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Thoughts and Review
Smoke & Snow is a traditional campaign played in Old School Essentials, with some elements mixed in from Lamentations of the Flame Princess - namely, firearms - following the expansion of civilization into a newly uncovered ancestral continent. The actual play melds elements of traditional fantasy adventure with deep world-building, the exploration thereof by the player group, as well as themes reminiscent to the Age of Discovery, with the players - based out of a pilgrim-esque colony - akin to Lewis and Clark, or perhaps the like of John Cabot or the brothers Corte Real, penetrating into the cold depths of a new land.
For Further ListeningThe Red Dice Diaries YouTube channel - as might be inferred from my "plethora of content" comment - serves as a platform not only for John's actual plays, but also for the content produced for his Red Dice Diaries podcast.
This content is available on YouTube - as well as episodically in your preferred podcast player - but on the YouTube, is organized in playlists by content and subject material. While I am more a fan of auditory media - meaning that I tend to listen to these podcasts rather than watch them - if you enjoy what you're seeing when watching Smoke & Snow, you may like what you're hearing if you head over to the other playlists - or subscribe to the feed - to listen to the DM, John Alan Large, speak to his experience and insight.
Further, Smoke & Snow is a home game of John Alan Large - primary author and content creator for the Red Dice Diaries media network - RedDiceDiaries.com. John publishes a plethora of additional content available on the Red Dice Diaries page, peripheral services documented therein, and published via a handful of social media outlets.
What I Like
Hex maps! At this point in my reviewing career, I can count on one hand the number of actual plays that include player-facing (or audience facing) hex maps - by association, I can count the number of APs in the same manner that are useful to the viewer to learn how to run, or what to expect, when playing a hex crawl. Big kudos to John on this front. One, in his seamless execution: accommodating lower level or smaller party hex crawling; transitioning between different hex scales to account for different areas or different objectives, zooming in and out according to the theme of exposure; the way he uses fog of war to hide and reveal portions of the map as the players uncover it - and two, for the style of play that it fosters. A theme of exploration - and the resulting combats, parlays, alliances, and enemies that arise for the party therefrom - runs consistently through this actual play: something that defines the vision for why hex crawls were created.
Encounters for the characters are mixed between Theater of the Mind and VTT battle-mat. Primarily, if an encounter goes friendly - or if a random encounter is somewhat nondescript: such as fighting off a pack of wolves that happened upon the camp at night - the group uses Theater of the Mind; whereas if an encounter is bigger, a location that the players would do well to remember, or a gang of enemies tied to the objective at hand - a battle mat with tokens and more rigid structure is used. I like this because it shows adaptability for when things come up, first, and second, it highlights that combat can be abstract - that combat doesn't have to be the focus of a game: while it's in the game, it's an element of the game, and a player should expect to run into it: it's only one piece of the puzzle, one tile in the mosaic, that defines the old-school experience.
In addition to Smoke & Snow, available on the Red Dice Diaries YouTube are several additional playlists for several other games:
• Vampire: The Masquerade (5th)
• Blades in the Dark
• Scum & Villainy
• Index Card RPG
Full disclosure, I have not watched these playlists - and as such, I cannot speak to their content nor quality - and of note, the systems used are not OSR systems: thus, they may not be to your taste, if you are looking for an OSR actual-play. However, if you are curious about any of the above systems, or if you are looking for an entertainment experience rather than an OSR-educational one - you may find more content to your liking by the same creator.
Regarding role-playing and play-acting, the players do on occasion ham it up a bit: however they seem to know
what the limit is: they seem to know the level at which role-playing
adds to the ambiance, adds to character development, as opposed to the point
at which it detracts: the point at which it changes the spirit of the experience from an adventure into an improv. They stay flawlessly within the realm of additive role play: on no occasion did I feel the need to fast forward the videos with the exception of - being a non-live viewer - exploiting my YouTube advantage of skipping mid-session breaks to stay in the action. An example of this balance is especially of value to aspiring old-schoolers who came to the hobby from more "RP-heavy" groups - or, to be more explicit, folks who have come into actual-plays via more popular streams who focus on character soap-opera rather than actually playing the game. It shows how banter can (and should!) happen and that in-character conversation and in-character development can (and should!) occur - that it is part of the experience, but that - like combat - it's a single tile in the mosaic that is the old-school experience.
Lastly - and this might be a cultural thing, a difference from my North American experience compared to John's European, specifically UK, one - I love how polite, reserved, and nominally stoic most of the characters are. It's a very muted counterpoint to the loud, blunt presentation of a great deal of other actual plays I've viewed - a phenomenon of YouTube culture, perhaps? It's refreshing - and it's simultaneously beneficial to the viewer as it seems to focus the stream on the game and not on the players: a key element to understand in an OSR game. The story doesn't star the characters, it stars the party; and the story isn't about the party - it's about blood, gold, and the charting of the unknown - the extension of Humanity's reach at the tip of a sword: one torch's radius at a time.
For Further RiddlingWhat has a mouth and never eats,
has a bed and never sleeps,
always runs and never walks,
laughs and rages, never talks?
Red Dice Diaries RPG Podcast
Season 2, Episode 20
The Ultimate Encounter
I know the answer is "a river" - but the description fits one of my toddlers, honestly.
What I Don't Like
Truly, I can't think of anything that I dislike about this stream. The audio is occasionally louder for some players than for the referee - but that's true for virtually all streams and is hardly something to complain about: in this case, it's not intrusive to the experience unless you're using headphones (in which case, I found myself straining a bit to hear on some exchanges, as I couldn't adjust the volume fast enough between speakers) - but also, audio issues... because of the aforementioned prevalence, I've stopped judging actual plays for having technical difficulties. It happens to professional broadcasters, it can happen to us little guys too.
So congrats - John! I need you to mess up somehow so I can have something to complain about.
In Conclusion
Smoke & Snow is tempting me to go back through other APs I've reviewed and review them with a harsher standard. It is an interesting story - one of discovery, of friends and foes, of loss and victory - and it is a good mechanical exposé of the rules. It is a traditional campaign, where the characters and players grow and develop: a story lies under the surface that's waiting to be told, but in OSR format, the players help to build this story - to forge this narrative - by providing the experience by which the tale is told. An aspiring OSR referee seeking to understand how the game is (or should be) played, I highly recommend watch Smoke & Snow.
Solid Plate rating. Keep rolling those red dice, guys!
excellent review, I think I'll check them out.. thanks!
ReplyDeleteGlad to be of help! You won't be disappointed.
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