The Players- Shimon, Sonya, Jeff, and Dani

The plot of Love in the Time of Seid is sort of laid out and the characters are pregenerated with questions the players can answer to make them their own. Our story of course involved the upcoming marriage of The Princess to The Earl, a political match arranged by The King, despite her love for The Knight. Our story involved the kingdom's move away from the old ways, which involved worshiping various spirits of nature and venerating their ancestors. In the end, The King slayed The Earl after the ghost of his wife warned him of the threat The Earl posed to the kingdom. (It didn't help she left him with the mistaken impression that The Earl had already slept with and impregnated The Princess!) The Knight, who was actually the reincarnation to an ancient wolf spirit The King had killed in his younger years, slayed The King, who accepted his fate. The Princess went on to become the new ruler but she lead as the new seidkona rather than a queen.

Some standout moments include The Princess, whose gift was seeing and speaking the truth, simultaneously discovering and revealing the truth about how The King had murdered her mother in front of the court and the staff. Whether she was more horrified by the fact that she couldn't stop herself from speaking the truth or the truth is hard to say. Another standout moment was The King meeting the ghost of his wife as well as the confrontation with The Earl and his eventual fate.

So yeah, this particular iteration, as the title suggests, felt a bit like Game of Thrones mixed in with a healthy dose of Hamlet. All the players had really interesting takes on their characters and played them well! I felt there was a lot of support and enthusiasm on everyone's part for what was going in the story and our narrative.

It's a fun game! I've played other games with plots already sort of loosely laid out and pregenerated characters with options to customize and they never feel the same. Players not only play a character but also get to be sort of guides for other player's scenes. More guidance on how the two different kinds of guides could embrace their roles without stepping on each other's toes and a little more guidance on how to get the ball rolling might be helpful for less experienced groups. We didn't have any issues with this but I could see other groups benefiting from a bit more structure. There is a series of phrases you're supposed to use that we didn't even touch and conflict resolution when it can't be settled by discussion alone takes the form of cards with prompts like "Yes, and," or "No but."

All in all, definitely a good time around the table. The premise is interesting! I like the location cards, which give prompts for different events for the Event Guide to introduce and use. We had fun playing with the themes for each of the characters. My only wish, as I've seen before with some of Jason Morningstar's games, is for a touch more structure and guidance to help keep things smooth and moving forward.

Thanks to Shimon, Jeff, and Sonya for a memorable and entertaining experience!

- Dani L, aka Kadlin the Witch-Queen.