Vic took the reigns and ran games for us for a little while. I was able to play, and the other players were able to take their future Felltower PCs out and get them some much-needed loot and XP before coming to the megadungeon.
But what about Vic?
I wasn't planning on handing over Handsome to Vic, and anyway, I don't think a difficult, criminal, all-offense no-defense half-orc scout was really for him, either.
It's not exactly fair to start him with a plain 250 point guy, though. I wasn't really keen on giving him XP, either - we've had a very firm 250 point starting point for everyone, for all PCs, and making an exception for a co-GM seemed like a bad precedent.
The average take in cash and non-magic gear for the PCs was about $10-12,000. So I simply gave Vic a one-time, one-PC dispensation to spend an additional $12,000. That's equal to half of their cash/gear take, and half of their points but all traded for money. I let him buy normally-purchasable magic (which one or two additions).
He ended up going with a dwarf scout with a nice bow and some solid armor.
I like the approach better - I'd feel odd with giving out XP for nothing when I've held a very hard line on that for 12 years. But I don't have much of an issue saying, hey, you get some extra money. It's about the same as if the PCs had found about $2K more each and decided to pool it buy the new scout some gear. Had that happened, I would have had no issues whatsoever.
That's how we did it - 250 points and $12K to spend. As a one-time dispensation I can live with that!
Showing posts with label Vics Game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vics Game. Show all posts
Monday, October 16, 2023
Wednesday, October 11, 2023
Random questions as we're getting ready for Felltower
Just rounding up some questions I was hit with regarding our swapover to DF Felltower from Vic's Felltower Adjacent game.
Equipment
- anything with multiple prefixes is going to be a special order - 1d+1 weeks for manufacture or delivery. Getting something with one prefix is immediate, but then upgrading with another prefix will take 1d+1 weeks to do after it arrives, because don't get cute.
- any enchantment time starts after you take delivery of it, it's not concurrent but consecutive.
- you can get a Staff spell on a knobbed club and use that with Axe/Mace.
- You can do the whole rent-some-armor approach by buying and selling back at 100%, but I do apply a "used gear" wear factor on the base price, so expect it to come with some occasional losses per these rules.
- You can't get a Cornucopia of non-ammuniton items. It cannot be cast on a weapon - so no endless streams of daggers, shuriken, axes, swords, whatever. Just arrows, bolts, sling and prod bullets . . . and that's it.
Cose Combat
- we're not using basket hilts, cutlasses, or backswords. If you want to hilt punch in close combat, see GURPS Martial Arts, p 111. Remember that Weapon Master may factor in to the damage if you're hilt punching with a weapon covered by your advantage.
- the other weapons in CC rule worth reading is GURPS Martial Arts, p. 117, Long Weapons in Close Combat.
Welcome to Stericksburg!
- The PCs will arrive in Stericksburg on 10/28, the day before our next session. Special orders can be made then. This does mean that people will need to delve with what they have now, plus any non-special order items. Minor Healing and Major Healing potions, as well as Paut, are available in unlimited quantities for anyone who feels the need to stock up before delving the next day.
- PCs will need to pay one week's upkeep before play on 10/29, to cover miscelleous costs for travel, etc. The usual modifiers apply (extra cost for Compulsive Behavior, having Chi Talent, whatever.)
- Training can take place between, for learning spells, adding lenses, whatever. Pay the cost and pay the points.
Equipment
- anything with multiple prefixes is going to be a special order - 1d+1 weeks for manufacture or delivery. Getting something with one prefix is immediate, but then upgrading with another prefix will take 1d+1 weeks to do after it arrives, because don't get cute.
- any enchantment time starts after you take delivery of it, it's not concurrent but consecutive.
- you can get a Staff spell on a knobbed club and use that with Axe/Mace.
- You can do the whole rent-some-armor approach by buying and selling back at 100%, but I do apply a "used gear" wear factor on the base price, so expect it to come with some occasional losses per these rules.
- You can't get a Cornucopia of non-ammuniton items. It cannot be cast on a weapon - so no endless streams of daggers, shuriken, axes, swords, whatever. Just arrows, bolts, sling and prod bullets . . . and that's it.
Cose Combat
- we're not using basket hilts, cutlasses, or backswords. If you want to hilt punch in close combat, see GURPS Martial Arts, p 111. Remember that Weapon Master may factor in to the damage if you're hilt punching with a weapon covered by your advantage.
- the other weapons in CC rule worth reading is GURPS Martial Arts, p. 117, Long Weapons in Close Combat.
Welcome to Stericksburg!
- The PCs will arrive in Stericksburg on 10/28, the day before our next session. Special orders can be made then. This does mean that people will need to delve with what they have now, plus any non-special order items. Minor Healing and Major Healing potions, as well as Paut, are available in unlimited quantities for anyone who feels the need to stock up before delving the next day.
- PCs will need to pay one week's upkeep before play on 10/29, to cover miscelleous costs for travel, etc. The usual modifiers apply (extra cost for Compulsive Behavior, having Chi Talent, whatever.)
- Training can take place between, for learning spells, adding lenses, whatever. Pay the cost and pay the points.
Tuesday, October 10, 2023
Handsome's points and gear haul
Handsome has some stuff, now.
- $9,942.80 in cash, largely in gold (so just under 2 lbs. of coins.)
- a one-shot Resist Fire amulet from the hobgoblin spellcaster.
- a plate helmet from a draugr, giving him skull DR 6 for 5 lbs.
- a fine, balanced, dwarven axe from a draugr, for 4 lbs., replacing his hatchet. He could have had a Butcher Blade from Magic Items 2, but he went with Axe/Mace as an off-template replacement for Shortsword. Oh well, axe suited him better, and we sold the falchion instead.
- a ST 15 Elven Composite bow. Can you get a bow's rated strength modified? I have no idea. I've never allowed it, but I don't know if it's a thing or not. Either way, he can shoot a ST 17 Elven bow so that's on his "wish list" - a Fine, Elven, Balanced Composite bow for $21,600, with Puissance 1 for $5,000 on top of that. Anyway, his new bow is thr+3 impale with a 1d+1 ST rating so 1d+4, +2 for WM, for a 1d+6 base. He can reach 1d+9 with impaling or cutting arrows and 1d+8 with piercing. Good stuff.
