Alfheim -- The Grey Hill Fire


#1

Alright everyone, I accomplished my first goal of making an adventure and putting it out there for others. Now for step two – running a session on Roll20. My goal is a 2-hour run with a 15 minute or so Tribunal at the end. I’m thinking 4 to 5 players next Saturday at 11 am PST (Pacific Standard Time).

I don’t really know anything about the reliability of roll20 but plan on using that for everything. It will be an Alfheim session based around my version of the Grey Hill Fire trial combined with the Ashen Company concept.

Sign up here if you want to play; seats go to the first 5 :slight_smile:


#2

New to the forum, and have been interested in trying out ICRPG and Roll20. So I’d be interested in giving this a shot.


#3

Never done an online session before, but would be happy to hop in and play some ICRPG!


#4

I would have participate to the session if i weren’t occupied on Saturday. Maybe next time. ^^


#5

I’ll join up too! I’ve run some things in roll20, so may be able to field some questions if you have any…


#6

I am interested! I am a noob to ICRPG though I have played many RPG’s over the decades. I have familiarized myself with the basic rules and concepts from the core book (2e). I am Roll20 and Discord enabled.


#7

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DieXmtFe0z0RQPTqDkZ3DOAN4-dberBx/view?usp=sharing

@fancyscrams
@gh0sth0rse
@inorganicstream

You should be able to view this PDF. Let me know if you can’t – > this is the ‘primer’ for the adventure with your character creation instructions along with some mechanics I want to test to possibly improve the speed of an on-line game.

I’ve got room for one more if anyone else is interested. I’m going to start work on the maps. Shoot me a message on here with any questions or with a link to the token image you want to use on Roll20 (just find an image on google you want to use and shoot me the link; I can take it from there). I’m working on my ‘doc’ creating skills for layout and design so it’s a bit fancy :slight_smile:

@JulesWalther I may run this one again and will let you know if I do.


The Gar Tastes Funny: Aftermath
#8

I read through the PDF, it looks great! I really like the idea of a higher point build but leaving out the race modifiers. I agree with your thoughts about racial stat stereotyping. A few questions though:

  1. Are you limiting the races to what is shown in the core book? (not that I have an idea for an alternate yet).

  2. When burning armor does this only apply to equipped armor or is the base armor value used as well?

  3. I assume that the supplies are spent on the fly for whatever you need them for, spending supply points in the moment to achieve particular results, am I getting this right?


#9

DISCLAIMER: These mechanics are totally for testing and might change as we try them.

Armor includes all armor - just treat your AC as a total “pool” you can use to avoid damage but as you use it, you get easier to hit! I think for on-line play it MIGHT speed things up and give players a little more micro management during a fight. I have used it at my home table and my players loved it. Also made combat much faster. It is a slight “yoink” from black hack but it also isn’t the only system I have seen do this.

Same with the idea of stamina - it really speeds things up but with a cost.

Since players can manipulate a mechanic to their favor, it is also important to counter the rule with the big baddies by nerfing it as necessary. But for stock encounters, I think armor will make you guys feel more heroic.

You will FIND armor in this adventure.

Supplies will be FOUND or BOUGHT. I love the idea of them but found my players needed more guidance with what to do with them. So I created a list to help out a player. We might just say supplies are 3 uses across the board for anything on the list or maybe supplies change to bandages once you decide to use them that way and then that is all you can do with them? Honestly not sure yet but wanted to get it out there.

I wanted some kind of a narrative resource that allowed a player to have more liberty with their imagination. Instead of saying “I wish I had…” they can say “I pull out a…” and lower their supply count.

I also thought if you were stabilizing, reviving, or healing someone… having some kind of an item with you that does that made more sense.

In future “Ashen” adventures rangers will start with their grey cloak and supplies because — rangers!

In this one — you MIGHT be decked out with all the gear you need by the end of the first scene :slight_smile:

Let me know if that answers everything; first map done!

OH - no limit!!! Be whatever you want to be in terms of a race. Bring the creativity. It is a ln Alfheim world but since when has that been normal. BRING IT!


#10

I love the sound of your House Rules and Supply Mechanics. Do you mind if I test these out myself in a session I’m running tonight?

