Yeah, I'm just thinking on it more that they will have maybe 1-2 Hugareida at ranks 1-2 and a few tricks for them, whereas the hypothetical mid-20s guy would have several Hugareida at a spread of ranks up to maybe 6/7 and a ton of tricks for them. Basically our kids wont have the Hugareida to compete.
That is terrifying. So basically they hit adulthood around Adept/Expert Class (based off of Alectai's tier list) in combat viability, with a bit less in Hugareida than peer combatants. According to the Benchmarks for Average Norsemen, they could probably have a 50/50 chance of killing someone in their mid 20s. Oh God.
Depends on if they can get a good amount of Orthstirr before then. Combat pool is nice and with Stoker State can kind of handle offense, but if they can't afford strong defences they are kind of paper tigers.
I feel like there is probably a fair amount we can do to give our kids a good start in life (I still think that having nine children is sort of silly and it makes it basically impossible for me to learn their names, but whatever), but also like, they probably also need time to be kids.
The better echelon of cultivation stories (so less than five percent, lmao) generally emphasise that however much of an inherited leg-up you get, ultimately cultivation has to stem from genuine spiritual breakthroughs and mindset. You can't give that someone, they have to build it from within themselves through blood sweat and tears. I'd expect something to be true here. Past a certain point it either does not matter or can even be counter-productive.
So I think it's great to give our kids a good start and everything, but I also wouldn't obsess over like, graphing their power levels by age.
Honestly I think if we wanted to make a big tangible step towards becoming Jarl of the Hading, or even playing the long game setting up Siggy to be Jarl of the Hading, then hosting a regular ball game at our farm (maybe an adult's game and a separate kid's game) would be a great way to do it.
Perfect opportunity to dispense largesse by like, cracking open a few kegs of ale and doing a nice BBQ for everyone, which we can certainly afford, and our kids get to build relationships with everyone, and we get to network and recruit guys to go on sailing expeditions.
Yeah, I'm just thinking on it more that they will have maybe 1-2 Hugareida at ranks 1-2 and a few tricks for them, whereas the hypothetical mid-20s guy would have several Hugareida at a spread of ranks up to maybe 6/7 and a ton of tricks for them. Basically our kids wont have the Hugareida to compete.
I think you're overestimating how much most people have in Hugareida. Our family are not typical, and, leaving aside teachable Hugareida which are non-combat and will vary widely how often they are taught, I think even by the mid-20s most people have, like, maybe two? If that? Stigmar, Tryggr, and Trausti seem like a good sample here, and all of them have 0-1 Hugareida from what we've heard.
I feel like there is probably a fair amount we can do to give our kids a good start in life (I still think that having nine children is sort of silly and it makes it basically impossible for me to learn their names), but also like, they probably also need time to be kids. Not training 24/7.
So, the degree of training I'm suggesting is actually about the same as the amount Halla did starting at age 12, or that Drifa is very enthusiastically doing right now. It's not actually a 24/7 regimen or anything. It provides more dice but that's due to us being a better teacher than Steinarr, not forcing them to spend more time on it.
A lot of it is probably also play from the kids perspective...stuff like wrestling, taafl, and storytelling would fall under training the things I'm suggesting here.
The better echelon of cultivation stories (so less than five percent, lmao) generally emphasise that however much of an inherited leg-up you get, ultimately cultivation has to stem from genuine spiritual breakthroughs and mindset. You can't give that someone, they have to build it from within themselves through blood sweat and tears. I'd expect something to be true here. Past a certain point it either does not matter or can even be counter-productive.
So I think it's great to give our kids a good start and everything, but I also wouldn't obsess over like, graphing their power levels by age.
Again, to be clear, the purpose of coming up with a rough figure like this was so we could, in fact, avoid obsessing or micromanaging. If we have a good ballpark figure of how the stats on the kids will turn out, we can then just leave it at that for the most part and focus on the character beats and letting them be kids.
