We’ve played three sessions of Mistmarch using FotF2e now, and I’m really loving it.
I have two separate groups of players making their way through the equivalent of a tutorial section: a journey through a broken, ogre-haunted land to the first hub.
I’m seeing a lot of stuff just click together: traits, bonds, burning luck, marking stats on a failure, ability damage, making camp. It all feels robust and flexible without being fiddly. Three or four of my players have never roleplayed before, and the system is great for introducing people to the hobby. The moves are discreet and easily explained; everything flows from the conversation, and the playbooks provide a handy go-to for when they’re stuck.
We had our first near-death and use of Bite the Dust last night — that move is grim. Several characters have levelled up, and I have never seen players so happy to gain hit points.
I’m thinking of making one tweak: just making one Venture Forth move per journey. I try to run each scenario in two short sessions, and rolling Venture Forth every day is stretching journeys to the adventure locations out a lot.
I may also abstract the return journey to the campaign hub with a custom move that summarises perils faced on the way into almanac-based consequences.
I’m experimenting running the game from a Trello (screenie below). This lets me store a whole almanac in each column. I colour code monsters, Discoveries, treasures and adventure locations, making it easy to scan through them. When I want details I can tap the card and pop them open. It’s a handy way to have a campaign’s worth of info a tap away (we’ll see if that stays true as the campaign grows). Working well thus far!
I like the trellis set-up! The evocative art for locations is da bomb.
Funny, we’ve never played Venture forth per day, only once per journey as you describe. Huh. Been playing your tweak all along!
I like the trellis set-up! The evocative art for locations is da bomb.
Funny, we’ve never played Venture forth per day, only once per journey as you describe. Huh. Been playing your tweak all along!
Using Trello is neat. Can you share bits with the players, or present a public page somehow?
Using Trello is neat. Can you share bits with the players, or present a public page somehow?
Thank you for sharing your experience, Chris Gardiner! I would love to hear how your tweaks to Venture Forth develop. I have fiddled with a few different ways to collapse or summarize longer journeys but so far have not found anything that I like.
Thank you for sharing your experience, Chris Gardiner! I would love to hear how your tweaks to Venture Forth develop. I have fiddled with a few different ways to collapse or summarize longer journeys but so far have not found anything that I like.
Aaron Griffin I don’t thiiiink there’s an easy way to share bits of the Trello with the players. What I’ve done instead is just drag images from it into Roll20, since we play online.
Aaron Griffin I don’t thiiiink there’s an easy way to share bits of the Trello with the players. What I’ve done instead is just drag images from it into Roll20, since we play online.
I would expect no less from writer of your caliber, Chris Gardiner, but your character and place names are the best ever.
I would expect no less from writer of your caliber, Chris Gardiner, but your character and place names are the best ever.
/embarrassed British spluttering
/embarrassed British spluttering
Would you recommend Trello over Slack for PBP?
Would you recommend Trello over Slack for PBP?
Maezar hmmmm… I think they’re for different things. Trello is purely for organising info, there’s no robust messaging like Slack uses. You can integrate Trello with Slack, so if you’ve a player-facing Trello board you can make it easily accessible from Slack. But for conversations, and a central communal repository of files, Slack is the way.
Maezar hmmmm… I think they’re for different things. Trello is purely for organising info, there’s no robust messaging like Slack uses. You can integrate Trello with Slack, so if you’ve a player-facing Trello board you can make it easily accessible from Slack. But for conversations, and a central communal repository of files, Slack is the way.