I ran my game again last night. So far my recovery from surgery has gone very smoothly. I'm still being cautious, but optimism is outweighing that.
But on to the game. Our heroes had just cleared the winery of the invading druids and their vicious plant monsters. They took a long rest, sheltering with the Martikovs, so that Tathora could prepare purify food and drink to remove the poison the druids had added. It's a ritual, meaning that if the caster takes 10 minutes, they can cast the spell without expending a spell slot. It also only affects five cubic feet at a time. So it probably took a little while, but she had the wine cleaned up before the morning was over. In the meantime, everyone else loaded the wine barrels into the wagon and hitched up the horses.
Before they set out, Adrian Martikov told them about the jewel stolen from their fields by the druids and taken to Yester Hill. He asked that the players retrieve the jewel after they had finished with the wine delivery.
The journey to Vallaki to retrieve Ireena and Ismark was mostly uneventful. However, Amrus did spot a small bundle tucked into some tree roots. Every larcenous, he pulled it out and opened it up to find a set of plain common clothes. The rest of the party called out to the surrounding forest to try and locate an owner. When no one responded, Amrus decided to put it back.
When they arrived, they found they weren't exactly welcome in Vallaki, the guards even showed a poster with the PCs' pictures declaring the banished. Of course, alcohol heals wounds, so the guards agreed to let them take some wine to the Blue Water Inn.
There they learned that Izek Strazni had protected Ireena and the Inn from the Burgomaster's wrath following the incident at the festival. While the Martikovs at the Blue Water unloaded a portion of the shipment (two barrels, to be precise), the party deviated from their prescribed itinerary to visit Blinsky Toys.
There they found a portly man in a moth-eaten jester's costume whittling a block of wood while a monkey named Piccolo watched. Hillary (and by extension Sarra) was quite taken with the monkey. Blinsky, who in his write up in the adventure itself actually talks with a Boris Badenov accent. He showed the party some of his various wares: a headless doll with a sack of attachable heads, a miniature gallows with a weighted hanged man, a ventriloquist dummy that looks like Strahd, and a set of nesting dolls that gets older as they get smaller with the innermost doll resembling a mummified corpse. Lop bought the dummy and Sarra bought the nesting dolls, both to the dismay of their beleaguered cleric Tathora (Aside: yes, I know "beleaguered cleric" is like saying "evil cat," "scary clown," or "sulky teenager." The adjective isn't really modifying anything, just reinforcing something already there.) They also spotted a doll that looked remarkably like Ireena Kolyana. Blinsky confirmed that they're special ordered by Izek, one every month, to always look like the same girl. Blinsky said he just makes a different dress every time. Cugel did ask about the toy horse they had found. Blinsky confirmed that he had made it and sold it to the keepers of the Winery. Ultimately, it proved a good role-playing side note to add further to the setting even if it didn't really advance the plot.
The PCs returned to the Inn, and with Ireena and Ismark loaded up, they set out for Krezk. A storm built up through the late afternoon. They met a group of five grizzled fur trappers on the road, and Cugel traded a bottle of Red Dragon Crush for information. The trappers gave the PCs directions to Krezk and a wolf pelt before continuing on the way to Vallaki to peddle.
Just before reaching Krezk, however, the storm hit with sudden fury. Ireena and Ismark spotted a nearby church and suggested they take shelter. They tied off the horses nearby and ducked into the church. This led into the next encounter I borrowed from Fifth Edition Fantasy's Fantastic Encounters module: "A Broken Window." In the flashes of lightning from the storm, the PCs had a chance spot some important details of the stained glass window in the one room church they took shelter in: that it depicts a cleric in hand-to-hand combat with a shadowy figure, that the cleric was fighting with a shard of glass, and that in the background the church is almost finished except for the window. They also rolled well enough to spot a couple of vials of holy water in the ruined pulpit. Next thing they knew, lightning struck the window, breaking it. A shadowy figure emerged from it, littering the area around the pulpit with shards of broken glass.
The shadowy figure, a "cursed shade" is a variant on the shadow. It's immune to most things, but vulnerable to radiant, and extra vulnerable to the shards of glass. Kyla realized this right away. However, only Cugel bothered to retrieve any shards (using mage hand to pull one in), and he missed with his attack. However, normal radiant damage from guiding bolt, sacred flame, and splashes of holy water ended up doing the job. Amrus did some of the holy water splashing, and he had advantage on the attack roll. I actually applied to sneak attack damage at the time, and when I'm double checking it doesn't look like the rogue needs to be proficient with the attack in order to get the sneak attack bonus. Once they had disrupted the shade, Lop cast mending to restore the window.
They took a long rest so Tathora could recover from some attacks that reduced her hit point maximum, and continued on to Krezk. Its a walled, forested village high in the mountains below the Abbey of St. Markovia. Once the guards learned that the PCs had a shipment of wine, they summoned the Burgomaster, Dmitri Krezkov. He confirmed the wine shipment, and guided the PCs to his cottage to store it in the cellar there.
Shortly afterwards, Ireena heard a voice calling her to the north end of the village. Only Cugel perceived it as well. Out of concern, the party followed her to a blessed pool with a nearby gazebo, a shrine to the Morninglord. Then a mysterious apparition appeared calling Ireena, "Tatyana." She suddenly recognized him as Sergei, her lover from a previous incarnation of her soul. She took a hand that raised out of the water, fell into the pool, and began to fade out. Fearing it might be a trick of Strahd's Tathora, Sarra, and Amrus also went in trying to grab her. However, her soul had joined Sergei's escaping from Strahd's grasp.
The vampire lord's face appeared in the clouds in the sky, crying out "How dare you take her from me! She is mine!" Lightning began to arc through the clouds. Fortunately, those who had gone into the water took the chance get out before the lightning struck. The shock wave knocked down everyone but Cugel and blew down the gazebo once and for all. It also banished the blessing from the pool. Once Ismark realized what had happened, he bowed his head and thanked the Morninglord for bearing Ireena away.
The group returned to the Burgomaster's cottage. There, the Burgomaster approached Tathora with a request. His 14 year old son had recently passed away of an pneumonia. He asked if she might be able to restore him to life. Unfortunately, raise dead is still beyond her reach (just four more levels to go, though).
And because narrative coincidence is a things, right about that time, there was a knock on the door. It was the Abbot. After Will graced us with the prerequisite "Hey, Abbottttttt!" line, it turned out that the Abbot (again, because narrative coincidence is a thing) was there to help the Burgomaster with his problem. Tathora was NOT pleased with having her thunder stolen by this interloper. Still, the Burgomaster was desperate, so despite the warnings offered by the other members of the party, he dug up his son, Ilya Krezkov and the Abbot cast raise dead. Ilya returned to life and was tearfully reunited with his parents.
Of course, as the PCs suspected, the Abbot's motivations were not wholly altruistic. He wanted to Burgomaster to supply him with a wedding dress. "It is time the lord of this realm have a bride to ease his suffering. And since you (the PCs) have denied him, I will need provide one." He gave the an ultimatum: one week to get a wedding dress or "What has been done can be undone."
On that sinister note, we called it a night. The PCs have a week to provide a wedding dress or find a way to stop the Abbot from delivering on his threat.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Some Nerdy & Life Observations
Some time ago, I promised to occasionally post some nerdy and/or life observations up. There isn't going to be a game this week. My recovery from a surgery last week has actually been incredible and better than I expected, but I still could use some R&R. But R&R doesn't (and shouldn't especially when recovering from surgery) mean doing nothing, so here's a post.
First, to my players, who are also loyal readers, a reader Pitfiend pointed out that I had been running daylight wrong in the Strahd encounter. Specifically, it isn't actual sunlight, just really bright light. Sadly, as much as I hate to say it, I reviewed the spell and even the errata, and Pitfiend was right. So, sorry, kids, but next time it won't be as effective. I've even mulled it over a bit to break down some of the power-level implications, and ultimately I do have to say that daylight is slightly under-powered for a third level spell, but still useful. Plus, reviewing the party's other capabilities at the time it merely hastened rather than guaranteed the vampire spawn's demise. Specifically, the alternate method would have involved focusing fire while Tathora spammed sacred flame to shut down their regeneration, or relied on guiding bolt, which also shuts down their regeneration and would set the rogues up for a sneak attack. Strahd's strategy was a little different-I made his parting shot more powerful than it might otherwise have been.
On the subject of spells, something I've been neglecting to mention is that Cugel used major image to conjure images of Strahd to try and convince the druids in the winery to stand down. So far I've been running it as an ineffective tactic. I've gone back and reviewed the spell, and, from conversations with Alec, I think I have a better idea of his play style and intentions. In short, if daylight will be less effective, major image should grow in effectiveness.
Another observation I failed to make as I was writing the last post, was that Hilary, the youngest player, actually asked a rules question. She asked about rules for finding food and water. Her willingness to ask the question is a good sign: she's interested in learning about the game and how it works. This is a good sign that a player is, in drug dealer terms, hooked. I hope my answer didn't go too far over her head. I told her yes, they were there, but the setting and story weren't conducive to using them. Barovia isn't exactly super fertile, but neither is it terribly barren, so foraging (something the PCs are assumed to do as they travel anyway in this edition, provided they aren't travelling too fast) isn't a problem. Further, they haven't ever spent longer than a few hours away from some form of civilization, so they could easily stock up on food. Last, but not least, few horror stories stop to have the characters look for food and water, so why should this game, a horror story, stop for that?
Mulling this over got me thinking on arm chair game design and game design philosophy. Anyone who knows me that not only am I nerd, I'm a nerd about nerdery. I've read Shannon Applecline's Designers & Dragons and David M. Ewalt's Of Dice and Men. At game conventions I'll attend the game designer's round tables and workshops to get inside the heads of people who actually make rules. So, on to game and rules stuff.
The important thing about D&D and table-top role-playing overall, is that the game's are, to put it in fancy terms, non-zero sum games. In simplest terms, it means that the game doesn't have a winner or loser, and often the best option is cooperation rather than competition. People have written reams on why this is so important, so I'll skip to my next point. Since D&D is non-zero sum, it astounds me how often in early D&D, and even among veteran players, there is still a notion of competition between the DM and the players. But there is a reason for it.
In the mists of D&D prehistory, were table-top strategy games where players used miniatures to reenact famous real battles. In the 60s and 70s, as fantasy and sci-fi began to receive a little more legitimacy in pop-culture and even culture in general, these began to include fictional battles. The original D&D rules were based on a rule set Gary Gygax wrote called Chainmail designed to reenact these sorts of fantasy battles with miniatures. So it was born in a crucible of zero-sum gaming, and it leads to one of the first axes of game design: gamist.
A gamist game's rules are not shy about what they are: a, well, game. Concepts such as balance are important. Specifically, balance between PC types and making sure that the scenario the party is tackling is balanced against the PCs capabilities. As such the greatest chunk of the rules is devoted to the cool stuff PCs and NPCs can do, and how they acquire more cool stuff. One of the dirtiest little secrets of table-top gaming is that most games are gamist. There's nothing really inherently wrong with that. When I analyze my own reasons for coming to the gaming table, and I'm being honest with myself, power fantasy is definitely on the list.
