I bought HotB and have read through the rules pretty thoroughly. However, my group of gamers are far more into the Kill stuff and take their loot type of game. So sadly, I can't seem to talk them into giving this game a whirl (I may incorporate the Seasons mechanic into our 4e game as the characters are reaching paragon and might end up as some type of nobles at some point.)
That being said, I'd love to hear the actual play just to hear how some of this goes down. No matter how bad you fine hosts may think it is. I think it might be helpful.
Between now and the time Davadam makes that happen, I'll help you out.
The Narrator sets the scene as you'd expect. Or, you know, if it's your party or ruin or whatever, you set the scene. If you want to declare a fact or compel someone or whatever, you spend your style appropriately and make it happen. If your character wants to accomplish some task, be it "look for someone who is not eating at the banquet," or "jump across the crevasse," or "seduce so-and-so," you make an appropriate risk (I know those examples suck). If you get privilege, you narrate and everyone involved incorporates their wagers as facts as well.
Anything else you might do that is not risk-worthy is just declared/narrated/roleplayed as normal. You brought your personal guard along to the party and you've just overheard that there has been a threat made on the host's life? You can send your guard to protect him. Done.
The gummiest part, in my eyes, is how players play out compels. Part of the issue is that some compels are rather specific, while others are very general. The balance for this is that these are usually paired with similarly specific and general invokes, meaning that a more broadly usable invoke leaves you more vulnerable to compels. However, the main issue is that some players will dive into compels, regardless of the danger, while others will try to game a compel to their advantage or so that it won't harm them. It seems to me that if you are a little liberal with style at first to coax new players into diving in, you can get everybody on the same page about the game.
We're playing a "friendly" game with compels in the open, so it's rather different from a competitive game. I usually just compel people because I think something interesting will happen, not because I think it will benefit my character. But that's wide open. As I
think I mentioned in the recap, I really like how HotB lends itself to a variety of playing styles all at one table.
Our actual play is probably highly pedestrian compared to some of the more involved role-playing some groups create. But we're only just getting comfortable with the system and we'll see what comes.
