More notes on Session 86.
I Wish
As soon the fight started to look like it was either going to be a total disaster or a hard-won slog with a pile of dead characters, Hasdrubul's player started to write out a wish wording.
Actually, first someone said they should vote on whether to do it or not.
I shot that down instantly. A bane of my GMing fun is "talking is a free action." Because people have entire conversations, put things to a vote, discuss tactics. I know the whole, "My PC should know tactics well even if I don't" argument, except that your PC is probably suffering from combat tunnel vision and doesn't have a birds-eye view of the whole combat and know that Brother Ike just took 6 injury and 6 CP and no one nearby is available to rescue him even though that's four yards away and behind you with four foes in between. So I like to think that evens out without even adding in "I consult with the entire group to plan my action."
So no "vote." It's up to the person with the item.
Hasdrubul's player said something like, "I wish my entire party, living and dead, was back at the cave entrance where we came in."
And they got whisked away, just like that. It would have been very tense and interesting if I made them wait until the beginning of Hasdrubul's next turn, like a Force Dome forming, but I didn't. Probably for the better, as people would have started to act based on knowing they had one second's action before safety.
I chuckled at the wording. Had this been a malevolent wish, a forced wish, a wish from a being that had a perverse sense of humor (like a wish from a Talisman of Zagy), I'd have teleported them nude to the entrance. Maybe not even the dungeon entrance, as I could easily have perverted "cave" to almost any cave along the way.
But I didn't, because non-hostile wishes go off of wording and intent not wording twisted.
I was a bit surprised wishes came up right away, especially against creatures I'd expected to be a challenge but didn't see as an existential threat on paper - a dozen or so gnolls plus a half-dozen or so each of ogres and slorn. But it's probably better it got used right away instead of after a few more people had died.
Beginning Scout
Our new player was running a Scout. His dad had told him the basics, so he had all the die rolls, skills, damage, etc. on point. Still, he made some sub-optimal choices with targets and hit locations, probably due to holdover D&D "knock off the HP and it'll die" thinking. That works in GURPS, but ensuring incapacitation and death through sheer HP isn't as sure as through superior hit location choices. He'll do better next time, I'm sure, and I forwarded some specific tactical advice and a link to a GURPS 101 on the subject.
I supposed I could have done that earlier, but a) I'd forgotten about it until later that day and b) I hate when new players are basically introduced to the game via optimization methods. I just like to let people play and feel it out, not look every second over to a veteran player or a note sheet of tactics and say, "What should I do?" It's not as fun to be told what the best thing to do is as it is to try stuff and figure it out.
It would have helped a little in the fight that sparked the wish, but then again, maybe he'd have taken out an ogre and a slorn and convinced people they'd turn the tide with some good rolling only to find it wasn't adequate to overcome a pincer attack. Nobody looks at Cannae and thinks, "Geez, the Romans could have pulled that out with a little better rolling." I figure that's the case here, too. There were a lot of back shots in people's futures.
Ken Shabby
So, was he a wizard?
Maybe. Maybe not. I know but it's a secret for now, not the least of which is because it's driving Hasdrubul's player nuts and I enjoy doing that to him.
Ken was one of those NPCs people like even though he wasn't very helpful. Folks always latch onto the most unlikely NPCs and decide they like them. Raggi was useful and effective and powerful from day one, but it took a long time before anyone liked him. Ken was useless the whole time and beloved. Some of the guys I thought were interesting didn't grab the players.
Still, he was fun to have around for a session. I'm surprised he made it as far as he did.
The volunteer types aren't generally worth their weight, but the PCs tend to enjoy them, and it's plausible people would be all over the group when they come back rich and/or spray resources around. Using a wish to rescue the group will ensure a lot of publicity for the group as well!
Not very intimidating . . .
Mo wears war paint from head to toe, and not much else. He yells and curses and makes Intimidation attempts. However, he has two things against him:
1) He isn't very intimidating, thanks to a low point investment and moderate Will.
2) Mo's player rolls very badly on Intimidation.
Hopefully he'll be able to turn that around. I don't hand out a lot of free bonuses to Intimidation, either. It's circumstantial. A bunch of orcs, backed by more orcs, driven to fight in combat by their fierce nature, who outnumber you, and who live in a dungeon full of monsters because they like to - are they going to scare easily? Probably not, not so easily that a PC should get a bonus for much besides displays of ferocity themselves and superior SM if they have it. I've heard the argument of "I should get a bonus, my guy is big and strong" but being scary enough to potentially intimidate is a prerequisite for non-specious Intimidation rolls. Also, it's not everyone within earshot. Pro tip - if you want to scare a group, don't start with the whole group. You're at -1 per five people, and that's an issue when you have a low skill and a Quick Contest.
Not Tough Enough for the Lost City
I noticed a few comments in the group (and in the comments) that basically put The Lost City on the list of "stuff to do when we have a full slate of high-point guys and a lot of prep." That's ironic, because The Lost City was originally set up as a place for the new crop of 250-point guys. It's tougher to get to, thanks to the gate being near "the Lord of Spite's apartment," but the place itself is unchanged. Fear of Rangol Grot's Mind Control spells is part of it, although they beat him cold and might have captured or killed him way back when . . . but they'd chosen armor over speed and needed speed in that instance.
In any case, hearing "not ready for The Lost City" is like hearing "not ready for the Caves of Chaos." It might be true but it's not a sign of your own strength. Heh.
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Monday, February 27, 2017
DF Felltower, Session 86, Felltower 59 - I Wish
February 26th, 2017
Weather: Cool, clear.
Currently Active:
Alaric, human scout (250 points)
Hasdrubul Stormcaller, human wizard (296 points)
Hjalmarr Holgerson, human knight (320 points)
Brother Ike, human initiate (160 points)
Antonios, Demitios, and Leonitus of Meepos, human spearmen (?? points)
Farmer Gam, human witchhunter (?? points)
Ken Shabby, human "wizard" (?? points)
Louis, human halberdier (62 points)
Mo (his momma call him Kle), human barbarian (316 points)
Orcish Bob, not-an-orc orcish warrior (~125 points)
Quenton Gale, human druid (300 points)
We started in town, gathering rumors and whatnot. But first we had to deal with fallout from the previous session - who had what loot?
Mo received the Iron Ring of Endurance, and got it charged up. Dryst was holding the Minor Ring of Wishing but turned it over to Hasdrubul because he was going out of town, and Has' also got the Necklace of Fireballs. Mo mounted the Gem of True Healing in his beard for light. The Ring of Protection went to Hjalmarr, because he could use a resistance boost. So, a few days after the last session ended, he popped it on. And dropped to the floor, instantly stone dead.
Brother Ike ran to get the others, and brought them to Mr. Holgerson's room. They couldn't get the ring off, it was hexed to his finger. Has' suggested hacking it off but that got shot down - they'd need to regrow it or re-attach it. So they decided to bring him to the temple. The clerics tried to remove the ring with Remove Curse but it was stubborn - the cursed ring had Hex-20. The PCs had them try again . . . and again. They got off three more castings that succeeded but couldn't overcome the ring's curse. The head priest refused to do a fourth. So they cut off Hjalmarr's finger, cored it out to get the ring off of it . . . and had him Resurrected and then his finger Instant Regenerated (for some reason, Mo kept the mangled finger.) Hjalmarr had to wake up alive in the church's infirmary, much broker than before.
Heh.
They spent the week gathering rumors, hunting for a cutpurse (they didn't find one), Raggi (he wasn't there), and some professional hirelings. They found a few - the Meeposian brothers and Orcish Bob. (I couldn't find Melchior's mini, so they couldn't find Melchior the Malevolent.) They also picked up some volunteers - a self-proclaimed "wizard" called Ken Shabby, Farmer Gam the Witchhunter, and Louis the Halberdier. Louis was actually on duty all day, but he said they never come and check on his post so he may as well be up in Felltower so long as no one tells his officer. The PCs agreed and took them all. Lucky for all of them, Hjalmarr had met a scout earlier in the week and convinced him pickings were good up in Felltower so he joined as well.
The group stocked up on winter clothing and headed out to Felltower. They worked their way around to the dragon cave and in.
Once in, they moved towards the peaceful pool room to grab some magical mushrooms. Naturally, they got kind of lost on the way. They'd seen some slime on the floor ahead and Gale identified it as sessile but ravenously flesh-dissolving. They tried to avoid it and got turned around.
Gale bailed them out with Pathfinder and they realized they'd just gotten turned around on the way back from the slime. They blundered into an encounter, as well - an earth elemental came out of the darkness and pursued them, and they turned and fought it. It was big and strong but couldn't manage to do much before it got hacked apart, although it bounced some arrows and sword blows first.