However, as table-top role-playing grew, new philosophies started to enter the arena. Tunnels and Trolls is often credited with being the second ever table-top RPG, and it was designed by Arizona's own Ken St. Andre. It used highly streamlined rules and generally focused on how things were described with words rather than with mechanics. This is an example of new philosophy embedded in D&D: couldn't the DM and players focus on creating a fun story rather than solving a miniature's battle in dungeon form? This is narrativist gaming, and you'll find a regaling on it in virtually every "What is a Role-Playing Game" sub-header for in virtually every role-playing book ever written. The philosophy has been around for literally forever in table-top game terms, but is only recently starting to become ascendant with the success of titles like FATE and Fiasco (both of which are great games that I highly recommend playing and would hope to run again some time). The nice thing about narrativist ideas, however, is that they're often system neutral, or at least easily adaptable to any system. Some, like Gumshoe's philosophy that the players shouldn't have to roll dice or spend resources to advance the plot adapt easily. Others, like rotating GM or GM-less play, are harder to adapt without a group willing to give it a try--and often needing a more finite scenario design to set the communications parameters.
There was another design philosophy that grew out of D&D, but was already embedded in wargaming, but D&D provided a platform to flourish. People began to make full-fledged fantasy worlds of their own in the wake of D&D, and they often shared these worlds with other players. Some just put whatever they thought was cool in the setting and called it a day. Others created detailed histories, weather, and trade patterns. As they tried to model their fictional world as realistically as possible, they sought to adapt the rules to suit. This is simulationist gaming. They tend to be math and rules heavy, and even more of a niche audience than even narrativist games. They were more popular in the early eighties and have petered out since the nineties, when computer games reached the point where providing hyper-realistic simulation was possible, leaving the math to be done by the computers instead of the players.
One important thing to note: most games aren't really purely one or the other. They exist on a continuum. The d20 system, 3rd and 3.5 Edition D&D, existed very much along the gamist and simulationist end of the spectrum. Fourth edition, however, dropped all simulationist pretense and introduced a lot of elements that were more narrativist (specifically the Skill Challenge). This is probably why it was so base-breaking. (Aside from the edition change rendering quite a lot of material obsolete--gamers had put a lot of money into D&D at that point). Fifth edition has moved back towards simulationist a little bit, but has introduced even more narrativist elements (personality traits and Inspiration).
When I look at my ever slowly evolving tastes in gaming, I notice that I was once a gamist. I still am, a little. As I admitted before, power fantasy is on the list of "why I come to the gaming table," but it no longer is the top one. In fact, that whole "do stuff, gather xp and treasure from doing stuff," has begun to feel like a chore. Video games that focus on it, like WoW and Diablo, no longer appeal to me like they did. Playing Fiasco at my birthday, getting together with friends and creating our very own impromptu Coen Brothers movie from semi-randomly chosen elements, was the height of fun. I've found the top of that gaming table list is now "Being with friends" and "Telling an awesome story together." In short, I'm now more of a narrativist. I don't think I've ever been a simulationist in any stripe.
It's food for any gamer's thought really. I know many readers will probably shrug and say, "I come to have fun." But I'm talking about breaking down what fun looks like for you. And with table-top role-playing, where options are almost literally limitless, its important to find out what "Fun" looks like.
First, to my players, who are also loyal readers, a reader Pitfiend pointed out that I had been running daylight wrong in the Strahd encounter. Specifically, it isn't actual sunlight, just really bright light. Sadly, as much as I hate to say it, I reviewed the spell and even the errata, and Pitfiend was right. So, sorry, kids, but next time it won't be as effective. I've even mulled it over a bit to break down some of the power-level implications, and ultimately I do have to say that daylight is slightly under-powered for a third level spell, but still useful. Plus, reviewing the party's other capabilities at the time it merely hastened rather than guaranteed the vampire spawn's demise. Specifically, the alternate method would have involved focusing fire while Tathora spammed sacred flame to shut down their regeneration, or relied on guiding bolt, which also shuts down their regeneration and would set the rogues up for a sneak attack. Strahd's strategy was a little different-I made his parting shot more powerful than it might otherwise have been.
On the subject of spells, something I've been neglecting to mention is that Cugel used major image to conjure images of Strahd to try and convince the druids in the winery to stand down. So far I've been running it as an ineffective tactic. I've gone back and reviewed the spell, and, from conversations with Alec, I think I have a better idea of his play style and intentions. In short, if daylight will be less effective, major image should grow in effectiveness.
Another observation I failed to make as I was writing the last post, was that Hilary, the youngest player, actually asked a rules question. She asked about rules for finding food and water. Her willingness to ask the question is a good sign: she's interested in learning about the game and how it works. This is a good sign that a player is, in drug dealer terms, hooked. I hope my answer didn't go too far over her head. I told her yes, they were there, but the setting and story weren't conducive to using them. Barovia isn't exactly super fertile, but neither is it terribly barren, so foraging (something the PCs are assumed to do as they travel anyway in this edition, provided they aren't travelling too fast) isn't a problem. Further, they haven't ever spent longer than a few hours away from some form of civilization, so they could easily stock up on food. Last, but not least, few horror stories stop to have the characters look for food and water, so why should this game, a horror story, stop for that?
Mulling this over got me thinking on arm chair game design and game design philosophy. Anyone who knows me that not only am I nerd, I'm a nerd about nerdery. I've read Shannon Applecline's Designers & Dragons and David M. Ewalt's Of Dice and Men. At game conventions I'll attend the game designer's round tables and workshops to get inside the heads of people who actually make rules. So, on to game and rules stuff.
The important thing about D&D and table-top role-playing overall, is that the game's are, to put it in fancy terms, non-zero sum games. In simplest terms, it means that the game doesn't have a winner or loser, and often the best option is cooperation rather than competition. People have written reams on why this is so important, so I'll skip to my next point. Since D&D is non-zero sum, it astounds me how often in early D&D, and even among veteran players, there is still a notion of competition between the DM and the players. But there is a reason for it.
In the mists of D&D prehistory, were table-top strategy games where players used miniatures to reenact famous real battles. In the 60s and 70s, as fantasy and sci-fi began to receive a little more legitimacy in pop-culture and even culture in general, these began to include fictional battles. The original D&D rules were based on a rule set Gary Gygax wrote called Chainmail designed to reenact these sorts of fantasy battles with miniatures. So it was born in a crucible of zero-sum gaming, and it leads to one of the first axes of game design: gamist.
A gamist game's rules are not shy about what they are: a, well, game. Concepts such as balance are important. Specifically, balance between PC types and making sure that the scenario the party is tackling is balanced against the PCs capabilities. As such the greatest chunk of the rules is devoted to the cool stuff PCs and NPCs can do, and how they acquire more cool stuff. One of the dirtiest little secrets of table-top gaming is that most games are gamist. There's nothing really inherently wrong with that. When I analyze my own reasons for coming to the gaming table, and I'm being honest with myself, power fantasy is definitely on the list.
However, as table-top role-playing grew, new philosophies started to enter the arena. Tunnels and Trolls is often credited with being the second ever table-top RPG, and it was designed by Arizona's own Ken St. Andre. It used highly streamlined rules and generally focused on how things were described with words rather than with mechanics. This is an example of new philosophy embedded in D&D: couldn't the DM and players focus on creating a fun story rather than solving a miniature's battle in dungeon form? This is narrativist gaming, and you'll find a regaling on it in virtually every "What is a Role-Playing Game" sub-header for in virtually every role-playing book ever written. The philosophy has been around for literally forever in table-top game terms, but is only recently starting to become ascendant with the success of titles like FATE and Fiasco (both of which are great games that I highly recommend playing and would hope to run again some time). The nice thing about narrativist ideas, however, is that they're often system neutral, or at least easily adaptable to any system. Some, like Gumshoe's philosophy that the players shouldn't have to roll dice or spend resources to advance the plot adapt easily. Others, like rotating GM or GM-less play, are harder to adapt without a group willing to give it a try--and often needing a more finite scenario design to set the communications parameters.
There was another design philosophy that grew out of D&D, but was already embedded in wargaming, but D&D provided a platform to flourish. People began to make full-fledged fantasy worlds of their own in the wake of D&D, and they often shared these worlds with other players. Some just put whatever they thought was cool in the setting and called it a day. Others created detailed histories, weather, and trade patterns. As they tried to model their fictional world as realistically as possible, they sought to adapt the rules to suit. This is simulationist gaming. They tend to be math and rules heavy, and even more of a niche audience than even narrativist games. They were more popular in the early eighties and have petered out since the nineties, when computer games reached the point where providing hyper-realistic simulation was possible, leaving the math to be done by the computers instead of the players.
One important thing to note: most games aren't really purely one or the other. They exist on a continuum. The d20 system, 3rd and 3.5 Edition D&D, existed very much along the gamist and simulationist end of the spectrum. Fourth edition, however, dropped all simulationist pretense and introduced a lot of elements that were more narrativist (specifically the Skill Challenge). This is probably why it was so base-breaking. (Aside from the edition change rendering quite a lot of material obsolete--gamers had put a lot of money into D&D at that point). Fifth edition has moved back towards simulationist a little bit, but has introduced even more narrativist elements (personality traits and Inspiration).
When I look at my ever slowly evolving tastes in gaming, I notice that I was once a gamist. I still am, a little. As I admitted before, power fantasy is on the list of "why I come to the gaming table," but it no longer is the top one. In fact, that whole "do stuff, gather xp and treasure from doing stuff," has begun to feel like a chore. Video games that focus on it, like WoW and Diablo, no longer appeal to me like they did. Playing Fiasco at my birthday, getting together with friends and creating our very own impromptu Coen Brothers movie from semi-randomly chosen elements, was the height of fun. I've found the top of that gaming table list is now "Being with friends" and "Telling an awesome story together." In short, I'm now more of a narrativist. I don't think I've ever been a simulationist in any stripe.
It's food for any gamer's thought really. I know many readers will probably shrug and say, "I come to have fun." But I'm talking about breaking down what fun looks like for you. And with table-top role-playing, where options are almost literally limitless, its important to find out what "Fun" looks like.
Saturday, May 14, 2016
The Wizard of Wines
Hello, readers. I'm writing this from a hospital room following my surgery. But my recovery has gone very well and the doctor was talking about discharging me as early as tomorrow. I'm hopeful, because then I can catch the next Game of Thrones.
When we last left our heroes, they had decided to go inside the winery rather than face the swarm of thirty needle blights outside. Rather than roll a lot of dice and possibly start a marathon battle, I decided that the party was strong and/or clever enough to barricade the broken outer doors long enough for Lop to cast mending on them.
They decided to check out the basement of the winery first. There they found a second druid with a small group of needle blights. Amrus was able to sneak up on the enemies and get a surprise round, which he used throwing a screw he had looted from the barrel maker's room up above to create a distraction. He drew some attention, but the druid finished casting thunderwave, knocking 23 bottles of Red Dragon Crush to the floor and catching Amrus in the blast.
Tathora used silence to shut down the druid's spell casting, unfortunately her placement of the area prevented Lop, Cugel, and herself from casting any spells in the room either. Though to get the kids into the spirit of role-playing being in a silent room, Kyla got Hillary and Blake playing charades. Still, without their tank, Tarkir, or their other primary blaster Ap, they managed to finish the blights and the druid without too much trouble. They decided to loot some of the remaining bottle of Red Dragon Crush and set out for the second story of the winery.
They reached the loading crane over the loading dock. There they found the druid with the gulthias staff, a magic staff with power over blights and the ability to lets its wielder steal hit points on successful attacks. This application of the staff, incidentally, makes the wielder crazy. Most importantly, when broken it emits a scream that kills all blights in a 300 foot radius.