- This puts Handsome to Light encumbrance, instead of None. All he needs to do is quick-release his backpack, or simply leave his bedroll behind, to get to None.
I don't think Handsome got anything else . . . not any of the magic swords, armor, potions, etc. we found. But the fact is he doesn't need them. I'd have argued for them if I thought he could use them . . . but it's probably better the folks who continue in Felltower get to use them. He won't, because I won't play him as a GMPC or an NPC, and I'm probably not going to hand him over to someone else to play, either.
Oh, and his points? He ended with 35 saved, so I went Combat Reflexes and Weapon Master (Bow). Why not. He needs more Per and skill, but those are easy purchases as he gets played while those two bigger purchases are out of the way.
- $9,942.80 in cash, largely in gold (so just under 2 lbs. of coins.)
- a one-shot Resist Fire amulet from the hobgoblin spellcaster.
- a plate helmet from a draugr, giving him skull DR 6 for 5 lbs.
- a fine, balanced, dwarven axe from a draugr, for 4 lbs., replacing his hatchet. He could have had a Butcher Blade from Magic Items 2, but he went with Axe/Mace as an off-template replacement for Shortsword. Oh well, axe suited him better, and we sold the falchion instead.
- a ST 15 Elven Composite bow. Can you get a bow's rated strength modified? I have no idea. I've never allowed it, but I don't know if it's a thing or not. Either way, he can shoot a ST 17 Elven bow so that's on his "wish list" - a Fine, Elven, Balanced Composite bow for $21,600, with Puissance 1 for $5,000 on top of that. Anyway, his new bow is thr+3 impale with a 1d+1 ST rating so 1d+4, +2 for WM, for a 1d+6 base. He can reach 1d+9 with impaling or cutting arrows and 1d+8 with piercing. Good stuff.
- This puts Handsome to Light encumbrance, instead of None. All he needs to do is quick-release his backpack, or simply leave his bedroll behind, to get to None.
I don't think Handsome got anything else . . . not any of the magic swords, armor, potions, etc. we found. But the fact is he doesn't need them. I'd have argued for them if I thought he could use them . . . but it's probably better the folks who continue in Felltower get to use them. He won't, because I won't play him as a GMPC or an NPC, and I'm probably not going to hand him over to someone else to play, either.
Oh, and his points? He ended with 35 saved, so I went Combat Reflexes and Weapon Master (Bow). Why not. He needs more Per and skill, but those are easy purchases as he gets played while those two bigger purchases are out of the way.
Monday, October 9, 2023
Felltower Adjacent Session 6 - Traps & Temples of Orcus
Yesterday was a session of Vic's Felltower Adjacent game. I think the next game will be GMed by me, in Felltower. For the previous session, see my brief summary here:
Session 5
Characters:
Handsome, half-orc scout (me)
Hanari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist
Thor Hafskepna, human knight
Chop, human cleric
Urbaine, half-elf bard
Duncan Tesdic, human wizard
Persistance Montgomery, human knight
plus some semi-useful dwarves and a goblin
We started off in the dungeon, having looted and sent off the surviving hobgoblins. We parcelled out the magic items, and Handsome put on the amulet from the hobgoblin wizard and restrung his bow. We found the dwarves' gear. Tarkov had armor tailored to him that detected as magical. Aha, prince Tarkov, clearly. We sat around until an hour and then headed deeper.
We found a pair of double doors and unlocked them, then found another pair and just opened them up.
Beyond the doors were a statue puzzle trap. A giant statue of a knight with a sword stood on one side of the room, near the door. On the other side were statues of dragons. (I asked, but never got an answer to, "Are there scorch marks in front of them?" - I found out later no, and why not, but I want to go on record as looking first.)
It was clearly a puzzle or a trap, and there was the usual "this will animate and kill us" chorus. We couldn't spot any mechanism to set it off, set Handsome moved in a bit . . . and was promptly clocked by the statue.
Handsome set it off by approaching within 15' of the sucker and got whacked for 14 crushing which sent him flying.
Handsome suggested we drag over some dead hobgoblins, use Levitate to move them around, and see what sets off the trap. The first one got pinata'ed into a spray of gore. Bwahahahahah. So we used the other and avoided the 15' arc and sent it by the dragons. They blew air to knock you into the knight's reach, proving it to be a baseball trap. Splotch.
We got another hobgoblin and manuevered him down to the far end of the room, where four white statues of cherubs with jars of water stood. It passed them, and a forcefield appeared, water filled the area up and splashed around violently until the hobgoblin corpse was in tatters, and then the water drained away.
The group voted to go check out the side area.
We did that and found a stone door marked "Closed." We opened it up, and spotted a gelatinous cube coming. We closed the door. There was talk of backing off but it turned out we, a) had torches, and b) had a wizard with Lightning, and c) you can kill them with melee attacks so why not do that?
We opened the door and waited with torches. The cube came, and Duncan blew it apart with 2 x 15d Lightning spells, doing 44 and 43 damage, between which Hannibal, Persistance, and Thor burned it with their torches. We collected some cube ooze which can be sold in town.
We found 11 sp and 2 gp and some old weapons beyond the cube but no way around the trap. We veto'd a suggestion to triangulate and burrow a hole behind the trap.
We went back to the baseball trap and sent Hanari in and he spiked it in place. We then found a lever to turn it off on the back, then Thor chopped its legs down.
We worked out way around back of the dragon statues and turned them off, not that it mattered.
The fighters dragged the big statue's sword over and stuck it in the flooding area, which did nothing. So we did another hobgoblin, and didn't see any clue to how to disarm it. So we threw a lasso over the front two statues, one at a time, and dragged them down and broke them. IIRC it was Handsome (ST 13), Thor (ST 17), Persistance (ST 17) and one of the dwarves. With them broken the trap was useless.
We opened the locked door thanks to Yegenny's lockpicks.
We find a pair of corridors, straight and right. Ten rune-covered zombies come from both sides, so we split up - three dwarves and Urbaine on one side, and a heavily-loaded flank with Persistance, Thor, and Hanari - two knights and a martial artist.
We fought a bunch of rune-covered zombies that explode when they die. They rushed in close, so they lit some fires as we cut them down. Mostly fratricide caused them problems and the explosions didn't bother our front-liners too much. Handsome contributed with a few cutting arrows, but mostly they blocked them and the one he hit didn't die from the arrow.
