LostSoul
Adventurer
I got a chance to do some playtesting for my 4E hack.
Previously Erik (the lone player at the moment) and I rolled up his first PC in a quick test of the character generation rules. He rolled up another one tonight and had me make one.
Of note is the stat generation method, which I'm pretty happy with: 3d6 in order, bump up anything lower than 8 to 8, replace one stat with a 16. It means that you really don't know what you're going to get until you sit down at the table.
We also used my new skill system which did its job well - generating a background and ties to the setting. We ended up with:
All of those descriptive elements are actually skills.
With the characters created, I filled in some information on the player's map, showing the level of the geographic area and where some monsters are (writing "Orcs" and "Goblins" on the map). Looking over the information packet, Erik picked one that sounded interesting to him and that became the PC's Quest.
This is the player's information about what is in a certain hex. I rolled up what was in each hex using my "Hex Crawl" rules and then detailed it; then I wrote a "player's information" for each non-hidden element. This was one.
Then I set the scene: the PCs are in Wrafton's Inn in Winterhaven. The farmers are anxious about the orcs in the mountains, irritated by the goblins stealing from them, frustrated by the bandits and outlaws raiding the roads. (All of this information is in the initial packet but I wanted to emphasize what these NPCs were concerned about.)
I ask Erik what the PCs do. He has his guys start looking for information about Watcher's Hill. He talks to a farmer; I have no idea how this farmer will react to strangers, so I make a reaction roll. The roll is "neutral", so the farmer scratches his beard and doesn't want to talk unless they make a roll.
This triggers the skill system. We approach each item on the skill procedure and it works well. The PC endears himself to the farmer, who points him in the direction of Tober, a brave young guy who's been to Watcher's Hill before.
That leads into the next scene, where the PCs talk to Tober. Now as DM I know there's something going on behind the scenes. I don't have to make a reaction roll for Tober as I know what he wants. The PCs offer Tober a share of any loot found in exchange for his services as a guide. Tober asks the PCs if they are ready, if they have everything they need; the PCs say they'd like to buy some poison, Tober asks them how much they'd like to spend, and the PCs indicate that cost isn't much of an issue. Tober points them to Delphina Moongem, the hippy herbalist. The PCs agree to meet Tober at 9 the next morning (he wanted to meet at noon).
One of the PCs buys some herbal rat repellent from Delphina after hearing rumours from Tober and Delphina about rats with human faces and hands building small stone cairns near Watcher's Hill. Delphina also warns the PCs away from the bloodthorn vines just south of Watcher's Hill.
The PCs do nothing else that day. The next morning they meet Tober at 9:30, half an hour late. His boots are dusty and he looks tired. The PCs inquire at this, make a skill check, and Tober's excuse ("I was visiting relatives down the valley, we had a few drinks because I might die") didn't sound right. They tell him to spill his guts, come clean with him about any plot to fleece the PCs, and they make the check - this means they know Tober's going to fleece them but he's not saying anything. Tober threatens to just leave and the PCs apologize, playing along with him.
We broke to talk about the social skill checks. We were happy with how they went; the successful checks made a difference though you can't force another character to do something with a successful check if he doesn't want to (unless you physically force him). I added in a +2 stacking bonus for successful skill checks in my hack so that once you get the advantage you can ride it out and all that talking isn't for naught.
Off to Watcher's Hill, then. I made a couple of random encounter rolls but nothing was encountered. Now the PCs know that there's something going on here. Erik wanted to see how information checks would work and asked if he could ret-con Carrion's actions from last night, having Carrion spend the night in the arms of a wanton in order to speak with his infernal succubus patron. I said sure; he asked what was up with the lights seen in the old fort. He made the roll, and learned that the lights were mundane, not supernatural at all.
The DC set for this was "level- or tier-based", based on the level of Watcher's Hill (3). A challenge against the environment and it worked well.
Now the PCs knew something was up and they decided to get the jump on the ambushers. Harold knew something about this, having grown up on the streets of Stormwatch - he knew how to walk into a mugging, feigning ingnorance and thereby turning the tables on the would-be ambushers. He made a check, the DC set by the opposition's perception, and got a +2 bonus to his next roll. (If he failed it would have been a -2.)
