These notes are for us, each written by the appropriate player, so we know all of this stuff for next session.
Heyden has 21 (of 25) HP, 8 (of 14) FT, DR is -2 to all locations except -3 to hands.
Heyden has Resist Poison for about another 50-55 mins?
Heyden is using Draugr broadsword and large shield.
Wyatt:
HP = 15/15; FP = 8/13; DR -2; Resist Poison, ST+2 potion, Swords out.
Gerrald Terrant has levitate, invisibility, missile shield, & dark vision. and is at 15 FT, 3ER. and has staff out
Rahtnar is at -3 hp and is using a shield and Ulf's axe.
Crogar crogar has 6 FT & 21 HP. has shield and axe in hand.
Crogar crogar is also at 5 DR
Crogar crogar has resist poison
"Mild" Bruce McTavish:bruce has 6FP at 40 HP DR 2
Magic greatsword in hand
Ulf:
HP 12/12 FP 10/12. ER 2/8, Power Item 20/25, DR is down 2 all over, Resist Poison is on, See Secrets is on (2 spells up), Used Staff on Ulf, Bruce, Crogar, Gerry, and Wyatt. Used Faith Healing on Heyden. Has Shield in one hand, paut in the other.
And we're all set for the next session's fight. Assuming they get past the doors.
Tuesday, August 31, 2021
Monday, August 30, 2021
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Session 158, Cold Fens 16 - Sakatha's Lair Do-or-Die (Part I)
Game Date: 8/29/21-8/31/21
Characters:
Bruce McTavish, human barbarian (336 points)
Crogar, human barbarian (350 points)
Gerrald Tarrant, human wizard (418 points)
Rahtnar the Skeleton (~125 points)
Heyden, human knight (308 points)
Wyatt Sorrel, human swashbuckler (354 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (362 points)
We started in Swampsedge, with the PCs having purchased potions and paut and rations . . . and two replacement boats, since one was a bit too small for their 7-man crew plus potential loot.
They headed out. They headed south into the swamp.
The trip to the island took 2 1/2 days, dealing with nuisance insects, stinging wasps, and even 11 leaping leeches that swarmed the group (they didn't last long but some damage, including four of them on Crogar doing ~10 HP injury). They got mildly lost a couple of times due to Bruce's poor navigation (he has Navigation-12, but even so, he just rolled very poorly), and lost an hour to a big downed tree snag. The second day featured bad storms which slowed them down. But in the end, they made it to the ruins mid-day on the 31st.
They ran in to avoid the nymphs, and did the "coin trick" to open the trapdoor. Down they went.
They moved through the deserted corridors and rooms, eventually reaching the temple. Wyatt recalled there was a secondary temple, according to the session logs, so they took a detour to check that for holy water. They found nothing - it had been thoroughly looted and its contents trashed and destroyed by the previous group (mostly by Dave.)
They splashed half of their holy water on the secret door in the temple after Ulf outlined it with chalk. They rushed through.
Beyond they found another room, triggered a mechanism behind a destroyed fake door and opened another secret door. They found a counterweighted trap door down. They headed down the big staircase, careful to avoid the 5th step. Ulf had See Secrets on this whole time, but saw nothing special about the steps to indicate a trap.
At the bottom, they moved over to one of the mounds on there side of a large, flowing river and Ulf pulled people in it, one by one - into a High Sanctity area covered with a Holy Avoid spell for non-holy people. Ulf cast a bunch of Affect Spirits spells, and then let some expire after casting them on magical weapons, and then cast again on non-magical ones.
All prepped, they headed to the river where it met the wall (and came flowing out of it, not from under it.) Bruce prodded for the bottom with an 8' pole and then a 10' pole, but found nothing. He stuck his glove into the water but still didn't hit bottom . . . and his glove came out dry.
Not willing to climb down into the "river" and risk climbing in the face of wights, they headed to the center of the river. After a few moments, a boat appeared. They called to it, and eventually the boat came. They climbed in, and the boat headed off to the other side.
And halfway across . . . the boat, and the "river" underneat their little craft, disappeared. They fell down and into a lined pit full of extremely corrosive acid!
(Bwahahahahahahahahahah. Sorry.)
