The Game Ongoing

Stonetop is built for long-term play. You can get a satisfying experience in as few as 3-5 sessions, but it's best when you and your group commit to an ongoing game.

In this chapter, we'll discuss:

• Managing the game across sessions
• How the game itself changes over time
• Issues you might encounter on the way
• Bringing your game to a satisfying end This chapter contains no rules, no new mechanics (save one). It's a collection of advice, tools, and practices to help you and your friends get the most out of your game.

Ending a session

Do the move

Make time for the End of Session move (at right) each time you play. Start to wrap up the action 30 minutes before folks need to leave, and give yourselves at least 15 minutes to do the End of Session move.

Set a timer. It's important.

Take notes! Not just the wishes, but all of it: the times where each PC engaged with their instinct, the changes to relationships, what the group learned and accomplished, and what each player praised. These notes are invaluable between sessions, as you reflect and try to recall what happened.

The last two steps of the move—praise and wishes—are the most important. They allow you to calibrate the game and create space for everyone to give feedback.

If the move reveals a larger issue—like a conflict between players or dissatisfaction with the game—then do a check-in. If it involves the whole group and you've all got time and space, then do it now.

If that's not practical, or just one or two players are involved, then take it as a follow-up to discuss the issue later.

Handle logistics

Schedule the next session if you can. If not, pick a tentative date or two and make plans to confirm. Games die more often from scheduling neglect than from lack of interest.

Identify follow-up tasks. Who needs to do what between now and next time? Assign responsibilities and when they need to be done by. For example:

• All: Confirm availability (tomorrow)
• Hobbes: Pick date for next session, send invites (following day)
• Jamie: Level Up (by next session)
• Jeremy: Make a Plan for Vahid's gizmo (by next session)
• All: Post goals for winter (by Friday)

Ask one of your players to track these tasks and follow up, ensuring that they get done.

You've got enough to juggle. Let someone else do the badgering.

Finally, help the host clean up. It's basic courtesy, and shows respect for the space and the people you're sharing it with.

Take notes

What happened this session that you don't want to forget? What are your next steps?

Write that stuff down. Now. While it's still fresh in your mind.

You don't need to write a full session recap right now (it's late, you're probably tired).

But try to capture:

• Your personal follow-up tasks ("Make a Plan for Vahid's gizmo," or "Talk to Bob about kibitzing")
• NPCs you introduced and their key details ("Stamat: sadistic mercenary; flamboyant; scarred, dead eye")
• Important decisions you made on the fly, especially those not yet revealed in play ("Callum is dead" or "Nanzl knows Brynmor is lying")
• Consequential events that you want to make relevant in future sessions ("Nanzl got a lock of Kios's hair," or "Sawyl is pissed at Nolwen").
• What you had in mind when you dropped a hint or introduced some provocative detail ("Silver goo is sign of the corrupted hagr," or "Una's fiery gem = heart of the Mighty Servant")
• Decisions you know you need to make ("What is in Piotr's cellar?")
• Prep you know you'll want to do ("Draw a map of the barrow")

Between sessions

Use the time between sessions to tend to the game: to reflect, take notes, prep, and make plans.

Reflection

Remember: GMing is a practice. You get better at it by doing it, and by trying to do better next time.

Spend time after each session reflecting on the previous one. Ask yourself:

• What goals had you set for yourself? Did you meet them? If not, why not?
• What went well? What are you proud of? What did your players praise?
• What did your players wish for? How can you make those wishes come true?
• Where did the game falter or drag? Where did you feel uncertain? What would you do differently, in retrospect?
• Did you pursue your agenda? Did you follow your principles? If not, how was the game impacted? What would it have looked like if you had?

You might do this formally, sitting down and taking notes. Or maybe you just think about it while you commute or do chores.

However you go about it, reflect on the session. Don't beat yourself up, but be honest. Consider what worked and what didn't.

Think about why, and about how you can do better.

Write down 1-3 goals for the next session.

As you prep, keep these goals in mind.

During the session, put them somewhere you can see them. Try to meet them.

Session recap(s)

Every session should get a written recap, an official history of what happened. Few people can recall the events of a session a few days later, much less after weeks or months. So make sure the key moments of each session get written down.

If one of your players takes session notes, then ask them to post those notes somewhere public. Review them before you start prepping for the next session, and make corrections or additions as needed.

You might find it helpful (or necessary) to make a session recap yourself. Maybe your players don't take notes, or their notes are so detailed that the other players will never read them. Maybe they leave out stuff that you think is important.

There's no one right way to do this. Some groups like a detailed, scene-by-scene breakdown. Others prefer a bullet-point of key events, like this:

Caradoc and Vahid:

• Went to Ruined Tower • Ghost stories at the Crossroads! • Explored outer ruins, got makerglass shard and bronze plaque w/spell • Beznpol attacked; took its hide

Blodwen:

• Big public fight with Tegwen, renounces her as kin • Moves out, moves in with Seren • Tegwen is petty & mean (surprise!) • Lewela visits, tearful support Rhianna (not present, off hunting?)

