final final draft

content/posts/first-vaesen-game-retrospective/index.md

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 title: "My first Vaesen Game"
 aliases: ["My first Vaesen Game"]
 date: "2024-10-21"
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 Before your first mission, you can purchase equipment ( knives, tinderboxes, hunting dogs, and crowbars ), services ( doctors, barbers, postriders, carriages, and meals ), and weapons appropriate for a semi-rural 1860s steampunk Sweden. 
 ## The Setting
-Speaking of, the setting for Vaesen is stunning and it sets the mind alight with possibility. The dawn of the Industrial Age spurs sudden population booms in urban centers which begin expanding outward into the wilderness while folk of all sorts are drawn from the countryside in search of gainful labor or to chase their dreams of riches. Forests are cleared to fuel and build machines that belch smoke into the sky, ore is ripped from the living earth in the name of growth and progress, and all the while people quietly forget or proudly forsake The Old ways. All the while, the creatures and forces humankind once carefully and respectfully shared the world with grow disquiet, no longer appeased by rituals and mindful distance.
+Speaking of, the setting for Vaesen is stunning and it sets the mind alight with possibility. The dawn of the Industrial Age spurs sudden population booms in urban centers which begin expanding outward into the wilderness while folk of all sorts are drawn from the countryside in search of gainful labor or to chase their dreams of riches. Forests are cleared to fuel and build machines that belch smoke into the sky, ore is ripped from the living earth in the name of growth and progress, and all the while people quietly forget or proudly forsake the old ways. All the while, the creatures and forces humankind once carefully and respectfully shared the world with grow disquiet, no longer appeased by rituals and mindful distance.
 
-A rare few humans gain The Sight, the ability to directly witness the strange and powerful forces that move just behind the veil of myth. The Sight should not be called a gift generally being found only after witnessing or experiencing some terrible tragedy, but it grants the ability to intervene in or avoid the activity of these supernatural beings, the Vaesen. If you had the sight, if you were a Child of Thursday, there was a chance that you might encounter or be recruited by The Society. The Society worked to understand the Vaesen and their place in the world, their desires and needs, and to keep the peace between all who called Sweden home.
+A rare few humans gain The Sight, the ability to directly witness the strange and powerful forces that move just behind the veil of myth. The Sight should not be called a gift, generally being found only after witnessing or experiencing some terrible tragedy but it grants the ability to intervene in or avoid the activity of these supernatural beings: the Vaesen. If you had the Sight, if you were a Child of Thursday there was a chance that you might encounter or be recruited by The Society. The Society worked to understand the Vaesen and their place in the world, their desires and needs, and to keep the peace between all who called Sweden home.
 ## The Gameplay Loop
-The gameplay loop is structured somewhat similarly to Blades in the Dark: your crew takes on a job, executes it with some degree of success or failure, and comes home to rest, recover, and potentially increase the capabilities of their characters and their base of operations.
+The gameplay loop is structured somewhat similarly to Blades in the Dark: your crew takes on a job, executes it with some degree of success or failure and if you survive, come home to rest, recover, and potentially increase the capabilities of their characters and their base of operations.
 
 ### Bustin' may or may not make you feel good
-The core action of Vaesen revolves around solving a supernatural mystery. The world is steeped in history. Nothing happens at random; when things go wrong there is a reason, even if it's deeply esoteric or based purely on a misguided emotional misreading of the truth. Vengeful spirits abound and around every corner you'll find an ancient spirit who demands arbitrary but precise supplications to avoid their ire. 
+The core action of Vaesen revolves around solving a supernatural mystery. The world is steeped in history. Nothing happens at random; when things go wrong there is a reason, even if it's deeply esoteric or based purely on a misguided or emotional misreading of the truth. Vengeful spirits abound and around every corner you'll find an mysterious spirit who demands arbitrary but precise supplications to avoid their ire. 
 
 The first part of your adventure is made up of arming yourself as best you can. Upsala is a growing modern city and you can find for purchase a wide variety of material goods and services to aid your investigation. Armaments and assistants are available for tackling the mundane and tangible problems that can and will put themselves in your way but it's important to understand that you are not playing a heroic fantasy game: you will not kill the Vaesen by bashing it over the head with a greatclub.
 
