Alright, kids. Today we’re starting on the AM Manual.

(AM is actually a fitting title for certain GMs, though probably not what the game was going for. Still, amusing.)

So, the manual starts with an introduction which I’m mostly going to skip because it mostly concerns itself with technical matters and contains little interesting info: blah blah, you must prepare before the game instead of simply jumping in, blah blah, read the books and remember the rules, etc.

The only tidbit worth of noting is that the book recommends AMs to only glance through the Light Raider Handbook, which strikes me as odd since it’s the prime source of setting information.

Well, whatever, maybe it’s repeated here, wouldn’t be the first time.

Next section is titled “What Makes a Good Adventure Master?” It’s actually a good question, since there are a lot of skills involved in the GM position.

First, of course, is the knowledge of the rules. The GM is supposed to be an arbiter on mechanics, among other things, so knowing the rules better than players is preferable as otherwise you would come across as incompetent and in need of constant correction or a hardass disregarding the rules in favor of your own vision. I’ve talked before about how the rules of TRPGs serve as a foundation of the shared world, the reality all game participants accept, and it’s important to know them well. And, of course, you need to know the rules to construct fair challenges for the players to overcome.

Then there are people skills. The GM is supposed to monitor the party dynamic, ensuring that everyone is engaged in the game and having fun. If someone is sitting in silence, bored, you should provide them with something to do. If someone is dominating the game and doesn’t leave anything to do to other players, you should decrease their spotlight one way or another, preferably subtly enough to not be obvious about it. If the players don’t know what to do and just talk in circles, you should throw in some clues or a quick encounter. If there is a conflict brewing withing a party that threatens to spill into the RL, you should deal with it (snack break is always a good solution). And so on.

Then there are artistic skills. It’s GM’s duty to provide players with an interesting story full of twists and intrigue, and it’s a huge challenge to incorporate the characters they want to play into the plot in a way that makes them all feel as the protagonist. And, of course, it’s a collaborative effort, so there will inevitably be times when players react to stuff you throw at them in ways you didn’t expect. You should be prepared to roll with it and improvise something decent and engaging on the spot.

Then there is role-playing, of course, an ability to believably and interestingly portray various NPCs the PCs would come across, given them all unique voices (goofy accents, goofy accents everywhere) and providing motivations that would play off the PCs.

There are more factors involved in the position, but these ones are probably the most important.

(I should note that being a GM is not actually as complicated as it sounds. Generally, everyone in the group is interested in making the game interesting, so often players would shoulder your burdens and gloss over minor mistakes. You don’t need to create a masterpiece of a story for each game, players often sort their dynamic on their own just fine, goofy accents really can carry you pretty far when it comes to NPCs, etc. Still, being aware of these issues and working on improving your performance in these areas does help to make TRPGs more memorable and ultimately leads to you having more fun and less drama.)

To the game’s credit, it does note most of what I talked about: role-playing, people skills, rules knowledge. One curious omission is the complete lack of any mention of improvisation or creating your own adventures, which is going to be important later. For now, just note that the game assumes you’re going to mostly use the official adventures (which, I should note, many GMs would scoff at. Scoff, I said. Especially the ones with any experience with White Wolf games and their approach to adventure-making.)

One thing this game lists as an important skill that I do not is “spiritual maturity”:

An Adventure Master with spiritual maturity prays for wisdom in guiding the spiritual growth of the players and in directing the game. To understand the lessons in the DragonRaid adventures, you must also have an open, teachable spirit and a real commitment to Jesus Christ. You can teach only what you yourself understand! Finally, remain open- minded with your players; you may learn something from them.

That, too, is going to be important later.

For now, I’ll just say that we shouldn’t be surprised by this paragraph. It is a stated goal of the game to be used as an educational tool. Which, alright, fair enough. The way it does so, on the other hand… We’ll see.

Next section is “Adventure at the Castle of the Falls.” It’s a quick solo adventure somewhat similar to Chose Your Own Adventure books meant to teach new AMs the rules on practical examples.

Now, personally I’m rather dubious about the approach. Despite the passing similarities, CYOA books lack the most important aspects of TRPGs that separate them from other games: collaborative effort, interactivity, improvisation. IN CYOA you’re stuck with choices that the writer thought up and can’t carve your own path. You can’t struggle to find an answer, you can’t brainstorm a cunning plan with your friends, you can’t do anything unexpected. You can’t even really define your character beyond the options provided to you by the text.

