I just backed Stonetop after hearing good things for the past two months. I'm only on page 82 of the first book, but I'm very impressed! I'd love for you to
share your experiences with playing Stonetop. Roll +CHA:
on a 10+, pick 2; on a
7-9, pick 1. On a
6-, realize that [+] means "positive experiences" and find a different thread.
- Share a story of a something cool or unique that happened in your game
- Point out something that delighted you as you read the rules
- Tell us how you were surprised by emergent gameplay
- Describe how you've improved upon Stonetop as written
- Explain something that didn't work, at first, and how you made it better
- ...or anything else you think is interesting!
I ran a long campaign for my face to face group. It was a great campaign with a lot of surprises and interesting things that happened.
One of the things that most surprised me was how invested in the NPCs my players became. There were several times where NPCs were at great risk and when that happened, the players became hyper focused on helping or saving them. Not all made it, but many did, and these were typically the most meaningful events of the campaign.
In particular, we had one NPC who was the town’s Marshal (no one had taken that playbook, so we had an NPC serve that role). He served as a kind of foil to the PCs. He and his gang of underlings were rivals of the PCs. The Marshal’s mother was also the midwife, and she had bad blood with one of the PCs.
So there were bandits that had attacked some of the townsfolk on a couple of occasions, and the PCs finally tracked them down. The Marshal and his crew insisted on coming and helping… and things did not go well for them. Three of the four crew members were killed and both the fourth crew member and the Marshal himself were nearly killed.
The remaining crew member left the militia as a result, and the Marshal had a total crisis of confidence. Not only had he led these young men to their deaths, but they were also his close friends. I used this emotional struggle as an Impending Doom. Would the PCs recognize the situation and would they be able to do anything about it before his mental state got so bad that something awful happened?
Such a great situation that arose purely out of play. The PCs actually did help him, and the Marshal was able to make it through his trauma… though he was always haunted after that. But the players were so invested in him and so many of the other NPCs, it was really great.
I don’t know if it’s just the fact that the game focuses so much on the town and its people or if it has something to do with the fact that the players are involved with making the NPCs or what. Probably both, I expect… but it made the game very memorable and made Stonetop feel like a real, lived in place.
