Since our spring restart we've been fairly active with three sessions in total, two shorter and one long. We finished the third one which concluded the delve the other day. I will post a recap sometime in the near future.
torsdag 28 mars 2019
tisdag 19 februari 2019
Post-Session Report: Tying up some loose threads from last year
Date: 19/2 2019
Appearance: Magnus (GM), Thomas (Biff-Börje) and Johan (D'Jonna)
After a few months hiatus from the campaign we're now back in business with a short but pretty productive meeting to have a look at the book-keeping and tie up some loose knots. The haul from last delve was pretty extensive and needed a definite answer about what was being sold, what was kept and what was thrown away. In the end everything that could be sold was sold to leave as much funds as possible for buying skill-ups and armour.
There was also the question about how the delve ended plotwise which was also handled in a nice but somewhat matter of fact way. Biff-Börjes allies was basically put out of the game even before the meeting, them being either lame or broken in their lower appendages but it became even more final when the "good" orcs kidnapped them and the leader argued "An eye for an eye" and promptly killed one of them for getting his own warriors slaughtered by the party while the other one was kept as a potential bargaining chip if needed. When the party returned with his beloved commander as well as the rival orc leaders head on a plate he didn't need to bargain though and instead promised them shelter in the future as well as gifts when he'd settled in his old quarters which the party seemed to be all fine with.
Three of the prisoners they found (one of the Hobgoblins, the Barbarian and the Goblin) were taken along back to town. The Barbarian will be treated as a 250 point Henchman for the future while the Hobgoblin and the Goblin will be put in prison for interrogation. The Goblin seemed mostly interested in carving different figurines out of wood. There's also the human-looking female (who upon closer inspection seem to have some minor orc traits aswell) who was "rescued" from the orc tribe. She's been too upset to get any information at all out of as of yet but it seems she will be a future ally to Börje to make up for his two lost ones.
Appearance: Magnus (GM), Thomas (Biff-Börje) and Johan (D'Jonna)
After a few months hiatus from the campaign we're now back in business with a short but pretty productive meeting to have a look at the book-keeping and tie up some loose knots. The haul from last delve was pretty extensive and needed a definite answer about what was being sold, what was kept and what was thrown away. In the end everything that could be sold was sold to leave as much funds as possible for buying skill-ups and armour.
There was also the question about how the delve ended plotwise which was also handled in a nice but somewhat matter of fact way. Biff-Börjes allies was basically put out of the game even before the meeting, them being either lame or broken in their lower appendages but it became even more final when the "good" orcs kidnapped them and the leader argued "An eye for an eye" and promptly killed one of them for getting his own warriors slaughtered by the party while the other one was kept as a potential bargaining chip if needed. When the party returned with his beloved commander as well as the rival orc leaders head on a plate he didn't need to bargain though and instead promised them shelter in the future as well as gifts when he'd settled in his old quarters which the party seemed to be all fine with.
Three of the prisoners they found (one of the Hobgoblins, the Barbarian and the Goblin) were taken along back to town. The Barbarian will be treated as a 250 point Henchman for the future while the Hobgoblin and the Goblin will be put in prison for interrogation. The Goblin seemed mostly interested in carving different figurines out of wood. There's also the human-looking female (who upon closer inspection seem to have some minor orc traits aswell) who was "rescued" from the orc tribe. She's been too upset to get any information at all out of as of yet but it seems she will be a future ally to Börje to make up for his two lost ones.
torsdag 10 januari 2019
The year in review 2018: Looking Forward to more gaming
Looking back on the past year I'm very satisfied with keeping this blog going for the whole year. My previous attempts at blogging have never lasted more than a few months tops and never more than a couple of posts in total.
2018 generated a grand total of 33 published blog posts and even though I mostly post for my own amusement and maybe for my players I still feel like continuing for another year. Since going back to work from parental leave my posting have degraded fast from almost once a week to once or twice a month. This is totally fine and my goal for 2019 is to keep this pace going with one post minimum per month for maybe a total of 20 posts for 2019.
My second goal is of course to play more games, with focus on gurps dungeon fantasy. To have one proper rpg session each month is maybe a stretch but if I make it I will be very pleased. I also hope to finish my writing project and start and maybe even finish my second one. We'll see what this year has in store...
2018 generated a grand total of 33 published blog posts and even though I mostly post for my own amusement and maybe for my players I still feel like continuing for another year. Since going back to work from parental leave my posting have degraded fast from almost once a week to once or twice a month. This is totally fine and my goal for 2019 is to keep this pace going with one post minimum per month for maybe a total of 20 posts for 2019.
My second goal is of course to play more games, with focus on gurps dungeon fantasy. To have one proper rpg session each month is maybe a stretch but if I make it I will be very pleased. I also hope to finish my writing project and start and maybe even finish my second one. We'll see what this year has in store...
torsdag 27 december 2018
KotB Delve #4 - Orc diplomacy
Timespan: 2018-10-16 - 2018-11-16 (Session 6-8)
In-game time: Mandatory one week in town + one week and one day on the road.
Participants:
D'Jonna - Amazon Warrior (Barbarian Template)
Boerge the Beef - Human Thug (Knight Template)
- Sture (Guard)
- Kent (Torchbearer)
Father Wår - Human Priest of the Lord of Light (Cleric Template)
Three short weekday sessions concluded this delve, the first one was mostly bookkeeping and travelling to the dungeon. Boerge repaired his shield and took up some work at the armorers, D'Joan tried (and failed) to find someone that could make her an owlbear-fur chestpiece while Father Wår identified his newly-found wand and did some additional research on the book they were sold a few sessions ago. Sture the Stone usually uses most of his allowance for gambing but this time something good came of it: he picked up a rumor at the tavern that the Merchants Guild were looking for adventurers. Boerge went there and was informed that another one of the guilds caravans had been attacked, presumably by orcs. The bodies of the caravan leader, a respected guild-member, and his wife, had not been found so chances were they were still alive, most likely as prisoners somewhere in the caves. On their way there they were raided nightly, first by a group of kobold hunters and then a pack of wolves. Both were struck down with ease. The kobolds had catapults with insect swarms and ampoules containing some kind of tranquilizing toxin while the wolves were left in camp to be skinned. After the two encounters the group decided to take some time to create a proper camp on the outskirts of the caves that is better camouflaged as well as easier to defend.
When heading to the caves the next day (day three) they were dead set on finding themselves some orc to kill and hopefully set the poor merchant couple free in the process. And it didn't take them long to identify some orc in and around a guardtower they had noticed during previous delves sitting on the north side of the mines. The moved forward in the forest above the mines and when they were close enough the cleric Sunbolted directly into the tower for enough damage to start a small fire in it while Börje and D'Jonna stormed forward to take care of the orcs beneath it. They killed one and wounded another before they even gave them a chance to give up.
They couldn't prevent one of the guards from jumping down the open trap-door and into the lair below which made them a little uneasy. They decided to drag their prisoners out from under the tower and back into the brush and when one of them came to they started questioning her. She kept saying in broken common that her tribe, the Blackscalp clan were the "good orcs" and that they should speak to her leader Krisk about killing the "bad orcs" of the Bloodspear clan instead. They were not convinced but D'Jonna decided to give it a go in the last possible moment, accepting an invitation into the lair to convene with their leader.
They headed straight for the closest natural cave entrance and having succeeded a Tactics roll they charged straight in for surprise. Inside the cave entrance four guards were sitting around a fire, three orc and one gnoll. Further down the room there was a staircase heading down and beside it something was glimmering in the firelight. Boerge beat the gnoll down with a flail-hit to the back of the head and he fell straight into the fire and spent the next three or so rounds rolling around with his fur burning but was out of the fight. D'Jonna charged one orc down to the ground and proceeded straight to the back of the room where she managed to pierce an eye on another with her spear while Wår protected the flank and use some support magic. A small tactical mistake gave them trouble after the initial onslaught though. After downing the back orc D'Jonna realized that the gleaming surface in the back of the room was a large gong and moved into position to attack anyone going for it but before the last orc was moving the one she had knocked down grappled her legs from behind preventing her from taking the necessary step to be able to hinder the one trying to hit the gong.
In-game time: Mandatory one week in town + one week and one day on the road.
