Film Banging: Avengers – Alien

As in our previous installments, the standard disclaimer about using linear mediums as an example for running RPGs definitely applies: We know how these scenes end in the original movie, but if this were an actual RPG each scene could end in any number of ways.

It’s been awhile since we banged Alien, so you might want to review The Art of Pacing before we dive into The Matrix as a way of understanding how bangs can be used.

SCENE 1 – BANG: “You’re strapped to a chair. Electrodes have been attached to your head.”

The agenda is: Will Morpheus break?

This particular scene – the interrogation of Morpheus – is heavily broken up using the technique of simultaneous scenes: This single scene will thread its way through multiple scenes with Neo and Trinity. As it progresses, there are a number of interesting techniques to notice.

First, the Wachowskis use a series of escalating bangs. The injection of the silver fluid into Morpheus’ neck. The agent entering to say, “There may be a problem.” Agent Smith telling the other agents to, “Leave us.” And so forth. Note that, frequently, the Wachowskis will cut on the bang.

Note that the stakes for this scene’s agenda are laid in the next scene: If he breaks, he’ll betray the location of Zion and the war will be lost. This is an example of crossover. There’s an interesting effect achieved here by cutting on the bang, using a simultaneous scene to establish necessary exposition, and then returning to the original scene: It keeps the tension in the moment high while clearly communicating the stakes.

Another great example of crossover is when Agent Smith removes his earpiece. That moment both escalates the stakes in this scene while simultaneously having consequences in the simultaneous scenes playing out with Neo and Trinity (since he takes himself “off the grid”).

SCENE 2 – BANG: “You’re going to kill him. Kill Morpheus.” “It has to be done.”

The agenda is: Will Neo believe the Oracle?

Superficially the scene seems to be about whether to unplug Morpheus or rescue him, but that decision is pretty firmly subservient to the question of whether or not Neo will believe the Oracle; whether or not he will embrace the choice she says he’s capable of making.

The other thing to note here is that this agenda is not resolved at the end of this scene. The question of whether or not Neo will believe the Oracle remains unanswered for several more scenes as the stakes continue to escalate.

SCENE 3 – BANG: “Okay. So what do you need? Besides a miracle.”

The agenda is: What is Neo’s plan?

This is a pretty simple, very short, and extremely effective color scene. Viewed from one angle, it’s actually a very simple example of the principle of the second lull: The first lull happens when Neo asks for, “Guns. Lots of guns.” The hypothetical GM doesn’t leave the scene, however. Instead we sustain through Trinity escalating the stakes (“No one has ever done something like this.”). Once she’s done that, we hit a second lull and the hypothetical GM cuts away.

SCENE 4 – BANG: The metal detector beeps.

The agenda here is: Can they rescue Morpheus?

This bang is a beautiful example of understatement. You know he’s loaded to bear. The stakes have been cranked up repeatedly over the last 5 minutes of the film. So the only thing you need to trigger an explosion of awesome is a simple beeping noise.

This scene, as combat, is obviously a textbook example of slow time… quite literally so with the Wachowskis’ use of bullet time and slow motion cinematography.

This is not the end of the scene.

Instead, we sharp cut back to the interrogation of Morpheus multiple times over the next minute or so in order to smoothly use abstract time while hitting the interesting beats of this scene. (“I think they’re trying to save him,” it should be noted, is another example of crossover.)

And the scene still isn’t over. This single combat sequence has flowed smoothly from lobby to elevator to roof. But I want to call attention to this interaction:

Trinity: How did you do that?
Neo: Do what?
Trinity: You moved like they do. I’ve never seen anyone move that fast.
Neo: Not fast enough.

It’s a short little beat, but notice that this is a callback to the agenda of Scene 2. The question of whether or not Neo would believe the Oracle was left unresolved.

Let’s call this an agenda echo. If this were an actual RPG session, the players of Neo and Trinity would have been the ones to introduce this particular echo. But as a GM you can also use little mini-bangs like “I’ve never seen anyone move that fast” to call back unresolved agendas that are haunting your session.

