UVG DW - Session 2

Dramatis Personae

Mac 'Driver - DWARF artificer with inherited golem armor

River Thornheart - Steppelander witch/warchief's daughter

Uba Bigtooth - Half-orc gunslinger cowgirl

Cordolan s'Abner - Chief medical aristocrat of biomagical corruption (i.e., cleric)

R5F1 - Ancient golem archaeologist

Amaric diVridi - Greenlander hostler. Hired to care for the pack animals.

Taelin Nyxara - Violetlander Heretical biomancer agronomist and undergraduate wizard

Session 2 Notes

• The caravan traveled south from the Porcelain Citadel to the Trail of Vomish Dreams.
• Shortly after arriving, they were beset by a swarm of razorflies, and were forced to take shelter for four days to avoid being cut up.
• Once it was safe to travel again, they found the smashed remnants of a Porcelain Prince raiding party returning to the Porcelain Citadel. River's divination told her that they were likely attacked by a heard of biomechanical buffalo and crushed to death. The chest they were carrying was found to contain ten bottles of octopus pheromones (as Charm Cephalopod; go figure).
• After searching around, they found what they were looking for: the fallen Iron Obelisk, covered in Black City glyphs. They took rubbings of the three exposed sides and realized it was spell notation, but they could not see a way to flip it over to get the last part.
• They moved on to their next target: a ruined fort and trading post of a Vile-worshipping barbarian sorcerer.
• They found the fort, but the only entrance was guarded by a thornstone shambler, a creature of stone and briars. They killed it, albeit with some difficulty.
• Other things they found exploring the fort included:
• A twisted, mutant tree that grew fruits with anguished human faces on them. They were able to pick a sack worth of them after sedating the animate and violent tree with magic.
• The sorcerer's gold-plated hookah pipe.
• A statue of an elf-lord, with a mysterious blue crystal embedded in it that was weeping source-code corrupting fluid. Enough to flood a room over many decades, at least. They carved it out with a chisel.
• A shrinking machine in the form of a pedestal with a control panel. Possibly could be dismantled.
• A green-glass monocle.
• A fine mechanic's toolbox and manual on autogolem maintenance, in an underground garage infested with vome tunnelers.
• Upon circling around, they found the green-glass monocle revealed an illusory door, behind which they found the Sunstone Spear, a chest of $200, and the sorcerer's backup power-album.
• In so doing, however, they awoke a throng of angry radiation ghosts, who swarmed about the room reenacting the battle where they rebelled against the sorcerer.
• Mac 'Driver used his ectoplasmic gauntlets to emit an energy wave that temporarily banished the ghosts, giving them a chance to escape.
  

Treasure

Sunstone Spear (close, reach, +1 piercing, 1 weight, $250). A spear of primitive aspect, with a haft carved from wood, a head made from a forged leaf-spring, and a large golden crystal stone just beneath, surrounded by green feathers. When you invoke the magic of the spear, roll+WIS. On a 10+, you fire a ray of searing light at your intended target (1d10, near, far, ignores armor). On a 7-9, choose one:

• You put yourself in danger to get the shot.
• The spear is drained of power, and cannot fire again until next sunrise.

On a 6-, the spear is drained of power.

This weapon once belonged to a prominent Steppelander shaman. If returned to the Steppe of the Lime Nomads, it could fetch an ample reward.

Mindbreaker’s Backup

Backup power-album created by the Vile-worshipping enchanter of the steppelanders, Grozbec Pale Bone.

Plastic-paper scroll, suggests trepanation for best effect, infested with memories

    Note: The spell "Forget" was adapted from Magical Industrial Revolution, by Skerples, another excellent and inspiring book that I recommend to every GM.

Charm Person

LV: 1 R: touch T: person D: indefinite

The person (not beast or monster) you touch while casting this spell counts you as a friend until they take damage or you prove otherwise.

Forget

LV: 1 R: near T: person D: instant

Target person forgets the last 10 minutes. They may recall vague details, but no specific or useful information.

