Speltestsgruppen!

[nDervish]

Next up for your trial role-playing pleasure, I will be running a one-shot in the Hellfrost setting for Savage Worlds:

AN ENDLESS WINTER IS COMING.

The history of Rassilon is bloody. From the frozen far north, beyond the civilized lands with their rolling hills and forests, arose a mighty army of frost giants, ice devils, Hellfrost dragons, and fearsome orcs, servants all of the ice god Thrym. So began the terrible Blizzard War and the downfall of the mighty empires of man.

Five hundred years later the races of the southern lands may have won the war, but they suffer its legacy still. For five centuries the winters have grown steadily longer and colder. Huge swathes of the land of Rassilon are permanently covered in ice and snow, and even the temperate lands are not spared the misery of failed harvests, deadly winters, and the dreaded Hellfrost wind.

But winter is not the only danger. A mere 30 years ago, magic, once the civilized races’ most potent weapon, suddenly began to fail. The Siphoning, an effect of unknown origin, has made magic an unpredictable ally.

Welcome to the world of Rassilon.

Welcome to the Hellfrost!

For those of you who have participated in my Savage Marches campaign (or simply been following the thread here about it), this will not just be more of the same. Hellfrost is more of a "heroic" setting and this test adventure will be set up to allow the player characters to exercise their social skills as well as their combat skills. Plus, there won't be any going door-to-door looting abandoned houses.

I plan to run Hellfrost later this month or early next month and you can sign up at http://www.doodle.com/pzv7m8apzgrtc346 I think 5-6 players would be ideal, but more or fewer will still work.

In addition to signing up on the doodle, please also post a general idea here of the type of character you'd like to play. All characters should be Saxa (the setting's viking-equivalents) and one may be either a skald, a priest, or a paladin. If there are 5+ players, then the group can have both a skald and a priest/paladin.

If you have the Hellfrost Player's Guide, feel free to create your own character and PM it to me, otherwise I'll create a character based on your description of what you want.

[bladerunner_35]

In addition to signing up on the doodle, please also post a general idea here of the type of character you'd like to play. All characters should be Saxa (the setting's viking-equivalents) and one may be either a skald, a priest, or a paladin. If there are 5+ players, then the group can have both a skald and a priest/paladin.

If you have the Hellfrost Player's Guide, feel free to create your own character and PM it to me, otherwise I'll create a character based on your description of what you want.

Greatly inspired by the comic Northlanders I want to play a saxa noble coming back from the Lands of Fire after hearing of his fathers death and his inheritance claimed by his power hungry uncle.

Unless that's to much special snowflake for you Dave? In which case I'll make a more down to earth saxa raider or some such.

[nDervish]

Not too special snowflake at all, no, but the PCs should all be closely connected and not of too high a station for the first "test" scenario. Probably best to use something more mundane for the test game, and then, if it ends up continuing as an ongoing game, you can do the noble for that.

[bladerunner_35]

Alright, back to the drawing board then.

[God45]

I have a Skald idea for a guy traveling along with one of the Paladins or other warrior types in order to record the story of his/her might deeds and make them into one of the epic heroes from sagas. After each session I will write up a song, a poem or a fairy tale about the session and what happened. Would that work?

[nDervish]

Sounds great!

[nDervish]

Björn, looks like your noble concept should work fine, since Sebastian's skald is the only other character idea we've got so far. As a noble, you'll also have control of a "Resource" (village, mine, sawmill, whatever), so come up with some ideas on what exactly that is, although I don't think we need to fully detail it at this point. For your NPC followers, one will need to be a seneschal who's been running it in your absence; the others can either have been with you in the Lands of Fire or they can have remained "back home" helping to maintain your Resource or other concerns in the area. Either way, you should think about what kinds of support you'd need to maintain your lands and noble position rather than automatically making them all warriors.

I would also recommend grabbing the free "Hellfrost Family" pdf and generating Ancestry using its rules. (Anyone can generate ancestors if desired, but it seems especially appropriate for a noble.)