Honestly I think if we wanted to make a big tangible step towards becoming Jarl of the Hading, or even playing the long game setting up Siggy to be Jarl of the Hading, then hosting a regular ball game at our farm (maybe an adult's game and a separate kid's game) would be a great way to do it.
Perfect opportunity to dispense largesse by like, cracking open a few kegs of ale and doing a nice BBQ for everyone, which we can certainly afford, and our kids get to build relationships with everyone, and we get to network and recruit guys to go on sailing expeditions.
They're a boy. And yeah, they look interesting. Right now I'm thinking they just join the adventuring party, but going with them as the main character isn't impossible.
Hey Blackhand!
1) We know there are twist for fighting. Fighting the strong, the weak. Is there one for multiple opponents called punch-all-around or fighting one on one? (y'know punch-up, punch-down, punch-all-around)
Hey Blackhand!
1) We know there are twist for fighting. Fighting the strong, the weak. Is there one for multiple opponents called punch-all-around or fighting one on one? (y'know punch-up, punch-down, punch-all-around)
So, the degree of training I'm suggesting is actually about the same as the amount Halla did starting at age 12, or that Drifa is very enthusiastically doing right now. It's not actually a 24/7 regimen or anything. It provides more dice but that's due to us being a better teacher than Steinarr, not forcing them to spend more time on it.
A lot of it is probably also play from the kids perspective...stuff like wrestling, taafl, and storytelling would fall under training the things I'm suggesting here.
Again, to be clear, the purpose of coming up with a rough figure like this was so we could, in fact, avoid obsessing or micromanaging. If we have a good ballpark figure of how the stats on the kids will turn out, we can then just leave it at that for the most part and focus on the character beats and letting them be kids.
Fair enough! I think it would be reasonable for Siggy to start the second quest a bit stronger than we were in the first half of this one - a lot of basic stuff isn't going to feel as exciting to do the second time anyway. But I also think that's probably going to come down a lot to when IF wants us to start in Siggy's life and other narrative concerns like that, so I'm not sure how much this sort of projection can be a guide beyond providing a very rough ballpark. But in fairness you were saying it's mostly providing a ballpark, so fair enough.
I think there also have to be some diminishing returns on training for children, because a lot of energy is going on basic developmental stuff, and kids' bodies (and probably souls) aren't finished growing yet. Which probably means there's a limit to how strong you can make a sixteen year old even with the best available resources and teachers available from birth. Clearly it's a reasonably high ceiling, since Hasvir seems to have gotten really strong because Horra clearly tried everything possible to turn him into a prodigy, but that also seemed to cause some resentment between him and his dad.
Hey Blackhand!
1) We know there are twist for fighting. Fighting the strong, the weak. Is there one for multiple opponents called punch-all-around or fighting one on one? (y'know punch-up, punch-down, punch-all-around)
Fair enough! I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, and I'm not trying to have a go at you for crunching the numbers or anything. I think it would be reasonable for Siggy to start the second quest a bit stronger than we were in the first half of this one - a lot of basic stuff isn't going to feel as exciting to do the second time anyway. But I also think that's probably going to come down a lot to when IF wants us to start in Siggy's life and other narrative concerns like that, so I'm not sure how much this sort of projection can be a guide beyond providing a very rough ballpark. Which in fairness, I know is what you intended.
Sure, there's definitely room for fiddling to some degree, to say nothing of there being some system revisions between now and actually playing Sigurdr or whoever (which IF has stated will be a thing), which will definitely have significant effects. I just like getting a good idea of the general power level we're talking about, because it gives us an idea of what kind of things our next PC might be expected to be able to accomplish early on, and because training her kids to survive and thrive as much as possible seems to be the kind of thing Halla would definitely do and seems like it should have an effect. Also because our kids are ridiculous and imagining them at 16 casually overpowering some Norsemen of twice their age in raw stats amuses me.
