It's been a while. Here is stuff to read.
- A nice rule for "cooking" a hand grenade in GURPS.
- A quick rules answer I need to put somewhere besides here - only the consumables in DFRPG Adventurers are available off-the-shelf. Want an Ironskin amulet? Pay for it and await the enchantment.
- These consequences for too much time at sea are really funny over at d4 Caltrops.
Friday, December 26, 2025
Thursday, December 25, 2025
Christmas in Felltower
Merry Christmas from Felltower
You'll be lucky to get out alive, but if you survive, may the dungeons grant you a suit of Magescale in your size, an artifact-grade weapon with minimal downside traits, and a bucket of healing potions.
See you all in the coming year.
You'll be lucky to get out alive, but if you survive, may the dungeons grant you a suit of Magescale in your size, an artifact-grade weapon with minimal downside traits, and a bucket of healing potions.
See you all in the coming year.
Monday, December 22, 2025
Session Cleanup
Lots to do before our next session.
- I need to go through the VTT and check each and every NPC in the fight for their status so I can update the roster. It was easier back in the pen and paper days, honestly.
- I need to delete the thorkers and re-enter them. I may have to make them up in GCS, which is annoying as can be, so they can properly get their advantages into the system.
- I need to delete the Gith Axemen and re-enter them. Somehow, despite having equipment and DR, their DR shows up as 0 when they're actually hit. It's wrong. My players love this, and I get at least comment per session about how it's really 0, which is odd becuase when they have 8 DR showing up and they really have 9 it's a major system failure. Huh.
- And then I need to do a restock pass at the dungeon, since it will have been months since the PCs last went in. I'm curious what they'll do next, but that's more a "they" problem than an "I" problem and this post is about I, me, mine.
- I need to go through the VTT and check each and every NPC in the fight for their status so I can update the roster. It was easier back in the pen and paper days, honestly.
- I need to delete the thorkers and re-enter them. I may have to make them up in GCS, which is annoying as can be, so they can properly get their advantages into the system.
- I need to delete the Gith Axemen and re-enter them. Somehow, despite having equipment and DR, their DR shows up as 0 when they're actually hit. It's wrong. My players love this, and I get at least comment per session about how it's really 0, which is odd becuase when they have 8 DR showing up and they really have 9 it's a major system failure. Huh.
- And then I need to do a restock pass at the dungeon, since it will have been months since the PCs last went in. I'm curious what they'll do next, but that's more a "they" problem than an "I" problem and this post is about I, me, mine.
Sunday, December 21, 2025
GURPS DF Session 219, Felltower 138 - Into the second GFS Part VI - Walls or Death
Will the fight ever end?
Date: 12/21/2025
Game Date: 10/5/2025
Weather: Warm and mild.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (347 points)
Rogar Thane-Blood, human barbarian (250 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (368 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (333 points)
We picked up where we left off, at around second 52 of the fight.
Rogar was down, Hannari chasing down some escaping Gith, Thor cornering an axeman, Percy bashing thorkers, and Chop dodging thorkers. Duncan began to move to put up a wall to seal off the room from the "south" (screen down) entrance.
Things went sideways immediately. A number of thorkers rushed out to assist the Gith that Hannari was after. Others stood up from where they'd fallen, healed up enough to get back into the fray.
The PCs pulled back a bit, as Thor finished off the axeman and Percy downed a couple of thorkers. Duncan put up a wall of earth and then immediately tried another, to seal another corridor into the room, but failed. Chop followed, feeding him energy with Lend Energy and drinking paut as fast as he could.
The PCs fought the advancing new thorkers off for a couple of seconds and Duncan sealed off that side, too. Meanwhile, thorkers retreated back, in response to some unhead command, and dragged off some fallen Gith. Hannari and Percy and Thor rushed over, with Vlad providing arrow support, to try and stop them. A tossed sleep grenade by Hannari put one down, but another escaped with two bodies dragged behind.
Duncan turned two of the earthen walls to stone, and then rushed over - still fed energy by a trailing Chop - and sealed the last one off.
