THE COVEN A game of bargains. # Getting Started ## Inspirations Puella Magi Madoka Magica Welcome to Night Vale Any number of witchcraft movies. ## You Will Need * 2+ people, including you. One of you will take on the role of the Others -- a supernatural force incompatible with humanity -- and each of the rest will play a single practitioner, a member of the coven of a small town. * Pens or pencils for everyone. * Scratch paper. * Card cut into squares, in two different colours. (By default, white and red.) * A deck of cards. * Some coins or counters to act as corruption markers. ## Create Characters ### The Others The player playing the Others should describe them in broad terms (the forces of Hell, Mythos gods, alien invaders, etc.) and choose a goal for them. All the Practitioners know this goal both in and out of character. If the Others ever achieve their goal they win and the game ends. **Goals** * **To Establish a Beachhead:** A gate to Hell, an alien base, etc. Something big and permanent that will let enough Others into the world that their victory is assured. * **To Corrupt People:** Replace them with shapeshifting demons, control their minds, etc. Transform everyone in town into the Others' meat puppets. * **To Destroy The Town:** Lay waste to everything, carry it off to Hell, terraform it, etc. Everything must go. ### The Practitioners Each player playing a Practitioner should answer the following questions: 1. What is your name? 2. Where do you work, if you do? 3. Do you have family in town? 4. Who are you closest to in town? 5. Why did you throw in with the Others? 6. What are you trying to achieve? (If not covered by 5.) Then take 13 cards -- two white, two red, and the others of either colour as you like -- and write on them what they represent. Each of the white cards is something you have by virtue of being human. These can be anything you like, such as: * Skills. * Memories. * Hopes and dreams. * Friends, family members, other people you know. * Possessions. * Body parts or organs. * Abstract qualities like your name, your reflection, or your voice. Anything not written on a white card is something you have either traded away for power, or something that won't be important to the story. Each of the red cards is something you gained from your connection to the Others. These can also be anything plausible, such as: * Knowledge about the supernatural. * A supernatural quality or ability. * A particular spell. * A corrupt artefact. * Contacts among the Others, or other people you know with supernatural abilities. The reverse of your white cards should be marked with something to indicate that they're yours. Red cards all belong to the Others. #### Becoming Other If you lose all of your white cards then you also lose your humanity and become Other. You retain your free will, but you now win if the Others win the game. Once lost, humanity cannot be regained. Even if you recover a white card from the Others it won't be quite the same. ## Create Your Town Write every Practitioner's name on a piece of paper. If they have a workplace, write that on the paper too and link them with a line. If they have a family, write that on the paper and link them with a line. Write the name of the person they're closest too on the paper and link them with a line. If the players have created any contacts, organisations, or places in town by writing them on their white cards, add those as well. The Others player can add one more element to the town for every player, choosing anything they think will be important or that will help them achieve their goal. Now go through and draw more lines linking things that feel like they ought to be linked. Everyone can participate in this part. If you feel like adding some more elements because they'd be a good fit, go ahead and throw those in as well. Each element should be categorised as a person, a place, or an organisation. Name your town, and you're ready to start. # The Week ## The Others Exert Their Influence At the start of each week the Others shuffle the pack of cards and deal out two for every player plus one for every red card the players have and one for every corrupted element in town. Card Drawn Effect Red Jack Add a corruption marker to any person. Red Queen Add a corruption marker to any organisation. Red King Add a corruption marker to any place. Ace (any colour) Add a corruption marker to any element. If you draw a court card and there are no elements of the right kind, you can add the marker to any element you like. You can't add more than one corruption marker to an element per week in this phase. If an element has three corruption markers at the end of this phase, it becomes corrupt. That element is now under the control of the Others, and any players with white cards tied to it must now give the Others those cards in exchange for any red cards the Others feel like handing out. If the Others don't have enough red cards to make the trades, write up some new ones. If you successfully corrupt a person, you can immediately add a corruption marker to an organisation or place they are linked to as they exert their influence. Yes, this can cause a corruption cascade. If you successfully corrupt a place, any actions the players take there that oppose your will are one step more difficult. If the Others' objective is *destruction* then instead of corrupting a place you replace it with a 'destroyed' version of the same place. You don't get the corruption bonus, but this does move you closer to your goal. If you successfully corrupt an organisation, you deal yourself an extra card every time you act in future (on top of the one you get for a corrupt element). If at the end of this phase the Others have corrupted every element in town the game ends and they win. If the Others' goal is *corruption* then they only need to corrupt every person in town to win. ### Beachhead If the Others' objective is to create a beachhead then they must corrupt a place, an organisation, and a person: the location (or locations) where the beachhead is being established, the people working on creating it, and at least one mastermind behind it all. Once those three are established, add a new element connected to each of them that represents the beachhead -- Portal to Hell, Alien Pylon, Dimensional Rift, etc. -- with no