Welcome to the first set of game notes of our The Rime of Frost Maiden campaign from a player’s perspective. We’ll discuss the pre-game, the session itself, the post-game and what I’m taking into the next session in each of these posts. The aim is to provide a diary of the experience from a player’s perspective.
Disclaimer
These posts are written from both the perspective of a player who has not looked up spoilers. I am enjoying the game. These thoughts are my own and I can’t speak for my fellow players.
These reports are written close to the session but may not be released immediately after.
The sections
The pre-game
I was nervous. I know that’s strange as I’m not running the game. It is a new group though. I’ve played with the same group of people for 20+ years and I don’t have that culture of playing lots of games with lots of different people online or via conventions.
So, this is my first new gaming group in 20 years.
It didn’t help that everyone kept talking about accents. I don’t do accents. I also have a small hang-up about my method of gaming. I love playing out scenes, but it is true that I have a very writing focused style of play rather than ‘acting big’. It’s sort of less acting and more a script read with some direction notes. Not sure that makes sense. Anyway, this didn’t give me the shakes or anything, but was I going to be acted into a corner?
Key points
The session had the following key points: –
- A ghoul was eating a corpse of a murdered man
- A merchant caravan was fleeing the potential scene of the murder; we promised to look into it
- We arrived at Brin Shandor; then promptly left (I think)
- We volunteered to kill a Yeti; but it turned into a goblin hunt
- We killed some goblins that had a cool ‘caravan’ pulled by polar bears
- There was a rumour of a mad moose in Lonelywood Forest
- We decided to head west in the direction of Targos
I cannot say there shouldn’t be others as I didn’t take notes.
The session
We took the narrative shortcut of having the group already travelling together as we made our way to Bryn Shandor the biggest town in Ten Towns. After a few character descriptions, we found ourselves seeing a fleeing caravan and finding a murder victim being eaten by some sort of ghoul. We defeated the ghoul. We got a whirlwind tour of the town by someone I’ve forgotten and quickly found ourselves taken to the tavern.
We got some broad information on other murders. Something about a wild moose in Lonelywood, primarily remembered because that’s where my character is from. Then we got a job by three dwarfs who’d been attacked by a Yeti and we were off. Cue some survival rolls, a dead body and tracking down some goblins. Which we killed.
Okay reverse, I did think why are we killing the goblins? Should we talk to them first? It just all happened so fast, it felt a bit like the scene had started from the premise of us ambushing them and with the group being so knew I just thought what the hell and went with it. It’s not like I’m averse to killing goblins.
There was an awesome bow shot to cut the reins of the polar bears that were pulling the goblins’ giant caravan, which was pretty cool.
Success, stuff retrieved. Back to town. Dwarves are happy.
At this point, it was asked if any of the players want to do a cut scene or flashback to establish more about their characters? First session nerves kicked in. We’ll come back to this.
And no, I wasn’t acted into a corner.
The post-game
The session had all the elements of the first session of a campaign. People sitting back a bit, getting a feel for the campaign and their new characters. We had an extra element as the group is new so it’s not like the players have been playing together for 20+ years which allows some shortcuts.
This was inevitable and will shake itself out over the next few sessions.
The key feeling I got from the session is it felt like a very well executed one-shot. The situation was simple and direct like a one-shot. It was delivered at speed like a one-shot with little chance to breathe, stop and soak things in. Bryn Shandor was like seeing the overhead map of a town but not getting to walk around it.
This will be something else that sorts itself out as the group as a whole finds its own rhythm.
Stars and Wishes
At the end of each session, we can list stars (things to keep doing) and wishes (things we want to see).
I suggested a wish that we slow down a bit giving the characters a chance to engage with some of the stuff presented.
Plans for the next session
Okay, personal plans for the next session.
Now we’ve played a session I think I need to take stock of what it was like and based on that what the mechanisms are for inserting my character in more.
I will admit to pushing for heading west to delay the journey north as that would lead to Lonelywood. I want to get some space and levels in before we hit Lonelywood in case any personal story stuff kicks in when we arrive. It may, or may not, but distance is good at this point.
One option seems to be flashbacks are wanted and I could really get into that as while I want to avoid it being lonely fun you could really paint the picture of how your character gets to where they are now through flashbacks and this can be pretty cool. I’ll put some thought into that and it’s already adding layers to my character in my head.
Also maybe some character connections. Things some of the other characters have said that I can take as signals to react to.
We can see how that works out after the next session as it can sometimes be easier to write than actually do!