Solo Tryout of Vice & Violence Version 2, Part 2
Continuing this second edition-ish playthrough of Vice & Violence, or really, starting it I suppose since all I got to last time was character creation. And even then, I left out these gear packages! Milkie's got the protector kit, sword and board style. Cheeri took healer because someone should. Spookie of course has Mage's, and Kip has Burglar's. These don't all match with their class aspirations at all, but that's OK. Oh and like last time I'm trying to include some properly prose-y character notes and scenes (because I can't satisfactorily follow the V&V tradition of drawing the party, at least not while following the house art style and ducking Tumblr's oft-time prudishness), so if you don't want system analysis skip down to the italic text.
So for this first adventure, I was slightly worried it'd go a bit rougher without the birth sign perks and lucky starting stats and gear roles, but these gear packages are pretty beefy and cover us on spell-casting just fine. Fireballs for the big targets, heals for getting thrashed about, it's all good. There's some coffins early on I passed on the first time because the party was kinda nervous. Here we've got Milkie happily opening the ones with giggling and moaning, ending up with a tad more loot and a need for a shower when they hit those.
Leveling up for the first time was really surprising though. The clear best option of exertion points (spent to activate cool powers and avoid negative consequences) are off the table. Now you just get a stat point on the odds, HP on the evens, and choices of more HP or MP on the odds, MP or being able to have sex more often on the evens. However, those HP/MP boosts are significantly beefier. 1d6 (or 4 if you don't roll) points, plus the relevant stat bonus. Spookie went from 3 motes to 11 without RNG on the table. Easily enough spells to finish out a typical adventure, and after buying a couple more spells after the adventure (Magic Hand and Gust), meeting the requirement to hit Novice Wizard in the first downtime session. That's ANOTHER four motes, letting them actually cast that first Advanced Spell it comes with, and they get a cool hat. In first edition the path to being a proper wizard was such a slog it was more of an aspirational long term thing that one might ever actually access those spells, now boom, run one session and you're there.
My first thought was this was just entirely too generous (particularly when you can also just buy mote increases for VERY cheap if that somehow isn't enough, but I actually like the math here a lot. Anyone can get the basic bread and butter spells, no barrier to entry. If you just want to heal/have a big blast/some little bit of utility magic on the side of your real planned build, just spend a little money for a handful of charges, or spend one whole level up (maybe two if you aren't that smart) and you've got a plenty big enough pool to last you. And all you're giving up for the privilege is having sex more often, probably. With a lucky starting role you can still easily bottom that out. Meanwhile if you want to be a proper wizard, aside from being immediately able to do your thing, you can actually cast these advanced spells, with casting costs pushing all the way up to 25 motes for some instead of the usual 1, so if you rack up hundreds, you can still expect to spend them. Meanwhile, exertion points are now properly rare, which they should be for how powerful they are. Big thumbs up from me.
After that adventure, it's time for downtime, and unfortunately, I don't at all like how downtime currently operates. It seems to be here as a mechanical concept to serve two purposes that are somewhat at odds with each other. First, we have downtime as a conceit to keep from wasting a bunch of table time doing bookkeeping with everyone restocking on rations, water, torches, etc. between adventures, and doing any other maintenance work like gaining new abilities on characters without needing the GM to be present and breaking the flow of the game. Second, downtime is a precious precious resource, used mainly to level-up classes on a separate track from character level, remove vices (a huge push-pull part of the game), and get some extra supplies by foraging or whatever while away from town. As things stand, you get 2 downtime actions between each session of play (which is a weird structure, basically assuming every group will fully handle an adventure in one go, which is a laudable ambition but weird for the sort of group that manages to spend like 5 sessions getting through a five room dungeon).