They eventually made it to the pool room. Once in the pool room, they ate mushrooms, drank the Essential Water that was there, and Mo swiped the last one each of the yellow-tinged and purple-tinged mushrooms and ate them, gaining Dark Vision and some resistance to poison. They took three of four remaining red-tinged ones (although they never did remember to use them) and headed out.
They moved around the slime but couldn't do much to avoid it - it covered the stair bottom. So they tried Freeze on it and found that made it inert enough to walk on, and did that. They climbed up the stairs to the tiled room above.
There they found they had a missing map, and spent a good 10-15 minutes sorting through the mass of maps given to them by Dryst before they got back on track. They found their way to a rubble-choked stairs and started to dig it out. They decided Silence would help. Has' asked Ken Shabby if he knew that spell. Ken nodded sagely and showed the OK sign. "Cast it." Ken quietly mimed, "Shhh!"
Hmm.
They pretty much made Mo dig for a while, aided by Farmer Gam, and then swapped to Hajlmarr. It took more than an hour to clear the filled stairs enough to crawl over, but as soon as that was done someone lobbed in an Explosive Fireball and burned Farmer Gam and Hajlmarr. They cleared out and sent Has' up, and he ate the blast radius of another Explosive Fireball before he could lay down a Stench to clear the room. Mo and Hjalmarr tumbled into the room next, and Has' dropped his spell as they declared it clear. The party came in and chopped down a door-turned-mantlet that blocked the doorway, and then spent another hour holding the room while people cleared a better path back.
By this time, both of the mushroom effects on Mo ran out.
The PCs advanced into the dungeon, taking arrow fire at most corners. They found the way to the Orc Hole had been recently blocked off with rubble fill, so they decided to go to "the Lord of Spite's apartment" and "explore the rest of the area." They headed that way, again, taking arrows often as they moved. One of the Meeposian brothers took a poisoned arrow in the arm, but otherwise they made out okay and made it to the red-hand print marked metal door. They opened it up, tentatively moved in, and then down the stairs, closing the door behind.
At the bottom, they formed up and moved into the area and headed left. They heard the click of a door (or at least, Alaric did) and moved into a hexagonal room.
Last time they'd gone left, so this time they went right, forcing the door open and moving past. They reached an intersection. Straight ahead they decided probably went to the Lord of Spite. To the left, who knew?
But Alaric spotted a thread of a tripwire diagonal across the hall - so someone coming from straight would trip it but you could turn left in safety with ease. They moved ahead slowly, and found the thread lead to a 600+ pound giant double siege crossbow with thick bolts aimed around chest level or so. It was closer to the right wall than the left, again indicating it was meant to nail someone coming from opposite the way they came.
They were making a lot of noise, here - long discussions, walking back and forth, etc. nevermind having forced a door they heard close, indicating someone or something had gone through it. They sent Gale and Hjalmarr up to the crossbow to check it - it had two bolts laid in, had clearly been cranked recently (no sign of wear from being cranked too long), and was deadman switched to launch. Gale tried to disarm but bobbled the trigger too much, setting it off. Two bolts snapped out, clacked into the far wall hard enough to shed splinters, bursting into flame (probably Flaming Missile.) This was loud, too.
They started to hear noise themselves - as the crossbow trap went off they hear a yowl and then a surpressed yowl. Then scrapes and reptilian hisses. And then more yowling and growling and armor noises - like dogs, perhaps, and lizards. It built over time, and then they started to hear low barks, more hisses, armor and weapon noises, steady bangs, etc.
Was someone trying to summon the Lord of Spite? Uh-oh.
They decided to back off and go find somewhere else to explore (a choice they'd realize later was odd and flawed). After a few minutes, they decided where to go. So they ran back to the hexagonal room, leaving a Pollen Cloud behind, and closing the door. They set up to watch the corridor "south" and one or two of the volunteers to watch the back door, and opened the door they'd gone down last time they explored this way.
They saw a group of gnolls and hyenas heading at them - clearly, they'd been outflanked. Mo and Hjalmarr moved to block the doorway, Alaric shooting past them at a gnoll, but getting blocked, and then Hjalmarr pitching his axe at the same one, missing him as he Dodged but slamming into the next one, dropping him stunned and badly wounded.
The gnolls rushed them. Gale put up a Pollen Cloud (which caused a few missed attacks and defenses, actually) in the hallway. The NPCs, except for the Meeposian brothers, rushed in to back up Mo and Hjalmarr. Ken started chanting weird words in a deep voice.
For a few seconds the fight was going okay but not well - Mo and Hjalmarr hurt some gnolls, and knocked one cold, as they forced their way into close combat. The hyenas tried to rush them down and/or Evade but couldn't manage well enough. But Farmer Gam and Louis crammed in to stab gnolls (and did so well) and Hjalmarr and Mo stepped back to clear space to swing . . . allowing the gnolls and hyenas to continue to press.
Just then the other door was kicked open - by an Ogre!
Has' turned and zapped him with Lightning and stunned him badly and then moved to retreat, calling for the Meeposian brothers to turn. They did, forming up in a shield wall.
More ogres charged in - four more, accompanied by six fire slorn!
Only four and four could fit in, but they did, roasting Alaric's leg and Farmer Gam's arm (crippling it briefly) and lighting them on fire. Alaric managed to shoot at a slorn but it dodged. Gale was forced back after failing to Pollen Cloud them and barely avoiding breaking his staff parrying a giant club.
Has' tried Wall of Lightning to electrocute oncoming gnolls but blew the roll. Mo and Hjalmarr fought on, Mo smashing a hyena's skull and Hjalmarr badly wounding a gnoll that refused to just drop. Hjalmarr was critically hit, too, with a 3 landing a morningstar blow to his neck. He wobbled but didn't fall and wounded that gnoll badly in return.
Ken Shabby stepped up to one of the ogres and yelled, "DIE!"
.
.
.
Nothing happened. Has' considered stopping to cast Identify Spell but decided not to.
At this point, the line was pressured from both sides and was breaking. An ogre smashed Orcish Bob down after he tried to keep them off of Alaric, knocking him on his back. Another one smashed Ken with a maul for 21 damage. Ken had 0 DR and 8 HP, went to -13, and with HT 11 rolled a 15 on his death check. He dropped dead.
Gnolls pushed through, and Louis went down from a hyena biting his arm and crippling it, forcing him to drop his halberd. A gnoll stepped over him and smashed Demetious of Meepos in the back with an axe . . . and rolled almost minimum damage, just scraping his mail and lightly injuring him. The Meeposian brothers stabbed at a slorn and injured it.
The whole situation looked like it was going to go from bad to disaster in seconds. So Has' lifted up his ring finger, and speaking too it, wished his party living and dead were back at the cave entrance where they'd ditched their winter gear.
POP.
Just like that, there they were. One diamond had cracked and gone grey.
("You can thank me for not making up new characters." - Has's player.)
The PCs spent a couple of hours there, healing people up and resting, and Entombing Ken Shabby until later.
They decided to keep going as it wasn't too late in real world time, and once they'd gotten everyone nearly back to full they headed into the dungeon again.
They made it back to the slime, froze it, climbed up the rubble, and found the orcs filling it again.
Gale used Shape Earth to move some aside and they crawled to the attack. Has' put up a Stench and caught a couple of orcs. Mo took a thrown spear and threw a knife in return, and then dropped into the room. Hjalmarr followed, then Alaric. Mo smashed one orc in the groin and it was bit by the Targe of the Tiger, then grappled with the other.
Hjalmarr "helped" by throwing an axe he'd borrowed from Mo into Mo's back, missing his shot at the grappled orc, wounding Mo. He then stepped around his friend and cut down the orc in melee after Mo headbutted the orc (unfortunately the orc's helmet prevented any real harm). Alaric shot up the wounded orc with arrows until Hjalmarr cut him down, too.
From there the group moved in cautiously, but even so as they rounded a corner a bolt from the dark hit Brother Ike, drilling him for 22 injury. They dragged him around a corner and shoved him full of potions, Mo ripped out the poisoned, barbed quarrel, and they gave him more potions. They took another arrow shot but at this point the Meeposian Brothers were walking backwards in formation and blocked it (and all the other shots that came to the party's rear).
It took time but the PCs worked their way back down the hallway. They walked into another small ambush as an orc threw an axe at Hjalmarr. They recovered the axe but Hjalmarr was too slow to pursue. They moved on and then past the giant staircase. They headed for a secret door marked on their maps. It had frustrated the group a few times, no one wanted to "waste time" on it, so they wanted to get through it this delve.
