Situation: The heroes must convince a king and his court, all of whom are giants, to take a stand either for or…

10 thoughts on “Situation: The heroes must convince a king and his court, all of whom are giants, to take a stand either for or…”

1. The characters are there to take a stand or are they attempting to sway the giant court towards a particular action?

2. I’m not entirely sure yet. The giants could be a powerful ally, so that is a likely course of events. The giants also have something that the heroes need. It could be possible to get that something without swaying the giants to take a more active hand in events. A lot depends on how other portents unfold, et cetera.

3. Sounds like the latter. This also sounds like it could be turned into a Front all by itself. After all, nothing says a Front has to happen over a long period of time.

4. I think it’s definitely a Danger, at least, with each giant maybe being an Impending Doom. Like

   “Thorolf sides with the enemy.”

   “Brindys sides with the enemy.”

   “Laffi the Skald tells a story that weakens their cause.”

   “King Krom sides with the enemy.”

   etc.

   Also, you could have a custom move like “when you attempt to sway the mood of a giant, roll + CHA…” to help flavour it. That way, you’d work towards Parley with the King by way of his court, the leverage you have is “your court agrees with me, do you want to displease them?”

5. A single parley action would convince one of them. It’s a king and his court, so multiple rolls would be necessary. Pretty damned likely at least one of them will whiff or land in the 7-9 territory. And 7-9 territory is ripe for sending the heroes on quests they must do in order to win that court-member’s vote. I’d probably also rule that you can’t actually parley with the King because you don’t have leverage on him until at least half of his court is allied with your point of view.

6. Go with the popular, help others so they can convince the king to see the player characters. This way they see some of the court/culture but also builds up to the talk with the king where the smaller court tasks could change their views on what to say to the king.

7. Duel of Wits! Ooh wait…

8. Sway the Masses

   When you attempt to convince a group of people toward a cause of action, roll +Cha.

   * On a 10+, take +1 forward to persuade the group and take 1 Hold or 2 Temporary Holds.

   * On a 7-9, take 1 Temporary Hold or take +1 forward to persuade the group.

   * On a 6-, lose all Temporary Holds gained so far.

   You can continue making this Move toward a single goal a number of times determined by your GM (usually between 3 and 5), though you must come up with a different argument each time you roll.

   Once all rolls have been made, all Temporary Holds become normal Holds, and you may spend your Holds on the following options (any Holds not spent are lost):

   2 Holds: You get what you want from the group or convince most of the group to join your cause.

   1 Hold: You get part of what you want from the group, or convince only part of the group to join your cause.

   1 Hold: The group doesn’t ask for any major compensation for joining your cause.

   1 Hold: You make a long-term ally from within the group.

   1 Hold: You don’t make a long-term enemy from within the group.

9. “You can continue making this Move toward a single goal a number of times determined by your GM (usually between 3 and 5)”  ?

   Why this line? How often you can make a move should be determined by the fiction anyway. 

10. OP wanted something that wasn’t just one Move for the entire thing. The idea is that the GM will decide when the people you’re trying to convince are tired of listening to you, and more than 5 rolls is likely to end up with way more Holds than are necessary or useful.

    Think of it more as an extended Move that requires/allows multiple rolls rather than multiple distinct Moves. Maybe it would be better to write it that way as well, but that was just my first instinct of an idea.

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