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Hal Foster’s groundbreaking Prince Valiant was adapted into the first “storytelling game” by Greg Stafford back in the ’80s. Many of you likely grew up with its much diminished legacy in the Sunday comic strips of your youth, but Foster’s original strips (as you can see below) was a beautiful, atmospheric, mythic-real take on the Arthurian legend. Stafford’s game sought to capture this universe with an elegant ruleset and incredibly simple character creation mechanics, and it’s recently been republished by Nocturnal Media.

The game is divided into two parts. The Basic Game, although the first to bear the title of “storytelling game”, is very much a traditional RPG. What made it particularly innovative at the time, however, was that it eschewed simulation-focused complexity and instead stripped things down to a simple, narrative-focused mechanic.

In the Advanced Game, Stafford introduces a structure by which players can, in mid-session, become Storytellers, running the group through short episodes before returning control of the session to the Chief Storyteller. Meta-currency rewards are given in exchange for taking on these GMing duties, creating not only one of the first STGs but also an early troupe-style game.

Thirty years later, Prince Valiant is no longer innovative. (Quite the opposite: The industry has been following its lead and looting its corpse.) But it remains an elegant and accessible game that, although its parts have been parceled out, still provides a unique playing experience that’s not really been duplicated anywhere else.

This is actually a great time to get into Prince Valiant: In addition to Nocturnal Media reprinting the RPG, Fantagraphcs has been publishing a freshly remastered reprint series of Foster’s original comic. This new edition has been scanned from the original syndicate proofs, restoring Foster’s stunningly beautiful art and subtle storytelling.

Inspired by both, I’m currently laying down a bunch of material for bringing Prince Valiant to my gaming table. This includes assembling one of my system cheat sheets for the game. For those unfamiliar with these cheat sheets, they seek to summarize all of the rules for the game — from basic action resolution to advanced options. It’s a great way to get a grip on a new system and, of course, it makes it easier to introduce the game to new players and run the system as a Game Master.

WHAT’S NOT INCLUDED

These cheat sheets are not designed to be a quick start packet: They’re designed to be a comprehensive reference for someone who has read the rulebook and will probably prove woefully inadequate if you try to learn the game from them. (On the other hand, they can definitely assist experienced players who are teaching the game to new players.)

The cheat sheets also don’t include what I refer to as “character option chunks” (for reasons discussed here). In other words, you won’t find the rules for character creation here.

HOW I USE THEM

I generally keep a copy of my system cheat sheets behind my GM screen for quick reference and I also place a half dozen copies in the center of the table for the players to grab as needed. The information included is meant to be as comprehensive as possible; although rulebooks are also available, my goal is to minimize the amount of time people spend referencing the rulebook: Prince Valiant is one of those games which freely mix rules with philosophical discussions of how the rules can be used to best effect. The cheat sheets can’t duplicate that utility, but instead seek to pull the rules out for easy reference.

The organization of information onto each page of the cheat sheet should, hopefully, be fairly intuitive.

Page 1: Core Mechanics & Combat. Most of the game is right here.

Page 2: Skills. I went with slightly longer skill descriptions than I usually do for these cheat sheets because we found that the divisions between skills were finely defined (which makes sense given the relatively narrow focus of the game on knights and courtly life) and also not completely intuitive (because Stafford has, very cleverly, adopted a medieval understanding of philosophy in the division of knowledge and skill).

Page 3: All the Modifiers. All of them.

Page 4: Special Effects & Fame. I’ve tried to appropriately emphasize the degree to which the Fame Award values are very much median guidelines that it’s expected the GM will vary from. (Review the appropriate sections of the rulebook as necessary.)

Page 5: Advanced Storytelling. I initially played with the idea of putting all of the Advanced rules on a single sheet, but ultimately decided that I was likely to include Advanced Skills (and character creation) even in campaigns that didn’t use all of the Advanced Storytelling rules. (Partly due to the exigencies of the new open table format I’m experimenting with using Prince Valiant as its foundation.)