That's pretty much what happened - they found the secret door, messed around with the arrow scratched into the floor, and then eventually decided the catch is elsewhere. They found a small pushbutton stone in a nearby 10 x 10 "alcove" and pressed that, unlocking the door. They got it open and saw a room with a red six-fingered handprint on the wall. Mo touched it (1 HP damage, 4 FP, -1 DX and HT from chills for a while), as did Hasdrubul (same, but 5 FP). No one else wanted to.
They sealed it up and proceeded to ransack a few rooms on the way home.
The first was an empty room.
The second was equally empty, but Mo insisted Gale go check the far wall.
Amusingly the room turned out to be a teeter-totter spiked pit that dumped people into some kind of slime's lair. Long story short is the slime glommed onto Gale as he propped himself out of the pit with his staff and Mo and Hjalmarr held the floor on their end to keep Gale from being fully dumped.
Gale zapped the slime with Frostbite, Hjalmarr pitched an axe into it getting it to let go, and then Gale was able to get back.
Eventually they experimented with getting down below - they convinced Louis to go in tied to a rope in exchange for a full share of any loot instead of merely tips. He did so, with Has' waiting with a Explosive Lightning spell charged up to 6d. When the room tilted and the slime arm oozed up, he rolled a 3 and blasted it for 30 damage. That did the job, killing it. Gale was sent in below the floor with Has' and they determined there was no loot.
They checked one last room, finding a broken chest, and then headed home. Naturally, the same exact way they came, but at a little more speed because they're heading home.
Mo blundered into a dung-smeared caltrop placed in their path, getting badly hurt but not crippled. They took more bolts and arrows on the way, too, but none of them hit home. The finally made it to the rubble, crawled over and down, and made their way through the caverns and back to the entrance.
They Disentombed Ken and carried him back to town for Final Rest.
Although they made no money, Hjalmarr and at least some of others kicked in for pay for the Meeposian Brothers since they'd earned no share, bought a halberd for Louis since he'd lost his duty weapon on the delve, and offered Orcish Bob money (he said no, it's shares or nothing and they found nothing.) They (mostly Hasdrubul, actually) made sure Ken Shabby got a good hobo funeral and Mo and Has' plan to tell tales of Ken's bravery.
Notes:
So, yes, wishes come, wishes go immediately. It did really look bad. They may have had options to make it a victory but TPK seemed nearer than total victory. Choosing to leave their back to a threat that knew they were there was odd. Given more firepower they may have won anyway, but the smart move was to back off entirely (or to a better fighting area) and it was too late once the ogres rushed. The PCs also learned that yes, if your enemy is determined to be in close combat with you, and you're not willing to be there too, you're going to get backed off. Realistically, what stops foes from rushing into you is that they only want to come in safely. These guys were aggressive enough to force the issue and the PCs couldn't absorb all of the penalties to stand fast and deal with grappling and closing.
We added another player today for a trial. It was fine - he's the son of one of the players, which is where Dave the Knight came from as well. He worked out great, so if he's interested he may return (with Alaric or with a different PC perhaps, we'll see.)
Cursed ring? Yeah, so that's a Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord reference. Once of the respawning treasures (we didn't use that term) was on level 4 by the elevator and the Blue Ribbon and included a * * * CURSED * * * ring called the Deadly Ring which would kill you. You needed to get it removed and your guy raised, but if you sold it unidentified was worth 50,000 gp. So I threw that in - a False Aura'd ring that would kill you if you failed to resist at HT-5. Hjalmarr rolled poorly.
No mapping today. They went to map and I said, who is mapping? Turns out no one had any paper, ink, etc. so no one could map.
Still a good session. MVP was Hjalmarr because he died and for map wrangling. Everyone got 1 xp otherwise because they just barely found a new area.
Weather: Cool, clear.
Currently Active:
Alaric, human scout (250 points)
Hasdrubul Stormcaller, human wizard (296 points)
Hjalmarr Holgerson, human knight (320 points)
Brother Ike, human initiate (160 points)
Antonios, Demitios, and Leonitus of Meepos, human spearmen (?? points)
Farmer Gam, human witchhunter (?? points)
Ken Shabby, human "wizard" (?? points)
Louis, human halberdier (62 points)
Mo (his momma call him Kle), human barbarian (316 points)
Orcish Bob, not-an-orc orcish warrior (~125 points)
Quenton Gale, human druid (300 points)
We started in town, gathering rumors and whatnot. But first we had to deal with fallout from the previous session - who had what loot?
Mo received the Iron Ring of Endurance, and got it charged up. Dryst was holding the Minor Ring of Wishing but turned it over to Hasdrubul because he was going out of town, and Has' also got the Necklace of Fireballs. Mo mounted the Gem of True Healing in his beard for light. The Ring of Protection went to Hjalmarr, because he could use a resistance boost. So, a few days after the last session ended, he popped it on. And dropped to the floor, instantly stone dead.
Brother Ike ran to get the others, and brought them to Mr. Holgerson's room. They couldn't get the ring off, it was hexed to his finger. Has' suggested hacking it off but that got shot down - they'd need to regrow it or re-attach it. So they decided to bring him to the temple. The clerics tried to remove the ring with Remove Curse but it was stubborn - the cursed ring had Hex-20. The PCs had them try again . . . and again. They got off three more castings that succeeded but couldn't overcome the ring's curse. The head priest refused to do a fourth. So they cut off Hjalmarr's finger, cored it out to get the ring off of it . . . and had him Resurrected and then his finger Instant Regenerated (for some reason, Mo kept the mangled finger.) Hjalmarr had to wake up alive in the church's infirmary, much broker than before.
Heh.
They spent the week gathering rumors, hunting for a cutpurse (they didn't find one), Raggi (he wasn't there), and some professional hirelings. They found a few - the Meeposian brothers and Orcish Bob. (I couldn't find Melchior's mini, so they couldn't find Melchior the Malevolent.) They also picked up some volunteers - a self-proclaimed "wizard" called Ken Shabby, Farmer Gam the Witchhunter, and Louis the Halberdier. Louis was actually on duty all day, but he said they never come and check on his post so he may as well be up in Felltower so long as no one tells his officer. The PCs agreed and took them all. Lucky for all of them, Hjalmarr had met a scout earlier in the week and convinced him pickings were good up in Felltower so he joined as well.
The group stocked up on winter clothing and headed out to Felltower. They worked their way around to the dragon cave and in.
Once in, they moved towards the peaceful pool room to grab some magical mushrooms. Naturally, they got kind of lost on the way. They'd seen some slime on the floor ahead and Gale identified it as sessile but ravenously flesh-dissolving. They tried to avoid it and got turned around.
Gale bailed them out with Pathfinder and they realized they'd just gotten turned around on the way back from the slime. They blundered into an encounter, as well - an earth elemental came out of the darkness and pursued them, and they turned and fought it. It was big and strong but couldn't manage to do much before it got hacked apart, although it bounced some arrows and sword blows first.
They eventually made it to the pool room. Once in the pool room, they ate mushrooms, drank the Essential Water that was there, and Mo swiped the last one each of the yellow-tinged and purple-tinged mushrooms and ate them, gaining Dark Vision and some resistance to poison. They took three of four remaining red-tinged ones (although they never did remember to use them) and headed out.
They moved around the slime but couldn't do much to avoid it - it covered the stair bottom. So they tried Freeze on it and found that made it inert enough to walk on, and did that. They climbed up the stairs to the tiled room above.
There they found they had a missing map, and spent a good 10-15 minutes sorting through the mass of maps given to them by Dryst before they got back on track. They found their way to a rubble-choked stairs and started to dig it out. They decided Silence would help. Has' asked Ken Shabby if he knew that spell. Ken nodded sagely and showed the OK sign. "Cast it." Ken quietly mimed, "Shhh!"
Hmm.
They pretty much made Mo dig for a while, aided by Farmer Gam, and then swapped to Hajlmarr. It took more than an hour to clear the filled stairs enough to crawl over, but as soon as that was done someone lobbed in an Explosive Fireball and burned Farmer Gam and Hajlmarr. They cleared out and sent Has' up, and he ate the blast radius of another Explosive Fireball before he could lay down a Stench to clear the room. Mo and Hjalmarr tumbled into the room next, and Has' dropped his spell as they declared it clear. The party came in and chopped down a door-turned-mantlet that blocked the doorway, and then spent another hour holding the room while people cleared a better path back.
By this time, both of the mushroom effects on Mo ran out.
The PCs advanced into the dungeon, taking arrow fire at most corners. They found the way to the Orc Hole had been recently blocked off with rubble fill, so they decided to go to "the Lord of Spite's apartment" and "explore the rest of the area." They headed that way, again, taking arrows often as they moved. One of the Meeposian brothers took a poisoned arrow in the arm, but otherwise they made out okay and made it to the red-hand print marked metal door. They opened it up, tentatively moved in, and then down the stairs, closing the door behind.