Blade of Grass

LV: 1 R: near T: one or more creatures standing close together D: instant

A fistful of grass transforms into a great, scything blade. Deals 2d4 damage to one or more creatures that are standing close enough together, per the fiction. Does not ignore armor.

Body of Grass

LV: 0 R: touch T: person D: 8 hours

One person touched physically dissolves into a patch of grass along with all of their gear, becoming undetectable. The sensation is akin to resting with one's eyes closed, and the target may sleep. Speaking, moving, or taking any other action also ends the spell. No spell or attack may affect the target in this state, but anything that would damage the patch of grass instantly ends the effect.

Monsters

Thornstone Shambler 19HP 2 Armor

Solitary, Large, Amorphous, Stealthy

Damage: Thorn whip (1d10+1, +1 piercing, close, reach)

Special Qualities: Plant, Stone

At rest, it resembles a giant pile of thorny briars, albeit with a strangely stone-like texture. It is, in fact, a form of ambulatory carnivorous plant life, with a wide “mouth” and two long arm-like clusters of briars. It spends long periods in hibernation, and can attack without warning.

Instinct: To feed

Moves:

• Appear as an ordinary plant
• Tangle up someone in its coils

Radiation Ghost 3HP 0 Armor

Horde, Magical, Devious

Damage: Slam (1d4, close, ignores armor)

Special Qualities: Incorporeal

Accreted remnants of personalities fried into the fabric of space and smeared across the vastness of time. Immune to physical damage.

Instinct: To seek a world that is long gone

Moves:

• Inflict radiation sickness
• Blind synthetic eyes, deafen synthetic ears
• Show the way to a hidden treasure trove

Miniature Vile Tree 21HP 4 Armor

Solitary, Huge, Amorphous, Magical

Damage: Branches (1d10+5, reach, forceful)

Special Qualities: Plant, Immobile

Creepy looking tree with purple and yellow bark and a twisted, helical trunk. Grows blue fruits with anguished humanoid faces on them.

Instinct: To inflict pain

Moves:

• Flail wildly around
• Corrupt the source code of a victim.

Vomish Tunneler 10HP 2 Armor

Group, Large, Construct, Devious

Damage: Bite (1d8+1, close)

Special Qualities: Cyborg, Burrowing

Giant biomechanical worms that burst from the ground, hungry for protein and alchemical lubricants.

Instinct: To feed

Moves:

• Burst from the ground without warning
• Glitch out
• Swallow a victim whole

UVG DW - Session 1

Dramatis Personae

Mac 'Driver - DWARF artificer with inherited golem armor

River Thornheart - Steppelander witch/warchief's daughter

Uba Bigtooth - Half-orc gunslinger cowgirl

Cordolan s'Abner - Chief medical aristocrat of biomagical corruption (i.e., cleric)

R5F1 - Ancient golem archaeologist

Imke 'Shippingexpert - DWARF Hexad RLD smuggler, professor of Oldtech Engineering at Magenta Magical University, and caravan financier

Amaric diVridi - Greenlander hostler. Hired to care for the pack animals.

Taelin Nyxara - Violetlander Heretical biomancer agronomist and undergraduate wizard

More AI Pics

There may be a few more after this.

Imke 'Shippingexpert, Amaric diVridi, and Taelin Nyxara. Did you know you can't put three images side by side in the window when editing a blog post? Criminal.

