HalWhitewyrm
First Post
What I like about the WH rules is that they have a very basic mechanic that I can default down to if I don't feel like going full crunch with them. The setting is what sold me, though, so I know what you mean.
[Non-d20] Witch Hunter: Invisible World - my impressions
Paradigm
First Post
You will, the Dark Continent is a high-priority of ours, 16th Century Africa is so cool, and so misunderstood that we can seem like brilliant creative minds just by using what was there!
HalWhitewyrm
First Post
Will this book also include the Middle East area, specifically Israel and environs?
Scurvy_Platypus
Explorer
This is actually a combination of 2 game sessions.
A couple of weeks ago, another person (unexpected) showed up to join the Witch Hunter game. He's been a pretty inconsistent player for the past year plus, only managing to make 3 games in a year of weekly games. Between his arriving to the game late, having to explain what was going on, and the group in general screwing around, almost nothing got accomplished.
Basically, they managed to get from the governor's office to the village and screw up negotiations.
After the game I sent an email apologizing for how things worked out (one guy lives in Philly, so we take turns between driving down to Philly and him coming up to Princeton) and informed everyone that in the future I'd be clamping down somewhat on the screwing around that goes on.
So, with that explanation out of the way, here's how things went.
[sblock=What happened in the game]As the group stared a bit blankly at each other and the mess, the butler announced a late arrival interested in speaking with the governer about the job.
Trying to look unfazed (and only partially succeeding), the late arrival introduced himself as Jean Paul. The governer left it to the group to decide if they wished another to join them, and the group readily agreed.
The took lodging in the town, Jean Paul being to one to acquire the lodging as well as baths for everyone. The rest of the group tried to look inconspicuous, and failed miserably.
Jean Paul went to the Catholic church nearby, and confessed his sins. After mentioning he was on a mission for the governer (and a healthy donation), the priest agreed to prepare and bless a quantity of water, thereby consecrating it into Holy Water.
The next morning, they met with Captain Spragg of the Drake who sourly informed them that he'd take them where need be as he'd been ordered, but they'd bloody well better stay out of the crew's way.
When land was sighted, the group went ashore. They saw signs of a recent attack, but seemed a bit at a loss as to what to do next.
An old man emerged from one of the damaged huts and spoke to them in an unfamiliar language. He repeated this several times, until he spoke Dutch at which point Youst was able to answer him.
Negotiations went badly. Jean Paul was openly scornful of dealing with the natives and as the shaman Aiwanisa politely refused their help, he suggested summoning the crew to row them back to their ship and shell the town and then see if the natives were any more helpful. Between Jean Pauls suggestion(s) and Youst's own arrogance, Aiwanisa decided there was nothing that could be done, and he abruptly broke off negotiations.
The group stared after Aiwanisa's retreating form with surprise and a growing realization that their only lead was disappearing before their eyes.
Mary ran after Aiwanisa calling out for him to wait. Although she called out to him in English, he stopped and it began to sink in to everyone that he was perfectly well aware of what had been suggested.
Still speaking to his back, Mary humbly asked for his forgiveness and pardon for the behavior of those with her. As a way of apologising, she offered a spyglass to Aiwanisa, as well as for the entire group to spend the next day in labor, helping to repair the damage that had been done.
Aiwanisa informed her that the gift would be accepted in the spirit in which she had offered it, and that he would decide if he would help them after they had spent the day in labor. With a glare at the rest of the group, Mary thanked him and the group retired to a portion of the beach for the night.
The next day, the group set to work helping to rebuild the village. Aiwanisa disappeared into the jungle, and returned a short time later with another man following him. Aiwanisa said nothing, simply pointing to where the group was and retreating into his hut.
The man joined the group without a word and also began helping. The villagers carefully avoided the newcomer, although there was no apparent hostility.
Everyone recognized the newcomer as a Witch Hunter, and Mary approached him and introduced herself. He spoke English, and informed them that he was named Chuchix.
