Vaesen: The Silver of the Sea - RPG Review

A review of The Silver of the Sea, the first adventure in Vaesen's A Wicked Secrets supplement. If you're looking to try out the Vaesen horror RPG for the first time, check this review out, as this one makes a solid introductory adventure!
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[@PimPimGamer]

I ran this adventure for a group of 4 players earlier today. It went well overall. Most of them are new to TTRPGs and that makes it very easy to surprise them with all the weirdness this mystery holds. We are not done with it yet, it ended up being two sessions but I managed to end it on a nice cliffhanger. They had arrived on Wrecker Isle and just gotten acquainted with Justina in the inn and had to save Oscar from a couple of fishermen that were about to give him a beating for interrupting their meal with a bunch of questions about the Amundssons, and I had Abela tell her two sons to toss the trouble makers out after the players tried to intervene. One of them had a run in with Orvar who drunkenly bumped into the player character who stayed at the inn and gave them a vague warning, then when he left the establishment, he was lost in a crowd and already on his way to his cabin. They were invited to Zacharias villa and had dinner with him while noticing some strangeness about the baron and the group finally decided that they had to split up in order to find clues faster. (Every GM cry in happiness!!) Half the group went on their boat to visit Orvar at his cabin but were suddenly subjected to a storm that came out of nowhere. The other group (two PCs) went towards the warehouse where they managed to enter through the floor by removing some of the planks (I made the warehouse be located on a riverbank, held up by wooden logs, exposing the floor) They got inside and found the priests crucifix but that’s when I ended the episode as they could hear the steel door to the warehouse open with a creak as someone is coming inside. (They still do not know but I will most likely have it be "Pete" and "Pace" since they were tasked to find and keep an eye on the players) That will most likely be a good moment for them to try and kidnap them unless they can hide. :D Overall, it went really well and am looking forward to seeing how they deal with the ending.

[@1ShotJC]

Oh nice, great spot to end on a cliffhanger. Reading your version, I am so glad my players were experienced enough NOT to split up! Having different groups on different islands could really make for a messy ending with this one.

[@PimPimGamer]

@@1ShotJC Yeah for sure, part of me really want the dice to be in my favor and have the brothers kidnap atleast one of them at the warehouse. The only issue is that I am afraid that it might make the game boring for that PC up until the final. They basically lose their agency until the climax, not so sure how I feel about it but it would make for a great moment, if only one of them escape and warn the others that their friend has been taken after Orvar tells them about Deep Reef. :D

[@1ShotJC]

Kidnapping PCs is really hard because they always tend to fight to the death. I’d lean into an NPC getting taken instead.

[@PimPimGamer]

@@1ShotJC If anything I could have them take Justina or even Oscar. Might be a smarter move.

[@squeakykraken4058]

This is such a great review! I am thinking of running this mystery as my first Vaesen session and your walkthrough cleared up a lot of questions I had, so thank you! It's really got me excited to get this underway. I will definitely use a few of the assets you prepared as well.

[@1ShotJC]

Happy to help! Good luck and may your players all survive….

[@yogapantsyogurtpants3365]

These are great to listen to before a read through. Puts everything into perspective as the text can feel lingering at times.

[@1ShotJC]

Ty! I’m excited to do more

[@hangyig]

Why I'm a little worried is whether my players will lock/calm down Oscar at the beginning -- that seems to be a bit risky part of the scenario, and I tempted to only use Zacharias's supernatural events as a countdown instead of the Oscar's storyline. The latter's part of the story seems to be a nice touch to make it more vivid (also can be a good red herring) but I agree with you, if I stick to the countdown connected to Oscar, that might not uncover the tasty part of the whole adventure but make it end early. Great review btw, it feels like your group prefers the same kind of one shots like mine!

[@1ShotJC]

Thank you! Honestly the Oscar subplot is mostly extraneous to the adventure. But I also think it is a good reward for players who lock the guy up right away - they’ll feel smart and accomplished, and it doesn’t really wreck the rest of the adventure.

[@Grumble7908]

This is a really useful review. Thank you. Great analysis for potential weaknesses of the scenario and i like your suggestions to overcome them.

[@jevertt]

Great review & the VTT assets are awesome!

[@Minodrec]

That sounds awesome. It's great that you actually played threw the adventure before reviewing it.

[@eternalmiasma5586]

This is one of my favorite non DND or Cthulhu RPGS. It’s probably in competition with tales from the loop for my favorite

[@1ShotJC]

Completely agree - it’s a gem and of my favorites to emerge in the last decade.

[@DraconiusDragora]

Fun thing; Vaesen, also spelled Väsen, translates to basically Spirits, or Beings of the spirit realm.

[@1ShotJC]

Love this - the game provides so many of these great creatures to draw from too

[@DraconiusDragora]

@@1ShotJC Same, Scandinavia has tons of creatures from folklore, to mythology and more that are interesting in many different ways ^^

[@Frederic_S]

I find all the videos that I have watched so far very interesting. Thank you so much 👏

[@balamstudios]

So many great ideas there to add to the adventure. thanks

[@jimjones7980]

I love your vaesen adventure reviews. I'd love to see more! Any chance of doing the Witch Cat Inn.

