The Players- Dani, Christopher, Alex, Shimon, Davis

We tried our hand at playing Serpent's Tooth. The Star Lord was our inspiration. The "King" was a woman named Bell who had lead the remnants of humanity since a victory over an alien species over a decade ago. A ruthless woman eager to cement humanity's place amongst the stars and more concerned with the good of the many versus the good of the few, she ruled with an iron fist. Unfortunately she'd spread resources too thin. That, coupled with the discovery of something strange on a planetoid the armada was near, eventually lead to her downfall after the death of her second-in-command and those who were against her ruthlessness and the constant war that was taking its toll found the inspiration they needed to take action. Humanity did not last much longer against the alien threat. (Of course, they'd been invaders all along!)

Serpent's Tooth is very meta! The whole point is to take power from the King, which is represented by symbols of their authority which in turn represent aspects of the narration. The King starts out with all the power but the point is for them to lose it. I was the King. I wanted to create someone that the others would have good reason to want to see removed from power but at the same time wasn't completely awful. I hope I succeeded?

Anyway, the game itself is an interesting concept with an interesting set-up. It's not one I would recommend for new players, though I think Chris did well. :) It requires the person playing the King to be willing to have the other players attempting to overthrow them, whatever form that takes! Maybe it was just the fact that none of us had played it before but there were some challenges in figuring out when to give a tooth and when they actually were spent. This is definitely an atypical story game in a lot of senses! It's very rules-lite. I feel that I could make it work much better now that I have a clearer understanding of the rules.

There are some questions suggested with each "King" to help the players better figure out their characters, their relation to the King, the world, and each other, which were somewhat helpful. A list of seeds- a sentence or so- to get the ball rolling as far as a plot is concerned associated with each King might also be helpful to give the King some more ideas about how to get the ball rolling. I think it's still important to ask questions and give room for everyone to contribute stuff about the world. "Yes and..." and "Yes, but..." are really going to be your friends. The point is to lose your power, so let it happen. Make it interesting for the players and I wish I could have taken the advice I'm about to give myself-- when they spend those teeth, make it big!

Overall, it was a really interesting experience! There were some old hands around the table and a new face eager to learn and find out what these games are all about, so that helped. I really do like the concept and now that I know better what it's about and how it's supposed to work, I may give this another shot.

Thanks to Alex, Christopher, Davis, and Shimon for their patience as we figured this out and all they brought to the table!

- Dani, aka Bell