Do whatever works for your table, but make sure a running record of play exists, and that it's available to all the players.

Bookkeeping

Pull out your notes, the steading playbook, your threat tracker—whatever tools you're using—and bring them up to date.

1) Update your threats, following the procedure on Threats.

2) Update your NPCs, wherever you track them. Cross off those who've died, update notes for existing ones, and add new NPCs from the previous session. See Creating NPCs for guidance.

3) Update followers. If you expect an NPC to start acting as a follower, then write them up using the steps on page

474. Then review and update any existing followers, per NPCs & Followers.

4) Update the steading playbook, to reflect changes to Fortunes, Surplus, debilities, resources, fortifications, and assets. Mark progress made towards improvements.

5) Review content guidelines and update them if needed, based on player discussions and your own needs.

If you realize that the guidelines need to change, or that your group has been deviating from them, check in with the players or make a note to do so.

6) Review any loot the PCs acquired.

Make sure it's on someone's inventory insert or otherwise accounted for. If you need to provide players handouts or write-ups, make a note to do so. If you haven't revealed what the loot is or does, consider how you will—see "Identifying artifacts" and "Identifying arcana".

7) Update your "I wonder…" list. If you've answered any of these questions, then jot the answer down and cross off the question. Have any of the questions changed, evolved, gained clarity or nuance? Update them. Have any new questions occurred to you?

Add them to the list.

Follow-ups

As the session ended, you likely found yourself with some follow-up tasks. As you reflect and take care of bookkeeping, you'll likely identify more. Review your to-do list and prioritize:

• Start with time-sensitive tasks, stuff that needs to happen before the next session (like confirming availability, proposing a big retcon, or reviewing a player's special request).
• Next, focus on tasks relevant to the upcoming session (like making a key decision about a threat, or writing up an artifact that the PCs acquired).
• For everything else, work on them only if you feel inspired to do so and you know you have time. Otherwise, keep them on your to-do list until they become timely. Don't Make a Plan now for a player whose PC will be busy for the next few sessions.

Prep

As the next session approaches, make time to sit down and prep. Think about where things left off last session. Where are the PCs and what are they up to? What do you expect to happen in the next session?

Prep for that.

If the PCs are…

• embarking on a journey, then see the What to prep section of the Expeditions chapter.
• already on a journey, review your prep. Where are the PCs? What are the next legs of travel, points of interest, and challenges? Which encounters are most likely to come up in the next session? Flesh them out if you need to.
• about to explore a site, then prep it to whatever level of detail you find useful and have time for. See Creating sites on Sites.
• exploring a site already, what are they likely to encounter next? Flesh that out if you need to.
• likely to face any dangers or make any discoveries, then prep those if you have not already. Find stuff from Book II and review those entries, or make your own. For guidance, see:

• Preparing hazards
• Monsters
• Clues
• Encounters
• Opportunities
• Artifacts
• Minor arcana
• Major arcana

• likely to interact with NPCs, review your notes on them. If you think you'll introduce new NPCs, see Creating NPCs for guidance.
• likely to gain a new follower, then find their stats in Book II or make them from scratch.
• heading home or into a stretch of downtime, then prep for a homefront session. See "What to prep" on page

544 of the Homefront chapter.

Other things you might prep

• An adventure hook to kick off a new adventure
• Custom moves to use in a specific situation.
• Love letters to use at the start of a session.
• Setup questions like those you asked at the start of the First Adventure, as a way to warm players up, establish details, tie back to prior events, or foreshadow future ones.
• Start of session moves. For example, if you have a Would-be Hero with the Destined background, prep a vision or omen for them!
• Specific scenes you'd like to play out: their purpose, descriptions, lines of NPC dialogue, GM moves, etc.
• Play aids like maps, visuals, player handouts like arcana cards, etc.
• Stuff to support player wishes and your personal goals.

Adventure hooks

If the last session ended in downtime, you might want to kick off a new adventure.

Maybe the Seasons Changed and you owe the players an opportunity or threat.

Maybe they got a 7-9 to Pull Together and choose "unforeseen cost, requirement, or challenge." Maybe the Ranger tried to Persuade Gorlas to leave that haunted ruin alone, but rolled a 4, and so old Gorlas—he ain't gonna listen.

To prep for a new adventure, follow the process laid out in the First Adventure chapter. Or, if it makes sense, prep a full-on crisis instead.

Wishes and personal goals

Look over the wishes that your players gave you at the end of the last session, or any unmet wishes from before that.

Look over the goals you wrote down as part of your reflection, or write 1-3 goals for yourself now—things you'd like to work on, do better, or just remember to do. It's fine (ideal, even) if these overlap with your players' wishes.

For each wish or goal, what would help you achieve it? Work that into your prep!

This could mean:

• Prepping a specific hook, site, danger, etc., or prepping it in a certain way
• Making a list, reminder, or cheat sheet and keeping it somewhere visible
• Writing a to-do list for the session, with scenes to frame, GM moves to make, questions to ask, etc.
• Writing a custom move to handle a specific situation
• Brainstorming possible impressions, GM moves, bits of NPC dialogue, ways to resolve player moves, etc.