Accompanying them were a family of undead - mother, father, little boy, and little girl zombies. They rushed us from the weaker flank. The better fighters moved to help that line as it bowed under pressure. Handsome dropped his bow on a 17 and had to recover it, preventing him from helping in a useful manner until a few turns later.
Eventually we chopped them all to bits.
Finally we found stairs down, and headed down after waiting 20-30 minutes to rest up.
By the law of pre-written adventurers and movie tropes, at the bottom we found a ritual almost complete - we'd arrived in the nick of time!
There was a big room with a gate on one end (with tentacles reaching out of it), pillars down the middle, an altar on one side and a giant statue of Orcus on the other side. Over by the altar were two draugr, two bleeders (DFRPG Monsters 2) (which I thought were Ramex, thank goodness they weren't), a weird undead that hurled black evil bolts, a wizard - Franz Gruber, and an archer. Those of us who prayed at the altar upstairs got Bless +1 for the duration of the fight.
We trashed them badly. Hanari threw a kama at Franz and hit and hurt him slightly, despite heavy magic robes. Handsome drilled him in the vitals with a bodkin, and he teleported away after a flash from his Orcus amulet and ended up in a pentagram in front of the gate.
We charged into the room - Hanari and Thor and Urbaine to the left, the dwarves up the middle, Handsome up the right, Chop and Duncan in the back, and the useless goblin off to the side. The draugr and one of the bleeders headed toward Handsome, another bleeder towards Thor and Hanari, and the weird undead launched bolts from the back. The archer readied her bow.
It all went downhill for the enemy from there. The draugr realized they couldn't catch Handsome, so they veered off and slammed the dwarves and Urbaine. Urbaine dodged and the draugr knocked himself down from slamming into a pillar. The other immediately got tangled up with the dwarves in a melee. Chop put Protection from Evil on Thor (or was it Hanari?) as they dealt with one of the bleeders. Handsome rushed Franz while putting the pillars between him and the archer. She took one shot at him but he Dodged, while putting arrows towards and often into Franz. I was rolling at a 9 for four shots and hit with 3.
The draugr who knocked himself down got jumped by Persistance, who clubbed him repeatedly with his flail. Urbaine did an All-Out Attack and put out both of the draugr's eyes, and was saved from an arrow in the back by his Bless. The black bolts hit Thor a couple times and drained some FP, but he rushed the undead and killed her in short order. Hanari put down one of the bleeders with Persistance's help or vice-versa.
Meanwhile the dwarves mobbed one draugr. One grappled its shield and it dropped it, and then it dropped its sword on a critical miss. The others kept attacking it, and the grappler eventually threw it prone. Chop ran in to engage it. Persistance smashed up the blind one and then joined them in smashing up this one.
Handsome's hapless wizard foe put Darkness over himself as Handsome ran up, still shooting, knocking him prone. Guessing, Handsome aimed for hexes covered by darkness and caught Franz in the line of shot, putting an arrow into what turned out to be his arm. Franz tried a ranged Deathtouch from one of Doug's supplements, but rolled an 18 and hurt himself instead. Handsome ran right through the tentacles near the portal (which I swear were not mentioned until then), Dodging away from one of them and shooting it off with a max-damage cutting arrow attack. Then he jumped through the darkness, putting an arrow into the vitals of the wizard as he entered the dome of darkness. The second bleeder, which had been chasing him, finally caught him and tried to kick on a Move on Attack. The -2 to keep its footing made it fall. Handsome shot it, and Hanari ran up and threw his katana into it and cut off one of its arms.
Meanwhile Urbaine convinced the archer to surrender - it was the suspiciously nice elf woman from town. She surrendered, in return for a fair trial, instead of us killing her on the spot here.
The others were dealt with over a few more seconds. Orcus boomed out from the gate, "You have failed me!" and sucked Franz Gruber's surprised soul into Hell. The gate closed forever.
After that, long story short, we found out there was nothing left to loot, so we took all their stuff, drew a map of the place, and went to town.
Notes:
Holy crud, Sean Punch was threatening GURPS Undead Waltons back in the 90s on GURPSNet-L and here it is, a family of undead.
Hopefully this is the end of the undead for a bit.
One of the dwarves, Tarkov, had a $30,000 suit of perfectly fitted magic armor. Turns out he was socially well-connected and wealthy and had a reward of $500 each for us for rescuing him. With our bard, we'd have been better off had he died and we sold his armor. Just saying.
We discussed if Protection from Evil covers draugr. I said no - they lack "Truly evil" and aren't undead by direct choice. Other argued they were. I'm sticking to my guns here - Truly evil means Truly evil, and lacking that tag should mean you don't suffer from effects designed to repel that. It's an effective spell, with broad utility, and I don't think it needs to be any more broad. Also I don't allow it for wizards in Felltower, just Bards and Clerics.
We ended up with 11 xp each. 4 xp for loot, 2 xp for the boss fight, 1 xp for the zombie fight, 2 xp for closing the gate, 1 xp for rescuing the dwarves, 1 xp for mapping the dungeon (which was a "quest."). That is a LOT of XP. Literally more than double what a standard session gets under my system. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Everyone likes the rapid pace, I think, but it feels like way too much. In six sessions Handsome earned 43 points.
MVP was Handsome for keeping Franz Gruber pincushioned instead of actually effective during the fight.
Voting on the MVP was tight, which Hanari a close second, because his kama hit really set the tone for the final battle. Had Handsome's arrow not triggered the defensive teleport, it would have been his, but that swayed some voters. Overall, this session really was interesting in that every PC's strengths were showcased - Handsome did scout things and heroic archer things, Hanari demonstrated his martial artist's high DX and Throwing Art, the bard did assistance magic and talked a foe into surrendering, the wizard lightninged apart a gelatinous cube, the cleric healed and buffed and did secondary fighter things, the two knights engaged in brutal front-line fighting . . . literally each one did their template as designed. Good stuff.
Also see Doug's summary.
Session 5
Characters:
Handsome, half-orc scout (me)
Hanari Ironhand, dwarf martial artist
Thor Hafskepna, human knight
Chop, human cleric
Urbaine, half-elf bard
Duncan Tesdic, human wizard
Persistance Montgomery, human knight
plus some semi-useful dwarves and a goblin
We started off in the dungeon, having looted and sent off the surviving hobgoblins. We parcelled out the magic items, and Handsome put on the amulet from the hobgoblin wizard and restrung his bow. We found the dwarves' gear. Tarkov had armor tailored to him that detected as magical. Aha, prince Tarkov, clearly. We sat around until an hour and then headed deeper.