They rapidly began dragging corpses of the Gith to the hallway, rescued the fallen Rogar and began to heal him, and prepped to get out. As they did, a few thorkers stood up, and needed Percy to put them back down. Hannari dragged one to the GFS and threw him off the landing and down the deep, deep, deep put to the "domed city" level far below.
As they dragged corpses, though, the "west" wall disappeared - the Gith leader had dispelled or dissolved it, somehow. Thorkers rushed in just as Thor was dragging two bodies. He quickly let them go and ran back to the party, grumping the whole way but knowing the plan was grab and go. They fought briefly in the entranceway before walling it off - Hannari dive-rolling into the safe area and grabbing a sleeping thorker - put to sleep in Part I - to keep him on their side of the earth wall.
Duncan got the wall off, turned it to stone, and they fled with their loot - four dead Gith, and one sleeping thorker. Left behind was probably a dozen fallen Gith, easily a score of fallen thorkers and norkers, and everything they dropped during the fight (like a Wand of Fireballs, Rogar's axe, and some thrown weaponry.)
From there, it was a quick trip back to town . . . no wandering monsters turned up (yes, I roll, Felltower is DF on hard mode.)
Notes:
Short crew today - no players for Rogar, Chop, or Percy, but Vlad and Duncan's players, respectively, stepped in for the last two. Rogar was unconcious until the very end. Normally we don't allow PCs to come along without the player, but we do cover for players who can't make all of a multi-session delve.
Finally, this grindy, epic fight ended. It was a grind but not a slog - it really felt like every turn was a decision point . . . and we ended on the 70th turn for most of the PCs.
The PCs didn't nearly get the loot they "earned" but they did get a lot. Four suits of magescale, a magical Gith longsword, chameleon clocks and stealthy boots, and a live thorker to hand over to a "sage" - vivisectionist - for research. The cost was high - a lot of consumables, a dropped Wand of Fireballs with 14 charges, a number of weapons - but no PCs were killed or maimed. They almost certainly killed a number of enemies - a few decapitated or skull-smashed Gith and norkers, for sure, and maybe some of the thorkers. The enemy will be more ready, but have they taken such heavy losses - dozens of their number down - that they can't muster such a hard-crust defense again? We'll see. The PCs will be back, eventually.
MVP was Duncan for the walls.
XP was 4 xp for loot, +5 XP for 5 extra sessions, for 9 xp each. Not bad, oh, and $22K or so in cash, each, after Duncan took the suit of Magescale in best repair.
Fun stuff! Like I said, this was long, but man, I enjoyed every session. I think my players agree, but they'll be happy to do one-session delves if they can pull them off.
Date: 12/21/2025
Game Date: 10/5/2025
Weather: Warm and mild.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (347 points)
Rogar Thane-Blood, human barbarian (250 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (368 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (333 points)
We picked up where we left off, at around second 52 of the fight.
Rogar was down, Hannari chasing down some escaping Gith, Thor cornering an axeman, Percy bashing thorkers, and Chop dodging thorkers. Duncan began to move to put up a wall to seal off the room from the "south" (screen down) entrance.
Things went sideways immediately. A number of thorkers rushed out to assist the Gith that Hannari was after. Others stood up from where they'd fallen, healed up enough to get back into the fray.
The PCs pulled back a bit, as Thor finished off the axeman and Percy downed a couple of thorkers. Duncan put up a wall of earth and then immediately tried another, to seal another corridor into the room, but failed. Chop followed, feeding him energy with Lend Energy and drinking paut as fast as he could.
The PCs fought the advancing new thorkers off for a couple of seconds and Duncan sealed off that side, too. Meanwhile, thorkers retreated back, in response to some unhead command, and dragged off some fallen Gith. Hannari and Percy and Thor rushed over, with Vlad providing arrow support, to try and stop them. A tossed sleep grenade by Hannari put one down, but another escaped with two bodies dragged behind.
Duncan turned two of the earthen walls to stone, and then rushed over - still fed energy by a trailing Chop - and sealed the last one off.
