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.
System and Characters: I love the
d40 hero table and chose Whitehack mainly as a flexible system that made
realizing these concepts easy, yet mechanically sound. We had a Redland District
Folk Hero, Yellowlander Climate Migrant, Secret Azure Cultist, Metropolitan
Accountant Monk, Volkan Diesel Dwarf, Purplefolk Doghead Anarchist, Black Gold
Industrialist, Tumult Fisher Wizard, Cogflower Necromancer Lawyer, Wildfolk
Demon Hunter and a Moon Mountain Witch, and they were all memorable characters.
The heroes were rolled completely randomly although when in later stages of the
campaign a player rolled a character type that was already chosen they would
pick another of the three numbers to determine the hero instead. The two
remaining results then decided the reason they were on the road and their
starting item. Initially I wasn’t entirely convinced by the second column (Why
are you on the road) but the quests turned out to be crucial for wrapping up
the campaign and finding a satisfying end. Luka skillfully equipped many
discoveries with potentially quest relevant content e.g. it is probably not a
coincidence that there are plenty of replacement bodies to be found and a
Mother Silicone in the Dark Hospital when “Finding a body for Mother” is one of
the character goals. To incentivize pursuing their goal, the PCs earned XP when
working towards it. In most cases it meant that there was a certain chance per
Discovery they would find something related to their quest or that they ticked
a progress clock when they used their action at a Destination to work on a
project.
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.
Caravan and Travel: Travelling
through the vast landscape felt appropriately epic, every leg of the journey
taking at least one week. The travel procedure provided a satisfying structure
and we got into the groove pretty quickly. In the beginning market research and
trading was fun albeit not entirely successful. However they hit the jackpot when through some random rolls they first found Black Lotus at a
discovery and then sold it at the Puce House for a multiple of its value. At
that point market research and resource management became less of a focus but
the players enjoyed the freedom their wealth gave them. Likewise when they
arrived at the Behemoth Shell they encountered (again through a random roll)
Great Folk Bone Farmers who sold them the nutritious marrow beets that solved
their resource problems for large parts of the journey.
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.
Destinations and Discoveries: The stars of the show, incredibly evocative and visually
interesting. The encounters and misfortunes helped to reinforce the theme of
the place although the middle result of the misfortune table didn’t add
anything immediately gameable. I really enjoyed the intro descriptions and
often read them aloud as boxed text when the PCs entered a new destination. The
weather descriptions were fun as well and further defined the feel of the
place. 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.
Factions: Early on the PCs aligned themselves with Syruss Sensible,
blew up the Broken Line and stole a Porcelain Walker. At the Jade Baobab the
PCs prevented members of the Second Hand Clan to sell Rainbowlanders into
indentured service for the Porcelain Princes. In the second half of the
campaign the Ultras organically emerged as the most influential faction of the
campaign after the players encountered Soba de Garoba at the Gemstone
Tomb in the Lake of Oil and Sama Zivani at the Lonely Lodge. Based on the rumor table on p. 167 it made sense to involve them in Azures plot to cause the end of the world. More
important than the major factions were the groups the PCs belonged to, mainly
the Cult of the Blue God and the Machine Humans. The setting with its
apocalyptic cults, trade companies and revolutionaries has a lot of potential
for faction play without actually involving the major factions.
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
Statistics:
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
I'm assuming that the audio for Season 13 was lost since it's not on the YouTube playlist?
ReplyDeleteOne of the players didn't want the sessions to be recorded so we played them off-stream.
Delete