Last night my players kicked Dragotha's ass (from AoW) whilst two payers down. Good fun!
I came up with this cool idea before the session. I'd used Paizo's Item Cards and EN Publishing's Fantasy Money for the hoard; if you've played AoW, you know it's a BIG hoard.
When I set up the battlemap for the encounter, I took the Item Cards and Fantasy Money and put them (all picture side up) on the map. Most were piled at one end of the map, many overlapping or buried under others; it really lokoed like a hoard. Sometimes players could see the whole card (if it was at the top), sometimes they could ony see part of it sticking out; some they couldn't see at all because they were covered with others. With 30+ cards and loads of money cards, it was really fun, and the many money cards did a great job of burying and concealing many of the Item Cards. I wish I'd taken a picture!
I allowed them, as a standard action during the combat, to pick up any item card within their character's reach; they couldn't sift through, though, so sometimes they'd pick one they could only see part of and hope for the best ("hey, that looks like a bow!"), sometimes even just plunging their hand in and grabbing one from near the bottom, completely sight unseen.
Sometimes they'd grab something useful, sometimes not. Later in the encounter, the item grabbing became the duty of the Bigby's Hand cast by the bard.
It turned out to be a really elegant, fun and visual mechanic. I'll do that again for sure!
I came up with this cool idea before the session. I'd used Paizo's Item Cards and EN Publishing's Fantasy Money for the hoard; if you've played AoW, you know it's a BIG hoard.
When I set up the battlemap for the encounter, I took the Item Cards and Fantasy Money and put them (all picture side up) on the map. Most were piled at one end of the map, many overlapping or buried under others; it really lokoed like a hoard. Sometimes players could see the whole card (if it was at the top), sometimes they could ony see part of it sticking out; some they couldn't see at all because they were covered with others. With 30+ cards and loads of money cards, it was really fun, and the many money cards did a great job of burying and concealing many of the Item Cards. I wish I'd taken a picture!
I allowed them, as a standard action during the combat, to pick up any item card within their character's reach; they couldn't sift through, though, so sometimes they'd pick one they could only see part of and hope for the best ("hey, that looks like a bow!"), sometimes even just plunging their hand in and grabbing one from near the bottom, completely sight unseen.
Sometimes they'd grab something useful, sometimes not. Later in the encounter, the item grabbing became the duty of the Bigby's Hand cast by the bard.
It turned out to be a really elegant, fun and visual mechanic. I'll do that again for sure!