At this moment, all the crossover elements that have been getting sprinkled through these scenes are abruptly brought to a climax as both scenes are resolved simultaneously and we discover that “Will Morpheus break?” and “Can they rescue Morpheus?” are actually both the same question. (Or, at least, both have the same answer.)

This true unification of two simultaneous scenes into a single conclusion answering both agendas won’t happen often, but when it does the payoff is huge and immensely satisfying.

Before the scene comes to an end, however, the mini-bang of “He’s not going to make it” triggers another seemingly impossible feat that calls back to whether or not Neo is the One. This moment lasts from “I knew it, he is the One” until Morpheus asks, “Do you believe it now, Trinity?” Which is, in itself, an incredibly elegant moment because the Wachowskis are layering in the Trinity/Neo love story. And that love story is also linked to the question of Neo being the One (due to the prophecy the Oracle gave to Trinity).

SCENE 5 – THE BANG: “They’re not out yet.”

The agenda is: Will Neo escape?

Note the interesting technique here of delivering the bang at what is essentially the end of the previous scene and then performing a sharp cut to the scene itself. I’d never really considered doing something like that in an RPG until just now, but I think it has a lot of potential.

A little later in this scene there’s an escalating bang when Trinity says, “I want to tell you something… Everything the Oracle told me has come true. Everything but this.” This has the effect of connecting this scene to the escalating meta-scene of, “Will Neo believe the Oracle?”

SCENE 6 – THE BANG: “Agent Smith shoots the phone. Trinity just barely escaped. But your exit has been destroyed.”

This is a new bang. And what makes this scene particularly fascinating is that it links, “Will Neo believe the Oracle?” explicitly to “Will Neo escape?” through his physical mastery of the Matrix and his interactions with the agents. (“He’s beginning to believe.”)

Now all of these agendas – Will Neo escape? Will Neo defeat Smith? Will Trinity love Neo? Will Neo believe the Oracle? Will Neo become the One? – have been welded into a single mega-agenda. Everything between this moment and Neo’s escape from the Matrix is a single scene despite, once again, a multitude of location shifts. (Note that the individual agendas will be knocked down one at a time as we build to the culmination of the mega-agenda: Neo abandons the identity of Anderson. Trinity confesses her love. Neo ascends the rules of the Matrix. Neo defeats Smith. Neo escapes.)

The other thing of interest here is how this single combat scene flows fluidly across all four types of pacing timing: Slow time during the fight in the subway. Then a sharp cut to the street corner where Neo steals a phone. Now time from that moment until he reaches the crowd, then a shift back to slow time for the chase through the apartment building. Abstract time moves him to the hotel, now time takes him into the hotel, and then a final culmination of slow time (once again emphasized with actual slow motion) as he enters the hotel room (and lasting until the EMP blast).

SCENE 7 – THE BANG: “The Proximity Alarm screams. There are Sentinels. You’ve got five, maybe six minutes.”

One could argue that this is actually the same scene despite its completely different locale (since the agenda is so closely linked), but in practical terms this is probably another simultaneous scene with multiple crossovers (Tank’s assistance, the need for Neo to escape before the EMP blast, Trinity’s kiss) that serve to raise the stakes in Neo’s mega-agenda scene.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

About 15 years ago, there was a time when The Matrix pretty much perpetually lived in my DVD player. I was living in a studio apartment at the time and, whenever the mood would strike me, I’d hit the play button and let the movie spool out. I’ve probably watched the movie – with varying degrees of attention – several hundred times. Like pretty much everything the Wachowskis have done, it’s a brilliant and revolutionary piece of cinema.

Back in 2007, I mentioned the movie as part of Random GM Tips: Running Combat. I recommended that GMs watch movies like The Matrix – or 300 or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon – while narrating the action as it occurred on the screen; as if they were describing it to their gaming group. The idea was that it would build your action vocabulary, break you out of your habits, and expand the dynamic range of your combat descriptions.

My initial intention in film banging The Matrix was primarily to focus on how they wove scenes – particularly combat scenes – across multiple locations. As I began breaking the film apart, however, I discovered just how much the Wachowskis also had to teach me about effective pacing. I was not anticipating the creation of new concepts like agenda echos, meta-scenes, mini-bangs, and mega-agendas when I started writing this essay. I’m not even entirely sure how best to realize some of these incredibly complex ideas at the gaming table.

