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Commentary thread for that “Describe your game in five words” thread.
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<blockquote data-quote="kenada" data-source="post: 9037989" data-attributes="member: 70468"><p>“<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/describe-your-last-rpg-session-in-5-words.679952/post-9037988" target="_blank">Diane in fact hunts vampires</a>”</p><p></p><p>It’s been a while since we had a session (April 23 apparently). I’ve been busy with other things, but we finally got to play last weekend! I thought I’d need a map for the stirge extermination, but we didn’t even get to that. I guess I should have trusted my homebrew system more to do what it’s designed to do (which is sandbox play without the prep).</p><p></p><p>We had a couple of big things happen this session. The first was that Tama (the cleric) finally finished working with Jon the Painter to add a holy symbol to her shield. This was a particular triumph because Jon was some crappy apprentice that was assigned to work on Tama’s task last session after she got Mixed Success on her roll. Even with her instruction on the sigil (to let her Work Together with him), progress was <em>slow</em>. It probably took a month in-game to get it done. She got it done though, and now she has a rank +2 shield with a holy symbol she can use for casting in combat.</p><p></p><p>We also resolved a situation with raiders. While the party was traveling, the clock for the raiders went off. The PCs had antagonized them in the past, and the raiders were looking for them. After the next event roll, the PCs found there had been a lot of activity near their (hidden) camp. I set it up this way even though the event went off because they had gotten Complete Success to hide the camp. I can’t negate their success, but that doesn’t mean I also can’t set them up for a bad follow up situation if that’s what the mechanics require.</p><p></p><p>Knowing they were facing trouble, the party set up a trap. They left their wagon and supplies in a conspicuous place then hid in the trees for an ambush. They rolled Camouflage + approach to hide. The players thought they were just rolling for the task, but what was actually at stake is how the ambush would happen. They were Working Together on the same method, so they all rolled. The best result would control, and any failures would reduce its total by −2 per failure (unless the leader paid stress to negate the failures). They all rolled pretty well though, resulting in Complete Success. We set up where the PCs were hiding, and the raiders were in position for them to pounce.</p><p></p><p>The fight itself went pretty quickly. The raiders were surprised, so they did not get an equip phase. All they could do on their turn is try to get away from the PCs (if possible). They also got Mixed Success on their morale check during the next equip phase, which means they would regroup and fight defensively. The PCs had already gotten a good shot in on their leader, and Deirdre got a Critical Success, dealing maximum damage to him and killing him. They told the raiders to leave, and they did. There’s going to be consequences with that faction, but they got the raiders off their back for now, and they got some money (5500 S between the saddlebags) and horses.</p><p></p><p>Between all that is what prompted the five words.</p><p></p><p>Dingo (the thief) has a chalice the party found in the last dungeon. If you fill it with blood and drink it, it heals you. As established <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/commentary-thread-for-that-“describe-your-game-in-five-words”-thread.682741/post-8999754" target="_blank">last time</a>, there was a blood cult that might be interested. There was a funny moment where Dingo wanted to sneak away and search for them on his own, but then he decided to invite Deirdre along with him. Much laughter was had at this poor example of sneaking. Dingo asked around some, and they found out about an “abandoned” warehouse on the edge of town. He and Deirdre bought some cloaks to try to blend in with the locals there. They rolled Camouflage and got Mixed Success. That means they would get what they wanted (access to the warehouse), but there would be a cost.</p><p></p><p>The warehouse was previously occupied by orc rebels. They had left several months ago to head south to cause trouble for Dyrstelice, but they left people behind to keep an eye on their holdings. The party encountered the watches outside the warehouse. There was some small talk made, and Deirdre pulled down her hood to reveal her identity. The watch was like: oh, you’re that famous adventurer. They were rather impressed with her. Not exactly sure the PCs’ angle here, but Deirdre is all about stroking her ego. The watch had a pretty simple request. There were vampires in their warehouse, and they wanted them out. If the PCs didn’t do them this favor, it was going to mean trouble with the orcs in the future.