 Your true weapon in your contests with the Vaesen is *knowledge*. As part of your mission preparation you may travel through the city conducting research and interviewing contacts to gather information that can explain or justify the strange events and forces troubling your client. None of it is guaranteed to be accurate, frequently filtered through the delirium of asylum residents or the skepticism of individuals who have forgotten and forsaken the old ways.
 
-Eventually you conclude your shopping and research and set out to actually *solve the problem* and that's where things start to get messy. The people you're helping may not even believe in the supernatural and your organization only survives in mandatory-Protestantism 1860s Sweden by moving in secret; you must choose your words and actions carefully or risk alienating the people you're trying to save and that's the best-case scenario. At worst you risk drawing attention from law enforcement and the ever present-and-watchful eyes of the Church.
+Eventually you conclude your shopping and research and set out to actually *solve the problem* and that's where things start to get messy. The people you're helping may not even believe in the supernatural and your organization only survives in mandatory-Protestantism 1860s Sweden by moving in secret; you must choose your words and actions carefully or risk alienating the people you're trying to save and that's the best-case scenario. At worst you risk drawing attention from law enforcement and the ever-present-and-watchful eyes of the Church.
 
-Once you're on the scene you and your party members search and interview and investigate to determine the nature of the spirit at work. Your work will not be easy. Most citizens do not believe in spirits or magic and find ways to rationalize whatever strange events are befouling their lives. If you are unlucky, you will eventually enter direct confrontation with the Vaesen at the center of the investigation. When this happens, you must hope that your research provided accurate *and* relevant information.
+Once you're on the scene you and your party members search and interview and investigate to determine the nature of the spirit at work. Your task will not be easy. Most citizens do not believe in spirits or magic and find ways to rationalize whatever strange events are befouling their lives. If you are unlucky, you will eventually enter direct confrontation with the Vaesen at the center of the investigation. When this happens, you must hope that your research provided accurate *and* relevant information.
 
 Throughout your exploration, investigation and confrontations you'll be challenged by different obstacles. You overcome these by rolling dice pools. How many dice you roll is determined by a combination of Attributes, Skills, Equipment, and Conditions. Your game-runner will determine which of the first three are applicable to a given obstacle but you'll usually roll between 2-7 dice when you try to solve a problem. Conditions, on the other hand, **always** deduct from your dice pool depending on whether you're making a physical or mental roll. 
 
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ If you manage to survive your encounter with the Vaesen, you can return home to
 ### Home Sweet Home
 One aspect of Vaesen that stands out is your upgradeable base of operations. After dispelling or soothing a Vaesen you return home to Castle Gyllencreutz, the initially decrepit and poorly maintained home of The Society. There's also a butler, though his services are pretty strictly domestic. 
 
-If your missions are successful you can, over time, renovate the castle and restore access to the records room, the armory, and other useful rooms. This section is pretty short because I've only played one session and don't have direct access to the manual. If you want to learn more, you'll have to play with your group and survive a mission.
+If your missions are successful you can, over time, renovate the castle and restore access to the records room, the armory, and other useful rooms. This section is pretty short because I've only played one module and don't have direct access to the manual. If you want to learn more, you'll have to play with your group and survive a mission.
 ### Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger
 In the same vein as upgrading the Castle Gyllencreutz, I can only write briefly due to our limited play time. Your character can improve their skills, eventually acquire new talents, and acquire new resources/capital. 
 ## The Venue
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@ Alchemy was visually stunning with lots of little graphical flourishes that seem
 #### The Not-so-good
 The problem is that graphical work aside, this is mostly the bare minimum for a VTT presenting a game system. In practice, playing the game was a little confusing,
 
-Character creation was somewhat onerous. There were no automated guard rails to prevent a player from allocating an invalid number of points into their Attributes or Skills, or selecting abilities that aren't granted by their chosen specialization. It took a session or two before our game-runner was able to get our character sheets squared away properly.
+Character creation was somewhat onerous. There were no automated guard rails to prevent a player from allocating an invalid number of points into their Attributes or Skills, or selecting Talents that aren't granted by their chosen Archetype. It took a session or two before our game-runner was able to get our character sheets squared away properly.
 
 Alchemy also did not go out of its way to make critical UI elements very visible or understandable. For example, the screenshot below displays what happens when you click an Attribute or Skill to make a roll. It was not immediately obvious how to execute the roll.  "TEST" is not the most intuitive label and its visibility leaves a lot to be desired when overlaid on top of the generic background image or a beige/white map image.