Which I guess, ultimately, brings me back to what I said at the beginning of The Art of Pacing: RPGs are a fresh-faced medium. And we still have a lot to learn about how to master this new art.

Go to The Art of Pacing

This is something I’ve alluded to enough times that I think the time has come to write a definitive version of it so that I can just link back to it in the future.

One of the problems with analyzing the artistic techniques of RPG play is that it’s difficult to establish common reference points: If I want to talk about what effective poetry looks like, I can hand you a copy of Shakespeare or Kipling. If I want to talk about what shitty filmmaking looks like, we can all pop a copy of a Michael Bay movie in the Blu-Ray player.

But when it comes to RPGs, things aren’t that simple. Even groups running identical scenarios, for example, won’t necessarily have similar experiences.

This often means that when we’re discussing RPGs we often reach for examples from other mediums. I do this prominently, for example, in my Film Banging essays. This has the advantage of giving us a common reference point, but the danger is that these other mediums are linear and RPGs aren’t (or, at least, shouldn’t be). So when we use films or books as fodder for our RPG discussions it can be very easy for this linear nature to leak into the discussion: We know that Luke Skywalker is “destined” to go to the Death Star and blow it up because we’ve seen the movie. So if I talk about Obi-Wan saying that he wants Luke to join him on Alderaan as an example of what a scenario hook looks like, am I saying that every scenario needs to be a railroad? That every scenario hook has a predetermined outcome?

When we’re looking at these cross-medium examples, therefore, we need to be mindful of this risk. I generally try to mitigate the problem by discussing outcomes that are different from those found in the original work. If we’re talking about RPGs then Luke might save the Death Star, Boromir might succeed in stealing the One Ring from Frodo, and John Harker might kill Dracula before he ever leaves Transylvania. But we can still talk about Mos Eisley as an urbancrawl, the One Ring as a magical McGuffin, and Dracula as a memorable villain.

So if you see me using examples from other mediums when I’m talking about RPGs, try to remember that — at least for the moment — we’re going to pretend that these stories aren’t linear experiences. Even though, in reality, we know the outcome of each scene has already been predetermined, we can still use the example of the scene (or the story) without embracing that predeterminism in our play.

Go to Part 1

LOCATION: TEMPLE OF THE GARGOYLE

The Temple of the Gargoyle is a gothic-like structure, its sheer walls of dark gray stone towering three stories above the street, with four towers – one at each of its corners – climbing to twice that height. Every inch of its surface has been ornately and intricately carved, and much of it altered two or three times since the temple was originally constructed. Many of the oldest, weatherworn figures are oddly disturbing if viewed in close detail, and rumors whisper of other things: Of stone faces which writhe in agony when the moon is right and the stars are aligned; of stone figures which can be seen on certain nights, but not on others; of cryptic and indecipherable runes which flow across the surface of the stone and then vanish without trace.

The first – and often most lasting impression – that many have of the Temple, however, are its gargoyles: One stands atop each of the four towers, and two others stand on pedestals to either side of the temple’s twin doors of iron-bound oak.

Those twin doors open onto the temple’s great hall. Unseen by those outside, two other gargoyles – on pedestals mirroring those which stand outside – stand to either side of the altar at the far end of the hall. Directly before the altar a pit gapes in the temple floor, and flames from below – fueled by some unknown source – perpetually light the hall. Archways, beneath a balcony which runs down either side of the hall’s length, lead to other rooms of the temple, which are generally extravagant.

CHARACTER: ARGHRASMAK, THE LIVING GOD

Arghrasmak is the living god of the Temple of the Gargoyle, worshipped by a high priest, seven disciples, twenty adepts, and thirty-eight acolytes (described below). It is said that when the god sleeps, those near him will lose all memory. Three sacrifices upon the altar are necessary to rouse the god, whereupon the tithe is thrown into the pit.

