I explained the rules by memory, and didn’t get them quite right. I didn’t try defining the partners beforehand. The players did not find the setting convincing; it might need a harder sell – or that might be regular non-gamer resistance to an RPG.

As seems to be the rule with open-ended games and new players, it went silly fast. I read somewhere that when playing open-ended games with new players, you should always make it silly – because they will anyway.

Narration went pretty well. I wonder if two aspect per beast would make it easier to describe the monster but still leave room for interpretation. The way we played, the aspect just has to be incorporated in the sentence – it doesn’t have to be part of the beast itself. (For example, CLIFF: ‘and then the monster rolled off the CLIFF’, BRAINLESS: ‘I cut off its head and then it was BRAINLESS’).

The coolest bit was when one girl described her warrior’s darts – each is dipped in a different poison and she doesn’t know what effect it will have until she uses it.

Doctor Who came on just before the end of the second round. By that time, the five players had already hit 49 Deadliness points. So we would have easily defended the village.

This is the range of numbers we had:
2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 9.

That means, for this game, the optimal Beauty/Deadliness pick would’ve been 5/5.

For pronunciation, that’s close. In my head, I’ve been saying az-oh-nay, tee-ree-ah, and stah-la. And yeah, I reckon I did mean “wooly” there – although the idea of a monster rampaging out of the jungle that was knitted by someone’s aunt is a pretty entertaining picture.

Have fun, and if you get the chance to play these, tell me about it!

Also, I’m not sure about other countries, but in Australia the word ‘woolen’ has the connotation of a man-made object (e.g. a woollen sweater) while ‘woolly’ is usually used for animals.

I do have a suggestion, though.

Just as the monsters are hinted at, I think the lovers should be as well. Just a word or two, ‘silver’, ‘clear-eyed’, ‘chieftain’.

I’m divided on whether to reveal the words before hand, so the warriors know what they’re fighting or, or afterwards – add some surprise.

Have you considered a Creative Commons licence for your game poems? I’d love to expand on and develop some of them. I’m sure there are more tales that can be told of the Azoné.

On that note, how do you pronounce ‘Azoné’, ‘Tyriá’ and ‘Stála’?

Az-O-nee, Tireea and Staala?