We found a pair of double doors and unlocked them, then found another pair and just opened them up.
Beyond the doors were a statue puzzle trap. A giant statue of a knight with a sword stood on one side of the room, near the door. On the other side were statues of dragons. (I asked, but never got an answer to, "Are there scorch marks in front of them?" - I found out later no, and why not, but I want to go on record as looking first.)
It was clearly a puzzle or a trap, and there was the usual "this will animate and kill us" chorus. We couldn't spot any mechanism to set it off, set Handsome moved in a bit . . . and was promptly clocked by the statue.
Handsome set it off by approaching within 15' of the sucker and got whacked for 14 crushing which sent him flying.
Handsome suggested we drag over some dead hobgoblins, use Levitate to move them around, and see what sets off the trap. The first one got pinata'ed into a spray of gore. Bwahahahahah. So we used the other and avoided the 15' arc and sent it by the dragons. They blew air to knock you into the knight's reach, proving it to be a baseball trap. Splotch.
We got another hobgoblin and manuevered him down to the far end of the room, where four white statues of cherubs with jars of water stood. It passed them, and a forcefield appeared, water filled the area up and splashed around violently until the hobgoblin corpse was in tatters, and then the water drained away.
The group voted to go check out the side area.
We did that and found a stone door marked "Closed." We opened it up, and spotted a gelatinous cube coming. We closed the door. There was talk of backing off but it turned out we, a) had torches, and b) had a wizard with Lightning, and c) you can kill them with melee attacks so why not do that?
We opened the door and waited with torches. The cube came, and Duncan blew it apart with 2 x 15d Lightning spells, doing 44 and 43 damage, between which Hannibal, Persistance, and Thor burned it with their torches. We collected some cube ooze which can be sold in town.
We found 11 sp and 2 gp and some old weapons beyond the cube but no way around the trap. We veto'd a suggestion to triangulate and burrow a hole behind the trap.
We went back to the baseball trap and sent Hanari in and he spiked it in place. We then found a lever to turn it off on the back, then Thor chopped its legs down.
We worked out way around back of the dragon statues and turned them off, not that it mattered.
The fighters dragged the big statue's sword over and stuck it in the flooding area, which did nothing. So we did another hobgoblin, and didn't see any clue to how to disarm it. So we threw a lasso over the front two statues, one at a time, and dragged them down and broke them. IIRC it was Handsome (ST 13), Thor (ST 17), Persistance (ST 17) and one of the dwarves. With them broken the trap was useless.
We opened the locked door thanks to Yegenny's lockpicks.
We find a pair of corridors, straight and right. Ten rune-covered zombies come from both sides, so we split up - three dwarves and Urbaine on one side, and a heavily-loaded flank with Persistance, Thor, and Hanari - two knights and a martial artist.
We fought a bunch of rune-covered zombies that explode when they die. They rushed in close, so they lit some fires as we cut them down. Mostly fratricide caused them problems and the explosions didn't bother our front-liners too much. Handsome contributed with a few cutting arrows, but mostly they blocked them and the one he hit didn't die from the arrow.
Accompanying them were a family of undead - mother, father, little boy, and little girl zombies. They rushed us from the weaker flank. The better fighters moved to help that line as it bowed under pressure. Handsome dropped his bow on a 17 and had to recover it, preventing him from helping in a useful manner until a few turns later.
Eventually we chopped them all to bits.
Finally we found stairs down, and headed down after waiting 20-30 minutes to rest up.
By the law of pre-written adventurers and movie tropes, at the bottom we found a ritual almost complete - we'd arrived in the nick of time!
There was a big room with a gate on one end (with tentacles reaching out of it), pillars down the middle, an altar on one side and a giant statue of Orcus on the other side. Over by the altar were two draugr, two bleeders (DFRPG Monsters 2) (which I thought were Ramex, thank goodness they weren't), a weird undead that hurled black evil bolts, a wizard - Franz Gruber, and an archer. Those of us who prayed at the altar upstairs got Bless +1 for the duration of the fight.
We trashed them badly. Hanari threw a kama at Franz and hit and hurt him slightly, despite heavy magic robes. Handsome drilled him in the vitals with a bodkin, and he teleported away after a flash from his Orcus amulet and ended up in a pentagram in front of the gate.
We charged into the room - Hanari and Thor and Urbaine to the left, the dwarves up the middle, Handsome up the right, Chop and Duncan in the back, and the useless goblin off to the side. The draugr and one of the bleeders headed toward Handsome, another bleeder towards Thor and Hanari, and the weird undead launched bolts from the back. The archer readied her bow.
It all went downhill for the enemy from there. The draugr realized they couldn't catch Handsome, so they veered off and slammed the dwarves and Urbaine. Urbaine dodged and the draugr knocked himself down from slamming into a pillar. The other immediately got tangled up with the dwarves in a melee. Chop put Protection from Evil on Thor (or was it Hanari?) as they dealt with one of the bleeders. Handsome rushed Franz while putting the pillars between him and the archer. She took one shot at him but he Dodged, while putting arrows towards and often into Franz. I was rolling at a 9 for four shots and hit with 3.
The draugr who knocked himself down got jumped by Persistance, who clubbed him repeatedly with his flail. Urbaine did an All-Out Attack and put out both of the draugr's eyes, and was saved from an arrow in the back by his Bless. The black bolts hit Thor a couple times and drained some FP, but he rushed the undead and killed her in short order. Hanari put down one of the bleeders with Persistance's help or vice-versa.
Meanwhile the dwarves mobbed one draugr. One grappled its shield and it dropped it, and then it dropped its sword on a critical miss. The others kept attacking it, and the grappler eventually threw it prone. Chop ran in to engage it. Persistance smashed up the blind one and then joined them in smashing up this one.