Session 1 Notes

• The adventurers meet with their financier – Imke ‘Shippingexpert, a female Dwarf, Hexad RLD smuggler, and professor of Oldtech Engineering at Magenta Magical University.
• The Hexad has cut funding to MMU, and Imke’s plan to get new funding is to acquire new Long-Long-Ago artifacts from the grasslands.
• They took out a loan from Imke to outfit their caravan and purchase trade goods: 1 sack each of vampire wine, common intoxicants, and replacement body.
• They met the two NPCs that would be joining them on the caravan: Amaric diVridi, the Greenlander hostler, and Taelin Nyxara, a heretical biomancer agronomist/undergraduate wizard.
• They set out on the journey, and before they were out of the Violetland, River spotted an encampment of Bluelander degenerates. After some deliberation/divination, they decided to attack them first.
• The degenerates nearly killed Mac, but the adventurers prevailed.
• At the Low Road and the High, they found the Great Traveling Serai, where they did some market research. They rolled well, and found there was high demand for common intoxicants and replacement bodies at the Porcelain Palace.
• They also saw a giant, multi-colored striated rock formation off in the distance, but they didn’t go there, yet.
• They arrived in the Porcelain Citadel, where the friendly Safranian merchant Teljean de Barbier helped them sell their goods. They sold the common intoxicants and replacement body for $8000, a $4000 profit.
• They resupply their caravan and prepare to venture to their destination: the Trail of Vomish Dreams.

Concluding Thoughts

    Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, so I guess I'm not a complete hack of a GM after all. I did completely forget about the two NPCs I included with the caravan, though. Next time I'll have to make them actually do something.

    I'm surprised at how quickly the players were able to make money. It looks like they're probably not going to have to worry about compounded interest.

    The other thing I feel like I'm missing from my prep right now is rumors/adventure hooks to drop when the players arrive at a destination. Other than that, great start to a new campaign.

UVG DW - Session 0

    We met for the first time last week to discuss the setting, coordinate character creation, and create our financier and quest together.

Session Zero Agenda

1. Show off my cool new book and map.
2. Answer any lingering questions about the setting.
3. Determine character concept, background, and playbook for each player.
4. Discuss campaign premise and “hook questions.”
1. Why do you want to reach the Black City at the Edge of Space and Time?
2. Motive: Why are you doing this?
3. Stakes: What’s on the line?
4. Dangers: What do you expect to face and what do you know about them?
5. Urgency: Why should you hurry?
6. Detail: What are you seeking/hunting/fleeing/fighting/etc.?
5. Complications: What obstacles are in the way or making life difficult?
6. Create the caravan and financier.
7. Discuss new/modified rules.

Characters

This time, the players got into the idea of creating AI generated portraits. It's pretty neat. I helped and did some myself.

Name: Mac ‘Driver
Playbook: Artificer
Species: DWARF
Background: Salt dwarf prospector, inherited golem armor
Motive: In it for the money
 

Name: Uba Bigtooth
Playbook: Gunslinger
Species: Half-Orc
Background: Cow person Gunslinger, family got into bad business to keep their land
Motive: Pay off family’s debt/reclaim family land?
 

Name: River Thornheart
Playbook: Witch
Species: Steppelander
Background: Necromancer princess/Steppelander warchief’s daughter
Motive: Driven by a compulsion to seek the Black City after meeting a seer
 

Name: Cordolan s’Abner
Playbook: Cleric
Species: Rainbowlander?
Background: head Medical Aristocrat of Violet City’s most prestigious Biomedical Corruption Unit
Motive: Researching the causes and cures of biomagical corruption.
 

Name: R5F1
Playbook: Golem
Species: Golem
Background: independent freehold archaeologist
Motive: Science, and searching for where he belongs (in the geological strata)

Caravan Quest

    I started by asking the players to vote on which caravan quest they'd like to do. They chose "Explore Forgotten Ruins. A wizards’ community college is building an archaeology collection. Here, on the map, are five promising locations."

    We then rolled on the financier tables and discussed the results, choosing results that we felt synergized with each other.

Financier

Who are they? - Hexad RLD smuggler

What do they want? - Subsume the best minds

Their Organization - Wizard community college

Their Opponents - Aggressive elven hive

Weaknesses and Oddities - Turns into a felinoid in sunlight

Who is coughing up? - Post-mortal criminal drug conglomerate

How do they hope to benefit? - Mind-expanding extracts and literatures

What extra help can they send along? - Heretical biomancer agronomist

Quest Details

I selected the locations we would visit in the campaign and came up with some reasons to go there.