MAKING A GM SCREEN

As with my other cheat sheets, the Prince Valiant sheets can also be used in conjunction with a modular, landscape-oriented GM screen (like the ones you can buy here or here).

If you have the modular four panel screen, like I do, then this is quite simple: The “Advanced Storytelling” sheet is a nice reference, but you don’t need to be able to access its information in a single glance. So you can just insert the other four sheets and you’re good to go.

PLAY PRINCE VALIANT!

In this seminar, Sandy Petersen — original designer of Call of Cthulhu and owner of Petersen Games (among many, many other accomplishments) — walks the audience through his process for writing a horror scenario. Along the way he offers a prodigious grab-bag of advice. I thought the material was fascinating enough that I took notes and broke his process down into a step-by-step model. I’m polishing those notes up and sharing them here because I think they’ve got a general utility.

THE BASICS ACCORDING TO M.R. JAMES

Petersen draws inspiration from three rules M.R. James set for his famous ghost stories (a body of literature which inspired, among many others, Lovecraft himself):

1. The ghost is malign.

The antagonist for your horror story doesn’t necessarily need to be a ghost. (And, in fact, M.R. James’ ghosts were quite varied in their properties.) But your antagonist shouldn’t be revealed as having good intentions.

2. Place your story somewhere the players can imagine themselves.

Petersen discusses that his original intention for Call of Cthulhu was to set it in the modern day: Lovecraft wasn’t writing historical fiction, after all. He was writing cutting edge thrillers. When he wrote “The Call of Cthulhu” in 1922, for example, a steamship was the biggest and most powerful thing that had ever been accomplished with human technology. So when he rams Cthulhu with the steamship, it’s not an historical oddity — it’s Lovecraft saying “the biggest thing we have can’t stop Cthulhu”. Petersen asserts that if Lovecraft had written the story in 1945, he would have nuked Cthulhu.

This is not to say you can’t set your scenario in other settings. It’s just that you have to work harder: You can do it in the ’20s, the 1890’s, the 15th century, or on a spaceship. But you have to make the players feel as if they could actually be there.

3. No jargon.

M.R. James was talking about avoiding the terminology of theosophists and the other pseudo-scientific approaches to the supernatural that were arising during his time. For Petersen, this means using fiction-first declarations instead of mechanics-first declarations. Horror doesn’t come from game mechanics.

THE SCENARIO SEED

1. Pick a scene from a movie, book, etc. (Example: Burning the rabbit from Velveteen Rabbit.)

My thought on this (and I suspect it’s probably true for Petersen outside of seminar contexts) is that it doesn’t need to be a scene you’ve literally plucked from an existing piece of literature. What you’re looking for is a strong, emotionally powerful image or event.

2. Pick a place. (Example: Hot springs.)

3. Pick an opponent. (Example: 500 year old undead ancestor.)

THE SCENARIO SPINE

A. Look for interesting combinations/connections in the elements of the scenario seed.

For example, the ancient undead is somehow connected to the hot springs. (Note how this nicely distinguishes them from any other ancient undead.)

B. Look for connections between the PCs and the bad guys.

For example, one of the PCs is a descendant of the ancient undead. (This makes the horror personal. It also provides a convenient scenario hook in keeping with the Lovecraftian literary tradition.)

C. Start with the bad guy’s plan or purpose.

Don’t worry yet about what the PCs will be doing, but leverage the connection to the PCs if possible. For example, the ancestor calls a family reunion for the extended clan at their hot spring. His goal is to transfer his consciousness to one of the younger members of the family.

D. Check your scenario seed and make sure you’ve used all the elements.

For example, we haven’t used the imagery from the Velveteen Rabbit yet. So the ancestor will give everyone coming to the reunion a reliquary memento containing a piece of one of his former bodies, enchanted so that he can track it down in the future. (Thus simplifying any future attempts to locate his descendants when further body transferrals are required.)

