I love stuff like Seasons Change and Keep Company that indicate and create fiction for the passage of time. Such a useful tool for GMs and players alike.
And thank you! Heading into new territory on both fronts, but I am optimistic things will work out for the best, if not in the short run, then in the long. :-)
There's a move in Brad Murray's Sand Dogs called something like Night Falls, which explicitly ends the day, and is intended to address the sometimes endless days of one more thing play.
I wonder, a threat by the hdour could make need for an interesting winter expedition to maybe Gordin’s Delve to maybe seek the crown earlier then expected.
Then again, maybe a non (at least, directly) hdour/hillfolk related threat would be more interesting...
Brennan and Anwens mother could be explored and maybe get some closures before we close the campaign? But also might be not enough time... a well....
I think we should see if the first winter noms the max (5) surplus to set the tone °L°
So, mechanical / flow wise I assume the following would be appropriate:
1. trigger normal winter consumption (1d4+1) and see how it goes
2. evolve/resolve threat
3. rest of winter comes (1d4+1 nomnomnom) see how hungry it gets
but on the other hand, maybe seeing what a potential missing surplus does could be woven into the threat.... So maybe roll (1) check if the remaining surplus even threatens the supply and see from there.
For the purposes of dramatic tension, I did do things a little out of order, mechanically, so that we could get a sense for what's coming when we return in October. :-)
But once we get back, we'll do things in the correct order in the fiction -- there'll be that initial supply roll, and then the Seasons Change roll will take effect. The supply roll is then triggered, and we learn what our supply shortfall is (if any). The text of the move says the village must consume that supply before the end of winter (and not immediately), so that gives the party time to manage it, but they'll have to balance managing it with whatever threats the readers choose from the field. Tricky, tricky! :-)
And now we’re nearly tracking the real-world northern hemisphere seasons!
Ooh threats. To throw one more possibility out there: Perhaps the crinwin come back? Maybe they have it out for their masters’ one-time enemies, the Hillfolk, still! Or they got wind of the discovery of the cistern’s secret somehow? (And I bet Owain can bungle handling any threat somehow.)
Probably Anwen is not doing anything this side of death with Cadoc. Unless it’s a popular shepherd name. ;)
Ack! That's CadWYN, not Cadoc. I made the change in the text, good catch!
Re: The crinwin -- I was thinking they might strike this winter as well, but I'm also a bit concerned about proliferating threats -- Stonetop's creator actually gave some advice that when you're trying to move a campaign in the final act, you should actively avoid advancing newer threats in favor of resolving existing ones. That said, the crinwin could act as a bit of a wildcard, rather than a full-blown multi-arc threat, which would be cool!
Good point about moving to conclusion - I totally forgot you were trying to wrap it up. Now I remember the possibilities for the next volume and am excited anew for rural cyberpunk.
The wildcard idea has me imagining an incidental simultaneous attack by the hdour and the crinwin. Probably would turn into a three-way fight - none of those parties is friendly with any of the others. Perhaps a bit much though - I think they played such an important early role as the outside, mysterious threat that I’m just hoping for at least a guest appearance at some point. 😂 But there are a lot of other, more important and more recent threads, so I’d understand not calling back to them after all.
Reflecting on that, it’s really impressive how much depth and scope PTFO Stonetop has developed. Thanks for the hours and hours of work you’ve put in building this!
The crinwin as they appear in PTFO:Stonetop are, I think, akin to the Others or the White Walkers in Game of Thrones -- they made an appearance in our 'prologue' where the PCs first banded together to go into the woods to find Blodwen, and they've been largely quiet since then. When I put on my GM hat, I always imagine them as connected to a very big, very dangerous 'series' antagonist rather than the current slate of threats who feel more like 'season' antagonists.
And thank you! It's been a blast to explore the world of Stonetop this way. Tons of credit go to Jeremy Strandberg and the team behind the game -- the worldbuilding is great, but his tools and frameworks for creating a wide-ranging story are truly top-notch.
Just read through the series, enjoyed it very much thus far and looking forward to your return.
Kickstarter backer here from the discord, waiting for the finished version before I bring it to my group, but enjoying all of this as preparation. I know you're about to return to writing, but if you put out a piece on using Midjourney and other AI art for use in TTRPGs, I'd be very interested; they have piqued my curiosity solely for that reason!
I'm excited to return soon, though it is a bit daunting. :) Glad to hear it's fueling your prep -- I find prepping for games like Stonetop, where the PCs are tied strongly to the setting, is very creative and playful, and lacks the rote-ness of generating statblocks and balanced encounters in more tactical games (though that kind of prep can also be very rewarding).
Re: The AI art -- As the discourse around it has progressed, I'm not sure I have any insight to add at this stage. For me, the key benefit is that it's fast, and I can produce art on Sunday for publication on Monday, based on a brief that didn't exist on Saturday. In live play, I can imagine using it to generate character and environment art on the fly, but beyond that there are lots of advantages to working with human artists instead.
Great place for a break, and I think this might be the best written episode so far? It was so immersive, so cozy, so foreboding - if someone asked me what the onset of winter might feel like to an iron age village, I'd send them this. Can't wait to read more in October!
An excellent place to take a well deserved break. I hope the work projects and family business go without a hitch.