In truth, Arghrasmak is not a god – he is a gargoyle fiend who feeds upon the misery and pain his witless followers inflict for him. He lairs in his pit, and covets the gold and treasure which is given in tribute to him. Upon his right hand he wears a ring of forgetfulness (see sidebar) which he has modified to operate continuously over the area of the Temple upon his command. (The story that the mind-numbing effect is triggered by his sleep is a false lure that fuels the need for new sacrifices.) Occasionally, this effect has been known to slip outside the boundaries of the Temple and effect those nearby. (These reports are frequently dismissed as lingering effects from the Mindwarp.)

Upon his left hand he wears a ring of command (see sidebar), which he uses to control the eight gargoyles of the Temple. Although they appear to be nothing more masterpieces of monstrous sculpture, in truth they are creatures which serve upon his whim.

ARGHRASMAK, THE LIVING GOD (CR 14) – CE Gargantuan Magical Beast (Earth)
DETECTION – darkvision 60 ft., Listen +14, Spot +14; Init +0; Languages Common, Abyssal, Terran[special]
DEFENSES –  AC 19 (+13 natural, -4 size), touch 6, flat-footed 19; hp 280 (16d10+192); DR 15/adamantine; Resist cold 20, fire 20; SR 24
ACTIONS – Spd 45 ft., fly 75 ft. (average); Melee 2 claws +25 (2d6+12) and bite +23 (2d8+12) and gore +23 (2d8+12); Ranged +12; Space 20 ft.; Reach 20 ft.; Base Atk +16; Grapple +40; Atk Options smite good; Combat Feats Cleave, Great Cleave, Power Attack
SQ darkvision 60 ft., freeze
STR 35, DEX 10, CON 34, INT 18, WIS 11, CHA 7
FORT +24, REF +12, WILL +7;
FEATS: Cleave, Great Cleave, Multiattack, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (claw, bite, gore)
SKILLS: Hide +8, Listen +14, Perform +4, Spellcraft +4, Spot +14

Smite Good (Su): Once per day, Aghrasmak can make a normal attack to deal additional damage equal to his HD total (+16) against a good foe.

Freeze (Ex): Arghrasmak can hold himself so still that he appears to be a statue. An observer must succeed at a Spot check (DC 20) to notice that he is really alive.

New Magic Item: Ring of Command

The wearer of this ring may, at any time, designate a creature within sight. The creature must make a Will save (DC 18) or fall under the control of the ring’s wearer (as per a dominate person spell). This control lasts until either the ring’s wearer chooses to release the creature, the ring is removed by the wearer, the ring is destroyed, or the ring and creature come to exist on separate planes.

The wearer of the ring may control no more than eight subjects at any given time with the ring.

Caster Level: 16^th
Prerequisites: Forge Ring, dominate person
Market Price: 256,000 gp

New Magic Item: Ring of Forgetfulness

All enemies within 20 feet of the wearer of this ring are affected as per the spell mind fog. Affected creatures must make a Will save (DC 20) or suffer a –10 penalty to all Wisdom checks and Will saves. Affected creatures suffer the penalty as long as they remain within 20 feet of the ring and for 2d6 rounds thereafter.

Caster Level: 10^th
Prerequisites: Forge Ring, mind fog
Market Price: 100,000 gp

TEMPLE GARGOYLES

GARGOYLE (CR 4) – CE Medium Monstrous Humanoid (Earth)
DETECTION – darkvision 60 ft., Listen +4, Spot +4; Init +2
DEFENSES – AC 16 (+2 Dex, +4 natural), touch 12, flat-footed 14; hp 37 (4d8+19); DR 10/magic
ACTIONS – Spd 40 ft., fly 60 ft. (average); Melee 2 claws +6 (1d4+2) and bite +4 (1d6+1) and gore +4 (1d6+1); Ranged +6; Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.; Base Atk +4; Grapple +6
SQ darkvision 60 ft., freeze
STR 15, DEX 14, CON 18, INT 6, WIS 11, CHA 7
FORT +5, REF +6, WILL +4
FEATS: Multiattack, Toughness
SKILLS: Hide +7*, Listen +4, Spot +4

Freeze (Ex): Observer must succeed on Spot check (DC 20) to notice gargoyle is not a statue.

