Blog Post

Hacking a New Phase, pt. 2

  • By keithstetson
  • 31 Jan, 2015
The Lonesome Phase had it’s second playtest a few weeks back. Looking over my notes and letting things tumble over and over in my brain gave me some more insight into what’s going on and what I want to be going on. The Lonesome Phase had a much more definite form this time. The Marshal began […]
The Lonesome Phase had it’s second playtest a few weeks back. Looking over my notes and letting things tumble over and over in my brain gave me some more insight into what’s going on and what I want to be going on.
The Lonesome Phase had a much more definite form this time. The Marshal began by describing the grandeur of the scene, in this case the lurching path of the Hunting Tornado as it careened toward Fort Laramie. The active Outlaw dealt one card to each of the other players. Using the suit as inspiration*, the players asked the active Outlaw a question about how the scene affected their character. The player who drew hearts asked how the Outlaw read the ill omen of the coming storm in the habits of the birds above him. The player who drew spades asked how the Outlaw’s father’s enchanted relic was acting as a magnet for the storm.
In this case the Lonesome Phase served as an act break and an escalation. We knew the Hunting Tornado was out there, but the focus on scene rather than character brought it into the foreground and ratcheted up the tension and danger. It’s hard for me to tell if this was a function of the Lonesome Phase as a category of thing, or simply how we played out this particular instance of Lonesome Phase.
Some things worked for this and some didn’t. The Phase was grander than it was before in that the setting was paramount, but the questions were still directed to one player in particular. I am really warming to the idea that there is no central character in the Phase so that when “someone” does a lonesome phase, everyone does a lonesome phase. This prevents the problem of some people getting to do a Lonesome Phase while others do not. It also ensures that the spotlight stays on scene and setting. Those elements should be elevated to the level of character via Lonesome Phase.
I am considering changing the reasoning to:
  • Choose the Lonesome Phase when you wish to look beyond the Outlaws and show scale (grandeur).
Previously the rationale for choosing the phase had been “Choose the Lonesome Phase when you wish to take a breath and show scale (grandeur).” Taking a breath is not what happens in the Lonesome Phase. Also the second half of that equation might change to “elevate setting elements to character-hood.” It’s not an elegant phrase, but it could be a useful one.
Potential answers to previous asked questions:
What kinds of things should and should not be said and who should be saying them?
-> The person playing their card gets to ask a question of a player about how the landscape affects their character. They get to answer, keeping in mind their character is a background for the landscape to work.
How much narrative authority does each participant have?
-> If they’re playing a card, they have full authority over the landscape; if they are responding to the card, they likewise have full authority over the landscape, but also over their Outlaw.
How do we know when the Phase is finished?
-> All cards that have been dealt are played.
How long should it run? Does everyone get one?
-> Everyone asks, answers or both during a Lonesome Phase.
What if everyone wants one and can’t have one?
-> Not an issue in this iteration.
Hoping to get the third playtest in this Wednesday.
*Diamonds being weather and landscape, hearts being flora and fauna, clubs being the things of humanity and spades being the other.
By Keith Stetson 23 Oct, 2018
Over the weekend I had the good fortune to be a guest at Gauntlet Con 2018, the annual (and perhaps soon twice annual!) virtual convention run by the fine folks at the Gauntlet community (if you don't know about the Gauntlet yet, you've got some research to do). I ran Seco Creek, as I am wont to do. It was a super fun, if atypical playthrough. Our John Gammon couldn't make it, and I'd never run for that particular mix of four PCs before. We also had two former lovers in the mix - a new record! I think the tone ended up being a little lighter than usual, but I certainly wouldn't call the ending happy. Check it out for yourself!  
By Keith Stetson 13 Jul, 2018


If you know me, you likely know I love Epidiah Ravachol’s sword and sorcery RPG Swords Without Master and have run and played it dozens of times. Based on a suggestion by Michael Miller, I decided to take my relationship with Swords to the next level and run three interconnected sessions of if at the recently concluded Dexcon. My pitch was as follows:

Swords Without Master; "Anthology" by Dig a Thousand Holes Publishing; presented by Keith Stetson. An INDEPENDENTLY PUBLISHED GAME - Part of the Indie Games Explosion! Sundered from us by gulfs of time and stranger dimensions dream ancient worlds and ancient tales. Take up sword and staff, pen and ink, and inscribe your own tale in the Anthology. These stories written on air will be composed by us over a series of three linked gaming sessions. Play one session to play a short story; play them all for the full Anthology.

While we did roll Jovial several times, Glum predominated as I detail in my after action report.


