[Fafnir’s Treasure is an introductory adventure written by Pendelhaven to introduce the game to players and gamemasters. The Other GM is using it for our playtest.]
[Spoilers – This will spoil the intro adventure for this game system, so if that’s something that worries you, be aware.]
Player Characters
Bodil – a female Daughter of Ratatosk, Death Dancer sub-type (Essence: 6, Destiny: 2), Town Guard
Elric Windgazer – a male Galdr, Diviner sub-type (Essence: 4, Destiny: 3), Liberated Thrall
Einar – a male Galdr, Enchanter sub-type (Essence: 6, Destiny: 2), Gravedigger
Gunnarr – a male Galdr, Enchanter sub-type (Essence: 6, Destiny: 2), Foreign Import Merchant
Vigdis – a female Daughter of Ratatosk, Death Dancer sub-type (Essence: 4, Destiny: 3), Hero of Renown
Masrur – a male Ulfhednar, Wolfen sub-type (Essence: 6, Destiny: 2), Hunter/Trapper
Missed the Session
Bodil missed session 6.
Day 2, Sometime in the 2nd year of Fimbulwinter
[Session 5 resumed mid-fight, right where we left off at the end of Session 4. The photos we took on our cell phones let us set up perfectly and resume immediately.]
Gunnarr moved around on the left to flank two of the trolls attacking Bodil. He sang into existence Muspeli Nightmares, the heat and vapors escaping through the rents grinding on the trolls. Elric cast Wrack on three of the trolls [activating the Multi metatag by chaining a Physical rune to it]. This knocked out the troll Masrur was fighting and injured the other two. With the troll blocking him laid out on the ground, Masrur stepped over that troll and attack one of the others, which knocked it out, relieving some of the pressure on Bodil.
A separate troll that had been threatening Einar was now drawn by Bodil’s Taunt condition to attack her. Luckily for Bodil, the troll had to use its remaining runes in-hand just to get to her and had none left to attack. This left only two trolls attacking Bodil. She was able to parry the attacks from one of the trolls, making use of Turn the Blade to force it to attack itself, but the final troll hit her twice, wounding her significantly.
Gunnarr and Masrur lowered the auras on them from Einar’s casting of Beckon Yggdrasil [back in Session 4]. Both vikings knew they were going to close in on the fight [for different reasons] and did not want to accidentally kill a companion with the aura effect. Einar, pushing his aura to the limit, moved around on the viking’s right to flank the trolls. Masrur moved into the trolls to attack [and out of Einar’s now 20-foot aura]. The trolls moved in to encircle Bodil and attack her, but Vigdis was able to aid in Bodil’s defense [finally realizing she could do so with one of her Passive Powers], so Bodil took no additional damage and was able to turn all the troll attacks back on them.
Gunnarr retreated on the viking’s left to get closer to Elric’s current position [and receive some much-needed healing], which triggered a contingency move Bodil had prepared and she stepped out of the ring of trolls. Elric healed Gunnarr [returning the rune Gunnarr had tied to his sole healing power from the damage track] and then threw another Wrack attack at the trolls. The fight ground on for a bit, the troll’s regeneration ability keeping them just up and attacking.
Gunnarr and Masrur both dropped the auras on them. Gunnarr used his Agility to climb and jump over and past the trolls between him and Bodil to get to Bodil’s side [using his Tactician power to move during Upkeep without spending a rune]. There he loudly started singing Apples of Idun [with Amplify and Maintain metatags activated and making a Minor Sacrifice so only friends are affected], healing Bodil and Vigdis significantly.
With the vikings finally surrounding the trolls and their powers arrayed properly, the vikings put down the trolls. [This fight was the entirety of Session 5. See my notes at the end. Session 6 starts below.]