During the End of Session, Vahid's wish is for a lead on completing the Mighty Servant. So between sessions, I prep a hook: a traveler selling an old scroll that describes a fiery glass "heart," powering a device in the fallen city of Tierstered.

One of my goals is to use multiple senses when describing environments. So, I write "SOUND • SMELL • FEEL" across the top of my GM playbook.

During some homefront sessions, I've struggled to engage Blodwen's instinct of Preservation ("to protect the natural world"). So, I add this to my prep:

• Play them against each other: Glennys objects to Blodwen about Rhianna's plans for palisade.

Don't over-prep!

Remember why you prep: to give yourself cool stuff to say, to speed up play, to shore up weaknesses, to hone your craft, and to give yourself permission to play hard and inflict real consequences. With that in mind, prep only:

1) What you need to prep, like stats for a monster the PCs will fight, or a love letter to a player who missed a session

2) What you can't easily improvise, like a map, a threat's impending doom, or a complex political web

3) What you want to prep, because it brings you joy, reduces stress, or helps you meet a goal or grant a player's wish Specifically, resist the urge to prep a plot or every potential path the PCs might take.

Prep what you need, what you can't improvise, and what helps you be your best. Then play to find out what happens.

Play with any group long enough, and you're bound to have issues. Players who get on each other's nerves. Mismatched expectations. Disruptive behaviors. Hurt feelings. Miscommunications. Etc.

When there's a player-level issue, talk to them about it. Don't let things fester, and for Tor's sake don't try to "fix" the issue with game mechanics or fictional "consequences" (punishments). There is no in-game solution for a player-level problem.

Stonetop includes tools to facilitate this kind of communication. Content guidelines help set expectations and boundaries. Reviewing them at the start of each session (see opposite page) keeps them top-of-mind. Calling "time out" gives you a way to course correct mid-session. And the End of Session move invites players to ask for things to change. (And if your group finds other communication or safety tools to be helpful, then by all means, use them!)

Some issues, though, are best handled with a check-in: outside of a session, one-on-one or with only the relevant players. Maybe you do this in person, right after a session, or over a drink, or on a walk, or whatever. Maybe it's a call or an online chat. Pick an approach that feels comfortable for all involved.

Encourage your players to initiate check-ins, too, with you and with each other. If they have a concern, the best thing to do is talk about it.

Check-ins

If you suspect that a player is unhappy, then let them know what you've noticed and give them space to respond. "Hey, you seemed uncomfortable during that scene with Iwan. Did we cross a line there?" See where the conversation goes.

Sometimes, it's unrelated to the game, or you misread the situation, or they just don't want to talk about it.

When a player says that they're unhappy with something about the game, listen.

Ask for clarification and specifics, but don't argue or defend yourself. Thank them, and ask them what they'd like to see change.

Can you make or facilitate that change?

If so, great—do it. If you can't, or don't want to, that's okay too. But be honest about it. Have a calm conversation about why. Look for a compromise that works.

If a player is causing trouble, then point out what they're doing. Focus on behaviors and impact, not personality. "When you keep canceling last-minute, I can't prep effectively. Or I have to prep more, in case you're not there." Say what you'd like to see change. Ask if they're able to make that change, and how they plan to do so. Try to find a solution if you can.

Sometimes, the solution is "stop playing together," or to stop playing Stonetop and play something else. That's okay—you and your players are more important than the game! But you'll never figure that out without talking to your players.

So check in with each other, often.

Starting a session

Folks arrive at a session carrying their week with them—work, kids, traffic, etc.

Give everyone a chance to settle. Chat and catch up. Let the noise of the world fade a bit before you start to play.

Have a checklist of things to do at the start of each session. Once everyone is settled, start to work through that list. This serves as a ritual. You're drawing a magic circle and stepping back into the fictional world you've made together. Each group's checklist will be different, but common items include:

Logistics

What are your plans for food and drink?

Who's taking notes? When do folks need to leave? When should you take breaks?

Etc. Set timers as needed. Be sure to save time for the End of Session move!

Recap

Remind everyone what happened last time, and where things left off. If possible, get the players to do this themselves. Ask the notetaker to give a recap, or ask players to take turns doing so. Add details and make corrections as needed, but don't nitpick.

Listen to what your players say—it's a good indicator of what's important to them!

Content guidelines

As a group, read the "Content" section on your steading playbook. If you think this session might bump against these guidelines, say so now. Ask if anyone wants to add or change something. Remind folks to call "time out" if a guideline is broken, if they need a break, or if they want to talk things over. See Getting Started for guidance.

Highlighting

Go over stuff that you want everyone to keep in mind or at least be aware of. This might include:

• PC and/or follower instincts
• Relationship changes from the end of last session
• Outstanding wishes
• Goals you're working on, that you'd like the players to help you with Customize this list to match your needs and preferences. Not every group highlights the same things.

Bookkeeping

Have players update their playbooks and inserts if needed. Like, if they've had a few days at home since the last session, have them reset HP and clear debilities. If someone Leveled Up, make sure they've updated their XP and marked a new move.

