Kingdom is about being part of a community. How we try to make the groups we belong to be what we want, but at the same time they pressure us to do what they want.

The question becomes: do we change the Kingdom or does the Kingdom change us?

The Kingdom ties the characters together but it's the characters who decide how to push the Kingdom (and each other). Each of our character's place in the Kingdom is defined by one of three Roles:

Perspective characters understand the Kingdom, both its merits and flaws. They can foresee the consequences of decisions the Kingdom makes. Touchstone characters reflect the desires of the people of the Kingdom. As soon as a Touchstone character expresses an attitude or opinion about we know that is what the populace feels. And then there's Power. Power characters are in charge. They decide what the Kingdom does.

Each Role doesn't just change what the character can do, it changes how the player is allowed to play the game. So when your character has Perspective you follow totally different rules than if you had Power or Touchstone and vice versa.

Anyways, on to the Game!

The Kingdom: WZAN, a struggling Public Access station located in the suburbs of a large city.

The Locations:

• The News"room" Actually just a table with a secondhand curtain taped to the front of it, located in the largest room in the building.
  
• Zando The Magnificent's Spookatorium - A literal closet outfitted with a coffin and painted to look like the inside of a castle.
  
• The Editing Bay - Another closet where the single station editor does his work.
  
• Front Lobby - It's the lobby of the building. The receptionists desk is actually the original Newsroom desk.
  
• Taco Truck - Located in the Parking lot of WZAN, they make delicious tacos and the guy who runs the counter went to Princeton
  
• Smoking "Lounge" - Actually just the loading dock of the building, with a butt can that hasn't been emptied since the station started.
  

The Threats:

• Budget Concerns
  
• Property Developers
  
• Talent Scouts
  

The Cast:

• Chad Thunder( J.C) - [Power] Chad started at WZAN as on-air talent for the news side of the business, but as downsizing occurred he was asked to take on a few extra duties here and there. As our story begins he is currently station manager. Chad is worried that if something doesn't happen soon that the station will be shut down. Chad's Issue is that he is wholly incompetent.
  
  
• Stanley Zdorski(Ed) - [Touchstone] -> [Perspective] Stanley is the on-air talent for the programming side of the Business, using his vast book of characters to entertain children at all hours of the day. Character like Zando the Magnificent, Bobo the Clown, Uncle Art, Special Asian Secret Spy, and Mister Mechanic. Stanley wishes that the Station could bring in live studio audiences. Stanley's Issue is that he doesnt understand even the most basic technology.
  
  
• Lucius Hagan(Aaron) - [Perspective] -> [Touchstone] The stations only editor. Lucius wishes the station had more money to replace the broken and jury rigged equipment he has to keep together in order to keep the station functioning.
  

1st Crossroads: Will the Kingdom accept corporate sponsorship?

Chad announces that they have received a contract from the owner of Knightfall Tires, David Knightfall, stating that if they accept corporate sponsorship that the station will receive new equipment. Chad and Stanley both think that it is a great idea, but Lucius has doubts. After the announcement is made Lucius walks into Chad office, (none of the door locks work anymore), and finds the contract sitting on the table, giving it a quick read he realizes that the contract has a option to purchase clause in it. Meaning that after six months, Knightfall tires will be sole owner of the WZAN building. Unfortunately, Lucius had all ready agreed to accept the new equipment before he had read the contract in order to satisfy his wish.

Lucius, Chad and Stanley meet out at the taco truck to discuss the contract. Chad notes that the top half of the page is dollar signs made from tiny dollar signs. Stanley just agrees with Chad. Lucius tries to get Chad to understand the option to purchase clause. He fails miserably. Lucius implores Chad to take Stanley and go talk face to face with Mr. Knightfall about the contract.

Chad and Stanley both head down to the 45th st corporate offices of Knightfall tires to meet with Mr. Knightfall. Stanley tells Chad to let him do all the talking and proceeds to talk like Secret Asian Super Spy, a character he created during the the cold war days of WZAN. Mr. Knightfall is unimpressed to say the least. Chad and Stanley pepper Mr. Knightfall with questions about the contract, Mr. Knightfall answers them all with fancy words that they really don't understand. Stanley knows that he has a full proof way of seeing if Mr. Knightfall is lying. By shaking his hand.... So he shakes Mr. Knightfall's hand and then Chad and Stanley both leave, confident that they are not getting swindled.

2nd Crossroads: Will the Kingdom be owned by Knightfall tires.