Lop opened up by casting web on the opening, blocking the druid's main escape route. Tathora then attempted to use command, specifically the disarm application. Unfortunately, the druid made his save. Still, between Sarra's whirling blades and Amrus's sneak attacks, the poor druid didn't last long. Lop used identify on the staff to determine how it worked.
They continued exploring the upper floor, finding the kitchen and dining room, the master bedroom where Amrus broke into the money chest and rooted around. Once again his desire to loot everything he finds butted up against the party's more general idea of trying to role-play benevolent adventurers. Trying to explain the idea that chaotic good is the general framework of Robin Hood or Batman seems to help. I have a feeling that an encounter coming up might push the situation further and not end well for Amrus (or the rest of the party, really).
The explored a couple of side bedrooms, including the one used by the children, where they found their first Blinsky toy: a Nightmare (a demonic horse with coal-black hair and fire for a mane and tail) named Beucephalus. These toys are scattered around Barovia, creepy play things emblazoned with "Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!" This particular toy is a representation of none other than Strahd's mount.
The found the final unexplored room, a printing press for wine bottle labels that contained the last druid and her two vine blight servants. Once again, the party managed to make short work of the combat. The druids aren't effective close combatants, but their spells were fairly effective, but it takes them a couple of rounds to fully prepare: they need a round to cast barkskin followed by shillelagh to become fully effective. Blights, overall, are particularly weak, but are meant to show up in large groups.
The characters finally stepped out of the Winery and the swarm of needle blights, where they broke to Gulthias staff, killing all 30 blights in one fell swoop. For that, they got Inspiration. They're planning on spending some time with the Martikovs to get a long rest. Amrus took some of the poisoned wine, and Tathora was planning on preparing purify food and drink to handle to poisoned wine.
When we last left our heroes, they had decided to go inside the winery rather than face the swarm of thirty needle blights outside. Rather than roll a lot of dice and possibly start a marathon battle, I decided that the party was strong and/or clever enough to barricade the broken outer doors long enough for Lop to cast mending on them.
They decided to check out the basement of the winery first. There they found a second druid with a small group of needle blights. Amrus was able to sneak up on the enemies and get a surprise round, which he used throwing a screw he had looted from the barrel maker's room up above to create a distraction. He drew some attention, but the druid finished casting thunderwave, knocking 23 bottles of Red Dragon Crush to the floor and catching Amrus in the blast.
Tathora used silence to shut down the druid's spell casting, unfortunately her placement of the area prevented Lop, Cugel, and herself from casting any spells in the room either. Though to get the kids into the spirit of role-playing being in a silent room, Kyla got Hillary and Blake playing charades. Still, without their tank, Tarkir, or their other primary blaster Ap, they managed to finish the blights and the druid without too much trouble. They decided to loot some of the remaining bottle of Red Dragon Crush and set out for the second story of the winery.
They reached the loading crane over the loading dock. There they found the druid with the gulthias staff, a magic staff with power over blights and the ability to lets its wielder steal hit points on successful attacks. This application of the staff, incidentally, makes the wielder crazy. Most importantly, when broken it emits a scream that kills all blights in a 300 foot radius.
Lop opened up by casting web on the opening, blocking the druid's main escape route. Tathora then attempted to use command, specifically the disarm application. Unfortunately, the druid made his save. Still, between Sarra's whirling blades and Amrus's sneak attacks, the poor druid didn't last long. Lop used identify on the staff to determine how it worked.
They continued exploring the upper floor, finding the kitchen and dining room, the master bedroom where Amrus broke into the money chest and rooted around. Once again his desire to loot everything he finds butted up against the party's more general idea of trying to role-play benevolent adventurers. Trying to explain the idea that chaotic good is the general framework of Robin Hood or Batman seems to help. I have a feeling that an encounter coming up might push the situation further and not end well for Amrus (or the rest of the party, really).
The explored a couple of side bedrooms, including the one used by the children, where they found their first Blinsky toy: a Nightmare (a demonic horse with coal-black hair and fire for a mane and tail) named Beucephalus. These toys are scattered around Barovia, creepy play things emblazoned with "Is No Fun, Is No Blinsky!" This particular toy is a representation of none other than Strahd's mount.
The found the final unexplored room, a printing press for wine bottle labels that contained the last druid and her two vine blight servants. Once again, the party managed to make short work of the combat. The druids aren't effective close combatants, but their spells were fairly effective, but it takes them a couple of rounds to fully prepare: they need a round to cast barkskin followed by shillelagh to become fully effective. Blights, overall, are particularly weak, but are meant to show up in large groups.
The characters finally stepped out of the Winery and the swarm of needle blights, where they broke to Gulthias staff, killing all 30 blights in one fell swoop. For that, they got Inspiration. They're planning on spending some time with the Martikovs to get a long rest. Amrus took some of the poisoned wine, and Tathora was planning on preparing purify food and drink to handle to poisoned wine.
Saturday, May 7, 2016
Enter, Strahd
In a story with a singular antagonist, its often good for them to show up "on screen" before the final confrontation. I decided that 5th level, being about the mid-point of the campaign, would be a good time for Strahd to pay a visit to test and taunt the PCs, to pull a "Kefka," or "Sephiroth," if you prefer. Strahd is a trixy customer, and a spellcaster to boot. Spellcasters are always difficult to run, and I admit I underprepared a little.
Around about midnight, Strahd strolled into the camp they shared with the Martikovs with a pair of vampire spawn. He regarded the party, one-by-one in good old fashioned villain form. After regarding Sarra and Tathora, he commented that his last elven consort, "Didn't work out." He saw Tarkir's golden scales and said, "They send a dragon of gold after I had bested one of silver." He admired Lop's spellwork, but he was, "Too short." He found Ap too wild and uncontrollable. However, Cugel, with his ghoul-skin cloak and willingness to animate corpse, Strahd felt had promise. He taunted the Martikovs: "What's wrong, little birds? Afraid the strangers might learn your secrets?" Then he engaged in combat. I managed to resist having him say, "But enough talk, have at you!" I think I will save that for later...
There was a reason I waited until 5th level. Its the first time PCs will have a really wide range of tactical options combined with being sturdy enough to outlast the "rocket tag" of lower levels. Strahd had an off-screen timer as well. He did manage to put the all-important fear of an uncaring universe into the PCs' hearts, but they still handled it better than I expected.
The PCs, unlike the protagonists in most vampire stories, proved to be genre savvy, and Tathora opened by casting daylight in the center of the camp. Sunlight causes radiant damage to vampires and causes them to suffer disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. Radiant damage also shuts down their regeneration for a turn. Daylight is a third level spell mainly because of how effective it can be against foes sensitive to sunlight like vampires or drow. Cugel tried to use his favorite standby, Tasha's hideous laughter on Strahd, but Legendary Resistance kept him up.
Strahd didn't want to kill the party, but test them. He used sleep, which has been made much more user friendly in this edition. The caster rolls 5d8 "damage," and it effects targets in the radius starting from the center, going from lowest to highest hit point total. Strahd rolled really low, so only Tarkir, who hadn't taken much healing, was affected. Still, Strahd was able to retreat out of the radius of bright light, which is a whopping 60 feet. It kept the weaker vampire spawn at bay, too, which Lop and Ap focused on while the rest of the party focused on Strahd. Lop and Ap also convinced the Martikovs to take up arms against the vampire spawn.
Strahd's parting shot was fireball. He managed to roll fairly high damage, but the PCs managed to also roll well on their saving throws (and Tathora was timely with heals), so only Sarra and Cugel went down. Blake had a little bit of analysis paralysis at this point: whether to have Amrus use a healing potion on Sarra or on himself. The group generally counselled toward getting Sarra back into the fight, but both Alec and Will opted for the "Do what you want" option. I beginning to agree with their counsel, that as a DM and as a group we should let Blake make his own mistakes and learn.
After the party recovered, Strahd turned into a bat and left, leaving the party and the Martikovs to deal with the vampire spawn, who I had named Louis and Lestat off-screen, because why run a game with vampires without some references. The PCs discovered, after using some fire (Ap pushing a vampire through the campfire using thunderwave) and acid (Lop using Melf's acid arrow), only radiant damage shuts down a vampire's regeneration. Amrus also learned that his silvered shortsword wasn't effective against the vampire's either; he would need a magic weapon. Still, the vampire spawn lacked ranged attacks, so they were forced to fight in the light, so the party and their allies made short work of them.
At this point, I'm going to point out that there is a spell called magic weapon, which makes a weapon magical. Since some readers are going to go check to see what lists its on, I'll save you the trouble: Cleric with the War Domain, Paladin, and Wizard. Also, a Warlock with a Pact of the Blade feature's bonded weapon is magical, and a Monk's unarmed attacks are magical starting at level 6. So, even though they haven't found any actual magic weapons, Tarkir could have had magic weapon prepared and helped them out.
When the dust from battle cleared, the party confronted the Martikovs on their secret. They admitted that they were Wereravens, and that they use their powers to try and protect the people of Barovia from the machinations of Strahd. At one point Takir asked, "How do you turn into ravens?" Damian Martikov responded, "Like this," and turned into a raven, followed by the witty comeback, "The same way you can breath fire."
The party got a long rest, and approached the winery. The Martikovs warned the PCs about the mass of plant creatures and four druids within. They also mentioned one of the druids carrying poison to corrupt the wine. Another druid seemed to guide the plant monsters with a magical staff, and the Martikovs suggested that if the PCs destroy the staff it might destroy the plant monsters, too.
As they reached the winery, a sagging ivory-covered structure, needle blights like the one they had fought the day before began emerging from the vineyard. The ran into the winery through the stables and soon found themselves in the fermenting room, swarming with twig blights, plant monsters made of twig bundles. They found a female druid within poisoning the fermenting wine.
Ap once again used lightning bolt to clear a line of plant monsters. Lop used a split magic missile, and they learned how many hit point the things had (4 each) by rolling 3 damage on two hits. Using her multiattack, Sarra managed to clear even more twigs. Ap also used shatter to drop more twigs and hit the druid, who used barkskin before entering combat. Tathora finally used one of her offensive spells, guiding bolt, unfortunately it dropped her target: the druid, before the spells rider: the next attack against the target gets advantage, could come into play. Guiding bolt is probably one of the best first level spells in this edition. It does solid damage (4d6) and can set a Rogue up for a sneak attack, a Champion Fighter for an increased chance at getting a critical, a Hunter Ranger for a giant killer strike, for a Battle Master Fighter to connect with one of their more powerful maneuvers, etc.
The problem with the room is that it was too small to properly use the horde, especially since it had very limited entry points and narrow paths. It would have worked better with a singular, powerful enemy with lots of maneuverability, limiting the PC's ability to swarm it. Of course, if the party had chosen to stand against the needle blights outside, the druid and the twig blights within would have emerged to flank them. That could have devolved into another marathon battle, so I'm glad the party sought shelter.
We broke at this point, with players getting a chance to barricade themselves in the winery against the swarm of needle blights outside in the vineyard. They also will need to undo some of the damage Ap did with his spells. Fortunately, Lop knows mending.
Around about midnight, Strahd strolled into the camp they shared with the Martikovs with a pair of vampire spawn. He regarded the party, one-by-one in good old fashioned villain form. After regarding Sarra and Tathora, he commented that his last elven consort, "Didn't work out." He saw Tarkir's golden scales and said, "They send a dragon of gold after I had bested one of silver." He admired Lop's spellwork, but he was, "Too short." He found Ap too wild and uncontrollable. However, Cugel, with his ghoul-skin cloak and willingness to animate corpse, Strahd felt had promise. He taunted the Martikovs: "What's wrong, little birds? Afraid the strangers might learn your secrets?" Then he engaged in combat. I managed to resist having him say, "But enough talk, have at you!" I think I will save that for later...