None of them were blinded by the splash and none swallowed any. They climbed out as fast as they could. For a couple, this was 1-2 seconds. Ulf got lucky and climbed out quickly, losing a bit of DR and some HP in the process but otherwise making it out. Gerry was able to concentrate on Levitate and pulled himself out, again with some lost DR and HP but not too much. Crogar and Heyden also got out in reasonable time, and both turned to help their friends despite the additional injury from sticking their hands back into the acid to grab arms.
Bruce, Wyatt, and Rahtnar, though, got badly hurt. Wyatt and Bruce were eventually pulled out, after Gerry used Levitate to pull out Rahtnar and Ulf put Resist Acid on Wyatt.
All out, they surveyed the damage. Everyone had lost DR - some 1-3 each, mostly. Lots of equipment went down. Bruce lost his knives, potion belt (and potions), backpack and its contents, and all of his clothing and boots. His swords barely survived but are pitted and damaged, and they're just about all he has now. Heyden lost his pouch, potions, javelins, and so on (oddly his golden sword never came up . . . I think we didn't assess damage on it.) Crogar lost his clothes but not much else. Wyatt had most of his gear packed in his frame pack, and that barely held out and so he didn't lose his "fighting loadout." Scrollcases, spellstones, lightstones, potions, etc. all went into the acid, never to return. Rahtnar lost his axe and armor and came out with only a badly damaged shield.
Once out, they gave what was left of a pole to Bruce. They found the river still "flowed" around them, but the current was unclear (and Bruce felt none) and its origin and substance unclear . . . just that they stood around a lined pit in the "dry" air. They sent Gerry up to look around and see which was was the wall, and headed that way after Bruce prodded the "water." It was safe to walk in and breathe, but felt odd and restricted vision. They moved as a group holding a rope, avoiding another pit thanks to Bruce prodding ahead.
They reached the wall and started to climb. They tried to get up all at once, but with two people Invisible, Gerry using Levitation on two (Crogar and Bruce), one using Walk on Air (Invisible Ulf), and two climbing . . . all while unable to see each other . . . that proved impossible.
In the end, Bruce and Crogar were desposited on top as Ulf walked up and Gerry floated up. And the wights on the far side, 10 in total, saw them and rushed them. In a nasty brawl in close Crogar and Bruce managed to cut a few down but got mobbed in close. They kept fighting but lost FP from strikes (and even from a bare-handed wight parry) and Bruce rolled an 18 and dropped his sword. Gerry pulled him up out of the fray, and the remaining four wights mobbed Crogar. He was pulled up, too, just as Wyatt reached the top and stood up. He drew his swords and attacked, and in a couple of seconds put them all down.
They skipped burning them because Ulf said they didn't need to (relying on a 4 on Hidden Lore).
They healed up a little and restored FP and moved on.
They hurried along the wall to the triangular structure they sought.
Once there they followed the wall to the doors and called out, "Hail Sakatha!" The doors opened.
Beyond they found a trap-lined corridor, blocked to one side by a solid stone block.
,
Ulf outlined the trigger for another trap, and they bypassed that. Standing around in the hallway, Wyatt handed out some Universal Scrolls of Resist Poison, and he put it on himself, Gerry on Crogar, and Heyden on himself.
They tried the next door with "Hail Sakatha" but it didn't open.
Wyatt tried again - still no. Ulf said, "You have to say it with feeling!"
Wyatt tried that and it worked.
Beyond they found a triangular room with a long table and chairs and a throne, set with lizard man delicacies - other than a few rare fruits, it was mostly meats, animal heads, bats, weird birds, etc. They looked for the trap door, which they found under the table. As they investigated, lizard men stepped out of mosaics along the wall, holding platters with more food. They offered it up as the PCs ignored them, and pushed the table and chairs aside. They found the trapdoor.
At this point, Ulf asked if they wanted to duck into a Sanctuary and rest for a few hours. After remarkably little debate, they went for it. Ulf created it, they piled in, and he pulled it closed. It dumped them back out with a sickening twist, leaving them on the floor, disorientated and injured (all except, oddly, for Rahtnar skeleton.) Ulf and Gerry felt something . . . like they were being watched. Gerry said it might be some kind of scrying.
They went back to the trap door, opened it up, and climbed down - with Ulf bowing and making solicitous gestures - and closed it behind them.
They found themselves in a room with two large block doors opposite the stairs they'd walked down. They got ready, called out "Hail Sakatha!" and . . . nothing. There were basins once filled with unholy water on either side of it, but which were dry and empty.