DEVELOP DETAILS

From this point forward, you’re simply developing the details of the spine you’ve established. (I’ll note that this shouldn’t be trivialized, however: It’s in these details where the scenario will truly come to life.) For example:

• What is the reliquary memento? A small statue made out of scrimshaw. (Why? Because it’s cool.)
• Who’s the undead ancestor? Heidvig Petersen. He was a whaler (hence the scrimshaw).
• What happens at the reunion? Nothing, actually. It’s a red herring of paranoia. The players will constantly be expecting things to go horribly wrong or explode in an orgy of violence, but Heidvig is really just scouting his potential victims.
• Is he working alone? No. Most of the employees at the hot springs are actually cultists dedicated to him. The staff may accidentally refer to him as “The One Who’s Below”.

MEDIA INSPIRATION: As you’re developing the details of your scenario, don’t be afraid to pull in more imagery and cool ideas from favorite pieces of media. (Transform them to the context provided by the spine of your scenario.)

MYTHOS LORE: Have your scenario operate consistently with or connect to other Mythos stories… unless that’s inconvenient. (For example, have Heidvig connected to Captain Marsh of Innsmouth from his whaling days. Or look at how soul transference works in Lovecraft’s stories and see how those principles could be applied to Heidvig’s ritual. For example, in “The Thing on the Doorstep” there needed to be an emotional connection.)

THE CREEPY STUFF RULE

In order for creepy stuff to work, you can’t just open a random door and then be eaten by the shoggoth on the other side. You need to give your players three chances to avoid being killed by the creepy monster.

1. Hint. (Example: There’s strange slime and a viscous mud outside.)

2. Clear Indication of Danger. (Example: You find the slime-encrusted body of a dead, decapitated sewer worker.)

3. The Monster. (Example: Emerging from the sewage is a black, protoplasmic blob.)

When the bad things go down (and, since this is a horror story, bad things will go down), you want the players to blame themselves for what happens. (My note: If they externalize that blame to the GM, it becomes external not only from themselves but also from the game world. This robs the events of meaning, and without meaning there can be no horror.) With the Creepy Stuff Rule, if they’re still here, then they can’t blame you: They did it to themselves.

Petersen applies the Creepy Stuff Rule to the example scenario like this:

Hint: Heidvig’s hot-spring cooked body stalks the halls at night, leaving behind a distinctive odor of cooked flesh and, upon closer inspection, bits of boiled flesh.

Clear Indication of Danger: The PCs dicover that there are multiple levels of hidden hot springs underground, each more intense than the last. This progression leads to Heidvig’s pit, which lies adjacent to a bubbling pool of lava.

The Monster: Heidvig.

THE SOLUTION

The GM needs to come up with one viable solution to the problem they’ve created. (If the players come up with something else, more power to them.)

For example, they can throw the scrimshaw reliquary they were given into the lava pit. Its destruction will break the emotional connection between them and Heidvig, preventing him from possessing them.

In this process, revisit the points of inspiration in your scenario seed. For example, a ritual is being performed, at the end of which he will walk into the lava pool, burning his body away (like the Velveteen rabbit) and freeing his spirit to inhabit its next host. The PCs need to STOP the monster from being destroyed!

RANDOM TIPS & INSIGHTS

• When running games, Petersen will generally summarize NPC-to-NPC interactions rather than trying to talk to himself at the table. (I think the implication is that he will rarely if ever do so when the NPCs are talking to the players. Which is a technique I agree strongly with.)
• Have people see things out of the corner of their eye that aren’t there. (He takes this technique from the movie Night of the Demon, which was adapted from M.R. James’ “Casting the Runes”, in which characters keep asking the protagonist if they can take their bag or assert that the character can’t bring their dog on the train… even though the protagonist doesn’t have a bag or a dog.)
• Let the characters think they see one thing, but then it moves. (This is from “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”: Someone reaches into a niche to pull out a satchel containing the treasure… and then the satchel wraps its arms around their throat. I would generalize this to anything so alien that the mind would first interpret it as being an inanimate object.)
• Be okay with the players failing. That’s when a lot of interesting options open up.
• Give NPCs a method for disengaging from questioning. (An activity they have to do; a pager that goes off; they stop understanding English; etc.) In other mediums, the author can simply choose to end an interrogation scene. In an RPG, players tend to zero in “like a hammerhead shark” and just pound away on every NPC.
• As part of your scenario prep, think about what happens if the cops are called. (Blocking the cops from taking meaningful action is fine — the cops are cultists; the cultists can talk their way out of it when the cops show up; etc. — but try to be creative about it and be prepared for it!)