They rapidly began dragging corpses of the Gith to the hallway, rescued the fallen Rogar and began to heal him, and prepped to get out. As they did, a few thorkers stood up, and needed Percy to put them back down. Hannari dragged one to the GFS and threw him off the landing and down the deep, deep, deep put to the "domed city" level far below.
As they dragged corpses, though, the "west" wall disappeared - the Gith leader had dispelled or dissolved it, somehow. Thorkers rushed in just as Thor was dragging two bodies. He quickly let them go and ran back to the party, grumping the whole way but knowing the plan was grab and go. They fought briefly in the entranceway before walling it off - Hannari dive-rolling into the safe area and grabbing a sleeping thorker - put to sleep in Part I - to keep him on their side of the earth wall.
Duncan got the wall off, turned it to stone, and they fled with their loot - four dead Gith, and one sleeping thorker. Left behind was probably a dozen fallen Gith, easily a score of fallen thorkers and norkers, and everything they dropped during the fight (like a Wand of Fireballs, Rogar's axe, and some thrown weaponry.)
From there, it was a quick trip back to town . . . no wandering monsters turned up (yes, I roll, Felltower is DF on hard mode.)
Notes:
Short crew today - no players for Rogar, Chop, or Percy, but Vlad and Duncan's players, respectively, stepped in for the last two. Rogar was unconcious until the very end. Normally we don't allow PCs to come along without the player, but we do cover for players who can't make all of a multi-session delve.
Finally, this grindy, epic fight ended. It was a grind but not a slog - it really felt like every turn was a decision point . . . and we ended on the 70th turn for most of the PCs.
The PCs didn't nearly get the loot they "earned" but they did get a lot. Four suits of magescale, a magical Gith longsword, chameleon clocks and stealthy boots, and a live thorker to hand over to a "sage" - vivisectionist - for research. The cost was high - a lot of consumables, a dropped Wand of Fireballs with 14 charges, a number of weapons - but no PCs were killed or maimed. They almost certainly killed a number of enemies - a few decapitated or skull-smashed Gith and norkers, for sure, and maybe some of the thorkers. The enemy will be more ready, but have they taken such heavy losses - dozens of their number down - that they can't muster such a hard-crust defense again? We'll see. The PCs will be back, eventually.
MVP was Duncan for the walls.
XP was 4 xp for loot, +5 XP for 5 extra sessions, for 9 xp each. Not bad, oh, and $22K or so in cash, each, after Duncan took the suit of Magescale in best repair.
Fun stuff! Like I said, this was long, but man, I enjoyed every session. I think my players agree, but they'll be happy to do one-session delves if they can pull them off.
Saturday, December 20, 2025
Felltower tomorrow
A reduced crew of players will attempt to finish out the fight tomorrow. I think it's doable as long as people don't get hung up on:
- kill maximization
- loot maximization
- loot carrying min/maxing
and instead focus on
- winning the battlefield
- quick and easy loot and casualty recovery
- getting away clean
We'll see if they do that. I'm giving away no hints, here - this is all things discussed during the last session. The ideal is win the battlefield so they can get away with loot and their wounded and dropped/thrown weaponry, allow no enemies to escape, and get out with all the possible loot. But it's not an ideal situation and they know it - way too many ways to get flanked (three hallways and an unblockable staircase), a casualty, low amounts of FP and time even with a fairly clean win.
It should be interesting - successful and profitable raid, or overextended attack that leads to tragedy?
- kill maximization
- loot maximization
- loot carrying min/maxing
and instead focus on
- winning the battlefield
- quick and easy loot and casualty recovery
- getting away clean
We'll see if they do that. I'm giving away no hints, here - this is all things discussed during the last session. The ideal is win the battlefield so they can get away with loot and their wounded and dropped/thrown weaponry, allow no enemies to escape, and get out with all the possible loot. But it's not an ideal situation and they know it - way too many ways to get flanked (three hallways and an unblockable staircase), a casualty, low amounts of FP and time even with a fairly clean win.
It should be interesting - successful and profitable raid, or overextended attack that leads to tragedy?
