a game for 1 or more players, inspired by Pale Fire
You are the fugitive King of Nova Zembla and perhaps one or more of his retinue.
You are fleeing the assassin Gradus. You want to settle down and assimilate somewhere.
Describe your first choice of hiding place. E.g. Paris, the Riviera, New England college town, ski resort in the Rockies. You begin with 10 Verve.
When you try to blend into your new surroundings, describe how your manner sticks out and roll 2d6 +Verve spent.
On a 7+, it's odd but OK: gain 1 Reinvention
On a 10+ also gain a Friend (elaborate on who it is)
On a 6-, choose:
- Add 1 to Pursuit and a player describes how Gradus closes in.
- Gradus kills a Friend (describe and lose 1 Verve)
When you move to a new place, spend Reinvention to reduce Pursuit point for point.
At 7 Reinvention you are safe. Narrate an ending.
At 5 Pursuit, Gradus catches up with you: Roll +Verve spent. On a 10+ the King lives. Either way, narrate an ending.
Reinventing the King actual play
Verve 10 Reinvention 0 Pursuit 0
I arrived in Paris at the Gare du Nord and took a taxi from there to an apartment halfway between Barbès and the Sacré-Cœur. The friend was away for the summer, so I had the run of the place.
I easily struck up a warm friendship with the local butcher by commenting, each time I visited his establishment, on the notable observances of that particular day. “Did you know,” I said on our first meeting, while contemplating a rump steak, “that today in Tuvalu they celebrate the official birthday of the Queen?” He was impressed by my learning and warmth of manner.
(2 Verve spent
2d6+2 = 4.)
At this time, the assassin Gradus was in Lausanne, where he was delayed for some time by conflicting accounts as to whether I had departed by train or aeroplane. (It was the latter, under the assumed name John Borisov.)
Verve 8 Reinvention 0 Pursuit 1
Paris was eminently to my taste at that time of year, and I enjoyed many a promenade along the banks of the Seine, stripped to the waist to make the best of the sunshine.
(2 Verve again.
2d6+2 = 10)
It was on one of these walks that I met and befriended Ofelia Ignatz, a painter of the Rheno-Cubist school of whom by now you surely have heard.
Friend: Ofelia Ignatz
Verve 6 Reinvention 1 Pursuit 1
Ofelia was my companion, cicerone and Virgil in the demimonde of the Parisian nightlife and art world. We attended many exhibitions, performances and parties together. Many in her circle were impressed and amazed at my ability to declaim entire Zemblan epics from memory.
(1 Verve spent
2d6+1 = 11)
It was at one such party in Ofelia’s presence that I made the acquaintance of Desmond Macavee, the actor. He had an inkling, I suspect, of my true identity (his mother was from Nova Zembla) but he kept my secret.
Friends: Ofelia Ignatz, Desmond Macavee
Verve 5 Reinvention 2 Pursuit 1
In early July, when the decorations were being put up in the streets, I hung a Zemblan flag from my window. It was foolish sentimentality, I suppose, but seeing the expression of patriotism all around me I felt a yearning for Nova Zembla well up inside me.
(2d6+0 = 5)
I realised my foolishness after a few days and removed the flag. I was fortunate that I did so, for Gradus - dull, plodding Gradus - was already in Paris. On Bastille Day he walked beneath my very window, where had he seen the glorious Eagle of Zembla fluttering in the bright sunshine he would have known at once, even with a porridge-thick mind like his, who resided there on the second floor.
Friends: Ofelia Ignatz, Desmond Macavee
Verve 5 Reinvention 2 Pursuit 2
I very much enjoyed the Bastille Day parades. I attended wearing a conical hat, as is traditional in Nova Zembla, although it appears this is not the custom in France. Nevertheless, from the admiring glances my headgear drew, I suspect it will not be long before the conical hat is as common as the tricolour on the 14th of July!
(1 Verve spent
2d6+1 = 12)
I struck up conversation on the subject with a young gendarme called Jean-Marc, who lamented the fact that his uniform hat must remain stolidly flat.
Friends: Ofelia Ignatz, Desmond Macavee, Jean-Marc the gendarme
Verve 4 Reinvention 3 Pursuit 2
Many things were different about life in France. I did my best to adapt to them, but I permitted myself a few things from the Old Country. For example, I continued to have a slice of lemon in my coffee every morning at the zinc on the corner.
(1 Verve spent
2d6+1 = 8)
Friends: Ofelia Ignatz, Desmond Macavee, Jean-Marc the gendarme
Verve 3 Reinvention 4 Pursuit 2
I was often joined by Ofelia for these morning coffees, during which I would enthusiastically expound on little-known aspects of Zemblan culture. Sometimes my enthusiasm got the better of me and on one occasion I had to pay for several broken cups after my demonstration of Zemblan cricket - which differs from English cricket in that the bat has no handle and is held in front of the face - thanks to a misthrown bread roll and a loose grip on the rolled newspaper I was using as a prop.
(1 Verve spent
2d6+1 = 12)
The cafe owner took this well, in part because I paid generously for the breakages. Her name was Sylvie and from then on if Ofelia was not there, it was Sylvie who would chat with me each morning.
Friends: Ofelia Ignatz, Desmond Macavee, Jean-Marc the gendarme, Sylvie the cafe owner
Verve 2 Reinvention 5 Pursuit 2
In August I took up a teaching position, lecturing undergraduates on Russian and Zemblan literature. Within the month my dramatic reenactments of episodes from Anna Karenina (often using upwards of 13 students) were popular and much talked-about.
(2 Verve spent
2d6+2 = 8)
Friends: Ofelia Ignatz, Desmond Macavee, Jean-Marc the gendarme, Sylvie the cafe owner
Verve 0 Reinvention 6 (safe) Pursuit 2
THE END.
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