That sort of thing.

Starting moves, questions, love letters

If any PCs have moves that trigger at the start of session (like the Would-be Hero's "Destined" background), or if you've written setup questions or love letters, do them now. Let them serve as a final shift into actual play.

Opening scene(s)

Address one or more PCs. Say (or ask) where they are, who they're with, what they're up to. Describe the environment, ask some questions. Portray NPCs.

Make a soft GM move, something that propels the PC into action or conflict. Ask, "What do you do?" Play to find out what happens.

Pacing

Stonetop tends to be slower-paced than many RPGs. It has its moments of drama and intense action. But it also encourages you to dwell on the details of daily life and to spend time chewing the scenery. Finding the right pace and rhythm for your group is important.

Adventures vs. homefront

A key tension in the game is how much time to spend on adventures (expeditions and crises) vs. homefront play. The game won't always tell you when it's time to switch, and that's intentional.

Use your players' wishes from the End of Session to calibrate the pace of the game.

If the players are itching for adventure, nudge them towards letting the Seasons Change, or offer an opportunity to make progress towards some goal. If they want more downtime but the Seasons Change and a threat worsens or makes itself known, maybe telegraph a threat that they can't do anything about right now (like growing unrest in Marshedge or some fell beast spotted in the Flats).

The game mechanics will sometimes drive play in a particular, unavoidable way. If the Seasons Change and threats abound, then there's no way folks are getting a quiet winter. But maybe you can give each PC one pleasant day before the trouble starts?

If your players want to constantly work on projects or head off on multiple adventures each season, don't be afraid to pump the brakes. Remind them of their obligations, and if they ignore them, start to oppose their wishes. Tell them the consequences of rushing off on a half-baked expedition with no chance of success. Etc.

Increasing the pace

If you're not getting as much done in a session as you and your players would like, then try some of these:

Skip the familiar. If you've played out trips on the West Road before, you don't need another montage. Say, "Four days later, you see the smoke from Gordin's Delve," and move on.

Zoom out. Resist the instinct to play out every interaction or decision, every setback, every room of a site. Establish the PCs' general intentions, then gloss over the obvious, the trivial, the stuff that's just color.

Resolve a whole course of action with a single move and some description.

Frame scenes aggressively. Start late, end early. Have a purpose for every scene you frame—a question to answer, a conflict to resolve, something to convey, etc.—and cut away as soon as that purpose is met. Use love letters to set up strong opening scenes.

Push towards resolution. Resist the urge to complicate, escalate, or otherwise draw out a situation. Have foes flee or surrender when the fight turns against them. When you get the chance to make a hard GM move, end the current situation and push the PCs into a new one. Don't put them in a spot when you can capture them. Don't pick a lesser success when they can succeed with a cost and move on.

Prevent swirl. If the players start to spin their wheels, intervene. Help them identify what they want to accomplish, rather than keep talking about what they might do.

Then lay out some ways to accomplish their goals. If they keep swirling, make a GM move that forces them to act.

Advancement

To start, PCs earn enough XP to Level Up every 2-4 sessions. It takes more sessions to Level Up as PCs advance—the XP cost increases, and players roll 6- less often.

A PC can Level Up only at home, which encourages players to return to Stonetop once they've accumulated enough XP. PCs can also Burn Brightly at this point, which lets them exchange excess XP for success (or fewer complications).

Slowing the rate

Ideally, PCs should Level Up only once between adventures. You want players to see each new move in play before they gain another. If your players often Level Up multiple times between adventures, consider some of the following.

Reset XP to 0 on Level Up. The simplest tweak, but some players might hate it. It also undercuts XP incentives once a PC has enough to Level Up.

Increase the XP requirement. The default requirement is 6 + (2 × level). Increase 6 to a 10 to add an extra session to most levels.

Multiply their current level by 3 instead of 2 to really slow the rate of advancement at higher levels.

Adjust the End of Session questions. Be stricter about what counts as a "Yes," or rewrite questions to be harder to achieve.

For example, "Did we learn more about the world or its history?" could become "Did we unearth any secrets of the past?"

Let players always Burn Brightly, even if they lack the XP to Level Up. (If you have a Would-be Hero with the Driven background, you'll need to tweak that move.)

Higher-level play

Past level 6, PCs become increasingly competent and harder to challenge. They have better stats, more ways of generating advantage, and lots of tools for overcoming challenges and mitigating dangers. They can start to feel invincible.

To continue challenging higher-level PCs:

Up the stakes. Use foes with messy attacks and moves that inflict lasting harm. Don't just threaten the harvest, threaten Stonetop itself. Don't just threaten the village, threaten the region as a whole.

Make 6- results hurt. High-level PCs roll low less often, so go hard when they do.

Capture them. Reveal a betrayal. Destroy a prized possession. Sever a limb. Kill a loved one. Be irrevocable.

Be aggressive. Keep making soft GM moves, any chance you get. Make moves that affect multiple PCs. Make moves that force them to react before they can do what they want.