I guess for this game it may be desirable, though.

Personally, when it comes to explaining how a game is played, I’m in favor of session transcripts. They allow to show peculiar aspects of TRPGs, like the relationship between players and their characters, group dynamic, the GM changing plans and adapting to players’ decisions, etc. Meta aspect, basically, which is very important to understand if you want your game to run smoothly.

CYOA is completely unable to handle the meta aspect, thus being only rudimentary helpful in understanding TRPGs. As we’ll see shortly, the adventure presented here is not an exception to this.

The adventure starts as follows:

The OverLord has sent you on a mission to the Castle of the Falls in the Heinous Heights region of the Western Peaks. You do not know what the nature of the mission is, only that He wants you there. Judging from past experience, you assume that your goal will be made known to you at some point in the raid.

That seems incredibly pointless and dickish. I mean, I understand that it’s supposed to be an allegory of the RL situation where the faithful don’t know what God really wants (provided he exists at all) and have to rely on their judgment and vague signs (if you believe in them), but in the world of DragonRaid Overlord was demonstrated to be capable of clear communication via magical bottled messages. If he can write you a memo telling you your intended destination, he’s damn well capable of writing another that at least outlines your goal.

Anyway, you, of course, follow the instructions of HypnoLord and go to the castle. It’s at this moment the limits of the CYOA format become apparent:

Seeing your destination in the distance – the Castle of the Falls – fills you with determination you let your rucksack slide to the ground and stop to rest until twilight can conceal your movements. The precariously sited castle is not well guarded, but you do not wish to take unnecessary risks. The defenders will undoubtedly be more experienced than you.

In a real game some players would interrupt you now and say that actually, yes, they do want to take some unnecessary risks.

As I’ve said back in my first review of this game, dictating what the PCs feel and do is generally a bad tone. You can describe the situation in a way that makes it clear that the brute force approach wouldn’t work, you may hint at other options or outright remind players about them (especially inexperienced players who may have trouble thinking outside the box), but you shouldn’t just proclaim what they do. It simply undermines the very point of playing TRPGs instead of CRPGs or actual CYOA.

But alright, it is a CYOA format, and the intention is to teach about the rules, so I shouldn’t harp too much about this point… for now.

Speaking of rules, the game gives definitions of the character strengths here. Technically, they were present in earlier books as well, but I think the definition here is probably more concise and easy to understand:

Love is the ability to be selfless and do things that risk your own well-being.
Joy is the ability to be content in all situations because the Almighty is at work in them.
Peace is the ability to be calm because you know that the Almighty is with you.
Patience is the ability to be steadfast under dicult circumstances.
Kindness is the ability to be available for usefulness and service.
Goodness is the ability to do what is right and virtuous.
Faithfulness is the ability to be loyal to the OverLord and be dependable.
Gentleness is the ability to know and respond to the needs of others in a humble way.
Self-Control is the ability to discipline yourself and work toward a righteous goal.

As you can see, a bit different from common use of the words, and a lot more overlap than you’d expect. Joy and Patience in particular are defined almost the same.

Anyway, the game proceeds to walk you through generating your own character strengths, plus Strength and Agility. I actually did it using WotC diceroller. Dice Gods loved me:

Love        6
Joy        10
Peace        9
Patience    10
Kindness    7
Goodness    9
Faithfulness    4
Gentleness    8
Self-Control    9

Physical Vitality    36
Strength        5
Agility            1

I’m a fucking spiritual juggernaut!

My body is weak, but I don’t give a shit thanks to the perfect 10 in both Joy and Patience!

It’s also amusing that Faithfulness is the only attribute even approaching low.

Now, the result is clearly abnormal, but it does demonstrate the perils of random character generation. No matter what I do, I’m bound to be better at it than other players, which is generally detrimental to the game.