Stanley and Chad return too Lucius with good news, Mr. Knightfall is good people, they say. Lucius is still very unsure about this whole things, and begins doing research in the Mr. Knightfall's background. They continue putting out shows and doing there jobs around the studio, as some time passes. Soon the "New" equipment begins arriving at the station, so the three of them head out to take a look at it all. Lucius being the only one with actually knowledge about the equipment notices that not only is the equipment not new, but that it is not even the right type of equipment for what the studio does. Lucius, and Chad get into an argument over the "new' gear. Lucius gets frustrated trying to explain simple things to Chad, when, just Lucius is about to storm off.... Mr. Knightfall drives up in his brand new black Camaro, with Knightfall tires, of course. Lucius argues with Mr. Knightfall about the contract but is quickly defeated by Knightfall's rapier wit and subtle insults about his ill fitting clothing. Lucius ends the day by putting all of the useless equipment up for sale on Ebay. Chad ends up signing the contract and allowing the stipulations in the contract to start taking place.

Time Passes!

(See Comment Below)

Lucius returns to Chad and Stanley with evidence he thinks will convince the both of them that Knightfall is not to be trusted. Lucius explains that Knightfall seems too perfect to be a real person, he graduated from Princeton, and now owns this tire company that is doing fantastic.

Chad somehow figures out that there is a stipulation in the contract that says that the equipment that they we given can be taken if the stipulations of the contract are not met. Talking with Stanley he finds out that Lucius sold all the equipment to a community college. There is a confrontation and Stanley ends up taking over [Perspective] with Lucius taking [Touchstone]. Lucius is unable to stop the switch, and simply implores Stanley to do some of his own research on Knightfall.

Stanley having watched every terrible horror movie ever as Zando the Magnificent, realizes that Mr. Knightfall acts a lot like certain POD people from a 1970's horror movie. He delves deep into the internet with his limited knowledge, and returns to Lucius and Chad with a realization that Mr. Knightfall in definitely a vampire and is probably going to suck there blood at some point. Lucius can not believe that he works with the two dumbest people on the face of the earth.

(Author Note: Things get a little muddled for me at this point)

Mr. Knightfall stops by WZAN one day and begins handing out all of the employees "bonuses" which are actually hundred dollar bill that he is pulling from the pocket of his sport coat. Knightfall lets the crew know that he is going to be very involved over the next six months.

Time Passes!

(Author Note: I know I'm missing stuff here as well)

For the end game of Kingdom we need to decide weather the Kingdom is going to Succeed or Fall. J.C., Ed, and myself vote using the Thumbs up / Thumbs down method. The result is 2 to 1... The kingdom will fall.

Lucius continues his research and soon comes to realization that in addition to owning a tire warehouse, Mr. Knightfall also owns a Real Estate development company. With that, comes the knowlege and paperwork to show that Knightfall is going to tear down the station to make way for a town center with Business, Residentials and Commercial properties all together. Lucius hurries back to the studio to show Chad and Stanley what he has found. Realizing the error they have made they both hop in front of the cameras. Chad dropping into his old Newscaster voice and Stanley as Bobo the Clown, imploring the children watching to institute a letter writing campaign to save the station. The scene ends with Chad getting pulled off set by Knightfall security personnel.

In the end, Lucius ends up working as a janitor in the building that was built on the old WZAN property, Stanley doesn't receive a single letter and lives the rest of his life as a broken man, and Chad... does something...

Anyways, sorry for the shitty write up.

Kingdom is an amazing game with unlimited possibilities, you should all play it.

JC, Ed. Please add whatever I have missed. I know I've missed quite a few things. Thanks!

Aaron

Oh man, good times at W-ZAN. I think you got all the important bits right; I call it a good write up.

I love Kingdom, but I think this is the first time I've played it in a setting which wasn't fantasy or sci-fi... I have a bad tendancy to make my story games go off the deep end into strange worlds, so it was neat to rock a very mundane setting, even if some of our characters had a very tangential connection to reality. It turns out that mundane settings are also pretty great! Hooray!

One thing I really liked about this game in particular was how strong our group dynamic was; poor Lucius was the only sane man, the only guy who understood even the basics of running a studio. Chad and Stanley had the best of intentions but were hampered by complete, bone-headed incompetence. Its a situation where just about every character pairing was hilarious. Mr. Knightfall was also a pretty great addition; it's always a bit of a challenge when there's a major character which isn't played by any one player (I know my rendition of Knightfall wasn't quite the same as yours, for instance), but I think we were able to play him off pretty well. Smart, good with business, a total jerk, not even very subtle about it.

Also, for those interested, the source material for Zando's Spookatorium, Svengooli, is evidently still running. He's even on YouTube.

So, that's basically what Stanley was wearing in those scenes where he wasn't Bobo the Clown. Only worse, I'm sure.

The more I play real world settings, the more I enjoy them. There are awesome things about world-spanning cities with three races at semi-perpetual war but something very concrete and real is nice, relatable and easy to fall into. It doesn't take nearly as much work to get into peoples' heads which means more effort can go into the actual story.