GURPS Lite in the Classroom, Session #9

For the previous session, click this link.

Rules Explanations

I explained parrying vs. unarmed attacks, and used my house rule (1/2 damage).

Recap

I did the short recap again, but kept it short.

Play

We started with the Unknown Soldier by the pool. He advanced to the oncoming sound with his candle. Something lunged out of the darkness - a loose-skinned white-eyed undead of some kind, dragging a stiff leg. They fought - he slashed it a couple of times while parrying it, and it palmed aside his sword thrusts.

He then realized (IOW, was advised by the GM) that it's harder to parry a sword bare-handed if the person swings. So he did that, cutting the thing. It hit back, twice, but its nails couldn't penetrate his mail. He held his breath each time his DR 4 was tested by the undead's 1d cutting nails.

He finally put it down with a hard sword swing that broke its spine. He advanced past it without hesitation.

He made his way down a narrow and low tunnel (5' tall, 3' wide) for about 10 minutes or so. He eventually found a larger cave, and sucked along to the right wall with his hand. Good thing for him - ahead was a steep drop off that would have forced him to climb or suffer damage.

He found another tunnel, which split - right and up, left and down. He chose left, maybe for the first time. He started down the tunnel and heard a growling ahead. He decided to go back and up.

Back and up eventually lead to a cave where he saw flickering flames and heard a whistling breeze on and off.

So he use Stealth to sneak up slowly, wanting to see if people were there.

Instead, he saw a trail of coins and gems leading to a pile. On top of the pile was a 20-22' dragon, sleeping. The flickering fire and whistling were the dragon's snoring and jetting flame.

I figured the money might tempt him. Not at all - he walked past a spill of gold, silver, and gems, and sneaked past the dragon.

He eventually found daylight and was out into the wooded hills near the fortress. He headed back to his base back in civilized country.

And that's where the mini-campaign ended.

Notes:

There was a bit of a magician's choice here. The escape route was linear - any way he chose would eventually have led him out or dead-ended him and sent him back to the way out. Sandboxes are nice, but railroads get you to the destination you need to get to. Besides, freedom of path isn't a big deal to me - freedom of how to handle that path is, especially in a classroom! Had he went down the growling critter's path, he would have faced a bear guarding its cave and could have fought (or run past it) to escape. The other way, the dragon with the twin troubles of needing to sneak and the temptation of treasure.

All in all, he seemed to enjoy the game. He got some good listening and speaking practice in. I gave him optional summer reading homework - his own copy of his PC and of GURPS Lite. Truly optional - I just want him to have it, not tell him to read it. School could take the fun out of anything.

This was a lot of fun. I'll keep doing this if he comes back in the Fall, and I'll modify the game a bit to get more speaking and so on in there.