The Broken Council is a game of Power - personal, political and religious. Unlike HtWwO and HotB, this game spans years and has actual military (i.e. wargaming) elements. Role-playing is still important, since each player should try to represent his or her character, but the goals of Power preservation and aquisition should never be forgotten.
What about the Cards, then? The cards in tBC are merely tokens and can be used to gain Power for individuals and/or groups. However there are other ways of gaining Power. For instance, Harald Smith, playing the only Gold Wheel Dancer, had few cards of his own. Yet he kept his character powerful (as Fire Speaker on the Inner Council) by using his own personal diplomatic and managerial skills. In addition, the Dragonewts nearly wrested Power (in the form of the Egg) from everyone else through a military campaign. No card trading here, either.
So what? I think that if the rules and characters had been available to the players MUCH earlier, some of the confusion would have been avoided. But not everyone will like this style of game and, perhaps, should not choose to be a part of it.
As I see it, there are two main lessons to be learned here. First, the game sponsors must complete the game ahead of time so they can give the players enough time to understand what needs to be done. Second, the players must not assume that all LARP's will be the same, and so must pay close attention to the information they are given.
And while I'm on the subject, I would like to say Thank You to the creators and players of tBC. I wish I had known more about the game system, and was better prepared to carry all my "documents" during the game, but I had a blast and have been boring my gaming friends with tales of the game. Also, I would like to thank Dennis Hoover. In Kestinelms' writeup of tBC, I could not praise his character (and therefore his play), since Kestinelm and Palangio were implacable enemies. But Dennis and I have played as "relatives" in both RQCon and RQCon2, and I look forward to doing so again at future cons.
james
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