Participants:
D'Jonna - Amazon Warrior (Barbarian Template)
Boerge the Beef - Human Thug (Knight Template)
- Sture (Guard)
- Kent (Torchbearer)
Father Wår - Human Priest of the Lord of Light (Cleric Template)
Three short weekday sessions concluded this delve, the first one was mostly bookkeeping and travelling to the dungeon. Boerge repaired his shield and took up some work at the armorers, D'Joan tried (and failed) to find someone that could make her an owlbear-fur chestpiece while Father Wår identified his newly-found wand and did some additional research on the book they were sold a few sessions ago. Sture the Stone usually uses most of his allowance for gambing but this time something good came of it: he picked up a rumor at the tavern that the Merchants Guild were looking for adventurers. Boerge went there and was informed that another one of the guilds caravans had been attacked, presumably by orcs. The bodies of the caravan leader, a respected guild-member, and his wife, had not been found so chances were they were still alive, most likely as prisoners somewhere in the caves. On their way there they were raided nightly, first by a group of kobold hunters and then a pack of wolves. Both were struck down with ease. The kobolds had catapults with insect swarms and ampoules containing some kind of tranquilizing toxin while the wolves were left in camp to be skinned. After the two encounters the group decided to take some time to create a proper camp on the outskirts of the caves that is better camouflaged as well as easier to defend.
When heading to the caves the next day (day three) they were dead set on finding themselves some orc to kill and hopefully set the poor merchant couple free in the process. And it didn't take them long to identify some orc in and around a guardtower they had noticed during previous delves sitting on the north side of the mines. The moved forward in the forest above the mines and when they were close enough the cleric Sunbolted directly into the tower for enough damage to start a small fire in it while Börje and D'Jonna stormed forward to take care of the orcs beneath it. They killed one and wounded another before they even gave them a chance to give up.
The entrance to the lair was a fairly large room with one wall covered with skulls of different shapes and forms. This didn't bother the stoic amazon though and she proceeded to speak with the leader who was an older, battle-scarred orc with a surprisingly eloquent dialect of common, like he'd been teached at young age by a human scholar. He gave a short backstory about why the orcs were living in the mines, that they had always had a wary but non-aggressive relation to the humans in the area until recently when a competing tribe moved in, took over half of the lair and started raiding the nearby farms and trade routes. Now his tribe is too weak to do anything more than defend their part of the lair and the only thing keeping them from moving back north is that the Bloodspear has taken Gryst, one of his most beloved commanders as prisoner, probably tortured him aswell. If the PC's could investigate and release his commander he will reward them in the best way possible. If they were to obliterate the tribe altogether he would be even more pleased. Then D'Jonna and the orc leader shared a common appreciation of a proper handshake in blood and the PC's were off to kill some more orc.
They headed straight for the closest natural cave entrance and having succeeded a Tactics roll they charged straight in for surprise. Inside the cave entrance four guards were sitting around a fire, three orc and one gnoll. Further down the room there was a staircase heading down and beside it something was glimmering in the firelight. Boerge beat the gnoll down with a flail-hit to the back of the head and he fell straight into the fire and spent the next three or so rounds rolling around with his fur burning but was out of the fight. D'Jonna charged one orc down to the ground and proceeded straight to the back of the room where she managed to pierce an eye on another with her spear while Wår protected the flank and use some support magic. A small tactical mistake gave them trouble after the initial onslaught though. After downing the back orc D'Jonna realized that the gleaming surface in the back of the room was a large gong and moved into position to attack anyone going for it but before the last orc was moving the one she had knocked down grappled her legs from behind preventing her from taking the necessary step to be able to hinder the one trying to hit the gong.
A loud sound spread through the halls of the Bloodspear-clan and within three rounds three more orcs moved in from a room to the side almost immediately maiming both the torchbearer and the guard protecting that door. D'Jonna had a really hard time braking free from her grappler and in the end she decided to just take the minus to hit, stand still and attack anything within her reach. Scared that there were more orcs preparing to head up the stairs they moved out directly without even looting and decided to regroup in the relative safety of their camp.
They healed up in camp but realized that neither Sture nor Kent would be able to walk on the injuries they'd received in the fight (Kents leg was lame, Stures was broken) so they decided to leave them in camp when they headed back to the orc lair the next day. During the night they heard some strange shuffling around the camp but decided not to investigate and nothing came forward to attack them either. When they ran into the Bloodspear Orc lair for the second time the next day it the entrance was almost unguarded. Only a single orc not dressed for battle was guarding the gong and this time they stuck to their plan, silencing the area around the gong while taking care of the confused orc. After a short discussion about how to move forward and a quick check into the neighboring room to see that it was empty they charged down the stairs to retain the element of surprise. Directly outside the stairs a net-trap had been set to catch intruders. D'Jonna and Börje ran straight past it but Wår who was staying behind got tangled and spent the better part of the fight trying to get out. Meanwhile D'Jonna and Börje made orc stew out of at least a half dozen surprised orcs and another gnoll. One of the female commanders they had heard about was in this room aswell, visibly pregnant. Her cheek was knocked off by Börje and she was knocked out but they opted against killing her (I'm not sure if that was even the most lenient thing to do). During the fight at least as many non-combat orcs had scuttled out of the room to it's sides.
After resting up for a short while they continued through one of the the two passages leading out of the room to it's sides finding a locked door and a corridor leading into a large dark hall filled with blinking red orchish eyes. They checked the room which seemed to be some kind of sleeping quarter filled with orchish women and children cowering behind each other, among them was also a human woman which seemed to live with the tribe. They didn't want to risk starting a massive fight so they left them and then ran out through a door by the entrance to the room and nearly fell down a narrow hewnout ledge looking out over a larger natural cavern. About five meters down there were a huge pile of excrement with mansized glowing red creatures digging into it.
They decided to explore the cavern at a later time and headed back to the entrance of this floor and through the other passage. When passing through the scene of the previous battle they noticed that there was a path of blood along the floor and into one of the rooms to the side they were going while the pregnant woman was missing. One door was chained and barred while another was merely closed so they decided to kick in the closed door upon which a boss-fight ensued. The orc leader was a berserking axe-thrower standing behind a waisthigh pile of stuff in a 4x6 m room which took a minor hit to the torso before hurting D'Jonna badly from one of his two thrown axes and crippled her speararm. Around the side of the pile another one of the female commanders, this one berserking aswell came charging with two katars, both of them were all but naked. Wår immediately started healing D'Jonna back up but she was going to experience another crippling hit to the same arm before the fight was over. She was almost cut off from the other two standing a meter or two further into the room when the commander tried to force Börje back with her Katars but he stood his ground and after a few rounds managed to inflict enough damage to her to make her drop and then moving on to take care of the leader with skull-hits from behind while D'Jonna was fighting for her life with Wår chainhealing her.
In the back of the room on a lavish bed the pregnant woman they'd beaten before was now in labour, unconscious but her whole body twitching and spasming while blood was soaking the sheets and floor below. This gruesome scene made a lasting impact on Börje who will not get close to pregnant women again for a long time. After taking care of her (now he thought it was the most humane thing to put her out of her misery) they proceeded to loot the room and their former adversaries that occupied it, finding jewellery, a bag of copper coins tied with a long rope, weapons and some fine wine and clothing. They didn't find any keys for the barred door though. While resting up in the leaders room they heard some shuffling outside due to an exceptional hearing-roll from Wår but were too weary to investigate.
After an hour or two of rest and meals they headed out of the room and immediately noticed that the locked and barred door had been opened, inside was a pen of some kind to one side and a big cage with three kobolds in it chirping and clicking exitedly when they saw the PC's. For once they went the bloodless path and just released the kobolds which crawled through a hole in the back of the pen and out of the lair. On one of the walls there were also signs that someone had been chained to it until recently. They headed back to the sleeping quarters where they now found the last of the three commanders, holding two semi-tamed gnolls in chains around their necks like dogs while two orchish brutes held the human woman they had spotted before aswell as the tortured orc at swordpoint. By using the woman as translator she agreed not to kill the hostages and also give them the keys for the rest of the rooms if they gave her safe passage out of the lair with what was left of the tribe.
In a small storage room they found a bowl of herbs, some foodstuffs and about 100 sq ft of oxhide. In the back of the other passage there was another prisoncell, this one with three hobgoblins, a goblin and a barbarian inside it. After clearing the lair for loot they had one last surprise. Back in the camp Börjes Allies were missing!