There was a reason I waited until 5th level. Its the first time PCs will have a really wide range of tactical options combined with being sturdy enough to outlast the "rocket tag" of lower levels. Strahd had an off-screen timer as well. He did manage to put the all-important fear of an uncaring universe into the PCs' hearts, but they still handled it better than I expected.
The PCs, unlike the protagonists in most vampire stories, proved to be genre savvy, and Tathora opened by casting daylight in the center of the camp. Sunlight causes radiant damage to vampires and causes them to suffer disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. Radiant damage also shuts down their regeneration for a turn. Daylight is a third level spell mainly because of how effective it can be against foes sensitive to sunlight like vampires or drow. Cugel tried to use his favorite standby, Tasha's hideous laughter on Strahd, but Legendary Resistance kept him up.
Strahd didn't want to kill the party, but test them. He used sleep, which has been made much more user friendly in this edition. The caster rolls 5d8 "damage," and it effects targets in the radius starting from the center, going from lowest to highest hit point total. Strahd rolled really low, so only Tarkir, who hadn't taken much healing, was affected. Still, Strahd was able to retreat out of the radius of bright light, which is a whopping 60 feet. It kept the weaker vampire spawn at bay, too, which Lop and Ap focused on while the rest of the party focused on Strahd. Lop and Ap also convinced the Martikovs to take up arms against the vampire spawn.
Strahd's parting shot was fireball. He managed to roll fairly high damage, but the PCs managed to also roll well on their saving throws (and Tathora was timely with heals), so only Sarra and Cugel went down. Blake had a little bit of analysis paralysis at this point: whether to have Amrus use a healing potion on Sarra or on himself. The group generally counselled toward getting Sarra back into the fight, but both Alec and Will opted for the "Do what you want" option. I beginning to agree with their counsel, that as a DM and as a group we should let Blake make his own mistakes and learn.
After the party recovered, Strahd turned into a bat and left, leaving the party and the Martikovs to deal with the vampire spawn, who I had named Louis and Lestat off-screen, because why run a game with vampires without some references. The PCs discovered, after using some fire (Ap pushing a vampire through the campfire using thunderwave) and acid (Lop using Melf's acid arrow), only radiant damage shuts down a vampire's regeneration. Amrus also learned that his silvered shortsword wasn't effective against the vampire's either; he would need a magic weapon. Still, the vampire spawn lacked ranged attacks, so they were forced to fight in the light, so the party and their allies made short work of them.
At this point, I'm going to point out that there is a spell called magic weapon, which makes a weapon magical. Since some readers are going to go check to see what lists its on, I'll save you the trouble: Cleric with the War Domain, Paladin, and Wizard. Also, a Warlock with a Pact of the Blade feature's bonded weapon is magical, and a Monk's unarmed attacks are magical starting at level 6. So, even though they haven't found any actual magic weapons, Tarkir could have had magic weapon prepared and helped them out.
When the dust from battle cleared, the party confronted the Martikovs on their secret. They admitted that they were Wereravens, and that they use their powers to try and protect the people of Barovia from the machinations of Strahd. At one point Takir asked, "How do you turn into ravens?" Damian Martikov responded, "Like this," and turned into a raven, followed by the witty comeback, "The same way you can breath fire."
The party got a long rest, and approached the winery. The Martikovs warned the PCs about the mass of plant creatures and four druids within. They also mentioned one of the druids carrying poison to corrupt the wine. Another druid seemed to guide the plant monsters with a magical staff, and the Martikovs suggested that if the PCs destroy the staff it might destroy the plant monsters, too.
As they reached the winery, a sagging ivory-covered structure, needle blights like the one they had fought the day before began emerging from the vineyard. The ran into the winery through the stables and soon found themselves in the fermenting room, swarming with twig blights, plant monsters made of twig bundles. They found a female druid within poisoning the fermenting wine.
Ap once again used lightning bolt to clear a line of plant monsters. Lop used a split magic missile, and they learned how many hit point the things had (4 each) by rolling 3 damage on two hits. Using her multiattack, Sarra managed to clear even more twigs. Ap also used shatter to drop more twigs and hit the druid, who used barkskin before entering combat. Tathora finally used one of her offensive spells, guiding bolt, unfortunately it dropped her target: the druid, before the spells rider: the next attack against the target gets advantage, could come into play. Guiding bolt is probably one of the best first level spells in this edition. It does solid damage (4d6) and can set a Rogue up for a sneak attack, a Champion Fighter for an increased chance at getting a critical, a Hunter Ranger for a giant killer strike, for a Battle Master Fighter to connect with one of their more powerful maneuvers, etc.
The problem with the room is that it was too small to properly use the horde, especially since it had very limited entry points and narrow paths. It would have worked better with a singular, powerful enemy with lots of maneuverability, limiting the PC's ability to swarm it. Of course, if the party had chosen to stand against the needle blights outside, the druid and the twig blights within would have emerged to flank them. That could have devolved into another marathon battle, so I'm glad the party sought shelter.
We broke at this point, with players getting a chance to barricade themselves in the winery against the swarm of needle blights outside in the vineyard. They also will need to undo some of the damage Ap did with his spells. Fortunately, Lop knows mending.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
A Little Bit of Shadowrun
So sometime back, I promised to look at other games and occasionally do posts on other geeky insights. Let it not be said I'm not a man of my word.
I probed some players, and got some interest in Shadowrun. So I put one on my schedule, and the first game was last night. I didn't have long to gather players (and, as usual, that old jerk work schedules excluded some otherwise interested players), so there were only two: Joseph and Will from Encounters.
Shadowrun isn't as old as D&D, but it is an 80s classic and much beloved. A brief summary of the idea is that it mixes cyberpunk concepts (a future too-near ruled by corrupt corporations filled with cyborgs and direct brain-link hacking) with with fantasy ones (magic, dragons, dwarves, elves, orks, and trolls). If put under a microscope, the setting makes no logical sense (the "Earth" of Shadowrun is called "the Sixth World" in honor of the old Mayan calendar thing), but it is a lot fun. The built-in excuse for a bunch of mercenaries with no real backstory or identity to team up to commit questionable moral acts is in the title: the Shadowrun. In short, Shadowrunners are criminals for hire, and their job is to commit corporate espionage. They get these jobs because they don't have SINs (system identification numbers, the source of identity in the crapsack future), so they're the perfect deniable assets. And because corporations have multiple layers of security: electronic, guards without guns, magical wards, guards with guns, etc., a good team of Shadowrunners includes Street Samurai (warrior types-did I mention this game of from the 80s when everyone thought, incorrectly, Japan was going to economically conquer the world. It mostly remains due to tradition and the fact that many gamers are Japanophiles) to kill the guards with guns, a decker (brain-to-computer hacker) to get past the electronic security, a hermetic mage or shaman (mages focus of spell-slinging, and shamans are better at dealing with spirits) to deal with the magic, a face to talk to the guards without guns, and a rigger (brain-to-vehicle hacker) to drive the get away van.
Needless to say, technology and history marching on have not been kind to Shadowrun's timeline. In the 90s they did a storyline where Dunkelzahn, one of those newly returned dragons, ran for president and won (I'm pretty sure a certain orange-haired man would have asked to see THAT birth certificate), 2012 has come and gone with no goblinaztion (where normal people "turn into" orks and trolls) and no resurgence of magic, and since the 80s first the internet then the advent of wi-fi revolutionized computing. And unlike the un-history of Paranoia, Shadowrun's lore is deep and broad enough that its almost impossible to ret-con away like a failed comic book plot-line. The history muddles along, reading more like an alternate time line now than a future too near scenario.
Power and option creep have also set in. The fifth edition book has technomancers (magic brain hackers), adepts (use magic to enhance their physical abilities as an alternative to the cybered-up street samurai), and drones (riggers can use these remote control buddies to participate in the run from the safety of the getaway van). Plus it has new rules for wireless networking to make your hacker even more crazy useful. Fifth edition is almost 500 pages-and its to hold all those damn options and the spot rules for them. I'm not against options (let the players do what they want is something most DMs will cringe at, but I want the players to have FUN, dammit), but its a LOT of game to learn. So I was doomed to be a little unprepared.
At its heart, Shadowrun is simple enough. It uses an individuated (read each die separately for a "success") dice pool of d6s. Previous editions used moving target numbers and "exploding" dice (you can re-roll a six and add the re-roll for a higher result), but starting in 4th edition the designers followed White Wolf's lead and set a flat target number. In 1st through 3rd edition, Skill and Attribute were separate dice pools, and it was more difficult to raise a Skill over its linked Attribute (similar to Savage Worlds). Starting in 4th, the dice pool is the Skill + the Attribute (again, following White Wolf's lead). This means dice pools can get huge. The biggest pool from our first night was 11 dice. In SR4, this meant it was more efficient to raise your dice pools by buying up skills. SR5 introduced a concept called "Limits," which cap your successes and are based off of your Attributes and (mainly for attacks) your equipment. This provides incentive to raise the much more expensive attributes. Plus, the Social limit factor's in your character's Essence (the "soul" Attribute, previously reserved to be eaten by cybernetics), so if you want to deal with people, you have an incentive to avoid cybering up.
Since character creation in Shadowrun is a weekend killing endeavor even with players familiar with it (So. Many. Options.), I had Joseph and Will grab pre-gens out of the book and put the stats onto blank character sheets. In the grand tradition of pre-gens, they're not very well put together, but they're playable. Joseph picked a Drone Rigger he named Hector and Will picked a Street Samurai he named Jan (pronounced "Yan"). Both of these templates are orks, victims of rather a lot of prejudice in the Shadowrun world (tusks and an underbite, coupled with being bigger and broader-think "the big dumb guy" stereotype-than humans, are the main reason for this).
So they were down a face, a dedicated hacker (riggers can do some hacking), and any magic support. But damn were they good at murder. I knew we were all unfamiliar with the rules, so I ran a quick-start adventure from Free RPG Day. It's not complex-a corporate suit hires the runners to find his missing son. There were a few hiccups. The adventure was meant to work with pre-gens provided in the booklet, which are overall weaker than the core book's pre-gens, but have a few bits specifically geared toward the adventure. Still, lacking any social skills or proper investigation skills, they muddled through the first bit, mostly by being savvy players. Using tried and true knowledge of kidnapping (its usually someone the victim knows, etc.), they did some investigation. Of course, half the point is that it wasn't a normal kidnapping. The kid kept his backpack, but not any school books, plus (not spelled out in the adventure text proper, but I figured would be the case anyway), he took his jacket and coat and hygiene supplies. They did find that his computer and the security footage from the gated community he lived in had been thoroughly date wiped. After coming up empty on relative and acquaintances, they did some Matrix (because we won't be calling it the Internet in 60 years, apparently-like I said, lore too broad and deep to ret-con away) searching and hit up their "Fixer" (a contact responsible to putting Shadowrunners in contact with employers), they learned that a group of rookie hunters had taken a child to the docks for a hand off.
The found the warehouse complex, and cased the joint. Two mafiosi-looking goons, and some others in the nearby buildings (thermographic vision is useful, isn't it?) What they did next demonstrated why players and vehicles are a volatile mix. First, a side story.