Hit them where they're weak. Look for ways to make them roll their lower stats.

Threaten vulnerable NPCs and resources.

Make them choose where to focus their efforts, and make those choices matter.

Present threats on multiple fronts. Whatever they don't deal with should escalate, go poorly, or have repercussions.

But also—and this is important—let them enjoy their wins. Give them chances to steamroll challenges that previously would have given them pause. Celebrate their competence and their accomplishments.

Then, when you do challenge them, it'll feel all the more dire.

Retiring PCs

A PC might exit play because:

• They die and pass through the Last Door
• They retire after a lasting injury, as per Convalesce
• Surplus runs short in winter, and the weariest PC's player has them die, leave, or retire
• They cross the line from protagonist to villain
• Their player decides to have them leave Stonetop or retire from adventuring
• Their player leaves the game

Becoming a threat

When a PC descends into villainy and monstrosity, they stop being a PC and become a threat under the GM's control.

Write them up as both a threat and a monster, using their established moves, possessions, and abilities as inspiration. Don't worry about replicating their playbook abilities exactly, and feel free to make them scarier than they were as a PC.

Retirement

If a PC retires from play but stays in the village or the region, then turn them into an NPC. By default, their portrayal falls to you. But if everyone agrees, their original player can portray them.

Whoever portrays them, don't let them overshadow the PCs. They're retired! It's okay for them to advise and support the PCs, or to help meet the requirements of a plan. But they shouldn't act as followers or solve the PCs' problems. If need be, ask the ex-PC's original player why they can't or won't help with any given problem.

Epilogues

When a PC retires or passes away, give them an epilogue: a scene or two to send them off and say goodbye.

If the PC died, play out the funeral or wake. Establish the local traditions, if you haven't already. Show how NPCs react.

Ask the surviving PCs to say some words.

Let the dead PC's player savor the farewell to their fallen alter ego.

If the PC leaves Stonetop, then have the player narrate their departure, as well as a glimpse of their future—a "Where are they now?" moment. On the road to Lygos, wandering among the Hillfolk, stepping on the Fae paths to never be seen again…

That sort of thing.

If the PC retires, play out their decision to do so. Then, now or later, have the player describe a typical day in their new life.

Who are they with and what are they up to? How do they seem to be getting on?

What do they seem to be enjoying? What regrets weigh them down?

Invite the other players to contribute, by asking questions, suggesting details, or playing out their own scenes of grief and loss, of absence and new beginnings.

Epilogues should skip game mechanics.

These aren't scenes with conflict or even stakes. They're just vignettes, meant to give a sense of closure to a PC's tale.

New PCs

You might need to introduce a new PC to an ongoing game when:

• A new player joins your group
• A PC dies, retires, or otherwise leaves play (see previous page), and the player creates a replacement PC

If you're adding a player to an ongoing game, then brief them on the game so far.

Have them read the Setting Overview and Moves & Gear handouts. Ideally, have them read the group's session logs and look over the steading playbook. Schedule time to answer any questions they have.

Creating the character

Have the player pick one of the unused playbooks. They should also pick a background that reflects either a new arrival in Stonetop or a local NPC stepping up to PC status—each playbook has at least two such backgrounds. You don't want this new, highly-skilled PC to have been here all along without ever getting involved.

When the player gets to the "worldbuilding" part of their playbook (back page, left column), help them make choices that fit with the established lore of your game.

As a rule, new PCs start play at level 1, no matter how seasoned everyone else is.

Don't worry about "balance." A level 1 PC in Stonetop is plenty competent, and starting fresh lets the player learn the playbook and develop their character through play.

That said: it's okay to start a new PC at a higher level if there's a compelling reason (like the PC is an ancient hero freed from stasis), the player is familiar with Stonetop, and the whole group is cool with it.

Introductions

Have the player stop at the Introductions part of their playbook. Decide together how you'll bring them into the game.

There are two basic approaches:

Play it out. Introduce the new PC in play.

Frame a scene with them arriving in town, or have them be there when the PCs get home from an adventure. Or, like, have that clumsy kid get struck by lightning during a crisis and become the Storm-marked Heavy just in time to save the day.

Skip the formal Introductions on their playbook, but ask questions as needed.

This approach can be fun and visceral, but it can also take up a lot of game-time and inadvertently set up PC-PC conflicts.

Time skip. The new PC appears (or steps up) between sessions, during a stretch of downtime. Establish that they've been here (or been active) a while. Have the new PC do Introductions more or less normally at the start of the next session (or between sessions, if that works for your group). Maybe write a love letter to each existing PC that both covers events during the time skip and that establishes their connection to this new PC.

Getting them involved

Once they're in play, make sure the new PC matters. Prepare hooks that touch on their background, instincts, or unresolved questions. Work their worldbuilding elements into the game. Give them a little more spotlight, and allow them to find their place in the game.

Handled well, the introduction of a new

PC is not disruptive. It deepens and adds new texture to your game.

Conflict between PCs

One of your players' agendas is to portray a compelling character, and such characters won't always agree. That's okay. Actually, that's great! Handled well, conflict between PCs can be high drama and some of the most memorable parts of the game.