They healed up in camp but realized that neither Sture nor Kent would be able to walk on the injuries they'd received in the fight (Kents leg was lame, Stures was broken) so they decided to leave them in camp when they headed back to the orc lair the next day. During the night they heard some strange shuffling around the camp but decided not to investigate and nothing came forward to attack them either. When they ran into the Bloodspear Orc lair for the second time the next day it the entrance was almost unguarded. Only a single orc not dressed for battle was guarding the gong and this time they stuck to their plan, silencing the area around the gong while taking care of the confused orc. After a short discussion about how to move forward and a quick check into the neighboring room to see that it was empty they charged down the stairs to retain the element of surprise. Directly outside the stairs a net-trap had been set to catch intruders. D'Jonna and Börje ran straight past it but Wår who was staying behind got tangled and spent the better part of the fight trying to get out. Meanwhile D'Jonna and Börje made orc stew out of at least a half dozen surprised orcs and another gnoll. One of the female commanders they had heard about was in this room aswell, visibly pregnant. Her cheek was knocked off by Börje and she was knocked out but they opted against killing her (I'm not sure if that was even the most lenient thing to do). During the fight at least as many non-combat orcs had scuttled out of the room to it's sides.
They decided to explore the cavern at a later time and headed back to the entrance of this floor and through the other passage. When passing through the scene of the previous battle they noticed that there was a path of blood along the floor and into one of the rooms to the side they were going while the pregnant woman was missing. One door was chained and barred while another was merely closed so they decided to kick in the closed door upon which a boss-fight ensued. The orc leader was a berserking axe-thrower standing behind a waisthigh pile of stuff in a 4x6 m room which took a minor hit to the torso before hurting D'Jonna badly from one of his two thrown axes and crippled her speararm. Around the side of the pile another one of the female commanders, this one berserking aswell came charging with two katars, both of them were all but naked. Wår immediately started healing D'Jonna back up but she was going to experience another crippling hit to the same arm before the fight was over. She was almost cut off from the other two standing a meter or two further into the room when the commander tried to force Börje back with her Katars but he stood his ground and after a few rounds managed to inflict enough damage to her to make her drop and then moving on to take care of the leader with skull-hits from behind while D'Jonna was fighting for her life with Wår chainhealing her.
In the back of the room on a lavish bed the pregnant woman they'd beaten before was now in labour, unconscious but her whole body twitching and spasming while blood was soaking the sheets and floor below. This gruesome scene made a lasting impact on Börje who will not get close to pregnant women again for a long time. After taking care of her (now he thought it was the most humane thing to put her out of her misery) they proceeded to loot the room and their former adversaries that occupied it, finding jewellery, a bag of copper coins tied with a long rope, weapons and some fine wine and clothing. They didn't find any keys for the barred door though. While resting up in the leaders room they heard some shuffling outside due to an exceptional hearing-roll from Wår but were too weary to investigate.
After an hour or two of rest and meals they headed out of the room and immediately noticed that the locked and barred door had been opened, inside was a pen of some kind to one side and a big cage with three kobolds in it chirping and clicking exitedly when they saw the PC's. For once they went the bloodless path and just released the kobolds which crawled through a hole in the back of the pen and out of the lair. On one of the walls there were also signs that someone had been chained to it until recently. They headed back to the sleeping quarters where they now found the last of the three commanders, holding two semi-tamed gnolls in chains around their necks like dogs while two orchish brutes held the human woman they had spotted before aswell as the tortured orc at swordpoint. By using the woman as translator she agreed not to kill the hostages and also give them the keys for the rest of the rooms if they gave her safe passage out of the lair with what was left of the tribe.
In a small storage room they found a bowl of herbs, some foodstuffs and about 100 sq ft of oxhide. In the back of the other passage there was another prisoncell, this one with three hobgoblins, a goblin and a barbarian inside it. After clearing the lair for loot they had one last surprise. Back in the camp Börjes Allies were missing!
A nice set of sessions in all, the largest amount of loot money-wise this far. XP was three each I think plus XP for loot which we didn't have time to calculate during session but it will render about 2-3 additional XP each. MVP was for Wår which really made the difference in the bossfight with his healing, keeping D'Jonna from falling over which definately could've ended the fight on a sour note.
fredag 30 november 2018
Laws of the dungeon: Light and Darkness
A big part of GURPS DF and the tradition that it tries to emulate is the dungeon, it's even in the name of the product. A dungeon implies cramped, dark and creepy spaces, often situated below ground.
This means a lot of the story of a DF game (and of course the fighting) will take place in various degrees of darkness, and also that a lot of the monsters and humanoids that you meet there will be adapted to that darkness (and to varying degrees the PC's as well).
Me and my players have grappled with the rules for darkness penalties for a while, not satisfied neither with the way it's written in the Basic Set nor the DF-specific rules. For me as a GM it comes down to letting dungeon-dwellers with appropriate advantages enjoy an edge in their natural habitat compared to surface-living PC's unless the PC's find creative ways to mitigate that edge and maybe even turn it in their favor.
Dungeon rooms are rarely fully illuminated due to their inhabitants relying on various levels of Night Vision, Dark Vision or Infravision. So it's up to the PC's to illuminate them. This is what basic equipment the PC's have a their disposal:
And this is the rule I'm proposing: Give all dungeon rooms a darkness score ranging from -3 (torches or strong candles spread out all across the room or corridor providing passable back-lighting) to -10 (total darkness). On each attack (or other action based on vision) that penalty is used if the players haven't got extra light-sources affecting the target of their action. For the first light-source used the penalty will be lowered to -3. For each additional light-source or if the darkness score of the room already is set at -3 the penalty will be lowered by an additional point. So a total of four different sources of light is needed to completely mitigate darkness-penalties in a room that has no proper back-lighting to begin with.
Example: A knight and a barbarian is standing in the front row of a fight in a corridor with a darkness-score of -7 (candlelight along the walls), the knight has a helmet lamp and a continual light stone around his neck, the barbarians two-handed sword is enchanted with flaming weapon. Behind them a torchbearer is standing with a torch held up. This will negate the darkness-penalty for the knight (four light sources), the barbarian attacks the same enemy from the side it will be a -1 to hit (three light sources: flaming weapon, continual light and torch). A target one hex behind the line of scrimmage will be at -2 to hit since the torch only affects a two yards radius.
Rule add-on for dazzle and light blindness: Just as easy as it is to be blinded by darkness it is to be blindness by sudden flashes of light when your eyes have adapted to darkness. Any light-source of at least 2 yards that is present in a hex between an attacker and his target or a beam of light hitting the front side of an attacker will give the attacker -2 to hit. A sudden flash of light can also cause Dazzle. Roll against HT with -2 for a beam of light, -4 for sunlight spell, -6 for Alchemist's Fire. On a failure you are dazzled for -4 to vision-rolls until end of combat. On a critical failure you are blinded for seconds equal to margin of failure then dazzled.
Anyone with Infravision is only susceptible to the negative effects of light-sources also emitting intense heat like a torch, flaming weapon and Alchemists Fire.
References: DFRPG Exploits p.19 "Light Sources", Gurps Tactical Shooting p.18 "Shooting in Darkness"
This means a lot of the story of a DF game (and of course the fighting) will take place in various degrees of darkness, and also that a lot of the monsters and humanoids that you meet there will be adapted to that darkness (and to varying degrees the PC's as well).
Me and my players have grappled with the rules for darkness penalties for a while, not satisfied neither with the way it's written in the Basic Set nor the DF-specific rules. For me as a GM it comes down to letting dungeon-dwellers with appropriate advantages enjoy an edge in their natural habitat compared to surface-living PC's unless the PC's find creative ways to mitigate that edge and maybe even turn it in their favor.
Dungeon rooms are rarely fully illuminated due to their inhabitants relying on various levels of Night Vision, Dark Vision or Infravision. So it's up to the PC's to illuminate them. This is what basic equipment the PC's have a their disposal:
- Helmet Lamp, Shield Lamp - 5 yard Beam
- Bull's Eye Lantern, Light Jet - 10 yard Beam
- Torch, Lantern or Flaming Weapon - 2 yard Semi-Circle
- Continual Light Stone or Glow Vial around neck - 1-3 yard Half Circle depending on strength of spell or amount of pills in vial
- Sunlight spell - Area as big as the caster decides
- Alchemist's Fire - size of fire +2 yards Circle
And this is the rule I'm proposing: Give all dungeon rooms a darkness score ranging from -3 (torches or strong candles spread out all across the room or corridor providing passable back-lighting) to -10 (total darkness). On each attack (or other action based on vision) that penalty is used if the players haven't got extra light-sources affecting the target of their action. For the first light-source used the penalty will be lowered to -3. For each additional light-source or if the darkness score of the room already is set at -3 the penalty will be lowered by an additional point. So a total of four different sources of light is needed to completely mitigate darkness-penalties in a room that has no proper back-lighting to begin with.