corruption markers. Add any other links that seem reasonable. The beachhead is corrupted as if it was a place, and when it reaches three corruption markers it becomes fully active. The game ends and the Others win. ## The Practitioners Act Over the course of the week every Practitioner gets to frame one scene -- choosing where it takes place, who is present, and the general slant of how it starts -- and the Others get to frame up to one fewer than the number of Practitioners. Practitioners can frame additional scenes if they like, but each extra scene offers the Others the opportunity to frame a scene of their own. Practitioners can frame scenes as conflicts (or transition a scene into a conflict if they like) but the Others cannot. To resolve a conflict, all Practitioners involved indicate which of their cards they can bring to bear to solve it and describe how it's useful. White traits are worth 1 card, and red traits are worth 2. The Others get a number of cards based on how brutal the challenge is. Challenge Cards Routine 1 + 1 per player involved Challenging 2 + 1 per player involved Ridiculous 3 + 1 per player involved Deal out the correct number of cards to all parties involved, one at a time, then deal five cards face-up in the centre of the table. Everyone makes the best possible poker hand they can from their cards -- the face-up cards are available to everyone, Texas Hold'Em style. The winner of the hand gets their way in the conflict. In the case of ties, deal out single cards for each tied player: high card wins. Further ties result in further rounds of high-card-wins. Every Practitioner gets one conflict scene per week. Once it's done, they can't frame any more scenes. The only exception is if another player frames a conflict against them -- they are allowed to defend themselves. ### Conflicts When you're framing a conflict scene or it becomes apparent that a regular scene is turning into a conflict, make the stakes explicit. Stakes can be *anything*, so long as everyone involved is okay with them and they follow naturally from what you're doing. You can't blow up the IHOP if the scene is primarily about an intense breakup. Well... maybe you *can*, with the right (wrong?) sorcery. But you get the idea. When the conflict is resolved then things happen just like you said they would. ### A Hint For The Practitioners It's totally okay to set the stakes for your conflicts as things like "If I win, the corruption vanishes from this person." This is your primary weapon against the creeping influence of the Others. ### A Hint For The Others During your scenes, you should push complications and difficulties in the Practitioners' lives. You can't force conflict -- that's not your style -- but you want them to choose between using their weekly action to solve personal problems, or to confront the corruption in town. And don't forget that the pressure of this choice makes great leverage for you to get some more red cards into play. Just because you can't make the trade until you're summoned doesn't mean you can't whisper temptation any time you feel like it... ## The Game At the end of every week (when everybody has framed all their scenes) the coven must choose whether or not to summon the Others and bargain for power. This is a simple majority vote among all players. The Others always vote Yes, but in the case of a tie the Others are not summoned. If the Others are summoned the coven must play The Game. Every Practitioner is a player, and so are the Others. 1. The Others write a red card for every player and add them to the pot. 2. The Others choose the order of play. 3. Each player must wager one white card or two red cards and add them to the pot. 4. Following the order of play, each player proposes a rule for The Game. Every rule is subject to a vote among all players: if there is a clear majority then that rule is now a rule of The Game. 4a. Rules can be specified to be permanent, in which case The Game now abides by them forever (or until changed); or temporary, in which case they apply only to this Game. 5. Following the order of play, each player (including the Others) may propose a second rule by adding another white trait (or two red traits) to the pot. These traits are wagered whether the rule is accepted or not. 6. Play the Game as established. If the Game breaks down at any point because the rules are incomplete, the Others claim everything in the pot. Once the Game has been played to conclusion, the Practitioners can trade cards and bargain among themselves. The presence of the Others allows them to trade whatever qualities they like: names, souls, limbs, sorcery, anything. There is no game here, just straight-up deal-making. Trades which take place immediately are binding, but promises of future favours are not. ### A Hint For The Practitioners A good starting rule is to propose that The Game is ajudicated by a single hand of poker or one-card slam or something, winner takes all, to avoid immediately forfeiting because whatever Game you've come up with is incomplete. Use your majority power to force it through! ### Meta-Rules Rules cannot govern what a player wagers: that choice is always free. Rules cannot bring out-of-game elements into the game without unanimous agreement. (Specifically to prevent the Practitioners from forcing through rules like 'the Others player must eat their own head or the Others lose the game'.) # Winning Every Practitioner has a personal goal -- if they achieve that they can be said to 'win' even if the town is consumed by the Others and their soul sent howling into whatever abyss awaits. But it's natural for people to want to win on a larger scale: to drive out the evil forces that threaten their home and loved ones, and make sure they can never return. To do that all they have to do is meet these criteria: 1. None of the human coven members have any red cards. 2. There are no corrupt entities in town. With that, the Others lose their foothold in town and cannot regain it. The game ends and the Practitioners win! Except coven members who lost their humanity: they are destroyed when their connection to the Others is severed. ### A Hint For The Others To avoid an early loss, give them what they want! Let them solve their problems with your power, then frame scenes that give them new problems.