Trail of Vomish Dreams

There's a fallen iron obelisk rumored to be covered in Black City Glyphs. Transcribe the glyphs if at all possible, and search the area for other signs of Black City/Long Long Ago relic.

There are also legends that a Vile-worshipping barbarian sorcerer once had a stronghold, here.

Fallen Umber

There are a few giant pyramidal vome autofacs there that might have originally been built by the viles.

Near Moon

There is a giant floating spherical structure. By description, it sounds like it might be a void ship.

There is also a degenerate race of quarterlings that live beneath it that sound like they might have elven blood in them.

Ivory Plain

There is a guardian nature spirit worshipped by the natives. There are rumors that there was once a schism between the viles. If there are any living viles out in the grasslands, this is a likely candidate.

The Black City

Very little is known about it. The Black City Glyphs don't resemble Elvish, but they must have been roughly contemporary. Anything we can learn about it is valuable.

Conclusion

And at time of writing, I just finished session 1. Everyone is really excited about this campaign, as evidenced by them all showing up early. Session 1 notes coming soon.

Ultraviolet Grasslands in DW - Custom Rules

Travel Moves

UVG Travel Procedure

1. For every week of travel, choose one player to be the navigator, one to be the scout, and one to manage provisions
2. Every week, decide on a navigator, scout, and quartermaster. Other players choose moves as necessary.
3. Spend supplies. 1 sack of supplies/creature/week.
4. Resolve misfortunes resulting from travel moves.
5. Roll for an encounter.
6. Tally extra days. Roll travel moves again if extra days reach 7.

Navigate

When you plot a course through dangerous or unfamiliar lands, roll +INT or +WIS. On a 10+, you avoid dangers and distractions. On a 7-9, the GM chooses a lesser misfortune (1-3). On a 6-, mark XP, and the GM chooses a worse misfortune (4-6).

Scout

When you scout ahead and look for anything out of the ordinary, roll +WIS. On a 10+, choose two from the list below. On a 7-9, choose 1. On a -6, mark XP, and the GM chooses a misfortune.

• You get the drop on whatever lies ahead.
• You discern a beneficial aspect of the terrain – shortcut, shelter, or tactical advantage.
• You make a discovery (ask the GM).
• You notice signs of a nearby danger – ask the GM what it is, and what it might signify.

Manage Provisions

When you prepare and distribute food for the party, roll+WIS. On a 10+, choose 1 from the list below. On a 7-9, the party consumes the expected amount of supplies. On a 6-, mark XP, and the GM chooses a misfortune.

• Careful management reduces the amount of supplies consumed this week. The GM will decide how much.
• The food is especially good this week. The party consumes the normal amount of supplies, and takes +1 forward.

Rest

When you spend a week doing nothing at all, choose one. If you are under the care of a healer (magical or otherwise), choose two. You may not Scout, Manage Provisions, Navigate, or Forage during this time unless you also consume an additional sack of supplies.

• Recover all missing HP.
• Cure one debility

Forage

When you halt the caravan for a day to forage for supplies in the Grasslands, choose a leader and the number of PCs who are leaving the caravan to forage. The leader rolls +WIS. On a 10+, you gather 1 sack of supplies +1 sack per additional PC foraging. On a 7-9, the same, but choose 1:

• The provisions you gather are poor quality (-1 forward on Manage Provisions)
• You encounter something dangerous.
• The GM chooses a misfortune.

On a -6, you gather 1 sack of poor quality supplies, and something befalls the caravan while you’re away from it.

Misfortunes:

            These are suggestions for generic misfortunes that can happen on the road. Many destinations have location-specific misfortunes, and the GM is encouraged to choose one of these where applicable.