Most PC conflicts are just disagreements, or one PC trying to stop another PC from doing something rash. The Would-be Hero goes to charge the corrupted boar, but the Marshal Interferes and stops them. The Blessed wants to subdue the beast and heal it if she can, and Persuades the other PCs to let her try.

Encourage players to argue in character, not to "win" but to establish their positions and their values. Use moves like Persuade (vs. PCs), Interfere, and Seek Insight to keep things moving.

Intractable differences

Over time, disagreements can grow into ongoing conflicts. The Judge won't stand for the Fox's deceit. The Fox can't forgive the Heavy for his husband's death. The Lightbearer frets over the state of the Seeker's soul.

When you first sense such tensions, check in with the players. Make sure that the frustrations and emotions are felt by the characters and not the players. If the players are getting upset with each other, take a step back and look for a solution. Update your content guidelines, fix the fiction if you need to, and commit to whatever changes you've all agreed upon.

If everyone is on board, though, then lean into the conflict. Ask folks what they're looking for. Escalation? Resolution?

Heartbreak? Use their answers to guide what comes next.

Open conflict

When PCs directly oppose each other—through violence, subterfuge, sabotage, or whatever—then slow down. A lot.

First, do a temperature check. If things feel heated between the players, then call time out. Check in. Make sure everyone wants to proceed. A little conversation can go a long way towards preventing hurt feelings, resentment, and distrust.

If everyone is on board with the conflict, then give everyone involved a chance to declare their intent. When one PC does something that actively affects another PC or their interests, tell the targeted player what they perceive. Ask what they do in response. If any other PCs are present or involved, ask what they do as well. Figure out what moves are being triggered, and in what order. Very often, someone will end up Interfering.

Use the results of PC actions and player moves to inform what comes next. Keep checking in with the players. Move the spotlight and give other PCs chances to get involved. If someone rolls a 6-, push things to their logical (if unfortunate) conclusion, or interrupt the whole conflict with some unrelated but pressing problem.

Descent into villainy

Sometimes, a PC starts down a dark path.

Maybe they keep using a major arcanum and racking up consequences. Maybe they are corrupted by the Things Below. Maybe they die but refuse to pass on, and linger as a Ghost, Revenant, or Thrall. Maybe they just make one grim choice after another.

It's usually okay for a PC to be wayward or wicked, but not both. If a PC schemes, lies, and causes trouble for the other PCs but their heart is in the right place, that's interesting. And if a PC relies on foul magic or despicable acts, but does so in alignment with the other PCs' goals, then that can be compelling. But a PC who's both evil and opposed to the other PCs is no longer a protagonist. They're a villain.

When a PC crosses the line into villainy, or just cozies up to it, check in. Does this PC's player think they can be redeemed?

Do the other players want to try? If not, does everyone want to play out one last conflict or scheme? If the answer to any of these is "No," then the PC should become a threat. If the answer to all three questions is "Yes," then focus on that confrontation in an upcoming session. If the party fails to redeem their one-time ally, then that PC becomes a threat.

Regarding secrets

When PCs come into conflict, it's natural that they will start lying to each other, or keeping secrets. Great! More drama! But don't let players keep secrets from each other. Don't accept notes they pass you.

Don't have private chats or huddles in the hall. Encourage everyone to keep in mind what they know vs. what their character knows, and then enjoy the dramatic irony.

Time skips

Stonetop often has you gloss over stretches of time. You might cover days, weeks, or months of travel or downtime with little more than a brief description and a few questions for the PCs. But sometimes, you want to zoom way out and jump farther forward in time. Maybe you reach the end of a story arc and you'd like to let things breathe, or let the PCs age and mature.

Perhaps your group takes a break for real-world reasons, and you want to reflect that in the fiction. A PC might head off to Lygos and you want to jump ahead to their return. Or maybe there's a big shake-up and you want to skip the immediate aftermath.

How you handle a time skip depends largely on its length.

Months, seasons, years

If you're skipping a few months, seasons, or years, then write love letters to cover the gap. These can be fairly involved, including not only a roll and its results, but also invitations to narrate events and/or to involve the other players.

"Dear Marshal, it's been a peaceful year but tell us—what trouble has stemmed from having a standing watch that you never predicted? Then, ask each of the other PCs one of the following …"

If the time skip straddles the change of just one season, have the players make the Seasons Change move and incorporate its results into your letters. For a skip that spans multiple seasons, work changes to steading elements (Fortunes, Surplus, improvements, etc.) into the love letters.

Either way, prep a new adventure to bring things back with a bang.

Up to a decade or two

If you're skipping more than a few years, up to a decade or two, take a session off from actual play. Instead, discuss:

• How long, exactly, are you skipping?
• Who wants to continue playing their current PC? How might they change?
• Who wants to make new PCs?
• What NPCs and setting elements should continue to be important?
• How has the setting changed?

Have anyone who wants to play a new PC create them now, picking any background that makes sense given the time skip. Do Introductions as normal, with the existing PCs each taking turns during steps 6-7 (PC connections). Pick a starting season and do the Seasons Change move.

