Tell me of your games of Västmark

[runequester]

I am going to be running a game of Västmark for my American friends, using some personal translations of a few rules bits. Luckily, it's a game that doesn't require much access to the book in any event.

so I wanted to hear about people's games and adventures, how they went, what worked well etc.

 

[Krille]

As the creator of Västmark, I would like to revisit the witchcraft system one day. I have noticed that having witchcraft in one's game requires a player who groks the setting and the intended tone of witchcraft, and a game master who is willing to listen and tweak.

I used to run it as a Robin Hood or Ivanhoe game – not the gritty reinterpretations, but rather the romance interpretation and the adventure movies up until the 1980s before gritty became cool. Robin of Sherwood –– the 1984 to 1986 show with Michael Praed and Judi Trott as Robin and Marian, and with music by Clannad, has been one of the major influences when running the game.

Sadly, I have not been a player as much as I would like to. That's the curse of being a designer, I guess.

 

[runequester]

I'll definitely lean into the Robin Hood vibe (after all, I did write this Ballad-of-the-Longbow ) as well as probably a heavy fairytale vibe. Game is going to be based around a small frontier community on the Northern border of Vestmark. Most of my recent campaigns have been travel-oriented, so a location-driven game seems like a nice change and to really lean into the community aspect.

 

[Rickard]

The only thing I remember is that it was hard to play a game without attributes. Nothing I would think of today, when I'm more used to collaborative storytelling games. It was hard to know what to roll for, and difficult for the game master to use the negative traits.

 

[runequester]

The only thing I remember is that it was hard to play a game without attributes. Nothing I would think of today, when I'm more used to collaborative storytelling games. It was hard to know what to roll for, and difficult for the game master to use the negative traits.

That's a fair point. I just came off a year of Hjältarnas Tid so I think Im pretty well prepared there. Appreciate the thought though.

The Skill list is quite daunting, but thinking about it, I realized that the only thing that matters is if the specific character has a skill that's relevant.

 

[Bunny]

I runned a campaign Västmark around 03-04 and leaned quite heavily into the theme involing faeries and the encroachment of mankind and monotheism upon their lands. This took root with the players too, so - would recommend.

This was also when I was still quite alone with having read A Game of Thrones, so I ripped quite a lot out of the books. I would like to point out that you wouldn't get away with that today - would not recommend.

 

[Zire]

what worked well

One thing I specifically remember as a good trick, is to not fall in the trap of selecting properties (egenskaper) that are similar. It's easy to think that your character for example is big and strong, but they probably overlap a lot, so it's better to decide if the character is big (and because of that strong) or strong (and because of that big). Otherwise the character might become very one dimensional.

 

[runequester]

One thing I specifically remember as a good trick, is to not fall in the trap of selecting properties (egenskaper) that are similar. It's easy to think that your character for example is big and strong, but they probably overlap a lot, so it's better to decide if the character is big (and because of that strong) or strong (and because of that big). Otherwise the character might become very one dimensional.

Appreciate this advice. Definitely something I didn't really think about.