Misfortunes
	Navigate	Scout/Forage	Manage Provisions
1	Bad weather	Bad weather	Fighting over ration shares
2	Followed	Attracts attention	Local wildlife is attracted to food
3	Path obstructed (-1d4 days)	Scout is lost (-1 day)	Someone becomes Weak until  they consume 1 additional supply
4	Rough terrain (-1d3 HP to all)	Scout encounters danger	Supplies lost due to spoilage or  over-consumption (-1 sack of supplies)
5	Dangerous encounter	Scout is trapped or captured	Food poisoning (1d3 characters  are shaky and sick)
6	Horribly lost (-1 week)	Scout is injured (-1d6 HP)	A Danger is attracted by food

Destination Moves

Look for Discoveries

Once per week at a given destination, one PC may ask the locals about nearby points of interest, and roll +CHA or +WIS. On a 10+, note down 1d2 discoveries. On a 7-9, note down 1d2-1 discoveries. On a 6-, mark XP, and the GM makes a move.

The first time you use this move in a given destination, it’s free. Every subsequent investigation costs $1d6 x 10.

Market Research

When you spend a day inquiring about the local market, pick a trade good and roll +CHA or +INT. On a 10+, choose one boon from the list and roll on the table below. On a 7-9, roll on the table. On a 6-, you glean no useful information.

When you spend a week, as above, but for a chain of three adjacent linked destinations instead of just one.

• Choose an additional trade good. Roll separately to find the price factor for this trade good at the same destination(s).
• You get to choose one of the destinations where you learn the price factor.
• When you roll to determine the price factor for a trade good, roll twice and choose the better result.

D20	Price Factor	Notes
1	0	Taboo. Locals won’t take kindly to dealers.
2	0	No demand.
3-6	0.5	Low demand.
7-12	1	Normal demand.
13	1	Depressed market. -2 to haggling checks.
14-15	2	Popular, but illegal. Stiff penalties for captured dealers.
16-17	2	High demand.
18	3	Market bubble! 1-in-6 chance per visit that the market has collapsed (roll 1d10 on this table for new price)
19	4	The motherload! 1-in-6 chance per visit that the market has collapsed (roll 1d10 on this table for new price)
20	1	Source! They make the trade good here. +2 to haggling checks when buying, -2 when selling.

Buy Trade Goods

    When you buy trade goods in a settlement, you may choose to purchase goods at 10% off the list price OR Haggle. The 10% off list price only applies if you do not have Market Research pertaining to that particular trade good at this location.

Haggle

    When you arrive at a destination and try to negotiate a deal for buying or selling, roll+CHA. Roll 1d6 on the relevant column. Multiply by the price factor when selling; divide by the price factor when buying.

1d6	10+	7-9	6-
1-3	1.2	1	1
4-5	1.5	1.2	0.5
6	3	0.5	0

Running Ultraviolet Grasslands with Dungeon World - How and Why?

What is Ultraviolet Grasslands?

    In the author's own words:

The Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City is a tabletop role-playing game book, half setting, half adventure, and half epic trip; inspired by psychedelic heavy metal, the Dying Earth genre, and classic Oregon Trail games. It leads a group of ‘heroes’ into the depths of a vast and mythic steppe filled with the detritus of time and space and fuzzy riffs.

    And that's really just scratching the surface. UVG is the brainchild of Luka Rejec, who both wrote and illustrated the entire thing. It is an epic science-fantasy pointcrawl adventure setting illustrated in a gorgeous art style reminiscent of Moebius. It is an absolute god-tier work of art. I've desperately wanted to run it since I learned about it.

Why run it in Dungeon World?

    UVG technically does have its own built-in system. It's an OSR-ish six stat system of the author's own devising.

    Respectfully, it seems a little half-baked. It feels as though the system in the book is intended more to give a recognizable framework to GMs who intend to run it with the system of their choosing. I saw an actual play where they played it with The Black Hack once. I believe Rejec has/is working on a more complete version of the rules on his Patreon or somewhere, but I can't be bothered.

    My group is familiar with Dungeon World, I like and am familiar with Dungeon World, I own tons of materials for it, and I thought it would be a fun challenge to adapt it.

How does one run it in Dungeon World?

