# Forum > Gaming > Roleplaying Games >  Spire: The City Must Fall (thoughts and ideas - noob GM)

## fof3

This is a sort of ideas share and feedback - with maybe some campaign specific reflection.

I haven't run a table top game in 27 years, running a short couple of sessions of Spire.  I had previously played a one-shot which was run by one of my current group of players, but the rest of the group are new to the game and they style of the game.

For starters, I let the players decide on what they wanted to play, but I selected down the available classes to a short-list.  I did this because
1 - it makes it easier for new players to choose from a more limited option and they have less to read up on
2 - it allows me to frame the type of game I will be running.  
Going for a Red Row/Derelictus based campaign I didn't want Icons and Masks; I did want them to have at least one of Vermissian Sage or Midwife and then offered up Bound, Firebrand, Knight, Carrion Priest.  The party eschewed Sage and Bound.

To help set up the style of game I very quickly allocated jobs to my players, e.g.
Whenever it comes to describing a fight scene or coming up with names of pubs (and what they're like) the Knight's player is in charge.
Drow customs and everyday life is the Midwife's job (e.g. they named the local paper).
Anything religion based is the Carrion Priest's job.

We are playing online roll20/discord.  In other games we've played online I have noticed that as you lack the social cues it's harder to get people talking as everyone is too worried about talking over each other.  To avoid the game being 50+% my monologue I have tried to give the players "homework" for most games, which they then get to relate to the rest of the group - eg:
Two games ago they all had some narration to deliver leading into the ambush they had set up.
Last game I gave them an outline of what their character's downtime would include, but they had to flesh it out and give us an insight into their PC's life and narrate it to us.

Both of these worked well, I especially liked that it took a lot of the work off me and meant that I didn't need to write pages of A4 downtime for players to not mention to each other and keep secret.

Next time there is a downtime I will pick something I want them to be sure to include in their description and then give them a choice of 4 rumours that they will have heard and give them one for them to make up - so letting them invent possible story hooks they might one to investigate.

I also think I will try a variant on the "beats" idea from heart, so let them tell me a coupole things they would like me to work into the next game.

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## KineticDiplomat

Tip 1) I have no idea what most of what you just said means. Which means any new player at your table probably doesn't either. You may want to make sure you don't let your own knowledge of the setting and systems outrun your table to an extent that you and your new players have expectation disconnects.

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## fof3

Funny, I have asked the player show the setting works on more than one occasion.

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## not_a_fish

I've been curious about this game, but not enough to buy it (so I also don't know what all those classes and/or factions mentioned are)

What's the pace of this game like? It sounds like it's got some intrigue baked in, but does it play out in dialogue, combat, or some other way?

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## AceOfFools

Spire plays a lot like its a Blades game. It has a similar mechanic where you have success, success with stress, failure core mechanic, where eventually things will Go Wrong, and there will be consequences for characters. It doesnt have the explicit mission/flashback mechanism of Blades, and its Playbooks feel a lot more like a PBTA gamethe way you recover stress is an intrinsic part of the class for example.

It was pretty interesting from a player power perspective. By far my favorite moment was when the GM said, Okay, youre now trapped in the eldritch-nightmare realm with the beaten, bloody unconscious body of the noble you were supposed to kidnap. What do you do? and I activated the Knight ability Pub Crawler (Once per session you can name a nearby bar where the proprietor knows you) to escape the eldritch nightmare dimension with the power of alcoholism.

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## fof3

It's a fair cop that not everyone will have heard of Spire.
So, here's the background in Spoilers.  This is what I shared with the players.  
* In the run up to the game I sent these out every 5 day or so - to give them time between and not overwhelm them. 
* I set them all a related task/question for every chunk of background, so that they had something to work with and interact with.  This was in part to push the idea that they are as much in charge of shaping the world as I am.
YMMV on the setting, as by design you are encouraged to change thing and some things are left vague enough to vary by table.

*SUBVERT, DONT DESTROY. THIS IS NOT A KIND WORLD. YOU ARE BRAVE. YOU ARE GOING TO HURT PEOPLE. THIS IS GOING TO KILL YOU. THERES ALWAYS ANOTHER LEVEL. YOUR OWN FAMILY WOULD SELL YOU OUT. THE MINISTRY WOULD SELL YOU OUT.
*

