An astute reader noticed a somewhat obvious error here -- Padrig describes the Hillfolk ambush as Anwen's 'first fight,' when she's clearly fought the crinwin before. Whoops! In my head, Padrig was saying that this was the first life-or-death fight against *other humans* that Anwen has experienced, though of course the text doesn't convey that at all.
If you see similar errors, feel free to expose me in the comments. :) I'm going to try not to retcon anything with some ersatz patch notes, but I may try to write in a correction in future episodes.
I've only just noticed, but it looks like thus far Vahid's Well-Versed may have been being misread. Per the version in the latest Dropbox folder it gives "a follow-up question of your choice (even on a 6-)" rather than advantage.
Oh my, good catch! Not sure where I got it into my head that it provides Advantage instead. I'll make sure to run that properly in the future, thanks for the heads up!
"Anwen has 1 Resolve saved up to power her Anger is a Gift move...When she demanded that Padrig hold his fire and let the Hillfolk live, she was able to trigger her shiny, new Speak Truth to Power move"
Wow! What an interesting, useful, and flavorful mechanical interaction! 😙
“I know that,” she says, shortly. “I’m not a fool, I knew you would shoot the moment I said it, and I knew it was the proper thing to do. But I was watching him, and I don’t think he was like the other two. He might have accepted.” She pauses, then continues bitterly: “And if I had just held him down, we’d know for sure, and he might be alive.”
I really like (and am relived by this "zig instead of zag") moment for Anwen. So many folks in her position adhere to the Naruto principal of charismatic naiveté. I really feel for her here.
Yes -- I think for someone like Anwen, who wants to be a hero (like her image of her father) and holds herself to a high, perhaps impossible, standard, she would internalize this, rather than lashing out at Padrig for doing the prudent thing.
Thanks for great episode and session! I'm starting to get invested and am liking the flow.
If I would have been two years earlier I could've got my hands on the playtest. I'm really liking how Stonetop is looking and have pre-ordered it. Good thing I have plenty of other rpgs to keep me busy so I can patiently wait until release. (One of them being Blades in the Dark after reading Proper Villains 😃)
I love the slice of life/settlement building vibes of the system!
I think if you pre-ordered, you can receive access to the WIP rules, which are regularly updated as the creator moves things towards final! If you preordered through backerkit, there may be info about how to do it in the email (unless things have changed!)
I didn't remember seeing anything about it in the email and checking again it didn't mention that.
However your response prompted me to dig a bit deeper and it looks like they have the a link to the preview play kit in the September Kickstarter update which is available to everyone as far as I can tell. It might be unintentional as the December update is backer only but it is very considerate of them!
Still can't wait to get my hands on the physical copies but it will be nice to look through the pdf to get a better feel for the setting and rules!
Overall, the "when x happens, no roll, keep x to use now or late later" format moves are some of the most flexible and powerful tactical boons in the game, imo.
From a combat perspective, Prepare a Welcome is the most powerful, and quite flavorful since this guy is a "scouty" flavored leader. It's also not so much of a standout - from either perspective - that it warrants the needed double down on +int. Also, I'd argue, Pad is less of a strategist, and more someone who can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by staying calm and calling plays mid-battle as the 'golden path' reveals itself to him.
Call the Shot is fun, and I _100%_ thought of it when reading how the last combat played out. That would have been great! But I think Pad's not a ranger, he's a marshal, and while this is cool, and broad, it's less fluffy (esp after him not having it when he needed it most so far!) than the other two options. That said, him saying "oh wow, if I was a better shot, I could have winged that kid and not had to kill him" could be a thing, but does that sound like Pad to you? No. He's protected his people, and that poor kid got more chances than most. It's not fair, but the risks were way too great.