That night, a meal was prepared and brought to the group. Chuchix appeared briefly and collected some of the food, before slipping away into the jungle once again. Aiwanisa spoke some with Mary, and the group learned how Roc had come to the village and begged to be made immortal. The old village shaman had agreed, but demanded a service from the man in return.
Roc agreed, but his men did not. So Roc killed the men, and at the old shaman's bidding, he sewed closed all the orifices of the men. The shaman then animated the men, and Roc and his now undead crew served the shaman.
When the shaman died, Roc and his men left the village and it was only after the others felt safe that they attacked the village, wrecking it as the group had seen.
Aiwanisa knew that in order for Roc to be immortal, his spirit had to be removed and hidden away. He was sure that it was located on an island that wasn't too distant. In the morning, the group could leave the village and travel to the island. The group once again spent the night on the beach.
In the morning, Jean Paul appeared to be quite ill. His face was ashen, he was sweating profusely, and he seemed to have slipped into delerium. Between Youst, Mary, and Chuchix, they managed to stablize Jean Paul's rapidly increasing fever, and drug him enough to calm him down.
Aiwanisa informed the group that Chuchix would show them the way to the island.
He led Chuchix into his hut, and showed him the drawings that the old Shaman had made. He warned Chuchix to be careful of treachery, as 2 of the strangers might walk a similar path, but carried a darkness in their souls. He also blessed Chuchix against the curse of the island. When Chuchix asked about the strangers recieving the blessing, Aiwanisa simply said, "It is a lesson they must learn for themselves. You have no need for such a lesson." chuchix nodded, and left the hut.
Youst fired one of his pistols, and soon enough a boat was rowed out from the Drake to collect them. At first the sailors were reluctant to allow Chuchix to accompany them back to the Drake, but Mary roughly pointed out that they were on a mission from the governer, who had directly ordered their captain to assist them.
Thus reminded, the crew shut up and set to rowing back to the ship.
Captain Spragg sourly allowed Chuchix on board his ship, and with ill humor all around, the Drake set sail once again.
Towards nightfall, the island was spotted and Captain Spragg once again sent a boat to the island. Although "island" was rather generous, for the 40 by 80 yard bit of sandbar the group found themselves on.
Chuchix found the slab of stone where the jar was supposedly hidden, but the group was apparently too late.
"Looking for something?" came a voice from behind them.
The group spun about to confront Roc and a group of sailor behind him. Their eyes, nose, and mouth were all sewen shut, but their heads pointed at the group as if they could still see. An unpleasant odor came from them, and all were armed with a cutlass.
Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, rain lashed downwards, and the two sides clashed.
Each of the group faced five sailors. Mary spun and danced and slashed, and the five confronting her fell. Chuchix dropped all of the sailors facing him, his hatchets blurring as he slammed first one, and then the other, into his foes.
The undead sailors lurched forward swinging, and blood was drawn.
The battle was hard fought, and Mary several times managed to save a comrade of hers only at the expense of taking the blows herself.
Roc wove in and out of the fights, slashing here and there. He seemed unconcerned with any stray blows that came his way.
Mary noticed the bag hanging from Roc's waste, and managed to slice it open. A large jar fell to the ground and Roc threw himself down over the jar with a cry.
Chuchix swund a blow into Roc's head that would have easily killed a normal man, but the party watched as the crushed skull pushed back up and out, knitting together as neatly as if no damage had been done.
"Break the jar!!!" yelled Mary.
Roc stumbled backwards hugging the jar to himself and trying to protect it.
Kristoff brought his musket up and shot at the jar. With a panicked expression, Roc tried to pull the jar out of the line of fire, and the musket shot slammed into his shoulder, shattering it.
Mary's dagger flashed forward, and the clay jar exploded into shards.
Roc gave a dispairing wail as a smoke like form radiating blackness took shape. He scrabbled desperately at the form, trying to gather it together it seemed.
Youst pulled his bible forth and swung at the shape, grazing its arm. Instantly it caught fire, and Roc screamed. As the party watched, the smoke-like form's arms blazed upwards and disappeared. At the same time, Rocs left arm withered and curled in on itself.