After defeating the trolls in the Groaning Woods, the band of vikings hiked up the side of the mountain until they reach the cave Skridnir. Cold water flowed from the cave, filling the bowl-shaped area just in front of the cave mouth with water that spilled over a fall opposite the cave mouth. The sides of the bowl were steep and became impassible near the cave mouth. Testing the water, the vikings found the shallowest parts to be chest high on most of the group [Masrur was noticeably taller, so it was only stomach-high on him, plus he was the only one with the Swimming skill].
Not wanting to get drenched wading through the high water, Gunnarr formulated a plan to make an ice raft and pole their way into the cave. Elric used Beckon Jotunheim to thin the barrier between Midgard and that cold realm, freezing a 10-foot by 10-foot block of ice as deep as the water. Einar then used his Power over Stone to shape stone poles out of the rock walls. Gunnarr started lining the top of the ice raft with pine branches and needles to provide traction for the vikings when they stood on the ice raft.
While the vikings were crafting the ice raft, four watery hags rose from the waters and attacked! [They were Rusalki, but none of us made the Lore check by enough to learn that.] The hags used songs and screeches to attack the vikings or assist each other and catching the vikings flat-footed. [They did a lot of Mental damage early, pre-empting most of our attacks the first round. See my notes below about their powers.]
Einar cast Beckon Yggdrasil so Vigdis could take complete advantage of it [gaining maximum Aura and maximum Shroud, unfortunately this meant Vigdis could not initiate her power that granted her Taunt, which required the enemy attack her so she could defend against it]. The vikings got their wits about them quickly and mounted concentrated attacks against the hag with Taunt on it, quickly knocking it down. The vikings then concentrated their attacks against the other hags, one-by-one, until they were all dead. [This fight took less time than the last troll fight as we now knew how our powers worked and how they interacted with each other.]
Once the hags were dead, the vikings finished their ice raft and poled into the cave. In the back of the cave, under the water, was a vast treasure. The vikings searched for and located the ring that was their goal and then claimed their rewards from the treasure [see notes below] before leaving the cave.
Day 3, Sometime in the 2nd year of Fimbulwinter
The vikings returned to Evingard after a rest. They snuck into town to avoid the town guards and made their way to the Snugly Duckling tavern. Up on the second floor they knocked at Volstagg’s door and turned over the ring to him.
End of Session
[After playing all the way through the intro adventure, our opinion was that we liked aspects of the rules (like character creation and being able to boost powers by combining runes) but combat took waaaaaay too long (and we play HERO System). We aren’t entirely certain if that is an issue with the rules or the fact that it takes a while to learn the rules and how they work. The last fight “only” took one session, whereas the second troll fight took two sessions in their entirety. But we never did better than one fight per session when facing opponents that were at our level. Plus, we spent a lot of time working out how the rules interacted with themselves. There is a lot of stuff that is vague and seems to assume you know what they meant. On top of that, there are a very noticeable amount of editing issues, notably inconsistent usage of language forms. This made it difficult to learn aspects of the system when no one knew “how it was supposed to go”.]
[Fafnir’s Treasure, the introductory adventure, is mostly a simplified version of the full set of the 1st edition of the rules. Powers listed in the adventure do not always match up to the same power in the 2nd edition rule book, the edition currently for sale. As a result, we are not certain if the discrepancies are due to different editions or going from simplified rules to complete rules. Our Norn learned from the simplified rules, while the rest of us read the full rules, which caused some communication issues over the rules and how the Norn was doing things. This would have been simplified if the main rules had a chapter that talked about how Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok is supposed to play – it does not.]
[Finally, there are definite document organization issues with both the main rule book and the introductory adventure. It was difficult for us to find specific rules for things as parts were spread all through the books and there was no index. I don’t know if this is part of the original source material or due to the translation to English, where things were, according to the translator, shuffled around a bit. Combined with two versions of the rules (one in the rules and one in the introductory adventure) and this was much harder to use than it should have been.]
[TL: DR is this game is an attractive-looking product, but editing issues and needing an experienced player to learn the rules from means we will not be playing Fate of the Norns again. This is a shame as it seemed to have a lot of potential, but its execution is lacking.]