Some years ago I ran a Vampire the Requiem game meant to show off the World of Darkness's fairly robust chase mechanics. The PCs had their Scooby Van (it's always a Scooby Van, mainly because vans are very good for hauling around a large group of people and all their crap around fairly efficiently), when two vamps drove up behind them on motorcycles with Tek-9s. Instead of just having the driver gun it while the passengers shot back, two of the PCs pulled a Matrix 2, and jumped out of the back of the van and onto the on-coming motorcycles to fight the enemy vamps. I know WoD isn't meant to be a cinematic game, but I have a weakness for cinematic moments, so I let them roll to see what happened. It ended being just. So. AWESOME! One landed on the bike perfectly and shoved the other vamp off. The other just kind of ran into the bike, causing it to crash, stranding him and the other vamp, where they proceeded to duke it out. The point of the story is that players and vehicles are a volatile combination. See characters, in a sense, aren't flesh and blood people but a sheet full of numbers that interact with the game world. So why should they behave like a flesh and blood person would? (Don't answer that-its rhetorical.)
So rather than hack the gates or cut the barb wire fences, Hector drove his Scooby SUV (mostly filled with just all the drones ever-priority A Resources at character generation is a lot of money, so you end buying things you do not logically even need) through the gate a tried to run over the goons. In the meantime, Jan jumped out and rolled on the pavement to get to the back door of the building with the kid in it. Like I said, players and vehicles are a volatile combination.
Hector failed to run over the goons, but when he opened the back of his SUV, he let loose all the drones ever equipped with just stupid ridiculous weapons. He was just trying to pin the goons with suppressing fire, but ended up murdering the shit out of them instead.
In the meantime, Jan kicked in the back door, because picking locks is for pussies. He then waited to ambush the two individuals in the building. One of them, a rookie ork Shadowrunner named Hardhat, emerged into the corridor, Jan threw a grenade down. I am, without a doubt, 100% certain I did the grenade rules wrong. Hardhat was still up after the blast (barely). His magic support, an elf mage named Caduceus, came out to failed to hit Yan with a Powerbolt, a basic damage dealing attack spell. I know I fudged the rules on spell casting at this time, too. But I went in knowing I was woefully under-prepared (we all were, really) so we're all on a learning curve for this one.
Initiative is complicated in Shadowrun. If your Initiative is over 10, you can act multiple times in a turn (3 seconds of game time) on different initiative passes. Its complicated, but easy enough to explain, anyway. Jan's next initiative pass was to spray the corridor containing Hardhat and Caduceus with his SMGs (one a hand-held, the other built into his cyberarm). These rules are also complicated. After going through the combat rules, I THINK we got it right (his dice pool takes a penalty, but the defender's defensive dice pool takes a hit, too, and his attack can apply to multiple targets). Even if we got it wrong, I might house-rule this to reduce the amount of dice rolling. Dice rolling is (almost) always the biggest slow down in combat. He shot Hardhat unconscious and killed Caduceus outright.
That taken care of, he went for the kid, Byron Strickland. The boy clearly was suffering from some sort of dissociative personality. In true Shadowrunner fashion, Jan didn't care. He just wanted to get the kid home and get paid. But he did give the kid a cookie.
They got the kid home, got paid, and got a too buggy to use piece of software the dad's team had been working on.
Overall, an inauspicious, but murder-filled start. And there's enough awesome there that I think the learning curve will be worth it.
In review, the rules are pretty simple in the overall, but start to get complex on a zoom in. Shadowrun's combat rules are particularly complicated. Some of it is legacy. FASA, the original creators, was started by a bunch of retired military buddies. Their flagship tabletop product was Battletech, a now classic game of big stompy robots blasting each other with lasers. However, their first RPG was a license of Star Trek that was, surprisingly enough considering the company's background but perfectly understandable given the source material, focused away from combat.
I probed some players, and got some interest in Shadowrun. So I put one on my schedule, and the first game was last night. I didn't have long to gather players (and, as usual, that old jerk work schedules excluded some otherwise interested players), so there were only two: Joseph and Will from Encounters.
Shadowrun isn't as old as D&D, but it is an 80s classic and much beloved. A brief summary of the idea is that it mixes cyberpunk concepts (a future too-near ruled by corrupt corporations filled with cyborgs and direct brain-link hacking) with with fantasy ones (magic, dragons, dwarves, elves, orks, and trolls). If put under a microscope, the setting makes no logical sense (the "Earth" of Shadowrun is called "the Sixth World" in honor of the old Mayan calendar thing), but it is a lot fun. The built-in excuse for a bunch of mercenaries with no real backstory or identity to team up to commit questionable moral acts is in the title: the Shadowrun. In short, Shadowrunners are criminals for hire, and their job is to commit corporate espionage. They get these jobs because they don't have SINs (system identification numbers, the source of identity in the crapsack future), so they're the perfect deniable assets. And because corporations have multiple layers of security: electronic, guards without guns, magical wards, guards with guns, etc., a good team of Shadowrunners includes Street Samurai (warrior types-did I mention this game of from the 80s when everyone thought, incorrectly, Japan was going to economically conquer the world. It mostly remains due to tradition and the fact that many gamers are Japanophiles) to kill the guards with guns, a decker (brain-to-computer hacker) to get past the electronic security, a hermetic mage or shaman (mages focus of spell-slinging, and shamans are better at dealing with spirits) to deal with the magic, a face to talk to the guards without guns, and a rigger (brain-to-vehicle hacker) to drive the get away van.
Needless to say, technology and history marching on have not been kind to Shadowrun's timeline. In the 90s they did a storyline where Dunkelzahn, one of those newly returned dragons, ran for president and won (I'm pretty sure a certain orange-haired man would have asked to see THAT birth certificate), 2012 has come and gone with no goblinaztion (where normal people "turn into" orks and trolls) and no resurgence of magic, and since the 80s first the internet then the advent of wi-fi revolutionized computing. And unlike the un-history of Paranoia, Shadowrun's lore is deep and broad enough that its almost impossible to ret-con away like a failed comic book plot-line. The history muddles along, reading more like an alternate time line now than a future too near scenario.
Power and option creep have also set in. The fifth edition book has technomancers (magic brain hackers), adepts (use magic to enhance their physical abilities as an alternative to the cybered-up street samurai), and drones (riggers can use these remote control buddies to participate in the run from the safety of the getaway van). Plus it has new rules for wireless networking to make your hacker even more crazy useful. Fifth edition is almost 500 pages-and its to hold all those damn options and the spot rules for them. I'm not against options (let the players do what they want is something most DMs will cringe at, but I want the players to have FUN, dammit), but its a LOT of game to learn. So I was doomed to be a little unprepared.
At its heart, Shadowrun is simple enough. It uses an individuated (read each die separately for a "success") dice pool of d6s. Previous editions used moving target numbers and "exploding" dice (you can re-roll a six and add the re-roll for a higher result), but starting in 4th edition the designers followed White Wolf's lead and set a flat target number. In 1st through 3rd edition, Skill and Attribute were separate dice pools, and it was more difficult to raise a Skill over its linked Attribute (similar to Savage Worlds). Starting in 4th, the dice pool is the Skill + the Attribute (again, following White Wolf's lead). This means dice pools can get huge. The biggest pool from our first night was 11 dice. In SR4, this meant it was more efficient to raise your dice pools by buying up skills. SR5 introduced a concept called "Limits," which cap your successes and are based off of your Attributes and (mainly for attacks) your equipment. This provides incentive to raise the much more expensive attributes. Plus, the Social limit factor's in your character's Essence (the "soul" Attribute, previously reserved to be eaten by cybernetics), so if you want to deal with people, you have an incentive to avoid cybering up.
Since character creation in Shadowrun is a weekend killing endeavor even with players familiar with it (So. Many. Options.), I had Joseph and Will grab pre-gens out of the book and put the stats onto blank character sheets. In the grand tradition of pre-gens, they're not very well put together, but they're playable. Joseph picked a Drone Rigger he named Hector and Will picked a Street Samurai he named Jan (pronounced "Yan"). Both of these templates are orks, victims of rather a lot of prejudice in the Shadowrun world (tusks and an underbite, coupled with being bigger and broader-think "the big dumb guy" stereotype-than humans, are the main reason for this).
So they were down a face, a dedicated hacker (riggers can do some hacking), and any magic support. But damn were they good at murder. I knew we were all unfamiliar with the rules, so I ran a quick-start adventure from Free RPG Day. It's not complex-a corporate suit hires the runners to find his missing son. There were a few hiccups. The adventure was meant to work with pre-gens provided in the booklet, which are overall weaker than the core book's pre-gens, but have a few bits specifically geared toward the adventure. Still, lacking any social skills or proper investigation skills, they muddled through the first bit, mostly by being savvy players. Using tried and true knowledge of kidnapping (its usually someone the victim knows, etc.), they did some investigation. Of course, half the point is that it wasn't a normal kidnapping. The kid kept his backpack, but not any school books, plus (not spelled out in the adventure text proper, but I figured would be the case anyway), he took his jacket and coat and hygiene supplies. They did find that his computer and the security footage from the gated community he lived in had been thoroughly date wiped. After coming up empty on relative and acquaintances, they did some Matrix (because we won't be calling it the Internet in 60 years, apparently-like I said, lore too broad and deep to ret-con away) searching and hit up their "Fixer" (a contact responsible to putting Shadowrunners in contact with employers), they learned that a group of rookie hunters had taken a child to the docks for a hand off.
The found the warehouse complex, and cased the joint. Two mafiosi-looking goons, and some others in the nearby buildings (thermographic vision is useful, isn't it?) What they did next demonstrated why players and vehicles are a volatile mix. First, a side story.
Some years ago I ran a Vampire the Requiem game meant to show off the World of Darkness's fairly robust chase mechanics. The PCs had their Scooby Van (it's always a Scooby Van, mainly because vans are very good for hauling around a large group of people and all their crap around fairly efficiently), when two vamps drove up behind them on motorcycles with Tek-9s. Instead of just having the driver gun it while the passengers shot back, two of the PCs pulled a Matrix 2, and jumped out of the back of the van and onto the on-coming motorcycles to fight the enemy vamps. I know WoD isn't meant to be a cinematic game, but I have a weakness for cinematic moments, so I let them roll to see what happened. It ended being just. So. AWESOME! One landed on the bike perfectly and shoved the other vamp off. The other just kind of ran into the bike, causing it to crash, stranding him and the other vamp, where they proceeded to duke it out. The point of the story is that players and vehicles are a volatile combination. See characters, in a sense, aren't flesh and blood people but a sheet full of numbers that interact with the game world. So why should they behave like a flesh and blood person would? (Don't answer that-its rhetorical.)
So rather than hack the gates or cut the barb wire fences, Hector drove his Scooby SUV (mostly filled with just all the drones ever-priority A Resources at character generation is a lot of money, so you end buying things you do not logically even need) through the gate a tried to run over the goons. In the meantime, Jan jumped out and rolled on the pavement to get to the back door of the building with the kid in it. Like I said, players and vehicles are a volatile combination.
Hector failed to run over the goons, but when he opened the back of his SUV, he let loose all the drones ever equipped with just stupid ridiculous weapons. He was just trying to pin the goons with suppressing fire, but ended up murdering the shit out of them instead.