Mary triumphantly thrust her cross into the center of the shape, and it exploded into flame. Simulatneously, Roc burst into flame. He staggered a few feet screaming and then fell over. The shape ignited and disappeared, like a bit of gun powder set alight.
Roc's body continued to burn however, as it shrank in on itself and seemed to wither away. Youst attempted to bind Roc's soul and shatter it, removing forever one of the Adversary's minions, but the Adversary swiftly gathered Roc's soul to itself and thwarted Youst.
The group wearily headed back to the Drake, and reported to the captain what had transpired.
They searched for the Assistance. They found it a short time later, and the group went aboard her. They found the now dead remains of the undead sailors. Solemnly they gathered the remains together for a proper sea burial.
The sprinkled the remains with the Holy Water that Jean Paul had. As the water sprinkled across them, the bindings that sealed their eyes, nose, and mouth all burst. They eyes and mouth opened, and with a soft sigh the body seemed to collapse inwards somewhat.
Chuchix informed the group that they were cursed, and so the Drake returned once again to Chuchix's village, so that Chuchix might return to his people, and the others might have the curse lifted.
As the boat touched the shore, Aiwanisa appeared and gestured for the group to join him in his hut. Chuchix slipped away and gathered some herbs.
"I know why you are here, and I can not lift the curse." Aiwanisa said calmly, before anyone could speak.
"However, I have a message for you. I know not what it means, for I am merely the voice of the message. Understanding must come from you."
With that he gestured towards the ground. Leaning close, they saw what appeared to be the outline of a coast. A small twig was stuck upright in the sand close to the coast. Beneath it, written in barely legible writing were the words, "New Amsterdam".
"Thank you" Mary said simply, and then the group turned and filed out.
Chuchix reappeared and Mary invited him to continue travelling with them. After some thought, Chuchix agreed and the Drake sailed back to Port Royale.
The governor was quite pleased to have his ship returned to him, and even happier to learn that Roc had been dispatched permanently. He cheerfully paid each person 20 lbs, though the group quietly gave Jean Paul's share to Chuchix.
Jean Paul was moved to a sick house, apparently suffering from Malaria. Youst replaced a pistol that he'd lost while fighting Roc's sailors, and Chuchix carefully decorated his panther skins with the money he'd been given.
The trip to New Amsterdam took 2 months.
They arrived at the outskirts of a small town, and across the fields of tabacco, they saw an Inn with 3 geese on the sign.
"The three swans." announced Youst, reading the dutch lettering. An owl hooted and he looked sharply in its direction. "And an ill omen that be." The group looked at each other and with a resigned air, they trooped inside.
They were greeted by Fredrick and sat down. They ordered a meal, but gazed silently at Fredrick when he attempted to draw them into conversation.
With a smile and a shrug he went and collected their food.
Youst, being from New Amsterdam, went and greeted several people sitting nearby.
"Good day to you, and how fares the crops?" he asked warmly. The farmers warily greeted him, but soon warmed up and chatted with him.
He returned to the group's table and filled them in.
"The crops be well, the cows give good milk, and the Indians are quiet." he looked annoyed. "Naught seems wrong here. We'll have to continue onwards."
"Perhaps there's a church around? Mayhap the priest or parson might be able to lift the curse?" Mary asked.
The group seemed dubious. Fredrick came back and delivered their food and drink, and inquired if there would be anything else they'd need.
"Perhaps a room, and some information?" Youst asked.
Fredrick was only to happy to help. He suggested a rooming house further into town, which would be better suited to such a large number of people. He also informed them of 2 churches in the town, one a Luthern church, and the other a Dutch Reformed church run by a good and proper Calvinist named Pieter Hansen.
A young man of 15 interputed Fredrick, and let him know it was time to add the herbs. Fredrick excused himself, and introduced his son William. "He'll tend to you if you've any other needs at the moment."
William smiled wryly as his father disappeared outside.
"He thinks none know the secret of his herbs, but truth be told there's few that don't. The seamstress says... well...said... it was a right proper and medicinal stew he brewed. Though I guess we'll not hear any more of her speculations about the stew or its benefits."
