When I got the pdf of the Ultraviolet
Grasslands early in 2020 I didn’t read the whole thing. Instead I marveled at
the illustrations, traced the roads to the Black City with my finger and
decided to run UVG from beginning to end. I wanted to experience
the Grasslands in a leisurely pace, travelling together with the players over
the whole map. We left the Violet City, crossed the Trail of Vomish
Dreams, descended into the Three Sticks Lake and climbed the Totem of
the Sky. At the City Mountain we fought with the Veterans of the Psychic War and in the Umberlands we fulfilled the
last wish of a depressed Autofac. A year later the caravan arrived at the Black City.
Below is a look back at memorable moments, comments on the
specifics of our experience with the setting and suggestions about what I could do
differently if I’d run it again.
What I’d do differently: Maybe use a different system. The Whitehack “groups” that allow advantages on rolls worked well enough and performing miracles like Doodlebugging, Augury, Ghostly Brotherhood and Fishing in the Sea of Dimensions were fun to see in action and fitted the setting perfectly - but combat was slow and I never worked out how to make the Deft's attunement interesting. I’d probably try something simpler like Will Hilton’s Into the Grasslands or Mike Fernandino’s UltravioletWorld.
Seeing the caravan grow from one coach to several unique vehicles
and numerous retainers was certainly fun. Most of the time I forgot to take
vehicle speed into account, they only once accrued additional travel days and
we handwaved it away.
What I’d do differently: I’d have more travel vignettes and campfire scenes, give retainers a bit more character by involving the players in establishing their irritating mannerism and alluring quirks. I could see giving vehicles traits as well and letting the players describe how they decorate their rides to make them more memorable. Maybe taking inspiration from Into the Odd and introduce a rival caravan.
Memorable misfortunes include mysterious puncture wounds (Gall
Grass), blinded by a speck of biomechanical garbage (Trail of Vomish Dreams)
and a shard of hard light being lodged in one eye (Fractal Trees). The hands
down best discovery was Johnny-7 who became a major NPC in the campaign, followed
by the Lurid Pines - which took five sessions to clear out and bestowed Hamish
with hamster reflexes.
What I’d do differently: It might be
more interesting to replace the middle result on the misfortune table where
nothing happens with a minor inconvenience that matches the theme of the area.
I could also see adding a destination-appropriate faction encounter (to
entangle the PCs with the factions) and maybe a caravan to the encounter table.
What I’d do differently: To make the
factions a bit more visible in the Grasslands I might add an entry to the
encounter table that indicates to which sphere of influence an area belongs
e.g. have one random encounter result for the Cat Lords East of the Porcelain Citadel
20 months
of in-game time
13 months
of real world time from March 14 2020 to April 10 2021
15
characters, 14 players
100+ hours
of actual play: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5BBgImD4UPRGy4yIEaL0HwYohPc-X8af