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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorbadwolf" data-source="post: 8862418" data-attributes="member: 6704184">Following the above playtest session for my game system Quest for Chevar: It was a bit rough. Sinusitis had me a bit off at the start, and I dragged out a simple scene where they tailed the station wagon full of cultists all the way back to the Tehachapi area. Really good rolls and ideas meant they didn’t get spotted at all the whole time, and they took out a tire up in the mountains on a two lane road through a ghost town. Perfect place for a fight. If only it hadn’t gotten almost to 9pm by that point…During the “chase”, they made their initiative checks. In QfC initiative checks are checks made before a conflict or at the start of it, wherein each PC tries to find or create an advantage over the opposition. This can be nearly anything, but requires a skill check. Any success adds 1 initiative die to a pool, as do things like having the high ground, and before Phase 1 of the first round begins, you roll a check using the combined initiative dice of the group. Eg, each of the 3 PCs succeeded on thier checks, and Teddy got a critical success, which adds an extra die forward that can be used either on initiative or during the conflict. She chooses to use it immediately, so the group rolls 1d12 action die plus 4d6 initiative dice, and get a total in the low 20s, which means a total success. The Rangers have the initiative, and get to choose turn orders and have access to certain tactical options the opposition doesn’t. The fight starts, with George, Teddy, and the NPC companion Garret taking an Aggressive stance, and Eskinder taking a Ready stance. To interrupt any big magic. Problems arise from there. It takes Eskinder 2 rounds to clear 12 yards, firstly. Now, he could have done it by sacrificing his action, but he already used 1 of 2 of his Quick Actions (combined bonus and reaction, in 5e D&D terms) to increase his speed. Then the attacks are traded, and things really show the warts. Basically PCs deal too little damage, and mitigate too little damage with defense checks. We wrap at the end of round 2, and talk a little about the pain points with the new attack and defense rules we are trying out, with the clarity of building characters that can kick ass (George didn’t feel especially badass even in wolf mode as a shifter), and movement. Next time we may replay the scene from the ride to Tehachapi with some adjustments. Overall not a great session, but very informative. Also I hadn’t had time to print out the enemies, so I was tabbing between the adventure notes, rules, and enemy stats document, which wasn’t ideal.</blockquote>

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