MSFY-002

Welcome to my Actual Play!

OMG hi, kia ora and mabuhay, fellow nerd!

This is an Actual Play, which means it is a log of me roleplaying a tabletop game. I'm sharing my Actual Plays because I thought it would be fun for people to join me on my fictional adventures.

Maybe these logs will entertain you, give you ideas or make you want to send me irate emails—maybe I messed up a rule? ignored something obvious?!—whatever it might be, I hope you get something out of me sharing with the ~internet~.

💖 Making Space for You is a solo roleplay campaign set in the Iron Valley TTRPG system.

Actual Play Style

Actual play style

This actual play series tries to keep separate the roleplay from the gameplay, for convenience. 💗

Roleplay

I will attempt to focus more on action and dialogue of the roleplay than the style of my writing.
(I'm not sure how successful I'll be at this 🤔 — but the idea is to speed up play, while paying attention to story beats. This is an experiment!)

Gameplay

Detailing game elements like dice rolls, Oracle pulls, moves, inventory changes and my commentary will be contained in callouts and written as bullet points.

This Actual Play episode page is currently not completely accessible to screen readers. 🫠 I am currently working on improving this. Thank you for your patience 🙏

📌 Table of contents

Previous: MSFY-001 - Welcome to Aurora
Next: MSFY-003

Textual Actual Play

Episode 2

System/s and/or resources:

Entry played on:

Emojis as visual keys (or cues!)

  • 🎲 Dice: for game decisions influenced by dice
  • 🔮 Oracle: for game decisions influenced by cards, Oracles, etc.
  • 💭 Commentary: for any random meta thoughts I might have during roleplay
  • 📦 Inventory: for any changes to main character inventory
  • 🎥 {Move}: for any {Move}s that affect gameplay (Movie camera = action)
    • Examples of Moves: Time Passes, Combat (presumably??)

🔗 [North:: Why have a legend for roleplay logs] 🤔

One-line synopsis:

A storm brings Amaya closer to her housemates.

Events

Year 1 Summer 6 — Bread Day

Day left: ⌚⌚⌚⌚
📌 Location: House of Aunt Eskama

[📖ROLEPLAY] Stormy weather keeps everyone inside — even if it is Bread Day. Aunt Eskama, Stefan and Amaya get started on repairs to Amaya's would-be room. The Nubelli are helping with dehumidifying at the air too. It's a start, and it's good company... mostly.

Day left: ⌚⌚⌚

[📖ROLEPLAY] They also have a great conversation about what's changed in town. They don't know anything about Hollow's haunted house though–ah well, not everyone is attuned to magical energy. Amaya is making progress on her promises to herself!

Day left: ⌚⌚

[📖ROLEPLAY] On the Nubelli — although they aren't Pigeons, these birds are beautiful in looks and song. Amaya is delighted to find that they can mimic the holy coos of the Pigeons when receiving care. The storm still rages outside, and maybe she still feels a bit weird about living with an aunt she hasn't seen in nearly two decades and some elf she screamed at the day before—but with animals? She was good. She could breathe. Although maybe she needed a better space for them. They were both staying in the living room with her... and Stefan who is studiously reading some thick probably dusty tome.

Aunt Eskama comes into the living room, holding something. It's a deck of cards she's just found in a big pile of her things—yes, we may need to did the house of some things—no, not right now. Let's play cards. So they do—and Stefan joins in. The Nubelli sing in the background, floating around them, while a storm rages outside.

While playing cards, Aunt Eskama assures you that even though the town look rundown after the mine closure and yes even her house is in disrepair—people in Aurora are happy. "We take care of each other," she said, a bit choked up.

"We really do," Stefan said. He smiles at Amaya's Aunt gratefully. "You took me in, and I'll always be grateful for that."

Stefan then offers barista-grade hot chocolate to all, except the Nubelli who are content to float through the air. It's delicious. It seems with what little they have, they make the most of it.

As Amaya sips her hot chocolate, she wonders—if this town looks after each other, then why did her family have to leave?

Day left: ⌚⌚

[📖ROLEPLAY] Amaya decides that since she committed to looking after herself and not just others, she will learn to play the flute—for her and no one else. Well. Maybe it's for the animals too.

[📖ROLEPLAY] Amaya ducks into a dark, leaking corridor with her flute. It is crammed with stuff, so she doubts anyone will catch her embarrassing herself here. Even the Nubelli haven't followed her. She blows haltingly into the flute for a while, testing it out. After a while, she thinks that maybe she improved... slightly.

She makes to leave her hiding spot and notices a sandwich next to her, with a note that reads 'Keep going! -Auntie'. Amaya blushes, embarrassed to be caught out.