I like the idea of handling shopping away from the table, although at least based on the first edition you do need to do some at-the-table accountancy to value all your random dungeon loot before selling it off, but you should still try, but shopping should not be lumped in with the rest of this, frankly, which is all quick and/or good roleplaying prompts. I can't really think of a way to prevent the sensible option of just handing a big shopping list and all the loot off to one member of the party while everyone else goes off to do more personally enriching things, and it just sucks to be that person. Sure you can rotate who's on shopping duty, and you might even be able to work out a schedule where there's always someone who has a bit of a dead level because classes wildly vary in how/when they advance (a good thing by the way, standardizing this makes stuff less fun) but at the end of the day, one of the options is to have a big fun party, and in character, it sucks for everyone else to be having the time of their lives while you be the adult going out to buy them morning after pills, water for the hangovers, and breakfast for the next day.
Speaking of, the partying options are kinda skewed. You can visit a brothel and pay a decent bit of cash for a flat d6 roll, with most but not all removing vices, and better rolls giving temporary buffs. OR, attend lecture for 1/3 that money and a roll with stat bonus, all but guaranteeing vice removal and maybe giving straight up stat increases or free abilities, OR the free option, multiple PCs having a good time together for free, rolls modded by your best stat giving guaranteed vice clears and way more potent temp buffs than the brothel one. It made more sense when PCs only got 1 downtime action at a time, and most would be spending it to upgrade classes, but talking another PC in is no longer a real restriction and brothels are just flatly the worst relaxation option now. Which is odd for a porn-y game.
And once we take the wildcard of shopping out of the mix, the options all boil down to "get new abilities" and "party away vices." Most people are probably going to want to do one of each. If you have a really terrible day or ran out of stuff to learn, you might need to double up on partying, and if you're an overachiever you can either multiclass (maybe?) or spar to copy spells/martial skills for free. That's all fine, but it's not quite codified neatly. I'm unclear if "train class A, train class B" is a legal downtime expenditure for multiclassed characters or if "do class training" is a unique option you can only pick once.
The majority of classes are pretty straightforward about spending a downtime session and getting a new ability, with a couple being able to get several in one go (bards have RNG based on how well their concerts go, thieves spend a downtime to open up a donation bin, but can buy as many abilities off the list as they can afford when they do). Again, I'm cool with the variable progression speed, but it gets confusing with fighters and wizards, who progress by buying abilities that are actually available to all characters. Wizards are called out as having to show their spell list off to some mentor and spend a downtime to get the real perks like advanced spells and a fancier hat. Fighters are probably meant to train with a mentor to get their specialized options, but as-presently written it just says they get them with every two martial skills.
Druid is in a similar boat, where they can spend downtime to improve their shapeshifting, but there's no formal entry level sign up ability, so you can seemingly just become a fighter or a druid (or a fighter-druid even) by just kinda deciding you want to be one, as presently written, no special action needed. And then there's clerics, whose whole deal is just gaining abilities by owning relics, without any mention of whether these can be bought alongside regular adventuring supplies or there's some sort of official merch shops or other restriction. Oh and then just to make things extra confusing, Warlock (which is arguably more a permanent status affliction not a real class) explicitly doesn't touch downtime, and doesn't count against the multiclassing limit, but instead levels up via actual character level ups. Straightforward enough but it's weird just chilling with the real classes here, and it's kinda weird that there's no contingency plans for hitting max level.
None of this needs major changes, but it needs disambiguation. I'd suggest committing to one of these:
Option 1- Make shopping trips freebies, make a properly unified "join or advance in a class" option (specifying whether multiclassers can do each), clarifying the wording on the stuff prerequisites (I already gave the dev some direct feedback on druids' weirdness), with the rest of these options left basically as is (but maybe boost brother rewards), maybe add one for doing odd jobs for people with no vices and no money in urban settings.
Option 2- Codify it all in a location-based fashion. I can spend a downtime option to visit, say, the wizard's tower. Buy any spells/motes of MP/failure-blocking staves, charms, etc. and do any wizard leveling on the same trip. Martial skills and fighter leveling get done at the arena, maybe you pick up your arms and armor on the same trip, etc. This is largely how it worked in first edition, but there's too many classes to divide everything up nicely like that, especially when we've got stuff like fae knights wandering into ponds to talk to some giant fairy.