We left it there, with the PCs unsure of how to proceed. They tried "Hail Sakatha!" to no avail. They have more unholy water, if sprinkling that on the doors would help. But that would mean no way back . . . they're not sure what to do.
Notes
I don't think I reminded anyone to pay upkeep. So this is a reminder for next time. "But I stayed at Ulf's house!" is not a valid way to avoid it, especially not since everyone goes any buys stuff in town and thus must be in town to buy that stuff. Plus upkeep isn't free even if you have a dirt plot and a shack to your name.
Ulf, after a lot of waffling, bought Turn Zombie-20 for 2 points. It's a very restricted spell - in my game, if not in the RAW, it only works on animated undead created with the Zombie or Mass Zombie spell. That's it. Not wights, draugr, vampires, horde zombies created by infectious attack, etc. He took it anyway, just in case.
Heheheheh, free boat ride! I didn't think they took the boat before, but they did in one session, and managed to cross safely. Not this time. What was the difference? It's unclear from their side of the screen. I think they lack enough information to really know but probably can hazard some guesses. Anyway, yeah . . . I'm still not sure why "climb down into the "river" and then climb back out the other side" was the plan for several past delves but the existance of a steep dropoff and climb stopped them this time. Oh well, it cost them a lot of gear. I didn't expect the acid traps to ever work again after the first time. Guess not. Only a few things proved unaffected - the Mythic Corselet and the Finger of Necros were fine. Everything else took damage . . . lucky for Heyden his Belt of Might was sturdy enough to make it through.
Thank goodness for the weapon damage tables I did up for Low Tech Companion 2 (p. 22-24), and for the Object HP Table table in Basic Set, pg. 558.
The wights didn't do much damage, which isn't a surprise, as the group is very high point for a bunch of guys mostly a threat if you lack magical weaponry. The acid really mauled them and cost them a lot of equipment. I expect at some future date the group will come back here in a clean-up delve with Resist Acid and try to fish for potions on the assumption that crystal vials wouldn't corrode like everything else. We'll see.
MVP was Wyatt, since his player did a lot of prep work to get everyone ready. And also slew wight Bjorn, Hannibal, and El Murik.
We'll also have to see how this all turns out - they're badly damaged (you'll see the status tomorrow) and lost a lot of gear, but still have their main stuff. Their foes - if similar to last time - are tough and numerous. Should be fun!
Characters:
Bruce McTavish, human barbarian (336 points)
Crogar, human barbarian (350 points)
Gerrald Tarrant, human wizard (418 points)
Rahtnar the Skeleton (~125 points)
Heyden, human knight (308 points)
Wyatt Sorrel, human swashbuckler (354 points)
Ulf Sigurdson, human cleric (362 points)
We started in Swampsedge, with the PCs having purchased potions and paut and rations . . . and two replacement boats, since one was a bit too small for their 7-man crew plus potential loot.
They headed out. They headed south into the swamp.
The trip to the island took 2 1/2 days, dealing with nuisance insects, stinging wasps, and even 11 leaping leeches that swarmed the group (they didn't last long but some damage, including four of them on Crogar doing ~10 HP injury). They got mildly lost a couple of times due to Bruce's poor navigation (he has Navigation-12, but even so, he just rolled very poorly), and lost an hour to a big downed tree snag. The second day featured bad storms which slowed them down. But in the end, they made it to the ruins mid-day on the 31st.
They ran in to avoid the nymphs, and did the "coin trick" to open the trapdoor. Down they went.
They moved through the deserted corridors and rooms, eventually reaching the temple. Wyatt recalled there was a secondary temple, according to the session logs, so they took a detour to check that for holy water. They found nothing - it had been thoroughly looted and its contents trashed and destroyed by the previous group (mostly by Dave.)
They splashed half of their holy water on the secret door in the temple after Ulf outlined it with chalk. They rushed through.
Beyond they found another room, triggered a mechanism behind a destroyed fake door and opened another secret door. They found a counterweighted trap door down. They headed down the big staircase, careful to avoid the 5th step. Ulf had See Secrets on this whole time, but saw nothing special about the steps to indicate a trap.
At the bottom, they moved over to one of the mounds on there side of a large, flowing river and Ulf pulled people in it, one by one - into a High Sanctity area covered with a Holy Avoid spell for non-holy people. Ulf cast a bunch of Affect Spirits spells, and then let some expire after casting them on magical weapons, and then cast again on non-magical ones.