Handsome's hapless wizard foe put Darkness over himself as Handsome ran up, still shooting, knocking him prone. Guessing, Handsome aimed for hexes covered by darkness and caught Franz in the line of shot, putting an arrow into what turned out to be his arm. Franz tried a ranged Deathtouch from one of Doug's supplements, but rolled an 18 and hurt himself instead. Handsome ran right through the tentacles near the portal (which I swear were not mentioned until then), Dodging away from one of them and shooting it off with a max-damage cutting arrow attack. Then he jumped through the darkness, putting an arrow into the vitals of the wizard as he entered the dome of darkness. The second bleeder, which had been chasing him, finally caught him and tried to kick on a Move on Attack. The -2 to keep its footing made it fall. Handsome shot it, and Hanari ran up and threw his katana into it and cut off one of its arms.
Meanwhile Urbaine convinced the archer to surrender - it was the suspiciously nice elf woman from town. She surrendered, in return for a fair trial, instead of us killing her on the spot here.
The others were dealt with over a few more seconds. Orcus boomed out from the gate, "You have failed me!" and sucked Franz Gruber's surprised soul into Hell. The gate closed forever.
After that, long story short, we found out there was nothing left to loot, so we took all their stuff, drew a map of the place, and went to town.
Notes:
Holy crud, Sean Punch was threatening GURPS Undead Waltons back in the 90s on GURPSNet-L and here it is, a family of undead.
Hopefully this is the end of the undead for a bit.
One of the dwarves, Tarkov, had a $30,000 suit of perfectly fitted magic armor. Turns out he was socially well-connected and wealthy and had a reward of $500 each for us for rescuing him. With our bard, we'd have been better off had he died and we sold his armor. Just saying.
We discussed if Protection from Evil covers draugr. I said no - they lack "Truly evil" and aren't undead by direct choice. Other argued they were. I'm sticking to my guns here - Truly evil means Truly evil, and lacking that tag should mean you don't suffer from effects designed to repel that. It's an effective spell, with broad utility, and I don't think it needs to be any more broad. Also I don't allow it for wizards in Felltower, just Bards and Clerics.
We ended up with 11 xp each. 4 xp for loot, 2 xp for the boss fight, 1 xp for the zombie fight, 2 xp for closing the gate, 1 xp for rescuing the dwarves, 1 xp for mapping the dungeon (which was a "quest."). That is a LOT of XP. Literally more than double what a standard session gets under my system. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Everyone likes the rapid pace, I think, but it feels like way too much. In six sessions Handsome earned 43 points.
MVP was Handsome for keeping Franz Gruber pincushioned instead of actually effective during the fight.
Voting on the MVP was tight, which Hanari a close second, because his kama hit really set the tone for the final battle. Had Handsome's arrow not triggered the defensive teleport, it would have been his, but that swayed some voters. Overall, this session really was interesting in that every PC's strengths were showcased - Handsome did scout things and heroic archer things, Hanari demonstrated his martial artist's high DX and Throwing Art, the bard did assistance magic and talked a foe into surrendering, the wizard lightninged apart a gelatinous cube, the cleric healed and buffed and did secondary fighter things, the two knights engaged in brutal front-line fighting . . . literally each one did their template as designed. Good stuff.
Also see Doug's summary.
Sunday, October 8, 2023
Felltower Adjacent - pre-summary
We:
- killed a gelatinous cube
- evaded a few dangerous traps mostly through brute force
- killed a bunch of exploding zombies and a family of ghouls
- fought a big boss battle with our final foe, Franz, and his undead and living companions.
Fun stuff, full summary tomorrow.
- killed a gelatinous cube
- evaded a few dangerous traps mostly through brute force
- killed a bunch of exploding zombies and a family of ghouls
- fought a big boss battle with our final foe, Franz, and his undead and living companions.
Fun stuff, full summary tomorrow.
Monday, September 25, 2023
Felltower Adjacent - Session 5 - Scaring & Murdering Hobgoblins
We played in Vic's Felltower adjacent game on Sunday. I don't have a complete character list, but I should get one and add it.
We started off in the dungeon, having wiped out the undead last time. We headed down to the side second level, called Sir Leonhard's level.
At the bottom of the stairs was a short hall leading to a partly-dug-out level with lots of butte-like raised areas. We tricked a hobgoblin into wandering up to us with promises of food voiced by Urbaine on Splug's provided Goblinian words. We killed him in a Silence area and then rushed forward. We spotted a few more hobgoblins, a couple of dire wolves, and a trio of dwarves. We started killing everything but the dwarves. One said, "Now's our chance, get them!" - we dubbed him Ray, and his buddies Peter and Egon.
We made short work of the enemy, mostly because the hobgoblins insisted on running and the wolves on charging. Thor butchered one wolf with his new magic sword Green Acres, aka Puppyslayer, and Patience jumped next to one off a plateau and smashed it to burger with his two-handed flail. Handsome shot the others in the back.
We moved into the next room, and killed four hobgoblins there. One asked for a passphrase, so Handsome tried to shoot him in the vitals. He blocked and then dodged, before someone else cut him down. We moved into another area and found a caged gladiator ape. Handsome shot it and wounded it badly.
Thor rushed the ape and killed it in its cage, as hobgoblins rushed us from left and right from side doors. Urbaine the bard demolished a few with a Concussion spell at 5d, and the dwarves held the others off. We gave chase to the right.
Handsome shot poorly (shooting on the run with quick shots at targets he couldn't see until the end of his 7 move added up to a -14 or so) and didn't hit them, and as they reached a couple of doors and shouted for help a 17 broke Handsome's bowstring.
The fighters rushed up, led by Hannari, our dwarf martial artist. A dozen hobgoblins or so rushed out, backed by a warchief with an ugly mustache and a powerful hobgoblins wizard (see notes below). Handsome took Splug's bow and plinked away with the little cupid-sized thing, doing a little damage here and there and dropping one or two hobgoblins. But it really cramped his effectiveness.
Thor dropped his sword on a critical failure but bull-rushed the wizard, and missed thanks to Shield. He ended up stranded on the other side of the fight, getting cut up. Hannari tossed an Alchemist's Fire to annoy the hobgoblins, and we fought them to a standstill and started to cut them down as the chief ran up and got knocked down.
Then, just to ruin their chances of getting any of us, Urbaine hit them with Panic and all but the wizard were afraid. As they started to run Hannari and others cut the chief up, Pesistance ran down and killed the wizard, and Handsome shot some poor slob in the back. Then it was over - Urbaine cancelled the spell and demanded they surrender or die.
They surrendered, with their wizard and chief already dead.