*Spoiler: The Ministry*
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You have joined the Ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, a paramilitary cult that worships a forbidden goddess, and sworn in blood to avenge the wrongs placed upon you and your people. You have made an oath to fight the Aelfir, to subvert and capture their resources, and to take Spire back into Drow hands once more. It is a cruel and thankless task, and your family would most likely report you to the city guard if they found out what you did at night. But it is a task you have sworn to perform, and you will kill for it. You will die for it, too.
The Drow worship the moon, goddess Damnou. The facets that make up her entirety are: 
Limyé, the light, Our Glorious Lady (the only aspect allowed in Spire); Her virtues are Tenacity and Community.
Lombre, the dark, Our Hidden Mistress, worshipped by the Ministry; Her virtues are Grace and Vigilance. 
Lekolé, the shadow, or blood-moon. Our Lady of Vengeance, her worshippers are the Crimson Vigil  another resistance cult but a dangerous and psychotic one. Her virtues are Sagacity and Fury.
These three deities encompass what are commonly known as the six dark elf virtues
Drow are the defeated population of Spire.  They are the lower class, serfs, and all must spend 4 years working out a durance to the Aelfir.
When you joined the Ministry, as part of your initiation you underwent a trial set by your Magister (cell leader  because, yes, you work in secret cells).  The trial is linked to one of the six dark elf virtues._
Why was this one chosen for you?  Was it because you needed to develop that virtue, or because it is your strength?  What did it cost you?  What did you learn about your Magister during the trial?_
Examples from the book: 
THE RITE OF VIGILANCE: The initiate will be instructed to meet a magister  never their own  deep in the crushing din of the Works. Here they will be administered a draught that will knock them unconscious and told, once they awaken, to track down the magister before the next sunrise. The sheer volume of people moving through the Works is enough to throw off most tracking attempts, and deft magisters will spread false information around to keep initiates off their balance. 
_What mistake did the magister make that helped you track them? 
_THE RITE OF COMMUNITY: The initiate is told to approach a group of Drow with which they share a bitter enmity and to help them selflessly for a full lunar month. This can be in any form the initiate desires, so long as there is visible evidence of the assistance  while some approach openly and beg for forgiveness, others operate as shadowy benefactors who hunt down and punish wrongdoers or donate money and resources to their once-enemies. 
_Who did you help?
_


*Spoiler: Races in Spire*
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Races in Spire:
*The Drow*
The Drow live in underground cities and covered towns to the west, for thanks to the ancient curse that span them apart from Aelfir, they are burned by sunlight. Their skin (dark black, ashen grey or alabaster white) blisters and weeps when exposed to the sun. 
Rather than bearing a foetus until it is fully developed as most mammals do, Drow produce two or three small, fleshy eggs that must be carefully tended to and nurtured over six months until the baby within is grown enough to survive outside. The job of nurturing the unborn falls to the parents and a caste of spider-blooded Drow known as Midwives, who hold moderate political sway within Spire. 
Drow form an underclass in the city, subjugated by the Aelfir, and work in a variety of menial roles  either for a pittance, or unpaid as part of their durance. 
Taking Malak, a mild depressant, after work or before sleep is commonplace among the Drow, but the Aelfir have made it illegal. 
The traditional Drow diet consists mainly of fungi, algae and insects.
A customary drow greeting is to ask after the health of a persons family (or fanmi, in the patois) before you ask after their own.
Drow names are typically Cajun/Haitian Patois sounding, think French but pronounced English, e.g. Patrice De Vire.
*The Aelfir
*The Aelfir have magic running through their veins. They are creatures of blazing and beautiful colour whose feet barely touch the ground when they walk and whose perfect hair flows as if caught in a gentle wind. Most of them live their lives in walled districts of perverse and audacious luxury, they are rarely seen in the rest of Spire and rule from afar.
The Aelfir are dazzling in colour and beauty.
The Aelfir are Hyperboreans.
The Aelfir are rare, powerful, cruel.
The Aelfir are like Dragons  the eldest are most powerful, the youngest less so.
Aelfir names are like a poets interpretation of native American names in movies.  E.g. Crimson-Clouds-the-Sunrise or Song-Heralds-Glory.
*Humans: 
*Humans die young  at the age of sixty, or so, compared with the Drow who stay vital until around their hundredth birthday and then quickly turn to dust, and the Aelfir who extend their lives with sacred rituals and dark surgeries well into their second century. 
Humans discovered the ancient arcologies of those who came before and they broke them down and retro-engineered the technology into their own inventions. As a result, humans invented the gun, and things have never really been the same since. They form the bulk of the aelfir mercenary armies, and can commonly be found in Spire.
Human names vary, but tend to be simple such as Smith, Claire or Oberon.
*Gnolls*:
Dangerous mad demon summoning creatures that the Aelfir wage war with and are not found in Spire._
Do Gnolls speak a language we can understand?  Could we pronounce their names?  Do they have names?

Name your character.  Name 5 non-Ministry Drow they know (parents, neighbours, friends) and how they know them (youre not tied to anything here, but its impolite to forget your mothers name). _


*Spoiler: The Spire  a megalithic tower block in a desert waste*
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New Heaven	Where the Hyena Priests live and the dead are buried (fed to scavengers and left to rot).
Amaranth	        Where the Aelfir live  Luxury and ice.
Solar Basilica	Sky Docks and Church of the Aelfir
Silver Quarter	Entertainment and gambling; where the rich Drow and the hip young Aelfir live and/or play.
Ivory Row	An aged trading quarter that is a remnant of lost glory
Perch	        Slums tied to the side of the building.  Everything needs rope. Where the Bound come from.
Hanging Gardens	Growing the food for the Aelfir (and rich/traitorous Drow): Fruit, grain, cattle.
Algae Farms	Growing the food for the Drow: algae, mushrooms, crustaceans, insects, grubs
Works	        Industry, printing presses, smoke condenses into explosive powder.  You may live here.
Vermission	An incomplete(able) public transport system made out of non-euclidean geometry and the fabric outside of space-time that Drow were not meant to comprehend.  ph'nglui mglw'nafh wgah'nagl fhtagn
Blue Docks	Blue Market; Main Gates; North Docks; Commerce.  You may live here.
Red Row	        Criminal district. You may live here.
Derelictus	        Slums, cannibals.  You may live here.
Heart	        The untapped Chaos that lies at the base of Spire.
_
A lot of the game setting of Spire is fluid - I have ideas, but your ideas may trump my ideas.  E.g. Are there controls between levels of Spire where the Drow police collaborating with the Aelfir carry out identity checks?  Do all Drow have to carry papers on them at all times?  There are guns in the world of Spire, but it's mostly a fantasy type game, so are there cars? underground blind horses? magically automated carts? giant insects that are used as beasts of burden? ..._

