The Journey begins

Introduction

This blog is meant as a reference point for players of the Ultraviolet Grasslands campaign on the Gauntlet. Here you will find information about the campaign, inspirational images, session summaries and links to the actual plays on YouTube. I start us off with an overview of the campaign via the C.A.T.S. procedure.

Travelling in style

Concept

Setting

Ultraviolet Grasslands by Luka Rejec is a psychedelic pointcrawl about survival and exploration. Pointcrawls are modules where most of the game will take place at specific locations, while travelling between them is abstracted. The landscape is vast, though. On a journey between locations the standard unit of time is a week.

A post-post apocalyptic world

Survival and Exploration

Survival, resource management and trade are important elements of the game. Players need to keep track of provisions for their characters to stay alive and they might want to hire retainers, manage finances, trade goods and even perform market research in order to see their characters thrive. The true protagonist of the adventure however is the caravan: a PC who dies will be replaced by a new character who was part of the caravan all along. Characters might die of starvation, sickness or to random encounters. We will decide as a group about how lethal we want the game to be: We could start characters at level 2, inflict scars and permanent Stat-damage on characters who are reduced to 0HP or use a death & dismemberment table.

So vast it doesn't even fit inside the margins 

The other key elements of the game are exploration, discovery and making new experiences. Characters may gain XP for discovering new locations or studying organisms and they might find treasures, useful items and trading opportunities while exploring hidden locations. 

The UVG is described as an anti-canon world, which means that nothing in the setting book should be taken as a settled fact. Descriptions are evocative but the information is held deliberately vague, conveyed as tables of contradicting rumors or scattered all over the book. As a group we will have to fill in the blanks together.

Could those be Diesel Dwarves?

The history of the Grasslands is open to interpretation as well, there is no fixed time-line of past events - only references to The Long Long Ago and the Long Ago. In between those eons The Great Forgetting may or may not have happened. All we know is that past civilizations have left behind advanced technologies indistinguishable from magic: wondrous machines and biomechanical creatures.

Quests

Before we start we need to settle on a quest that will allow us to explore the Grasslands without losing sight of the final destination: The Black City. I've trimmed the 8 quests down to the following options:

1. Prophecy: Find the three crystal keys scattered throughout the Grasslands. Once the keys are gathered, travel to the Black City to unlock the Gate to the Stars / prevent / or cause the apocalypse. 
2. Travel Guide: A patron finances a travel guide to the Black City full of illustrations, restaurant recommendations and descriptions of exotic locales.
3. Adventurous Traders: A patron finances an extraordinary trading caravan. Find treasures hidden in the Grasslands, strike lucrative trade deals! Enter the Black City filthily rich ... or die trying!

System

We will be using Whitehack, a simple roll under d20 system based on OD&D. The system should allow players to realize the idiosyncratic character concepts of the Ultraviolet Grasslands. Players can roll on the d40 hero table for inspiration or build characters from scratch based on the three archetypes of The Strong, The Deft and The Wise.

1. The Strong starts with higher HP on average, the ability to wear heavy armor without penalty and a slot for a special combat move. They can also acquire a power from a killed enemy. 
2. The Deft is a mixture between the classic Thief (they can deal double damage when striking from an advantageous position instead of rolling with advantage) and the Specialist class from LotFP.  They can attune themselves to objects, animals or draw inspiration from teachers. 
3. The Wise can perform "miracles" (spells, summoning demons, using strange technology), which are paraphrased in a few words. The exact effect and cost in HP are determined on a case for case basis by Referee and Player.  

In Whitehack characters are rewarded XP for "killing monsters, accumulating treasure and completing quests" (Whitehack p.14). As a house rule they also might earn XP for exploring the UVG, tasting exotic dishes and trying out new drugs.

We will be using a google.doc as online character sheet.

Some Strong characters can cling onto huge opponents 

Aim

For the first session the aim is to make characters, decide on a quest, assemble the caravan and get on the road as quickly as possible, hopefully after not more 30 minutes. Ideally we see all the elements of the game in action, from encounters to discoveries. Black City or bust: For the whole campaign the goal is to reach the Black City and fulfill the quest.

Tone 

Completely up to the group. The text of the setting book implies a more light-hearted tone but we could play it more seriously or goofy or both. In general I think the tone is more a result of players interacting with each other and the world rather than something that needs to be decided once and for all beforehand. 

uh ... nope?

Subject Matter

Potentially problematic issues could be body horror, loss of agency (possession is a recurring theme) and slavery. We will be using the X-Card as a safety tool, but if desired we could add other tools as well.