vsD Adventure Review: The Silence of Dawnfell

 I fear that I might be a little unfair towards this adventure: It is a good one, but I'm reading it right on the heels of Shadows of the Northern Woods, which is a tough act to follow. Especially since a lot of motives and themes of Dawnfell are reminiscent of SotNW: Again, there's a small village to be saved, free folk who have become estranged from each other and must be brought back together, a magical McGuffin that the bad guys are after and a climatic battle where the outcome depends hugely on how many checkmarks the characters were able to make on their adventurous to-do list in advance. In both adventures, we have spiders in the woods and ancient burial sites hiding treasures and answers. Even some of the NPCs feel like variations on a theme when compared to SotNW (Annis/Beltine, Wulfric/Brynjar, Morcant and his She-Wolf/Urgusk and his Mountain-Lion). It's hard to say if, playing both scenarios back to back in an actual campaign, this would feel like a thematic throughline or rather like "Oh well, another troll with a vicious pet and another problematic thane."

But while SotNW uses its sleepy, rural setting as a springboard to dive deep into the (admittedly vague) mythology of vsD's implied setting, Dawnfell firmly sticks to being an adventure about saving a village from a band of trolls. Which is actually a good thing, because it makes Dawnfell truly self-contained and also thematically more suitable for a group of 1st level characters. As such, one might say that Dawnfell is better at being what it is than SotNW, but it is also a little less impressive.

vsD Adventure Review: Shadows of the Northern Woods

In my previous post, I was singing the praise of the classic Iron Crown Enterprises scenario structure, and since Shadows of the Northern Woods, the mini-campaign included in the corebook of Against the Darkmaster, follows similar design principles, I'll just jeep on singing.

Shadows of the Northern Woods (SotNW) is a joy to read. It hits exactly my sweet spot between creating a sandbox environment, but also giving lots of support for the three interconnected scenarios provided (much more support than the old MERP modules usually offered). More importantly, it really makes the environment come alive; it's a small setting, basically a village and the surrounding wilderness, but it's brimming with NPCs, factions, unique monsters, history and current events.

The Great Modules of the Late Terry K. Amthor

 Rest in Peace, Terry K. Amthor

Terry K. Amthor is a name that means a lot to me, even though I've read only very little by him, and played less. His main creation, Shadow World, sits alongside several high-concept setting that I have heard of again and again and that I never found the time to delve into - along with Tekumel, Talislanta and Glorantha (though I've actually found my way into Glorantha a few years ago).

Reading vsD Part 4: GM Stuff, Shiny Stuff and Beasts

So, I'm finally ready to finish my series on vsD; on to vsD's GM chapter, which gives some generally good advice on game-mastering and designing scenarios and tools to deal with stuff like war and battles, powerful magic items, or the taint of the Darkmaster, an also presents three possible Darkmasters. None of this is groundbreaking, but again, vsD keeps its sight firmly set on creating highly thematic rules and tools for an epic fantasy rpg.

Bogged Down by Big Moves

 So, I kind of got stuck on writing on rpgs (or playing them) in the last months - my family relocated to another continent a month ago, and getting us settled in is basically eating up all of my free time.

Which is a pity; I really want to finish my series on vsD (the scenario in the core rulebook is pretty great, basically a sandbox mini setting, but with strong story seeds well-supported by the material), and I'd also like to get around to take a closer look at Gildor Games' Elemental system, which, by first reading, looks like a kind of GURPS ultra-light to me (highly universal in its applicability, classic attribute+skill mechanics with a few little twists, point-buy characters). Not to speak of finishing another 3-4 Mythras scenarios I have outlined, translating them into English and converting them for a few other systems like Warlock!, Troika! and, probably, Elemental. And another Ashen Stars scenario is waiting in the wings, as well.

I hope that 2022 will be my year of getting to work on rpg stuff in earnest. Until then, have a great time and stay safe, everyone!

Reading vsD Part 3: Combat, Magic and the Flight from Weathertop!

 The next part of this review covers the major game systems vsD employs: skill rolls, resistance rolls, casting magic, combat, health and healing and rules for stuff like travelling and equipment. While the core system is true to it's MERP/RM lineage, the influence of more current game design becomes more apparent in this chapter. There's rules and guidelines for the ad-hoc creation of safe havens or healing herbs that encourage player input and also minor stuff like "choose how you fumble". Both reminds me a lot of pbtA games.

Reading Against the Darkmaster Part 2

 I kept the subchapters about Passions, Drive and advancement for the second installment, because I want to stray a little further afield here.

In vsD, there's an interesting relationship between Passions/Drive and Achievements/Experience. Both are about getting yourself into trouble and feed into character development, with Passions being more about each individual character and achievements being more about the experiences the party makes as a whole.