All prepped, they headed to the river where it met the wall (and came flowing out of it, not from under it.) Bruce prodded for the bottom with an 8' pole and then a 10' pole, but found nothing. He stuck his glove into the water but still didn't hit bottom . . . and his glove came out dry.
Not willing to climb down into the "river" and risk climbing in the face of wights, they headed to the center of the river. After a few moments, a boat appeared. They called to it, and eventually the boat came. They climbed in, and the boat headed off to the other side.
And halfway across . . . the boat, and the "river" underneat their little craft, disappeared. They fell down and into a lined pit full of extremely corrosive acid!
(Bwahahahahahahahahahah. Sorry.)
None of them were blinded by the splash and none swallowed any. They climbed out as fast as they could. For a couple, this was 1-2 seconds. Ulf got lucky and climbed out quickly, losing a bit of DR and some HP in the process but otherwise making it out. Gerry was able to concentrate on Levitate and pulled himself out, again with some lost DR and HP but not too much. Crogar and Heyden also got out in reasonable time, and both turned to help their friends despite the additional injury from sticking their hands back into the acid to grab arms.
Bruce, Wyatt, and Rahtnar, though, got badly hurt. Wyatt and Bruce were eventually pulled out, after Gerry used Levitate to pull out Rahtnar and Ulf put Resist Acid on Wyatt.
All out, they surveyed the damage. Everyone had lost DR - some 1-3 each, mostly. Lots of equipment went down. Bruce lost his knives, potion belt (and potions), backpack and its contents, and all of his clothing and boots. His swords barely survived but are pitted and damaged, and they're just about all he has now. Heyden lost his pouch, potions, javelins, and so on (oddly his golden sword never came up . . . I think we didn't assess damage on it.) Crogar lost his clothes but not much else. Wyatt had most of his gear packed in his frame pack, and that barely held out and so he didn't lose his "fighting loadout." Scrollcases, spellstones, lightstones, potions, etc. all went into the acid, never to return. Rahtnar lost his axe and armor and came out with only a badly damaged shield.
Once out, they gave what was left of a pole to Bruce. They found the river still "flowed" around them, but the current was unclear (and Bruce felt none) and its origin and substance unclear . . . just that they stood around a lined pit in the "dry" air. They sent Gerry up to look around and see which was was the wall, and headed that way after Bruce prodded the "water." It was safe to walk in and breathe, but felt odd and restricted vision. They moved as a group holding a rope, avoiding another pit thanks to Bruce prodding ahead.
They reached the wall and started to climb. They tried to get up all at once, but with two people Invisible, Gerry using Levitation on two (Crogar and Bruce), one using Walk on Air (Invisible Ulf), and two climbing . . . all while unable to see each other . . . that proved impossible.
In the end, Bruce and Crogar were desposited on top as Ulf walked up and Gerry floated up. And the wights on the far side, 10 in total, saw them and rushed them. In a nasty brawl in close Crogar and Bruce managed to cut a few down but got mobbed in close. They kept fighting but lost FP from strikes (and even from a bare-handed wight parry) and Bruce rolled an 18 and dropped his sword. Gerry pulled him up out of the fray, and the remaining four wights mobbed Crogar. He was pulled up, too, just as Wyatt reached the top and stood up. He drew his swords and attacked, and in a couple of seconds put them all down.
They skipped burning them because Ulf said they didn't need to (relying on a 4 on Hidden Lore).
They healed up a little and restored FP and moved on.
They hurried along the wall to the triangular structure they sought.
Once there they followed the wall to the doors and called out, "Hail Sakatha!" The doors opened.
Beyond they found a trap-lined corridor, blocked to one side by a solid stone block.
,
Ulf outlined the trigger for another trap, and they bypassed that. Standing around in the hallway, Wyatt handed out some Universal Scrolls of Resist Poison, and he put it on himself, Gerry on Crogar, and Heyden on himself.
They tried the next door with "Hail Sakatha" but it didn't open.
Wyatt tried again - still no. Ulf said, "You have to say it with feeling!"
Wyatt tried that and it worked.
Beyond they found a triangular room with a long table and chairs and a throne, set with lizard man delicacies - other than a few rare fruits, it was mostly meats, animal heads, bats, weird birds, etc. They looked for the trap door, which they found under the table. As they investigated, lizard men stepped out of mosaics along the wall, holding platters with more food. They offered it up as the PCs ignored them, and pushed the table and chairs aside. They found the trapdoor.