Mary looked sharply at william. "Oh? Why is that?"
William looked uneasily at Mary and Chuchix. "Well... she's gone on to see the Lord she has."
Aginor, Kristoff, and Youst looked at each other significantly.
"Come my good boy. Tell me what happened." Youst stared at William intensely.
William looked around and lowered his voice.
"It's all quite a scandal." he said breathlessly. "Miss de Groot, she was taken suddenly a couple of weeks back. Ol' pastor Pieter, he never much liked Miss de Groot. Disapproved of her ways. She knew her herbs right well, and rumor has it she was unmarried by choice. It's even been said that she had men over on account of seamstressing, and they was unescorted." William nodded significantly.
"And what happened to her?" Youst asked patiently.
"Oh." William swallowed and looked slightly distressed. "They say...she was strangled. With her own bed clothes even. The sheriff is investigating, but we all know that none have any idea who might have done the deed."
"Hmmmm". Aginor looked thoughtful.
Suddenly a scream came from the back. It rose high, filled with anguish. There was a pause, as if to inhale for another breath, and it filled the air once again.
"Lord!! It burns!!" Fredricks voice wailed.
"He must have burned himself! I'll fetch the doctor!" William burst out the front door.
As William fled out the front door, the group rose as one and headed for the back. Youst drew his pistols, and the others readied their weapons as well.
They threw the back door open and saw Fredrick at a cauldron, the fire burning merrily beneath it. Three black tentacles had come out from the cauldron and wrapped around Fredrick. Where they touched Fredrick, his skin was blackened and slightly smoking.
A fourth tentacle that was waving free shot directly towards the group as they piled out the door.[/sblock]
[sblock=The metagame side of things]This week, another person was added to the game. For those of you keeping count, yes that's 3 people that have joined up unexpectedly. The inconsistent player wasn't around (not a surprise) so the group holds steady at 5 people.
New guy was given a basic rundown on the overall idea, and picked from the left-over pre-gen characters.
He opted to go with a brave (Ghost People). Since we'd left off at the village at the end of the 2nd game, it made sense to simply make him one of the Aztec (ex) members of the village and away we went.
For simplicity's sake, I'm basically treating the character mechanically as being like a Native American Ghost People. His native language is Nahuatl, and he took English as his secondary language.
The party really screwed themselves with their negotiations, so even though they did stick around and help rebuild the village some, Aiwanisa didn't bother warning them about the curse. He did however bless Chuchix so he would be protected against the curse.
I also shifted things a bit, giving Chuchix a basic rundown on many of the details (not everything) regarding the history of Roc and the village. Rather than sending Aiwanisa along with the party, Ainisawa asked Chuchix to go with the strangers and guide them. As well as watch them. Although Chuchix is no longer a part of the village, he agreed to do so especially since the strangers did seem to follow a similar sort of path as he. Aiwanisa explained how to get to the island, blessed Chuchix, and away they went.
I'd thought that the group might go ahead and try and rescue the people from the village, but they opted to push on to deal with Roc, so that part was skipped.
Once they hit the island, things went along quite well. I neglected to impose the penalty to their dice for the darkness and weather, but things still seemed to go along fine. If I had imposed the penalty, I think it would have lengthed the game and while it wouldn't have been as bad as the first one, it still would have slowed things up. So I'm glad I went with that decision.
I had some good rolls, and the group had some not quite so good ones, so I was able to bloody them up some.
I gave a bit of an abbreviated description of how the combat actually played out. the fight with Roc (and the minions) took a while, and there were some pretty cool bits; at one point, Chuchix threw a hatchet and took out 2 of the sailors beating on Youst for example.
In the fight against Roc, I played up his regeneration, talking about the bone pushing back and knitting together. Chuchix tried leaving a hatchet buried in Roc, and watched as the hatchet was pushed out of the wound.
I went with 1 Initiative roll for the entire combat. It's not exactly clear to me if people are supposed to roll each round or not; I decided to keep it simple and fast and simply kept the initial roll.
