So, today we had our first "real" session. Everyone got together and flipped through my player's guide (a conversion of the Rise of the Runelords players guide), before statting up characters. Two players insisted on doing it themselves (as they always do), while my brother mostly had the rules in mind when making his. The other two players were a bit unpredictable, and just described the character they wanted while I made the characters from memory.
In the end, we wound up with a fairly odd group (even by our standards), to the point where I named them "Eriph and the S***bags" - Eriph being the only normal(ish) character in the group.
We've got Eriph, an elven paladin with a deep code of honour and a halberd that is something of a family heirloom (trademark weapon). Gru'l is a half-orc tracker with a wolf companion who lost an eye, and is mourning the fact that his elven wife left him the only way he knows how - through drink. Thait is a gnomish alchemist with the Weird Science arcane background who has a few weird trinkets around him - he also secretly believes that all mechanical objects are intelligent, and has a fear that one day soon they will rise up and conquer the world. Jacob is a very devout priest of Laromidae (goddess of valour) - "Devout" to the point of zealotry. Gug is a very dull-witted (some would say borderline retarded) half-orc who has strange magical powers that manifest at the oddest of moments.
What was interesting about Character Generation is how quickly the group took to using hindrances. Everyone seemed to define their character by the bad sides as opposed to the "kewl powers". My group has always loved to play characters with quirks, though; with this system, the fact that they are rewarded for taking flaws is something they really like. One PC (Gug) actually had more hindrances than he could gain points for - he took them simply because they fit his concept.
We are running through Rise of the Runelords, heavily modified. If you plan on running these adventures, there may be minor (very minor) spoilers.
The PCs met two days' out of the town of Sandpoint, in a small country inn. Realizing they were all heading to the same area, they grouped together.
The next day, while crossing a bridge, they were stopped by a goblin riding a hairy dog. He squeaked out a "halt! We have you surrounded!" before realizing that the PC's hadn't actually CROSSED the bridge yet - he had jumped the gun a little too soon.
The PCs made some quick common knowledge rolls, with the gnome getting a +2 bonus from the fact that he could speak goblin. He aced the roll several times, and learned that not only did goblins hate dogs, but that they hated horses too. He also learned that goblin dogs are not considered to be "dogs" at all.
"Why are you riding a dog?" he quickly said, throwing the goblin into a rage.
The characters got into a fight with a mounted goblin wild card, as well as four goblins that quickly scrambled out from underneath the bridge. ON the other bank, goblin archers emerged, and started shooting arrows.
The gnome opened his "magic box" - a chest he wears around his neck that shoots out a hundred magical darts. This produced a burst effect, which turned one goblin into hamburger meat (the other goblin in the area of effect hid behind his companion). The Paladin was held down by two other goblins - when he tried to leave the combat, one of the goblins got in a lucky hit, forcing the player to spend a benny on the soak roll. The other goblin got in a hit that caused a shaken result, keeping the paladin firmly in place.
Eventually, the goblins on their side of the bridge was killed, and the priest charged across the bridge.
All three goblins opened fire on him, before two decided to flee (very Halo style, screaming "run away! RUN AWAY!" with their hands in the air). The other got in a shot that aced several times, getting five raises.
Yeah, five raises. The player burned most of his bennies, eventually only taking two wounds from the attack.
Luckily, the rest of the group was able to charge across the bridge - but not before the archer could jump into the river and swim away.
***
Soon, they made their way into Sandpoint, and had a few RP encounters. Mostly at this point, I was setting up the town - the Paladin met Balor Hemlock, Sergeant of the Town Guard, and the Cleric tried to build his own shrine in the Cathedral, while learning of the "Late Unpleasantness" of Sandpoint history.
Eventually, we ran another goblin attack, this time against seven unnamed goblins that attacked the town as part of an organized raid. The fight went fairly well, except for the part where the gnome stepped up and opened his 'magic box' once more. All three goblins dodged the attack, and then ganged up on him.
He had a parry of 2, and a toughness of 4. All of them hit. He was able to soak all the damage on the first hit, and then kept spending bennies to prevent wounds from accumulating on the second hit - but was benniless (and with one wound) by the time he had to take the third hit. Luckily for him, it only inflicted one raise - giving him two wounds, and a shaken condition.
The priest was able to heal the wound, while the rest of the group made short work of the goblins.
After this, the session ended.
***
Some notes about the game that I think are rather interesting:
1) Players use the multiple actions rule often enough, but sometimes, it seems weird. For example, the cleric likes to intimdate and attack in the same round. If he succeeds on an intimidate, he gets +2 fighting against the goblin (or automatically shakens the goblin on a raise). However, that same round, he gets a -2 penalty on fighting for making multiple actions. So, unless he gets a raid on the roll, it's a useless action. Still, he enjoys doing it, taking chances on the roll (and, I must admit, it's in character).
2) As someone who comes from D&D, where "boss fights" are always the main focus, it seems weird how in this game, big bosses can die fairly fast. Our mounted goblin wild card was harder to take down, sure (he could make soak rolls) - but he couldn't really deal all that much damage. In fact, our group found the goblins trying to flank them were much more of a threat. Not a problem, just a difference from D&D, where players often completely ignore the little guys and focus on the main threat.
3) Bennies are weird. They're fun to award during play, and I appreciate that - I gave away three during play today, simply for decent role-playing or observations. The Paladin got a benny for trying to organize a permanent guard station at the bridge, for example. That being said, the fact that they are rewarded per session and not per adventure provides for some interesting meta-play. For example, in the last fight, one player simply announced "Hey, it's eight fifteen.... we have to go soon. Spend your bennies!" and spent all three of his bennies trying to make a casting roll (he kept rolling low - it was kind of funny). I got even, by doing the same, trying to land a kill on a PC, but it didn't work. It just seems like players could spend a bunch of bennies in a surge, simply because they know the game is going to end soon. And, as a corellary, I can see some groups (that don't play to a set time, but end when the GM wills it) having a real problem with this rule. I know I'd be ticked if the GM often said "hey, let's call it a night" and I hadn't spent my bennies on that last soak roll.
4) XP is another strange area, since we play about 3 hour sessions - and the rules more or less give guidelines on rewarding XP for 4-6 hour sessions. 2 XP on average for a 5 hourish session? That's great, but does that mean I only give 1 XP per session, regardless of PC actions? It's really hard to differentiate rewards when even a 1 point difference can be so huge.
5) On the plus side, our players quickly noticed that "hey, we don't get XP for killing things". As such, they weren't too upset to let three of hte goblins escape. As a GM, this means I hae a bit more leeway to reintroduce those goblins later.
6) Re-rolling (or dealing) initiatve each round is a bit of a chore. I think I prefer d20's cyclic initiative, but that might not be fair for our group.
7) Not surprisingly, the fights in SW tend to be a bit bigger. The Adventure as written called for 3 goblins in the first fight - I doubled the number, and the group still shot past it. I think it's a good thing; others might disagree.
Anyways, next week we carry on with the goblin raid on Sandpoint, and I start deviating from the adventure as written (which I plan on doing - heavily).