Finally, let's consider Stentorian. Firstly, it's twofer - a voice that can carry above other noise without rolling can be useful in a market, in a forest, over a storm. It says "through even the din of battle" but I think it's fair to assume you could use it elsewise too. Now to the meat - "have I gone into battle? Ok, I get 2 Command." that just _feels_ hot, doesn't it? And now, without rolling, you can intercede to give an ally advantage on whatever they're fixin' ta do. That's enormously powerful, especially in these fights which are 2-4 rolls anyway. Pad's a natural leader, and he's becoming more and more of a leader (and a reluctant mentor) as the story progresses. Everything he's been doing he's been doing for his crew at least as much as for himself, if not more. Expressing that more through his moves, I think, is a good play here.
Make the considered choice.
Make the choice Pad would make.
Make the _right_ choice, and vote Stentorian with me this election 😅
I see "stren" a few times early on, and when I search it in the book, I see it's a name suggestion for Hillfolk. I had thought it was their word for magicy person, but that's a gouzadn or a hdour. What are we meant to intuit there?
Great question -- I didn't notice "Stren" as a Hillfolk name until after I coined the term in the previous episode.
According to the setting book, the Hillfolk language is inspired by Breton, with clipped vowels -- Adm instead of Adam, for example. The Breton word for foreigner, stranger, is "estren," which is similar to the french word "étranger" (like in "Légion étrangère," the french foreign legion). I clipped the vowel from estren to stren, and the word is intended to be similar to gringo, gweilo, and kuffar, a word for outsider, tinged with distaste and disrespect (and sometimes, depending on tone and context, outright hostility).
Oh wow, I love it. I'd appreciate some footnotes like this when you get clever, but I'm an anthropology nerd. That said, I bet there's a lot of overlap for folks who like story games and folks who like this type'a thing 🤷🏿♂️
An astute reader noticed a somewhat obvious error here -- Padrig describes the Hillfolk ambush as Anwen's 'first fight,' when she's clearly fought the crinwin before. Whoops! In my head, Padrig was saying that this was the first life-or-death fight against *other humans* that Anwen has experienced, though of course the text doesn't convey that at all.
If you see similar errors, feel free to expose me in the comments. :) I'm going to try not to retcon anything with some ersatz patch notes, but I may try to write in a correction in future episodes.
Googled "ersatz". Excellent word.
So much to like in this session:
* Adm's faint try to lure Vahid near him, even when he's to weak to execute his action.
* The whole "interrogation" of Adm overall.
* Anwen approach of handling the harsh reality and resenting her "failure" to grapple the hillfolk rider.
* The fancy combination of Vahids sageing and Anwens Resolve and pushing of limits.
* Voting rights. Shiny.
I've only just noticed, but it looks like thus far Vahid's Well-Versed may have been being misread. Per the version in the latest Dropbox folder it gives "a follow-up question of your choice (even on a 6-)" rather than advantage.
Oh my, good catch! Not sure where I got it into my head that it provides Advantage instead. I'll make sure to run that properly in the future, thanks for the heads up!
"Anwen has 1 Resolve saved up to power her Anger is a Gift move...When she demanded that Padrig hold his fire and let the Hillfolk live, she was able to trigger her shiny, new Speak Truth to Power move"
Wow! What an interesting, useful, and flavorful mechanical interaction! 😙
“I know that,” she says, shortly. “I’m not a fool, I knew you would shoot the moment I said it, and I knew it was the proper thing to do. But I was watching him, and I don’t think he was like the other two. He might have accepted.” She pauses, then continues bitterly: “And if I had just held him down, we’d know for sure, and he might be alive.”
I really like (and am relived by this "zig instead of zag") moment for Anwen. So many folks in her position adhere to the Naruto principal of charismatic naiveté. I really feel for her here.
Yes -- I think for someone like Anwen, who wants to be a hero (like her image of her father) and holds herself to a high, perhaps impossible, standard, she would internalize this, rather than lashing out at Padrig for doing the prudent thing.
Thanks for great episode and session! I'm starting to get invested and am liking the flow.