 

*Spoiler: The Classes*
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These are just the ones I offered to my players
Bound: You are an acrobatic vigilante, accustomed to dealing quick and decisive judgement to criminals. You worship the small gods in your armour, your ropes, your weapons, and they take care of you.
Play if you want to hunt villains, to sneak and steal, to fight against authority, to take the law into their own hands, to be a hero of the people
Firebrand: You are a revolutionary, a rabble-rouser, a dangerous criminal in the eyes of the authorities, who hangs out in the lawless undercities of Red Row and Derelictus. As you gain power, the people of the city begin to worship you, and you can bestow blessings on them by focusing their belief through your actions.
Play if you want to lead a revolution, to incite action, to be charismatic, to fight authority, to be roguish and try their hand at anything
Carrion-Priest: Part of the followers of Charnel  a heretical sect of death worshippers who live atop Spire in the towers and oubliettes of New Heaven  you believe that the bodies of the dead should be eaten by sacred hyenas to ensure the safe passage of their souls to the afterlife
Play if you want to get involved with death and corpses, to be the underdog, to be wild, to intimidate people, to fight and kill
Knight: You are a member of an ancient order of knights who were given the right to police the northern river docks of Spire. Over the centuries, your order has splintered and become ever more corrupt, and now you are little more than heavily-armoured gangsters with a penchant for organised fighting tournaments.
Play if you want to get in trouble, to be a have-a-go-hero, to drink, to pretend they still have some kind of honour
Midwife: You are one of a line of ancient scholars and defenders of the Drow, blessed with an arachnid bloodline that you have been taught to augment via sorcery and meditation. In addition to this, you are responsible for the future of your race: you take care of unborn Drow while they gestate in their egg-sacs, watching over them and keeping them safe from harm.
Play if you want to defend the defenceless, to be an authority on Drow culture and philosophy, to explore occult mysteries, to scare people
Vermissian Sage: The Vermissian is a grand failure  an attempt at a mass transport network in Spire by over-funded human retroengineers  that buckled the walls between worlds and fell into ruin. Now, in the maze-like tunnels and dead-end corridors, a sect of Drow historians is attempting to use the non-Euclidian space to store information and relics of their home nations. You are one such Drow  a sage of the Vermissian Vault.
Play if you want to uncover hidden mysteries, to explore the occult, to apply their knowledge and research solutions to problems_
Share with the group your preferred option(s) as to what to play.
Feel free to put a slant on the class  are you a scientist or occultist Vermissian Sage?  Do you have conflict with other factions of your organisation?  Is your Knight born into the position like a nobleman, or are they some street thug who has joined up for the Keg Bashes? Etc._ 

 
*Spoiler: Durance & The Law*
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Durance:
Drow are not slaves in Spire, but they are indentured servants, subjects of Jim Crow laws or serfs.  All Drow need to serve the Aelfir for four years once they come of age; this need not be linked to the Drows skills  a Sage may work as butler or chef, a knight might work as a personal assistant  This is the last rules-based decision for your character, durance provide skills and/or stress buffers.  _Consider how this could flesh out your character, possibly providing a new dimension._

The Law:
Law is not enforced by the Aelfir, they have Drow collaborateurs to do that.  Laws are many and mostly reserved for when police need to flex their muscle.  A number of everyday actions are criminalised (inappropriate glances), and the use of the traditional Drow drug  malak is a serious crime.
The Jamaican Drow:
In the rulebooks the Drow are portrayed as having Franco-Caribbean names, speaking patois and they regularly partake of a mild depressant malak.  I dont intend to play up the patois and I consider malak to be not marijuana but some sort of mushroom tea.
 



*Spoiler: The System*
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Roll d10s.  Min 1, add 1 if you have a skill, another if you have a domain, another if you have mastery.  Keep best dice roll.
1 = Crit Fail (double stress); 2-5 Fail (stress); 6-7 Success at cost (stress); 8-9 Success; 10 Crit Success
You have the following types of stress: Blood (HP), Mind (San), Silver (Money), Shadow (Secrecy), Reputation.  Some characters will have armour to different types of stress.  
When you accumulate stress I roll for fallout which means something bad happens to you (you break your leg, your informant grasses you out, etc).  If you have less stress the chances of fallout are lower and the effects are less severe.

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