The Easy Way

    Turns out, I'm not the first person to think of this. There is a hack for World of Dungeons called World of Ultraviolet Grasslands and a hack for Dungeon World called Ultraviolet World. If you want something in a complete package you can run right away, pick one of those.

The Slightly Harder Way

    I have been working on a hack of Dungeon World to adapt Ultraviolet Grasslands to my own tastes. My design goals were thus:

• Adapt the exploration and commercial mechanics of UVG as faithfully as possible for maximum compatibility.
• Minimal rule changes to the "core" of Dungeon World for player familiarity.
• Complete compatibility with existing Dungeon World playbooks and materials.

    The two hacks I posted above both kind of do their own thing. They were useful for inspiration, but that's not what I had in mind when I arrogantly boasted to my players that we could run UVG in Dungeon World.

    I put the modified rules on a few sheets to hand out to my players along with their basic moves, and I think this is sufficient adaptation for my purposes. I will post the details on subsequent posts.

Skycrawl Dungeon World - Conclusion

    Damn, I have a blog. I have wrapped up the Skycrawl campaign since writing the last one of these entries, and a couple of sessions have passed since the 11th one. I have come to unavoidable conclusion that I need to write much shorter summaries if anything like this is to be sustainable.

Lost? Read this.

Click here for part 1. 

Click here for part 11.

Pic unrelated.

Summary

    After consulting with the Queen of Argus, the players decided that instead of just using one method to defeat the Shadow Worm, they would pursue as many as possible.

• They sent a detachment of their fleet with Trinellonde and Draigas Vong to a land called "The Great Cog," to see if they could get them to manufacture multiple Swords for them to use against the Shadow Worm.

• They went to the land known as Sollifex Aether, where new Sols are born. There, they were attacked by a pirate fleet. The Black Worm Pirates made a last ditch effort to wipe them out. Despite a close battle, they ultimately defeated the leader of the pirates and scattered the fleet.

• They went to the land of Siderinth to see if an unbreakable adamantium chain could be forged. They ventured deep inside of Siderinth and successfully parleyed with the adamantite elementals there to aid them in defeating the Shadow Wyrm. The elementals gave parts of their body to forge a mile long, unbreakable chain.

• They collected several barrels of deadly poison from the Poisoner's Tower to use on the Worm.

• Finally, they opened a portal to their homeworld, and the Worm emerged to fight them.

• They struck it with a barrage of light rays from their Swords, lassoed it with the unbreakable chain, injected it with the deadly poison, and continued to bombard it with light rays until they were sure it was dead.

• As they inspected the corpse, they found that the true identity of the Worm was actually the Archmage Thamberlon all along, that same ancient wizard who had traveled the multiverse trying to find a way to stop him in the first place. The ghost of Thamberlon explained that he had been corrupted by the primordial chaos at the beginning of time and turned into the Shadow Worm. He thanked them for breaking the prophecy and freeing him, and he passed on.

• The heroes used Lord Gonren's telepathy to speak to the young Sols of Sollifex Aether and convinced them to come back to their world, which they happily agreed to do.

• A swarm of Sols lit up the sky anew on their world. They found that Princess Claire had placed the citizens (at least some of them) in a magical slumber beneath the castle. They were awakened, and thus began to rebuild their world.

Concluding Thoughts

    So, this was my first full Dungeon World campaign. I'd say it was very successful on the whole, although I definitely felt I was losing interest towards the end. In any case, it seemed the players were satisfied with the ending. All that remains is to consider the question: what did I learn?

• If you're going to have pitched naval battles, have a clear idea of what rules you're going to use to have pitched naval battles. I had to improvise how to handle mass naval combat.

• Simplify, simplify, simplify. Skycrawl has a lot of interesting ideas and rules procedures, but it is definitely not necessary to use all of them. The travel procedure, and the exploration of a location procedure, were more complex than I think I needed them to be.

• Nobody ever took any interest in the orcery rules. I wonder if this would have been different in an OSR style game, where resources were more scarce, and the players could use every advantage they can get?