But back to the adventure. You sleep and have a dream of spoilers:

As you doze under the aspen tree, shaded from the late afternoon sun, you have a dream. But this is not an ordinary dream; even in your sleep, you recognize it as your assignment from the OverLord . . . .
You see the Food Unbinding WordRune, mysteriously chiseled in the stones of a deserted castle corridor. From the end of the hall you hear a burst of coarse laughter, followed by a vicious, profane order for more desserts. The voice seems to be that of a female.
As you hear someone coming toward you, you duck into an alcove in the stone wall. A young woman passes by, dressed shabbily in a ragged shift|the usual attire of low-caste dragon slaves. She is obviously weary and is weeping.

You know, a bottled message would have sufficed. Prophetic dreams is a rather cheap way to advance the plot and overall not a good one given how it spoils future events. In this situation, it would actually be interesting to leave what should be done for the player to decide since there is a bit of twist up ahead, but as it is…

Anyway, obviously the dream tells us to save the poor servant girl, right? Well…

In your dream you venture out of your hiding place and steal toward the room from which you heard the glutton’s curse. Through a crack in the door you see a fat, dark-haired woman, her eyes filled with greed, devouring a host of delicacies. She is alone in a room lit by candles and hung with tapestries that proclaim this to be the domain of a high-caste dragon slave. You wonder what she has done to be so well-rewarded by the dragons.

You think of the Discernment WordRune, but are disappointed because you did not memorize it at the Academy. However, you also recall the Possibility WordRune, which you did learn. As you whisper it softly, a mirror-like glass in a delicate frame appears in the air before you. (Of course, at the Academy a looking-glass never actually materialized, since the miraculous power of the WordRunes is reserved for times of the OverLord’s choosing|usually only when there is denite need.)

Gently taking hold of the glass, you peer into it, just as you were trained to do. You see a different image of the plump woman. In the glass, she appears rather pretty, slim, not living to eat but eating to live. She has a torn page of the Sacred Scrolls in her hand. She will respond to the Call! Instantly, the glass disappears; she is again her greedy self.

Yeah, the transformation from fat, ugly and evil to slim, pretty and good is a rather unfortunate image.

Well, one good thing I can say about the game is that it at least doesn’t outright make all irredeemable people ugly since your goal is to save that woman. On the other hand, it does seem to divide people on the ones who should be saved and the ones who shouldn’t, since your mission is to only save that woman. The servant can hang for all Overlord cares, it seems, as there is no option farther ahead to even attempt to rescue her.

The dreams concludes with this amusing paragraph:

Suddenly you are awakened by the song of a thrush. Although you did not see the ending of your dream, you know now that the OverLord wants you to free the woman from her bondage. The unfinished dream was His way of teaching you to walk by faith, not knowing the details of your path ahead.

Yeah, so much is left uncertain. As I’ve said, it would be more interesting to leave the decisions to the players. The cursed woman can be saved, but how many people would even try after seeing her and seeing how she treats the servant? Many would just condemn her by default, and it would be a good opportunity to learn to not make snap judgments and give everyone a chance.

But I guess the faithful are supposed to be told by Overlord who shall be saved.

Anyway, next the game runs you through the use of Word Runes, abilities calculation and basic roll for success using Listening as an example. You don’t hear anything too important.

Next is…

You continue across the river valley. As you approach the river, the going becomes more dicult because the trail is overgrown with willows. Their branches catch at you as you pass by, stinging when they strike.

The trail is now at Difficulty Level 2 for your Joy rating.
A LightRaider can endure only to the degree that he is able to nd Joy or contentment in a situation|knowing that the OverLord is watching and working through it for His own purposes and His followers’ long-range benefit. Roll on the Success Grid to see if you continue down the trail.

Wait, you actually roll your character strengths to do stuff? I though they were mostly here for role-playing, with mechanical effects dealing only with the enchantments.

Well, on the one hand, at least now they’re more meaningful and can serve as a source of conflict, though I much prefer, again, FATE aspects that give you a reward for working your flaws into the narrative, with an option to refuse, rather than simply dictating your actions. On the other hand, as I’ve noted before, there is a lot of character strengths, and they cover a lot of ground, making such rolls a persistent annoyance rather than something that would come up at appropriate times to define the direction of your game.

Most importantly, failing the roll here results in no consequences. For one thing, you’re allowed to use a rune that temporarily increases your Joy rating and roll again. Even if you fail, you just lose an hour searching for a more comfortable route.

