Fimbulvinter

[Rose-of-Vellum]

I had a good time. Admittedly, I was occasionally distracted with peripheral childcare and getting the hang of cbg's IRC commands. My apologies then for the times I was slow(er) to respond. Next time, I think I'll finally have the IRC stuff down. I also won't have the kids.

As for the game's content, I liked the music once again and appreciate the work that goes into finding them. I liked the Yuletide setting and adventure hook. The skirmish with the zombies was fun (e.g., the decapitated screaming head), as was the mystery of the auroch's slayer. The initial description of the stampede and horns was great. Really evocative and enjoyable to imagine seeing, hearing, smelling, and feeling.

Taking in mind the first paragraph's admissions, things seemed to grind once the 'hunt' actually started. In retrospect, I likely would have used alternative rules/variant role mechanics to keep the hunt fast-paced, particularly if the OOC goal was to have us finish an encounter with the Wild Hunt (e.g., modified chase rules, primary offense and defense rolls with secondary modifiers tallying to outcome results).

I look forward to finishing the battle, one way or the other, with the Wild Hunt. It's shaping up to be a brutal battle.

[sparkletwist]

Steerpike, this is just me speaking my mind and isn't meant to be a broad complaint about the game or your GMing, so please don't take it too strongly.

That said, I think that, with the idea in mind that the Wild Hunt was to be the main adversary, the hunting of the aurochs could've been treated as more of a prologue rather than playing the whole thing out. For example, I'm not sure if a full initiative order was really needed-- it might have been enough to put the "spotlight" on Dagny for a short time, like Kylfa's wrestling match or Ragnvaldr's duel. The other characters would've still been present and able to help if they had a clever idea (like Ragnvaldr helping Dagny spur her horse) but it would've sped things up rather than using the full action economy. Once the aurochs were contained, it likely would've been enough to just say the characters take care of business, and everyone rolls one Reflex save to see if they get stampeded or whatnot, rather than playing out combat with cows for ~30 minutes of real time.

[Steerpike]

That was actually my initial plan - the aurochs themselves took longer than I had intended and the Hunt were really meant to be more the "main event," but the aurochs-hunt itself got a bit out of hand. I think I got enthused about your pit idea, and I wanted Ragnvaldr to have a chance to carve out some cow-flesh, but in retrospect I should have sprung the Hunters earlier and/or resolved the aurochs more abstractly. I had actually planned the Wild Hunt to appear while the aurochs hunt was in progress, so that everyone was acting simultaneously, which was why I asked for an initiative roll, but when I saw how complex things were getting with just the aurochs, I let things play out... it was probably not the right call, but I think everything will work out.

Incidentally here's what that battlefield looked like, and the map we'll start off with next time (with a grid overlay in Roll20) - those are the aurochs-tracks by the woods.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Cool map. What's your process (i.e., do you use a tablet, scan paper and ink, use a certain program for sepia tinting, etc.)?

[Steerpike]

Just pencil and paper, scan, and then GIMP for a bit of tinting. Basically the same thing as Underdeep. I was able to crank out a bunch of similar maps in very little time. I don't know if I'd try to do more detailed ones for things like towns, as those might be quite time-consuming.

As I mentioned to some people, I'm going to use little runes for tokens.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

LOVE the idea of rune-tokens.

[Steerpike]

So tomorrow's game will commence at 10 AM PST. Looking forward to trying out roll20!

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Is there anything relative to roll20! that you want/need us to do before the game starts?

[HippopotamusDundee]

I'm afraid I'm going to have to bow out of tomorrow's game - I've just been rostered on for a shift at work. Best of luck with Roll20 and I hope you all have an excellent time.

[Steerpike]

No problem, Hippo!

The only thing to prep for Roll20 would be to create a (free) account with them, which you'll need to use the map/grid I provide. They only require an email address and you can choose whether or not to receive notifications.

Almost all of the rune-tokens are done. They look pretty decent, I think. I've gone for grey for PCs, red for enemies, and blue for friendly NPCs. They'll have names beneath them for identification purposes but basically I gave each stone a runic letter based on the first letter of everyone's name, or the first two for Katla and Kylfa. It'll looks a little bit like moving little rune stones across a piece of parchment, hopefully.

[Steerpike]

Thanks everyone for playing today!

For surviving the Wild Hunt, finding shelter to avoid Thrivaldii and Drakkar, and saving Yule you each receive 1400 xp.

Roll20 seemed to work reasonably well, a few kinks with shape-drawing and tokens aside. I hope everyone had fun, and that everything seemed clearer.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

Thanks for GMing! RL blizzard-issues aside, I enjoyed the game. Having Odin personally deliver us Draupnir-rings was... crazy awesome (and theologically illuminating/conciliatory). Once again, your descriptions were amazingly crafted, and I appreciate the world-building. I'm indifferent/undecided regarding roll20 (although I visually loved the map and rune-tokens). Regardless, 780 xp away from next level!

EDIT: character sheet updated.

[sparkletwist]

780 xp away from next level!

We're using slow progression, not regular.

[Rose-of-Vellum]

1,450,897 xp away from next level!

[Ghostman]

For surviving the Wild Hunt, finding shelter to avoid Thrivaldii and Drakkar, and saving Yule you each receive 1400 xp.

Is that on top of the 800 xp from previous session?