</p><p></p><p>These vampires were Natalia’s minions. Natalia is the vampire living at their manor. She had told them she intended to make more of her kind, but only consensually. Apparently the PCs just didn’t give a crap. Inside the warehouse, Deirdre and Dingo found it had been arranged with a “safe” area in the middle where some of the shelves had been tarped over to block out accidental sunlight. They circumnavigated the warehouse looking for anything else, but “all” they found was a smugglers’ tunnel hidden at the bottom of a crate. Dingo crept up to the middle to peer inside and saw two vampires: a female elven (Josette) and a male yuma (Gerard) lying in repose.</p><p></p><p>What had happened here is Gerard was recently turned. The way that works is once a vampire drains you, you’re dead for three days. After three days, you have to resist being permanently dead and resist going mindless. The latter is called the Curse of Intelligence. All intelligent undead require something from the living to retain their intelligence. They aren’t naturally “evil” (there is no concept of alignment), but it means they are innately in conflict. Undead are also fundamentally a form of elemental (death elemental). Essentially, a corpse is animated with the essence of death.</p><p></p><p>Dingo and Deirdre decided on a plan. Dingo would reveal himself to the elven woman, and while he was talking to her, Deirdre would announce herself as a vampire hunter. Then some stuff would happen, and Deirdre would get to kill her some vampires. So Dingo goes up and starts talking to Josette. He tries to convince her it’s not safe there and rolls his Deception check. He got a Mixed Success, so she wanted help. If he could help her carry out Gerard’s body, she’s leave. As they’re doing that, Diane the Vampire Hunter appears. Yes, it’s Deirdre in her cloak.</p><p></p><p>Diane declares she has her weapon equipped, initiating combat. Notably, Dingo does not equip anything, so he is “out” of the combat. Josette equips her energy drain. The combat is one-sided. I’ve done some work on stats, but I still need to hash things out. Diane did some damage to Josette and knocked her back with her Forceful Blow. If she had fought back, Josette would have been able to hurt Deirdre nicely, but she’s a new vampire, and she just wants to get out of danger. After that round, Josette equips gaseous form, Deirdre isn’t able to kill her, and Josette leaves. They stake poor Gerard (who would have failed his resist roll anyway), and that’s the end of the vampires.</p><p></p><p>After that, the party rested and took care of some other business, then they headed out (ending the session after the fight with the raiders). I was pretty pleased how things mostly ran themselves. I had some bits of information (such as the existence of the warehouse), but I was able to lean pretty nicely on the system to keep things moving and to set up the action.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="kenada, post: 9037989, member: 70468"] “[URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/describe-your-last-rpg-session-in-5-words.679952/post-9037988']Diane in fact hunts vampires[/URL]” It’s been a while since we had a session (April 23 apparently). I’ve been busy with other things, but we finally got to play last weekend! I thought I’d need a map for the stirge extermination, but we didn’t even get to that. I guess I should have trusted my homebrew system more to do what it’s designed to do (which is sandbox play without the prep). We had a couple of big things happen this session. The first was that Tama (the cleric) finally finished working with Jon the Painter to add a holy symbol to her shield. This was a particular triumph because Jon was some crappy apprentice that was assigned to work on Tama’s task last session after she got Mixed Success on her roll. Even with her instruction on the sigil (to let her Work Together with him), progress was [I]slow[/I]. It probably took a month in-game to get it done. She got it done though, and now she has a rank +2 shield with a holy symbol she can use for casting in combat. We also resolved a situation with raiders. While the party was traveling, the clock for the raiders went off. The PCs had antagonized them in the past, and the raiders were looking for them. After the next event roll, the PCs found there had been a lot of activity near their (hidden) camp. I set it up this way even though the event went off because they had gotten Complete Success to hide the camp. I can’t negate their success, but that doesn’t mean I also can’t set them up for a bad follow up situation if that’s what the mechanics require. Knowing they were facing trouble, the party set up a trap. They left their wagon and supplies in a conspicuous place then hid in the trees for an ambush. They rolled Camouflage + approach to hide. The players thought they were just rolling for the task, but what was actually at stake is how the ambush would happen. They were Working Together on the same method, so they all rolled. The best result would control, and any failures would reduce its total by −2 per failure (unless the leader paid stress to negate the failures). They all rolled pretty well though, resulting in Complete Success. We set up where the PCs were hiding, and the raiders were in position for them to pounce. The fight