• I wonder if I'm too easy on my players? I have observed that Dungeon World is either extremely harrowing or completely trivial, with little middle ground. I wonder what part of this is a skill issue on my part, and what part of it is the result of the mechanics? I know 5E is notoriously low-mortality, so the mechanics playing a role is not inconceivable.

What Now?

    After the conclusion of this campaign, I held a vote with my players to decide on what kind of campaign we would play next. The options I offered were, Fabula Ultima, Worlds Without Number, an Underdark/Downcrawl campaign, and an Ultraviolet Grasslands campaign.

    Ultraviolet Grasslands won. But the interesting part is, we're running it with Dungeon World. More on that, coming soon.

Review of A Monster's Tail - a Monster Catching PbtA TTRPG

    I am supporting an ongoing Kickstarter campaign for A Monster's Tail, a monster catching TTRPG inspired by Pokémon and based on the PbtA system, developed by Five Points Games. At time of writing, there are only a few days left.

    I regularly run Dungeon World, and since Palworld came out, I've been thinking about how the monster catching genre might be adapted to PbtA. I was thrilled to discover someone has beaten me to it. Since I want this to succeed, I decided to run a one-shot for my regular gaming group and see how that went. What follows is my review of the game as it stands in the Quickstart. 

The Bottom Line

1. My players and I all had a great time and would love to pursue a longer campaign.
2. The final version is still being edited, and as such, the Quickstart document is a little rough. It has clearly been re-written a few times by now. There are a few errors and poor wording that made it confusing.
3. The Quickstart document is almost but not quite sufficient to comfortably run a one-shot in. I felt it was lacking in the amount of Genmon ("generic  monster," as they call them) and the number of "natures" available to apply to them.

Mechanics Overview

One of the more innovative things about this system is how it approaches the genre. There have been other attempts at converting Pokémon to TTRPGs, and they tend to focus on emulating the combat mechanics of the games. A Monster's Tail, however, is more like the anime than the games. It's about telling a story of a group of friends going on a journey together through a world of trainable monsters. It doesn't get bogged down on the mechanical details of catching, training, leveling, battling, etc.

Players start by choosing a “Journey,” this game’s term for Playbooks. The Journeys don’t just grant different moves, but they describe what the character’s goals are for the campaign. For example, the Champion is the Journey focused on challenging all the gyms. Whereas the Idol is more interested in using their Genmon to aid them in their performing art, and advances through successful performances. The Journeys each have their own victory condition to track, which triggers their “Finale” when completed. Given that this is a Quickstart, this isn’t very detailed yet.

Catching Genmon comes down to a single 2d6 roll, modified by the "grade" of the capture device (like basic pokeballs vs great balls or ultra balls), and with a -1 penalty if you have yet to use another move in the scene. This means it gets easier after interacting with the wild Genmon at least a little bit first.

                The Genmon themselves are differentiated by having one or two types, and having a type advantage/disadvantage over an opponent can grant a bonus or penalty to certain rolls. Each Genmon also has a “Nature,” which describes its personality. This gives the GM a list of “nature complications,” or how the Genmon’s behavior complicates the scene, and a number of moves related to its nature.

One really interesting innovation is how duels are handled. As I learned from speaking with the designers, having to roll the same combat move over and over again for up to 6 Genmon is really boring. Instead, there is a qualitative measurement known as "style," to assess whether a trainer is stronger than, weaker than, or equal to you. Random trainers you meet in the wild can be assumed to be weaker, gym leaders and villain team admins are stronger, and villain team leaders and champions are much stronger. You may then raise or lower your own comparative style by asking questions, like whether or not your team is healthy, or if you have type advantages, etc. Then the duel comes down to a single roll. The results are determined based on whether your style is lower, equal, or higher than your opponents. A lower style might mean a narrow defeat, even on a 10+. With a higher style, even a 6- is a victory, albeit with a complication.

Again, the game is trying to emulate the storytelling aspect, rather than get bogged down in the mechanical exchange that is usually handled by a video game console. I think this is an innovative approach to the monster catching genre that showcases the strengths of the PbtA system and design philosophy.