Sebastian, your skald can either be a member of Björn's retinue who's been off in the Lands of Fire with him or you could have heard of his return and decided to join up with him more recently, your choice.

If anyone else wants to join in, you're definitely still welcome and the noble's retinue or family members of any existing PC should work for connections.

I believe you both have access to the Hellfrost Player's Guide, correct? You can make characters and either post them here or PM them to me, preferably at least 2 days before we play. You can also use the rules from any official Hellfrost supplements, just let me know which supplements you're using if you do, so that I can familiarize myself with them.

As for a time, Björn's the only reply on the doodle currently, so shall we say Thursday at 18? I won't be back in time to play Monday and Thursday is the other day we've played previously, so it seems like a decent default choice. If there's anyone it doesn't work for, speak up and we can pick a different day.

[bladerunner_35]

I don't have time for an in-depth answer until monday but everything seems ok by me. I could play pretty much any day of the week.

[God45]

I have gotten back my shedual for next week today and I won't be anle to play thursday. I can play wednesday if that would work?

I have the books so I will writte up a character when I am back in Lund.

I think having been to the Lands of fire sounds best, then I can play it like my character already have been doing his job for a while when tha game starts

[nDervish]

I can't make Weds, no. Probably best if you update the doodle I posted a few replies back on this thread and I'll use that to find a time you can both make it. (I haven't submitted a response to it myself because I didn't include dates as options unless they'd work for me.)

[santoan]

Hiya guys!

I'm gonna be away for a while from the RPG (gotto settle some stuff). But when its settled, I will come back

[God45]

I filled in the doodle but there is only one other time that I can play. So if you have a time that the rest of you guys can play you should play then.

[nDervish]

At this point, "the rest of [us] guys" is just me and bladerunner_35, so Thursday the 29th it is.

Anyone else up for joining us then?

[God45]

Sorry for being so difficult with the time, I am just super busy right now.

[God45]

I have written up a character, what do you think?

Edwin Melasunu

Edwin is shorter and thinner than most Saxa, he is a head shorter or more than most of the warriors and he looks like a stiff breeze would knock him over. His frail and sickly look is further exaggerated by his albinism.

Edwin clawed his way up from the very lowest casts of society by having a natural talent for song magic and by being ready to throw himself into warzones along with the warriors in order to get the stories from as close as possible. His health is however becoming worse and worse and he is now using stranger and stranger mixtures of herbs, poisons and quicksilver to keep himself going. He is utterly devoted to his current lord and is hell-bent on making the saga about him into one of the greatest masterpieces in history.

Edwin is direct and almost brutal in his communication up to the point when he wants something and then warmth and politeness flows into his voice like boiling molasses flows down a hill after a brewery explosion. Out of combat he often functions as a diplomat and translator. In combat he usually takes on a support role, boosting and healing the more aggressive warriors, but he is also able to fight competently if he have to.



Stats:
Race: Human (Saxa)

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d10, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6

Skills: Song magic d10, Diplomacy d8, Notice d6, Fighting d8, Riding d4

Charisma: –; Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7

Hindrances: Habit, Drug use (Major), Loyal (minor), Anemic (minor)

Edges: Arcane background (Song magic)


Powers:
Healing, Boost/lower trait, Speak language.


Equipment:
Scale hauberk

Long sword Str+d8 (Blade covered in Runes in Black Tongue)


Languages known:

Saxa, Aulda saxa, Fingerspeak, Trader and Black Tongue

[nDervish]

Looks good overall. Under skills, "Diplomacy" should instead be "Persuasion", but that's the only thing that jumps out at me. Depending on how you want to play the "mixtures of herbs, poisons and quicksilver" aspect, you might want to consider the Herbalism Edge. And I'd be curious to hear the story behind your fell-runed blade, if you have one to tell.

