An Auditory Review of UVG
I’ve struggled to review The Ultraviolet Grasslands. I posted a first look here, but anything I write out just seems to limit it. Is that weird? I think that’s weird.
My instinct is to share amazing screenshots of the art, but…you already know the art is amazing.
Maybe I’ll talk about the writing and the anti-canon setting that makes it your own…but Luka already did that!
Instead I’ll demonstrate how easy it is to prepared a game of UVG and how dense the ideas are in this book.
I like Improv
I’m an improv GM at heart. I just need one or two good ideas to run a four-hour session. If you prefer exhaustive detail and read-aloud boxes than UVG will be frustratingly sparse.
In fact it’s been designed with holes and missing piece on purpose! I cover a few examples in the audio section, but here’s something for text:
Encounter: Scared local herbivores, several prairie pigs and a glyptodon (L4, armored), hanging out by a waterhole.
What the HECK is a “glyptodon”? It’s not defined anywhere else in the book, and is never mentioned again. To some GMs that may be a frustrating lack of details, but to me, it’s an opportunity. Here’s what I came up with during the game:
A glyptodon is a mass of hair that ambles about the plains. It’s hard to tell what shape or structure it has underneath all that hair, but the occasional wing or tail can be seen peeking out from under its mane.
They basically ended up fighting Cousin Itt from Adams Family.
But YOUR glyptodon might be completely different. For me, the name and the other weirdness of UVG provide enough context to build monsters and locations from these ideas in the book. But for you, that may not be enough.
Audio Prep Demonstration
I’ve recoreded live audio of my game prep so you can get a sense of what I’m thinking WHILE I’m thinking it. Below the audio is the spread of UVG that I used for my 3 hour game session. I didn’t use ANY other part of the book; just this single spread to run a fun adventure.
I hope you enjoy this little experiment, and I hope it gives you a better idea of how UVG can be used to propel your adventures into weird and unexpected place.
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