The Game: Kingdom.

The Players: Ed, JC, Sam, and Neil.

The Kingdom: The Yellow Liver Battalion. A mighty hoard of orcs, who, years ago, were sent by their dark lord to march upon those damned elves in Circle City. Alas, along the way they encountered a wall, to big to be easily overcome. They decided to turn right and march, until they reach the end of the wall, or at least an open gate they can get through. They've been at this for years; there are orcs and goblins whose entire lives have been spent on the march to the edge of the wall.

The wall which stands between them and... Circle City.

... I'll let you work out the problems with that plan on your own. Certainly, none of the Yellow Liver can figure out the problem, but they are starting to get pretty sick of marching. And indeed, our crossroads was all about seeking another option to get us to our destination: should we summon a demon, Axltraxtor, to break down the wall, kill a bunch of elves, and incidentally rain fire over everything and everyone in the area as an unstoppable force of destruction?

... I'll let you work out the problems with THAT plan on your own as well.

General Grugg (Steve) was totally into the demon plan. He would stand atop the mighty Breach Beast (a massive dinosaur-creature that walks forward, patiently, through gates and houses and people) and shout eloquent speeches about their upcoming victory; orcish speeches tending to be phrases like "glorious victory" and "rain of fire" shouted without any context or linking thoughts, but he shouts loud so it works, more or less. As the general, Grugg was, of course, Power.

Grizzled Old Soldier, who sometimes went by GOS (Neil) was not so much into the demon plan. He was the oldest orc by far, at 35, and was truly massive and imposing. He could BE the general if he wanted to, but he lacked any sort of ambition. As Perspective, he predicted dire things if the demon was summoned... he'd seen stuff like this before. As tensions mounted within the Yellow Liver, the orcs around him wanted GOS to oust the general and take over, but he was having none of that.

Pa'takh (JC) was a more progressive orc; he worked at the armorer's cart, but in his heart he was an explosives expert. He invented something called a "gren-ahd": a bladder willed with troll-dung and elf-blood, separated by a thin membrane. Throw it, and when it splatters, it explodes! Or, better yet: strap it to one of the hundreds of goblins running around the place, who can run it to its final destination. It's a marvelous advance in killing-things technology, and much, much more effective than this old-school demon thing. Pa'takh, also Perspective, knew that the demon plan would get us through the wall, but there would be a tragic end: the summoning required the sacrifice of most of the Yellow Liver's goblins, which meant that there would be none left to strap gren-ahds to. Not fun!

Serras (me) was a goblin, a pathetic and snivelling coward. Within the Yellow Liver, goblins are less of a servant underclass and more of a combination ashtray, gofer, and blunt instrument. Also, in the rare event that you needed to write something down, you could just carve it into the nearest goblin with your dagger... Serras was covered in Grugg's battle plans, including crude drawings of Axeltraxtor. He was also, somehow, the Touchstone, which meant that everyone was as terrified of this "demon" plan as he was, and Crisis shot up really quickly.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, this cadre of orcs was a volatile place: we only lasted one crossroads before crisis struck, and when it struck... ha hah, it sure struck! Serras gets some of the blame: unhappy with the inevitable sacrifice of most of goblin kind, he became Power and started a goblin revolution after stealing all of Pa'takh's gren-ahds. Not to take over, that would be silly, but to put GOS in charge; GOS, meanwhile, had no interest in this, and became Touchstone, one of many orcs who don't want to lead, but would rather just be told what to do, please.

Ultimately, the demon was NOT summoned, because the shaman capable of doing the procedure was killed when goblins tossed gren-ahds in his cart. Then, crisis, as orcs and goblins went to war. The goblin's basic fighting strategy, by the way, is to be holding explosives when they are attacked, so that when they're killed, they probably take some orcs with them. They got numbers on their side in the long run.

But alas, it was unsuccessful, and General Grugg was able to push all the way through the goblin fighters, seize the self-appointed Vizier Sarras, raise him up high and throw him with back-breaking force, right into the cart of high explosives that Sarras had been riding on.

... I'll let you work out the problems with THAT plan as well, but the phrase "a massive, smoking crater where once stood a group of orcs and goblins" is involved.

Major props to all involved; I had a great time with this kingdom. Flawed characters make for fun stories, and we were all massively flawed: some violent, some lazy, some cowardly, but all of us incredibly, myopically, profoundly stupid. Great times.

Playing deeply flawed Kingdom characters (or probably deeply flawed characters in most story games) is something that should be explored more. Did a game a few weeks ago where I was this delusional tribal tribal chieftain trying to return her people to glory and it worked really well.