Sunday, December 7, 2025
Felltower short break
Folks, we'll be taking a short break from Felltower. One of our regulars has suffered a tragic family loss - someone who was also an important friend to me, as well - so we're just not feeling getting a game organized and going right now.
I turned off comments because as much as I appreciate that people will want to express sympathy, this isn't the place for it right now. We'll be back at it when the grief and complications from a loss are at a place that allows it.
Sunday, November 30, 2025
GURPS DF Session 218, Felltower 138 - Into the second GFS Part V
Short session today - all we had time for.
Date: 11/30/2025
Game Date: 10/5/2025
Weather: Warm and mild.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (347 points)
Rogar Thane-Blood, human barbarian (250 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (368 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (333 points)
Bullet points to cover the action in the continuing big brawl:
- before Duncan could put up a wall to block them, a bunch of Gith rushed into the room.
- Percy managed to beat back a few Gith and a thorker with aid from Agar's Wand and Vlad.
- Thor and Hannari killed a Gith or two and pushed back the Gith leader and two of his allies, with Thor crippling the leader's sword arm.
- Lots of nageteppo countered by Purify Air dominated the magical fight for the day.
- the PCs are back to Operation Build a Wall.
Notes:
We had a short session budgeted for today but even so, we couldn't finish the fight. It's a good one, but the PCs have to contend with high-damage-soaking thorkers and high-defense Gith mixed together. Honestly, it's the kind of fight where boths sides don't like how it's been going and don't like where it ends up, but there is no clear way out.
The players seem concerned that the Gith leader, who was driven out of sight, is getting reinforcements, and that even with 3 walls up (they'll do that next time) they'll have scant time to gather some loot, gather up their fallen brother, and get the hell out before foes come upstairs after them. They can't block that off entirely, or even tactically, given so many airmobile foes at this depth of the dungeon.
Speaking of which, one thing that makes delving deeper hard isn't always more lethal foes, but ones that have abilities that counter the usual "win buttons" of early play - foes who can move through the air, see invisible, see in the dark, or ignore or recover from status effects quickly make for a very tough delve. But the loot is better . . .
MVP was Thor for his critical hit that crippled the sword arm of the toughest foe of the bunch.
Date: 11/30/2025
Game Date: 10/5/2025
Weather: Warm and mild.
Characters
Chop, human cleric (362 points)
Duncan Tesadic, human wizard (346 points)
Hannari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist (360 points)
Persistance Montgomery, human knight (347 points)
Rogar Thane-Blood, human barbarian (250 points)
Thor Halfskepna, human knight (368 points)
Vladimir Luchnick, dwarf scout (333 points)
Bullet points to cover the action in the continuing big brawl:
- before Duncan could put up a wall to block them, a bunch of Gith rushed into the room.
- Percy managed to beat back a few Gith and a thorker with aid from Agar's Wand and Vlad.
- Thor and Hannari killed a Gith or two and pushed back the Gith leader and two of his allies, with Thor crippling the leader's sword arm.
- Lots of nageteppo countered by Purify Air dominated the magical fight for the day.
- the PCs are back to Operation Build a Wall.
Notes:
We had a short session budgeted for today but even so, we couldn't finish the fight. It's a good one, but the PCs have to contend with high-damage-soaking thorkers and high-defense Gith mixed together. Honestly, it's the kind of fight where boths sides don't like how it's been going and don't like where it ends up, but there is no clear way out.
The players seem concerned that the Gith leader, who was driven out of sight, is getting reinforcements, and that even with 3 walls up (they'll do that next time) they'll have scant time to gather some loot, gather up their fallen brother, and get the hell out before foes come upstairs after them. They can't block that off entirely, or even tactically, given so many airmobile foes at this depth of the dungeon.
Speaking of which, one thing that makes delving deeper hard isn't always more lethal foes, but ones that have abilities that counter the usual "win buttons" of early play - foes who can move through the air, see invisible, see in the dark, or ignore or recover from status effects quickly make for a very tough delve. But the loot is better . . .
MVP was Thor for his critical hit that crippled the sword arm of the toughest foe of the bunch.
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