Finally: Longwinter #2 is nearly ready (Patreon)

Dear Heroes.

Thank you for your patience. Truly, if patience were a superpower, you are all superheroes. I can't even believe how long it's been since my last update and I am truly sorry about that. Yes, certainly, the UVG has kept me busy, but as much was a result of my mistakes, as it was a result of the quantity of work.

Quite simply, I sorely underestimated how hard it would be to combine layout, editing, and creative work.

I am learning my lessons from all this, and all future finished books will be laid out by full-time graphic designers, with me only involved to assist with ideas. That should leave me about two or three times as much time to draw and write. Yes, adding an additional-but-different task swallows up that much energy.

I've truly missed writing new work, and with the monsoon finally bringing steam to Seoul, I've also missed the winter quite sorely.

That's why it's been such a pleasure these last several days when I gave myself a series of mornings to work on Longwinter: the Escape.

But first, Ennies 2019

The Free Intro to the UVG has been nominated for the best free rpg! And lots of cool folks, from Melsonia to Silent Titans to Questing Beast are also up there. Do take the time to vote, and maybe discover what else is new in the RPG sphere! Votes are open till the 21st of July: http://www.ennie-awards.com/vote/2019/

So, what's happened with Longwinter?

Well, I think I've figured out how to make a survival generator and I want to share it with you now. Currently, I've set up to deliver a one-or-two session survival adventure, which is different every time. It assumes the players head off across the wilderness and high mountains to escape the Valley of Brezim because the roads are cut off by Winterwhite's iceworms - gargantuan, dimly sentient glaciers. If you're picturing the sandworms of Dune, but made of ice, you're in the right ball-park.

So, how does it work?

Ok, I'm letting you in on a secret. A major reason I'm writing this post is to share the mechanics for the survival game. I've tested it in solo play, and will make more tests of it with real live humans soon, but the more eyes look at them, the more chances I have to tweak and fix them up.

----/// Survival Cards 2.0 ///---- 

 Get a deck of ordinary playing cards, the ones with hearts and diamonds, clubs and spades. These will generate the narrative framework of the survival adventure. Show them to the players and explain this to them, so they understand this adventure and how it works.

Different suits represent different terrains, complications, and characters. Diamonds represent icefield locations, supernatural challenges, and magical characters; spades represent mountains, physical challenges, and violent characters; clubs represent forests, resource challenges, and natural characters; and hearts represent rivers, social challenges, and helpful characters.

In every case, lower numbers are less challenging, higher numbers are more challenging. Aces are mixed, offering great opportunities and great risks. Jokers are random.

To activate the escape event and “win” the players have to collect a set of cards: three of a kind (e.g. three kings) or four in a row (e.g. 2,3,4, and 5 of diamonds); or deplete all the location cards. The higher value their set, the better their escape result (three queens give a better result than three sixes). Not all the player characters have to survive for this to happen!

Generate and play the adventure using watches (6 hour periods, 4 to each day) and actions. Each watch a different player chooses the group’s action. Some actions may spend additional watches. Track cold, weather, events, and encounters using the Longwinter calendar as normal.

Play starts with all the cards in the deck. During play, cards will be placed into three additional areas: the discard pile, the misfortune pile, and the players’ card collection. If at any time there are not enough cards in the deck to draw from, shuffle the discard pile and add it to the bottom of the deck.

The actions are:

Travel—this is the basic action required to win the game. The player deals three cards from the deck onto the table. River and Forest cards (hearts and clubs) cost one additional watch. Mountain and icefield cards (spades and diamonds) cost two additional watches. The player chooses where the group will travel and marks that card. The referee then generates the challenge using the remaining card on the left, and the non-player character using the remaining card on the right. Both of these cards are then added to the discard pile. 

The referee then resolves challenges, weather, events, and encounters for that leg of the journey. When at least one member of the group overcomes the challenges and reaches the location, that card is added to the players’ card collection.

Rest—this is how the player characters recover health and heat. It requires shelter from the weather. The player then draws a card from the deck and places it on the misfortune pile (if there isn’t a misfortune pile yet, this creates one). If the card is lower in value than the last card on the misfortune pile, the referee immediately generates a challenge and character from that card. Kings are the only cards lower in value than aces. Jokers are higher in value than every other card, except sevens. The whole misfortune pile is then shuffled and added to the bottom of the deck.

Build Shelter—if no shelter is available, it takes one watch to scout out a suitable location and reinforce it with snow and branches to provide a place to rest. The player then draws a card from the deck and places it on the misfortune pile, as with the rest action.

Explore—challenges and characters may leave behind clues, locations, or resources. It takes a watch to explore them and recover anything of value. The player then draws a card from the deck and places it on the misfortune pile, as with the rest action.

---/// Some More Locations ///---

11 / Jack of Diamonds: Staircase of Ice

A cascade of ice blocks the size of houses tumble from the overflowing corrie. The blocks form a titanic staircase damming the valley and ascending the mountain flanks. A lake thick with floating ice is forming behind this fresh plug in the valley.

Travel is disadvantaged, defenders are advantaged on the ice blocks.

Nooks and crannies out of the wind are easy to find, but the ice is freezing.

12 / Queen of Spades: Howling Saddle

Two fang-peaked mountains meet in a pass worn smooth by the natural wind funnel. The uplift has left striated bands of rock twisted like salted worms. Chiselled steps and rusted pitons mark the way.

All ranged attacks are disadvantaged by the winds.

The wind and cold are both magnified in this pass.

13 / King of Clubs: Needletooth Trees

Worms of ice crawl up from the ground. They embrace the trees. Leaves become diaphanous frosted wisps. Needles become sharp and hard as crystal teeth. With every breath of wind the forest rattles and wheezes with the laughter of dead shamans.

Ambushes are advantaged, travel is disadvantaged.

The wind and the cold seem sharper here.

When Will It Be Ready?

Next week, I think.

The 54 locations are basically ready. Ok, need to come up with jokers. Any suggestions on those locations?

I need to sprinkle the challenges and characters around the different "cards," and that should be that. It's like ... a couple of d50 tables left, and some layout. How bad could it be (famous last words)?

Well, that's great, but we really want to hear about the UVG. Why aren't you done yet?

Because, frankly, I've been dreading the layout work on the caravan sheet and the map. It's literally the last thing to do, and I suspect it's bringing up some unpleasant memories from my last job or something. So, yeah ... I've been pacing around it like a cat around a hot tin of tuna. On the plus side, the typos have been hunted, and ... yeah. SO CLOSE. O_O

SO CLOSE.

Anyway, the coloring has been proceeding, and that's also fine.

Let me distract you with a colored picture of Vorgo the Were-pug.

And now, to wrap up on some cool news: the UVG dice are finished!

And finally, for your patience - the high-res version of the Longwinter Chapter 2 cover!

Thank you folks!

-Luka
-A Saturday
-In Seoul
-Steam Over The River Is A Bit Like Smoke