drafts for vaesen retrospective

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

@@ -16,7 +16,9 @@ showFullContent: false
 {{< lead >}} The dreamer cannot remember.  {{</ lead >}}
 ## Disclaimers and Content Warning
 1. This post contains references to murder, gruesome deaths, and the supernatural.
-2. I'm going to try to avoid spoiling the contents of the module we played.
+2. I'm going to keep descriptions of the module we played and system mechanics broad. Please consider buying Vaesen and its modules to support the creators.
+3. I'm going to be pretty critical of Alchemy VTT. I am a not unbiased because I'm a long-time Foundry user and overall a big fan of its design and pricing model. I feel that my criticisms stand on their own.
+
 ## The Prep
 Preparing for Vaesen was extremely interesting. Character creation presents an interesting tradeoff early on when you decide your character's age. This choice impacts two things: your attributes and your skills. The younger you are, the more points you can allocate to to your attributes but you get fewer skill points. The reverse applies for older characters: you've had longer to practice your skills but your body just isn't what it used to be.
 
@@ -27,6 +29,14 @@ Before your first mission, you can purchase equipment ( knives, tinderboxes, hun
 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.
+## The Game
+- Castle Gyllencreutz, Upsala: your base of operations
+	- upgrading your base
+- Investigation
+- Conditions
+	- Physical and Mental
+	- Dice pools
+- Dispelling or soothing the Vaesen
 ## The Venue
 During the course of our game, we used two separate Virtual Table Tops to play: Alchemy and Foundry. We switched after our first session ( fact check this? maybe it was two ) because of some shortcomings with the current Alchemy implementation of the Vaesen system.
 ### Alchemy VTT
@@ -51,17 +61,11 @@ Alchemy also did not go out of its way to make critical UI elements very visible
 
 - Did not seem to have "token vision" or fog of war, or the pre-made module did not implement it (fact check)
 ### Foundry
+Our Foundry experience was a radical improvement. Our game-runner created our characters on our behalf so I can't speak to the process in that regard but the rest of the process was extremely straightforward. When rolling for skills the Vaesen system in Foundry had helpful prompts when you had equipment that might augment your dice pool.
+
 - Foundry
 	- Purchasable System for mechanics
 	- Purchasable module for maps and NPCs
-## The Game
-- Castle Gyllencreutz, Upsala: your base of operations
-	- upgrading your base
-- Investigation
-- Conditions
-	- Physical and Mental
-	- Dice pools
-- Dispelling or soothing the Vaesen
 ## The Tragedy
 ## Final Thoughts
 Vaesen is not a game of heroic fantasy. Your characters are fragile and powerless to stop the events that play out with brute force. Any hope for intervention requires careful preparation and an immense amount of luck. Each injury makes future successes exponentially more unlikely. Failures cascade quickly. Your character *begins the game* scarred by something tragic in their past and will only be subject to a greater quantity and variety of violence and loss.