The1True
8, 8, I forget what is for
I just started into my hardcopy of UVG and @Beek Gwenders ' post with it's quote from @PrinceofNothing 's blog really put a finger on what I've been feeling while reading this thing:
”The Artpunk is rising. After Lotfp was dealt a grievous hit under the water-line and took on water, the adherents of this terrible creed emerged filth-spattered from all of its nooks and crannies and leapt into the ocean, to search for greener pastures to infest. In its wake follow Troika, and now Mörk Börg, and with each iteration we see an inexorable decline in gameability, depth, substance and thematic fealty in favor of gorgeous presentation, posturing and off-the-wall hair-brained ideas.”
More than anything, I WANT to like this thing. Like 'Gardens of Ynn' and 'Stygian Library', I'm tearing it up, loving every page. Absolutely loving the artwork. Tripping out on the crazy ideas. Imagining what my players would do confronted by this weirdness and mystery.
But is it playable? Has this stuff even been playtested? (UVG credits playtesters, so I guess the answer is yes?) Are there really enough drugs in the world to truly grock this thing? My players, like me, are a solid 50% rules-lawyer. Will a loosey-goosey system like this infuriate them or force them to relax and go with the flow old-school style?
Currently, I'm working my way through the regional descriptions. The text is treading a dangerous, fine line between flavourful neologisms evoking alien images and concepts and baffling portmanteaus seemingly assembled by drawing random weird words out of a hat and designed to deliberately obfuscate the author's intent. Organization is haphazard verging on vexing as I flip back and forth looking for maps or trying to find rules or dig fruitlessly through what on the face of it looked like a very thorough index.
I get it, this an exploratory expedition into the heart of a dreaming land. Shit be weird. The rules do not/barely apply. The organization of the text rigorously reinforces this. Say 'yes and' and make shit up. This isn't a rigid tactical situation. In every description there are two or three highlighted words to get your synapses firing and the rest is up to you.
I havn't got to the rules yet. They're mostly hung on an OSR D&D framework though, so it's not a story-game or a matter of reinventing the wheel. I appreciate that and look forward to reporting more when I read them more thoroughly. (Currently I've just been glossing them, trying to make sense of abbreviations in the descriptions.
Anyway, to sum up the initial impression. I love this book. I want it to be great, which is probably colouring my objectivity. Every page is a feast for the eyes and a smorgasbord of wild mental vignettes that I yearn to explore with the PC's. Hunting for crunch in this book is futile agony though and I can foresee trouble operating this campaign over a VTT: God help you if some random roll has your PCs' caravan stumbling into an ancient ruin that requires a bespoke map and you need to draw on the fly...
Sorry, I should show/don't tell and throw in some examples of the kind of text I'm talking about. More later, hopefully...
”The Artpunk is rising. After Lotfp was dealt a grievous hit under the water-line and took on water, the adherents of this terrible creed emerged filth-spattered from all of its nooks and crannies and leapt into the ocean, to search for greener pastures to infest. In its wake follow Troika, and now Mörk Börg, and with each iteration we see an inexorable decline in gameability, depth, substance and thematic fealty in favor of gorgeous presentation, posturing and off-the-wall hair-brained ideas.”
More than anything, I WANT to like this thing. Like 'Gardens of Ynn' and 'Stygian Library', I'm tearing it up, loving every page. Absolutely loving the artwork. Tripping out on the crazy ideas. Imagining what my players would do confronted by this weirdness and mystery.
But is it playable? Has this stuff even been playtested? (UVG credits playtesters, so I guess the answer is yes?) Are there really enough drugs in the world to truly grock this thing? My players, like me, are a solid 50% rules-lawyer. Will a loosey-goosey system like this infuriate them or force them to relax and go with the flow old-school style?
Currently, I'm working my way through the regional descriptions. The text is treading a dangerous, fine line between flavourful neologisms evoking alien images and concepts and baffling portmanteaus seemingly assembled by drawing random weird words out of a hat and designed to deliberately obfuscate the author's intent. Organization is haphazard verging on vexing as I flip back and forth looking for maps or trying to find rules or dig fruitlessly through what on the face of it looked like a very thorough index.
I get it, this an exploratory expedition into the heart of a dreaming land. Shit be weird. The rules do not/barely apply. The organization of the text rigorously reinforces this. Say 'yes and' and make shit up. This isn't a rigid tactical situation. In every description there are two or three highlighted words to get your synapses firing and the rest is up to you.
I havn't got to the rules yet. They're mostly hung on an OSR D&D framework though, so it's not a story-game or a matter of reinventing the wheel. I appreciate that and look forward to reporting more when I read them more thoroughly. (Currently I've just been glossing them, trying to make sense of abbreviations in the descriptions.
Anyway, to sum up the initial impression. I love this book. I want it to be great, which is probably colouring my objectivity. Every page is a feast for the eyes and a smorgasbord of wild mental vignettes that I yearn to explore with the PC's. Hunting for crunch in this book is futile agony though and I can foresee trouble operating this campaign over a VTT: God help you if some random roll has your PCs' caravan stumbling into an ancient ruin that requires a bespoke map and you need to draw on the fly...
Sorry, I should show/don't tell and throw in some examples of the kind of text I'm talking about. More later, hopefully...