Primal Quest – Hunting the Sky Wizards

Having game designer friends means that sometimes finding a game to play can be a real ordeal. Primal Quest threaded that needle with solid design and a fun stone & sorcery concept. We were sold as of the dinosaur on the character sheet and the game delivered on that promise. Hard copies of Primal Quest are now for sale at Exalted Funeral.

Below are the full videos in the Actual Play Primal Quest playlist but I know full well that not everyone has the time nor the inclination to listen to other people play.

With these folks in mind, below I’ve set aside a few moments – things I want to think about, do better, and moments that I just think are cool. Notes are in the captions below each video.

Blue Star Subject Divider

Created in Midjourney with the terms:
blue star falling across the sky of a dark, primeval world

Bite Sized Video Bits

A check-in would’ve been smart here to avoid a t-rex eating a Jay’s baby later. As it was, it worked out but it is a mental note for me to check in with my friends.

Stone Spearhead Subject Divider

Created in Midjourney with the terms: neolithic spear

Stras is a huge help all game. It wasn’t that Primal Quest is all that complicated; it isn’t but Stras picked up on it fast and was a huge help in getting the table to engage with the system and use it wisely. Some folks might call that Rules Lawyer but I prefer to think of it as a Rules Gandalf.

In which Sean flesh out my idea about the star. I already knew it was scifi star-people but until that moment, I didn’t know that their sister had joined them.

In which Sean shows how to talk to friends about a part of the setting that vexes him and in doing so, makes the game better. Thank you, Sean.

Here we negotiate how a new magic system works for us at our table. Feels like this is an important table skill that doesn’t get talked about much. We’re used to doing this from our Blades in the Dark, Position and Effect conversations.

The game ran a bit long, quite a bit longer than any of us had wanted or planned for. I reckon, looking back, I could’ve cut out the time in the lake village but I liked that, dammit. It was good world building. We created river-ball and met the village elder with her triceratops friend. I’d rather take some time, enjoying being in a new place and interesting moment, knowing that it will pay off later. This is why I’m not good at one-shots.

Watching this again, I can see missed opportunities. Buren could’ve been haunted by the dead in the village by the lake. It happens.

Stras, Jay and Sean are some of my favorite people to game with, on or off stream but we’re all really busy. I hope we find time to gather around our digital fires and hunt down some sky wizards.

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