Example: A knight and a barbarian is standing in the front row of a fight in a corridor with a darkness-score of -7 (candlelight along the walls), the knight has a helmet lamp and a continual light stone around his neck, the barbarians two-handed sword is enchanted with flaming weapon. Behind them a torchbearer is standing with a torch held up. This will negate the darkness-penalty for the knight (four light sources), the barbarian attacks the same enemy from the side it will be a -1 to hit (three light sources: flaming weapon, continual light and torch). A target one hex behind the line of scrimmage will be at -2 to hit since the torch only affects a two yards radius.
Rule add-on for dazzle and light blindness: Just as easy as it is to be blinded by darkness it is to be blindness by sudden flashes of light when your eyes have adapted to darkness. Any light-source of at least 2 yards that is present in a hex between an attacker and his target or a beam of light hitting the front side of an attacker will give the attacker -2 to hit. A sudden flash of light can also cause Dazzle. Roll against HT with -2 for a beam of light, -4 for sunlight spell, -6 for Alchemist's Fire. On a failure you are dazzled for -4 to vision-rolls until end of combat. On a critical failure you are blinded for seconds equal to margin of failure then dazzled.
Anyone with Infravision is only susceptible to the negative effects of light-sources also emitting intense heat like a torch, flaming weapon and Alchemists Fire.
References: DFRPG Exploits p.19 "Light Sources", Gurps Tactical Shooting p.18 "Shooting in Darkness"
lördag 24 november 2018
Post-Session Report: KotB Session 08
Session Date: 2018-11-17
Another short session, but this one we pushed it a little to round up the delve. It was time to try and clear the "evil orc" lair. The PC's where the usual Knight, Amazon and Cleric and it included among other things:
* Two failed rolls for crippling, one critfailing for the two allies which made them unusable for the evening.
* Successful and effective Silence-spells
* A falling net trap which caused some problems
* Some gruesome scenes with pregnant berserk orc woman
* A naked orc leader, also berserking and crippling the Amazon's right arm.... twice!
* The Clerics healing really came into it's own for the first time, it was always nice but this was the first time they depended on it to win a battle.
* A human woman was found in the orcs common room, she was filthy and spoke only broken human.
* The biggest loot hoard in a single session thus far I believe, in part due to two good random rolls on the DF8 Jewellery Table
After the game a numbers of rules questions surfaced, the major one regarding "unjust" penalties to healing-spells for multiple casts. I've not decided if I will houserule it in some way yet but for the time being I will leave it as is.
Another short session, but this one we pushed it a little to round up the delve. It was time to try and clear the "evil orc" lair. The PC's where the usual Knight, Amazon and Cleric and it included among other things:
* Two failed rolls for crippling, one critfailing for the two allies which made them unusable for the evening.
* Successful and effective Silence-spells
* A falling net trap which caused some problems
* Some gruesome scenes with pregnant berserk orc woman
* A naked orc leader, also berserking and crippling the Amazon's right arm.... twice!
* The Clerics healing really came into it's own for the first time, it was always nice but this was the first time they depended on it to win a battle.
* A human woman was found in the orcs common room, she was filthy and spoke only broken human.
* The biggest loot hoard in a single session thus far I believe, in part due to two good random rolls on the DF8 Jewellery Table
After the game a numbers of rules questions surfaced, the major one regarding "unjust" penalties to healing-spells for multiple casts. I've not decided if I will houserule it in some way yet but for the time being I will leave it as is.
fredag 26 oktober 2018
Post-Session Report: KotB Session 07
We played a short session last week but it was mostly bookkeeping and travelling to the Caves to nothing to write home about really. The one we played today was much more interesting.
* A group of orcs in a guard tower claimed to be "good orcs, peaceful orcs" after surrendering and was listened upon in the very last minute (a lucky dodge prevented the last conscious one from getting his head smashed in before D'Joan decided to give orcish diplomacy a go)
* A surprisingly eloquent orchish leader desperate for help with cleansing his former lair of a rival tribe, aswell as rescuing of one of his best men from the "evil orcs, despicable orcs".
* What looked like an easy surprise-attack on a couple of orc guards turned into a drawn out battle when the orcs managed to sound the gong in the last possible moment.
* Some interesting stuff happened during the fight like a dying gnoll rolling around the floor on fire, an orcish eye was pierced neatly and an orc who managed to keep his leg grapple on D'Joan for almost the whole fight, for her complete annoyance. One of the Knights allies was also 1 dmg from getting his leg decapitated, instead tearing his artery. There was much blood.
All in all a very fun evening. At last it seems like we're starting to get the hang of the combat-system (me included). There were some rules-checkups during the fight (like if you needed to tie or win an ST-contest to Break Free) but my impression was that they were pretty few and far between.
* A group of orcs in a guard tower claimed to be "good orcs, peaceful orcs" after surrendering and was listened upon in the very last minute (a lucky dodge prevented the last conscious one from getting his head smashed in before D'Joan decided to give orcish diplomacy a go)
* A surprisingly eloquent orchish leader desperate for help with cleansing his former lair of a rival tribe, aswell as rescuing of one of his best men from the "evil orcs, despicable orcs".
* What looked like an easy surprise-attack on a couple of orc guards turned into a drawn out battle when the orcs managed to sound the gong in the last possible moment.
* Some interesting stuff happened during the fight like a dying gnoll rolling around the floor on fire, an orcish eye was pierced neatly and an orc who managed to keep his leg grapple on D'Joan for almost the whole fight, for her complete annoyance. One of the Knights allies was also 1 dmg from getting his leg decapitated, instead tearing his artery. There was much blood.
All in all a very fun evening. At last it seems like we're starting to get the hang of the combat-system (me included). There were some rules-checkups during the fight (like if you needed to tie or win an ST-contest to Break Free) but my impression was that they were pretty few and far between.
tisdag 2 oktober 2018
Writer's Dodge: Progress Report
A month has passed and the thirty rooms I planned on finishing during this time was more like fifteen. To my defence I have started working again after being on parental leave for a half year so I was kinda expecting progress to not reach the levels I had initially hoped. I've counted 22 rooms completely finished with about five more partly finished of around 50-55 rooms in total. Four lairs out of nine now have descriptions which also takes some time to finish that I had not initially accounted for.
I'll check back in another month with another progress update. If I have 40 rooms finished by then I will be pleased. Then I can push to finish this project until the end of November. Hopefully my playtest will be just about finished by then aswell.
I'll check back in another month with another progress update. If I have 40 rooms finished by then I will be pleased. Then I can push to finish this project until the end of November. Hopefully my playtest will be just about finished by then aswell.
söndag 30 september 2018
Session 05: The beating of the Hobgoblins
Date: 2018-09-18
Players:
D'Joan - Amazon Warrior (Barbarian Template)
Boerge the Beef - Human Thug (Knight Template) - 259p
- Sture the Stone (Guard)
- Kent the Ball (Torchbearer)
Father Wör - Human Priest of the Lord of Light (Cleric Template)
Honest Ernst - Human Ranger (Scout Template) - 256p
This game started off where sessions #3 and #4 had ended, at their camp set up a few hundred yards away from the Caves of Chaos with the injured and poisoned D'Joan and Ernst meeting up with Boerge and his allies and Father War. Amore were nowhere to be seen. The informed each other of their respective adventures and D'Joan introduced herself to the party and was welcomed into the group with some lay on hands by Father War.
After hearing about the Hobgoblin lair from the other party members D'Joan was certain that was the one that the Hermit had wanted them to clear and the others were pretty keen on exploring that one some more aswell. Boerge in his usual style suggested they would immediately walk down the slope to enter but D'Joan convinced him to get some time to scout the area since she hadn't seen it before they took to action. Said and done, she noticed nothing new apart from what the group had already seen before. Then they sent Ernst forward to scout and then, if the coast is clear, Bird Call for them to walk around the slope to enter the old strip mine from the roadside to avoid the risk of falling or alerting groups hanging out around the other entrances on the south side.
