Friends at the Table: PARTIZAN 21: Millennium Break: We Will Take Hold of the Loom of History!
June 7, 2020 6:33 PM - Subscribe
Any outrageous idea exists on one side or the other of a line drawn through history. On the near side is where most fall. However potent the seed, it dies on the vine thanks to the infertile soil of common sense, the harsh encumbrance of daily life, and the long drought, which leaves young thoughts unnourished and immature. But eventually, when the drought has lasted so long as to become dry fire, when the routines of the day become so heavy as to ruin the ground as we carry them across the dirt, outrageous ideas take on new character.
When we say that a notion is 'so crazy that it might just work' what we are really intimating is that only the outrageous holds opportunity.
This experiment of ours is one such opportunity.
Know that I do not deceive myself about why this band has gathered. Our differences in motivation, in method, or final goal. I am a rector to one of three faiths on board, that might be called heretical by the other three- All of which are gathered here on this deck.
This deck of an Apostolisian super weapon, stolen and commanded by a scion of Stel Kesh who has turned it into her fortress. A fortress operated by former prisoners standing side by side with beer brewing Nadaen monks and Columnar technicians. We are mercenaries and smugglers and pirates, the disaffected and the privileged. We are the work of generations of Oxblood clan loyalists and a single investment among many by our liberal and curious friend Aegon Ortlights of the Company of the Spade.
All of this is why I was skeptical when my friend, Valence, told me that a conference could bring a group like this together. But all of this is why that conference was as passionate as it was.
Our truths spilled and mixed in good faith. We as often arrived at unhappy compromise as we did generate the sorts of alibis that blood conspirators eagerly draft to hide their enthusiasm.
On this cold morning, that enthusiasm might feel absent.
We might best now be defined by all of the ways we are without. We are without uniforms, without full stores, without fuel to last us beyond this summer, we are without allies beyond those beside you, and without a land of our own. We are yet without formal creed, but we are not without object. We are driven by this one understanding: that history looms not the way an ominous shadow casts over the land, but like a machine that weaves. It pulls threads together, alike and not, according to pattern, material, and process, and as it stands the Divine Principality will weave this age, this so called perfect millennium, forever.
And so here is our outrageous idea, slipping from incoherence into necessity: we will work the loom of history ourselves! We will set the pattern, pull the clothe, slide the shuttle, bring together each of our different threads into something that, to look at it once complete, is to see something so essential it is hard to imagine the world before it.
A future unlike the past. A yet unnamed tomorrow.
Together we will break this millennium.
-Gur Sevraq, The Friend.
Austin, Janine, Sylvi, Ali, Art, Jack, Keith, Andrew.
Know that I do not deceive myself about why this band has gathered. Our differences in motivation, in method, or final goal. I am a rector to one of three faiths on board, that might be called heretical by the other three- All of which are gathered here on this deck.
This deck of an Apostolisian super weapon, stolen and commanded by a scion of Stel Kesh who has turned it into her fortress. A fortress operated by former prisoners standing side by side with beer brewing Nadaen monks and Columnar technicians. We are mercenaries and smugglers and pirates, the disaffected and the privileged. We are the work of generations of Oxblood clan loyalists and a single investment among many by our liberal and curious friend Aegon Ortlights of the Company of the Spade.
All of this is why I was skeptical when my friend, Valence, told me that a conference could bring a group like this together. But all of this is why that conference was as passionate as it was.
Our truths spilled and mixed in good faith. We as often arrived at unhappy compromise as we did generate the sorts of alibis that blood conspirators eagerly draft to hide their enthusiasm.
On this cold morning, that enthusiasm might feel absent.
We might best now be defined by all of the ways we are without. We are without uniforms, without full stores, without fuel to last us beyond this summer, we are without allies beyond those beside you, and without a land of our own. We are yet without formal creed, but we are not without object. We are driven by this one understanding: that history looms not the way an ominous shadow casts over the land, but like a machine that weaves. It pulls threads together, alike and not, according to pattern, material, and process, and as it stands the Divine Principality will weave this age, this so called perfect millennium, forever.
And so here is our outrageous idea, slipping from incoherence into necessity: we will work the loom of history ourselves! We will set the pattern, pull the clothe, slide the shuttle, bring together each of our different threads into something that, to look at it once complete, is to see something so essential it is hard to imagine the world before it.
A future unlike the past. A yet unnamed tomorrow.
Together we will break this millennium.
-Gur Sevraq, The Friend.
Austin, Janine, Sylvi, Ali, Art, Jack, Keith, Andrew.
Jack using the "Choose from the menu" line was delicious. Clem and Gucci claiming the main and battle bridges respectively was delicious. Austin saying he "figured out" the ghost squid was terrifying. This, and having listened to the Counterweight Kingdom game not too long ago, makes me want to run a Kingdom game of my own.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:32 PM on June 7, 2020
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 7:32 PM on June 7, 2020
I’ve mentioned it before but let’s make it official: anyone who buys the Kingdom PDF in 2020 is eligible for a free upgrade to K2. I can’t do the same for books obviously, because there is unavoidable overhead in printing and shipping, but this way at least people have no reason to worry about whether they should buy Kingdom now.
That's a comment on the latest note about the playtest. If the creator says it on the official site it's probably true, so feel free to buy Kingdom now!
>Austin saying he "figured out" the ghost squid was terrifying.
That is some 10/10 GMing and I love it.
posted by fomhar at 7:49 PM on June 7, 2020
That's a comment on the latest note about the playtest. If the creator says it on the official site it's probably true, so feel free to buy Kingdom now!
>Austin saying he "figured out" the ghost squid was terrifying.
That is some 10/10 GMing and I love it.
posted by fomhar at 7:49 PM on June 7, 2020
There were some great moments, but to me this felt like a very slow start to what's going to be a very long arc, even by FATT standards. In particular, it felt like there was a worrying lack of shared vision among the players of what that first crossroads even looked like or meant. I assume it will pick up as we go forward, but at the moment, it feels like there's a real danger that by having this many players, they've stretched Kingdom's rule to their breaking point, and the whole thing is in danger of collapsing under its own weight.
I'd be overjoyed to be proved wrong, and I'm going to keep listening, but I am a little worried.
posted by firechicago at 5:50 AM on June 8, 2020
I'd be overjoyed to be proved wrong, and I'm going to keep listening, but I am a little worried.
posted by firechicago at 5:50 AM on June 8, 2020
Well, they've supposedly already recorded the whole game and are slowly working on editing it into episodes, so I wouldn't worry too much. Worst case scenario if the game didn't go smoothly they have ample time to edit it into something great.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:08 AM on June 8, 2020
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:08 AM on June 8, 2020
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Note that at the time of this posting there is a charity bundle featuring all of the past Zines and postcards.
I forgot to do a post for the previous episode so this'll also be the post for episode 20, I guess.
posted by fomhar at 6:36 PM on June 7, 2020