The PCs entered the fort, I pulled out a poster map, and we used the "skill combat" mechanics. First I rolled for encounter distance. 13 squares or 65 feet. We skipped surprise - both sides were aware of the other - and the reaction roll, as I knew what the bandits who were lurking in there wanted.
(What happened behind the scenes: Some bandits who plague the road sometimes use Watcher's Hill to spy on Winterhaven and the valley below. I knew that there was a spy in Winterhaven who works for the bandits, and obviously he's the one who's been to Watcher's Hill before. When the PCs approached him - and he learned that they had a fair amount of coin - I figured he would jump them. I didn't have an encounter planned for Watcher's Hill at this point, but I knew its level, and quickly threw one together.)
We went down the procedure for "skill combat" - declare actions, set DCs, roll the dice, resolve the actions, and repeat. It worked well! It went by pretty fast, the most lag was because Erik's new to 4E and didn't have a good handle on what his PCs could do.
The fight was deadly since I've reworked damage and HP for this system. Nikos and Harold fell, but Carrion held on by grabbing temp HP from a number of his powers. After using his Daily (Armour of Agathys) he killed the berserker who was choking him to death, which triggered a morale check and the monsters "failed". (They didn't but we wanted to see how the "Shake it out" rules worked, translating "hits" in the skill combat system into HP damage. They don't work! That's something I need to work on.)
All in all, very successful playtest. I still have some other stuff to work on - the settlement sub-system, where you take control of a settlement and plan its growth - but it looks good. The next step is to put out an ad and get a couple of other players and start playing!
Previously Erik (the lone player at the moment) and I rolled up his first PC in a quick test of the character generation rules. He rolled up another one tonight and had me make one.
Of note is the stat generation method, which I'm pretty happy with: 3d6 in order, bump up anything lower than 8 to 8, replace one stat with a 16. It means that you really don't know what you're going to get until you sit down at the table.
We also used my new skill system which did its job well - generating a background and ties to the setting. We ended up with:
- Harold, a roguish Warlord born on the streets of Stormwatch, the last human city, surviving the dangers of the city by working as an errand boy for a barber-surgeon/necromancer, who was once part of a mercenary company;
- his older brother, Nikos the Unforgiving, a big wizard (17 Str) who never forgives a slight, who studied under Nimorzaran the Green in Fallcrest;
- and Carrion the Darkness, a tiefling Warlock who drinks the blood of innocents to gain unnatural health, can talk to his patron devil while in the embrace of a wanton, who became friends with Harold while he was part of the Thieves Guild in Stormwatch.
All of those descriptive elements are actually skills.
With the characters created, I filled in some information on the player's map, showing the level of the geographic area and where some monsters are (writing "Orcs" and "Goblins" on the map). Looking over the information packet, Erik picked one that sounded interesting to him and that became the PC's Quest.
Watcher's Hill - an old fort (think Weathertop), built during the Bloodspear War to protect Winterhaven's flank and keep the road open. It looks down across the Winterhaven Valley, across the plains to the east, to the mist-shrouded shore of Lake Wintermist, and even the trail (Markelhay's Folly) heading north. Destroyed by the Bloodspear orcs after a long siege, it has lain empty for a hundred years. Local legend has it that Watcher's Hill is haunted, patrolled by the restless spirits of those who fell during the Bloodspear War. Strange lights have been seen on dark nights and during the full moon, and it is eerily quiet - no birds sing their songs nearby, no crickets chirp, no wolves howl on that haunted tor.
This is the player's information about what is in a certain hex. I rolled up what was in each hex using my "Hex Crawl" rules and then detailed it; then I wrote a "player's information" for each non-hidden element. This was one.
Then I set the scene: the PCs are in Wrafton's Inn in Winterhaven. The farmers are anxious about the orcs in the mountains, irritated by the goblins stealing from them, frustrated by the bandits and outlaws raiding the roads. (All of this information is in the initial packet but I wanted to emphasize what these NPCs were concerned about.)
I ask Erik what the PCs do. He has his guys start looking for information about Watcher's Hill. He talks to a farmer; I have no idea how this farmer will react to strangers, so I make a reaction roll. The roll is "neutral", so the farmer scratches his beard and doesn't want to talk unless they make a roll.