They managed to enter the same entrance again and saw the same thin rope hanging by the ceiling across the cave as last time. They figured it must be an alarm for the Hobgoblins to alert the sleeping bear they saw a few sessions ago so the set Ernst on disarming it with a DX-based Traps and succeeded (they didn't hear any bells ringing when he did anyways and no bear came charging. They decided again to leave the bear and go for the Hobgoblin door again. On the way there, Boerge critted his Vision to spot a fishline ankle high a few yards before they reached the door. Ernst disarmed this one aswell without setting it off. When they arrived at the door it had a new sign on it: "Closet for Ranovation". D'Joan wanted to break down the door but realized that it would probably be to sturdy, even for her without any special tools available. Boerge used the door clapper instead to see if someone would open anyways. By the second try they noticed that the rope that was hanging by the ceiling started moving but nothing more happened. Now they got the idea to start sounding like they were attacked by the bear to maybe lure the Hobgoblins out. Both D'Joan and Ernst used Animal Sounds to sound like an angry bear while everyone made shouts and sounds of battle before turning quiet. A few seconds later the door slowly opened....
D'Joan was ready to pull the door open as soon as it started moving and the battle was on. Boerge charged ahead and instantly knocked the one opening the door to the ground with his patented Flail to Jaw-move. D'Joan had to move around the open door which slowed her progress down. Ernst had some trouble finding a clean target in the narrow corridor (at least they are now 2 yards wide and not 1 as they were before I realized every square on the map is 2x2 yards and not 1x1) but managed to shoot another one in the face anyways. Two crossbowmen standing further down the corridor also waited to get clean shots which happened when Boerge felled another one of their comrades and D'Joan decided to close in on them. One bolt missed and the other one hit Boerges shield. Then they turned and ran down the corridor but only one of them managed to escape, the other getting an arrow in the back. Boerge forgot to mention to D'Joan what was beyond the turn in the corridor last time they were here (2 hobgoblins behind a table with ready crossbows). They only managed to anger D'Joan though who critted her Forced Entry to not only break the table but in the same move managed to use it to bash at the two Hobgoblins behind it, knocking them out in a pile of splinters.
After a short round of looting which only bagged them a few weapons and a couple of coins they opened another door and Boerge charged in. Inside was four battle-ready Hobgoblins ready for ambush. One managed to impale his right buttcheek with a Halberd, creating a nasty wound before he and D'Joan managed to turn the fight in their favor. Neither Ernst nor Wör had any LoS on the opponents through the door and didn't feel risking running into the room. Instead two additional Hobgoblins charged in from behind. One got instantly arrowed in the face by Ernst but the other one reached them. The Fearless torchbearer Kent decided to get in the way and took a nasty wound, knocking him out cold before Ernst and Wör could finish the other one. After Wör had tended to Boerges butt and Kent's nasty wound they Searched the room. Boerge critfailed and accidentally opened and entered another door with Hobgoblins behind it, he quickly closed it while getting hit at to give his companions some time to prepare. They waited for a another few seconds without acting only to get attacked from behind, through the door from which they entered the room. With the last two Hobgoblin guards were a leader in plate which didn't pose much trouble in the end, his main-gauche was useless against Boerges flail and his Longsword unable to avoid Boerges blocking. When entering the room from which he came they encountered three Hobgoblin women huddled in a bed looking scared. They decided to leave them after checking them for loot (and finding one gold coin on one of them). In a pile of firewood they found a nice-looking wand. On the way out they took another haul from the armoury they found the last time they entered the hobgoblin lair.
XP was 3 for loot, 1 for exploration and another one for first leader kill! MVP went to D'Joan for nice combat tactics.
Players:
D'Joan - Amazon Warrior (Barbarian Template)
Boerge the Beef - Human Thug (Knight Template) - 259p
- Sture the Stone (Guard)
- Kent the Ball (Torchbearer)
Father Wör - Human Priest of the Lord of Light (Cleric Template)
Honest Ernst - Human Ranger (Scout Template) - 256p
This game started off where sessions #3 and #4 had ended, at their camp set up a few hundred yards away from the Caves of Chaos with the injured and poisoned D'Joan and Ernst meeting up with Boerge and his allies and Father War. Amore were nowhere to be seen. The informed each other of their respective adventures and D'Joan introduced herself to the party and was welcomed into the group with some lay on hands by Father War.
After hearing about the Hobgoblin lair from the other party members D'Joan was certain that was the one that the Hermit had wanted them to clear and the others were pretty keen on exploring that one some more aswell. Boerge in his usual style suggested they would immediately walk down the slope to enter but D'Joan convinced him to get some time to scout the area since she hadn't seen it before they took to action. Said and done, she noticed nothing new apart from what the group had already seen before. Then they sent Ernst forward to scout and then, if the coast is clear, Bird Call for them to walk around the slope to enter the old strip mine from the roadside to avoid the risk of falling or alerting groups hanging out around the other entrances on the south side.
They managed to enter the same entrance again and saw the same thin rope hanging by the ceiling across the cave as last time. They figured it must be an alarm for the Hobgoblins to alert the sleeping bear they saw a few sessions ago so the set Ernst on disarming it with a DX-based Traps and succeeded (they didn't hear any bells ringing when he did anyways and no bear came charging. They decided again to leave the bear and go for the Hobgoblin door again. On the way there, Boerge critted his Vision to spot a fishline ankle high a few yards before they reached the door. Ernst disarmed this one aswell without setting it off. When they arrived at the door it had a new sign on it: "Closet for Ranovation". D'Joan wanted to break down the door but realized that it would probably be to sturdy, even for her without any special tools available. Boerge used the door clapper instead to see if someone would open anyways. By the second try they noticed that the rope that was hanging by the ceiling started moving but nothing more happened. Now they got the idea to start sounding like they were attacked by the bear to maybe lure the Hobgoblins out. Both D'Joan and Ernst used Animal Sounds to sound like an angry bear while everyone made shouts and sounds of battle before turning quiet. A few seconds later the door slowly opened....
D'Joan was ready to pull the door open as soon as it started moving and the battle was on. Boerge charged ahead and instantly knocked the one opening the door to the ground with his patented Flail to Jaw-move. D'Joan had to move around the open door which slowed her progress down. Ernst had some trouble finding a clean target in the narrow corridor (at least they are now 2 yards wide and not 1 as they were before I realized every square on the map is 2x2 yards and not 1x1) but managed to shoot another one in the face anyways. Two crossbowmen standing further down the corridor also waited to get clean shots which happened when Boerge felled another one of their comrades and D'Joan decided to close in on them. One bolt missed and the other one hit Boerges shield. Then they turned and ran down the corridor but only one of them managed to escape, the other getting an arrow in the back. Boerge forgot to mention to D'Joan what was beyond the turn in the corridor last time they were here (2 hobgoblins behind a table with ready crossbows). They only managed to anger D'Joan though who critted her Forced Entry to not only break the table but in the same move managed to use it to bash at the two Hobgoblins behind it, knocking them out in a pile of splinters.
After a short round of looting which only bagged them a few weapons and a couple of coins they opened another door and Boerge charged in. Inside was four battle-ready Hobgoblins ready for ambush. One managed to impale his right buttcheek with a Halberd, creating a nasty wound before he and D'Joan managed to turn the fight in their favor. Neither Ernst nor Wör had any LoS on the opponents through the door and didn't feel risking running into the room. Instead two additional Hobgoblins charged in from behind. One got instantly arrowed in the face by Ernst but the other one reached them. The Fearless torchbearer Kent decided to get in the way and took a nasty wound, knocking him out cold before Ernst and Wör could finish the other one. After Wör had tended to Boerges butt and Kent's nasty wound they Searched the room. Boerge critfailed and accidentally opened and entered another door with Hobgoblins behind it, he quickly closed it while getting hit at to give his companions some time to prepare. They waited for a another few seconds without acting only to get attacked from behind, through the door from which they entered the room. With the last two Hobgoblin guards were a leader in plate which didn't pose much trouble in the end, his main-gauche was useless against Boerges flail and his Longsword unable to avoid Boerges blocking. When entering the room from which he came they encountered three Hobgoblin women huddled in a bed looking scared. They decided to leave them after checking them for loot (and finding one gold coin on one of them). In a pile of firewood they found a nice-looking wand. On the way out they took another haul from the armoury they found the last time they entered the hobgoblin lair.