[God45]

Changed some stuff around so that I could take Herbalism

Stats:
Race: Human (Saxa)

Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6

Skills: Song magic d8, Persuasion d8, Notice d6, Fighting d8, Knowledge (alchemy) d6

Charisma: –; Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7

Hindrances: Habit, Drug use (Major), Loyal (minor), Anemic (minor)

Edges: Arcane background (Song magic), Herbalism


Powers:
Healing, Boost/lower trait, Speak language.


Equipment:
Scale hauberk

Long sword Str+d8 (Blade covered in Runes in Black Tongue)


Languages known:

Saxa, Aulda saxa, Trader and Black Tongue



And backstory for the rune blade:

Mournbringer

Edwin found Mournbringer during his first assignment as a Skald. The two sisters and warriors Aalfwynn and Isgeerd Olafsdohtor had set out on an expedition to prove themselves as heroes and had hired Edwin as a Skald to document their travels. They mostly chose him for the job since he as a very young and inexperienced Skald was cheap to hire but also because his slight and sickly appearance would minimise sexist rumours about the sisters bringing a male skald along to do the actual adventuring.

The first months of traveling was successful, the sisters fought trolls and orchs and the songs Edwin sang about their deeds quickly became popular. But then disaster struck. Traveling to an isolated village high up in the mountains the party was attacked by a group of undead on a narrow mountain road besides a sheer drop down the mountain. The sisters put up a good fight and beat back the minor undead but when a gigantic undead in black ice armour charged them they jumped in close to the mountain wall and ducked behind their shields. Edwin was not as fast and the undead knights blade pierced his guts and stuck there, the force of the attack also drove him over the edge of the cliff and he went tumbling down the mountain.

Edwin woke up in terrible pain in the valley long after darkness had fallen. The sword still sticking out of him, his left arm broken and his entire body covered in cuts and bruises. He managed to get the blade out of him and heal the wound with his song magic before it killed him but he was still alone in the mountains, in the dark and his backpack with all is equipment was gone. It had probably fallen of somewhere in the fall down the mountain. He decided to wander out into the darkness with the sword that had wounded him as his only equipment.

Luck more than skill saved him, a patrol of Frost dwarfs found him near the entrance to one of their holds and they nursed him back to health. The sisters found him after a couple of days, having managed to defeat the dead knight once he lost his weapon and then setting of down the mountain to find their skald.

After finishing the adventure up in the mountains the part returned to the nearest Saxa hold. While there Edwin managed to buy some forbidden books about the Black Tongue from a local bookseller known to dabble in the dark arts and he then started teaching himself the language so that he could find out what the runes on the blade that almost killed him meant.

The first words he managed to translate meant something like "bringer of sorrow" or "bringer of mourning" and this is from where Edwin got the name for the blade. After translating the rest of the runes Edwin found out that they spelled out a curse: "This sword brings sorrow to all those around he who is slain. The blade drinks not only life but souls." Edwin is almost certain that that is empty words, but it does make for a good story. It also makes people a little less eager to fight him, risking your life in battle is one thing for the warlike Saxa but risking your soul? That is an entirely different thing.

The sisters settled down a while back, one of them becoming the general for a small Saxa village and the other one returning home to take over the family farm and place in the villages war council.

[Willard]

Hi guys!

I'm not familiar with the system, and I haven't played anything for a couple of years, but the setting sounds cool (no pun intended). I'm up for a play test, if you want more people. The 29th would work.

[nDervish]

Hi guys!

I'm not familiar with the system, and I haven't played anything for a couple of years, but the setting sounds cool (no pun intended). I'm up for a play test, if you want more people. The 29th would work.

Absolutely! That gives us three players (plus the GM) so far.

Do you have any ideas for a specific type of character you'd like to play or should I just make you a generic viking-raider type character?

[Willard]

A tall, broad & big-hearted huscarl type of guy to go with the noble's retinue idea? Maybe with a blood-feud?

EDIT: I guess that's pretty much a generic raider