At the top of each round, I explicitly told people to roll their defense pools, and then went around the table and asked everyone for their Defense totals. The curse (Roll a 1 and remove a success) applied to the Defense Pool as well as all their other rolls (other than Initiative). I made note of their Defense and handled the math out loud for them. This helped things to go much quicker overall, and it wasn't particularly demanding for me.
Chuchix wanted to go with a double-hatchet type style of attacking. I told him he could go with the "stylistic" approach no problem. If he wanted to get any actual _mechanical_ benefit from it, he could do that too, but he'd be at the usual penalties for two weapon fighting. Chuchix happily went for the style approach, and it worked out just fine. Combat descriptions involved him using 2 hatchets, but he only rolled dice (and damage) for one hatchet, and stayed with a single actual attack.
Mary didn't go with Parry this time around, and neither did anybody else. Losing the next action just didn't appeal to anyone. She did wind up using her Stalwart of St Christopher ability a couple of times, and got nicely bloodied for it.
The "roll a 1 and cancel a success" curse was a nice little bit, and I think the whole group is going to be more mindful of their actions in the future because of it. An interesting bit came up where someone rolled a 1 as well as a 10. The question was, "Does that mean the 10 is canceled and there's no reroll?"
Initially, that was my decision. But the player that rolled the 10 said, "yeah, but 10's are always a reroll. So even if my initial success is canceled, I should still be able to get my reroll." I put it to a group vote and (surprise) everyone thought that 10s should still get the reroll, so that's what we went with. As long as everyone was happy it was cool with me.
Combat was _much_ smoother this time around. The group had some fun with chewing through the minions, and ganging up on Roc.
The minion combat went really nice and smooth. The poor rolls the party made helped the mooks to last a bit longer than they might have otherwise, but a good hit taking down one (or more) was nice and easy.
I had good Defense rolls for Roc and the party had some pretty poor rolls that were worse with the curse. So Roc lasted longer than I expected. However, even with 5 people at the table I managed to keep things constantly moving, so it didn't have that slow and dragging feeling like the first combat.
The group seemed a bit slow on the whole attacking the jar, despite knowing within a couple of rounds where it was.
This was also where another question came up, doing a called shot. A couple of times people wanted to specifically target parts of Roc. I decided a called shot is going to be a flat 2 dice penalty. The first time was because chuchix wanted to whack Roc in the head, and the second time Kristoff did his butt-stroke with the musket. It seemed fine, and since most of the group is around 6 dice for their combat skills, it didn't seem too heavy a penalty.
In the case of trying to explicitly target the jar, I gave a -1 die to attacking it. The jar was decent sized but Roc had an arm wrapped around it and was trying to shield it with his body.
The group had forgotten entirely about the Holy Water that Jean Paul had gotten for them, so that didn't come into play. I decided the priest that blessed the water had a 3 for True Faith, so if it _had_ come into play it would have done 3 damage.
I also had decided that the True Faith score of the character is going to be the amount of "holy damage" (damage modifier) that they inflict when wielding their bibles, crosses, or whatever other religious articles they happen to come up with. Crosses and bibles basically acting like daggers for the purpose of whacking damage.
Youst's bible technically should have been the bit that took out the spirit, but it was such a crappy roll that I felt it'd be a bit anti-climatic. So that's why the spirit lost an arm. I decided to have it affect Roc because it just seemed cooler that way.
The whole group was pretty pumped when Mary did her cross into the chest and Roc burst into flame.
Youst (being a bit of a bastard) tried to shred Roc's soul, but only managed to come up with 3 successes. Since other's seemed interested in his attempt, I let them try and help (roll a number of dice equal to the character's True Faith) but nobody was able able to make a success.
I fully expected the group to go back to Aiwanisa to get the curse lifted, and sure enough they did. Having him not be able to lift the curse was the way I'd decided to move the group to the next adventure (Swans), and the group went along quite gamely.
Since there was still time, I declared a short break so I could refresh my knowledge of Swans, and folks could gear up a bit if they wanted before the 2 month journey to New Amsterdam.