If I would have been two years earlier I could've got my hands on the playtest. I'm really liking how Stonetop is looking and have pre-ordered it. Good thing I have plenty of other rpgs to keep me busy so I can patiently wait until release. (One of them being Blades in the Dark after reading Proper Villains 😃)
I love the slice of life/settlement building vibes of the system!
I think if you pre-ordered, you can receive access to the WIP rules, which are regularly updated as the creator moves things towards final! If you preordered through backerkit, there may be info about how to do it in the email (unless things have changed!)
I didn't remember seeing anything about it in the email and checking again it didn't mention that.
However your response prompted me to dig a bit deeper and it looks like they have the a link to the preview play kit in the September Kickstarter update which is available to everyone as far as I can tell. It might be unintentional as the December update is backer only but it is very considerate of them!
Still can't wait to get my hands on the physical copies but it will be nice to look through the pdf to get a better feel for the setting and rules!
Ok, here's my arguement for Stentorian:
Overall, the "when x happens, no roll, keep x to use now or late later" format moves are some of the most flexible and powerful tactical boons in the game, imo.
From a combat perspective, Prepare a Welcome is the most powerful, and quite flavorful since this guy is a "scouty" flavored leader. It's also not so much of a standout - from either perspective - that it warrants the needed double down on +int. Also, I'd argue, Pad is less of a strategist, and more someone who can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat by staying calm and calling plays mid-battle as the 'golden path' reveals itself to him.
Call the Shot is fun, and I _100%_ thought of it when reading how the last combat played out. That would have been great! But I think Pad's not a ranger, he's a marshal, and while this is cool, and broad, it's less fluffy (esp after him not having it when he needed it most so far!) than the other two options. That said, him saying "oh wow, if I was a better shot, I could have winged that kid and not had to kill him" could be a thing, but does that sound like Pad to you? No. He's protected his people, and that poor kid got more chances than most. It's not fair, but the risks were way too great.
Finally, let's consider Stentorian. Firstly, it's twofer - a voice that can carry above other noise without rolling can be useful in a market, in a forest, over a storm. It says "through even the din of battle" but I think it's fair to assume you could use it elsewise too. Now to the meat - "have I gone into battle? Ok, I get 2 Command." that just _feels_ hot, doesn't it? And now, without rolling, you can intercede to give an ally advantage on whatever they're fixin' ta do. That's enormously powerful, especially in these fights which are 2-4 rolls anyway. Pad's a natural leader, and he's becoming more and more of a leader (and a reluctant mentor) as the story progresses. Everything he's been doing he's been doing for his crew at least as much as for himself, if not more. Expressing that more through his moves, I think, is a good play here.
Make the considered choice.
Make the choice Pad would make.
Make the _right_ choice, and vote Stentorian with me this election 😅
Yep I thought Stentorian was the right character + use-case fit as well
paid for by the "Maybe Machi Takes This Too Seriously" Coalition
I see "stren" a few times early on, and when I search it in the book, I see it's a name suggestion for Hillfolk. I had thought it was their word for magicy person, but that's a gouzadn or a hdour. What are we meant to intuit there?
Great question -- I didn't notice "Stren" as a Hillfolk name until after I coined the term in the previous episode.
According to the setting book, the Hillfolk language is inspired by Breton, with clipped vowels -- Adm instead of Adam, for example. The Breton word for foreigner, stranger, is "estren," which is similar to the french word "étranger" (like in "Légion étrangère," the french foreign legion). I clipped the vowel from estren to stren, and the word is intended to be similar to gringo, gweilo, and kuffar, a word for outsider, tinged with distaste and disrespect (and sometimes, depending on tone and context, outright hostility).
Oh wow, I love it. I'd appreciate some footnotes like this when you get clever, but I'm an anthropology nerd. That said, I bet there's a lot of overlap for folks who like story games and folks who like this type'a thing 🤷🏿♂️