The Arden Vul Weasels - Session 6
As always, Weird Writer has provided the recap.
This was the town session where I tested out the "interact with the town as if it were a dungeon" procedure from AD&D, and the results were less than ideal. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was a bad session, but definitely one with a lot of bookkeeping.
As always, the main culprit was quartermastering: I am yet to figure out a good way to both have all of the money in one place, and also have a relatively simple party tracker. I have an idea on how to implement it now, but the session suffered for it.
I am also unhappy with how I portray characters. I gravitate towards having them be relatively normal human beings but I feel they end up far plainer than intended, and forgettable as consequence. I should adopt the bad doctor's advice and increase the magnitude, but this is difficult when there are so many NPCs moving around. Or maybe I'm overthinking.
Overall, an unfortunate session for Dandelion to join us over. Very contextual, a bit airheaded, lots of names being thrown at them but hopefully they'll have a more enjoyable game next week.
I am also not entirely over my doldrums, which is tinging my experience of the session, so I'm trying to remind myself not to be too hard on me, and just implement the changes I mentioned.
That said, I'm not sure I'll stick to the AD&D town traversal. It just seems a bit silly that they get encounters when moving around regularly, but not in the weeks of downtime training. What I think I'll do instead is take a page from how Nathan ran our city sessions, ask them what they do and then make the scene from there. I think that will be better. From what I gather, the AD&D procedure is more fitting for a proper urban adventure in a city such as Lankhmar, not a 2000 population backwater like Gosterwick.