At the bottom, they formed up and moved into the area and headed left. They heard the click of a door (or at least, Alaric did) and moved into a hexagonal room.
Last time they'd gone left, so this time they went right, forcing the door open and moving past. They reached an intersection. Straight ahead they decided probably went to the Lord of Spite. To the left, who knew?
But Alaric spotted a thread of a tripwire diagonal across the hall - so someone coming from straight would trip it but you could turn left in safety with ease. They moved ahead slowly, and found the thread lead to a 600+ pound giant double siege crossbow with thick bolts aimed around chest level or so. It was closer to the right wall than the left, again indicating it was meant to nail someone coming from opposite the way they came.
They were making a lot of noise, here - long discussions, walking back and forth, etc. nevermind having forced a door they heard close, indicating someone or something had gone through it. They sent Gale and Hjalmarr up to the crossbow to check it - it had two bolts laid in, had clearly been cranked recently (no sign of wear from being cranked too long), and was deadman switched to launch. Gale tried to disarm but bobbled the trigger too much, setting it off. Two bolts snapped out, clacked into the far wall hard enough to shed splinters, bursting into flame (probably Flaming Missile.) This was loud, too.
They started to hear noise themselves - as the crossbow trap went off they hear a yowl and then a surpressed yowl. Then scrapes and reptilian hisses. And then more yowling and growling and armor noises - like dogs, perhaps, and lizards. It built over time, and then they started to hear low barks, more hisses, armor and weapon noises, steady bangs, etc.
Was someone trying to summon the Lord of Spite? Uh-oh.
They decided to back off and go find somewhere else to explore (a choice they'd realize later was odd and flawed). After a few minutes, they decided where to go. So they ran back to the hexagonal room, leaving a Pollen Cloud behind, and closing the door. They set up to watch the corridor "south" and one or two of the volunteers to watch the back door, and opened the door they'd gone down last time they explored this way.
They saw a group of gnolls and hyenas heading at them - clearly, they'd been outflanked. Mo and Hjalmarr moved to block the doorway, Alaric shooting past them at a gnoll, but getting blocked, and then Hjalmarr pitching his axe at the same one, missing him as he Dodged but slamming into the next one, dropping him stunned and badly wounded.
The gnolls rushed them. Gale put up a Pollen Cloud (which caused a few missed attacks and defenses, actually) in the hallway. The NPCs, except for the Meeposian brothers, rushed in to back up Mo and Hjalmarr. Ken started chanting weird words in a deep voice.
For a few seconds the fight was going okay but not well - Mo and Hjalmarr hurt some gnolls, and knocked one cold, as they forced their way into close combat. The hyenas tried to rush them down and/or Evade but couldn't manage well enough. But Farmer Gam and Louis crammed in to stab gnolls (and did so well) and Hjalmarr and Mo stepped back to clear space to swing . . . allowing the gnolls and hyenas to continue to press.
Just then the other door was kicked open - by an Ogre!
Has' turned and zapped him with Lightning and stunned him badly and then moved to retreat, calling for the Meeposian brothers to turn. They did, forming up in a shield wall.
More ogres charged in - four more, accompanied by six fire slorn!
Only four and four could fit in, but they did, roasting Alaric's leg and Farmer Gam's arm (crippling it briefly) and lighting them on fire. Alaric managed to shoot at a slorn but it dodged. Gale was forced back after failing to Pollen Cloud them and barely avoiding breaking his staff parrying a giant club.
Has' tried Wall of Lightning to electrocute oncoming gnolls but blew the roll. Mo and Hjalmarr fought on, Mo smashing a hyena's skull and Hjalmarr badly wounding a gnoll that refused to just drop. Hjalmarr was critically hit, too, with a 3 landing a morningstar blow to his neck. He wobbled but didn't fall and wounded that gnoll badly in return.
Ken Shabby stepped up to one of the ogres and yelled, "DIE!"
.
.
.
Nothing happened. Has' considered stopping to cast Identify Spell but decided not to.
At this point, the line was pressured from both sides and was breaking. An ogre smashed Orcish Bob down after he tried to keep them off of Alaric, knocking him on his back. Another one smashed Ken with a maul for 21 damage. Ken had 0 DR and 8 HP, went to -13, and with HT 11 rolled a 15 on his death check. He dropped dead.
Gnolls pushed through, and Louis went down from a hyena biting his arm and crippling it, forcing him to drop his halberd. A gnoll stepped over him and smashed Demetious of Meepos in the back with an axe . . . and rolled almost minimum damage, just scraping his mail and lightly injuring him. The Meeposian brothers stabbed at a slorn and injured it.
The whole situation looked like it was going to go from bad to disaster in seconds. So Has' lifted up his ring finger, and speaking too it, wished his party living and dead were back at the cave entrance where they'd ditched their winter gear.
POP.
Just like that, there they were. One diamond had cracked and gone grey.
("You can thank me for not making up new characters." - Has's player.)
The PCs spent a couple of hours there, healing people up and resting, and Entombing Ken Shabby until later.
They decided to keep going as it wasn't too late in real world time, and once they'd gotten everyone nearly back to full they headed into the dungeon again.
They made it back to the slime, froze it, climbed up the rubble, and found the orcs filling it again.
Gale used Shape Earth to move some aside and they crawled to the attack. Has' put up a Stench and caught a couple of orcs. Mo took a thrown spear and threw a knife in return, and then dropped into the room. Hjalmarr followed, then Alaric. Mo smashed one orc in the groin and it was bit by the Targe of the Tiger, then grappled with the other.
Hjalmarr "helped" by throwing an axe he'd borrowed from Mo into Mo's back, missing his shot at the grappled orc, wounding Mo. He then stepped around his friend and cut down the orc in melee after Mo headbutted the orc (unfortunately the orc's helmet prevented any real harm). Alaric shot up the wounded orc with arrows until Hjalmarr cut him down, too.
From there the group moved in cautiously, but even so as they rounded a corner a bolt from the dark hit Brother Ike, drilling him for 22 injury. They dragged him around a corner and shoved him full of potions, Mo ripped out the poisoned, barbed quarrel, and they gave him more potions. They took another arrow shot but at this point the Meeposian Brothers were walking backwards in formation and blocked it (and all the other shots that came to the party's rear).
It took time but the PCs worked their way back down the hallway. They walked into another small ambush as an orc threw an axe at Hjalmarr. They recovered the axe but Hjalmarr was too slow to pursue. They moved on and then past the giant staircase. They headed for a secret door marked on their maps. It had frustrated the group a few times, no one wanted to "waste time" on it, so they wanted to get through it this delve.
That's pretty much what happened - they found the secret door, messed around with the arrow scratched into the floor, and then eventually decided the catch is elsewhere. They found a small pushbutton stone in a nearby 10 x 10 "alcove" and pressed that, unlocking the door. They got it open and saw a room with a red six-fingered handprint on the wall. Mo touched it (1 HP damage, 4 FP, -1 DX and HT from chills for a while), as did Hasdrubul (same, but 5 FP). No one else wanted to.
They sealed it up and proceeded to ransack a few rooms on the way home.
The first was an empty room.
The second was equally empty, but Mo insisted Gale go check the far wall.
Amusingly the room turned out to be a teeter-totter spiked pit that dumped people into some kind of slime's lair. Long story short is the slime glommed onto Gale as he propped himself out of the pit with his staff and Mo and Hjalmarr held the floor on their end to keep Gale from being fully dumped.
Gale zapped the slime with Frostbite, Hjalmarr pitched an axe into it getting it to let go, and then Gale was able to get back.
Eventually they experimented with getting down below - they convinced Louis to go in tied to a rope in exchange for a full share of any loot instead of merely tips. He did so, with Has' waiting with a Explosive Lightning spell charged up to 6d. When the room tilted and the slime arm oozed up, he rolled a 3 and blasted it for 30 damage. That did the job, killing it. Gale was sent in below the floor with Has' and they determined there was no loot.
They checked one last room, finding a broken chest, and then headed home. Naturally, the same exact way they came, but at a little more speed because they're heading home.
Mo blundered into a dung-smeared caltrop placed in their path, getting badly hurt but not crippled. They took more bolts and arrows on the way, too, but none of them hit home. The finally made it to the rubble, crawled over and down, and made their way through the caverns and back to the entrance.
They Disentombed Ken and carried him back to town for Final Rest.