We looted them and sent them on their way with only their underwear (Urbaine insisted this was the done thing.)
We stopped there as we had one more place to clear - their boss, downstairs somewhere.
Notes:
- Sir Leon Hard is totally an adult film star name.
- These were all D&D4 hobgoblins, not Felltower ones (which are resistant to magic) or DFRPG ones. They're remarkably tactically inept and lack unit cohesion, so they sure as hell aren't 1st edition AD&D hobgoblins, who looked like samurai and acted like soldiers.
- I couldn't afford a spare longbow, and I just didn't think to keep one of the goblin bows as a backup. Or to buy a spare bow. Oh well, I paid for it this session. Dropping from a ST 15 longbow to a ST 11 shortbow meant a serious drop in the killing power of my shots. When we get back to town I'll drop everything I have on the best composite bow or longbow I can, and move my old bow to backup status.
- For once Handsome didn't threaten to kill Splug, because someone paid points for him. I did gripe that we found three brave and intelligent dwarves and no one wants them for allies. No, they want the cowardly and semi-useful goblin.
- The rules differences are interesting. I don't run GURPS or DFRPG exactly as written, so there are some differences that have spillover effects. For example, we allow potions to take effect immediately upon being applied/drunk. But we also make you roll for unconsciousness at the beginning of each turn, if on that turn you attempt something besides Do Nothing. GURPS as written makes you roll next time. So if you're within a healing potion of positive HP you can avoid this roll by drinking the potion. Allowing the one benefit - faster potion effects - is a big upside if you play with the less-harsh rules as written on consciousness rolls. Oh, and I don't allow a parry against slams, but GURPS as written does. I use different fear rules. That sort of stuff. It'll be interesting when we swap to Felltower and people have to adjust back to how I play the game.
We started off in the dungeon, having wiped out the undead last time. We headed down to the side second level, called Sir Leonhard's level.
At the bottom of the stairs was a short hall leading to a partly-dug-out level with lots of butte-like raised areas. We tricked a hobgoblin into wandering up to us with promises of food voiced by Urbaine on Splug's provided Goblinian words. We killed him in a Silence area and then rushed forward. We spotted a few more hobgoblins, a couple of dire wolves, and a trio of dwarves. We started killing everything but the dwarves. One said, "Now's our chance, get them!" - we dubbed him Ray, and his buddies Peter and Egon.
We made short work of the enemy, mostly because the hobgoblins insisted on running and the wolves on charging. Thor butchered one wolf with his new magic sword Green Acres, aka Puppyslayer, and Patience jumped next to one off a plateau and smashed it to burger with his two-handed flail. Handsome shot the others in the back.
We moved into the next room, and killed four hobgoblins there. One asked for a passphrase, so Handsome tried to shoot him in the vitals. He blocked and then dodged, before someone else cut him down. We moved into another area and found a caged gladiator ape. Handsome shot it and wounded it badly.
Thor rushed the ape and killed it in its cage, as hobgoblins rushed us from left and right from side doors. Urbaine the bard demolished a few with a Concussion spell at 5d, and the dwarves held the others off. We gave chase to the right.
Handsome shot poorly (shooting on the run with quick shots at targets he couldn't see until the end of his 7 move added up to a -14 or so) and didn't hit them, and as they reached a couple of doors and shouted for help a 17 broke Handsome's bowstring.
The fighters rushed up, led by Hannari, our dwarf martial artist. A dozen hobgoblins or so rushed out, backed by a warchief with an ugly mustache and a powerful hobgoblins wizard (see notes below). Handsome took Splug's bow and plinked away with the little cupid-sized thing, doing a little damage here and there and dropping one or two hobgoblins. But it really cramped his effectiveness.
Thor dropped his sword on a critical failure but bull-rushed the wizard, and missed thanks to Shield. He ended up stranded on the other side of the fight, getting cut up. Hannari tossed an Alchemist's Fire to annoy the hobgoblins, and we fought them to a standstill and started to cut them down as the chief ran up and got knocked down.
Then, just to ruin their chances of getting any of us, Urbaine hit them with Panic and all but the wizard were afraid. As they started to run Hannari and others cut the chief up, Pesistance ran down and killed the wizard, and Handsome shot some poor slob in the back. Then it was over - Urbaine cancelled the spell and demanded they surrender or die.
They surrendered, with their wizard and chief already dead.
We looted them and sent them on their way with only their underwear (Urbaine insisted this was the done thing.)
We stopped there as we had one more place to clear - their boss, downstairs somewhere.
Notes:
- Sir Leon Hard is totally an adult film star name.
- These were all D&D4 hobgoblins, not Felltower ones (which are resistant to magic) or DFRPG ones. They're remarkably tactically inept and lack unit cohesion, so they sure as hell aren't 1st edition AD&D hobgoblins, who looked like samurai and acted like soldiers.
- I couldn't afford a spare longbow, and I just didn't think to keep one of the goblin bows as a backup. Or to buy a spare bow. Oh well, I paid for it this session. Dropping from a ST 15 longbow to a ST 11 shortbow meant a serious drop in the killing power of my shots. When we get back to town I'll drop everything I have on the best composite bow or longbow I can, and move my old bow to backup status.
- For once Handsome didn't threaten to kill Splug, because someone paid points for him. I did gripe that we found three brave and intelligent dwarves and no one wants them for allies. No, they want the cowardly and semi-useful goblin.
- The rules differences are interesting. I don't run GURPS or DFRPG exactly as written, so there are some differences that have spillover effects. For example, we allow potions to take effect immediately upon being applied/drunk. But we also make you roll for unconsciousness at the beginning of each turn, if on that turn you attempt something besides Do Nothing. GURPS as written makes you roll next time. So if you're within a healing potion of positive HP you can avoid this roll by drinking the potion. Allowing the one benefit - faster potion effects - is a big upside if you play with the less-harsh rules as written on consciousness rolls. Oh, and I don't allow a parry against slams, but GURPS as written does. I use different fear rules. That sort of stuff. It'll be interesting when we swap to Felltower and people have to adjust back to how I play the game.
Sunday, September 24, 2023
Still in the dungeon
We played in Vic's Felltower adjacent game again today. summary tomorrow, but we smashed a largish band of D&D style hobgoblins and took some loot, but didn't get to the boss yet.