Generational games can also have issues if the player base feels bad about all their lost progress when they swap to a new character, which I'm hopeful the degree of prowess in question will ameliorate. Like, in 15 years Halla will be a lot more badass than that, but being at least 7+ in all the stats is at least starting from a solid position and avoids hard feelings, I think.
I think there also have to be some diminishing returns on training for children, because a lot of energy is going on basic developmental stuff, and kids' bodies (and probably souls) aren't finished growing yet. Which probably means there's a limit to how strong you can make a sixteen year old even with the best available resources and teachers available from birth. Clearly it's a reasonably high ceiling, since Hasvir seems to have gotten really strong because Horra clearly tried everything possible to turn him into a prodigy, but that also seemed to cause some resentment between him and his dad.
I mean, Abjorn had Hamr 8 at about 16. He had Giant's Blood, but so do the kids. There may be a cap, but I don't think any of the numbers I suggest are above it. And I think Horra and Hasvir's relationship had a lot more to do with how Horra treated him outside of training than the degree of training.
[X] Plan Continue The Basics
-[X] Vows of Love: Lock in Godly Luck
-[X] Hamingja: Lock in Seeing Eyes
-[X] Lock in Snake's Tongue - 2 Reward Dice courtesy of [@DeadmanwalkingXI](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/89786/) (includes replenishing die if possible, which the sheet is showing as used, but should've replenished with the new year, I think?)
-[X] Lock in Giant's Blood - 2 Reward Dice courtesy of [@Shard](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/6983/)
-[X] Lock in Friendly - 2 Reward Dice courtesy of [@Silverking](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/51403/)
-[X] Lock in Born With A Hammer In Hand - 2 Reward Dice courtesy of [@fearsome hill](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/108589/)
-[X] Lock in Stoic Silence - 2 Reward Dice courtesy of [@Alectai](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/391/)
-[X] Lock Out Hemophobia, Low Self-Control, Dirty, Beardless, Undersized, Unlucky, and Unintelligent - 7 Reward Dice courtesy of [@Shard](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/6983/)
-[X] Lock out Advanced Bloodlust and Lock In Bloodlust - 3 Reward Dice. 1 courtesy of [@Toboe](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/82198/) 1 courtesy of [@Simon_Jester](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/8945/) and 1 courtesy of [@DeadmanwalkingXI](https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/members/89786/)
-[X] Note: With 6 Traits from Halla and Abjorn locked in, all other non-recessives are locked out by default.
[X] Plan Saying Goodbye To Aki And Hello To Sagaseeker
-[X] (Seeress) Learn seidr with the Seeress (Only available during Summer)
--[X] Ask about spirits and how they work, particularly spirits of the land like the nisse, and how they interact with seidr and odr
--[X] Bring Aki along and introduce him to Kolla (or renew their acquaintance, I suppose)
--[X] Get a list of additional protective spells from seidr to train on our own, with a focus on protecting against other seidr and otherworldly stuff
-[X] [Social] (Yule) It's Yule! What would you like to do for it?/(Personal) Spend time with...
--[X] Aki
--[X] Basically use Yule as his going away party (among other things)
--[X] Gift him the new Drinking Horn and explain that it should help Hamr (with the note that we just started using a pot with a similar effect and thought he might want something similar as well)
--[X] Say goodbye to him before he goes. Tell him we'll see him soon as we're headed to Vestfold in the next couple of years, and he's welcome to come back with us then if things aren't any better there.
--[X] Make sure to do a fair bit of the cooking and assign Tenderize Roast while doing so
-[X] (Empty Sack) ...Maybe you should try stuffing that empty sack full of straw?
-[X] (Crafting) Try to make something
--[X] Reforge Sagaseeker (+15 successes from Tools/Workshop)
--[X] Add runes saying "My edge never dulls or breaks when seeking honour." to the blade in addition to keeping the existing runes (one of the two sequences on each side of the blade) (1 Reward Dice from Skippy)
--[X] Add runes saying "I strike as Sky-Flame, none but the messengers of Yggr shall slow me." to a Socket Stone, which we add on to Sagaseeker as part of this process.
