an actual series 117 00:08:26.759 --> 00:08:31.639 which is great and very much in keeping with the WHOOSHA series that lowland Agatha 118 00:08:31.800 --> 00:08:35.399 also had in mind when they're designing the game. Now that sort of ongoing 119 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:39.679 narrative is Super Fun, but it's distinct from the very tight rising and falling 120 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:45.039 action of a Woosha feature film. I'm really glad that chain has structured the 121 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:48.279 game this way because it'll let me test this theory as a player and not 122 00:08:48.320 --> 00:08:52.879 just an MC, because this is how I've run the last couple of games 123 00:08:52.919 --> 00:08:56.440 that I have em seed is as these kind of two session features. So 124 00:08:56.480 --> 00:08:58.200 I'm going to run the games that I have coming up at DEXCON in a 125 00:08:58.240 --> 00:09:01.919 couple of weeks, but I haven't got a chance to do this as a 126 00:09:01.919 --> 00:09:05.639 player. So I'm really looking forward to it and I will report back next 127 00:09:05.679 --> 00:09:09.960 week after session too. So that's all for this episode. Thanks for listening. 128 00:09:09.000 --> 00:09:11.360 If you're enjoying the show, please rate and review it where you have 129 00:09:11.440 --> 00:09:15.080 found it. Check out the show notes for video of this session, if 130 00:09:15.080 --> 00:09:18.039 one's available, as well as where to find the game we played. Now. 131 00:09:18.080 --> 00:09:20.919 In this case there is a play test version of the rules available, 132 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:26.279 but it just finished a mammoth monstrous kickstarter that made like thirty eight grand or 133 00:09:26.320 --> 00:09:30.399 something like that. So the game itself is going to be out somewhere around 134 00:09:30.440 --> 00:09:31.519 the end of the year and it is going to be gorgeous and I'm really 135 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:35.200 looking forward to it. So I'll post a linked information on that and, 136 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:39.440 as always, of course, you can follow me on twitter at Jimlikes Games 137 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:43.960 and buy games for me at my website, Jim Likes Gamescom or to convention 138 00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:48.120 I attend as a vendor. That is absolutely the best way to support the 139 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:52.679 show. I'll be at too many games in the Philadelphia area this weekend and 140 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:56.519 then following that, first week in July I'll be at DEX CON in Morristown, 141 00:09:56.519 --> 00:10:00.759 New Jersey, and the week after that at connectic coon in Hartford Connecticut, 142 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:03.919 and of course, coming up in August I'll be at Gen con working 143 00:10:03.960 --> 00:10:07.399 with my friends at any press revolution. So any time you're at any of 144 00:10:07.399 --> 00:10:09.720 those shows, do you please stop by and say hello. But now, 145 00:10:09.759 --> 00:10:13.159 if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go play another game.