Although they made no money, Hjalmarr and at least some of others kicked in for pay for the Meeposian Brothers since they'd earned no share, bought a halberd for Louis since he'd lost his duty weapon on the delve, and offered Orcish Bob money (he said no, it's shares or nothing and they found nothing.) They (mostly Hasdrubul, actually) made sure Ken Shabby got a good hobo funeral and Mo and Has' plan to tell tales of Ken's bravery.
Notes:
So, yes, wishes come, wishes go immediately. It did really look bad. They may have had options to make it a victory but TPK seemed nearer than total victory. Choosing to leave their back to a threat that knew they were there was odd. Given more firepower they may have won anyway, but the smart move was to back off entirely (or to a better fighting area) and it was too late once the ogres rushed. The PCs also learned that yes, if your enemy is determined to be in close combat with you, and you're not willing to be there too, you're going to get backed off. Realistically, what stops foes from rushing into you is that they only want to come in safely. These guys were aggressive enough to force the issue and the PCs couldn't absorb all of the penalties to stand fast and deal with grappling and closing.
We added another player today for a trial. It was fine - he's the son of one of the players, which is where Dave the Knight came from as well. He worked out great, so if he's interested he may return (with Alaric or with a different PC perhaps, we'll see.)
Cursed ring? Yeah, so that's a Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord reference. Once of the respawning treasures (we didn't use that term) was on level 4 by the elevator and the Blue Ribbon and included a * * * CURSED * * * ring called the Deadly Ring which would kill you. You needed to get it removed and your guy raised, but if you sold it unidentified was worth 50,000 gp. So I threw that in - a False Aura'd ring that would kill you if you failed to resist at HT-5. Hjalmarr rolled poorly.
No mapping today. They went to map and I said, who is mapping? Turns out no one had any paper, ink, etc. so no one could map.
Still a good session. MVP was Hjalmarr because he died and for map wrangling. Everyone got 1 xp otherwise because they just barely found a new area.
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Felltower Game Prep Notes
Today we've got a session of Felltower. It'll be interesting to see how it goes, as the guys who run by far the two heaviest hitters in the game - Vryce and Dryst - are out due to scheduling conflicts.
That leaves a smaller group - Has', Hjalmarr (and Brother Iklwa), Mo, Gale, and Alaric the Scout (a player tryout). NPCs may be available, as the PCs are trying to hiring one or two deliberately and may be able to whip up some others. The more veteran ones are probably around but would ask for more loot - guys like Melchior the Malevolent, for example, will take half-shares in a large and powerful group but won't settle for less than a full share given a smaller and weaker team.
What the group can accomplish will be also somewhat less, since they'll lack Vryce's firepower and relative invulnerability and all of the utility provided by Dryst (lightstones, servants, created tools and clothes as needed, Dark Vision, aerial mobility, Silence, etc. etc.)
On the bright side, there is a lot to do, armed with a Scout they'll have a much better chance at dealing expeditiously with orcs and rats and other mundane foes (assuming they can get within eyesight of them), and money is split better split fewer ways . . .
So will they go after the Lord of Spite? The orcs? Through that gate that seems to go the Lost City? Wander around cleaning up their maps? Try the big doors in the caverns? Try to puzzle out one of the other puzzles in the dungeon?
We'll see in a few hours.
That leaves a smaller group - Has', Hjalmarr (and Brother Iklwa), Mo, Gale, and Alaric the Scout (a player tryout). NPCs may be available, as the PCs are trying to hiring one or two deliberately and may be able to whip up some others. The more veteran ones are probably around but would ask for more loot - guys like Melchior the Malevolent, for example, will take half-shares in a large and powerful group but won't settle for less than a full share given a smaller and weaker team.
What the group can accomplish will be also somewhat less, since they'll lack Vryce's firepower and relative invulnerability and all of the utility provided by Dryst (lightstones, servants, created tools and clothes as needed, Dark Vision, aerial mobility, Silence, etc. etc.)
On the bright side, there is a lot to do, armed with a Scout they'll have a much better chance at dealing expeditiously with orcs and rats and other mundane foes (assuming they can get within eyesight of them), and money is split better split fewer ways . . .
So will they go after the Lord of Spite? The orcs? Through that gate that seems to go the Lost City? Wander around cleaning up their maps? Try the big doors in the caverns? Try to puzzle out one of the other puzzles in the dungeon?
We'll see in a few hours.
Saturday, February 25, 2017
B-Team S&W Light, Session 2 - Grimmsgate 1
We played the second session of our small-group S&W Light game last night.
Characters
Moldleaf, Elf Magic-User 1 (me)
Bertrum Blackbutter, Battle Hobbit Fighter 1 (Tim Shorts)
Doug's Ranger, Elf Ranger 1 (Douglas Cole)
Last time we'd solve an ogre's problems. As a reward, the mayor of the town gave us some cash and a special "thank you" present - the deed to a piece of property. Great! Except that it was conveniently located 5 miles away, in the town of Grimmsgate.
Great, we can take a hint. We took the hint and left for our new digs.
On the road near town, two bandits leaped out at us. We got initiative, so I cast Charm Person on one of them. He rolled a 1 on his save, as is wont to happen. I said, "We're looking for Grimmsgate, how do we get there?" and my new friend, Fred, started to answer. Unfortunately, five more bandits emerged including their mail-clad leader. He yelled at Fred and ran Fred through with a sword for not stabbing us. Geez, ruthless. I yelled, "You killed Fred!" as melee broke out. In a short melee, I got stabbed and dropped, dying. Bertram and the Ranger killed another bandit (I think) and badly wounded the leader. He said, "Let's get out of here!" and they ran, seeing we weren't such easy pickings. The Ranger shot him in the back, killing him, as his men scattered. Two healing potions got poured down Moldleaf's through to revive him. We looted him of some cash (150 gp), his sword, and his mail, and a silver amulet (non-magical).
We reached the town and saw it was mostly deserted, or at least many farms were. We chatted with a wary guard, met the head of the Temple of Law. There we got healed, along with a quest to clear out an old temple infested with goblins, two potions of healing, and a scroll with Magic Missile and Sleep.
We also got set up with rooms at the inn, collected rumors (like a missing farm couple), and got settled in. The next morning we visited the smithy and bought some gear (daggers for Moldleaf, for one), and the Emporium. There we got a lot of fun stuff - banded armor for Bertrum, a nice bow for our Ranger, a scroll with Strength and Invisibility on it for Moldleaf, a costume jewelry-bestudded silvered dagger we dubbed the Dagger of Liberace, some healing salve (Battle-tine), and some other stuff.
Eventually we headed out to the old temple. It turned out to be more like a ruined structure near three caves in a wooded hill, arrayed like a triangle with one at the top and at each point. We went right up to and into the topmost of the three. We headed straight then left and found a crypt room with niches with skeletons in it, and two dog statues.
Naturally, one of the statues animated and attacked us. We broke it up into pieces, including via a hit from the Dagger of Liberace, but not before someone got hurt. We healed that with Battle-tine and moved into the next room. More niches. In this one, skeletons started to slowly animate, rise, and attack us. There were 15 niches and thus 15 skeletons.
We fought the good fight for a while, taking out five skeletons (the Dagger of Liberace proved effective here again), but eventually their growing numbers told. Bertrum and then the Ranger dropped. Moldleaf fled, then ran back in to drag out the fighters one by one and heal them up. That done, we retreated to town.
The next day, healed up and now with Moldleaf memorizing Sleep (more useful, less fun), we peered into the right cave. We saw a carved face on the wall. Our Rangers said, "Left cave." So we did that, going in and finding a storeroom with old crates and new rats.
Five giant rats swarmed us, biting and wounding Moldleaf. We killed two, and then Moldleaf threw Sleep. Actually since it was down to 3 vs. 3 giant rats, Tenkar asked me if I wanted to do that - I'd declared it, but it was possible to roll back. I didn't want to risk the inevitable "we got eaten by rats because we rolled 1s the rest of the fight."
After that we found some minor loot, and a secret passage. The end of the passage was quite hot, and the secret door at the end was hot to the touch. Betrum opened it up, despite every warning in elementary school during fire prevention week, and went in. Into a fireplace. Past it was a half-dozen weird cursed humans devouring raw rats. We attacked. Long story short, we took out one guy but both fighters got mauled and we dragged them back to safety and closed the door. Once more, we went back to town, this time for the duration as it was close to quitting time.
We hit level 2 after two solid delves.
Notes:
Tim didn't roll many ones. Doug rolled a LOT of ones. I rolled poorly on initiate for us pretty much all the time.
I have a lot more fun with Charm Person than Sleep, despite it not really being clear what I'm buying for my spell slot and a failed save. A slave? A friend? A slightly positive reaction bonus? I'll cast until I'm sure.
