I ran a game at a mini-convention in Ottawa, ON a few days ago to introduce myself and a few players to Houses and it went pretty well.
Based on John's advice, I restricted my prep to working up some pre-gen characters (virtues and aspects only) and a one line jumping off point for the adventure: the characters are going to their lieges wedding.
I had three players. None had read anything about the game One had heard a bit about it from me, while the other two were folks I walked up to and convinced to playThe first was a falcon with with his family name and "I was nursed on blood, not mother's milk" as Aspects and beauty as a weakness. There was also a Serpent sorceress with strange intuition and prowess as an aspect. Finally, there was an Elk swordsman with "I have never surrendered" and a weakness in courage.
Through wisdom rolls the players determined that their liege was a countess who was getting married for the third time. Her last husband had been poisoned, gradually, over many seasons, in his breakfast. By some one.
I asked each player what they had brought as a gift, and had them roll beauty to see how it would go over. The Falcon brought a truly hideous diarama thing made of mounted animal heads. The Elk brought a fine sword engraved with the countess's name. The Serpent brought breakfast dishes.
The players were curious about the journey to the castle, so we flashed back to the road at this point, and learn that on the way here the falcon had fairly picked a fight with his half-brother the Elk, ending in a game of insults that resulted in the Falcon being branded with the aspect "no class."
Back in the present, the Serpent looked around the castle for secrets, and found, with a cunning risk, a secret passage still under construction that allowed the Countess to spy on certain of her guests of the house of the sepent.
The Elk engaged the Countess in conversation, hoping to parlay her pleasure at his gift into a chance to owe her a favour. He succeed in a cunning risk, attempting to manuver her into asking him a favour, and using wagers determined that she wants him to root out a conspiracy she susspects against her by the serpent, and prevent the seprent from talking to her groom.
Meanwhile, the Falcon was trying to strike up a conversation with the countess's Master of the Hunt. The player was expressing frustration with having to play through a fancy party while her character clearly was equipped for smashy-smashy, so I had the Master of the Hunt intimate that the falcon was afraid of his half-brother, the Elk. The falcon punched him in the nose, giving a rank 2 injury "messed-up face" and using a wager to ensure that he fell backward onto the buffet table.
The falcon was seized by the countesses guards and taken to the dungeon. The Elk used his favour with the countess to get her to show mercy to the falcon, releasing him into his custody. At this point the Countess also asked the Serpent to join in completing the task of rooting out the conspiracy, since she was the one Mwrr she could halfway trust.
The players decided to investigate the tunnels a bit more, and the serpent up interrogating a couple of sappers down there, before erasing their memories of the event using a blood ritual. Since I didn't want to get into the proper rules for blood rituals, I just let the sorceress define them with wisdom rules like anything else about the setting. They learned that the tunnels also allowed the countess to spy on her own master bedroom.
Meanwhile, the Falcon was approached by the Master of the Hunt's second, who informed him the jury had authorised a duel to injury. The falcon wandered off with the second to sign papers, leaving the Elk alone to guard the enterance to the secret passage. That finished they decided to snoop around the room of a certain Thantian Mwrr, a cousin of the serpent player, that might be involved in the conspiracy. Mostly, the serpent was hoping for a chance to rummage through her cousin's things for a grimoire or magical artefact, with the luxury of someone gaurding the door.
She finds a blood-mirror, as well as a small clay snake that she recognises as a scrying device, allowing a sorceror to keep an eye on his things while he's out of the room. Damn. No sooner is that revealed than Thantian comes down the hall, shouting at the Elk and demanding satisfaction for this invasion of privacy. The serpent comes out into the hall and Thantian starts in with a string of insults that would mean blood if she was wearing a sword. As it is she has to take it.
The serpent shows Thantian the spy-hole in his room and convinces him that it's in his best interests to keep the whole encounter on the hush-hush until they figure out what to do. He agrees, but insists that he will have his satifaction against the Elk.
That night the Elk is awaked by Thantian Mwrr entering his room. Thantian insists that the Elk take up his sword. The Elk manages to injure him on the first beat, but only by revealing his secret name. He deals a four-point injury "pierced lung" and uses his remaining wager to determine that in this state, Thantian cannot raise his voice above a whisper.
Thantian realises that the Elk doesn't intend to let him conceed the duel: not while he knows his secret name. He dives through the window and lands in a koi pond four stories below. The Elk has courage as his weakness, but he blows a style to swallow his fear and make the leap, sustaining a concussion as he hits the water.
Thantian reveals his secret name now, " I will not die unavenged". He is the aggressor in this beat, but instead of attacking the Elk he stabs himself through the stomach (for a rank four injury) whispers the Elks full name and curses him to never again sleep twice under the same roof.
The other PC arrive just as the Elk delivers a killing blow, and the characters are left about to dispose of a body as our time runs out....