At this point, Ulf asked if they wanted to duck into a Sanctuary and rest for a few hours. After remarkably little debate, they went for it. Ulf created it, they piled in, and he pulled it closed. It dumped them back out with a sickening twist, leaving them on the floor, disorientated and injured (all except, oddly, for Rahtnar skeleton.) Ulf and Gerry felt something . . . like they were being watched. Gerry said it might be some kind of scrying.
They went back to the trap door, opened it up, and climbed down - with Ulf bowing and making solicitous gestures - and closed it behind them.
They found themselves in a room with two large block doors opposite the stairs they'd walked down. They got ready, called out "Hail Sakatha!" and . . . nothing. There were basins once filled with unholy water on either side of it, but which were dry and empty.
We left it there, with the PCs unsure of how to proceed. They tried "Hail Sakatha!" to no avail. They have more unholy water, if sprinkling that on the doors would help. But that would mean no way back . . . they're not sure what to do.
Notes
I don't think I reminded anyone to pay upkeep. So this is a reminder for next time. "But I stayed at Ulf's house!" is not a valid way to avoid it, especially not since everyone goes any buys stuff in town and thus must be in town to buy that stuff. Plus upkeep isn't free even if you have a dirt plot and a shack to your name.
Ulf, after a lot of waffling, bought Turn Zombie-20 for 2 points. It's a very restricted spell - in my game, if not in the RAW, it only works on animated undead created with the Zombie or Mass Zombie spell. That's it. Not wights, draugr, vampires, horde zombies created by infectious attack, etc. He took it anyway, just in case.
Heheheheh, free boat ride! I didn't think they took the boat before, but they did in one session, and managed to cross safely. Not this time. What was the difference? It's unclear from their side of the screen. I think they lack enough information to really know but probably can hazard some guesses. Anyway, yeah . . . I'm still not sure why "climb down into the "river" and then climb back out the other side" was the plan for several past delves but the existance of a steep dropoff and climb stopped them this time. Oh well, it cost them a lot of gear. I didn't expect the acid traps to ever work again after the first time. Guess not. Only a few things proved unaffected - the Mythic Corselet and the Finger of Necros were fine. Everything else took damage . . . lucky for Heyden his Belt of Might was sturdy enough to make it through.
Thank goodness for the weapon damage tables I did up for Low Tech Companion 2 (p. 22-24), and for the Object HP Table table in Basic Set, pg. 558.
The wights didn't do much damage, which isn't a surprise, as the group is very high point for a bunch of guys mostly a threat if you lack magical weaponry. The acid really mauled them and cost them a lot of equipment. I expect at some future date the group will come back here in a clean-up delve with Resist Acid and try to fish for potions on the assumption that crystal vials wouldn't corrode like everything else. We'll see.
MVP was Wyatt, since his player did a lot of prep work to get everyone ready. And also slew wight Bjorn, Hannibal, and El Murik.
We'll also have to see how this all turns out - they're badly damaged (you'll see the status tomorrow) and lost a lot of gear, but still have their main stuff. Their foes - if similar to last time - are tough and numerous. Should be fun!
Sunday, August 29, 2021
Cold Fens pre-summary
Fun Cold Fens session, featuring:
- New boats!
- Heavy rains!
- Leaping Leeches!
- Hailing of Sakatha!
- Boat ride in a dungeon!
- Acid Swim!
- Wight Fight!
- Party reunion!
- And penetrating to the very antechamber of a TPK . . .
- Wyatt was MVP, if that's not a big spoiler . . .
- New boats!
- Heavy rains!
- Leaping Leeches!
- Hailing of Sakatha!
- Boat ride in a dungeon!
- Acid Swim!
- Wight Fight!
- Party reunion!
- And penetrating to the very antechamber of a TPK . . .
- Wyatt was MVP, if that's not a big spoiler . . .
Saturday, August 28, 2021
Game Prep Day
We're playing tomorrow.
I'm uploading maps to Roll20, since we're still stuck on that until the end of this Cold Fens kick my PCs are on. It's a completely non-enjoyable process. I expect to need a couple of them for tactical fights as I can't see a way to "theatre of the mind" some of the fights. Honestly, with a smaller group, back a few years ago, we played mapless for lots of fights. I know, though, that's ultimately unsatisfying for my players. They're willing to do mapless, as long as it's mapless tactical combat (with steps, Retreat, facing, flanking, etc. etc. etc.). It's a key benefit of GURPS, but it's not a strictly necessary one, but becomes so if everyone insists on ekeing out the benefits of it as a basis of all combat.