XP was 3 for loot, 1 for exploration and another one for first leader kill! MVP went to D'Joan for nice combat tactics.
söndag 23 september 2018
Actual Play: Gurps DF over Roll20
Yesterday I participated in a Gurps DF-game over Roll20 for the first time (it was actually my first time as a player playing Gurps DF aswell) and it was great fun. I ended up getting a character handed to me from the GM which was interesting and it happened to coincide pretty well with my ideas about what character I wanted to play anyways. I will try to write a proper session recap if I have time and I hope I will have time to throw my gemstone worshipping Dwarf Felicia into the fray again in the next couple of weeks.
tisdag 18 september 2018
Post-session report: Session 05
We had a short session yesterday but it was very intense in that it started at the caves which meant there was fighting pretty much from the start to the end. These are some of the things that happened:
* Some newly set traps were disarmed
* The Hobgoblins were fooled yet again, this time they didn't want company but the PC's tricked them into opening the door.
* Three consecutive fights with hobgoblins ending with a fight with the chieftain of the clan. This gung ho attitude could've spelled trouble for them but they were fine this time with only minor injuries which could be healed by the cleric.
* They found a secret entrance into the armoury and looted what was left of it.
* Some newly set traps were disarmed
* The Hobgoblins were fooled yet again, this time they didn't want company but the PC's tricked them into opening the door.
* Three consecutive fights with hobgoblins ending with a fight with the chieftain of the clan. This gung ho attitude could've spelled trouble for them but they were fine this time with only minor injuries which could be healed by the cleric.
* They found a secret entrance into the armoury and looted what was left of it.
lördag 15 september 2018
Session 04: A trek through the Wicked Woods
Date: 2018-09-02
Attending:
Honest Ernst, Scout, 256 points
Warrior Princess D'Joan, Amazon (Barbarian template), 250 points
With the rest of the party already gone to the Caves, it was Ernst job to find out what the elf meant with his mysterious message about the man in the forest and then try to find him. Ernst is not a man used to socializing but after forcing himself to ask a few of the hunters camped outside the city about the forest man it was clear that it was a hermit living deep in the forest. Ernst tried to find someone to follow him there or at least show him the way but everyone just kept telling him he was crazy for even contemplating finding him, the Hermit was a mad and dangerous man and hated everyone apparently. At last he found a newly arrived woman who was huge and carried a spear who was willing to tag along. She had heard that he might have some information about an ancient artifact lost by her tribe centuries ago.
D'Joan made some inquiries on her own, earning the trust of a local fisherwoman and although she failed to convince her to guide them she was told to meet with Eric, a leader of one of the hunter families. He told them he didn't know the exact location of the Hermit's lair but that it was probably close to an old cabin about a days hike north used by him and his comrades before the territory was taken over by the Hermit. He marked the site of the cabin on their map and told them that if they managed to find it he would appreciate it if they brought him an old bow that he had left there when they were forced them to abandon it.
After finding out where to go they decided to head off right away. They followed the edge of the forest for a half day while the rain was pouring down. Just when they where about to head into the forest they noticed a wild boar poking around inside a shrubbery, they considered slaying it but with no pressing need for food and having heard that the Hermit doesn't like hunters or people hurting animals they opted against hunting this time and let it be. Inside the forest they were quickly confronted with the dangers of hiking in the wilderness. A big tree trunk fell on top of them but both managing a Dodge. D'Joan tried to determine the reason for the tree falling, critfailing her Naturalist-roll convinced her it was put there on purpose by someone they that knew they were heading this way. That Eric guy sure seemed conspicously nice to her, being used to scorn from humans more "civilized" than her.
A few hours later they noticed they were being followed by a curious pack of wolves. After assuring themselves they were not dealing with the dire kind of wolf or that they were not particularly hungry D'Joan stopped to let them have a sniff and rolled a 16 on her reaction roll (with +1 from animal friend) which ended the encounter in a pile of cuddling and the wolves following them for another hour or so. Ernst deftly managed to raid a bees nest of some honey using Survival before setting up camp. The heavy rains during the day had slowed them down and they decided to not press it toward the cabin. Nothing particular happened during the night and in the morning they spotted the cabin after an hours hike as expected.
From afar they could see flying creatures heading into and out of the loft of the cabin. They started sneaking forward carefully to investigate further but when they were about 20 meters from the clearing where the cabin was a mountain lion jumped out in front of them, bared teeth and growling, between them and the cabin. They considered their options for a second but with D'Joan failing to read it's motivations they readied their weapons but was careful not to provoke it and started walking slowly backwards. When the mountain lion started advancing D'Joan made an Intimidation-roll as a last chance to make it stop it's advance before taking physical action and it worked! The mountain lion stopped and for a while there was a stand-off between them at about 20 yards distance. Then suddenly the puma changed posture, moved forward and started talking to them in common amidst growls and snarls.
The mountain lion introduced himself as Puck and told them that this was his territory. He said that he was the protector of the forest and warned them of hunting in these parts of the woods. He usually dealt with threats himself but if they were friendly as they said they were then they could show it by helping him with a beast his abilities didn't affect. It had moved into a cave about half a days walk east. The mountain lion was going to show them the way. After revealing the wanted information about the Caves the hermit told them that he promised to help them if they dealt with the Kobolds living there. Apparently they had been out hunting in his parts of the forest numerous times. As soon as they set off the weather took a turn for the worse and now it was pouring down. The RP's were more than a little skeptical of the talking puma but it held it's distance until it sensed blood at about the same time as Ernst spotted an injured hunter huddled in a tree. Before passing out he told them his name was Rodrick and that he had been attacked by a horrible monster, nothing he had ever seen the likes of before and begged them to help him get back to town. He was then given an ok round of First Aid (ok in the PC's minds anyway, Ernst basically tied a bandage around the leg, effectively cutting the blood supply which stopped the bleeding). They had a little argument about what to do with him but in the end D'Joan brought him along on her back.
After a short while more they started seeing signs of spiderweb in the surrounding trees but this time Ernst combined Overconfidence and Stubbornness got the best of him and he decided they might aswell Sneak through it to make it to the cave of the beast before nightfall. Said and done, they both failed their rolls and before they knew it three spiderlings were crawling out of a hole in the ground and were all over them, twice injecting poison into D'Joans left arm, paralyzing it (one critfailed defence roll and one missed all out attack). One of them bit into Ernst leg aswell and fell just one point of tox short of paralyzing that aswell. A paralyzed leg would've severly cut their mobility for days since they had no means of quick healing available. When they had finished off the spiders they quickly pondered crawling into the lair but were content with marking the position on the map and maybe deal with it later. After getting away from the spiders nest they bandaged each other (D'Joan getting double HP back which meant she was in positive territory again at least, it also means using the double amount of bandage) before continuing. Their hurried exit also robbed them of the chance to gather some spiderweb or extracting some poison from the now dead spiderlings. They also realized that they had left the hunter by the spiders nest but left him to his fate (he was probably partly eaten by the puma already but they were not sure).
The paralyzed arm (and Reeling status) of the Amazon aswell as the heavy rain meant they had to wait another night before they found the Cave of the Beast. Luckily they were not disturbed during the night and could make a quick plan before springing to action. The mountain lions intention was very much to stay out of the fight so they decided to approach it head on, luring it out of the cave and toward the Amazon while Ernst stood above the cave entrance shooting it in the back after it was out in the open. It wasn't hard to rouse it and after it came out they immediately realized it was an owlbear. D'Joan threw a harpoon at it from about 20 yards distance but missed and Ernst got two or three arrows in it before it had reached the Amazon in front of it, it didn't even take notice of the arrows coming from behind. It tried to slam D'Joan to the ground but missed and ran passed and had to turn around. Meanwhile D'Joan got a hit or two in but that didn't bother it either. Only now they realized that the Owlbear was Undead and arrows was pretty much useless against it. D'Joan retreated back toward the cave now, aware that one hit from the owlbear would most likely get her back to negative HP (she presently has no DR, natural or otherwise). Luckily for her, the Owlbear decided to go for the grapple, successfully grabbing D'Joan with it's front paws but then failing the takedown which most likely would've meant the end of the proud Amazon, instead losing it's grip. They still had no clue really what was effective against it and now Ernst had to shoot through D'Joan's hex to hit the owlbear, almost hitting the Amazon in the back once. Only in the 7th or 8th round D'Joan managed to get a big hit in, crippling the owlbears back foot, making it almost immobile but only after herself getting hit in the torso, failing her HT-roll and falling unconscious. The same turn Ernst finally decided to try his cutting arrows which finished the owlbear off with another big hit, cutting off one of it's front legs before it had a chance to start biting into D'Joan with it's beak.
