At the Games on Demand event at KapCon 2009, I got to run, for the first time, Duty & Honour in a convention environment. Out of all the games arrayed on our GoD table, this was one of the ones I really wanted people to sample. I was therefore pretty pleased when we got to play it on the Sunday.

We started off with character creation, realising that this would make for shorter play, but give a better understanding of how the game works and allow people to get a feel for it. Overall, this was a pretty smooth thing to go through. D&H, with what amounts to a life path system of character creation, is intuitive and easy to pick up. Interestingly, nobody wanted to play an officer, so we ended up with a grizzled Welsh sergeant, a religious young son-of-a-farmer private and a keen-eyed, Spanish speaking private.

Flicking through the back of the book, we decided to plump for the Royal Welsh Fusiliers as the regiment (two of the characters being Welsh, it seemed to fit) and drawing on the reputations established during the creation process, outfitted it with a motley array of officers and men, including the kindly Chaplain Davies, the priggish, distant Colonel Jones and the hard-nosed Major Brooks.

And what would be the mission for our brave men? What excitement and opportunities for glory (and possibly violent death) awaited our gallant redcoats?

In order to get into the game, I put forward the military mission. The men were to travel over the mountains to the French encampment on the other side, where two regiments were resting before the coming battle. They were to sneak into the camp and, in a bold move, kill Le Renard, The Fox, a dastardly French sniper who had killed many British officers. This bold coup would demoralise the French and increase the chances of a notable victory. Or so Major Brooks thought.

The small company was put under the command of the eager young Ensign Bartholomew. All the men, however, looked to the grizzled Sergeant Llewellyn for leadership.

We had all thrashed out what the challenges would be for the mission. There we only four, this being quite a short game. They were:

Make contact with the Spanish guerillas in the mountains
Infiltrate the French camp
Kill the sniper
Escape back to the British lines

Each player had also come up with a Mission of Personal Importance. Sergeant Llewellyn was trying to loot enough cash so that he could buy a commission. Young Tom wanted to convert some of the guerillas to Protestantism and Private Jack was solely concerned with stealing wine from the French commissary in order to impress his mates back in the camp.

Without going through the entire game, let's just say there was action and excitement, with our brave heroes just making it back to their own lines by the skin of their teeth.

What mistakes did I make during the game?

In the heat of battle, sometimes things get forgotten. One thing I did forget was that during combat, the Gm can never gain a perfect success. Gadzooks, what a fool! It was only upon re-reading the game that I remember this small but important detail. As a note, the relevant section should probably be more explicit in the text, rather than in a sidebar. That would make is easier to notice when flicking through during a game.

I also flubbed the combat rules a couple of times, adding weapon card pools to the Soldiering skill, rather than simply adding any trait bonuses to the weapon card pool. Silly me.

What could improve the game?

Greater clarity over challenges would be beneficial. One thing there was minor confusion about during the game was the completion of military mission challenges by the group. Did everyone need to be successful? Would only one person get a go at completing a particular challenge? If three characters were taking part in the same challenge and two failed, did this count as two failures against the deadline? I'm sure that many of these points are answered in the text, but they could be a little more explicit.

What was good about the game?

There was a comment at the end of the game to the effect that it was thought that the mission structuring system would constrain play. But, when play got going, the structuring system proved to be an excellent framework for exciting play.

The background and tone of the game were also highly regarded, as was the system of resolving challenges against the card of fate. Overall, there was a very high level of satisfaction with the way the game played out and an eagerness to play again under less constrained time-scales.

So, it has to be said that we spent and enjoyable three hours playing Duty & Honour. it also proved to be a learning experience for me in running the game, something that will serve me in good stead for future outings.

God save the King!

Cheers
Malc