A Summary of Play

Note: I ran a second one-shot recently for a different group, which happened to include one of the writers of the game. He was able to join up due to, coincidentally, living in the same city as me. I’m only recording my experience with the first group, both for brevity and because my overall impression was the same both times: a lot of fun, very exciting, very much in need of more editing.

I started this scenario with 4 players, one for each of the four "Journeys," i.e. playbooks, that are available in the Quickstart. The players were:

Oris, the Champion. Much like Ash Ketchum, the Champion wants to challenge the gyms of the region, collect all the badges, and "be the very best, like no one ever was."

Jeremy "Gen Man" Filschner, the Idol. The Idol's journey is to gain notoriety using their Genmon in the performing arts. The details are left up to you, as "Gen Man" here was a luchador.

“Cap” the Captain

“The Doctor” the Doctor

    I opened by describing the players setting out from Venture Town, the starting town, and traveling along Route 1 to Tenor City. Route 1 was mostly a maritime forest alongside some short limestone cliffs and tide pools by the ocean.

    We tested out the travel rules, and this is where I felt it needed some more clarification. Routes and Wilds have a "rate" associated with them, and I originally thought you needed to role the Travel move once per rate of the Route. Upon conferring with the designer on Discord, it seems like only one roll is necessary, and the "rate" is tracked with a progress clock. A rate of 3 needs three successes of any kind. Failed rolls could add complications and remove progress, per the GM's discretion.

    In any case, they explored the route, captured a few wild Genmon, and agreed to help an old man find his missing Genmon, a platiquent named Admiral.

    They soon found a group of Spade Gang grunts, the local villainous team. One of the grunts had stolen the wayward platiquent and refused to return it.

    Oris challenged the grunt to a duel and won, forcing the grunt to return the stolen Genmon. Gen Man, however, couldn't leave well enough alone, and demanded to know what the villains were up to. The Admin, a man called "Clubs," challenged Gen Man to a duel.

    The interesting thing is, the way Gen Man's player rolled, he could have chosen to win the fight, but barely. Instead, he decided that it made more narrative sense to lose. So Clubs defeated Gen Man and warned them not to follow.

    After this, they returned Admiral to the old man who rewarded them with some Gear (the currency you spend for equipment), then asked Cap to watch Admiral for a while. Cap's journey, the Captain, has certain part time jobs associated with them. Cap chose "Genmon babysitter" for one of them, and thus earned a civic commendation.

    Before arriving in Tenor City, they also saw a couple of trainers who had fallen down in a cliff collapse. The Doctor provided medical care to the NPC trainer's injured Genmon, and thus progressed their journey as well.

    Upon arriving in Tenor City, Oris wasted no time before challenging the gym. The gym was of the "Mantle" type, an earth and stone themed type, and before Oris could face the gym leader, Chuck, he needed to complete a rock climbing course with his Genmon. Despite having the "Reckless" condition at this point and taking a -1 penalty to Overcome (a generic move similar to DW's Defy Danger), he rolled well and the battle commenced. He was able to successfully defeat Chuck and earn his first badge.

    Afterwards, Gen Man arrived at his wrestling match to perform. He rolled well enough to succeed, but added one to his "audience track," which is kind of a measure of how tired of him the audience is. This indicated that while he did well, he would need to do better.

    After the match, Gen Man met with a "talent scout" to discuss the match, only to learn it was Clubs, the villain Admin from Route 1. Clubs warned Gen Man to keep his nose out of the Spade Gang's business if he valued his career, and Gen Man, defiant, vowed to become the greatest luchador in the region regardless.

Concluding Thoughts

    On the whole, I’d say this is an innovative and elegant way of translating Pokemon-style stories to TTRPGs. Despite the rough spots I encountered in play, it’s clear that this is a diamond in the rough. And the developers are active on Discord and have been very receptive to the feedback that myself and others have been giving them. I’m very excited to get my hands on the final release.