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
[Spoilers – This will spoil the intro adventure for this game system, so if that’s something that worries you, be aware.]
Player Characters
Bodil – a female Daughter of Ratatosk, Death Dancer sub-type (Essence: 6, Destiny: 2), Town Guard
Elric Windgazer – a male Galdr, Diviner sub-type (Essence: 4, Destiny: 3), Liberated Thrall
Einar – a male Galdr, Enchanter sub-type (Essence: 6, Destiny: 2), Gravedigger
Gunnarr – a male Galdr, Enchanter sub-type (Essence: 6, Destiny: 2), Foreign Import Merchant
Vigdis – a female Daughter of Ratatosk, Death Dancer sub-type (Essence: 4, Destiny: 3), Hero of Renown
Masrur – a male Ulfhednar, Wolfen sub-type (Essence: 6, Destiny: 2), Hunter/Trapper
Missed the Session
Bodil missed session 6.
Day 2, Sometime in the 2nd year of Fimbulwinter
[Session 5 resumed mid-fight, right where we left off at the end of Session 4. The photos we took on our cell phones let us set up perfectly and resume immediately.]
Gunnarr moved around on the left to flank two of the trolls attacking Bodil. He sang into existence Muspeli Nightmares, the heat and vapors escaping through the rents grinding on the trolls. Elric cast Wrack on three of the trolls [activating the Multi metatag by chaining a Physical rune to it]. This knocked out the troll Masrur was fighting and injured the other two. With the troll blocking him laid out on the ground, Masrur stepped over that troll and attack one of the others, which knocked it out, relieving some of the pressure on Bodil.
A separate troll that had been threatening Einar was now drawn by Bodil’s Taunt condition to attack her. Luckily for Bodil, the troll had to use its remaining runes in-hand just to get to her and had none left to attack. This left only two trolls attacking Bodil. She was able to parry the attacks from one of the trolls, making use of Turn the Blade to force it to attack itself, but the final troll hit her twice, wounding her significantly.
Gunnarr and Masrur lowered the auras on them from Einar’s casting of Beckon Yggdrasil [back in Session 4]. Both vikings knew they were going to close in on the fight [for different reasons] and did not want to accidentally kill a companion with the aura effect. Einar, pushing his aura to the limit, moved around on the viking’s right to flank the trolls. Masrur moved into the trolls to attack [and out of Einar’s now 20-foot aura]. The trolls moved in to encircle Bodil and attack her, but Vigdis was able to aid in Bodil’s defense [finally realizing she could do so with one of her Passive Powers], so Bodil took no additional damage and was able to turn all the troll attacks back on them.
Gunnarr retreated on the viking’s left to get closer to Elric’s current position [and receive some much-needed healing], which triggered a contingency move Bodil had prepared and she stepped out of the ring of trolls. Elric healed Gunnarr [returning the rune Gunnarr had tied to his sole healing power from the damage track] and then threw another Wrack attack at the trolls. The fight ground on for a bit, the troll’s regeneration ability keeping them just up and attacking.
Gunnarr and Masrur both dropped the auras on them. Gunnarr used his Agility to climb and jump over and past the trolls between him and Bodil to get to Bodil’s side [using his Tactician power to move during Upkeep without spending a rune]. There he loudly started singing Apples of Idun [with Amplify and Maintain metatags activated and making a Minor Sacrifice so only friends are affected], healing Bodil and Vigdis significantly.
With the vikings finally surrounding the trolls and their powers arrayed properly, the vikings put down the trolls. [This fight was the entirety of Session 5. See my notes at the end. Session 6 starts below.]
After defeating the trolls in the Groaning Woods, the band of vikings hiked up the side of the mountain until they reach the cave Skridnir. Cold water flowed from the cave, filling the bowl-shaped area just in front of the cave mouth with water that spilled over a fall opposite the cave mouth. The sides of the bowl were steep and became impassible near the cave mouth. Testing the water, the vikings found the shallowest parts to be chest high on most of the group [Masrur was noticeably taller, so it was only stomach-high on him, plus he was the only one with the Swimming skill].