In the meantime, Jan kicked in the back door, because picking locks is for pussies. He then waited to ambush the two individuals in the building. One of them, a rookie ork Shadowrunner named Hardhat, emerged into the corridor, Jan threw a grenade down. I am, without a doubt, 100% certain I did the grenade rules wrong. Hardhat was still up after the blast (barely). His magic support, an elf mage named Caduceus, came out to failed to hit Yan with a Powerbolt, a basic damage dealing attack spell. I know I fudged the rules on spell casting at this time, too. But I went in knowing I was woefully under-prepared (we all were, really) so we're all on a learning curve for this one.
Initiative is complicated in Shadowrun. If your Initiative is over 10, you can act multiple times in a turn (3 seconds of game time) on different initiative passes. Its complicated, but easy enough to explain, anyway. Jan's next initiative pass was to spray the corridor containing Hardhat and Caduceus with his SMGs (one a hand-held, the other built into his cyberarm). These rules are also complicated. After going through the combat rules, I THINK we got it right (his dice pool takes a penalty, but the defender's defensive dice pool takes a hit, too, and his attack can apply to multiple targets). Even if we got it wrong, I might house-rule this to reduce the amount of dice rolling. Dice rolling is (almost) always the biggest slow down in combat. He shot Hardhat unconscious and killed Caduceus outright.
That taken care of, he went for the kid, Byron Strickland. The boy clearly was suffering from some sort of dissociative personality. In true Shadowrunner fashion, Jan didn't care. He just wanted to get the kid home and get paid. But he did give the kid a cookie.
They got the kid home, got paid, and got a too buggy to use piece of software the dad's team had been working on.
Overall, an inauspicious, but murder-filled start. And there's enough awesome there that I think the learning curve will be worth it.
In review, the rules are pretty simple in the overall, but start to get complex on a zoom in. Shadowrun's combat rules are particularly complicated. Some of it is legacy. FASA, the original creators, was started by a bunch of retired military buddies. Their flagship tabletop product was Battletech, a now classic game of big stompy robots blasting each other with lasers. However, their first RPG was a license of Star Trek that was, surprisingly enough considering the company's background but perfectly understandable given the source material, focused away from combat.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Dire Wolves, Ghost Dogs, and Plant Monster, Oh No!
We had a new player this week: Danny. He had a lightfoot halfling rogue named Smeef. Shretz, another DM at the Isle of Games helped him create the character, and the Joseph helped level him up to 5. Having done parties with characters at different levels, I've decided not to allow it at a table I'm running. I have a feeling he hadn't played 5e before, so I hope diving in with both feet didn't spook him. He decided on the Arcan Trickster archetype, so he seemed confident in being able to play a more complex character.
To top it off, Ethan and Andrew returned tonight with Tarkir and Rolan, who also had to be leveled to 5. That totaled up to 9 players. It helped them handle the battles.
As I mentioned before, I pre-rolled the random encounters. One of the joys of being a DM is trying to get the random fall of dice to add up to a coherent or meaningful narrative. Or at least watch as players fill in the blanks on their own. I pre-rolled the encounters, but shifted the timing of one and spruced it up.
First, I had to introduce a new character. The Curse of Strahd has a hook tying into the Forgotten Realms factions appropriate for higher level characters, so I used that to draw in Smeef. The Harpers (his faction) were investigating children stolen by werewolves and taken into the Misty Forest near Daggerdale. So he had teamed up with other adventurers and explored the forest, until the mists separated him from the other adventurers and led him to the Old Svalich road, which led him to the Luna River Crossroads just west of Vallaki, where he met the current party travelling with Rictavio.
The crossroads sign had been damaged, but Lop fixed it with mending. Rictavio bid them farewell, following the sign to Lake Baratok, while the party continued to follow the road towards Krezk. Smeef recognized the symbol of Lathander on Tathora's livery, and decided to remain with his fellow Faerunians.
Not long afterwards, while travelling through the woods, a wolf the size of a grizzly bear stepped out of the mists. Amrus was acting as a scout at the time. He failed to properly hide from the other dire wolves in the area (there was a total of 5) but managed to notice them and warn the party, so there was no surprise. Of course, when I ran the first round I failed to remember that is how it happened, so he got a free sneak attack. The players didn't complain, and it probably wouldn't have mattered in the long run (probably).
Dire wolves, aside from being the emblem of House Stark (I'm ready o swear fealty to Sansa, Queen of the North, right until George R.R. Martin or the show writers decide to kill her) are what 4e would call skirmirshers: fast and tricksy. They have pack tactics, but without ranged weapons it isn't quite so broken. They also trip when they hit. Tarkir and Tathora managed to avoid being tripped, but Cugel and Rolan did not.
Rolan got to use his Druid circle feature to turn into a dire wolf during this battle. He even managed to turn the tables and trip another dire wolf. Tarkir, in the meantime, used searing smite, part of a new family of spells almost exclusively on the Paladin and Ranger spell lists that enhance the next attack. In this case, searing smite adds some extra fire damage to the initial attack and a DOT effect removed with a Con save. I think I failed to remember the effect, but again it won't matter in the long run.
Tathora tried to use her Channel Divinity to heal in an area, unfortunately I had to remind her it only brings a party member up to 1/2 their hit points, so the effect is better for a quick keeping someone from going down (and bring them back up after going down) rather than a top-off.
Cugel also broke out a new spell: major image to create a scary undead bear seeming to rise up out of the road. It allowed him to try to intimidate the wolves, but they have keen senses to help see through the illusion. However, he rolled well enough to spook the wolves closest to the illusion.
It became a little redundant after over half the pack died. I'm a firm believer in animals behaving like animals, and most animals faced with losing a large number of their group and being injured will flee if able.
They continued through the forest and to the Raven River Crossroads and followed the signs to the winery. The road led downhill and became a muddy trail. As the forest opened up to the mist shrouded vineyard valley, they found a corpse guarded by a pair of ghostly dogs. The dogs were initially friendly.
Then, before anyone could loot or take any other action, Cugel cast animate dead to raise the body as a zombie. This encounter, when originally rolled read "trinket," a random spooky object. I integrated it into an encounter from Fifth Edition Fantasy #7: Adventurer's Best Friend. The basic plot of that encounter is a party spotting a fallen adventurer killed by bandits on the road, his corpse guarded by the ghosts of his faithful hounds. I adjusted the plot a little: it was dead Vistana that the Martikovs in the Winery hired to take a message to Urwin the Innkeeper in Vallaki. Instead, he was killed by needle blights in service to the druids of Yester Hill, who had attacked the Winery a couple of days ago.
The idea behind the encounter is rather than "loot first, ask questions later," the typical adventurer approach, they're supposed to give the fallen young man a proper burial to appease the ghostly hounds. If they do loot, it provokes the dogs into attacking. So while the encounter doesn't mention specifically anything about animating the corpse instead, but I'm pretty sure it would count as "desecration," and would rile up the ghost dogs. As they moved to attack Cugel, the one responsible for desecrating their former master, the blights emerged from the woods and attacked.
The spectral hounds are kind of uninteresting monsters. Their defenses are low and their attacks are mediocre, but they have a boat load of hit points. The blights are minor enemies well suited to swarming and shooting. They have low hit points and defenses, don't hit often, but hit hard enough when they do hit.
The ghost dogs focused on Cugel, and in a remarkable show of solidarity, the party sided with him against the dogs. The exceptions were Lop, Ap, Tathora, and Tarkir. Lop and Ap broke out their brand new third level spells. Ap used wall of water to force the blights to clump up on either side of the party. Tarkir used his breath weapon on one clump. Ap used Melf's minute meteors, a spell which creates a bunch of small fireballs, and started shooting them at the blights. In the meantime, Amrus and Smeef focused on sneak attacking the doggies and Rolan used produce flame on them. The problem, though, is that they weren't vulnerable to fire. Tathora threw a spear at one.
When Cugel ran his zombie past its former pets and they refused to take opportunity attacks, the party finally picked up on what might be going on. Cugel opted to end his zombie spell after the party dropped one of the ghosts. Then they focused on the blights.
Ap used another third level spell: lightning bolt, and old standby that does lightning damage in a line. Tathora finally got to use Preserve Life on Tarkir, who had been swarmed by the blights, and Cugel, who had been the focus of the dogs' ire. Overall I was unimpressed with the meteors, but lightning bolt proved as effective a board clear as ever.
The fight over, Tathora examined the corpse and confirmed it had been killed by the blights. The remaining dog made a digging motion, and the party took the hint to provide the Vistana a proper burial. Lacking shovels, they gathered rocks for a cairn. At that point, the dog withdrew an object from a pouch on the Vistana's belt: scrap of paper wrapped around a box. The scrap of paper was a letter from Adrian Martikov to his brother Urwin asking for help. The box itself was the trinket: a locked box that plays a melody at night. Amrus was eager to open it, but Lop examined it first, and the group nixed that idea.
The finished the journey to the Winery, and met the Martikovs hiding out in a copse of trees nearby. They further explained their plight and offered to share their camp site with the party. We'll be picking up there at the beginning of next session.
Danny seemed interested in returning. If he does, it will probably work out fine since Joseph may have to drop out shortly.
Joseph, Will, and Alec were all eager to try out their new spells. I was a little surprised Kyla didn't use any of hers. Although with such a large party, she may not have needed to.
Although they're fun, the marathon combats can get a bit tiring to run, especially with such large groups. It is a bit of a struggle, since you don't ever want to turn away new players, but at some point you do have to say, "Sorry, my table's full." Meeting new players and introducing them to the game are the good part of events like encounters, but the over-flowing table moments and the shifting rosters are the challenges.
A part of me wants to just take a core group of players, tell them "your it, guys," and play another night when its less crowded and we can always use the private room. The store could even get credit for it on the Wizards event website. Of course, I've learned from experience coordinating schedules doesn't always work out. Plus, I like occasionally meeting new people.
To top it off, Ethan and Andrew returned tonight with Tarkir and Rolan, who also had to be leveled to 5. That totaled up to 9 players. It helped them handle the battles.
As I mentioned before, I pre-rolled the random encounters. One of the joys of being a DM is trying to get the random fall of dice to add up to a coherent or meaningful narrative. Or at least watch as players fill in the blanks on their own. I pre-rolled the encounters, but shifted the timing of one and spruced it up.
First, I had to introduce a new character. The Curse of Strahd has a hook tying into the Forgotten Realms factions appropriate for higher level characters, so I used that to draw in Smeef. The Harpers (his faction) were investigating children stolen by werewolves and taken into the Misty Forest near Daggerdale. So he had teamed up with other adventurers and explored the forest, until the mists separated him from the other adventurers and led him to the Old Svalich road, which led him to the Luna River Crossroads just west of Vallaki, where he met the current party travelling with Rictavio.
The crossroads sign had been damaged, but Lop fixed it with mending. Rictavio bid them farewell, following the sign to Lake Baratok, while the party continued to follow the road towards Krezk. Smeef recognized the symbol of Lathander on Tathora's livery, and decided to remain with his fellow Faerunians.
Not long afterwards, while travelling through the woods, a wolf the size of a grizzly bear stepped out of the mists. Amrus was acting as a scout at the time. He failed to properly hide from the other dire wolves in the area (there was a total of 5) but managed to notice them and warn the party, so there was no surprise. Of course, when I ran the first round I failed to remember that is how it happened, so he got a free sneak attack. The players didn't complain, and it probably wouldn't have mattered in the long run (probably).