I like the mechanics for the passing of the seasons and the way Stonetop allows for compression of time. I see a hard winter ahead.
I love stuff like Seasons Change and Keep Company that indicate and create fiction for the passage of time. Such a useful tool for GMs and players alike.
And thank you! Heading into new territory on both fronts, but I am optimistic things will work out for the best, if not in the short run, then in the long. :-)
There's a move in Brad Murray's Sand Dogs called something like Night Falls, which explicitly ends the day, and is intended to address the sometimes endless days of one more thing play.
I wonder, a threat by the hdour could make need for an interesting winter expedition to maybe Gordin’s Delve to maybe seek the crown earlier then expected.
Then again, maybe a non (at least, directly) hdour/hillfolk related threat would be more interesting...
Brennan and Anwens mother could be explored and maybe get some closures before we close the campaign? But also might be not enough time... a well....
I think we should see if the first winter noms the max (5) surplus to set the tone °L°
So, mechanical / flow wise I assume the following would be appropriate:
1. trigger normal winter consumption (1d4+1) and see how it goes
2. evolve/resolve threat
3. rest of winter comes (1d4+1 nomnomnom) see how hungry it gets
but on the other hand, maybe seeing what a potential missing surplus does could be woven into the threat.... So maybe roll (1) check if the remaining surplus even threatens the supply and see from there.
For the purposes of dramatic tension, I did do things a little out of order, mechanically, so that we could get a sense for what's coming when we return in October. :-)
But once we get back, we'll do things in the correct order in the fiction -- there'll be that initial supply roll, and then the Seasons Change roll will take effect. The supply roll is then triggered, and we learn what our supply shortfall is (if any). The text of the move says the village must consume that supply before the end of winter (and not immediately), so that gives the party time to manage it, but they'll have to balance managing it with whatever threats the readers choose from the field. Tricky, tricky! :-)
And now we’re nearly tracking the real-world northern hemisphere seasons!
Ooh threats. To throw one more possibility out there: Perhaps the crinwin come back? Maybe they have it out for their masters’ one-time enemies, the Hillfolk, still! Or they got wind of the discovery of the cistern’s secret somehow? (And I bet Owain can bungle handling any threat somehow.)
Probably Anwen is not doing anything this side of death with Cadoc. Unless it’s a popular shepherd name. ;)
Ack! That's CadWYN, not Cadoc. I made the change in the text, good catch!
Re: The crinwin -- I was thinking they might strike this winter as well, but I'm also a bit concerned about proliferating threats -- Stonetop's creator actually gave some advice that when you're trying to move a campaign in the final act, you should actively avoid advancing newer threats in favor of resolving existing ones. That said, the crinwin could act as a bit of a wildcard, rather than a full-blown multi-arc threat, which would be cool!
Good point about moving to conclusion - I totally forgot you were trying to wrap it up. Now I remember the possibilities for the next volume and am excited anew for rural cyberpunk.
The wildcard idea has me imagining an incidental simultaneous attack by the hdour and the crinwin. Probably would turn into a three-way fight - none of those parties is friendly with any of the others. Perhaps a bit much though - I think they played such an important early role as the outside, mysterious threat that I’m just hoping for at least a guest appearance at some point. 😂 But there are a lot of other, more important and more recent threads, so I’d understand not calling back to them after all.
Reflecting on that, it’s really impressive how much depth and scope PTFO Stonetop has developed. Thanks for the hours and hours of work you’ve put in building this!
The crinwin as they appear in PTFO:Stonetop are, I think, akin to the Others or the White Walkers in Game of Thrones -- they made an appearance in our 'prologue' where the PCs first banded together to go into the woods to find Blodwen, and they've been largely quiet since then. When I put on my GM hat, I always imagine them as connected to a very big, very dangerous 'series' antagonist rather than the current slate of threats who feel more like 'season' antagonists.
And thank you! It's been a blast to explore the world of Stonetop this way. Tons of credit go to Jeremy Strandberg and the team behind the game -- the worldbuilding is great, but his tools and frameworks for creating a wide-ranging story are truly top-notch.
Just read through the series, enjoyed it very much thus far and looking forward to your return.
Kickstarter backer here from the discord, waiting for the finished version before I bring it to my group, but enjoying all of this as preparation. I know you're about to return to writing, but if you put out a piece on using Midjourney and other AI art for use in TTRPGs, I'd be very interested; they have piqued my curiosity solely for that reason!
I'm excited to return soon, though it is a bit daunting. :) Glad to hear it's fueling your prep -- I find prepping for games like Stonetop, where the PCs are tied strongly to the setting, is very creative and playful, and lacks the rote-ness of generating statblocks and balanced encounters in more tactical games (though that kind of prep can also be very rewarding).
Re: The AI art -- As the discourse around it has progressed, I'm not sure I have any insight to add at this stage. For me, the key benefit is that it's fast, and I can produce art on Sunday for publication on Monday, based on a brief that didn't exist on Saturday. In live play, I can imagine using it to generate character and environment art on the fly, but beyond that there are lots of advantages to working with human artists instead.
Great place for a break, and I think this might be the best written episode so far? It was so immersive, so cozy, so foreboding - if someone asked me what the onset of winter might feel like to an iron age village, I'd send them this. Can't wait to read more in October!