itself went pretty quickly. The raiders were surprised, so they did not get an equip phase. All they could do on their turn is try to get away from the PCs (if possible). They also got Mixed Success on their morale check during the next equip phase, which means they would regroup and fight defensively. The PCs had already gotten a good shot in on their leader, and Deirdre got a Critical Success, dealing maximum damage to him and killing him. They told the raiders to leave, and they did. There’s going to be consequences with that faction, but they got the raiders off their back for now, and they got some money (5500 S between the saddlebags) and horses. Between all that is what prompted the five words. Dingo (the thief) has a chalice the party found in the last dungeon. If you fill it with blood and drink it, it heals you. As established [URL='https://www.enworld.org/threads/commentary-thread-for-that-“describe-your-game-in-five-words”-thread.682741/post-8999754']last time[/URL], there was a blood cult that might be interested. There was a funny moment where Dingo wanted to sneak away and search for them on his own, but then he decided to invite Deirdre along with him. Much laughter was had at this poor example of sneaking. Dingo asked around some, and they found out about an “abandoned” warehouse on the edge of town. He and Deirdre bought some cloaks to try to blend in with the locals there. They rolled Camouflage and got Mixed Success. That means they would get what they wanted (access to the warehouse), but there would be a cost. The warehouse was previously occupied by orc rebels. They had left several months ago to head south to cause trouble for Dyrstelice, but they left people behind to keep an eye on their holdings. The party encountered the watches outside the warehouse. There was some small talk made, and Deirdre pulled down her hood to reveal her identity. The watch was like: oh, you’re that famous adventurer. They were rather impressed with her. Not exactly sure the PCs’ angle here, but Deirdre is all about stroking her ego. The watch had a pretty simple request. There were vampires in their warehouse, and they wanted them out. If the PCs didn’t do them this favor, it was going to mean trouble with the orcs in the future. These vampires were Natalia’s minions. Natalia is the vampire living at their manor. She had told them she intended to make more of her kind, but only consensually. Apparently the PCs just didn’t give a crap. Inside the warehouse, Deirdre and Dingo found it had been arranged with a “safe” area in the middle where some of the shelves had been tarped over to block out accidental sunlight. They circumnavigated the warehouse looking for anything else, but “all” they found was a smugglers’ tunnel hidden at the bottom of a crate. Dingo crept up to the middle to peer inside and saw two vampires: a female elven (Josette) and a male yuma (Gerard) lying in repose. What had happened here is Gerard was recently turned. The way that works is once a vampire drains you, you’re dead for three days. After three days, you have to resist being permanently dead and resist going mindless. The latter is called the Curse of Intelligence. All intelligent undead require something from the living to retain their intelligence. They aren’t naturally “evil” (there is no concept of alignment), but it means they are innately in conflict. Undead are also fundamentally a form of elemental (death elemental). Essentially, a corpse is animated with the essence of death. Dingo and Deirdre decided on a plan. Dingo would reveal himself to the elven woman, and while he was talking to her, Deirdre would announce herself as a vampire hunter. Then some stuff would happen, and Deirdre would get to kill her some vampires. So Dingo goes up and starts talking to Josette. He tries to convince her it’s not safe there and rolls his Deception check. He got a Mixed Success, so she wanted help. If he could help her carry out Gerard’s body, she’s leave. As they’re doing that, Diane the Vampire Hunter appears. Yes, it’s Deirdre in her cloak. Diane declares she has her weapon equipped, initiating combat. Notably, Dingo does not equip anything, so he is “out” of the combat. Josette equips her energy drain. The combat is one-sided. I’ve done some work on stats, but I still need to hash things out. Diane did some damage to Josette and knocked her back with her Forceful Blow. If she had fought back, Josette would have been able to hurt Deirdre nicely, but she’s a new vampire, and she just wants to get out of danger. After that round, Josette equips gaseous form, Deirdre isn’t able to kill her, and Josette leaves. They stake poor Gerard (who would have failed his resist roll anyway), and that’s the end of the vampires. After that, the party rested and took care of some other business, then they headed out (ending the session after the fight with the raiders). I was pretty pleased how things mostly ran themselves. I had some bits of information (such as the existence of the warehouse), but I was able to lean pretty nicely on the system to keep things moving and to set up the action. [/QUOTE]
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