Year 1
Spring, Year 2
Summer, Year 2
Fall, Year 2
Eyjolf enjoyed a very productive Fall with a good Harvest, some good Hunting, a defeated draugr, and some new gear. His supplies are brimming with Food, Ale, and Preserved Meat in preparation for the Jól Festival. He even earned his first Fame from Hunting a Giant Bear and slaying it. The Festival is upon us…
Month 1
Jól Festival is held in Month 1, but we have some time before we need to attend. I worry about our stocked Sheds and want to finish the next one in case the incoming rewards overfill. We get some High Winds for -2 to outdoor activities, but we’ve got some Wood left over to counter it with. So we go to Build and spend the last of our Wood to guarantee success. We can now hold up to 16 different items in Storage! After, we Cut Wood to resupply (no illness in either activity) and manage to get 4 Wood on a good roll.
Week 2 is Cold Weather. I think we’re ready, time to head to the festival. To begin the events, we sacrifice our Pig to get +1 for the roll. Still, we only get 1 Field bonus, but we’ll take it. With that done, it’s time for the big Feast. Unlike other seasonal feasts, the Jól feast is a chance to throw huge piles of resources for a chance at earning fame and followers. We’ve been stockpiling all year for this. So, we offer up 8 Ale, 4 Meat, and 3 Food (there’s a lot of drinking at this Feast). Our Skald also plays some tunes for the crowd and gives us +1 to this roll and our high Happiness gives another 2 for a total of +5 (with our Wisdom of 2). We just earn the best result with a roll of 6. We earn 15 Supporters, 2 random Hirðmenn, and 1 Fame. Luckily, the Supporters we earn are exactly what we needed to qualify for the next Fame Level (which requires 20 Supporters). For our Hirðmenn, we get a Sailor and Scout, perfect for Raiding! This couldn’t have gone any better. To finish out the festival, we go back to our old favorite, Mock Battles. From that, we earn a Goat. The Festival is done, but now we have a Fame Event to resolve. For this one, I have the option of paying 10 Silver to opt-out of military service, but Eyjolf laughs at this and agrees to patrol the coast in search of enemy raiders. With a re-roll, we spot them easily and engage in battle. Eyjolf has no issue hacking apart his foe with a shiny new Dane Axe. We earn 12 Silver, 8 Food, and 6 Supporters for winning the day. To celebrate, we go Ice-Skating and (with another re-roll) bring home 1 Ale, 5 Food, and 1 Happiness. Probably not the best use of a re-roll.
The next Week gives us Snow, so this is probably a good time to avoid difficult stuff like Building. Instead, we take advantage of our newfound notoriety in Norse society and look to Foster some locals. Our Skald gives us a +1 to the roll, but we only get one Foster child (Eyjolf is still not great with his words). This brings our Household to 6. After, we Cut Wood (no illness) for 2 Wood. The next Week is only Cold, so we take the opportunity for some outdoor activities. We Mine Iron for 2 Iron Ore, then go Fishing but bring in only 1 Meat.
With such a great first Month, this looks like a productive Winter. What could possibly go wrong…
We finish the Small Field at the End of the Month and eat up 12 Food (we’re getting pretty big, but we still have a healthy stockpile of Food and Preserved Meat). No Event again. And then… some sort of terrible illness spreads through the Household. Nearly everyone gets sick, dropping our Happiness from 12 to 4. Well, this is a problem.
Month 2
The entire Household is sick, which is bad. Any of them still sick by next Month could die. The Farmhand is also on 1 HP and could die if not healed. And our Happiness tanked down to 4. We need to at least get it back to 5 for the bonus to Recuperate, which we’ll be doing a lot of this Month. First, we Craft a Carving for that +1 Happiness. Next, Recuperate. We just get to 2 Recovery Points. We also spend our last 3 Medicine to heal 5 total. Still need more healing! The next Week is Cold, but I don’t think I have time for anything outdoors. We’re out of Medicine. Another bad month of illness could be crippling and all the hard work could be undone. So, first, back to the market. No Event. We sell off the 1 Hide and my old Spear for 4 Silver each. Not great, but I’ll need the Silver. We buy 6 Medicine for 48 Silver. It’s expensive, very expensive, but we might need it. And even if we don’t use it all, it’ll get used eventually. But this means we’re far from affording that Ship I wanted. Maybe I can figure something out. We Recuperate after and heal 1 so all Household members are in the clear.
