Xorvintaal Moves

[Gralamin]

I was thinking of starting a campaign to do with Xorvintaal (The Great Game), and I was trying to think of more Techniques for encounters (like the Claw Test and Castling).
So I am coming here for brain storming. This is an incredibly complex game, and strange techniques with strange rulings can fit in.

I have so far thought of one more move:
Exarch Gambit - Occasionally, a Dragon of the Great Game may convert his Horde into equipment for a group of Exarchs. This risky maneuver is worth big points, and is usually kept in reserve as a desperate move. The Exarchs are then sent to acquire another dragon's horde. If the Exarchs succeed, the Dragon has made a profit - He has powerful minions and an enemy horde.
This has two huge risks however. The Exarchs could turn on the Xorvintaal Dragon and kill them. The other possibility is worse: They could die attempting to take a horde, leaving the Dragon with nothing, and having to start the Great game from the start.

[Fax Celestis]

Undying A dragon can take the round's trump by assuming dracolichdom during a full moon. His exarchs must collect the proper ingredients. If he fails in his attempt--as in, is unable to collect the ingredients, not fails at the transformation process--he foregos his right to the next three tricks, and also owes a boon to three of his opponents in the Great Game.

[Foeofthelance]

Undying A dragon can take the round's trump by assuming dracolichdom during a full moon. His exarchs must collect the proper ingredients. If he fails in his attempt, he foregos his right to the next three tricks, and also owes a boon to three of his opponents in the Great Game.

Fails or is thwarted? I would think that a dragon that fails to become a Dracolich is going to outright die. Drinks the vial of poison then croaks, but whoops! No Un-afterlife. Or is being awake at one in the morning speaking for me?

[Fax Celestis]

Fails or is thwarted? I would think that a dragon that fails to become a Dracolich is going to outright die. Drinks the vial of poison then croaks, but whoops! No Un-afterlife. Or is being awake at one in the morning speaking for me?

I meant "thwarted".

[Jack Mann]

Don't get too specific about consequences, or even what the moves actually are. The players just know that they have to do such-and-such for this move, or else stop a move by doing this and that. They know they're part of a Wingover Maneuver, but they should have absolutely no idea what that means, except that for some reason, they're traveling near a rival dragon's lair and drawing his attention. Just figure out what you want the players to do and come up with a name for it.

In other words, start with the adventure you want them going through first. Then come up with a name that might could fit what they're doing (an Ironscale Defense when they're guarding some location that is important for this turn) or maybe something that fails to even hint at what they're doing (Sweetfire Barreling means, for some reason, that they're knee-deep in kobolds in their own dragon's territory, dealing only subdual damage while singing the Karnaathi National Anthem).

Don't let them know why they need to do these things. That would take years to let them know. Just let them know that doing this helps their dragon and hurts its rivals. Oh, their dragon my try to tell them. But it should end up a morass of jargon impenetrable to their best efforts to understand. It would take them fifty years to understand the most basic Xorvintaal strategies. Do they have time right now? No, they have to get out there and collect six more griffon eggs before the full moon.

Be inscrutable. Don't try to explain things. The adventurers were not put into this world to "get it."

[BardicDuelist]

I completly agree with Jack Mann.

Actually I don't think players should know that the game exists or what an exarch is until mid-levels at least. All they realize is that they keep getting tips about where (insert adventure goal), and that they are opposed by (insert enemy). They shouldn't even realize that this has anything at all to do with dragons. Eventually they will get that there is some general scheme here (since the enemy keeps reaccuring, and they keep getting fed adventure seeds) and only if they are sucessful at these things would a dragon make them an exarch.

[nerulean]

Sweetfire Barreling means, for some reason, that they're knee-deep in kobolds in their own dragon's territory, dealing only subdual damage while singing the Karnaathi National Anthem.

I kind of adore you right now.

Anywoot, yes, obscurity is the name of the game. If the players even know they're pieces in the dragons' game, rather than just taking random orders from a dragon, don't ever explain anything to them. In all honesty, I think WotC made a mistake in detailing any moves at all in the entry, they should have left it vague.

I'd suggest having a list of random names, and a list of vague tactics that would score points (perhaps tactics similar to those in a build-and-conquer empire style computer game). Match things from the two lists entirely at random and don't ever make a note of which of the two match up; in fact, it's probably better if you use the same name to apply to two or three different things, and if the players ask (in character, of course -- if they ask out of character, just look smug and tell them it's meant to be confusing) tell them that they were involved in a different part of the manoeuvre last time it was pulled off, or that there are different circumstances this time that require it to be executed completely differently.

Use names like goldshine, wolfstrike, reaping, a three-way diagonal oversight. Introduce completely random and unfixed elements to the game board, like the Hinten's loop and Sampson's boundary, and drop serious comments like, "Ah, since the Redgrave incident of '82, it's generally been considered unwise to attempt a multiple hammerblow offensive below the rotary during a new moon." Have you ever played Mornington Crescent?