Option 3- During downtime, you have one Acquisition Option (shopping, foraging, lectures, practice, sparring, or grabbing skills/spells/motes), one Class Advancing Option (buy your class stuff, make your roll, or advance down your list as appropriate to one of your classes), and one Relaxation Option (brothels/carousing/recreational barroom brawls, etc.). You might have to skip out on doing something because you lack the funds/access/requirements, but you wouldn't have the FOMO choice paralysis.
Option 2 feels like it'd be such a pain to balance I almost feel bad for even mentioning it. Option 1 is basically where things are, just needs a bit of cleanup and a disambiguation pass, particularly for fighter which, to be fair, I think had martial skills taken away and made independent as a very last minute change. My preference I think would be option 3 because as is I'm spending more time working out how to spend downtime than on the actual adventures. But then, I'm also learning the game and running 4 characters at once. It'd be less daunting with just one to worry about I'm sure.
Anyway, back to my session notes! Everyone came out of the dungeon with some unavoidable vices (this can be expected to happen regularly), and with this new double downtime economy, everyone can both try to get rid of those AND still grab classes. Spookie has a little trouble though, since buying the required two spells costs a total of 300 jade, and the loot split after grabbing the useful junk (some hefty shields, a patch of loose chain mail, and a one-off healing item) is only 241.5. Fortunately, an arrangement can be made.
While sorting through their rewards from clearing out all these feral zombies and trying to work out how much needs to go to food and travel costs as not everyone packed a proper lunch today, Cheeri pulls Spookie aside. "So hey, I was thinking! Turns out none of us are really all that strong, and it took a lot of stabbing to get those ferals down, so maybe we should look into that magic milk they sell that makes you stronger? And I know you're trying to learn a bunch of spells to be a proper wizard and all so if I pitched in, maybe you could learn that one that makes girls make it, and then you could find people to cast that on in exchange for like a discount or-"
Spookie, having spent enough time to know a huge obvious egg when they see one agreed with no further provocation. And wouldn't you know it, after meeting back up at the inn, Spookie just happened to be practicing the gestures for all these new spells, and accidentally went and cast it in Cheeri's direction. Oh no, what a wacky accident! And oh no! Cheeri only had one chance to resist the effects before they became PERMANENT, forever! Definitely something Cheeri didn't want to happen, and tried really hard to shrug off, definitely! But there just wasn't anything to be done, and now poor Cheeri has to deal with the horrible terrible curse of having absolutely ginormous magical boobs, and a bunch of cow features, forever! Permanently! Nothing at all to be done but make the best of it. And it'll probably just make that problem of being mistaken for an actual nice pretty girl happen even more often! Ignore the massive ear to ear grin, this is clearly a horrible tragedy! Definitely!
So yeah, elephant in the room. Part of the whole second edition push is to make things a bit friendlier to people who aren't down with certain elements (or to quote the designer, "There will be a V&V SRD for those that don't want a rulebook that's 70% art book, and an art book that's 70% cartoon genitals"), and there's some nods here and there to running it with the general levels of horniness of your typical D&D campaign, or even less than that if inclined, but some of this really is baked into the world-building. As previously mentioned, most mammals no longer exist in the setting as a result of the evil old gods trying to cause famines, but we still need to have milk or else the vampires couldn't lure in victims with delicious baked goods. And we can't have people out there milking the centaurs, that'd be highly inappropriate!
So we have a spell to transform humans and half-humans (because The Deal with humans is being particularly susceptible to this sort of things, and they're the ones wanting to bake cakes besides) to solve that issue. Look, sometimes the lore building gives you rad stuff like people realizing krakens keep attacking ships because they're hungry, so they just domesticated them and save on shipbuilding, and sometimes you get stuff like this.
I'm trying to work in all the weird setting quirks here eventually both to help calibrate expectations of what's in the book and be thorough playtesting.