*Skills: +2 racial bonus on Hide, Listen, and Spot checks. +8 racial bonus on Hide checks when gargoyle concealed as statue.

CHARACTER: LAGHAR

Laghar is the High Priest of the Temple of the Gargoyle. In word and deed he serves his living god with abject faithfulness, collecting the sacrifices necessary to rouse the god – and thus not only grant his priesthood a few hours of clear thought, but also save the world from the slow spread of the god’s “poison of the mind”.

In truth, however, Laghar knows the falseness of his god. By sheer chance one of the sacrificial victims gathered by the acolytes of the temple wore upon his hand a ring of greater mind shielding (see sidebar). Before flinging it into the pit as tithe, Laghar slipped the ring onto his own finger… and gained a rare clarity of thought. Unwittingly, he had become immune to Ahgrasmak’s magical enchantment.

In the time since then, he has slowly and carefully pieced together much of the true story behind his “god”. At the same time, even as he continues his foul rituals, his piety has been replaced with greed and power lust. Laghar has concocted a scheme by which he hopes to wrest control of the Temple from Ahgrasmak and, more importantly, gain the riches contained in the Pit below: He has contacted Athelbrus the sorcerer (The House of Sorcerers, H5) and contracted him to construct seven more rings like his own. These he hopes to give to the Seven Disciples, freeing them as he has been freed. Together, he feels that they should be able to destroy Ahgrasmak.

He is probably right, but, unbeknownst to him, Athelbrus intends to betray him. In fact, the creation of a new ring of greater mind shielding is quite beyond his abilities – and even if he could make them, their cost would be far beyond the value of the treasure to be found in the Pits. Instead, he intends to contract a group of adventurers to sneak into the Temple and loot the Pit of the riches Laghar has told him of – splitting the treasure with them. The open question, however, is whether or not Athelbrus realizes the true strength of the Living God and his minions.

New Magic Item: Ring of Greater Mind Shielding

The wearer of a ring of greater mind shielding is perpetually protected as if they had been the subject of a mind blank spell – rendering them immune from all devices and spells that detect, influence, or read emotions or thoughts. It also protects against all mind-affecting spells and effects as well as information gathering by divination spells or effects. The ring even foils limited wish, miracle, and wish when they are used in such a way as to affect the wearer’s mind or gain information about him.

Caster Level: 16^th
Prerequisites: Forge Ring, mind blank
Market Price: 256,000

THE SEVEN DISCIPLES AND THE PRIESTHOOD

Like Laghar, Ahgrasmak’s Disciples and Priests are, in fact, sorcerers who have been duped into believing that their powers are an unholy gift of their “god”. The Seven Disciples, along with Laghar, are responsible for the leadership of the Temple and performing the Sacrifices of Ahgrasmak. The other priests perform a variety of minor rituals, but spend much of their time inscribing the Prophecies of the Gargoyle.

These prophecies are granted to the priests in continuous visions from their sleeping god. The prophecies seen in these visions are in a language unknown to the priests – who must copy the alien script from their minds with precision. It is believed that one day the god will reveal the language in which the Prophecies are written, and their great mysteries will reveal a path of glory and power. It is also believed that the Prophecies are imperfect and overlapping – and great study is given to those indecipherable passages which, nonetheless, correspond in some degree between the visions of different priests. It is hoped that such study will allow the construction of a perfect version of the Prophecies.

THE ACOLYTES

The Acolytes spend much of their time confined to their small meditation chambers on the third floor. They emerge in pairs to serve as guads, and en masse in times of dire need. More importantly, they are charged with gathering the sacrificial victims for the Temple’s altar.

---

LOCATION: THE PITS BENEATH THE TEMPLE

Ahgrasmak: Here the living god crouches upon a block of blood-stained ivory.

The Pyre of the Dead: This powerful, unholy relic (see below) burns up through the floor of the Temple’s great hall.

The Bone Pits: When first viewed, the bone pits appear to be nothing more than a jumbled conglomeration of random bones. Upon Ahgrasmak’s command, however, the bones shift and move. Skeletal, humanoid figures – glowing a deep and malevolent purplish blue – rise from the pits, forming a veritable legion of unholy skeletons (see sidebar) within 1d4+1 rounds.