Use the result to craft a First Adventure, writing love letters to existing PCs to help fill in the skipped-over time.

Generations

If you jump ahead generations, then you're starting a whole new game. Hold a new first session. Discuss how the setting has changed in light of the game that just ended. Make and introduce new PCs, keeping those changes in mind. Ask questions about the timeline between the prior game and this one. Have spring burst forth, and prep a first adventure.

In play, continue to ask questions and fill in the timeline between games. Sprinkle this game with connections to the prior one.

Encourage players to do the same. Revisit the ruin where the previous Heavy died.

Reveal that this Fox's father was that kid who tagged along after the old PCs. Gasp when the Marshal anoints her crew with red pigment, to honor the scar borne by the last generation's Would-be Hero.

Shake-ups

The PCs all die, or leave Stonetop for good. The village is razed and its people scattered. A cataclysm is unleashed upon the world. Big changes like these can upend your game. Don't panic. Talk to the players about how they'd like to proceed.

You have two basic options:

Option 1: End the game

The right answer is often the simplest: call it quits. If the story feels complete, or the shake-up has stolen the game's momentum, then let the game end. Consider using the Denouement move if that kind of closure feels right.

Take a break. Play something else for a while. You can always come back to Stonetop later, either with a whole new game or by doing a time skip and starting up a few decades or generations later.

Option 2: Pivot

Keep playing, adjusting the game to reflect the shake-up. Skip forward an appropriate amount of time (see previous page). Make any mechanical changes you need. The specifics will vary case by case.

Pivots like this can be hard. They make you rethink the game's core assumptions. You have to update rules and handouts. You're basically designing a new game. But if you and your players are down for it, it can be rewarding and fun as hell.

The PCs have left Stonetop to help allied Hillfolk clans in a war against their rivals. I write up a new steading playbook for the ally's war-camp, skip ahead a few months, and write love letters to establish the new situation. The next few seasons might involve stealth missions, attempts to secure resources, and pitched battles. When the war ends and the PCs head home, I'll write love letters to determine what happened while they were gone.

The PCs have all died trying to stop the release of Y'aaw'kara (Book II, page

421). A new ice age is unleashed and the Howling Curse plagues the land. We decide to skip ahead a decade or so and start fresh with all new PCs, and discuss how Stonetop has adapted to the harsh new climate, updating its resources and potential improvements accordingly. I rewrite the Seasons Change move, update the inventory inserts and gear lists, and give everyone a custom insert for tracking the Howling Curse (Book

II, Homefront).

The PCs have been exiled from Stonetop and have taken up lives as wandering adventurers. The steading playbook will no longer be relevant to them; most of the Homefront moves no longer apply, or would be much harder to trigger, so I rewrite some of the questions in the End of Session move, and update Level Up to require "a quiet stretch of downtime," instead of "a quiet stretch at home." All in all, the game will now play out more like a traditional fantasy-adventure RPG.

Ending your game

All stories end. Maybe the story of your Stonetop burns bright and fast. Maybe it stretches on for years.

Maybe it just… fizzles out. And that's fine.

Not every story gets a good ending.

Ideally, though, you'll see the end coming. Maybe real life forces your hand, and one or more of your players are moving, or having a kid, or starting school or a new job and they can't play anymore. Maybe you sense the game's story arcing towards its conclusion. Or maybe you or some of your players are just getting the itch to play something else.

Planning for the end

When you see the end coming, you have an opportunity. An opportunity for climax, denouement, and a fitting farewell. A chance to give your shared story the final chapter it deserves.

1 Schedule a planning session

Once you realize it's time to start ending the game, schedule a planning session with your players. Expect it to take an hour or two, so it might just be part of a normal session.

Try to make sure everyone can be there. If you can, give yourself some lead-time so that you and your players can prep.

2 Prepare

Ask your players to review the questions below, and give them some thought before the planning session. If they can't attend, ask them to send you their wish lists beforehand. Encourage everyone else to come with notes, or at least thoughts.

Before the game ends:

• What arcs do you want resolved?
• What questions do you want to see answered?
• What scenes do you hope to have?
• Are there any moves, artifacts, or arcana you'd love to see in action?
• What goals do you want a chance for your PC to accomplish?

If you have time, provide the players with a list of hanging threads for reference. That includes active threats, stuff from your "I wonder…" list, unsolved mysteries and unfished projects, player wishes yet to be granted, and so forth.

Give these questions some thought, yourself. You're allowed to have opinions!

3 Assemble the wishlist

Once you've gathered for the planning session, refer to the questions from step 2, above. Print them out if playing in person, or post them somewhere everyone can see. The goal here is to establish each player's wishlist of things they'd like to do, resolve, or see in play before the game ends.

If anyone is absent and sent you their wish list, read it off now. After that, go around the group and have each player share their list. Ask for clarification if needed, but try to limit discussion. You want everyone to freely share what they want.

Take notes, ideally somewhere public.