So, I'm here on a Saturday afternoon uploading maps.
I don't expect to use more than one, because tactical combat is also slow. There is almost no way I can believe the PCs will swiftly and easily penetrate into Sakatha's lair, pass the obstacles on the way, defeat at least one group of foes in a tactical fight, and then learn (and resolve) whatever is behind that. It's not going to happen. But I don't want to deal with Roll20 map-making any more than I have to, so I'll deal with it all today.
I believe I already have lizard men tokens, I just need to find them. I hope I can - they'll be buried on some map or another.
I just took a few minutes to write this out before I go back to uploading and being frustrated.
I'm uploading maps to Roll20, since we're still stuck on that until the end of this Cold Fens kick my PCs are on. It's a completely non-enjoyable process. I expect to need a couple of them for tactical fights as I can't see a way to "theatre of the mind" some of the fights. Honestly, with a smaller group, back a few years ago, we played mapless for lots of fights. I know, though, that's ultimately unsatisfying for my players. They're willing to do mapless, as long as it's mapless tactical combat (with steps, Retreat, facing, flanking, etc. etc. etc.). It's a key benefit of GURPS, but it's not a strictly necessary one, but becomes so if everyone insists on ekeing out the benefits of it as a basis of all combat.
So, I'm here on a Saturday afternoon uploading maps.
I don't expect to use more than one, because tactical combat is also slow. There is almost no way I can believe the PCs will swiftly and easily penetrate into Sakatha's lair, pass the obstacles on the way, defeat at least one group of foes in a tactical fight, and then learn (and resolve) whatever is behind that. It's not going to happen. But I don't want to deal with Roll20 map-making any more than I have to, so I'll deal with it all today.
I believe I already have lizard men tokens, I just need to find them. I hope I can - they'll be buried on some map or another.
I just took a few minutes to write this out before I go back to uploading and being frustrated.
Friday, August 27, 2021
Random Links for Friday 8/27/21
Quick random links for today before I go out to commit . . . certain deeds.*
- Mailanka has a review of DF22. What did he think? I don't know, I didn't have time to read it yet.
- Heyden is going Knight-Holy Warrior, but hasn't settled on his advantages and I don't have time tonight or tomorrow to review them . . . and I won't do them the morning of game. Or worse, at the beginning of the session as everyone kibbutzes over how to spend them. He and the other players have had months to work this out, so it'll have to be done for next time.
- Wizardry, with two disasters. Yeah, that'll happen. Wizardry is extremely unforgiving.
- A nice look at Flashing Bladesby FGU.
- The Tomb of Horrors is awful. I loved it. Completely full of spoilers. This isn't one:
"Gygax said that Tomb of Horrors is “a thinking person’s adventure.” And if the person thinking is a dungeon master, what they’re thinking is, “How can I ruin my friends' lives?”
Feels accurate. We played it back in the day.
That's all for today!
Editing later - no, not all. I forgot to post this - Steve Perrin passed away.
* Also known as going to see a band.
- Mailanka has a review of DF22. What did he think? I don't know, I didn't have time to read it yet.
- Heyden is going Knight-Holy Warrior, but hasn't settled on his advantages and I don't have time tonight or tomorrow to review them . . . and I won't do them the morning of game. Or worse, at the beginning of the session as everyone kibbutzes over how to spend them. He and the other players have had months to work this out, so it'll have to be done for next time.
- Wizardry, with two disasters. Yeah, that'll happen. Wizardry is extremely unforgiving.
- A nice look at Flashing Bladesby FGU.
- The Tomb of Horrors is awful. I loved it. Completely full of spoilers. This isn't one:
"Gygax said that Tomb of Horrors is “a thinking person’s adventure.” And if the person thinking is a dungeon master, what they’re thinking is, “How can I ruin my friends' lives?”
Feels accurate. We played it back in the day.
That's all for today!
Editing later - no, not all. I forgot to post this - Steve Perrin passed away.
* Also known as going to see a band.