Treasure: Over 125,000 gp in gems, jewelry, and coins are piled here. In addition there are 3d6 minor magical items, 2d4 medium magic items, and 1d4 major magic items mixed in with the other treasure.

New Magic Item: Pyre of the Dead

The pyre of the dead is, in fact, a powerful item of unholy magic – capable of transforming bodies that are fed into it into unholy skeletons (see below). For every three bodies which are cast into it, the pyre creates one unholy skeleton: Feeding upon the souls and substance of two of the bodies to fuel the unholy enchantments placed upon the third.

Control of the unholy skeletons created by the pyre rests with whatever creature is currently attuned to the pyre. (Obviously the pyre in the Temple of the Gargoyle is attuned to Ahgrasmak.) Up to 128 unholy skeletons can be controlled in this manner at any one time, and this number does not affect the normal control limits of the creature (if any). The pyre will continue creating unholy skeletons beyond this 128 limit, but unless the creature has some other way to control the skeletons, these additional skeletons will be uncontrolled.

Caster Level: 16^th Prerequisites: Craft Wondrous Item, animate dead, control undead (x4), unholy aura Market Price: 740,000 gp

UNHOLY SKELETONS

The pits have become home to 100 unholy skeletons, created by the pyre of the dead from the sacrifices thrown down from above. There would, in fact, be more of these skeletons – but from time to time Ahgrasmak looses portions of his horde into the city above to wreak whatever terror and chaos they can accomplish.

UNHOLY SKELETONS (CR 2) – NE Large Undead
DETECTION – Listen +0, Spot +0; Init +5
DEFENSES – AC 17 (-1 size, +1 Dex, +3 natural, +4 deflection), touch 14, flat-footed 12; hp 24 (2d12); DR 5/bludgeoning; Immune cold, undead immunities (ability damage/drain, critical hits, death effects, disease, energy drain, fatigue, mind-affecting, nonlethal damage, paralysis, poison, sleep, stunning, any effect requiring Fort save); Resist spell 20 (vs. good spells and spells cast by good creatures)
ACTIONS – Spd 40 ft.; Melee 2 claws +2 (1d6+2); Ranged +2; Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.; Base Atk +1; Grapple +5
SQ turn resistance +4, spell resistance 20 (vs. good spells and spells cast by good creatures)
STR 14, DEX 12, CON -, INT -, WIS 10, CHA 11
FORT +4, REF +5, WILL +8
FEATS: Improved Initiative
SKILLS: –

This material is covered under the Open Game License.

You may have heard that the word “geek” was originally used to describe circus freaks who would entertain the crowd by biting the heads off of live fish (or some other bizarre feat).

While it’s true that circus freaks were referred to as “geeks” in the early 20th century, it’s not true that this is the original usage of the term. The word actually dates back to 1515 when it appears, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, in Barclay’s Egloges: “He is a foole, a sotte, and a geke also, which choseth the worst [way] and most of jeopardie.”

What’s interesting, however, is that the OED lists this citation under the word “geck”. The word is spelled as “gecke” in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and apparently that became the “accepted” spelling of the word by most authorities. (Although the OED also cites an 1876 glossary which defined a “gawk, geek, gowk, or gowky” as “a person uncultivated; a dupe” — so clearly the “geek” usage did not actually disappear.)

Shakespearean authority for a word can be weighty, but Twelfth Night isn’t the only place Shakespeare used the word. It also appears in Cymbeline, and there he spells it “geeke”:

Why did you suffer Iachimo, slight thing of Italy,
To taint his nobler hart & brain with needless jealousy
And to become the geeke and scorne o’th’others vilany?

So if the earliest known occurrence of the word is spelled “geke”, why does the OED list “geck” as the original form of the word? I don’t know. But what I find truly odd is that virtually all modern editions of Cymbeline emend the text to read “geck” instead of “geek”.

The ASR script, of course, doesn’t do that. So come see Cymbeline tonight, where we’ll proudly be wearing our geekery on our sleeves.

Originally posted on October 26th, 2010.

Tagline: A really great card game, although with fewer twists than we’ve come to expect from Master Garfield.