P.S. The Adventure Template looks great! Glad to see it working on multiple projects. :herocoin:


#11

the GREY HILL scenario is still one of my fav’s :smiley:


#12

@KaneDriscol everything on here is for us. Have at it! I’m not a big fan of tracking numbers but some people dig it so I am still on the fence about how it should work. I think SUPPLIES (5 uses) with the print out of what those uses are is a good starting point for testing. Ultimately a good table shouldn’t need instructions. Unfortunately RPGs have done a bit of “rules” damage to our creative thinking. I’m hoping players get to the last option – do what you want with it – and begin to see how that can apply to everything in a session.

@Runehammer agreed about that trial. Still what I go to when I’m testing out a mechanic solo. I’ve been toying around with a ‘session 0’ in ICRPG and how to run it. Consider this my “shout out” to the trial that made me a fan :slight_smile:


#13

Late to the discussion, but on the issue of consumable supplies, I recently read the rules for Golgotha and it has a clever little mechanic:

In Golgotha, rather than tracking equipment in detail, expendable resources are modelled using the Usage dice (UD). Every item with an expendable resource has a UD value given as a dice type, for example a D10 or D6. Every time the item is used, the UD is rolled. Any result of 1 or 2 means that the UD drops down a level on the following scale.

UD20 > UD12 > UD10 > UD8 > UD6 > UD4

Once you roll 1 or 2 on the D4, then the item is expended and cannot be used again until it is recharged.

I haven’t tried this yet, but it seems like it might be a decent low-friction way to make consumables actually be consumed without the micro-management of tracking how many arrows or bullets you’ve used, or how many MREs are left in your pack (unless, of course, tracking that sort of thing is a critical component of your survival campaign!).

Though maybe even this is a little more prescriptive than what y’all are talking about? Thought I’d share, nonetheless.

(Golgotha is chock full of meaty ideas, by the way. It doesn’t look great for campaign-style play, but for one-off games plumbing the depths of alien ruins, it looks like a lot of fun!)


#14

The black hack uses the exact same design. Not sure if Golgotha is its own thing or a new thing based off the black hack (there are a lot of spin offs). I like it in concept and would highly recommend black hack if you haven’t looked at it yet but when I play-tested the concept… It just felt kinda blah.

As a player I would much rather say, “That’s long enough – I think my torch sputters out.” Then have the dice police manage it for me.

In most ICRPG games I’ve played, that tends to be the universal approach and I’ve gotten my share of Hero Coins for saying, “I just hit for 22 damage! My weapon shatters as I cut my enemy in two and break the blade against the wall behind him!”

It’s why I’m still on the fence with the concept of tracking supplies. We’ll see how it goes…


#15

Ah, yes, Golgotha is based on Black Hack:

The rules of Golgotha are based on the Black Hack, a simple set of OSR-inspired fantasy rules developed for rules light dungeon exploration in the classic style. Golgotha takes the Black Hack and adapts the rules for a science fiction environment, without sacrificing the simple yet intuitive game play, and placed within the Golgotha universe.

I’ll have to find good ways to encourage my players to self-regulate stuff: given their druthers I think they’d likely just forget about that kind of detail (for which I can’t entirely blame them!).


#16

Adding my character’s token for editing/resizing/digital sorcery!


#17

LRM_20190918_085313
A quick low quality photo of my character token I illustrated last night. I will scan it later and get you a better quality image of it soon.


#18

No worries. The upload to roll20 is quick. I can prep this one and swap it out. I will email links to the roll20 session too then. Have to figure that part out :slight_smile:

Right now player sheets will be on your end and dice rolls will be with the interface dice roller. I know how to do macros but not sure if I want to run the risk of using them and having to teach you guys how to enter numbers on genetic sheets.

Plus there will be gear to add in to your sheet on the fly which I think would be faster on paper.


#19

Sounds good to me!

How would you like the abduction/background story? Are we going to describe that in session, post in this thread, or a private message?

Also, a question about the mage and priest: Since we are starting with no gear are the starting powers/spells counted as gear? I’m assuming that if we wanted one of those spells it has to be point bought? I’m not trying to bend the rules here, just want to make sure I spend the points correctly when I build my character.

Thanks for running this, I’m really looking forward to it!


#20

IIt is in the pdf I included in the thread — 10 point build; option to buy any spell from core for 2 points each. Means you can pull a spell from either a class milestone or pull from the actual spell lists.

I am fine if you want to make something up too but for that I want to provide approval.

Recommend you skim the doc too for the house rules. Should help you decide how you want to make your character.

And the stories can be sent to me if you want; you will be sharing it briefly before we start while in DAYS as a prisoner.