This session was actually from a while ago but I forgot to post it here!
Part 1: Link
Part 2: Link
Previews: Link
Version 0.8 info: Link
Playtest sign up: Link
This time, I went through Late Winter, all 3 Months at once. Took maybe an hour and change, though I know the game very closely. Most players would be fine playing a month or two at a time (or less) instead of a whole season. The game structure is flexible enough to play in small bursts or large chunks.
Late Winter
Month 1
Week one is easy going with Cold weather (-1 to outdoor activities). A good time to go hunting and cutting wood to restock our supplies. The hunt isn’t too bad, nabbing a deer with a result of 8, giving Ragnhild 3 Meat and 1 Hide. Cutting Wood gives her 3 Wood (I’m testing out a balance adjustment too). Week two is when winter begins in earnest. Snow (-3 to outdoor activities and a chance for illness when outside). Ragnhild keeps it simple with some indoor activities, Recuperating and Tending Livestock.
Week three gets worse. A total Whiteout (-4).
Luckily, festivals are nearby and can be held indoors! To the Jól Festival! Since Ragnhild is down to 1 Chicken but has 3 Goats, the last Chicken is offered to the chopping block. However, once again, the Chicken gets the last laugh with a 2 (+1 Wisdom, -1 for the Chicken). Nothing.
At the big feast, Ragnhild offers up some Meat and Food. Thankfully, her 1 Wisdom and Household Happiness saves what would have been a disastrous roll. Free Hirðman! Ragnhild gains Orm, the healer. Prefect timing, because we’re going to be doing a lot of healing this winter.
After the feast, Ragnhild complains of the weather and an old crone reads some bones to give an “x” to Weather, allowing Ragnhild to reduce the Weather one result by spending an “x”. For recreation, Ragnhild is itching for a fight, but the gods continue to mock her with a 1. This festival was a lot of ups and downs. Note, she could have spent some of her Xs in Combat that she has but it wouldn’t be a great use of them, and they can be hard to come by.
The rest of the month is less exciting. Ragnhild gets some Food from her Goats, then the last week is back to Cold. She takes this chance to go Ice-Skating but gets nothing, then finds only scraps of Wood after. Surely, all the bad stuff is out of the way now?
End of Month: Population is now 8, but Ragnhild has plenty of food, even after throwing a big feast. We get an event; a sick man arrives and we allow him to stay and recover. Unfortunately, Ragnhild’s low Wisdom continues to be a problem, and we can’t heal the man. His illness finishes him, then spreads into the Household! This is especially bad because becoming sick twice for a Household member means dying, and Ragnhild won’t have an opportunity to heal them before we roll for more illness. Several more get sick as the next month begins, but luckily no deaths.
Month 2
The first two weeks become a blur as the household is trapped inside from High Winds followed by another Whiteout. We at least get to Recuperate a little and heal up, but our Leisure activities have been a waste of time. Week three would bring Snow, but now’s a good time to reduce it to High Winds and try to get some outside work done before the month suddenly ends. Unfortunately, a 1 on the roll when Cutting Wood means a net of -1 due to the weather, but the results don’t go below 1. Still, we needed wood… The Goats at least give us some Food.
The final week is the Snow we were supposed to have. While we’ve been lucky avoiding illness outdoors, it’s time to do some healing and tending to the Goats in prep for the end of the month.
End of Month: We’ve got Food, but we’re short on Wood for the fire. 3 more become ill as we slowly start freezing! More illness sweeps through, dropping Happiness to 0. But no deaths. So far…
Month 3
At this point, Ragnhild and her household are in full survival mode. We just need to make it to the end of winter. Things will get better. Week one is Cold, so back out to cut some wood, and Ragnhild finally brings in a decent haul of 4 Wood. We’ve got a lot of sick people and animals, so we Recuperate and heal 2. Week two is more Cold weather; this might be our last chance to go Ice-Skating and Ragnhild can’t say no! Luck begins to turn and Ragnhild brings home 1 Ale and 1 Happiness from a respectable showing at the ice-skating race. We’ve been drinking our stock of Ale for Happiness each month but it’s done little to stop the onslaught from illness (which also reduces Happiness). Only 1 recovery from the next Recuperate. But we’re getting there.
Week three is Snow, but we’ve got inside business to do anyway. 3 recovery and 3 Food. Things are turning around! Week four, the last week of winter comes around and it’s Cold. And Ragnhild hasn’t been to the local Thing yet! The local Thing is where those of status meet to resolve problems. For Ragnhild, it’s really just a shot at Supporters or Fame if she’s really lucky. She’s not. Didn’t hurt to try. She tends to her Goats at home, spending the last of the Feed to get 3 more Food.
End of Winter
We eat up 8 more Food, bringing us to 13 left, plenty for the next month. No event. And we’ve got Wood for the fires this time, so no more illnesses this winter. Now for the fun part, the end of winter. First, we get a perfect roll on animal reproduction. +2 Goats! The goat farm is shaping up.
We do lose a couple of Supporters from a bad winter, but that’s not a big deal. For the King’s tax, we pay our 1 Hide and 8 Silver. Finally, Ragnhild gets to level up with +1 HP and 2 Skill bonuses. No need to think too hard about it. Ragnhild takes +1 Wisdom and +1 Survival.
Having high Farming is nice for the fields, but doesn’t pair with Combat that well. Ragnhild should have either taken Wisdom so she can craft gear and heal more consistently, or taken Survival for better hunting and gathering materials. Even Seamanship is decent early for fishing which can bring in a bit of silver from the oil. Unless Ragnhild goes raiding, there are too few opportunities to make use of Combat. She opted out of raiding her first year to focus on building at home. Maybe this year she should go raiding. But she needs gear first, ideally. At least she can do a bit better with gathering and crafting.
New Goals: Plant some crops, gather resources to build a Knaar. If she can spare the silver, building a Private Temple and commissioning a rune-stone would also be really helpful.
Thomas P. King, author and game designer 