THE CONCEPT

“’One day I will ride a horse like that,’ said the child to the woman as they watched the noble procession. ‘Yes dearie.’ ‘And I will have a palace, and lots of cake.’ ‘Maybe,’ she said, remembering the marble-lined halls of her youth. ‘But today let’s just to try to finish planting to the stream.’ The only place that peasant and princess change places faster than in a fairy tale is in The Great Dalmuti!”

Life isn’t fair… and neither is The Great Dalmuti!

According to the introduction of the little multi-lingual instruction pamphlet of The Great Dalmuti (English, Spanish, German, and French rules are all presented in one), Richard Garfield first encountered the rules for this game while attending graduate school. As he says: “I had never seen a game like it before; it rewarded the player in the lead and penalized the player who was falling behind. The game was played for no other purpose than to play. There was no winner or loser at the end; there was only the longest-lasting ‘Dalmuti’, and the ‘peon’, the player most talented at grovelling.”

THE RULES

There are twelve ranks of cards. The ranks symbolize various levels in a fantasy society – with the Great Dalmuti at Rank 1; the Baronesses at Rank 4; Peasants at Rank 12; etc. The rank also doubles as the card’s effectiveness (with lower numbers being more effective) and as the number of cards of that type in the deck (thus there is one Great Dalmuti in the deck, four Baronesses, twelve Peasants, and so on ). There are also two Jesters, who are assigned Rank 13 – but can also act as wild cards when played in conjunction with other cards.

At the beginning of the game everyone draws a random card, which assigns their rank: The player with the highest card is the Great Dalmuti; the second highest becomes the Lesser Dalmuti; the lowest becomes the Greater Peon; and the second lowest becomes the Lesser Peon. Everyone in between becomes a Merchant (of varying ranks depending on where their cards fell).

Here’s the really cute part of the game: You have to change the seating arrangment according to your rank. The Great Dalmuti can stay where he is, but everyone else needs to array themselves out to his right, until you finally return to the Greater Peon to the Great Dalmuti’s left.

All the cards are dealt at this point (by the Greater Peon) and the goal is simple: Get rid of all your cards. Before play begins, though, is a stage of taxation – in which the Greater Peon gives his best two cards to the Greater Dalmuti in exchange for two of his cards (which the Dalmuti selects), and the Lesser Peon gives one of his cards to the Lesser Dalmuti in exchange for one of his cards.

The Greater Dalmuti then leads the first round by playing one or more cards of the same rank. Play proceeds to his right (through the Lesser Dalmuti to the Greater Peon) with each player being able to play either more cards of the same rank which was last played, or a set of cards in a higher rank. The round proceeds until no one can (or will – you’re not forced to play just because you can), and then whoever played last wins the round and leads the next.

The first player to run out of cards becomes the Great Dalmuti in the next round; the second player out becomes the Lesser Dalmuti; and so on until you reach the last player (who becomes the Greater Peon).

There are some other flairs (for example the ability to call a Revolution and an optional scoring system), but that’s the gist of the game.

SUMMARY

You may be asking yourself why you should buy this game. After all, I’ve told you almost all the rules; Garfield didn’t invent it; and you can play it with a regular deck of cards.

Well, quite frankly, because the deck of cards which is being furnished to you is really great – and cheaper than buying the several decks of cards which you would need to in order to assemble the specialized deck needed to play.

Win-win.

Which, of course, leads to the obvious question: Is the game worth playing?

Absolutely. The bigger the group, the more fun it is. It’s open-ended, while remaining competitive, and the interactions (both socially and strategically) which the dynamics of the rules lead to are really entertaining.

Garfield says one thing in the instruction manual that really captures, I think, why he has had such incredible success in designing (and, in this case, presenting) card games that capture the minds and hearts of their players: “If you’ve enjoyed The Great Dalmuti and don’t usually play regular card games, give them a try. For me there are more hours of amusement in a single deck of cards than in all the world’s movies combined. And I love the movies.”

Amen.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Author: Richard Garfield
Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Cost: $7.95
Page Count: n/a
ISBN: 1-880992-57-4

Originally Posted: 2000/03/12

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.