Next Week is Snow, so we’re probably not going out again. We’ve got a sick Goat sitting around, so we try to Slaughter it but Eyjolf’s poor Farming prevents any progress there. You live, for now, Goat. We Recuperate again and heal our Cousin and Farmhand. I could have spent the Medicine to finish us off, but I decide to hold onto it. We’ve got more time to heal and next Month could also be really bad. Next Week is back to trying to Slaughter the Goat, and we succeed. Then we finish healing with another Recuperate.
For End of Month, no construction. We eat 12 Food and drink another Ale. No Event. This time, we get some amazing rolls and only 1 Servant gets sick. Whew!
Month 3
We begin the last Month with Snow. At some point, we need to Attend the Thing this Month and try to get some more Supporters. I need 40 to fill a Karve, the smaller of the warships. I also need some more Household members. Since I blew through 48 Silver on Medicine, buying a ship isn’t looking too likely right now; we don’t have anything to sell. Instead, we’ll probably Build it. I already have some of the Iron Ore which we can smelt into Iron. I’ve got some Wood and can get more easily. I’ve got enough money to probably buy the rest of the supplies, but Building a Karve takes 10 Household members. So, first, we Foster. This time, we get two local families to send their children to stay with us. We Recuperate to make sure that’s taken care of, and I have to spend a Medicine to get the Recovery Point, but at least we’re all healthy.
Cold Weather for the next Week. Perfect. We go out to do some Mining and bring in 1 Iron Ore, then Cut Wood for 2 Wood. Not a very productive Week, but we don’t need too much more. The following Week is the same Weather. This time, we get 2 Iron Ore and 3 Wood. We now have our 10 Wood, and we’re short only 1 Iron Ore. It’s Cold Weather when it’s time to Attend the Thing. We spend 10 Silver for 5 more Supporters. At Fame 3, I’m asked to oversee a trial of a local criminal. Eyjolf, with his +1 from 10 or more Supporters, exiles the man. We get 1 Happiness and 5 more Supporters for 36. Almost up to 40! We head back to the market and sell the Goat’s Hide for 5 Silver. We then buy 5 Cloth for 20 Silver, 1 Iron Ore for 5 Silver, and hire 2 Servants for 20 Silver. I would have considered Thralls, but they start off sick and I don’t have time left to heal them, so they could die at the end of Winter.
End of Month; End of Winter. No construction again, but we’ll have our Ship underway soon. We eat the last of our Food and most of our Preserved Meat. We’re a big Household now so keeping stocked is going to be a little more difficult. We drink the last of the Ale too. No Event. For End of Winter, no one is sick, so no worries about death rolls. However, our Supporters had a rough Winter and we lose 8. Back to 28. Oof. On the upside, now that we’re Fame level 3, our Supporters are tenants and pay US! We get 8 Food and 4 Silver. But then we have to pay a bunch of taxes. 10 Silver to the king. For Skill increases, it’s a tough call. But Eyjolf increases his Seamanship and Wisdom. Farming will just have to stay at 0 for a while. Maybe forever…
We’re a bit low in almost everything, but we’ve got everything we need to begin construction on the Karve. We also have some seeds for Planting Crops, so we don’t have to worry about buying more seeds right now. The question is, will we be able to get enough Supporters somehow to fill a Karve? We’ve got time before the Summer Raids. But then we’ve also got to feed people, and we eat a lot every Month now. Tough decisions ahead!
Thomas P. King, author and game designer 