--[X] Decorating it appropriately to be properly Realized in a mix of silver and gold (3 oz. each)
--[X] Adding cat or lynx bone ash to the crafting, as that seems most appropriate (note: we're trying to avoid killing a domestic cat for this, which should be doable)
--[X] Switch Forgefire Slots to Dice before starting and back afterwards, likewsie swap out Beaconlight for Heat Hold before starting and back afterwards if using it proves unnecessary.
--[X] Spending ****9 Odr**** on the crafting**,** and burning Frami (for +1 Success) and Virthing and Saemd (for +3 successes each, +7 total) to enhance the crafting process
-[X] (Exploration) Go on a walk through...
--[X] The Hading!
--[X] Look for any interesting herbs we can find
---[X] (Optional) Send your fylgja in your place (Does not cost an action)
0~0~0
Child 5, as of yet unnamed
Traits
-Born of Fire
-Shadowy Shroud
-The Bloody Basics
-Godly Luck
-Giant's Blood
-Seeing Eyes
-Snake's Tongue
-Friendly
-Born With Hammer in Hand
-Stoic Silence
-Bloodlust
-Snarky
-Irreverent
-Disconcerting
(And, because I didn't do this for the previous children, I'm adding some personality traits to each. 2 traits per child)
Asgeirr
-Cheerful
-Religious
Sigurdr
-Heroic
-Passionate
Eyvor
-Reserved
-Serious
Hallbjorn
-Animal Lover
-Considerate
0~0~0 Talking to the Seeress + Introducing Aki to Kolla (How well did they hit it off? 94+6(Reward Dice, curtesy of Toboe)=100, lmao)
Almost immediately after showing up to the Seeress' tent with Aki in tow, Kolla emerged from her shadow-cloaked corner of the tent—nothing you or the Seeress did ever managed to get Kolla to lighten up a little bit—took one look at Aki, thought for a moment, and then nodded to herself.
Aki barely had time to yelp as Kolla was already dragging him from the tent.
The Seeress watches her daughter leave with Aki in tow, a slight frown on her face. She clicks her tongue against her teeth as her furrowing brows add more wrinkles to her face, "Kolla is getting to be about that age..." She sighs and lifts her cup to her lips. "There'll be trouble, mark my words."
If anyone else had said that, you would shrug and laugh along with them. When a seer says that? Well, their word carries a lot more weight to it in terms of things like that.
"Regardless of the future," the Seeress sets her teacup down, "it's time to start today's lesson—spirits of the land."
Assuming a scholarly pose, she begins her lesson with an introduction on spirits. "Spirits are entities with strong connections to certain things. In summoning a spirit, you also gain access to the properties they are connected to."
"Like a spirit of guidance guiding you along," a simplistic and obvious observation, perhaps, but not an inaccurate one by any means.
She nods, "Exactly. If one wants the help of a spirit, one must get their attention by using things they desire, in ways they appreciate, while offering them suitable payment. With most spirits, a mote of odr is enough—as having odr is a surefire way to increase a spirit's standing in society. With spirits of the land, however, they demand a bit more substantial price. In order to entice a spirit of the land to stay, one must utilize the products of the land in a specific fashion with accordance to their specific desires. For example, if one desires a nisse on their farm, they must first attract the nisse with a horse—as that is their favored animal—and then to entice them to stay an offering of porridge and butter must be made every Yule."
The lesson continues, covering all manner of spirit and how best to deal with them. After a while, the lesson wraps up and you go on your way with a piece of rune-scratched wood clutched in your hands.
(3 Spells added to Low Seidr)
(1 Spell added to High Seidr)
0~0~0 Yule with Aki
The wind bats at your hair as you stand before Aki on the pebble beaches of Asvir—his father helping the shipmaster load their chartered ship in the distance. Seabirds squawk all around you as you both wait for the other to begin.