Anyway, that's both of Spookie's downtime actions. Everyone else is signing up for their classes. Milkie is now a Valiant Fae Knight, getting a bonus to disposition checks, which I need to more consistently remember to roll. Cheeri the Cleric I am ASSUMING needs to spend some downtime on this relic gathering run, picking up some Semi-Genuine Dragon-gold Earrings that nicely offset that -2 smarts, reducing the odds of exploding or something when trying to cast heal in the future. And Kip is now a Druid… largely getting the whole Druid kit all at once and having little if any need for cash as a result, honestly.
In fact, Kip's gonna go ahead and embrace generosity, throwing Cheeri the cash to also grab (let's be honest) her new goddess' Latest Testament: "For Fuck Sake I'm In The Shower, and Other Shoutings" to make those heals heal better too. While he's at it, he kicks in for Milkie to get a properish full set of armor, leaving her hand-me-downs for Cheeri, and those two are now maybe able to stand there getting stabbed while using their new abilities. Around here, everyone gets sick of pretending they're getting even cuts, throws the remaining 116 jade in a pile to pay for food and travel and generally agrees everyone should get Kip something real nice later.
Everyone but Spookie has an extra downtime action though, and everyone's splitting an inn room, and feeling a bit self-conscious from telling their most embarrassing stories to some jerk magic door in the dungeon. Cheeri suggests giving everyone a rubdown to relax since she used to do that sort of thing for gladiators. Milkie misinterprets that because she's slutty like that, and she was named for the stuff Cheeri produces now, and everyone's pretty grateful to Kip, so look, this averaged 3d20+everyone's best stat I'm rolling in the current rules has an alternate descriptions now for more PG-13 campaigns where you wanna say they just 'go carousing' together.
Anyway they have a fantastic time. Vices cleared, a bonus exertion for the next day, and bonus HP and stats for the same period but they're level based and kinda don't work. Plus Cheeri now exchanges like big ol' greasy burgers for brawn buffing milk and that will, in fact, help things. And hey heck with it, get in the pile Spookie, I forgot there's a shop right outside the dungeon, nobody should have to waste downtime picking up groceries… and they're broke! Time for more adventure! If anyone does need to shop for the party and miss out on the partying in the future though, it's probably going to be Spookie, always wanting new spells. That's probably part of the running gag of everyone being a happy idiot except for wizards who are all total burn-outs.
Little light investigation at first, nothing worth noting besides Milkie really buttering up Rhodkill with that gallant charm, and upon encountering a second crypt horror, Kip finally lets loose that awesome druidic transformation, his body twisting and snapping as he gains tough skin, extra legs, and the fiersome visage of a… splatcat. Adorable little things people keep as pets, like a kitten if it were technically a slug. But armed with… just little bappy paws. This is objectively even worse in combat than his usual 1d4-3 dagger setup, but he is at least non-threatening enough it doesn't bother trying to attack him. And afterwards I double check the rules for when druids turn back and… oh that's great actually. Might not be the intent but I have to follow the strict letter of the rules here.
After the battle, Kip sits there, looking a bit confused. "Well this is awkward… I'm not actually sure how I'm supposed to turn back." Cheeri giggles a bit and says, "that's OK, you're really cute like this, we can carry your stuff for you."
"Wait now I remember, apparently this lasts until I take enough of a beating to turn back to normal, so someone just maybe like give me a good smack or a kick or something? That should do it." Milkie looks a bit horrified. "I'm not gonna beat up a kitten! That's awful!" and Spookie adds, "no offense but you weren't really helping fight stuff anyway, and we have to go search up some information now, maybe you can just act pester someone for food and see if they blab about the evil plans they have to finish first or something," and then scoops him off the ground to ride on their shoulder.