So we're staying until we do, so he doesn't leave before he gets what's coming to him.
So we're staying until we do, so he doesn't leave before he gets what's coming to him.
Saturday, September 23, 2023
Handsome's unspent points
As far as my records show, Handsome has 16 xp to spend.
I can't spend any yet, as we're in the middle of a dungeon.
That said, here are some things I'm considering purchaseing.
Combat Reflexes [15]. The +1 to defenses would be helpful, as would the bonuses against and recovering from surprise. A surprised scout is a dead one.
Luck [15]. One re-roll per hour would save Handsome when things go bad.
Weapon Master [20]. On the reasonable assumption that we'll get 4 xp before I can spend any, I could just save up for this for my paper man. +2 damage with the bow is nice. He'll need that damage if/when he gets to tougher foes. And it would cut his penalty for a quick shot to -1 from -3.
Perception +3 [15]. Right now, Handsome has a reasonable Per 14. +3 would make that a much more awesome 17. Handsome doesn't need to worry about darkness penalties within a light source radius, even the fringes, so he's able to see pretty well. A 17 would be a very nice . . . edge . . . as a scout.
I'm debating which one . . . but I'm open to opinions and suggestions.
I can't spend any yet, as we're in the middle of a dungeon.
That said, here are some things I'm considering purchaseing.
Combat Reflexes [15]. The +1 to defenses would be helpful, as would the bonuses against and recovering from surprise. A surprised scout is a dead one.
Luck [15]. One re-roll per hour would save Handsome when things go bad.
Weapon Master [20]. On the reasonable assumption that we'll get 4 xp before I can spend any, I could just save up for this for my paper man. +2 damage with the bow is nice. He'll need that damage if/when he gets to tougher foes. And it would cut his penalty for a quick shot to -1 from -3.
Perception +3 [15]. Right now, Handsome has a reasonable Per 14. +3 would make that a much more awesome 17. Handsome doesn't need to worry about darkness penalties within a light source radius, even the fringes, so he's able to see pretty well. A 17 would be a very nice . . . edge . . . as a scout.
I'm debating which one . . . but I'm open to opinions and suggestions.
Tuesday, September 12, 2023
More notes from last game session
- Our wizard rolled an 18 on Invisibility. The critical failure table - which I generally don't like much myself - just had it stun him. He didn't fall down stairs. Huzzah. Not really that thrilling. If it's worth rolling to see if you could succeed, fail, critically succeed, or critically fail . . . then those should all matter. If they won't matter, it's probably just worth saying spellcasting not under stress is just a normal success without bothering to roll.
But if you do roll, a 17 should suck and an 18 should critically suck. Harmless results shouldn't be allowed otherwise it's really just a check between success and critical success.
- It's bleeding odd that you can torso shoot a skeleton with a cutting arrow for full damage. Shoot a rib off? Crack the sternum? I aimed for the skull just because I didn't want that to be a thing.
- Handsome has like a hundred arrows or something laying around for him. I'm probably just going to grab a few extras and toss the rest. I don't even have quivers for them all, or the need for them all.
- Handsome, by the way, still has no armor. I'd expected to loot some by now but then again, having DR 0 hasn't been such a big deal. It might be later, but it's been fun living dangerously.
- I'm enjoying playing but I'm curious how I'll make the transition back to GMing when that comes around soonish.
But if you do roll, a 17 should suck and an 18 should critically suck. Harmless results shouldn't be allowed otherwise it's really just a check between success and critical success.
- It's bleeding odd that you can torso shoot a skeleton with a cutting arrow for full damage. Shoot a rib off? Crack the sternum? I aimed for the skull just because I didn't want that to be a thing.
- Handsome has like a hundred arrows or something laying around for him. I'm probably just going to grab a few extras and toss the rest. I don't even have quivers for them all, or the need for them all.
- Handsome, by the way, still has no armor. I'd expected to loot some by now but then again, having DR 0 hasn't been such a big deal. It might be later, but it's been fun living dangerously.
- I'm enjoying playing but I'm curious how I'll make the transition back to GMing when that comes around soonish.
Monday, September 11, 2023
Felltower Adjacent - Session 4 - Skeletons and Zombies and Draugr, oh my
The group did some stuff last time, and Hannari Ironhand and Handsome wandered up to join them.
They took pains to explain how we're not going to get a share of last session's loot because we weren't there, which is fine with Handsome. I plan to not split loot with people not there myself. We also had a discussion about how, if we happened to find a Very Fine Orichalcum Katana, instead of giving it to Hannari, who uses one, the smart move would be to sell it so everyone can upgrade their weapons and armor and Hannari could buy a not-as-good katana. Seriously. We spent time on this, like there is a VFOK out there and we need to pre-decide this. Or that Hannari won't just grab and use it because holy crap why would you sell that if you found it?
The we headed into the dungeon. They'd slaughtered everything on the upper level, and found three flights of stairs down. Handsome suggested going right down to the next level, slaughtering anyone or anything down there, then coming back up to deal with anything down there that chose to come upstairs.
So we did that. Heading down, we immediately found a bunch of sarcophagi. Naturally, as Handsome walked into the room, they opened and skeletons emerged. Handsome ran back loosing an arrow as he went, and then the skeletons engaged the fighters. They were destroyed pretty quickly, as all they had were sharp bony claws and that wasn't sufficient to bother our fighters. They trashed all of the skeletons.
We amused ourselves by hoping these were Sarcophagi of Infinite Undead but they weren't. We moved on, and found two alters to Bahumet, which is how they worship the Good God here. Meanwhile Handsome stood guard down the hallway to the side. Our bard prayed at the altars. There were double doors but Handsome said, "Listen! You smell something?" He smelled the rot, off an army of zombies!
Before we hit the doors, we headed after the zombies. The intersections were blocked with painted floors of evil runes. We basically jumped them once Walk on Air proved they didn't affect those who didn't touch them (low-rent traps.)
We eventually found the zombies, which came at us from both directions. Handsome was in the back, and missed one and wounded another of the ones from the back with a head shot as they closed in. Splurg or Splink or Spluck or whatever his name is, the goblin they picked up last time, decided to back off (Goblin Cowardice) and leave Handsome facing the zombies from the rear alone. The fighters up front fought the zombies, who used Move and Attack and got butchered.