  • Problems with players getting into multiple sessions.

Each of my three sessions of Swords had four seats at the table. My ideal set-up would have been two folks who played in all three games, one person who played in two, and four folks who popped into one game each. What I had in actuality was one person in two sessions and ten folks who played one game each. Not even close.

Part of this issue arose from the fact I didn’t flag explicitly enough in the description that this was a continuing game. I said it clearly, but the way folks read these descriptions you have to shout. The problem with that is if I shouted too loudly, people would think it was an all or nothing affair, which is leaning too far in the other direction.

Another part of this issue arose from how Double Exposure cons do their scheduling. It’s unique, and quixotic, and well discussed elsewhere. Suffice to say, I had several folks come up to me and say “I signed up for all your sessions and only got into one,” and suchlike.

This situation didn’t hurt our story too much; after all, it was conceived as an anthology. The main problem with how this worked out is I had to teach the game in depth at every session. For a game like Swords that has a serious learning curve, this was draining. Added to the other draining factors (see next bullet point), and I left the con properly soured on Swords. I know, me soured, what?


  • Teaching, then re-teaching, then re-re-teaching...

My paying job is as special education teacher, so I definitely understand that re-teaching is going to be required when any novel concept is presented. What I didn’t understand was that (1) I would have to do more initial teaching than expected (see above) and (2) some folks would be resistant to learning.

I mentioned above there were several draining factors to the Anthology, and the second major one was the players who weren’t playing by the rules. I don’t mean that they were cheating necessarily, just that they couldn’t - or wouldn’t - abide by Swords’ strict narration guidelines. By this I mean taking definitive action and narrating for characters other than their Rogue without tossing the dice, as well as inserting enough slipping and struggling to take chunks of time from the spotlight player. Some folks needed a gentle reminder to not do this; others didn’t stop.

There was a domino factor to this, where folks realized that they weren’t going to get the dice again for a while and when they did they’d be spoken over, so they hung on to narration as long as they could. The only rational response to that for other Rogues was to do that same, and we ended up in a narration escalation. The third game of the con lasted for four and a half hours. We weren’t aiming for speedruns, but I was hopeful to get two tales in a slot, or at least head to the bar early. Instead, I ended up exhausted and empty.


  • The map phase has potential.

When I posted on Google Plus about running the Anthology, Eppy sent me the rules for (parts of?) a new phase called the Chronicler Phase. I wanted to have a map as a touchstone for our Rogues and this phase promised to create one. It essentially works as a Rogues phase, but instead of demands about other players’ Rogues, you make demands about the map. “Draw for us the walking castle of Count Oglethorpe.” “Tell us of the burial practices of the Sky Wardens.” “Define for us the sigil to warn traveller’s of sorcerous routes.”

The phase created a very fruitful map for us that directly influenced our Rogue creation as well as our Tale. However, given how new the players were to Swords, it was a bit of heavy lifting right there at the beginning, especially as the Chronicler Phase has Stymies, Mysteries and Morals that don’t function exactly the same as in the other Phases. Still, I found this a useful procedure and was glad to have it.


  • Both our tales and our tome were compelling.

Despite our difficulties, the big experiment of the Anthology was a success. Each individual session had a (more or less) satisfying tale, and there was an overall arc to all the tales that would make a decent novel.

In session one, we had a griffin Rogue, who had come West to see what was happening to his people’s disappearing eggs. Turns out they were being ground up and snorted for their narcotic properties. That must have been an awkward report to the griffin kings.

In session two, a party went East to griffin lands to patch things over with the griffins. Instead, they poisoned one of the triumvirate of kings and set the two great species on the brink of war.

In session three, another party went East as an advance party for an assault and ended up meeting with all three griffin kings (deceased included), before the purest-hearted of them got a seat on the griffin council and held hostilities at bay… for now.


  • So would I do it all again?

I learned a lot from this experiment: both about myself, and about the game. But ultimately, no, I would not do it again. At least not at a convention where scheduling practices could cause me to have to teach the game so repeatedly. Swords is not simple to pick up, and the process of teaching it over and over left me limp. However, I would certainly run Swords as a campaign given the right group of players. And, you know, given time to recuperate from this experiment!


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By Keith Stetson 09 Dec, 2017
After the success of its Kickstarter, I've moved Seco Creek Vigilance Committee over to Pledge Manager. Even if you missed the crowd funding, you can still get in before the book goes to press. Retail copies will be available after the fact, but they will be limited, so pre-ordering is a good idea if you're afraid of missing the game.
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