IN THE SHADOW OF THE SPIRE

SESSION 14B: MALKEEN DAWNING

January 5th, 2008
The 4th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

It was still the dark of night when Tee woke up to find Malkeen Balacazar in her room.

The crime lord was sitting on the chair in the corner, the light of the bedside lamp that he must have lit casting shadows that turned the star-tattoo across his eye into a pit of darkness. “Good morning, Tee.”

Tee’s heart was trying to pound its way out of her chest. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought we had an arrangement, Mistress Tee.” Malkeen’s voice was hard and cold. “I would let you and your friends live, and you would never interfere in my business again.”

Tee glared. “And we haven’t.”

“Then explain this.” Malkeen flicked his wrist, throwing a piece of paper onto Tee’s bedcovers. It had been crumpled, burned around the edges, and badly water damaged – but Tee recognized her own handwriting. It was the note that she had written and left for Dullin at the Cloud Theater.

“Dullin was connected to you?”

“My nephew. You didn’t know?”

Tee shook he head.

“Then why were you trying to contact him?”

“We thought his life was in danger.” Tee took a deep breath, and then spilled out the story of finding the note in Helmut’s house. (Although she was deliberately vague on the details of exactly why they were in the house.)

“Do you still have this note?”

“No, but I made a copy.”

“And do you have the copy?”

She did, and was able to produce it from her bag of holding. Malkeen inspected it closely, then folded it and slipped it into a pouch on his belt. “I’ll take this with me and investigate thoroughly. And I’ll be keeping an eye on you. I hope, for your sake, that we will have no more misunderstandings.”

“So do I,” Tee said. And meant it with all her heart.

Malkeen smiled coldly and then disappeared into thin air. Read more »

Go to Part 1

Last time we looked at some alternative starting situations for Blades in the Dark which were more or less inline with the default starting situation presented in the core rulebook. This time we’re going to look at slightly more complicated options that will push the boundaries of what we can try while still having a fundamental foundation in the mechanical and narrative structures of the game.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS

• The PCs have been incarcerated. Although none of them knew each other before prison, they were somehow thrust together inside: Maybe they were arrested at the same time. Maybe they were assigned to the same cellblock or the same work gang.
• Ask the players individually what they were arrested for. Ask them collectively how they met.
• Look at the prison claims on p. 149 of the core rulebook. These claims are usually gained through incarceration rolls, but for our introductory scenario we’re going to run a prison score. Have the players pick a claim they want to pursue.
• As with crew claims in the outside world, taking control of a prison claim will require the PCs to go through the faction who currently controls it. Pick that faction and figure out how they’re securing or operating the claim currently.
• After the first score is resolved, cut ahead to the point where all of the PCs have been released from prison: Now that they’re free, they’re ready to form a crew and make a name for themselves.
• For their second score, look at the prison claim they took and figure out what outside action and/or infrastructure is needed to sustain it. (For example, how can they take pressure off a guard that they’ve paid off? How can they keep their smuggling channel clear?)
• Pick a second faction that’s trying to muscle in on the crew’s action (or maybe simply looking to compete with them). The second score is fending off the threat.