Thursday, August 26, 2021
DF, Lenses, Holy Warrior, and Higher Purpose
This came up in email the other day as Heyden is looking at spending his 50-odd points on a lens as a Holy Warrior.
Can he spend some of his 25 points for Holy abilities on the lens on improved levels of Higher Purpose?
I said the following:
"DF3, p. 28, and DF1, p. 22 are the relevant pages.
Higher Purpose is not a listed Holy ability, and in fact on p. 22 of DF1 it's listed separately:
"A further 25 points chosen from among additional Holy abilities or [. . .] Higher Purpose (different from first) [5] [. . .]"
So it's clearly not a "Holy ability." So no, you're limited to 1 level to start with, unless you have other points to spend. Your 25 points can be spent on Holy abilities or skills listed in the lens."
I can see plenty of room to argue this . . . but for DF Felltower, I won't accept those arguments. Lenses are pretty strictly defined, and Higher Purporse doesn't fall under "Holy Might" or the list of "Holy abilities." I think lenses are quite powerful - and come with access to additional disadvantages to make them a positive 60 points rather than 50, for 50 points spent. I don't think they need additional flexibility.
So Heyden will have to spend 25 points, and decide between the powers on pg. 22 of DF1 or the skills his lens comes with. We'll see what he does, if he does this.
Can he spend some of his 25 points for Holy abilities on the lens on improved levels of Higher Purpose?
I said the following:
"DF3, p. 28, and DF1, p. 22 are the relevant pages.
Higher Purpose is not a listed Holy ability, and in fact on p. 22 of DF1 it's listed separately:
"A further 25 points chosen from among additional Holy abilities or [. . .] Higher Purpose (different from first) [5] [. . .]"
So it's clearly not a "Holy ability." So no, you're limited to 1 level to start with, unless you have other points to spend. Your 25 points can be spent on Holy abilities or skills listed in the lens."
I can see plenty of room to argue this . . . but for DF Felltower, I won't accept those arguments. Lenses are pretty strictly defined, and Higher Purporse doesn't fall under "Holy Might" or the list of "Holy abilities." I think lenses are quite powerful - and come with access to additional disadvantages to make them a positive 60 points rather than 50, for 50 points spent. I don't think they need additional flexibility.
So Heyden will have to spend 25 points, and decide between the powers on pg. 22 of DF1 or the skills his lens comes with. We'll see what he does, if he does this.
Wednesday, August 25, 2021
NATO - the slippery slope to game replacement begins
Ah, dammit. Now I'm reading this. Next I'll be sorting my countermix . . . and if too many are missing, I might need to replace the set. I hope that doesn't happen with 2nd Fleet, that's way too expensive to replace!
Early highlight? Where the TWW series had strategic nuclear exchange as a potential aspect of the game . . . NATO is a bit harsh:
"Immediately upon declaring Tactical Nuclear Warfare, the declaring player rolls the die. On a die roll of 1, 2, or 3, the game ends instantly and the declaring player loses decisively; [. . . ]"
So sure, take a 50/50 shot of just losing outright, but if you do, you get all sorts of "benefits." Loss of some reinforcements, loss of many movement modes, loss of air power . . . but you do gain very destructive nuclear strikes that you can use against the enemy's nuclear attack points and units. I've played with these rules, and they're brutal. It can be interesting but it changes the game. Much like in TWW, once you start to use nukes, the game revolves around deploying your nukes. It's no longer about anything else. It's still fun but it's a different thing entirely.
And, hey, 50% of the time you've lost. Time to play Greg Costikiyan's "Nuclear Winter."
Early highlight? Where the TWW series had strategic nuclear exchange as a potential aspect of the game . . . NATO is a bit harsh:
"Immediately upon declaring Tactical Nuclear Warfare, the declaring player rolls the die. On a die roll of 1, 2, or 3, the game ends instantly and the declaring player loses decisively; [. . . ]"
So sure, take a 50/50 shot of just losing outright, but if you do, you get all sorts of "benefits." Loss of some reinforcements, loss of many movement modes, loss of air power . . . but you do gain very destructive nuclear strikes that you can use against the enemy's nuclear attack points and units. I've played with these rules, and they're brutal. It can be interesting but it changes the game. Much like in TWW, once you start to use nukes, the game revolves around deploying your nukes. It's no longer about anything else. It's still fun but it's a different thing entirely.
And, hey, 50% of the time you've lost. Time to play Greg Costikiyan's "Nuclear Winter."
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