Fat Rat Games

Warning: This post is about my map of the Járn Vale but there are potential spoilers on the map for the adventure, Lair of the Vermin Lord, from Triple Ace Games.

I’ve been working on a map of the Járn Vale for my Hellfrost campaign. Since I plan on the campaign largely being located within the Vale, I it is probably a good idea that I get started on one. It’ll certainly help me plan things out and the direction and distance of, say, Eikstad from Dalsetter more consistent. I’m not the most artistic in the drawing department and so I’m all about the hexes. I recently grabbed a license for Hexographer (although the labels were added via Fireworks), read this great article on mapping with hexes: In Praise of the 6 Mile Hex, and did a little work. The map below the cut is the latest–pretty incomplete–draft but it is a start. Most of the locations on the map are places that the PCs have either visited or have been informed about. A number of them are from the last session…that writeup will be posted here eventually.

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A new player has joined the campaign. Well, not actually new. Todd had to quit playing for awhile but he’s back and, especially since he and I have known each other for almost twenty years, I’m quite happy about it. He’s going to be playing Sebbi ap-Howell, an Anari Heahwisard. Sebbi is also the newly appointed Lord of Clachmore, a manor in the Freelands that (surprise, surprise) has Dalsetter as part of its holdings. Todd took the Noble Edge (required since he wanted to be a Heahwisard). We worked it out that his family (from the Principality of Darovia in the Magocracy) has long held this manor. Being a younger son and the manor being sort of out of the way (at least to the Magocracy), it seemed like a perfect match when his uncle, Berwyn, the current Lord of Clachmore passed away suddenly. So Sebbi’s father sent him off to the manor to oversee it and maintain the family’s interests in the area.

It also ties in nicely with my desire to run a more community-based campaign.

Sebbi also has a “new” Hindrance: Dangerous Secret. Basically, the Dark Secret Hindrance from Ravaged Earth was the inspiration. I knocked it down to a Minor Hindrance. If the secret becomes public knowledge or known to certain NPCs, the Hindrance is changed to Enemy (Major) instead of the Wanted (Major) and -4 Charisma of Dark Secret.

We are using a few House Rules in the Hellfrost campaign (most of these come from the PEG forums):

• Anyone can spend a Benny to re-roll damage.
• On a critical failure, the GM can offer the player a Benny to NOT spend a Benny and re-roll and accept the consequences of the critical failure.
• If Shaken and dealt a Joker for initiative, the character is automatically Unshaken.
• We are not using Guts. If needed, it’ll just be a Spirit check.
• If you miss the session, no XP for you.
• And, of course, all the Hellfrost Freebies from Wiggy and TAG!

Our last session log coming soon…

Oh, Cuðbert, Lia, and Wulfwynn all got Advances after our last session and their character sheets have been updated.

[Below is some information on the Járn Vale. This area is the central location for my Hellfrost campaign. As Wiggy is fond of saying in response to Hellfrost questions, it is your campaign so do what you want…in other words, there are going to be departures from the published material and from anyone else’s campaign (e.g., I think most folks have Dalsetter and Dunross to the north and possibly east of Aslov…mine are to the west). This is definitely a work in progress and I’ll update elements as they get developed a bit. Most of the info here isn’t necessarily things that the PCs are aware of…I’m relying on the players in the campaign to distinguish between player knowledge and character knowledge. ;)]

Warning: Potential spoilers below for the adventure, Lair of the Vermin Lord, from Triple Ace Games…we’ve wrapped it up but there are references to it in the descriptions below.

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