Overall a fun session although it took us a bit of setting up to get it rolling, mostly thanks to my wonky schedule issues (it wasn't clear I could play until basically playtime.)
S&WL is a lot of fun.
Characters
Moldleaf, Elf Magic-User 1 (me)
Bertrum Blackbutter, Battle Hobbit Fighter 1 (Tim Shorts)
Doug's Ranger, Elf Ranger 1 (Douglas Cole)
Last time we'd solve an ogre's problems. As a reward, the mayor of the town gave us some cash and a special "thank you" present - the deed to a piece of property. Great! Except that it was conveniently located 5 miles away, in the town of Grimmsgate.
Great, we can take a hint. We took the hint and left for our new digs.
On the road near town, two bandits leaped out at us. We got initiative, so I cast Charm Person on one of them. He rolled a 1 on his save, as is wont to happen. I said, "We're looking for Grimmsgate, how do we get there?" and my new friend, Fred, started to answer. Unfortunately, five more bandits emerged including their mail-clad leader. He yelled at Fred and ran Fred through with a sword for not stabbing us. Geez, ruthless. I yelled, "You killed Fred!" as melee broke out. In a short melee, I got stabbed and dropped, dying. Bertram and the Ranger killed another bandit (I think) and badly wounded the leader. He said, "Let's get out of here!" and they ran, seeing we weren't such easy pickings. The Ranger shot him in the back, killing him, as his men scattered. Two healing potions got poured down Moldleaf's through to revive him. We looted him of some cash (150 gp), his sword, and his mail, and a silver amulet (non-magical).
We reached the town and saw it was mostly deserted, or at least many farms were. We chatted with a wary guard, met the head of the Temple of Law. There we got healed, along with a quest to clear out an old temple infested with goblins, two potions of healing, and a scroll with Magic Missile and Sleep.
We also got set up with rooms at the inn, collected rumors (like a missing farm couple), and got settled in. The next morning we visited the smithy and bought some gear (daggers for Moldleaf, for one), and the Emporium. There we got a lot of fun stuff - banded armor for Bertrum, a nice bow for our Ranger, a scroll with Strength and Invisibility on it for Moldleaf, a costume jewelry-bestudded silvered dagger we dubbed the Dagger of Liberace, some healing salve (Battle-tine), and some other stuff.
Eventually we headed out to the old temple. It turned out to be more like a ruined structure near three caves in a wooded hill, arrayed like a triangle with one at the top and at each point. We went right up to and into the topmost of the three. We headed straight then left and found a crypt room with niches with skeletons in it, and two dog statues.
Naturally, one of the statues animated and attacked us. We broke it up into pieces, including via a hit from the Dagger of Liberace, but not before someone got hurt. We healed that with Battle-tine and moved into the next room. More niches. In this one, skeletons started to slowly animate, rise, and attack us. There were 15 niches and thus 15 skeletons.
We fought the good fight for a while, taking out five skeletons (the Dagger of Liberace proved effective here again), but eventually their growing numbers told. Bertrum and then the Ranger dropped. Moldleaf fled, then ran back in to drag out the fighters one by one and heal them up. That done, we retreated to town.
The next day, healed up and now with Moldleaf memorizing Sleep (more useful, less fun), we peered into the right cave. We saw a carved face on the wall. Our Rangers said, "Left cave." So we did that, going in and finding a storeroom with old crates and new rats.
Five giant rats swarmed us, biting and wounding Moldleaf. We killed two, and then Moldleaf threw Sleep. Actually since it was down to 3 vs. 3 giant rats, Tenkar asked me if I wanted to do that - I'd declared it, but it was possible to roll back. I didn't want to risk the inevitable "we got eaten by rats because we rolled 1s the rest of the fight."
After that we found some minor loot, and a secret passage. The end of the passage was quite hot, and the secret door at the end was hot to the touch. Betrum opened it up, despite every warning in elementary school during fire prevention week, and went in. Into a fireplace. Past it was a half-dozen weird cursed humans devouring raw rats. We attacked. Long story short, we took out one guy but both fighters got mauled and we dragged them back to safety and closed the door. Once more, we went back to town, this time for the duration as it was close to quitting time.
We hit level 2 after two solid delves.
Notes:
Tim didn't roll many ones. Doug rolled a LOT of ones. I rolled poorly on initiate for us pretty much all the time.
I have a lot more fun with Charm Person than Sleep, despite it not really being clear what I'm buying for my spell slot and a failed save. A slave? A friend? A slightly positive reaction bonus? I'll cast until I'm sure.
Overall a fun session although it took us a bit of setting up to get it rolling, mostly thanks to my wonky schedule issues (it wasn't clear I could play until basically playtime.)
S&WL is a lot of fun.
Friday, February 24, 2017
What are hirelings good for?
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy 15: Henchmen provides templates for three uses:
Allies
Hired Help
Lower-Point PCs
The first are third uses tend to be pretty clear. If you generate an ally you need some templates for sub-250 point characters and generally know what you want from your sidekick. As lower-point PCs, again, pretty straightforward.
But I've found players running 250-point PCs tend to struggle with hired help. Both with what they aren't - not full-powered delvers, not even close (even 125s leave 125 points of upgrades on the table, somewhat similar to a 250 vs. a 375 in terms of choices) - and with what they are.
First off, let's just get this out of the way - 62-point and 125-point hirelings are no where as capable of, nor can they hope to replace, 250-point delvers. They simply can't. "Can't we hire a 125-point healing cleric that can turn the undead and remove curses and exorcise altars?" Sure, if he does most of that on a 9 or less or so. "How come these 125-point skirmishers don't stand up in the front lines as well as martial artists and scouts?" Because they can't. Even a specialist won't always be able to do their specialty as well as most 250-point delver does their secondary job.
Remembering that they won't be pegged at 25% or 50% of your point total thanks to being Allies and don't get 5 xp just because you did is easy.
The main struggle seems to be knowing what to use them for.
Leaving aside what they aren't for now, I want to look at how I've seen hired help used effectively and how I think they can be used effectively. What is hired help good for?
I'm deliberately leaving aside the whole "use them as suicidal mine detectors and meat shields" approach, as my group generally doesn't do that and it's not conducive to long-term hireling market access.
Freeing up PCs for PC-level work.
Some parties struggle during adventures just from sheer lack of numbers. It's hard in a small team to have two guys lifting a heavy portcullis while someone stands ready to fight and three others watch the intersected corridors behind you - even without taking the squishy mage and cleric off of those duties. It's hard to carry lots of sacks of loot when sacks take two hands (or are slung off a two-handed pole.) If someone goes down, you need a person to carry him or her without taking your other fighters out of the line - and the clerics and wizards aren't likely to be strong enough to manage well.
Often you need a pair of eyes, a body to occupy a space, and so on. Some specific roles I find where hireling fit is:
- bodyguard for wizards, cleric, etc. You just need someone who can force an attacker to stop and deal with them, even if only to slow them down, until a better combatant can finish the job.
- Filling in flanks. In a large corridor or in the wilderness, you need people who can occupy space and ensure the enemy can't just run around you. Even a 62-point bargain henchman can do this; a 125 does it better. They won't be able to stand and fight against threats that worry 250-point guys, but they can prevent you from getting cut off or surrounded.
- Fighting over the front ranks with polearms. This is a marginal use - it sounds great, but only works if the players really buy into formation fighting. As soon as someone says, "I need room to Retreat" or "I had to run out of formation, otherwise that demon-wizard would have killed us the next turn with a spell" - right or wrong - this falls apart.
- a tripwire against attacks. A rear guard who isn't capable of winning a fight is still potentially able to guard your rear just by being there.
- standing guard along with higher-value PCs when camping. No matter how well you explain your careful setup to the GM, they never seem to believe you can watch the skies, the ground, listen for noises, watch in a 360-degree circle, and move around silently so no one can draw a bead on you. Extra bodies mean you really can watch multiple directions if you've got multiple people doing it.
- carrying things. More bodies means more gear needed, and more supplies needed, but especially for dungeon delves with a surface base you always benefit from more hands once treasure is discovered.
- junk work. Guarding the horses so the GM doesn't say, "You're seriously just leaving your horses in the owlbear-infested Orcwood and going into the dungeon?" or cooking your meals so you don't have to explain why everyone is engaged in fully restful leisure but somehow the stew gets made.
All of those things can be done by PCs, but it's easier if you can relegate that to hired help. You basically turn money, Leadership, and positive reaction bonuses into more work done and your PC free to do dangerous stuff.
Doing jobs the PCs can't do at all.
