Solitaire: To Honour And Obey

It is the traditional role of the woman to stay at home, to maintain the household, and raise the family whilst their husband is away at work, at war, and at other duties. The stories of such women have long been explored and examined in fiction, but rarely in roleplaying. To Honour And Obey is a roleplaying game in which the tale of one such woman can be told. In particular, it is the tale of a woman who has married well to a man of status who has land and a title. He is also a man with duties who owes fealty to the King and when the call comes, must ride away to serve him, that is simply serving as part of a garrison, going on campaign, or undertaking a quest. Thus, she is left alone, barely married for four months and pregnant with their first child and potentially, his heir. The castle is cold and drafty, the household staff equally as cold and unwelcoming, and threats lurk on the edge of her husband’s fiefdom. Raised to be a good wife and a suitable match for any knight, the lady must prove herself of undertaking all of the tasks that her husband would see as his duty were he at home. Manage the household, see to the land, protect it from dangers, and ensure the safety of the peasantry. This is the task faced by the player in To Honour And Obey, ‘A solo game about an Arthurian lady protecting her own.’

To Honour And Obey is published by Twelve Pins Press. It is both a solo journaling and an epistolary roleplaying game told in five acts in which a lady must survive the winter faced by travails that her mother failed to warn her about. It uses Blinking Birch Games’ Anamnesis system and thus to play, it requires a Tarot deck, a notebook and pen, and some tokens, as well as a coin. To set up, the player separates the Tarot Deck into five individual decks consisting of the Major Arcana, Wands, Swords, Cups, and Pentacles. The player then draws two cards from the Major Arcana. The first is the Lady’s Strength, which can be a talent, a quality, a skill, or a secret. Whenever the Lady uses her Strength to deal with a problem, a token is placed on the card. The second is reversed and is her Enemy. When the Lady is confronted with a problem that she is unable to deal with at all or simply badly, or acts out of desperation, a token is placed on the card. The player always decides, except when a card is drawn reversed, in which case a token is placed on her Enemy. To Honour And Obey does suggest three sample Strengths and Enemies, but more would have been both nice and further supported its replay value.

To Honour And Obey is played in five acts. The first three acts switch between the action and epistolary, from surveying her situation to writing to her mother, from facing her enemies acting against her to writing to her husband, and so on. Her player draws three cards from the Pentacle. This generates three questions. For example, “You have a friend who you can never spend enough time with when you are attending your wifely duties. Who is she, and how quickly have you made plans to see her?”, “As you stand by the gate a man watches you from a window. What about his gaze makes your skin crawl?”, and “As he rides away, you think about the one person you wish was here to offer you support and wisdom. Why are they not with you right now? Do you cave in, and in a moment of weakness, ask them to come?” The player answers these questions and moves onto epistolary action. As the Lady, the player writes to her mother, telling her about the keep, her duties, insecurities and fears, love and resentment of her husband, and fears for the future, before asking for advice. She has a chance to act on it and gain a token for her Strength card, before the player moves onto the second act.

As the story progresses through the subsequent acts, the Lady deals with issues in her husband’s fiefdom and then writes to her husband, never knowing when he will write in reply and even if he is still alive; tries to find out more about her enemies and writes to the Queen—perhaps even for help; finally ultimately face her foes, in turn direct attack, treachery, scandal, and illness. In the final, the Lady will face Ending, its nature determined by a Major Arcana card, her fate determined by which card has the most tokens. More tokens on her Strength indicates victory, whereas more on her Enemy indicates defeat. It is easier to accrue tokens on her Enemy than it is on her Strength, meaning that the Lady’s ending is often one of tragedy.

The story at the heart of To Honour And Obey is structurally the same and each time the Lady is going to answering the same broad questions and facing the same sort of difficulties. Where the variation comes is in the exact nature of those difficulties as prompted by the drawing of the cards. When it comes to replaying To Honour And Obey, the challenge is creating answers to the broader prompts about the Lady and her relationships rather than the external threats that she faces.

Physically, To Honour And Obey does need a slight edit, but is otherwise well presented. It is also illustrated by a range of fitting Pre-Raphaelite artwork.

The role of the woman and how much she supports and makes sacrifices for her husband even when he is not there  in Arthurian legend is often overlooked and often tragic. To Honour And Obey is an opportunity to bring her tale to light and hear it her told from her perspective.