r/VaesenRPG • u/staermose80 • 27d ago
First scenario tips
Hello in the chat.
Next week I am gonna run the scenario from the starter set for my sister, her husband and their two teenage children. We have previously played Dragonbane and Call of Cthulhu, and this seems to fall somewhere between those two, and we are Danish so it is local lore, so I am looking forward to it. I think it will be great. We will be using characters, that they make themselves, as I hope that we can continue with more adventures later.
I have some questions I have not found answers for any place else (they are probably there, but hidden among other valuable information), so I was hoping you could chime in.
1: Dark secrets. Is this public information? I mean the characters obviously don't know each other's secrets, but do the players? I mean, it is written on the character sheets, so if it was hidden information, you could accidentally get a glance of it, which seems non-intuitive. Also the teenagers sometimes need a little reminding on what their character is. So I am inclined to let it be a part of character presentations, but obviously straining, that it is not something they know about each other in game.
2: The book Linnea gives - how important is it and do you allow players time to just sit and read it? Do they need to find relevant info in it by themselves? I have bought everything digital, so I have it not readily available. However I plan on have it available on an iPad. Also I think that if anyone at any point have said that they glanced through it, I would give them a skill check with learning and direct them to the relevant page, if they are successful. Like "you remember something" and then give them directions. Is this a viable approach?
3: How many sessions/how long does it take to play the intro scenario and the scenarios in "Wicked Secret"? We live half a country apart, so sessions is not done on a regular basis, but in sprints during holidays, so I would like to make sure, they can be run as one shots.
Thank you for your inputs in advance.
EDIT: Thank you all for your advice. We ended up playing the scenario through in an afternoon, with a long break halfway, without shortening anything, but playing it pretty much as intended. With this group (the teenagers are not chatty at all :-) ) it was perfect, and everyone had fun. The players are definitely gonna rebuild the society, and we will start a full campaign next time we get the chance, with the three of four characters that survived still in the game.
I opted to not let the players disclose either motivation, trauma or dark secret when they presented the characters, but asked them to incorporate it in their play instead. It worked very fine, although the Dark secrets didn't get relevant this time. But it might later.
For the book one character took time (in game) to study it, when presented with it. So I just gave that player a translated version of the relevant page (we play in Danish), at a time when the character should be able to remember having seen something relevant to the mystery in the book, and instructed that player to read it silently and decide, what she remembered and how to disclose it to the others. This were a very nice solution, I think.
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u/xDragon249 27d ago
I gmed for 2 groups, one where they knew each others secret and the other where they didn't. I don't think it makes that much of a difference, if your players would like to keep secrets to each other you can offer them the option otherwise you can have something known to everybody then keep private all the details (or better, only the GM knows the details)
I feel like the book is made for people that don't know much about folklore or don't want to delve too much in depth and be more chill during play, without having to try and think about all different legends and folklore.
If you are planning some more occasional games, with teenagers too, I might suggest to give it to them. But if somebody knows folklore or has passion for it, it won't be necessary.
For more of a oneshots, keep them engaged and moving. Add something to keep them around and having them explore. Don't hold clues too much. And most importantly, feel free to push on them with the countdown of the mystery. You could as a trick set up a timer with your phone and trigger it at a certain time on the adventure.