You may think it’s just an issue of format designed to keep you on track and normally failure would result in something interesting, but there is also the next example:

Now you see a road that winds up the steep cliff to the castle. The height is dizzying, and the road seems never ending. You are tempted to give up and go back to the Liberated Land.

[…]

If you do not succeed, you turn and go back the way you came. After traveling a while, you become more unselfish if your Love rating is 4 or greater and turn again to the foot of the mighty falls. Go back and begin the last paragraph again. If your Love rating is less than 4, you hear the sound of howling wolves coming up the river trail toward you.

You run up the trail that leads to the falls, deciding that continuing your mission is the lesser of two evils. All this costs you an extra hour.

Good God, but this is an impressive waste of time. Admittedly, it’s easy to pass the initial roll, but that just makes the whole thing even more pointless. The only consequence of failure is a waste of time, both in and out of the game, which affects nothing in the adventure itself. There isn’t even a random encounter with the wolves.

Moreover, you may recognize the decision to simply turn away from the castle and abandon your mission as something your character probably wouldn’t want to do, being a person who dedicated themselves to being God’s warrior, something that no player would actually choose to do and something no GM would want happening on the game. In other words, including this possibility is completely and utterly pointless and actively detrimental to the game. The adventure even knows it and provides you with means to get the character back on track with wolves.

In other words, the game goes out of its way to create a situation where railroading becomes necessary to continue the adventure as planned, which is about as backwards as you can get in a TRPG.

Speaking of railroading, it’s not the only instance. Despite the CYOA format, the adventure actually has even less interactivity than CYOA. There aren’t any branches to follow, just straight narration sometimes interrupted by a request to make a roll. Which usually gives you some additional flavor info, like hearing voices coming from a corridor, but not really affecting the plot. There are some bad ends as well, but they, too, are decided with a single action, and you’re supposed to immediately go back.

Anyway, the adventure. You finally reach the damn castle, sneak past a troll guard (no option for fighting), use a rune to open the door (no option for failure, either, since you basically can go between your hiding place and the door over and over again until you get the rune right), then go to a dark staircase. There is a corridor leading to it that you’re supposed to follow. If you don’t and instead climb the stairs, you’re rerouted back:

You continue up the stairs . . . 48, 49, 50 . . . a doorway to the left. Suddenly, you hear heavy footsteps coming down the steps toward you{not too far away, either. The doorway at step 50 is lled with cobwebs. It gives you the creeps, so you decide to dash quietly down the stairs and go up the corridor at step 45.

Yes, because PCs are known for being creeped out by cobwebs and steps.

Anyway, the corridor leads to your target, but before that a servant girl emerges from the room.

You invoke the Proclamation Protection WordRune and a dark shadow hides you. You can see clearly, but the servant girl emerging from the doorway looks directly at you without seeing you. What power the OverLord has for the protection of His servants!

The young girl is a low-caste dragon slave. She is dressed quite shabbily in a tattered gown. She is obviously exhausted and as she disappears down the hall you hear her crying softly.

The details of the dream come vividly to your mind. This is it! This is where you will find the woman to whom you have been sent!

And to hell with the servant girl. Note the lack of any reaction to her. The narration notes that she’s obviously unhappy working here, probably abused, but it’s all forgotten in the excitement of reaching your goal of converting the woman who actually seems to be content with her lot in life. Hope the servant girl takes her place when she departs and become a fearless dragon enforcer, hunting down Light Raiders all over the land.

Anyway, you look into the room with the eating woman and use that miraculous looking glass to see how she would look after conversion because that’s important for some reason.

I mean, what, are we in Calvinist land? Are you supposed to check with this thing if Overlord wants a given person saved or not? Thought you’re supposed to make an offer to everyone.

Anyway, you enter the room, scaring the woman. To your (or, well, the game’s) credit, you at least try to appear less threatening, holding your hand well away from the sword and trying to calm down the woman, though you pick a rather creepy way of doing so:

“Don’t be afraid; I am not here to hurt you. I have a gift for you.”

Yeah, because that’s so reassuring coming from an armed stranger barging into your room.

Your efforts are moot, however, because Overlord picks this exact moment to set you on fire:

Suddenly you, too, are surprised. A glow is beginning to emanate from your body.

“A LightRaider!” The woman’s voice is harsh. Fear floods back into her face.

