Games on Demand: Love in the Time of Seid

After dinner, I went back to Games on Demand, and Jason Morningstar put me in a game he correctly predicted I'd enjoy.

8 pm: Games on Demand: Love in the Time of Seid

So, House of Cards, while technically indie, is an easy game for a traditional gamer to pick up. You use cards instead of dice, and the setting is modern urban fantasy. PCs are not looting dungeons, but trying to set things to right with their powers. All else can be considered bells and whistles, although there are some fine touches that show the effect of the last ten years of game design.

In contrast, Love in the Time of Seid is a storytelling game with no randomizer. It's a hack of Archipelago. There are five characters, and these are the same whenever the game is played. All that varies is the story the players tell -- and even there, there are constraints which make certain twists more likely to happen than others. There is no GM. The players each act as guide / facilitator to the player to their right (I think -- it might be left).

• Kristen: Seidhona (a wise woman), Astrid
• Mark: Earl Lord Angar from the East
• Me: King Einar
• Steve Segedy: Princess Irsa
• Alex: Knight Sir Isleif

If we hadn't gotten a fifth player, we would have dropped the knight.

The game is played until till two characters clearly end their stories. This means that those characters leave the game in some way. Then, the Epilogue is played.

As I recall, the king and the seidhona had been lovers, and the knight secretly had a family elsewhere, but he and the princess were in love.

I think things opened with the princess seeing the ghost of the queen. Then, the ghost was covered with blood, and the princess screamed. This led to the next few scenes ending with "And there is a scream!"

The king decided that, to ensure that there would be peace between his realm and the East, his daughter the princess would marry Lord Angar. Lord Angar was more than willing to make this alliance, but there was a law about how the princess wasn't supposed to marry an outsider. I forget the exact details, or what weaselly loophole the king used to justify the wedding. I think it had to do with uniting the kingdoms with the marriage, thus making the East part of the kingdom.

The princess was not pleased, but also not sure what to do. Astrid tried to manipulate her, but I forget the details. I do remember:

Astrid: I thought your heart was first. It is your choice.

Someone: And there is a scream!

Other out of context quotes:

That is a very interesting anti-social person.

Wait -- the ghost screams when it saw itself?

Why didn't you tell me?

I just recently discovered it.

I know that there was some mystery about how the queen died, and I recall trying to steer the story so that it turned out that the king had sacrificed her for power. But, the truth turned out to be far stranger.

Lord Angar wound up in the past. Basically, the mechanic for the game is that whenever one reaches a point where another player challenges one, one draws a card. Cards say things like "Yes, and..." "Yes, but...", "No, and...", and "No, but..." I think this one was a "Yes, but..." and I know that what followed after the "but" was something like "you wind up in the past".

So, I played the dead queen, who was now alive, and pregnant. And, Lord Angar killed her, I think with poison.

Astrid was currently Lord Angar's lover, and I think she was trying to break up Lord Angar's betrothal. But, somehow, despite hating Lord Angar, the princess wound up having sex with him. I think this was consensual hate-sex, but my notes are unclear. However, Astrid walked in on this, and things got confusing.

King: Astrid -- what happened? I know you would never lie.

The king decided, despite Astrid's advice to the contrary, that the wedding would continue, and Astrid left the kingdom in disgust. I forget whether the knight left or was killed, but I know there was some kind of deal with his originally family. Maybe Lord Angar agreed to pay some debts, or maybe he threatened the family, I forget.

I'm sorry I don't recall more of the details, but I remember that the whole thing felt bloody and ghostly, and it was a lot of fun.