Time for a new game.
I want to run Luka’s Ultra Violet Grasslands again, but I just don’t quite understand his SEACAT engine, so I’m going to use Black Hack for that1. We’re going to make a travelogue in the Vastlands!
Joshua and Emmett are now cattle ranchers, both seeking a quiet change in career for various reasons. They’re driving buggalo from Emerald City to the Porcelain Citadel
We had a Session Zero and talked about the kind of game the three of us wanted to take part in, and we all wanted something pretty chill.
- Violence should be largely avoidable (minimal surprise ambushes!)
- Not too grim (some of Luka’s flavour-text is being elided)
- Enjoy the ride, we’re thinking of the Westerns we like and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintence
Story
Emmett and Joshua set off on a cool but clear spring morning. The road is quiet as they slowly drive west2, although they can see ships on the Circle Sea. After a relaxing journey to the Ruins of Azure, they nervously set a camp outside. A trader, Karlo, comes to see them and whether they’re worth selling things to. He’s friendly and chats about the archaeologists here, although has no idea what they’re up to, as they’re pretty secretive. His prices are pretty high, taking advantage of his monopoly here.
Boko d’Aranje will happily talk about the benefits of disproving the clearly false, or at least out-dated, myths of a curse on this place. “Science will have its way,” he says. As everyone gathers round the campfire for the evening, Joshua breaks out his mandolin and performs. This is very popular, and he does not have to pay for his food that evening (Emmett does though).
The archaeologists relax, and start hinting at the economic reasons for the dig, and the colonial ambitions of their backers. Until they remember to shut up, at least.
In the morning, Joshua buys some expired food from Karlo, and, once out sight from the camp, casts Purify Food and Drink. Cheap food! Even if it’s not trail rations, so doesn’t last long.
They follow the road into the forest, south-west towards Violet City. At the river, one of the buggalo refuses to ford. Neither Joshua or Emmet are sure how firm they can be with the animal, but a few (measured) blows get the beast moving, although it harbours a grudge for several days.
As the landscape flattens, farms appear. The caravan stops at an orchard, and buys some apples from the cold store for a bargain. They won’t last for long, but can at least be Purified repeatedly.
Might get a bit samey though.
At last the Violet City approaches. It’s taken almost three weeks instead of the normal two, due to the buggalo. The pair pen their herd, and find an inn…
Tools
My usual choices:
- Foundry for the VTT
- Discord for voice
Does this really need Foundry? It’s currently good for:
- Communal, private, copy of the rules
- Character sheets
- Dice rolls
- The Big Map
Foundry modules
I am using:
- Custom CSS for changing the Foundry logo to a UVG one
- bh2e for Black Hack 2e
- Simple Calendar to track time, with the months set to the UVG ones
I’m not using:
- EasyTable. I really want to easily create Rollable Tables in Foundry and nothing else does it. But on the other hand, it’s not working quite right, and hasn’t been updated in a year.
- A theme - would like something a bit Sci-Fi, haven’t seen one I like yet
- PDFoundry isn’t needed any more!
- Pings isn’t needed any more!
Lessons
Not too much to report as I’m still fiddling with exactly how Black Hack is going to work with UVG. Feeling out the system, the setting, and the stories I’m trying-to-let-emerge.
- I feel, as usual, I’m skewing fantasy and not Sci-Fi
- I want to ask the players to contribute to the narrative more (channelling Luka’s co-operative storytelling “OK you can play this NPC and let’s see what happens”)
- Well hilariously Foundry rebooted mid-session because I forgot I set the docker container to update, and I didn’t set the time correctly
- If a player can’t write to a character sheet3 then they can still roll usage die but the macro will silently fail to update