Not every party has a barbarian, a scout, a thief, and a cleric. You can hire a specific skill out of those skillsets (usually) by turning to hirelings. You can also augment skills:
- Missing skills like Area Knowledge, specific Hidden Lore specialties, languages, and odd Survival specialties are often more easily hired than learned. Especially if you don't plan to stay in the Lands of Terror after you've cleared out the Death Brain infestation from the Lost Crypt. Thief specialties and outdoors specialties usually play well into being hired out; cleric skills to a much lesser extent (Surgery, perhaps, everyone should have First Aid anyway), and make-it-or-die skills like Traps or Exorcism work better on PCs than on lower-point hired help.
- Missing spells are a good reason to hire casters. You don't always want to learn them yourself, or they'll need prereqs you'd rather hire for than spend points to learn.
- Backing up existing skills. Many adventures have ground to a halt as people realize one guy with Boating or one guy with Seamanship doesn't help when you need two craft to travel. Other times you need a backup person with Survival because of additional numbers or for complementary rolls, a guy with good ST for moving things, solid Per for helping to search, and Lifting for picking things up can help.
Overall, I find those are broadly the ways to use hirelings - fill in gaps where a body matter enough that point value is the second consideration, and add in/supplement skills and skill sets. All the while acknowledging that they're not going to be up to the challenge outside of their specialty. Or even in it, versus a PC - the strongest Laborer or toughest Squire is no Barbarian in ST or Knight in combat skill, respectively.
The big mistakes seem to be using them as if they were 250 ("Put Pigsticker Paul in the front line, he's a fighter"), or thinking of them as such ("Hey, we've got a 125-point cleric, so we're good on healing forever, so don't make a cleric"). A second one is thinking everyone is a Laborer with a side specialty ("The NPCs will carry everything - tell the archer to sling his bow and carry these orc swords for us.") But the main issue is, even knowing what they aren't, is what to use them for?
Hopefully the above will help a bit.
Allies
Hired Help
Lower-Point PCs
The first are third uses tend to be pretty clear. If you generate an ally you need some templates for sub-250 point characters and generally know what you want from your sidekick. As lower-point PCs, again, pretty straightforward.
But I've found players running 250-point PCs tend to struggle with hired help. Both with what they aren't - not full-powered delvers, not even close (even 125s leave 125 points of upgrades on the table, somewhat similar to a 250 vs. a 375 in terms of choices) - and with what they are.
First off, let's just get this out of the way - 62-point and 125-point hirelings are no where as capable of, nor can they hope to replace, 250-point delvers. They simply can't. "Can't we hire a 125-point healing cleric that can turn the undead and remove curses and exorcise altars?" Sure, if he does most of that on a 9 or less or so. "How come these 125-point skirmishers don't stand up in the front lines as well as martial artists and scouts?" Because they can't. Even a specialist won't always be able to do their specialty as well as most 250-point delver does their secondary job.
Remembering that they won't be pegged at 25% or 50% of your point total thanks to being Allies and don't get 5 xp just because you did is easy.
The main struggle seems to be knowing what to use them for.
Leaving aside what they aren't for now, I want to look at how I've seen hired help used effectively and how I think they can be used effectively. What is hired help good for?
I'm deliberately leaving aside the whole "use them as suicidal mine detectors and meat shields" approach, as my group generally doesn't do that and it's not conducive to long-term hireling market access.
Freeing up PCs for PC-level work.
Some parties struggle during adventures just from sheer lack of numbers. It's hard in a small team to have two guys lifting a heavy portcullis while someone stands ready to fight and three others watch the intersected corridors behind you - even without taking the squishy mage and cleric off of those duties. It's hard to carry lots of sacks of loot when sacks take two hands (or are slung off a two-handed pole.) If someone goes down, you need a person to carry him or her without taking your other fighters out of the line - and the clerics and wizards aren't likely to be strong enough to manage well.
Often you need a pair of eyes, a body to occupy a space, and so on. Some specific roles I find where hireling fit is:
- bodyguard for wizards, cleric, etc. You just need someone who can force an attacker to stop and deal with them, even if only to slow them down, until a better combatant can finish the job.
- Filling in flanks. In a large corridor or in the wilderness, you need people who can occupy space and ensure the enemy can't just run around you. Even a 62-point bargain henchman can do this; a 125 does it better. They won't be able to stand and fight against threats that worry 250-point guys, but they can prevent you from getting cut off or surrounded.
- Fighting over the front ranks with polearms. This is a marginal use - it sounds great, but only works if the players really buy into formation fighting. As soon as someone says, "I need room to Retreat" or "I had to run out of formation, otherwise that demon-wizard would have killed us the next turn with a spell" - right or wrong - this falls apart.
- a tripwire against attacks. A rear guard who isn't capable of winning a fight is still potentially able to guard your rear just by being there.
- standing guard along with higher-value PCs when camping. No matter how well you explain your careful setup to the GM, they never seem to believe you can watch the skies, the ground, listen for noises, watch in a 360-degree circle, and move around silently so no one can draw a bead on you. Extra bodies mean you really can watch multiple directions if you've got multiple people doing it.
- carrying things. More bodies means more gear needed, and more supplies needed, but especially for dungeon delves with a surface base you always benefit from more hands once treasure is discovered.
- junk work. Guarding the horses so the GM doesn't say, "You're seriously just leaving your horses in the owlbear-infested Orcwood and going into the dungeon?" or cooking your meals so you don't have to explain why everyone is engaged in fully restful leisure but somehow the stew gets made.
All of those things can be done by PCs, but it's easier if you can relegate that to hired help. You basically turn money, Leadership, and positive reaction bonuses into more work done and your PC free to do dangerous stuff.
Doing jobs the PCs can't do at all.
Not every party has a barbarian, a scout, a thief, and a cleric. You can hire a specific skill out of those skillsets (usually) by turning to hirelings. You can also augment skills:
- Missing skills like Area Knowledge, specific Hidden Lore specialties, languages, and odd Survival specialties are often more easily hired than learned. Especially if you don't plan to stay in the Lands of Terror after you've cleared out the Death Brain infestation from the Lost Crypt. Thief specialties and outdoors specialties usually play well into being hired out; cleric skills to a much lesser extent (Surgery, perhaps, everyone should have First Aid anyway), and make-it-or-die skills like Traps or Exorcism work better on PCs than on lower-point hired help.
- Missing spells are a good reason to hire casters. You don't always want to learn them yourself, or they'll need prereqs you'd rather hire for than spend points to learn.
- Backing up existing skills. Many adventures have ground to a halt as people realize one guy with Boating or one guy with Seamanship doesn't help when you need two craft to travel. Other times you need a backup person with Survival because of additional numbers or for complementary rolls, a guy with good ST for moving things, solid Per for helping to search, and Lifting for picking things up can help.
Overall, I find those are broadly the ways to use hirelings - fill in gaps where a body matter enough that point value is the second consideration, and add in/supplement skills and skill sets. All the while acknowledging that they're not going to be up to the challenge outside of their specialty. Or even in it, versus a PC - the strongest Laborer or toughest Squire is no Barbarian in ST or Knight in combat skill, respectively.
The big mistakes seem to be using them as if they were 250 ("Put Pigsticker Paul in the front line, he's a fighter"), or thinking of them as such ("Hey, we've got a 125-point cleric, so we're good on healing forever, so don't make a cleric"). A second one is thinking everyone is a Laborer with a side specialty ("The NPCs will carry everything - tell the archer to sling his bow and carry these orc swords for us.") But the main issue is, even knowing what they aren't, is what to use them for?
Hopefully the above will help a bit.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
What's money for in GURPS DF Felltower?
So if money can't buy you magical power whenever you've got the cash on hand, what do you do with it?
One of my players asked me that directly. As he said, not trying to argue, just asking, okay, what are we supposed to buy?
Great question. If I'm reining in magic item purchase and that was where money generally went (and your future dream is a shopping scheme), what do you shop for now?
Here is what I visualize money being used for, in a non-domain game situation*:
- weapons (enchanted with basic enchantments** and especially superior mundane weapons)
- armor (ditto, especially superior mundane)
- shields (ditto)
- potions, chemicals, concoctions, etc. (subject to the usual dosage availability)
- minor scrolls
- mundane gear (especially higher-quality gear)
- hirelings
- henchmen/allies
- research
- services (including healing and Resurrection)
- skill training costs
- overspending on upkeep for in-town bonuses to rolls
I'd even expect some bribing monsters (pay X to bypass a fight so you can go get X+1 or 2X or 10X elsewhere), since PCs wouldn't be broke. The PCs did this just to get into the dungeon, for a while, setting the orcs up as guards (and then ruing that every session after).