Not wanting to get drenched wading through the high water, Gunnarr formulated a plan to make an ice raft and pole their way into the cave. Elric used Beckon Jotunheim to thin the barrier between Midgard and that cold realm, freezing a 10-foot by 10-foot block of ice as deep as the water. Einar then used his Power over Stone to shape stone poles out of the rock walls. Gunnarr started lining the top of the ice raft with pine branches and needles to provide traction for the vikings when they stood on the ice raft.
While the vikings were crafting the ice raft, four watery hags rose from the waters and attacked! [They were Rusalki, but none of us made the Lore check by enough to learn that.] The hags used songs and screeches to attack the vikings or assist each other and catching the vikings flat-footed. [They did a lot of Mental damage early, pre-empting most of our attacks the first round. See my notes below about their powers.]
Einar cast Beckon Yggdrasil so Vigdis could take complete advantage of it [gaining maximum Aura and maximum Shroud, unfortunately this meant Vigdis could not initiate her power that granted her Taunt, which required the enemy attack her so she could defend against it]. The vikings got their wits about them quickly and mounted concentrated attacks against the hag with Taunt on it, quickly knocking it down. The vikings then concentrated their attacks against the other hags, one-by-one, until they were all dead. [This fight took less time than the last troll fight as we now knew how our powers worked and how they interacted with each other.]
Once the hags were dead, the vikings finished their ice raft and poled into the cave. In the back of the cave, under the water, was a vast treasure. The vikings searched for and located the ring that was their goal and then claimed their rewards from the treasure [see notes below] before leaving the cave.
Day 3, Sometime in the 2nd year of Fimbulwinter
The vikings returned to Evingard after a rest. They snuck into town to avoid the town guards and made their way to the Snugly Duckling tavern. Up on the second floor they knocked at Volstagg’s door and turned over the ring to him.
End of Session
[After playing all the way through the intro adventure, our opinion was that we liked aspects of the rules (like character creation and being able to boost powers by combining runes) but combat took waaaaaay too long (and we play HERO System). We aren’t entirely certain if that is an issue with the rules or the fact that it takes a while to learn the rules and how they work. The last fight “only” took one session, whereas the second troll fight took two sessions in their entirety. But we never did better than one fight per session when facing opponents that were at our level. Plus, we spent a lot of time working out how the rules interacted with themselves. There is a lot of stuff that is vague and seems to assume you know what they meant. On top of that, there are a very noticeable amount of editing issues, notably inconsistent usage of language forms. This made it difficult to learn aspects of the system when no one knew “how it was supposed to go”.]
[Fafnir’s Treasure, the introductory adventure, is mostly a simplified version of the full set of the 1st edition of the rules. Powers listed in the adventure do not always match up to the same power in the 2nd edition rule book, the edition currently for sale. As a result, we are not certain if the discrepancies are due to different editions or going from simplified rules to complete rules. Our Norn learned from the simplified rules, while the rest of us read the full rules, which caused some communication issues over the rules and how the Norn was doing things. This would have been simplified if the main rules had a chapter that talked about how Fate of the Norns: Ragnarok is supposed to play – it does not.]
[Finally, there are definite document organization issues with both the main rule book and the introductory adventure. It was difficult for us to find specific rules for things as parts were spread all through the books and there was no index. I don’t know if this is part of the original source material or due to the translation to English, where things were, according to the translator, shuffled around a bit. Combined with two versions of the rules (one in the rules and one in the introductory adventure) and this was much harder to use than it should have been.]
[TL: DR is this game is an attractive-looking product, but editing issues and needing an experienced player to learn the rules from means we will not be playing Fate of the Norns again. This is a shame as it seemed to have a lot of potential, but its execution is lacking.]
Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4
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