A few tips:

• The faction standing between the scoundrels and their prison claim can be the Bluecoats. It is, after all, their job to keep things secure in Ironhook.
• After the first score is complete, it may be effective to cut directly to a scene featuring the last member of the crew getting released from prison and/or showing up at the crew’s new hideout.
• The trick to making this situation work is really embracing the claustrophobic nature of the prison job and creating a strong contrast with life on the outside.
• This starting situation is likely to be more challenging for the PCs because it almost certainly means having a negative status with two different factions (instead of a negative-positive split between a couple of factions). Be aware of that and perhaps give the PCs a chance to quickly ingratiate themselves with a third faction. (This third faction could be opposed to the factions they’ve already alienated in an “enemy of my enemy” kind of deal.)

EXAMPLE – SMUGGLING: Ironhook is riddled with ghost doors, a legacy of the long history of pain and violence within the prison’s walls. Keeping them sealed and warded is an important part of prison security. A fief-witch of the Dimmer Sisters has managed to drill through the wards around one of the doors, however, creating a spirit tunnel from a second ghost door in Dunslough. The ghost door in Ironhook opens in a laundry. The PCs will need to figure out how to get regular, long-term access to the door. They’ll also need to figure out how to deny access to the crew currently running it.

This could turn into a jailbreak scenario. But if they use the ghost door to break out of prison, it’s virtually certain the guards will discover and seal the door, eliminating the Smuggling claim. (That’ll probably piss the Dimmer Sisters off even more, honestly.)

If they keep the smuggling channel open, then when they get out of prison they’re approached by the Lampblacks. Their gang war with the Crows has spread to Ironhook, and the lampers want the PCs to smuggle weapons in so that they can “retaliate”. They’ll pay well, but a big influx of weapons will put a lot of heat on the PCs’ operation. If the PCs refuse, the lampers will try to seize the spirit tunnel for themselves. If the PCs go for it, the Crows will get wind of the deal and try to intervene.

EXAMPLE – ALLIED CLAIM (CULT SANCTUARY): Down in the Heart – the core of the Ironhook complex – there are the tangled, maze-like remnants of the original prison and the castle which preceded it. And somewhere within that maze is a forgotten, hidden temple dedicated to the Night Queen. It’s one part Shawshank Redemption, one part Tomb Raider as the PCs follow the enigmatic clues left in the notes of a true believer!

Once inside the temple, each of them can dip a black opal in the milky pool of the Night Queen’s tears, pledging themselves to her service.

When the PCs get out, a Night Queen cult comes looking for the opals. And a different cult, this one pledged to the Squamous Red, seeks to destroy them.

AT WAR!!!

• Pick a faction. The PCs are at war with that faction!
• The PCs effectively start as a Tier 0 faction with Strong hold, as per a standard campaign. But they’ll immediately increase in hold if the war ends, just as they would with any other war.
• Ask the questions:

GM asks: Who started the war?

Players ask: What damage have they done to us?

GM asks: How do you strike back?

• And that’s the first score.
• For the second score, have the other faction hit the PCs’ crew.
• At this point, have a second faction either sympathetic to the PCs or hostile to the PCs’ enemy approach the PCs. They’re willing to ally with the PCs… but they’re not doing it out of the goodness of their heart. (The cost will likely end up being the third or fourth score.)

Tips:

• This is a very difficult starting situation. It’s probably best used with advanced players who already have experience running a Blades in the Dark crew.
• The PCs effectively start at a higher Tier than normal (although temporarily reduced due to the war). Consider this fair compensation for the unusually difficult starting situation.
• When picking an enemy faction, you need to pick one with a Tier equivalent to the PCs or, at most, one higher. As a starting crew, the PCs have very limited resources and a gang war is hard to endure at the best of times. (This is also why the structure brings in an early alliance.)
• When using this structure, you might want to consider starting the PCs’ crew at a higher Tier than usual. (This will also open up more options for the faction they’re in conflict with.)
• This structure can also be a good way to launch a Season Two (Blades in the Dark, p. 206). Close out the previous season, let some time pass, and then cut to in media res as the opposing faction throws a firebomb through the window of the crew’s hideout. YOU’RE AT WAR! Now what?