While D'Joan came to again Ernst scouted the cave, found an Owlbear cub (it was not undead) which he killed in cold blood to skin, also finding a useable bow and a few coins but no proper hoard. Then he dragged the huge barbarian into the cave for rest and bandaging while marinating owlbear meat in honey to feast on. When the Amazon came to he told her it was already dead when he found it but that the meat was good, she was in no position to question any of it. They waited for the rest of the day in the cave, sent the mountain lion back to his master with the news of the slain beast before heading bruised but not beaten towards the Caves of Chaos to hopefully meet up with a Healer there.
XP was one each for exploration and another one for awesome non-fighting resolutions to a lot of the problems they faced in the forest. D'Joan got MVP for being the proxy to alot of those resolutions.
Attending:
Honest Ernst, Scout, 256 points
Warrior Princess D'Joan, Amazon (Barbarian template), 250 points
With the rest of the party already gone to the Caves, it was Ernst job to find out what the elf meant with his mysterious message about the man in the forest and then try to find him. Ernst is not a man used to socializing but after forcing himself to ask a few of the hunters camped outside the city about the forest man it was clear that it was a hermit living deep in the forest. Ernst tried to find someone to follow him there or at least show him the way but everyone just kept telling him he was crazy for even contemplating finding him, the Hermit was a mad and dangerous man and hated everyone apparently. At last he found a newly arrived woman who was huge and carried a spear who was willing to tag along. She had heard that he might have some information about an ancient artifact lost by her tribe centuries ago.
D'Joan made some inquiries on her own, earning the trust of a local fisherwoman and although she failed to convince her to guide them she was told to meet with Eric, a leader of one of the hunter families. He told them he didn't know the exact location of the Hermit's lair but that it was probably close to an old cabin about a days hike north used by him and his comrades before the territory was taken over by the Hermit. He marked the site of the cabin on their map and told them that if they managed to find it he would appreciate it if they brought him an old bow that he had left there when they were forced them to abandon it.
After finding out where to go they decided to head off right away. They followed the edge of the forest for a half day while the rain was pouring down. Just when they where about to head into the forest they noticed a wild boar poking around inside a shrubbery, they considered slaying it but with no pressing need for food and having heard that the Hermit doesn't like hunters or people hurting animals they opted against hunting this time and let it be. Inside the forest they were quickly confronted with the dangers of hiking in the wilderness. A big tree trunk fell on top of them but both managing a Dodge. D'Joan tried to determine the reason for the tree falling, critfailing her Naturalist-roll convinced her it was put there on purpose by someone they that knew they were heading this way. That Eric guy sure seemed conspicously nice to her, being used to scorn from humans more "civilized" than her.
A few hours later they noticed they were being followed by a curious pack of wolves. After assuring themselves they were not dealing with the dire kind of wolf or that they were not particularly hungry D'Joan stopped to let them have a sniff and rolled a 16 on her reaction roll (with +1 from animal friend) which ended the encounter in a pile of cuddling and the wolves following them for another hour or so. Ernst deftly managed to raid a bees nest of some honey using Survival before setting up camp. The heavy rains during the day had slowed them down and they decided to not press it toward the cabin. Nothing particular happened during the night and in the morning they spotted the cabin after an hours hike as expected.
From afar they could see flying creatures heading into and out of the loft of the cabin. They started sneaking forward carefully to investigate further but when they were about 20 meters from the clearing where the cabin was a mountain lion jumped out in front of them, bared teeth and growling, between them and the cabin. They considered their options for a second but with D'Joan failing to read it's motivations they readied their weapons but was careful not to provoke it and started walking slowly backwards. When the mountain lion started advancing D'Joan made an Intimidation-roll as a last chance to make it stop it's advance before taking physical action and it worked! The mountain lion stopped and for a while there was a stand-off between them at about 20 yards distance. Then suddenly the puma changed posture, moved forward and started talking to them in common amidst growls and snarls.
The mountain lion introduced himself as Puck and told them that this was his territory. He said that he was the protector of the forest and warned them of hunting in these parts of the woods. He usually dealt with threats himself but if they were friendly as they said they were then they could show it by helping him with a beast his abilities didn't affect. It had moved into a cave about half a days walk east. The mountain lion was going to show them the way. After revealing the wanted information about the Caves the hermit told them that he promised to help them if they dealt with the Kobolds living there. Apparently they had been out hunting in his parts of the forest numerous times. As soon as they set off the weather took a turn for the worse and now it was pouring down. The RP's were more than a little skeptical of the talking puma but it held it's distance until it sensed blood at about the same time as Ernst spotted an injured hunter huddled in a tree. Before passing out he told them his name was Rodrick and that he had been attacked by a horrible monster, nothing he had ever seen the likes of before and begged them to help him get back to town. He was then given an ok round of First Aid (ok in the PC's minds anyway, Ernst basically tied a bandage around the leg, effectively cutting the blood supply which stopped the bleeding). They had a little argument about what to do with him but in the end D'Joan brought him along on her back.
After a short while more they started seeing signs of spiderweb in the surrounding trees but this time Ernst combined Overconfidence and Stubbornness got the best of him and he decided they might aswell Sneak through it to make it to the cave of the beast before nightfall. Said and done, they both failed their rolls and before they knew it three spiderlings were crawling out of a hole in the ground and were all over them, twice injecting poison into D'Joans left arm, paralyzing it (one critfailed defence roll and one missed all out attack). One of them bit into Ernst leg aswell and fell just one point of tox short of paralyzing that aswell. A paralyzed leg would've severly cut their mobility for days since they had no means of quick healing available. When they had finished off the spiders they quickly pondered crawling into the lair but were content with marking the position on the map and maybe deal with it later. After getting away from the spiders nest they bandaged each other (D'Joan getting double HP back which meant she was in positive territory again at least, it also means using the double amount of bandage) before continuing. Their hurried exit also robbed them of the chance to gather some spiderweb or extracting some poison from the now dead spiderlings. They also realized that they had left the hunter by the spiders nest but left him to his fate (he was probably partly eaten by the puma already but they were not sure).
The paralyzed arm (and Reeling status) of the Amazon aswell as the heavy rain meant they had to wait another night before they found the Cave of the Beast. Luckily they were not disturbed during the night and could make a quick plan before springing to action. The mountain lions intention was very much to stay out of the fight so they decided to approach it head on, luring it out of the cave and toward the Amazon while Ernst stood above the cave entrance shooting it in the back after it was out in the open. It wasn't hard to rouse it and after it came out they immediately realized it was an owlbear. D'Joan threw a harpoon at it from about 20 yards distance but missed and Ernst got two or three arrows in it before it had reached the Amazon in front of it, it didn't even take notice of the arrows coming from behind. It tried to slam D'Joan to the ground but missed and ran passed and had to turn around. Meanwhile D'Joan got a hit or two in but that didn't bother it either. Only now they realized that the Owlbear was Undead and arrows was pretty much useless against it. D'Joan retreated back toward the cave now, aware that one hit from the owlbear would most likely get her back to negative HP (she presently has no DR, natural or otherwise). Luckily for her, the Owlbear decided to go for the grapple, successfully grabbing D'Joan with it's front paws but then failing the takedown which most likely would've meant the end of the proud Amazon, instead losing it's grip. They still had no clue really what was effective against it and now Ernst had to shoot through D'Joan's hex to hit the owlbear, almost hitting the Amazon in the back once. Only in the 7th or 8th round D'Joan managed to get a big hit in, crippling the owlbears back foot, making it almost immobile but only after herself getting hit in the torso, failing her HT-roll and falling unconscious. The same turn Ernst finally decided to try his cutting arrows which finished the owlbear off with another big hit, cutting off one of it's front legs before it had a chance to start biting into D'Joan with it's beak.