Long story short, the party wants to know what's up with zombies ending up with giant piles of body parts in their closets forming into horrible clawing horrors, and the NPC they're working for is a bit concerned about how the answer is probably cultists murdering a bunch of people. Milkie volunteers to wander around town looking for potential cultists and question anyone for information, while Spookie figures it's worth it to ask other zombies in the area. Milkie's plan quickly turns into seducing sketchy guys to get info, and she kinda forgets about the info part too. The others have better luck though, running into a guy who was recently murdered and dumped down here who came back as a zombie, not particularly worse for wear besides how he used to have a totally sick tattoo of a dragon playing a saxophone, and he's pretty sure he saw some zombie woman with a real fancy dress showing it off. Might be a connection to their big mystery, either way, there's a reward. So once everyone finds a way to meet back up with Milkie, it's time to stalk some stranger.
We have another level up (Spookie takes more motes, Kip does too because hey picking up a spell or two might be useful), and a bit of a quirk in the game. You do more downtime at the end of a session. Not between adventures, not at the end of the adventuring day, end of session. This feels like a weird stopping point, but the natural path of premade adventures I have has a bit of a two-parter pending, and this blog post is getting very long. Everyone's still pretty broke, which limits options some.
Spookie is jonesing for new spells and dips into party cash again, gambling on a lecture which really pays off with 4 more motes for the pile and 2 new spells, X and Y. That's enough to dash off for a wider hat and the Invisiblity spell. Cheeri tags along for the lecture, also getting a mote pile, and the Soothe spell. She's really gaining confidence, and decides to learn to dance, too. Kip goes communing with nature and now has a shot at real natural weapons next transformation, and bumps into Milkie. He also does some foraging on the way back, finding a good bit of food and water, some weird mushrooms and some kinda bug goop. Also Milkie, who went off to the lake again, and can now kiss a friend as a tactical action to heal them. On being caught up, Milkie decides to support Cheeri with this dancing thing and buys both the Protect skill and a bass she will totally learn to play sometime.
Final thoughts on these two sessions: I know I spent a lot of time here griping, but mostly that's just because I know the developer of this is releasing this specific iteration of the book as an open playtest, and is on record wanting it to be clear and simple enough to be played by a group of people who are all quite drunk, and I actually sometimes write and edit RPG mechanics professionally, so I'm really going into proper Work Mode and looking for anything that might lead to someone asking a question the GM has to think about how to answer. If I were just running this for an actual group, I'd push through these friction points by just house-ruling downtime expenditures a little and getting a bit hand-wavey with cash (which is encouraged anyway). I'm also frankensteining this together from an early preview build of one edition's player rules and a partially-finished version of the original recipe GM rules. All things considered, it plays real smooth, and I like all the changes from the first edition.
My wish list for the second edition GM rules aside from the tweaks I've mentioned, and hopefully not too annoying edit pass notes I've been pestering the designer with all weekend as I read this over would be a bit more clarity on the expected pacing of how much gets done in a session, how much gets done in an in-game day, what sort of ratio should level-ups, downtime, and heaps of cash should roll in. I'd probably have a better sense of it with a real group. I'm mainly looking at session prep notes versions of adventures which feel like they'd breeze by, but it's easy to breeze through conversations like this, I'm not describing actions and making jokes, and it's real easy to remember my turn's coming up when it's always mine. I still feel like if I were running this it'd be two or three quick adventures in a night, one level up, one downtime, party goes to sleep.
I'm still shocked at how quickly someone with some good starting Smarts and some ambition for wizard rank ups can just pile on the motes, but it doesn't feel like a problem to be solved. Also the crypt horrors used as boss fights in both of these do feel appropriately scary for first level characters and are probably way more of a threat with allies to eat and regenerate as they drop, but I feel like if you want to have a boss fight in this against one big scary thing, either that big scary thing needs to have some real staying power and multiple attacks, or stuff before you reach it that's going to chew through exertion points. If the party can kill you in 3 rounds, even if you focus-fire on one of them, they can force a miss every round with exertion, and it's a little underwhelming. To be fair, all RPGs seem to have this sort of problem, and some later adventure seeds seem to have ideas on how to fix it.
But yeah, even alone, this is pretty fun. There's an inherent lightness of tone that comes through basically everywhere, and it's never not fun to have a party of weird cheery idiots doing dumb stuff.