As far as the tactics go, they can be whatever is convenient to your campaign at the time. Things like taking land, strategic points or important structures are always obvious ones. Perhaps designing, obtaining the parts for and constructing a powerful magic item for the dragon's hoard would be a worthwhile endeavour, or even making said magic item and then using it against another dragon. Instigating a war between two human territories, or ending a war that another dragon started could also score. Essentially, anything a normal adventuring group could be sent to do, they can be sent to do it by their dragon, working against another dragon to score advantage or points.

[Swooper]

Reading this thread has made me want to use Xorvintaal in my next campaign... You guys are awesome.

[Gralamin]

Thanks. I can see where some of you who want it vague come from. The entire Idea of making any moves what so ever is to make possible plot points. I see however that your way of doing it also works, perhaps better.

I shall think on this.

[Bassetking]

I kind of adore you right now.

Anywoot, yes, obscurity is the name of the game. If the players even know they're pieces in the dragons' game, rather than just taking random orders from a dragon, don't ever explain anything to them. In all honesty, I think WotC made a mistake in detailing any moves at all in the entry, they should have left it vague.

I'd suggest having a list of random names, and a list of vague tactics that would score points (perhaps tactics similar to those in a build-and-conquer empire style computer game). Match things from the two lists entirely at random and don't ever make a note of which of the two match up; in fact, it's probably better if you use the same name to apply to two or three different things, and if the players ask (in character, of course -- if they ask out of character, just look smug and tell them it's meant to be confusing) tell them that they were involved in a different part of the manoeuvre last time it was pulled off, or that there are different circumstances this time that require it to be executed completely differently.

Use names like goldshine, wolfstrike, reaping, a three-way diagonal oversight. Introduce completely random and unfixed elements to the game board, like the Hinten's loop and Sampson's boundary, and drop serious comments like, "Ah, since the Redgrave incident of '82, it's generally been considered unwise to attempt a multiple hammerblow offensive below the rotary during a new moon." Have you ever played Mornington Crescent?

As far as the tactics go, they can be whatever is convenient to your campaign at the time. Things like taking land, strategic points or important structures are always obvious ones. Perhaps designing, obtaining the parts for and constructing a powerful magic item for the dragon's hoard would be a worthwhile endeavour, or even making said magic item and then using it against another dragon. Instigating a war between two human territories, or ending a war that another dragon started could also score. Essentially, anything a normal adventuring group could be sent to do, they can be sent to do it by their dragon, working against another dragon to score advantage or points.

*Moves to Knightsbridge, placing Nerulean in an upper Knid lock, and placing both Jack Mann and Fax in a double Spoon. Exchange rates for yellow tokens have tripled, and there is a double bonus for access on the northern line.*

[Fax Celestis]

*Moves to Knightsbridge, placing Nerulean in an upper Knid lock, and placing both Jack Mann and Fax in a double Spoon. Exchange rates for yellow tokens have tripled, and there is a double bonus for access on the northern line.*

*forfeits*

[Vortling]

Another point for those DMs who want to keep the game vague/secret is that players with bardic knowledge or lore ability may be able to find out about the game if hints such as move names are given out. Yes as the DM you control what the roll reveals, but what are you going to do when your bard nat. 20s the roll when they know the name of the move?

[nerulean]

Another point for those DMs who want to keep the game vague/secret is that players with bardic knowledge or lore ability may be able to find out about the game if hints such as move names are given out. Yes as the DM you control what the roll reveals, but what are you going to do when your bard nat. 20s the roll when they know the name of the move?

Make something up on the fly. If the name of the move is the Piethrower, then tell that bard that the move is to launch an assault in one direction while several eggbeater commandos begin a surgical strike up the heffigdale flank. The check means he knows a little snippet of information; it doesn't mean he understands it. He's still only human (or elfin, or dwarfish, or whatever), he doesn't suddenly gain insight and miraculous understanding of what the silver great wyrm has been working on for centuries.

And curse you, Bassetking! But I can still get to Grove Park from here, leaving the way free for Jack Mann to break through the spoon if he gets lucky on a Harringdale gambit.

[Jack Mann]

Another point for those DMs who want to keep the game vague/secret is that players with bardic knowledge or lore ability may be able to find out about the game if hints such as move names are given out. Yes as the DM you control what the roll reveals, but what are you going to do when your bard nat. 20s the roll when they know the name of the move?

Just as a point of order, a natural 20 doesn't auto-succeed on bardic knowledge, anymore than it does with knowledge checks.

Certainly, though, if the bard rolls high enough, he should know something about the maneuver and the game. For example, he knows that Quizlackinus (known as the Great Blue Wheedler) used this maneuver in 1345, which allowed him to score points again Vertilori (known as the Great Silver Hope). He might know that it involved exarchs doing something similar to what he's doing now, and that this is dangerous because it opens up the dragon to counter-twitching by his enemies. No one knows what all of this means, exactly, but it sure seems important.