But Splink was backing off even as Hannari moved up towards us and the zombies. Handsome said, "If you don't engage these zombies I'll shoot you with my next arrow." Someone described that as a threat. For Handsome, it was a statment of intent for next turn's actions. Splik decided to engage the zombies after all.
The zombies didn't last long after everyone was pulling their weight. We mopped up.
We explored more, and smelled more zombies. It was a dead end, though, so Handsome checked the wall . . . and it was an illusion. Thor jumped through, and found four zombies. Handsome and Hannari both rolled 17s and missed their targets but the fighters butchered the zombies in short order, although one destroyed itself by missing a slam and hitting a wall too hard. Handsome voted the wall MVP.
We found a largely empty armory. There was a plaque on the wall and it challenged us with a riddle. Handsome shouted out "Reputation!" to answer the riddle. It could have been your name or your honor, I suppose. Handsome wasn't paying attention (well, I wasn't) and didn't hear the whole riddle but it was an easy one. The success turned a ratty old suit of armor into a new, gleaming suit. Thor took it.
Handsome checked the walls behind the empty weapons racks and found a loose stone. It wasn't trapped, and he found a sack. He gently handled it and handed it over to the bard to check. It was a bottomless purse, with 500 gp in it ($10K). Nice.
We went back to the double doors and through. We met a draugr with a sword who was very chatty. We told him we were killing undead Orcus servants and eventually promised to fulfill the quest he failed. Turns out that the draugr had a job and blew it and killed his whole family as well. Even Handsome isn't that guilty. Anyway, the bard took his sword and gave it to Thor and made him promise to do the thing he'd do anyway.
We took our stuff and headed up to the level above, and found the stairs to the third level of this place. We'll stomp whatever is down there next time.
Notes:
- Yes, I'm going to link to that Lars Fredericksen song every time I smell the rot off an army of zombies. Deal with it.
- MVP was Handsome for finding $10K and other stuff.
- We got 7 xp, otherwise. The fights were all fodder fights. Zombies and skeletons aren't real threats.
- Handsome legitimately was going to kill that goblin for running. Pull your weight or else!
- Want to know what actually happened in detail? Probably read Doug's blog post since it writes it as we play.
They took pains to explain how we're not going to get a share of last session's loot because we weren't there, which is fine with Handsome. I plan to not split loot with people not there myself. We also had a discussion about how, if we happened to find a Very Fine Orichalcum Katana, instead of giving it to Hannari, who uses one, the smart move would be to sell it so everyone can upgrade their weapons and armor and Hannari could buy a not-as-good katana. Seriously. We spent time on this, like there is a VFOK out there and we need to pre-decide this. Or that Hannari won't just grab and use it because holy crap why would you sell that if you found it?
The we headed into the dungeon. They'd slaughtered everything on the upper level, and found three flights of stairs down. Handsome suggested going right down to the next level, slaughtering anyone or anything down there, then coming back up to deal with anything down there that chose to come upstairs.
So we did that. Heading down, we immediately found a bunch of sarcophagi. Naturally, as Handsome walked into the room, they opened and skeletons emerged. Handsome ran back loosing an arrow as he went, and then the skeletons engaged the fighters. They were destroyed pretty quickly, as all they had were sharp bony claws and that wasn't sufficient to bother our fighters. They trashed all of the skeletons.
We amused ourselves by hoping these were Sarcophagi of Infinite Undead but they weren't. We moved on, and found two alters to Bahumet, which is how they worship the Good God here. Meanwhile Handsome stood guard down the hallway to the side. Our bard prayed at the altars. There were double doors but Handsome said, "Listen! You smell something?" He smelled the rot, off an army of zombies!
Before we hit the doors, we headed after the zombies. The intersections were blocked with painted floors of evil runes. We basically jumped them once Walk on Air proved they didn't affect those who didn't touch them (low-rent traps.)
We eventually found the zombies, which came at us from both directions. Handsome was in the back, and missed one and wounded another of the ones from the back with a head shot as they closed in. Splurg or Splink or Spluck or whatever his name is, the goblin they picked up last time, decided to back off (Goblin Cowardice) and leave Handsome facing the zombies from the rear alone. The fighters up front fought the zombies, who used Move and Attack and got butchered.
But Splink was backing off even as Hannari moved up towards us and the zombies. Handsome said, "If you don't engage these zombies I'll shoot you with my next arrow." Someone described that as a threat. For Handsome, it was a statment of intent for next turn's actions. Splik decided to engage the zombies after all.
The zombies didn't last long after everyone was pulling their weight. We mopped up.
We explored more, and smelled more zombies. It was a dead end, though, so Handsome checked the wall . . . and it was an illusion. Thor jumped through, and found four zombies. Handsome and Hannari both rolled 17s and missed their targets but the fighters butchered the zombies in short order, although one destroyed itself by missing a slam and hitting a wall too hard. Handsome voted the wall MVP.
We found a largely empty armory. There was a plaque on the wall and it challenged us with a riddle. Handsome shouted out "Reputation!" to answer the riddle. It could have been your name or your honor, I suppose. Handsome wasn't paying attention (well, I wasn't) and didn't hear the whole riddle but it was an easy one. The success turned a ratty old suit of armor into a new, gleaming suit. Thor took it.
Handsome checked the walls behind the empty weapons racks and found a loose stone. It wasn't trapped, and he found a sack. He gently handled it and handed it over to the bard to check. It was a bottomless purse, with 500 gp in it ($10K). Nice.
We went back to the double doors and through. We met a draugr with a sword who was very chatty. We told him we were killing undead Orcus servants and eventually promised to fulfill the quest he failed. Turns out that the draugr had a job and blew it and killed his whole family as well. Even Handsome isn't that guilty. Anyway, the bard took his sword and gave it to Thor and made him promise to do the thing he'd do anyway.
We took our stuff and headed up to the level above, and found the stairs to the third level of this place. We'll stomp whatever is down there next time.
Notes:
- Yes, I'm going to link to that Lars Fredericksen song every time I smell the rot off an army of zombies. Deal with it.
- MVP was Handsome for finding $10K and other stuff.
- We got 7 xp, otherwise. The fights were all fodder fights. Zombies and skeletons aren't real threats.
- Handsome legitimately was going to kill that goblin for running. Pull your weight or else!
- Want to know what actually happened in detail? Probably read Doug's blog post since it writes it as we play.
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