While D'Joan came to again Ernst scouted the cave, found an Owlbear cub (it was not undead) which he killed in cold blood to skin, also finding a useable bow and a few coins but no proper hoard. Then he dragged the huge barbarian into the cave for rest and bandaging while marinating owlbear meat in honey to feast on. When the Amazon came to he told her it was already dead when he found it but that the meat was good, she was in no position to question any of it. They waited for the rest of the day in the cave, sent the mountain lion back to his master with the news of the slain beast before heading bruised but not beaten towards the Caves of Chaos to hopefully meet up with a Healer there.
XP was one each for exploration and another one for awesome non-fighting resolutions to a lot of the problems they faced in the forest. D'Joan got MVP for being the proxy to alot of those resolutions.
fredag 7 september 2018
Quick review: Hall of Judgement
A couple of months ago I ordered my first ever PoD-book, this is my first kickstarter-backing! My copy of Hall of Judgement arrived in the mail a couple of days ago and I must say it looks pretty solid.
I've only had time to have a glance at it this far but I can tell right now that I will at least use some of the creatures in the books extensive monster directory in my current DF campaign. The adventure as such might get baked into my campaign or played as a one-shot later on, depending on where my players want to take things.
The only thing I have a little trouble with is the authors view of norse mythology baked in with the classic fantasy tropes. For me "nordic fantasy" has always been John Bauer's Trolls (see picture below) coupled with the dire animals like the Fenris Wolf or the world encompassing Jormungandr and gods that walk among men to test or challenge them on a whim or just to pull a prank or two. So if I play it I will probably not play it as a norse mythology kinda thing but rather a barbarians in the frozen wastes kinda environment.
I've only had time to have a glance at it this far but I can tell right now that I will at least use some of the creatures in the books extensive monster directory in my current DF campaign. The adventure as such might get baked into my campaign or played as a one-shot later on, depending on where my players want to take things.
The only thing I have a little trouble with is the authors view of norse mythology baked in with the classic fantasy tropes. For me "nordic fantasy" has always been John Bauer's Trolls (see picture below) coupled with the dire animals like the Fenris Wolf or the world encompassing Jormungandr and gods that walk among men to test or challenge them on a whim or just to pull a prank or two. So if I play it I will probably not play it as a norse mythology kinda thing but rather a barbarians in the frozen wastes kinda environment.
söndag 2 september 2018
Post Session Report: Session 04
After a long and hot summer we finally managed to complete another session and it was a fun one. This time if was focus on the wilderness surrounding the caves with one barbarian and one scout working together to find the elusive Hermit said to live deep in the forest and his supposed knowledge about the history of the caves.
* Avoiding animals, befriending animals with exceptional reaction rolls, intimidating animals to submission and failing to stealth past animals. This session pretty much had it all when it comes to interactions with the wildlife.
* A conversation with the Hermit through his mountain lion proxy did not reveal much but helping him out might.
* A lot of questions about one of the local leaders in the hunter encampment outside the city. He sent them the right way but what are his true intentions?
* A few lessons in GURPS combat to new players, and also a few lessons for the PC's about vulnerabilities and the power of spider toxins.
* Avoiding animals, befriending animals with exceptional reaction rolls, intimidating animals to submission and failing to stealth past animals. This session pretty much had it all when it comes to interactions with the wildlife.
* A conversation with the Hermit through his mountain lion proxy did not reveal much but helping him out might.
* A lot of questions about one of the local leaders in the hunter encampment outside the city. He sent them the right way but what are his true intentions?
* A few lessons in GURPS combat to new players, and also a few lessons for the PC's about vulnerabilities and the power of spider toxins.
måndag 27 augusti 2018
Writer's Dodge: One room a day keeps the doctor away
Before finally deciding to give it a go, I had been pondering a GURPS Fantasy campaign for a long time but it was Peter Dell'Orto's very amusing session reports on playing the Keep on the Borderlands with GURPS Dungeon Fantasy-rules that both introduced me to GURPS DF and made me kick off my own campaign.
My scope widened (as it usually does) after having read KotB to first redrawing the dungeon map into four floors, removing one or two sections that I didn't think fit very well into the feel of my setting, converting the monsters to GURPS stats, converting the loot and now I'm in the process of converting the actual room key descriptions using Justin Alexanders method in his The Art of the Key-series.
To keep the text flowing I'm trying to write up one room each day, if I feel I have more time after that I can use it to edit an old room or write notes on the next few. Right now I'm about ten rooms into a dungeon with approx. 60 keyed rooms so we'll see in about two months time if I'm finished or not...
My scope widened (as it usually does) after having read KotB to first redrawing the dungeon map into four floors, removing one or two sections that I didn't think fit very well into the feel of my setting, converting the monsters to GURPS stats, converting the loot and now I'm in the process of converting the actual room key descriptions using Justin Alexanders method in his The Art of the Key-series.
To keep the text flowing I'm trying to write up one room each day, if I feel I have more time after that I can use it to edit an old room or write notes on the next few. Right now I'm about ten rooms into a dungeon with approx. 60 keyed rooms so we'll see in about two months time if I'm finished or not...
torsdag 9 augusti 2018
Laws of the Dungeon: Alternative swing damage
After reading this old post about reducing swing damage to make for less deadly hand to hand combat aswell as more viable thrusting weapon options and less need for armour in the DR 10-15 range for tanks to not get one-shotted by big guys I've been thinking alot about introducing them in my game as a houserule. At first I though it was going to be a lot of work but then I found out it is already included in Gurps Character Sheet as an option which is awesome. Now I only need to explain the change to the players and adjust their Character Sheets to account for the cheaper ST-increases.
Said and done, it was less work than I first thought, now it only needs some playtesting to see if it makes the cut as a new houserule for future fantasy scenarios and campaigns aswell.
Said and done, it was less work than I first thought, now it only needs some playtesting to see if it makes the cut as a new houserule for future fantasy scenarios and campaigns aswell.
söndag 15 juli 2018
Go Figure: Additional work on Goblins, Hobgoblins and Cave Troll done
Vacation at home leaves some time for painting, and my neighbor has lent me his box of Vallejo Model Colours which he can claim back any day so I'm under pressure to use it as much as possible before that happens which equals some pretty productive miniature painting days. =)
This is the pack of Hobgoblins I ordered from Otherworld Miniatures a couple of weeks ago, they turned out ok I think. Had a little problem with placing the eyes but otherwise it went fine.
They I had my first try on a big guy, this Reaper Miniatures Cave Troll. I basically followed this guide to great effect and then made some halfasset highlighting on top which in hindsight was really unneccessary.
This is the pack of Hobgoblins I ordered from Otherworld Miniatures a couple of weeks ago, they turned out ok I think. Had a little problem with placing the eyes but otherwise it went fine.
They I had my first try on a big guy, this Reaper Miniatures Cave Troll. I basically followed this guide to great effect and then made some halfasset highlighting on top which in hindsight was really unneccessary.
So this is basically what I've finished this far. I hope I will have time to do a couple more before going out of town in a few days.
onsdag 11 juli 2018
Laws of the Dungeon: Wealth in DFRPG
The new player who is joining my game (a Barbarian) will start off with the disadvantage Wealth: Struggling (-10p). Noone has chosen a wealthlevel thus far so now I'm thinking how to make it impact the game. Basically my approach is that a players "loot xp" gained is based upon what that player is selling (counting base sale value). This means that a player with Wealthy could sell everything to score the party some extra coin but it would also mean that player will get all the xp for that loot. For Struggling players this means that the party will lose some coin total if that player is to gain the same amount of xp from loot as the others.
måndag 9 juli 2018
New Player coming aboard!
One of my current players will probably be away from the game for an extended period so I decided to invite another player. We've been playing together on and off for almost ten years and he will play an Amazon (Barbarian template) which I have named Joan the Warrior Princess, we'll see if he decides to keep that name or not.
söndag 8 juli 2018
Quick review: Yoon-Suin and the Peridot
A couple of weeks ago the print-on-demand books Yoon-Suin and The Peridot arrived in my mailbox. They're made by Dave McGrogan and they are the first books I've ordered PoD and I must say the quality is pretty good. Not sure if I'll be able to use the Yoon-Suin setting in my current campaign but the (very irregularly) published zine The Peridot has some interesting articles I'm hoping to implement one way or the other.
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