Keep track of which players wished for what. If you have ideas about how you'll accomplish these things, great—maybe jot that down privately. But keep the focus on what folks want for now.

If you have any of your own wishes that haven't been mentioned, share those now.

Open the floor for discussion. Let folks ask questions, make suggestions, endorse other folk's wishes, and reconsider their own. If your players wish for conflicting things, talk it over and come to a compromise.

If they wish for something infeasible in the time you have, try to identify what is feasible instead.

Prioritize. Everyone (including you) can pick one "must-have" item, and up to two "important" items. Give folks the chance to strike off items they added earlier that they don't actually care about. Everything else is low priority, a "nice to have."

To be clear: this is a wish list, not a list of promises. You're all agreeing to try and fit these things in the game, but there's no guarantee how exactly they'll play out when that happens. "Deal with Brennan

& the trade embargo" just means a chance to tie off those threads. Hopefully the PCs will succeed. But they might not!

Driving toward resolution

From now on, push play towards those must-have and important wishes. Work them into your prep. Keep the wish list handy as a reference during play, and get to the "nice to have" wishes as you can.

Make use of techniques for increasing the pace. Skip over the familiar.

Zoom out and gloss over stuff where you can. Frame scenes aggressively. Make GM

I'm starting a new job soon, and won't be able to keep running the game. I reckon we have time for maybe four more sessions. Prior to the next session, I send out the questions and my list of hanging threads, and ask folks to create wishlists. During our planning session, our discussion results in these priorities:

MUST-HAVES

• Deal with Brennan & the trade embargo (Rhianna, me) • See the Mighty Servant in play (Vahid) • Tell Caradoc how I feel (Blodwen) • Prove himself to the village, once and for all (Caradoc)

IMPORTANT

• Resolve Nia's spider connection (me, Blodwen) • Try to make peace with Owain (Rhianna) • Settle things with Maire (Vahid) • Use Big Damn Hero (Caradoc) • Have it out with Vahid (Rhianna)

NICE TO HAVE

• Tegwen gets her comeuppance (Blodwen, Rhianna) • Get back at Mutra (Vahid) • See Eira in retirement (Rhianna) • Morwenna's wedding (Caradoc) • Punch Brennan's face (Caradoc)

moves that resolve situations, rather than escalating or drawing them out. Resist the urge to introduce new threads or complications unless they directly relate to an item on the wish list. Step in when the players start to swirl.

Focus. You're in the endgame, now.

If we're going to see the Mighty Servant on-screen, Vahid will need to acquire its aetherium helm and spend time with its chassis, assembling it. Dealing with Brennan and the trade embargo implies a direct confrontation. And if Caradoc is going to prove himself to the village, it should happen near Stonetop.

We've got only two sessions left, so we jump to spring and I use love letters to set the scene: Morwenna's wedding (a subdued affair), Blodwen and Caradoc dancing, Brennan's goons blockading the West Road, a skeevy adventurer sneaking past to sell the aetherium helm to Vahid.

During the session, Rhianna and Vahid have a row over his obsession with the Servant. The PCs and Rhianna's crew kill most of Brennan's men and drive off the rest.

Caradoc uses Big Damn Hero and crosses "Would-be" off his playbook. Vahid heads north to assemble the Mighty Servant. The session ends there.

For the final session, we skip ahead to summer. Another round of love letters establish that Vahid is still assembling the Servant. Blodwen's and Caradoc's romance is going well. And Brennan is marching towards Stonetop with a force of Manmarcher mercenaries, intent on beating Stonetop into submission.

Will Rhianna and Caradoc rally the village? Will Blodwen convince Nia to call on the spiders for aid? Will Vahid return with the Mighty Servant and help turn the tables? Will Caradoc punch Brennan in the face?

I don't know, but we'll play to find out!

The final sessions

Figure out when your last session will be, and how many sessions you have before then. As you prep for those final sessions, keep the wishlist forefront in your mind.

Look at what you need to cover and how many sessions you have left. Use time skips, love letters, and aggressive scene-framing to get the wishes on screen. If you don't see a way to do so, talk to your players and ask for ideas. If you think you have an idea, but it involves committing the PCs to a certain course of action, check in and make sure everyone is on board.

Ignore moves, procedures, and rules that don't help you hit the wish list items in the time that remains. If the last session will hinge on a battle with Yaarowslow the Many in the ruins of Vor Svetelik, then don't bother with Seasons Change or the journey there or how many supplies the PCs have left.

During the finale, especially: go big and don't hold back. Make bold GM moves that force the PCs to make hard choices, take desperate risks, and put it all on the line. When they roll a 6-, make it hurt.

Now more than ever, let things burn.

But also: be a fan of the player characters.

Encourage boldness. Present them with opportunities. Give them all a chance to be heroes, one last time.

The end

When the final conflict ends and the dust starts to settle, take a breath. Then wrap up the current situation to whatever level of detail makes sense.

Don't use any moves or mechanics. Just describe the scene and give the players space to say what they do, what happens next. If there are moments they want to play out, let them. If they have questions, answer them.

Use what time remains to do this one last move, together.