Dire wolves, aside from being the emblem of House Stark (I'm ready o swear fealty to Sansa, Queen of the North, right until George R.R. Martin or the show writers decide to kill her) are what 4e would call skirmirshers: fast and tricksy. They have pack tactics, but without ranged weapons it isn't quite so broken. They also trip when they hit. Tarkir and Tathora managed to avoid being tripped, but Cugel and Rolan did not.
Rolan got to use his Druid circle feature to turn into a dire wolf during this battle. He even managed to turn the tables and trip another dire wolf. Tarkir, in the meantime, used searing smite, part of a new family of spells almost exclusively on the Paladin and Ranger spell lists that enhance the next attack. In this case, searing smite adds some extra fire damage to the initial attack and a DOT effect removed with a Con save. I think I failed to remember the effect, but again it won't matter in the long run.
Tathora tried to use her Channel Divinity to heal in an area, unfortunately I had to remind her it only brings a party member up to 1/2 their hit points, so the effect is better for a quick keeping someone from going down (and bring them back up after going down) rather than a top-off.
Cugel also broke out a new spell: major image to create a scary undead bear seeming to rise up out of the road. It allowed him to try to intimidate the wolves, but they have keen senses to help see through the illusion. However, he rolled well enough to spook the wolves closest to the illusion.
It became a little redundant after over half the pack died. I'm a firm believer in animals behaving like animals, and most animals faced with losing a large number of their group and being injured will flee if able.
They continued through the forest and to the Raven River Crossroads and followed the signs to the winery. The road led downhill and became a muddy trail. As the forest opened up to the mist shrouded vineyard valley, they found a corpse guarded by a pair of ghostly dogs. The dogs were initially friendly.
Then, before anyone could loot or take any other action, Cugel cast animate dead to raise the body as a zombie. This encounter, when originally rolled read "trinket," a random spooky object. I integrated it into an encounter from Fifth Edition Fantasy #7: Adventurer's Best Friend. The basic plot of that encounter is a party spotting a fallen adventurer killed by bandits on the road, his corpse guarded by the ghosts of his faithful hounds. I adjusted the plot a little: it was dead Vistana that the Martikovs in the Winery hired to take a message to Urwin the Innkeeper in Vallaki. Instead, he was killed by needle blights in service to the druids of Yester Hill, who had attacked the Winery a couple of days ago.
The idea behind the encounter is rather than "loot first, ask questions later," the typical adventurer approach, they're supposed to give the fallen young man a proper burial to appease the ghostly hounds. If they do loot, it provokes the dogs into attacking. So while the encounter doesn't mention specifically anything about animating the corpse instead, but I'm pretty sure it would count as "desecration," and would rile up the ghost dogs. As they moved to attack Cugel, the one responsible for desecrating their former master, the blights emerged from the woods and attacked.
The spectral hounds are kind of uninteresting monsters. Their defenses are low and their attacks are mediocre, but they have a boat load of hit points. The blights are minor enemies well suited to swarming and shooting. They have low hit points and defenses, don't hit often, but hit hard enough when they do hit.
The ghost dogs focused on Cugel, and in a remarkable show of solidarity, the party sided with him against the dogs. The exceptions were Lop, Ap, Tathora, and Tarkir. Lop and Ap broke out their brand new third level spells. Ap used wall of water to force the blights to clump up on either side of the party. Tarkir used his breath weapon on one clump. Ap used Melf's minute meteors, a spell which creates a bunch of small fireballs, and started shooting them at the blights. In the meantime, Amrus and Smeef focused on sneak attacking the doggies and Rolan used produce flame on them. The problem, though, is that they weren't vulnerable to fire. Tathora threw a spear at one.
When Cugel ran his zombie past its former pets and they refused to take opportunity attacks, the party finally picked up on what might be going on. Cugel opted to end his zombie spell after the party dropped one of the ghosts. Then they focused on the blights.
Ap used another third level spell: lightning bolt, and old standby that does lightning damage in a line. Tathora finally got to use Preserve Life on Tarkir, who had been swarmed by the blights, and Cugel, who had been the focus of the dogs' ire. Overall I was unimpressed with the meteors, but lightning bolt proved as effective a board clear as ever.
The fight over, Tathora examined the corpse and confirmed it had been killed by the blights. The remaining dog made a digging motion, and the party took the hint to provide the Vistana a proper burial. Lacking shovels, they gathered rocks for a cairn. At that point, the dog withdrew an object from a pouch on the Vistana's belt: scrap of paper wrapped around a box. The scrap of paper was a letter from Adrian Martikov to his brother Urwin asking for help. The box itself was the trinket: a locked box that plays a melody at night. Amrus was eager to open it, but Lop examined it first, and the group nixed that idea.
The finished the journey to the Winery, and met the Martikovs hiding out in a copse of trees nearby. They further explained their plight and offered to share their camp site with the party. We'll be picking up there at the beginning of next session.
Danny seemed interested in returning. If he does, it will probably work out fine since Joseph may have to drop out shortly.
Joseph, Will, and Alec were all eager to try out their new spells. I was a little surprised Kyla didn't use any of hers. Although with such a large party, she may not have needed to.
Although they're fun, the marathon combats can get a bit tiring to run, especially with such large groups. It is a bit of a struggle, since you don't ever want to turn away new players, but at some point you do have to say, "Sorry, my table's full." Meeting new players and introducing them to the game are the good part of events like encounters, but the over-flowing table moments and the shifting rosters are the challenges.
A part of me wants to just take a core group of players, tell them "your it, guys," and play another night when its less crowded and we can always use the private room. The store could even get credit for it on the Wizards event website. Of course, I've learned from experience coordinating schedules doesn't always work out. Plus, I like occasionally meeting new people.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Festival of the Blazing Sun
For any reader curious about what I might do other than gaming in my spare time, I spent this morning walking dogs for the Pima Animal Care Center. Getting the animals some exercise and companionship was well worth it, and I recommend it for any dog person out there.
Plus, if any of you are fans of any combination of the Dresden Files and co-operative board games, be sure to visit Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game Kickstarter and back it.
As I mentioned before, Vallaki is an event based portion of the new Curse of Strahd. As a DM, I always enjoy these sorts of adventures because they let the players make (a)moral (and sometimes stupid) decisions. These always end up being a little more interesting than the basic "left, right, or center at the fork" decisions provided by dungeons.
The day dawned gloomy and cloudy even by Barovia standards, and the party joined the rest of the town in the square for the Festival of the Blazing Sun, the greatest festival of the year! ALL WILL BE WELL! They watched a parade of children dressed in shabby flower costumes bring up a wicker sun (no, there wasn't anyone inside) that was then doused in oil. The burgomaster of Vallaki, the self-styled Baron Vargas Vallakovich rode into the square bearing a torch sputtering in the sudden downpour. He attempted to set the wicker sun ablaze, only to have it sputter and go out. This drew a tepid, fearful laugh from one of the assembled town guards. The baron accused the offender of "malicious unhappiness" (This is in the adventure itself. No, I don't know if the writers know Paranoia, but I'm betting they do.) and had him hog tied and attached to the Baron's horse. The baron then dragged the hapless guard around the muddy square for the "entertainment" of the assembled crowd. Ap cast mage hand to free the guard. As you might expect, this redirected the Baron's ire onto the party. He ordered the guards to surround the party, disarm them, and lead them from the town, which they would henceforth be banished from.
Tathora tried to calm the guards, but her words (and low die roll), failed to sway them from the fearsome Baron. Cugel cast invisibility, and from that cover cast rope trick. This handy spell suspends a rope in mid-air that leads to a small pocket dimension that lasts for an hour. If you pull up the rope, you close off the pocket dimension. It allows the party to take a short rest without worry of having to deal with a random encounter (at least until the spell ends and they have to leave the dimension). The party all scrambled up the rope to safety. The incensed Baron wanted them found, stripped, and left in the stocks for a week.
Everyone except Ap, who decided to peacefully accompany two guards to the gates. His original plan was to use crown of madness with the Twin Spell metamagic (a sorcerer feature in this edition-its exactly what it says on the tin: the spell effects two targets). This spell charms a target, and forces it to spend its action attacking a target of the caster's choice before moving. Presumably, Ap planned to have the guards knock each other out before returning to the party. But after seeing them disappear up the rope, he walked the rest of the way, allowed himself to be taken out the gates, then doubled back, found a clear area along the walls (with some Dexterity (stealth) checks) and climbed back over. He spotted a raven watching him, and used chill touch on it, which it took in stride and flew off. That was no ordinary raven!
In the mean time, the rest of the party relaxed in Cugel's bubble while a pair of guards stayed below where they disappeared. Help arrived in the form of Rictavio, who offered the guards some wine (laced with a harmless sleeping toxin) to ease their parched throats. The guards nodded off, so the party left the bubble and joined Rictavio, who asked them a favor. He had been keeping a saber-tooth tiger in his carnival wagon, but some idiot had broken the lock, and the beast got out. He wanted them to recover it before it hurt anyone. He told the party the coffin maker had been found dead, his throat torn out. Everyone was blaming the tiger. Except Rictavio managed to get a glimpse of the body, and he had been dead too long for it to have been the tiger. However, he knew the baron's guards meant it harm, so they had to find it before they provoked the beast. He gave the PCs some wolf steaks to lure it, and went to his wagon to prepare to leave. Since I like narrative coincidences to get a party back together, Ap returned just in time to meet Rictavio.
I ran this as a series of opposed tests. The Baron's bodyguard, the deformed and amoral Izek Strazni and a pack of guards were searching for the tiger while the party searched. Fortunately, the party found it first. They then needed to make some Wisdom (handle animal) checks to calm it and encourage it to follow them. I rewarded clever ideas and role-playing (using mage hand to scratch it behind the ears) and use of tools (tempting it with a wolf steak) with advantage on the roll. They accumulated enough successes to get it following them. However, they failed to evade Izek and his guards on their way back to Rictavio's wagon.
Ap tried to open the fight by using some spells to make himself spark like a thunder cloud. Of course, his bad luck (two threes when rolling with advantage), meant that none of the guards had seen the tale he told of his birth at the tavern. Plus, those guards were genuinely more scared of Izek and the Baron than they were of the PCs. The party opted to rely on non-lethal finishes for the guards, knocking out three (with the help of their cat) before dropping Izek.
I wished I had gotten to use Izek a little more. This brutish thug came complete with a tragic back story: losing his arm and family at a young age and a monstrous deformity: a demonic replacement arm grown for him by the Dark Powers ruling the Demiplane of Dread. The arm let him shoot fire, but the players were aggressive enough to get him melee right away. Of course, he had a big bucket of hit points and hit like a brick. He nearly dropped Sarra in a couple of hits. Cugel once again used Tasha's hideous laughter, but this time had to cast it twice, thanks to Izek rolling a natural 20 on his first save. In the meantime, Tathora got to break out the nuke heals to keep Sarra up. She also got to use spiritual weapon, one of the cleric's best early offense options, allowing ten turns of spell attacks doing 1d8 + Wisdom mod force damage. The best part is that it doesn't require concentration, so it can be used in conjunction with other duration spells, like many cleric buffs and the incomparable spirit guardians.
As Izek fell, he warned the party to watch out for his sister. They searched him for valuables,\ but only found a doll that looked suspiciously like Ireena Kolyana. They managed to surmise (with some Int rolls to remind them of previously revealed plot information) that Isek's sister is none other than Ireena. Tathora used spare the dying, a cleric cantrip that stabilizes a dying individual, to keep Izek alive and left a note on him letting him know that he had been shone mercy.