This triggers the skill system. We approach each item on the skill procedure and it works well. The PC endears himself to the farmer, who points him in the direction of Tober, a brave young guy who's been to Watcher's Hill before.
That leads into the next scene, where the PCs talk to Tober. Now as DM I know there's something going on behind the scenes. I don't have to make a reaction roll for Tober as I know what he wants. The PCs offer Tober a share of any loot found in exchange for his services as a guide. Tober asks the PCs if they are ready, if they have everything they need; the PCs say they'd like to buy some poison, Tober asks them how much they'd like to spend, and the PCs indicate that cost isn't much of an issue. Tober points them to Delphina Moongem, the hippy herbalist. The PCs agree to meet Tober at 9 the next morning (he wanted to meet at noon).
One of the PCs buys some herbal rat repellent from Delphina after hearing rumours from Tober and Delphina about rats with human faces and hands building small stone cairns near Watcher's Hill. Delphina also warns the PCs away from the bloodthorn vines just south of Watcher's Hill.
The PCs do nothing else that day. The next morning they meet Tober at 9:30, half an hour late. His boots are dusty and he looks tired. The PCs inquire at this, make a skill check, and Tober's excuse ("I was visiting relatives down the valley, we had a few drinks because I might die") didn't sound right. They tell him to spill his guts, come clean with him about any plot to fleece the PCs, and they make the check - this means they know Tober's going to fleece them but he's not saying anything. Tober threatens to just leave and the PCs apologize, playing along with him.
We broke to talk about the social skill checks. We were happy with how they went; the successful checks made a difference though you can't force another character to do something with a successful check if he doesn't want to (unless you physically force him). I added in a +2 stacking bonus for successful skill checks in my hack so that once you get the advantage you can ride it out and all that talking isn't for naught.
Off to Watcher's Hill, then. I made a couple of random encounter rolls but nothing was encountered. Now the PCs know that there's something going on here. Erik wanted to see how information checks would work and asked if he could ret-con Carrion's actions from last night, having Carrion spend the night in the arms of a wanton in order to speak with his infernal succubus patron. I said sure; he asked what was up with the lights seen in the old fort. He made the roll, and learned that the lights were mundane, not supernatural at all.
The DC set for this was "level- or tier-based", based on the level of Watcher's Hill (3). A challenge against the environment and it worked well.
Now the PCs knew something was up and they decided to get the jump on the ambushers. Harold knew something about this, having grown up on the streets of Stormwatch - he knew how to walk into a mugging, feigning ingnorance and thereby turning the tables on the would-be ambushers. He made a check, the DC set by the opposition's perception, and got a +2 bonus to his next roll. (If he failed it would have been a -2.)
The PCs entered the fort, I pulled out a poster map, and we used the "skill combat" mechanics. First I rolled for encounter distance. 13 squares or 65 feet. We skipped surprise - both sides were aware of the other - and the reaction roll, as I knew what the bandits who were lurking in there wanted.
(What happened behind the scenes: Some bandits who plague the road sometimes use Watcher's Hill to spy on Winterhaven and the valley below. I knew that there was a spy in Winterhaven who works for the bandits, and obviously he's the one who's been to Watcher's Hill before. When the PCs approached him - and he learned that they had a fair amount of coin - I figured he would jump them. I didn't have an encounter planned for Watcher's Hill at this point, but I knew its level, and quickly threw one together.)
We went down the procedure for "skill combat" - declare actions, set DCs, roll the dice, resolve the actions, and repeat. It worked well! It went by pretty fast, the most lag was because Erik's new to 4E and didn't have a good handle on what his PCs could do.
The fight was deadly since I've reworked damage and HP for this system. Nikos and Harold fell, but Carrion held on by grabbing temp HP from a number of his powers. After using his Daily (Armour of Agathys) he killed the berserker who was choking him to death, which triggered a morale check and the monsters "failed". (They didn't but we wanted to see how the "Shake it out" rules worked, translating "hits" in the skill combat system into HP damage. They don't work! That's something I need to work on.)
All in all, very successful playtest. I still have some other stuff to work on - the settlement sub-system, where you take control of a settlement and plan its growth - but it looks good. The next step is to put out an ad and get a couple of other players and start playing!