You have heard of the bright glow that LightRaiders give o in times of service. But actually to experience the reflected glory of the OverLord firsthand is almost overwhelming.

I’m sure that’s going to make everything better.

The woman leans back in her chair, trying to get away, but can’t without getting out of her chair. “Don’t kill me! I . . . I’ve been wondering about your OverLord. I have heard stories of Him. I have had a . . . a . . . curiosity inside.”

Whether she is stalling until her servant can rescue her or whether she is being genuine, you do not know.

…What? She’s begging for you to spare her, she stumbles over her words, she tries to get as far away from you as possible… I guess there is a reason why this game doesn’t have Intellect as an attribute because even the lowest score would allow you to understand that she’s utterly terrified and is going to say whatever would keep your combustion powers away from her.

But, genuine consent or no, it’s good enough reason for you to recite a rune at her that apparently frees her from gluttony.

You can see her desire for food leave immediately. She stares around her, and with sudden revulsion, she pushes herself away from the low table. She smiles at you with gratitude. Then she waits quietly, wondering what is happening.

She reacts with much less confusion and fear than I’d expect. Her gluttony is supposed to be a curse, yes, but one she lived with for a long time. Wouldn’t sudden change in her psyche provoke a more dramatic reaction? I would expect shock at the very least.

Seems like Word Runes are not as far from the dragon’s mind speech as Overlord would like you to believe, and are possibly more potent than that.

Also:

You remember that it is said of the OverLord that He touches even lepers and cleanses them before liberating them. You remember that His love for us always preceded our love for Him. He has shown His love for this sinful dragon slave by freeing her from gluttony. The expression on her face clearly shows that she realizes her new freedom. But she is still a slave to the dragons.

Nice smug you have going here. Her gluttony is supposed to be an enchantment, but apparently it’s also her sin for falling for it despite the process being automatic. I don’t know, with the character strengths being revealed as actually being active, maybe the idea that “enchantments” must be accepted willingly, and the failed roll implies that your character did exactly that… The more I read it, the more clear it becomes that mixing mind control with morality tale is mostly just confusing.

So, anyway, then you recite another rune that frees her from “dragon bondage” (don’t Google it, kids), and she immediately accepts Overlord as her Lord and Over.

…Wait, what?

If you said the WordRune correctly, the obese woman replies, “He is Lord and I believe the story of His Great Rescue!”

No, no, I read this part correctly the first time. But… Well, first of all, aren’t you supposed to recite the five steps fantastic invitation in order to convert someone? And also, isn’t it supposed to be an actual conversion, with people accepting or rejecting it depending on their own feelings and reasoning? I clearly remember the Light Raider Handbook mentioning that you shouldn’t expect miracles on that front.

I mean, alright, so the rune you recited is supposed to free the target from the effects of the mind speech, which is all well and good, but would accepting Overlord really be her first impulse?

We joked about OverChrist being a mind-controlling demon, but the portrayal of his work here really lends credence to this theory.

Anyway, with the woman now under your Lord’s control, you make your escape, avoiding the servant girl and getting into a battle with an orc on the way (the woman doesn’t participate, of course). The battle is actually rather tedious to read, and it’s clear that one-on-one battles would be a chore to play as well, given the lack of tactical options.

After that, you’re in the clear. You leave the castle and hide for several days in a cave, waiting for dragon raids to be over.

You discover that the woman’s name is Natha, and she tells you many interesting things about her life as a dragon slave.

Well, at least she has a name now, though I would note that her stories are not included here. We never find out what she did for the dragons, we never find out when and how she fell under their enchantment (was it as a kid?), we never find out whether she actually was curious about Overlord or if it were fear driving her back in the castle (I mean, it was obviously the latter, but the game insists it’s not clear), nothing.

It doesn’t matter, though. Her tales take only the first day of hiding, judging by the narration.

Between times of watching the search or resting, you and Natha talk about the OverLord of Many Names. She has much to learn, and you are her first teacher.

After the search for her dies down, you take her to the Liberated Land where she will live the rest of her life in service to Overlord.

And that is the end of the adventure.

Well, this post is long enough already, so I’m finishing for now. We’re off to a great start, as you can see. Tune in next time to learn how the AM is supposed to teach the players spiritual lessons, whether they like it or not.