Who: Jay, Jerome, Caroline, Martin, Drew
When: Thurs 3/28/2013

Yay! I got to play my very first game of Serpent's Tooth! We played with the Dungeon Master, who was really kind of sad and only a little evil. Our plot revolved around the Dungeon Master wanting a fox pelt from the Ranger, the Ranger defending said fox, The Warlock usurping the Dungeon Master, and the minion Gharghlemargh (pronounced Gar-lee-maff) being just generally half-orcish. It got very silly, very quickly despite intentions to the otherwise.

I liked all of the wresting the GM powers from the Dungeon Master, but I felt bad once we'd taken them. I wasn't exactly sure how to further take those powers from other players, so I'd like to explore that in my next game.

Had a great time! Thanks for appreciating my fabulous Jura-sdiction pun. It was basically the best.

I also really enjoyed the set-up process. Writing names of people and things was quick, simple, and led to some very delightful results, like the 10-second trap, the Rusty Sword tavern, the magic shop (the Kinky Fawn... poor Mr. Tumnis), and the thousand-foot (feet) staircase. The amnesia trap, stone spiders, and Devon the bard were also charming additions to our plot and cast.

Amnesia trap! I'm stealing that.

Did the amnesia trap come up? I can't remember.

This was a lot of fun. Serpent's Tooth handled five players gracefully, which not a lot of story games do, and we were silly without being slapstick. I think the Dungeon Master playset lends itself toward satire more than most, because RPG worlds are really quite ridiculous if you think about them for five seconds. That made it an interesting contrast to the paranoid scifi thriller tone we achieved the other time I played ST (in "Artificial Life").

I think we could have been more effective in creating characters with more than one note. Your personality card gives you one idea, and I think good use of the introductory questions would be to add a second dimension to the characters. But for the most part we answered the questions with reference to our personality cards, and that made for extremely simple characters. Simple characters can make an interesting plot, but they definitely contributed to the cartoonish feel.

I agree with Caroline that we floundered once the Dungeon Master had lost all of his regalia. As I was responsible for characters at the time, I really struggled to figure out who should be in the scenes and where I should be pushing things towards. We made a reasonable ending anyway, but it was the weakest part of the story.

Did the amnesia trap come up? I can't remember.

I see what you did there.

Yeah my character was boring as sin. I did like that all the character questions referred to the Dungeon Master. It ensured things were tight and related to the monarch, which I think is the point. We might have slowed down and talked about the characters a little more before playing though. Although, are we allowed to say what our true nature is? How much should we be discussing our internal motivations and stuff, or are we supposed to just say that sort of thing through the vehicle of the game? ROSS.....? Maybe I should read the book :P

Although, are we allowed to say what our true nature is?
Oh totally. They are all super obvious anyhow.

How much should we be discussing our internal motivations and stuff, or are we supposed to just say that sort of thing through the vehicle of the game?

Yes, the second thing. I want you to show me who your character is by describing their thoughts, actions, and words.

Maybe I should read the book :) The book is pretty good and has some good examples. Also trust your instincts, you have good instincts. I don't think you'll break the game with any of the things you've mentioned here!