The games I played in were stellar, props to Joshua Kitz who ran his excellent Simple Superheroes RPG, and James Kerr who ran FASERIP Marvel Superheroes.
Two Vanagard sessions were filled to capacity.
Session One
A spectral Jarl attempted to invade Phantom Wood hoping to drag his lost wife back to Niflheim. The Van-Folk fought through this war to find the spirit and deliver her to Freya, who then used her as a focus to drive the invader back into his icy realm. The lost spirit was then welcomed into Phantom Wood with open arms.
The next part of the adventure was Odin requisitioning the Van-Folk band to track down his brother Vi, who had been lost with Loki, in Jotuenheim. They found Loki, he'd been using Vi to create beautiful living sculptures that stole from their owners. Loki then sold out Vi to the Jotun Warlord Mord, who forced him into crafting an iron army. The Van-Folk band rescued Vi by tricking Mord into fighting Loki. Freya was well pleased with their success.
Highlights
* Erland the Hawk gave up his Wolfsblade sword to appease Angerboda's minions.
* Skipper the Monkey was pinned by the giant wolf Ragnar while trying to steal Laufey's gem.
* Briar set himself up as the wedding planner for the marriage of Erland and Racoon. This was a plot to trick Aeger from interfering in their quest.
* Though they tricked Mord into fighting Loki, Eventually the Goat did deal fairly with him. She left Laufey's gem in his care.
Session Two
The Van-Folk were asked to wait for a prophetic tree, an Ent, to awaken and speak. The tree was sleepier than expected so they had to use some...creative solutions, to wake him up. He told them to go to a walking mountain in Niflheim and hear a voice on top of it. The trip to Niflheim was perilous and they almost didn't make it. They ended up climbing inside Ymir to scale him, he was made of rock, wood. and wind, so this is easier, and less gross, than one would expect. They reached his crown where they met the Grandmother Norn who foretold of Ymir's death and the creation of Midgard. They then made a quick trip to Asgard where they relayed to Odin the prophecy. At the end of the game, he invited them to his hall for a drink.
Highlights
* The characters did a surprising amount of dancing, thanks to an illusion created by a wizard.
* Eventually the Goat learned a harsh lesson, never poke Ymir in the eye.
* Patience the Vulture nearly lost his sanity to the weird things happening in this quest.
* The Van-Folk talked their way past the wolves who are Ymir's liver. Specifically, they tricked them into believing they were onions and performed a musical on the dangers of alcoholism.
All-in-all the games went well. I even won the Hammer of Plot:
Take Aways
* Some drawn runes will increase the story game difficulty dramatically. I learned that I need to tone down the amount they do so.
* In the story game, I'm going to rotate players not by who finished the last scene, but by who started it.
* I need to solidify some of the roleplaying game rules.
* I'll remember to explain the basic mechanics first rather than doing it during play, it'll lead to less confusion.
Well, that's my report. I look forward to running Vanagard again in Breakout Con.