Swallowing, you grit your teeth and leap into action. But before you can get a word out, Aki's beaten you to the punch.
"I'd just like to say that, even if we never see each other again, the time I've spent with you has..." He trails off with a sigh as unseeing eyes tear up, "I don't think I'd be alive right now, if it wasn't for you. Before you made me your friend, the prophecies my raven brought were nothing but doom and gloom, foretelling failure before it even happened. I saw my uncle be swallowed by a sea monster, you know. And when I tried to warn him, it only made him more eager to go." Aki's voice deepens in a mockery of a dead man, "'Confirmation that your death will be glorious? What more could a man possibly want!' And then he died and dad lost his best-friend and brother."
The wind howls as he trails off. A beat of silence echoes between you as you process his words.
"If things don't get better for you in Vestfold," you find yourself speaking before you really knew what you were going to say, "you will always be welcome in my home. I'll be visiting Vestfold in a few years' time, so you'll see me then."
You expected that you'd shake hands and say goodbye—or something along those lines. So when Aki leaps up and wraps his arms around you, all you can do is support his weight as his tears wet your clothes.
His hands wad up your clothing as he sobs into your shoulder. He probably didn't plan for this either, but...
But sometimes, you just need to let it all out.
You support him as he whimpers about how much he'll miss you, about how thankful he is to have known you. To ask you not to cry would be to ask a river not to flow. Maybe you can stave it off with a dam, but dams inevitably fail.
By the time you and he separate, your eyes are red and puffy as he waves his final goodbye and climbs aboard the ship.
The merchant ship sails away from the harbor. You stand there on that pebble beach as it shrinks. By the time it's a speck on the horizon, the sun is almost setting.
Pebbles crunch underfoot as the Seeress appears at your side. Her eyes glow with the power of her Sight, her gaze fixed to that dot in the distance.
"It would seem," she begins with a reserved tone that cracks the longer she talks, "that Kolla has decided to elope. When you go to Vestfold, I will be accompanying you."
She pivots on the spot and marches off to her tent.
'Well,'
Shit, you finish for Blackhand.
0~0~0 Adding Straw to the Empty Sack
Taking the empty cloth sack—which your fylgja had brought you so long ago—to the barn, you proceed to shove fistfuls of straw into it.
As you do this, idle thoughts dance over what might happen once you finish this task.
In the end, the prevailing idea is...
[ ] That it won't work
[ ] That it springs to life, ready to fight!
[ ] That it resumes its previous task
[ ] That it comes to life, but does nothing
0~0~0
AN: I had a weird time writing this one. My apologies if it isn't very good. I need to sleep at a more reasonable time...
I guess we got Aki a cute waifu! Mission Successful.
Anyway, I really don't want a fight right now. We've had one virtually every turn for a while. So I'm not keen on double-tapping this right now, unless it's weak enough to be facerolled without a combat sequence anyway.
Oh yeah, thanks @Toboe for adding your die! It turned that to an unnat 100!
Which is going to lead to Fun.
Either way, there's some powerful eugenics involved there, Aki is apparently a natural Seer of rare talent, and Kolla is the daughter of the One Man who hit Steelfather because he was So Swole nobody could tell him no.
"It would seem," she begins with a reserved tone that cracks the longer she talks, "that Kolla has decided to elope. When you go to Vestfold, I will be accompanying you."
It helps that Aki's a very thoughtful boy... Which honestly might be exactly why Kolla went. "Mine", if she's completely exhausted of the usual Norse Bravado nonsense.
Well. Aki and Kolla running off together is hilarious. So there's that. Hopefully we can get them to come back with us so Solrun doesn't, like, combust.
@Imperial Fister I hate to say it, but our Hamingja should only be 16. We did spend one on the kid. Additionally, our Training Dice should be 57, as we lose both Aki's +1 and said point of Hamingja.
