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Message: <blockquote data-quote="!DWolf" data-source="post: 8259932" data-attributes="member: 7026314">Some updates on the last couple sessions of the jungle game:Session before last: This session took place in a village on the savanna and consisted of a 6 exploration turn murder mystery/village defense scenario. I didn’t have time to make suspect cards and the maps I was using were too small and so it didn’t run PERFECTLY but it was still enjoyable as the characters rushed around trying to accomplish everything before nightfall. They didn’t solve the mystery in time to be able to call off the monster(s surprise!) that were summoned however and so the characters got into a brutal fight with two Level +1 creatures with a significant mobility advantage that was really fun and challenging, though a little long, as the players got split up (the wizard up against one monster with the rest of the party against the other).Side Note: I highly recommended Suspect Cards for any sort of who-dun-it mystery game. Suspect Cards are basically cards with a picture, a name, and a brief blurb about the characters on them. I got the idea from a cover of newsweek when I was looking to run a murder mystery in a Mage the Awakening 2e game and they work fantastically for keeping track of suspects. Colored string and a bulletin board are optional – I use the physical layout of the cards on the table to indicate the characters understanding of the relationship between the suspects instead since that is faster to manipulate in play.Last Session: The characters were back on the road dealing with thunder storms (flash floods avoided), mosquito swarms (malaria inbound), dinosaurs (avoided), and lions (scared off). The system worked well with a couple of layout modifications. I think having a combat tracker sheet opposite my day sheets (which now have all the monster stats I need on them) and some rule reminders for the more exotic monsters (how much HP does armor have? What is the results of broken armor?) will make it run even better. Multi-threading the moral system is definitely the right approach and it worked well – though I need to make an effort to disperse the events throughout the day instead of clustering them all into the camp scene at night (which makes the camp scenes feel a little bloated).I also got to try out troops! I had been foreshadowing a large band of gnolls and hyenas (they saw their campfire across the plains at night, then the discovered the camp and made Recall Knowledge rolls, then they found tracks and a site where they were attacked by ankhravs) and eventually the party was attacked – on the same day that they fought off an ambush by ankhravs. The gnolls made their attack at night: first a pack of Hyenas (Party Level -1 troop) attempted to sneak into the camp and then the gnolls (at Level troop) lead by a sergeant (with a variant Bark Orders ability that let the troops Form Up when it was used) attacked the camp from the other side. It worked pretty well! I had some problems initially with positioning (for the future I am going to make a template to try and speed Forming Up) and HP tracking with the thresholds but after a couple of rounds I got used to it. I do wish I had used an on level Hyena pack though as a sharp eyed PC spotted them early and they died before the gnolls could get into position which took a lot of the difficult decision making out of the pincer attack, though it was still really effective. We had to quit just before the surprise guest monsters made their appearance though because we ran out of time.Second Side Note: The wizard continues to not be underpowered in combat. In the first session they consulted the villagers about the monsters weakest save (reflex) and, with a little help from an NPC caster, proceeded to do a massive amount of damage – about on par with the fighter, rogue, and cleric combined. In the second session, in addition to just exploding multiple lower level creatures (mosquito swarms and ankhrav) with lightning bolts, in the climatic battle they were able to get off a critical debuff on the enemy sergeant, essentially crippling them, and their AoE blasting devastated the enemy troops.</blockquote>

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