When I was picked to play Theoblanc, all I knew was that MOB had been killed in the same role, and after reading the character sheet, my response was, "boy am I screwed." I got my immortality "shot" in an even more unprincipled way than MOB, by selling off my position on usury to the Vadeli, and bribing one of the chief opponents with a high bishopric. I did have to play becoming senile for 15 minutes until I got my oysters: unfortunately, given my grey hairs, several of my bishops thought I really WAS sick!
Actually, I disagree with Nick: I think the problem with the way the scenario was played was that the reactionary views of the Rokari made the Hrestoli more united than they should have been: another version of the ease of coalition-building against the Lunar villains that caused the problems in the Boldhome scenario. The Hrestoli in our game, too, were much more active in converting than we were. Our inquisition spent most of its time beating up on our side (including me) : if I had to do it over again I would appoint a missionary to the fallen brothers right away -- and tried to organize conversion the way the Hrestoli did.
We didn't have many issue betrayals ourselves, but I think the reason for the betrayals was the presence of an active feminist caucus being played by active feminists -- few of our Church had the cojones to look a woman in the face and tell her she was inferior. On the other hand, since Theoblanc didn't care about the status of women, I could support a sell-out there. We would have gone down fighting on the caste system, until Notslor gave us a way out. I was willing to do almost anything to get the churches together -- and then in the end realized that none of the Hrestoli gave a damn, else, after winning everything else, they would not have gone out of their way to insult us by picking a Lunar agent (who was actually Arkat the Deceiver) as their pope.
Actually, what struck me after reading all the character sheets -- thanks to a misunderstanding on the part of John Medway, who mistook his wife's expression, stopped bidding, and let me walk off with the character sheets for a mere $70 -- was that Theoblanc was about the only guy there (besides Notslor) who cared about church unity -- it wasn't even a character goal for any of the Hrestoli -- so it is not surprising that they were unwilling to make any effort to hold the thing together.
A few sidelights to the American version: I spent my time endlessly trying to service anyone who asked a favor of me -- since I was determined to stay alive, and had very few ways to defend myself from anyone who wanted to hurt me. The strategy worked to the extent that I cut a deal with the Fat King (I'll outlive him anyway, I told myself) and not even Audrec tried to kill me -- Our Audrec ended as an excommunicated, seduced drunken sot. When we walked out we did manage to keep our church together. The most surprising thing to me was that my money and my relic disappeared in the first hour -- I didn't know that there were pickpocketing rules -- so you can imagine that I thought for most of the game that there was no way for me to get my oysters!
It turned out later that my money went to a dastardly little Castle Coast runt named Sangsouche (ably played by one James D. Chapin, the little bugger!) and my relic was picked by the King's man, peasant representative Lepet, and eventually returned through the good graces of the inqusition.
Like Sandy, I am happier playing some roles than others -- I prefer to play someone who truly believes in whatever he is doing, no matter how silly or obnoxious that might be. My wife likes earnest do-good roles, and was satisfied with being the Torkani Queen and Mimsgill, respectively. My older son likes playing double roles, such as the vampire in Home of the Bold (though he said it made him totally paranoid) or Sangsouche in HtWwO, while the younger seemed equally at ease playing the idealistic Pliny and the incredibly ruthless Briestoc (his complaint about that role -- "I don't mind playing an S.O.B. -- but I just hate it when everyone already knows I"m an S.O.B.!"). High points in family relations included David, as Pliny, catching and pummeling his vampire older brother in Home of the Bold, and Jim, as Sangsouche, promoted to head of his little schismatic Castle Coast Church, roundly denouncing the evil Theoblanc and his Church. Ahh, how sharper than a serpent's tooth! Good fun was had by all!
Powered by hypermail