Friday Night Game Report - Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying RPG, Session 0
Last night, the Friday gaming group showed up to play their regular, once every two weeks game session. The game last night marked the start of a two- to three-month break from the Atlantis: The Second Age RPG to a different game. The players started off their campaign last night of the Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying RPG last night, a dark, Gothic setting steeped in Nordic folklore and the old myths of Scandinavia.
So this game session marked the start of the Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying game campaign with my Friday night group. The Friday night players had actually done their Session 0 for the Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying RPG back in January of this year, since they had wanted to see what the game was like, but we never actually played it back then as it was just a one-week diversion sort of thing. Since the players haven't played the game, nor were they all that familiar with the game world and its setting (though several of them did some research on the Scandinavian part of the world prior to gaming), we started the game from...the start. :) Essentially, this is the Session Zero of the game campaign. I started by giving the players an overview of the game and what it's about, and then proceeded by giving the players the very basic information that they would need about The Society, the 19th Century world that they would be playing in and the Mythic North and Upsala, and finally talked a little bit about what vaesen *are*. We then proceeded to talk about the basic game mechanics for the system and how they worked. (Since they had already played the Coriolis - The Third Horizon game in the past, they were somewhat familiar with the system mechanics of the Year Zero Engine. After a quick break to digest some of that material, we then sat down and I explained the basics of character creation and the twelve steps involved in the process. The players were quite intrigued, and we talked about various aspects of the character creation process, and then the players set about creating their characters for the game.
Character generation for the Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying game is a relatively simple affair but does have some decisions to be made, and uses a system that is similar to most of the Year Zero Engine, with some modifications that fit the world of Vaesen. After about an hour and a half to two hours of setting up the game for the the players, the Friday night players came up with an interesting mix of characters and personalities. Here's what the Friday players created.
*****
KathyB - Kathy thought long and hard about her character, and in the end created Helena Sivulsdottir, a smart, very good writer, whose earliest memory was of a lullaby as she was gently lifted from her crib. The next memory is one of her father crying out, "No! Take me instead!" at the vaesen that held her. That was the last time she saw her father, and she has no memory at all of her mother.
Angela - She always wanted to play a medical character, and created Margit Königsmark, a practicing physician who witnessed a corpse come back to life during an autopsy. She now has something of an obsession with finding out how this was accomplished - and perhaps duplicating its effects.
Ellie - Ellie wanted something different, and took the character of Anna Rask, a young cook and servant who works for Mark's character, Norden Lindenflyt, the private detective. His house was plagued by a changeling, and she helped to deal with it and as a reward has been taken in by her master and his mistress.
Mark - Mark liked the idea of playing a private detective 19th Century style, and created Norden Lindenflyt, a detective who was witness to a werewolf attack, and has taken up drinking heavily at times. He is protected and guarded by his servant and cook, Anna Rask, and she and his mistress have formed a rapport of sorts.
Peter - Peter had the idea to play a hunter, Torun Ahbergsson, who wanted to bag some fantastic game, but was bagged by a mountain troll near sunrise, and was stuck in its petrified arms for some time. He has...a few psychological problems as a result.
*****
All in all, the players created an interesting group of characters with a lot of potential.
After character creation was complete, I spent about ten minutes talking with the players about the Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying game mechanics, had them make some sample rolls to show how the game mechanics worked and how the combat system functioned, and then I ran a couple of simple combat sequences before wrapping up the session with a small sequence where the player characters were looking into the matter of some missing young children. It was nice and neat, showed off the game mechanics nicely, and gave the players a good example of how the game mechanics and in-play combat worked.
After the session was done, the players agreed that they had created some lovely, interesting characters for the game, and that Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying had relatively simple mechanics and does a good job of emulating the Gothic horror feel of 19th Century Scandinavia.
They're quite looking forward to the first full game session, and so am I! :)
So this game session marked the start of the Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying game campaign with my Friday night group. The Friday night players had actually done their Session 0 for the Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying RPG back in January of this year, since they had wanted to see what the game was like, but we never actually played it back then as it was just a one-week diversion sort of thing. Since the players haven't played the game, nor were they all that familiar with the game world and its setting (though several of them did some research on the Scandinavian part of the world prior to gaming), we started the game from...the start. :) Essentially, this is the Session Zero of the game campaign. I started by giving the players an overview of the game and what it's about, and then proceeded by giving the players the very basic information that they would need about The Society, the 19th Century world that they would be playing in and the Mythic North and Upsala, and finally talked a little bit about what vaesen *are*. We then proceeded to talk about the basic game mechanics for the system and how they worked. (Since they had already played the Coriolis - The Third Horizon game in the past, they were somewhat familiar with the system mechanics of the Year Zero Engine. After a quick break to digest some of that material, we then sat down and I explained the basics of character creation and the twelve steps involved in the process. The players were quite intrigued, and we talked about various aspects of the character creation process, and then the players set about creating their characters for the game.
Character generation for the Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying game is a relatively simple affair but does have some decisions to be made, and uses a system that is similar to most of the Year Zero Engine, with some modifications that fit the world of Vaesen. After about an hour and a half to two hours of setting up the game for the the players, the Friday night players came up with an interesting mix of characters and personalities. Here's what the Friday players created.
*****
KathyB - Kathy thought long and hard about her character, and in the end created Helena Sivulsdottir, a smart, very good writer, whose earliest memory was of a lullaby as she was gently lifted from her crib. The next memory is one of her father crying out, "No! Take me instead!" at the vaesen that held her. That was the last time she saw her father, and she has no memory at all of her mother.
Angela - She always wanted to play a medical character, and created Margit Königsmark, a practicing physician who witnessed a corpse come back to life during an autopsy. She now has something of an obsession with finding out how this was accomplished - and perhaps duplicating its effects.
Ellie - Ellie wanted something different, and took the character of Anna Rask, a young cook and servant who works for Mark's character, Norden Lindenflyt, the private detective. His house was plagued by a changeling, and she helped to deal with it and as a reward has been taken in by her master and his mistress.
Mark - Mark liked the idea of playing a private detective 19th Century style, and created Norden Lindenflyt, a detective who was witness to a werewolf attack, and has taken up drinking heavily at times. He is protected and guarded by his servant and cook, Anna Rask, and she and his mistress have formed a rapport of sorts.
Peter - Peter had the idea to play a hunter, Torun Ahbergsson, who wanted to bag some fantastic game, but was bagged by a mountain troll near sunrise, and was stuck in its petrified arms for some time. He has...a few psychological problems as a result.
*****
All in all, the players created an interesting group of characters with a lot of potential.
After character creation was complete, I spent about ten minutes talking with the players about the Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying game mechanics, had them make some sample rolls to show how the game mechanics worked and how the combat system functioned, and then I ran a couple of simple combat sequences before wrapping up the session with a small sequence where the player characters were looking into the matter of some missing young children. It was nice and neat, showed off the game mechanics nicely, and gave the players a good example of how the game mechanics and in-play combat worked.
After the session was done, the players agreed that they had created some lovely, interesting characters for the game, and that Vaesen - Nordic Horror Roleplaying had relatively simple mechanics and does a good job of emulating the Gothic horror feel of 19th Century Scandinavia.
They're quite looking forward to the first full game session, and so am I! :)