AAR: Zoa of the Vastlands
This continues a long-form campaign, Zen and the Art of Caravan Maintenance. Emmett & Joshua are seeking ancient truth in the scrolls of the Lime Nomads, in a pink Routemaster autogolem. Joshua wants to cross the Final Barrier and be able to raise the dead. While they’re doing that, they’re also making some money being a tour-guide for Spiral 8-body. We left the party around a campfire, having tried to defuse an encounter with some pointy horses. But now it’s time for something Completely Different1… The UVG game we’re playing is written by Luka Rejec, and another of his projects is called Zoa of the Vastlands2. It is a zine for expeditions, safaris, and research trips looking at the flora and fauna of the UVG world. This emphasises one of Luka’s ideas in UVG, which is that the party can gain XP from seeing new animals and new places, as well as the traditional options. One of its ideas is to have the party sit around a campfire, discussing what they saw that day. So, that’s what happened. We spent some time first going through in more detail the setting up of the camp and the view of the sunset and the night sky over the steppes. Then described some things the party had seen. This doesn’t require a GM, it’s pure co-operative story-telling, so I took the role of Spiral, the NPC. ...