Later, after Amaya had eaten her sandwich (sharing a bit with the Nubelli!), Stefan tells her that he can help her with the flute, since he plays a few instruments. She does not take this well, but she doesn't want to argue. She offers a non-committal sound, which he may or may not take as agreement. Aunt Eskama thinks it is a great idea.

Day left: ⌚
💭 Commentary: Rule mistake!

I was just watching an Actual Play and realised I have been calculating Hits and Misses wrong. 😳

🚫 My wrong Hit check: Total Action Score >= Challenge score (one die)
Here is the rule:
✅️ Hit: (Action Roll 1d6 + Relevant stat + Relevant skills) all together must be greater than Challenge Roll.
✅️ Total Action score > Challenge score (one die)

New Promise

[📖ROLEPLAY] During dinner — pasta puttanesca, one of Amaya's favourites — Aunt Eskama mentions that today was supposed to be Community Garden Day, but with the storm it was likely postponed until the next day of good weather. She mentions off-handedly that the community looks after each other no matter what.

Amaya cocked her head, wondering about the state of the township proper. The shops and buildings that she knew when she was younger were all boarded up or looking worse for wear. After a mouthful of spaghetti, Aunt Eskama dabs at her mouth. "I can see you thinking, you know." She smiled warmly at her niece.

"Aurora is more than its township—it's a community." The older woman turned her gaze heavenward. "After the closure of the mine, most of the mining folk left, and a lot of trade stopped." She twirled pasta on her fork. "We focussed our attention on looking after each other and less on making a profit."

She looked at Amaya meaningfully. "Visitors will say that Aurora has gone bad or some nonsense like that—it hasn't. Shops have closed, but we trade favours. People still work and learn and live—it's all informal. You haven't been able to really go around to see it, but the beauty of Aurora is still there—in our hearts and in our homes." She chuckled. "Well, maybe not our home..."

Amaya touched her aunt's arm gently. Eskama looked at her and smiled. "I know our home isn't how it used to be, but we can restore it. And you'll start seeing the real Aurora if you go to the Community Garden Day tomorrow."

The young woman promised to check it out. She wanted to start getting to know people in Aurora again anyway. Stefan offered to take her to the community garden, but she waved him off, saying she can figure it out. (She isn't incompetent...).

Day left: ⌚️

[📖ROLEPLAY] They're all in the kitchen, while Stefan cleans up the dishes. He's made them both hot chocolate (which she likes but takes with suspicion). Aunt Eskama is telling her that Animal Husbandry is very important to Aurora, so she can be really helpful. Stefan agrees with her and highlights the good work the animal-related-job townies do. Amaya performs mental gymnastics to assume that he is saying she is out of her depth here.

Day left: Time to wrap-up

[📖ROLEPLAY] Aunt Eskama gives Amaya a leather journal with some notes about the town to help her settle in. Amaya thanks her and gives her a warm hug. It has been a long time since they've embraced.

Time for bed.

That's it, folks!

Reflection

I am having so much with my Iron Valley-only playthrough. I'm setting it up so it's a one-sided Enemies to Lovers where the elf is genuinely trying to be helpful, but she keeps taking it the wrong way, and because she is such a conflict-avoidant people-pleaser she will NOT actually tell him that she's getting angrier and angrier at him. And then to top it off it is Forced Proximity because he's become homeless and living in her Aunt's house that she has just moved into.

I'm looking forward to the continued misunderstanding 😂

Their meet-cute
Him: oh no! These birds are attacking her! Better help! /yells
Her: he thinks I'm hurting these birds?? EXCUSE ME

He's following her home
Him: not really thinking about it, that's his route home, he's thinking about his internal problems
Her: why is this weirdo FOLLOWING ME

He offers to teach her how to play the flute
Him: I want to help! :)
Her: omg I'm new to this—LAY OFF

Let's go to community garden day
Him: I can show you around :)
Her: I KNOW HOW TO WALK AROUND, SIR

So all this time, his Favour meter is going up, and internally she is getting angrier and angrier but outwardly being polite at declining or being non-commital. So he's like oh yay new friend (but busy with his own stuff) and she's like "this elf is so sanctimonious, I hate him"

I'm checking out TV Tropes and thinking about which I can lean into to keep developing this storyline in the background 😂 Maybe I can set up an Oracle that is specifically for setting up their disastrous relationship

Want more of this solo adventure?

Go to Making Space for You for links to all available Actual Play logs and relevant lore.

Previous: MSFY-001 - Welcome to Aurora
Next: MSFY-003