The rest of guards backed down and offered to cover for the PCs while they escaped. They lead the cat back to the wagon where Rictavio led the tiger in and locked it. They rode the out of town, where Urwin Martikov met them. He renewed his request investigate the winery, both for the sake of a parched Barovia and for the sake of checking on his estranged family. He let them know that they might need the wine to get Ireena and Ismark into Krezk, and told them he would keep the two safe until they returned. Rictavio told them to proceed on Urwin's errand, and to meet him at an old wizard's tower on the shores of Lake Barotok.
As they left, Urwin told Ap that ravens are a sign of good fortune in Barovia, and ought not be attacked, while he rubbed an obvious pain in his thigh. They guessed (correctly) that Ap had attacked none other than Urwin, though they figured he'd use a spell (such as polymorph). They weren't quite accurate, but I'd rather not spoil anything. (Though I think that teaser might be spoiler enough!)
The PCs were done with Vallaki (for now). They've earned the Baron's ire, but managed to save St Andral's church at the cost of the coffin maker's life. They've certainly affected the guards, but only time will tell if they left a mark on Izek. They haven't met with Lady Wachter yet, but may later.
I gave them a milestone, and helped them level up. Fifth level marks the start of the second "tier" in 5th edition. First, the proficiency bonus goes up, making everyone better at (nearly) everything. Second, dedicated spellcasters get access to 3rd level spells. This is where staples like fireball and lightning bolt live for arcane casters. Clerics get spirit guardians (a spell I waxed poetic on in previous posts, but I love it so much I'll talk about it again when Tathora uses it). They also get a raise dead: revivify that works if the target has been dead less than a minute. Also for spellcasters, cantrips get an extra damage die at 5th level. Rogues also get their third sneak attack die. Plus dedicated fighters (Fighters, Barbarian, Paladins, and Rangers) get their second attack. I think I forgot to tell Hillary this, so I'll be sure to let her know when next we meet. I also found I'd been an inattentive DM, and Kyla was further behind in her spellcasting than I thought. I broke out my cleric spell cards and sat down and (hopefully) got her squared away.
I also found out the kids ages, and they were about what I guesstimated. I found that the opportunity for a fight seemed to help keep Blake more attentive and less disruptive. Plus Alec had him sit next to me, which also help, I think. Plus, the last two sessions Hillary sat next to Kyla, who helped her out with combat rolls and kept her on track, too. I'll say it here and say it again in person: thanks Kyla!
The Winery will prove interesting, I think. Since they have another journey ahead, I'm going to pre-calculate travel times and roll for encounters ahead of time like DJ did back during Tyranny of Dragons. I tried the rest, so now I plan to try the best. I think I'll also try inserting some encounters from one of Goodman Games Fifth Edition Fantasy modules to shake things up. I know its technically unofficial, but I doubt Wizards' will send officiality police to stop my game and confiscate my gaming stuff. Plus they'll fit with the overall gothic horror mood of Ravenloft.
Plus, if any of you are fans of any combination of the Dresden Files and co-operative board games, be sure to visit Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game Kickstarter and back it.
As I mentioned before, Vallaki is an event based portion of the new Curse of Strahd. As a DM, I always enjoy these sorts of adventures because they let the players make (a)moral (and sometimes stupid) decisions. These always end up being a little more interesting than the basic "left, right, or center at the fork" decisions provided by dungeons.
The day dawned gloomy and cloudy even by Barovia standards, and the party joined the rest of the town in the square for the Festival of the Blazing Sun, the greatest festival of the year! ALL WILL BE WELL! They watched a parade of children dressed in shabby flower costumes bring up a wicker sun (no, there wasn't anyone inside) that was then doused in oil. The burgomaster of Vallaki, the self-styled Baron Vargas Vallakovich rode into the square bearing a torch sputtering in the sudden downpour. He attempted to set the wicker sun ablaze, only to have it sputter and go out. This drew a tepid, fearful laugh from one of the assembled town guards. The baron accused the offender of "malicious unhappiness" (This is in the adventure itself. No, I don't know if the writers know Paranoia, but I'm betting they do.) and had him hog tied and attached to the Baron's horse. The baron then dragged the hapless guard around the muddy square for the "entertainment" of the assembled crowd. Ap cast mage hand to free the guard. As you might expect, this redirected the Baron's ire onto the party. He ordered the guards to surround the party, disarm them, and lead them from the town, which they would henceforth be banished from.
Tathora tried to calm the guards, but her words (and low die roll), failed to sway them from the fearsome Baron. Cugel cast invisibility, and from that cover cast rope trick. This handy spell suspends a rope in mid-air that leads to a small pocket dimension that lasts for an hour. If you pull up the rope, you close off the pocket dimension. It allows the party to take a short rest without worry of having to deal with a random encounter (at least until the spell ends and they have to leave the dimension). The party all scrambled up the rope to safety. The incensed Baron wanted them found, stripped, and left in the stocks for a week.
Everyone except Ap, who decided to peacefully accompany two guards to the gates. His original plan was to use crown of madness with the Twin Spell metamagic (a sorcerer feature in this edition-its exactly what it says on the tin: the spell effects two targets). This spell charms a target, and forces it to spend its action attacking a target of the caster's choice before moving. Presumably, Ap planned to have the guards knock each other out before returning to the party. But after seeing them disappear up the rope, he walked the rest of the way, allowed himself to be taken out the gates, then doubled back, found a clear area along the walls (with some Dexterity (stealth) checks) and climbed back over. He spotted a raven watching him, and used chill touch on it, which it took in stride and flew off. That was no ordinary raven!
In the mean time, the rest of the party relaxed in Cugel's bubble while a pair of guards stayed below where they disappeared. Help arrived in the form of Rictavio, who offered the guards some wine (laced with a harmless sleeping toxin) to ease their parched throats. The guards nodded off, so the party left the bubble and joined Rictavio, who asked them a favor. He had been keeping a saber-tooth tiger in his carnival wagon, but some idiot had broken the lock, and the beast got out. He wanted them to recover it before it hurt anyone. He told the party the coffin maker had been found dead, his throat torn out. Everyone was blaming the tiger. Except Rictavio managed to get a glimpse of the body, and he had been dead too long for it to have been the tiger. However, he knew the baron's guards meant it harm, so they had to find it before they provoked the beast. He gave the PCs some wolf steaks to lure it, and went to his wagon to prepare to leave. Since I like narrative coincidences to get a party back together, Ap returned just in time to meet Rictavio.
I ran this as a series of opposed tests. The Baron's bodyguard, the deformed and amoral Izek Strazni and a pack of guards were searching for the tiger while the party searched. Fortunately, the party found it first. They then needed to make some Wisdom (handle animal) checks to calm it and encourage it to follow them. I rewarded clever ideas and role-playing (using mage hand to scratch it behind the ears) and use of tools (tempting it with a wolf steak) with advantage on the roll. They accumulated enough successes to get it following them. However, they failed to evade Izek and his guards on their way back to Rictavio's wagon.
Ap tried to open the fight by using some spells to make himself spark like a thunder cloud. Of course, his bad luck (two threes when rolling with advantage), meant that none of the guards had seen the tale he told of his birth at the tavern. Plus, those guards were genuinely more scared of Izek and the Baron than they were of the PCs. The party opted to rely on non-lethal finishes for the guards, knocking out three (with the help of their cat) before dropping Izek.
I wished I had gotten to use Izek a little more. This brutish thug came complete with a tragic back story: losing his arm and family at a young age and a monstrous deformity: a demonic replacement arm grown for him by the Dark Powers ruling the Demiplane of Dread. The arm let him shoot fire, but the players were aggressive enough to get him melee right away. Of course, he had a big bucket of hit points and hit like a brick. He nearly dropped Sarra in a couple of hits. Cugel once again used Tasha's hideous laughter, but this time had to cast it twice, thanks to Izek rolling a natural 20 on his first save. In the meantime, Tathora got to break out the nuke heals to keep Sarra up. She also got to use spiritual weapon, one of the cleric's best early offense options, allowing ten turns of spell attacks doing 1d8 + Wisdom mod force damage. The best part is that it doesn't require concentration, so it can be used in conjunction with other duration spells, like many cleric buffs and the incomparable spirit guardians.
As Izek fell, he warned the party to watch out for his sister. They searched him for valuables,\ but only found a doll that looked suspiciously like Ireena Kolyana. They managed to surmise (with some Int rolls to remind them of previously revealed plot information) that Isek's sister is none other than Ireena. Tathora used spare the dying, a cleric cantrip that stabilizes a dying individual, to keep Izek alive and left a note on him letting him know that he had been shone mercy.
The rest of guards backed down and offered to cover for the PCs while they escaped. They lead the cat back to the wagon where Rictavio led the tiger in and locked it. They rode the out of town, where Urwin Martikov met them. He renewed his request investigate the winery, both for the sake of a parched Barovia and for the sake of checking on his estranged family. He let them know that they might need the wine to get Ireena and Ismark into Krezk, and told them he would keep the two safe until they returned. Rictavio told them to proceed on Urwin's errand, and to meet him at an old wizard's tower on the shores of Lake Barotok.
As they left, Urwin told Ap that ravens are a sign of good fortune in Barovia, and ought not be attacked, while he rubbed an obvious pain in his thigh. They guessed (correctly) that Ap had attacked none other than Urwin, though they figured he'd use a spell (such as polymorph). They weren't quite accurate, but I'd rather not spoil anything. (Though I think that teaser might be spoiler enough!)
The PCs were done with Vallaki (for now). They've earned the Baron's ire, but managed to save St Andral's church at the cost of the coffin maker's life. They've certainly affected the guards, but only time will tell if they left a mark on Izek. They haven't met with Lady Wachter yet, but may later.
I gave them a milestone, and helped them level up. Fifth level marks the start of the second "tier" in 5th edition. First, the proficiency bonus goes up, making everyone better at (nearly) everything. Second, dedicated spellcasters get access to 3rd level spells. This is where staples like fireball and lightning bolt live for arcane casters. Clerics get spirit guardians (a spell I waxed poetic on in previous posts, but I love it so much I'll talk about it again when Tathora uses it). They also get a raise dead: revivify that works if the target has been dead less than a minute. Also for spellcasters, cantrips get an extra damage die at 5th level. Rogues also get their third sneak attack die. Plus dedicated fighters (Fighters, Barbarian, Paladins, and Rangers) get their second attack. I think I forgot to tell Hillary this, so I'll be sure to let her know when next we meet. I also found I'd been an inattentive DM, and Kyla was further behind in her spellcasting than I thought. I broke out my cleric spell cards and sat down and (hopefully) got her squared away.
I also found out the kids ages, and they were about what I guesstimated. I found that the opportunity for a fight seemed to help keep Blake more attentive and less disruptive. Plus Alec had him sit next to me, which also help, I think. Plus, the last two sessions Hillary sat next to Kyla, who helped her out with combat rolls and kept her on track, too. I'll say it here and say it again in person: thanks Kyla!
The Winery will prove interesting, I think. Since they have another journey ahead, I'm going to pre-calculate travel times and roll for encounters ahead of time like DJ did back during Tyranny of Dragons. I tried the rest, so now I plan to try the best. I think I'll also try inserting some encounters from one of Goodman Games Fifth Edition Fantasy modules to shake things up. I know its technically unofficial, but I doubt Wizards' will send officiality police to stop my game and confiscate my gaming stuff. Plus they'll fit with the overall gothic horror mood of Ravenloft.
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