[@1ShotJC]

Haven't tried that one yet but I'll add it to my list!

[@bwridge]

I found this one difficult to run. It can be a challenge to orchestrate things so that the PC's follow the family out to the island.

[@1ShotJC]

Yeah, I might even recommend moving everything within an hour of Wrecker island.

[@TheLordWinter]

Thank you for sharing some great resources!

[@MrJojux]

The two main problems I see with this adventure for my group are: How do I get the party to the final scene instead of having them on a confrontation to early on? And why is every ending bad? I dont need a happily ever after, but something other than bringing poverty over the region or having human sacrifices continue.

[@1ShotJC]

Yeah you really need to stage that kidnapping naturally for the end to work. I’ve also come to the conclusion that Vaesen’s horror is more about the march of progress and modernization more than the supernatural. So the bad endings are more an acknowledgment that the old world will eventually disappear…

[@Sylanael]

Thanks for share some awesome resources

[@Captain1nsaneo]

The algorithm has thrown something good my way. Neat!

[@1ShotJC]

Glad you found it helpful!

[@Captain1nsaneo]

@@1ShotJC I'll go through your archive as I find time. Your content reminds me of Seth's which is always a good thing.

[@alignmentunknown3156]

One thing I don't understand about this adventure is where are all the canning employees? They're never mentioned and investigating the warehouse seems in the book to mean there's very little or no one about. If it's such a big factory, where do the employees live? Is it open 24 hours a day?

[@1ShotJC]

Yeah, the workers are really are only mentioned in passing -- for example, it says that during the day, the docks and warehouse are really busy, but then at night, it's pretty much a ghost town. When I ran it, I just said the workers all lived back in Fjällbacka. It's about an hour away by boat, so it's technically commutable.

[@alignmentunknown3156]

@1ShotJC Yeah. That's exactly what I did when the players asked. When you're playing with a group if socialists, you know it's gonna come up. Lol

[@cwesley2005]

Does this adventure come with the book? Great tips by the way!

[@1ShotJC]

It's in the Wicked Secret adventure supplement. And thank you!

[@playdead1414]

I have a two hour demo session coming up for Free RPG Day. Someone recommended this one? What do you think?

[@1ShotJC]

This one still seems to be considered one of the best Vaesen adventures - though I can't imagine it squeezing into two hours.

[@playdead1414]

@@1ShotJC I read it and quickly gave up the two hour idea. Found a few other contenders on DTRPG. Thanks.

[@user-rc3cz8ew2l]

Great review. Sadly I'm afraid I found the adventure rather unsatisfying. As it's published, the Amundssens aren't actually guilty of Hedqvist's murder. Added to that, Hedqvist is not a particularly pleasant character - I looked it up, and both priests belong to a very conservative denomination. Also, unless I missed it, they aren't worried about or even aware of the disappearance of foreign sailors and the like, but just object to the folk of Wrecker Isle having a good old time. If it wasn't for the sacrifices, my sympathies would be entirely with the Amundssens. I changed the story a little so that Hedqvist shot and mortally wounded Paul when the barrel was opened. Hedqvist was then brained by Pete using a boat hook and left for the Mermaid who did whatever mermaids do with sacrifices and then discarded his body which was eventually discovered floating off Graveyard Isle by a neighbour of Orvar's. I also left a broken watch and spent bullet on the skerry for the players to find. To keep Orvar close, I had him ferry the characters around in his boat. Like you, I also invented an NPC, mine was a drunken and corrupt doctor in Fjallbacka who was summoned to Wrecker Isle the night of Hedqvist and Paul's death. It was also this doctor who declared Hedqvist's death natural - he tried to argue that the wound on the priest's head caused by the boat hook was caused by scraping against rocks. My group put all the clues together brilliantly and more or less worked out what was going on but with no clear way to resolve the adventure and no actual authority (or concrete evidence of a murder) they ended up going all D&D and killing Zach and Pace, although they spared Peter and Abela. With hindsight, I would have dropped in some stories about the disappearance of foreign sailors and hinted at an atmosphere of suppressed fear on the island. I think there's a great adventure in there, and my players assure me that they had fun, but for my part, I found it required a lot of effort to make it work. Anyway, like I said, great review, I'm glad you enjoyed the scenario.

[@1ShotJC]

I think your additions are really great, especially a doctor NPC who can tilt the players in a different direction in case their suspicions are totally off track. A lot of Vaesen adventures have these ambiguous, gray endings -- which I love for thematic reasons -- but I've found they can fall flat with some player groups, or if the GM doesn't improvise new motivations along the way. But really sounds like you made it work!

[@user-gr5um8xq3b]

Thanks. Like I said, the players assured me they enjoyed it. I'm going to try a home brew next - something to do with a half completed dam and an ash wife.😁 By the way, the doctor was a drunk who was basically in the pay of Zacharias. It was his defensive manner and his gossipy house-keeper that helped the players.

[@kayag8]

You could do some smaller videos between these. Like tips on backstory, villians. Anyway nice videos