My ideal is that PCs would be potentially flush with money most of the time, capable of buying the things they need and spending in town as required. I'd rather have guys saying, "I've 75K and I have no idea what I should do with it" instead of "I have a brand new custom-made fine ornate balanced Dwarven Puissance +2 Accuracy +2 Icy Lightning mace with Shatterproof on it and a ring with always-on Dark Vision, and 28 sp. Can someone front me cash for rations? Oh, and upkeep, otherwise I'll crash in the woods and make a Survival roll."
Of course, "buy anything" didn't quite go as planned. If this doesn't, I'll veer the group back onto another route.
* And for what it's worth, if I did have a domain game in mind, I'd:
- ramp up the money a lot.
- ramp up the required loot for XP a lot to match.
- completely cut off magical item purchase but potentially allow hiring enchanters
In other words, I'd scale it all up buy make "build a castle" and "raise an army" viable while kneecapping the ability to buy personal magic power. Instead of looting owlbears for hundreds of coins and buying healing potions and hiring torchbearers, you'd be looting dragons of massive box-cover coin piles and spending it on raising some heavy infantry to help secure your castle.
** Largely Accuracy +1, Puissance +1, Shatterproof, and Continual Light for weapons, Fortify +1 and Deflect +1 and Lighten 25% for armor. Little else.
One of my players asked me that directly. As he said, not trying to argue, just asking, okay, what are we supposed to buy?
Great question. If I'm reining in magic item purchase and that was where money generally went (and your future dream is a shopping scheme), what do you shop for now?
Here is what I visualize money being used for, in a non-domain game situation*:
- weapons (enchanted with basic enchantments** and especially superior mundane weapons)
- armor (ditto, especially superior mundane)
- shields (ditto)
- potions, chemicals, concoctions, etc. (subject to the usual dosage availability)
- minor scrolls
- mundane gear (especially higher-quality gear)
- hirelings
- henchmen/allies
- research
- services (including healing and Resurrection)
- skill training costs
- overspending on upkeep for in-town bonuses to rolls
I'd even expect some bribing monsters (pay X to bypass a fight so you can go get X+1 or 2X or 10X elsewhere), since PCs wouldn't be broke. The PCs did this just to get into the dungeon, for a while, setting the orcs up as guards (and then ruing that every session after).
My ideal is that PCs would be potentially flush with money most of the time, capable of buying the things they need and spending in town as required. I'd rather have guys saying, "I've 75K and I have no idea what I should do with it" instead of "I have a brand new custom-made fine ornate balanced Dwarven Puissance +2 Accuracy +2 Icy Lightning mace with Shatterproof on it and a ring with always-on Dark Vision, and 28 sp. Can someone front me cash for rations? Oh, and upkeep, otherwise I'll crash in the woods and make a Survival roll."
Of course, "buy anything" didn't quite go as planned. If this doesn't, I'll veer the group back onto another route.
* And for what it's worth, if I did have a domain game in mind, I'd:
- ramp up the money a lot.
- ramp up the required loot for XP a lot to match.
- completely cut off magical item purchase but potentially allow hiring enchanters
In other words, I'd scale it all up buy make "build a castle" and "raise an army" viable while kneecapping the ability to buy personal magic power. Instead of looting owlbears for hundreds of coins and buying healing potions and hiring torchbearers, you'd be looting dragons of massive box-cover coin piles and spending it on raising some heavy infantry to help secure your castle.
** Largely Accuracy +1, Puissance +1, Shatterproof, and Continual Light for weapons, Fortify +1 and Deflect +1 and Lighten 25% for armor. Little else.
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
Reigning in magical item purchase in my DF game
Recently I've been tightening up some of the purchase of permanent magic items in my DF game. Mostly it's because people buying magical items is a large load of time on me. Even given price lists, cost calculations, and simple availability rolls, I still need to be involved in answering cost if it's available, how it works if you get it, how long it takes to get, and then is it available at all . . . and at any time the player might say, "Nah, too much."
But there is also the issue that if I put a magical item in the dungeon, the PCs received a magical item. They might turn it into cash, but it's a cash value that is less than what the item is worth to use - you can't find a magical shortsword and trade it in for an equally magical broadsword, you lose a big chunk of value selling it.
But if I give people money, I'm effectively giving them carte blanche to augment their personal power in any way - it's a wildcard magic item. It's not 20,000 apiece in silver, it's 20,000 silver in cash and magical items of your choice once you get back to town. Ironically this makes cash more valueable than rare magical items because it's more flexible.
On top of that, people then spend themselves dry. Since any coin not spent on permanent magical items that buff your abilities is a permanent reduction in power, people spend everything they can on gear. The best possible magical gear, since it's on a cost-comparative basis with mundane gear.
That was fine early on in the game, when people lacked items and it wasn't clear how long we'd play or the long-term dynamics of "money equals magic items of my choice."
But as we've gone on, the spectre of broke guys in magical plate armor with fine swords gleaming with magical power and belts full of potions living hand-to-mouth and griping about $40/day hirelings being too expensive became a pretty standard development. People generally had broke characters with between $50K and $150K+ worth of gear. They had Maseratis and Ferraris and took up a collection for gas.
I realize this wasn't what I wanted - no one did anything really interesting with money because upgrading gear was too important. Until you have a backup of everything, all Puissance +1 or better, the best magical armor possible, a spare of everything magic'ed up, amulets and rings and bracelets with permanent protective magic on them, and unlimited healing potions you don't want to do crazy stuff like pay for research or splurge on better living in town just to get a few useful but ephemeral bonuses. Even the party animal PCs didn't really live it up, because you're always saving for a special magic item. That's really counter to how I'd like the game to play out.
And like I've advised a number of times - if the game is going where you want it to go, keep going. If not, turn back in the direction you do want to go.
So I dramatically cut back on the magic items you can get freely, reigned in the ones you can special order (and put an availability roll onto special orders - there aren't craftsmages sitting by to forge you a sword and then magic it up), and cut off most of the rest. Upping the price to $20/point across the board helped, too - even minor enchantments are pricey enough to make mundane gear look better. Had I it all to do again, I'd simply say magical items are not available for purchase except under special circumstances - one-off encounters with people selling things, say, or offered in exchange for cash as part of a reward. But too much rides on custom gear now to say you can't get it any more, and I'm okay with that.
But then that leads to a question - what is money for in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Felltower?
I'll go into that question tomorrow.
But there is also the issue that if I put a magical item in the dungeon, the PCs received a magical item. They might turn it into cash, but it's a cash value that is less than what the item is worth to use - you can't find a magical shortsword and trade it in for an equally magical broadsword, you lose a big chunk of value selling it.
But if I give people money, I'm effectively giving them carte blanche to augment their personal power in any way - it's a wildcard magic item. It's not 20,000 apiece in silver, it's 20,000 silver in cash and magical items of your choice once you get back to town. Ironically this makes cash more valueable than rare magical items because it's more flexible.
On top of that, people then spend themselves dry. Since any coin not spent on permanent magical items that buff your abilities is a permanent reduction in power, people spend everything they can on gear. The best possible magical gear, since it's on a cost-comparative basis with mundane gear.
That was fine early on in the game, when people lacked items and it wasn't clear how long we'd play or the long-term dynamics of "money equals magic items of my choice."
But as we've gone on, the spectre of broke guys in magical plate armor with fine swords gleaming with magical power and belts full of potions living hand-to-mouth and griping about $40/day hirelings being too expensive became a pretty standard development. People generally had broke characters with between $50K and $150K+ worth of gear. They had Maseratis and Ferraris and took up a collection for gas.
I realize this wasn't what I wanted - no one did anything really interesting with money because upgrading gear was too important. Until you have a backup of everything, all Puissance +1 or better, the best magical armor possible, a spare of everything magic'ed up, amulets and rings and bracelets with permanent protective magic on them, and unlimited healing potions you don't want to do crazy stuff like pay for research or splurge on better living in town just to get a few useful but ephemeral bonuses. Even the party animal PCs didn't really live it up, because you're always saving for a special magic item. That's really counter to how I'd like the game to play out.
And like I've advised a number of times - if the game is going where you want it to go, keep going. If not, turn back in the direction you do want to go.
So I dramatically cut back on the magic items you can get freely, reigned in the ones you can special order (and put an availability roll onto special orders - there aren't craftsmages sitting by to forge you a sword and then magic it up), and cut off most of the rest. Upping the price to $20/point across the board helped, too - even minor enchantments are pricey enough to make mundane gear look better. Had I it all to do again, I'd simply say magical items are not available for purchase except under special circumstances - one-off encounters with people selling things, say, or offered in exchange for cash as part of a reward. But too much rides on custom gear now to say you can't get it any more, and I'm okay with that.
But then that leads to a question - what is money for in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy: Felltower?
I'll go into that question tomorrow.
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