I couldn't remember how much money the group had negotiated for, so I set a base of 15 pounds, and added a d10 to it. They got 5 on it, so the group was 20 pounds richer.
I really liked Chuchix's idea for decorating his armor out with the pounds (sterling silver) and since he was putting his entire money onto his coat like that, I gave him an extra point of armor for it. So now he's got Buckskins with 3 armor instead of 2.
I left the game where I did because it's always nice to be able to leave 'em hanging if you can. [/sblock]
Overall, things were _much_ better this time around. Fixing the issue with armor and Defense, making sure I had the Defense rolls made by everyone at the same time at the top of the round, and then figuring the damage out loud for them as we went along, all combined to make for a much smoother game.
There were 5 people at the table, and the two combats went nice and smooth despite there being a total of 31 total bodies involved.
Things could get more complicated later as people feel more comfortable with the system and start trying things like Full Defense or whatever, but at least at this point it wasn't complicated at all.
A couple of weeks ago, another person (unexpected) showed up to join the Witch Hunter game. He's been a pretty inconsistent player for the past year plus, only managing to make 3 games in a year of weekly games. Between his arriving to the game late, having to explain what was going on, and the group in general screwing around, almost nothing got accomplished.
Basically, they managed to get from the governor's office to the village and screw up negotiations.
After the game I sent an email apologizing for how things worked out (one guy lives in Philly, so we take turns between driving down to Philly and him coming up to Princeton) and informed everyone that in the future I'd be clamping down somewhat on the screwing around that goes on.
So, with that explanation out of the way, here's how things went.
[sblock=What happened in the game]As the group stared a bit blankly at each other and the mess, the butler announced a late arrival interested in speaking with the governer about the job.
Trying to look unfazed (and only partially succeeding), the late arrival introduced himself as Jean Paul. The governer left it to the group to decide if they wished another to join them, and the group readily agreed.
The took lodging in the town, Jean Paul being to one to acquire the lodging as well as baths for everyone. The rest of the group tried to look inconspicuous, and failed miserably.
Jean Paul went to the Catholic church nearby, and confessed his sins. After mentioning he was on a mission for the governer (and a healthy donation), the priest agreed to prepare and bless a quantity of water, thereby consecrating it into Holy Water.
The next morning, they met with Captain Spragg of the Drake who sourly informed them that he'd take them where need be as he'd been ordered, but they'd bloody well better stay out of the crew's way.
When land was sighted, the group went ashore. They saw signs of a recent attack, but seemed a bit at a loss as to what to do next.
An old man emerged from one of the damaged huts and spoke to them in an unfamiliar language. He repeated this several times, until he spoke Dutch at which point Youst was able to answer him.
Negotiations went badly. Jean Paul was openly scornful of dealing with the natives and as the shaman Aiwanisa politely refused their help, he suggested summoning the crew to row them back to their ship and shell the town and then see if the natives were any more helpful. Between Jean Pauls suggestion(s) and Youst's own arrogance, Aiwanisa decided there was nothing that could be done, and he abruptly broke off negotiations.
The group stared after Aiwanisa's retreating form with surprise and a growing realization that their only lead was disappearing before their eyes.
Mary ran after Aiwanisa calling out for him to wait. Although she called out to him in English, he stopped and it began to sink in to everyone that he was perfectly well aware of what had been suggested.
Still speaking to his back, Mary humbly asked for his forgiveness and pardon for the behavior of those with her. As a way of apologising, she offered a spyglass to Aiwanisa, as well as for the entire group to spend the next day in labor, helping to repair the damage that had been done.
Aiwanisa informed her that the gift would be accepted in the spirit in which she had offered it, and that he would decide if he would help them after they had spent the day in labor. With a glare at the rest of the group, Mary thanked him and the group retired to a portion of the beach for the night.
The next day, the group set to work helping to rebuild the village. Aiwanisa disappeared into the jungle, and returned a short time later with another man following him. Aiwanisa said nothing, simply pointing to where the group was and retreating into his hut.
The man joined the group without a word and also began helping. The villagers carefully avoided the newcomer, although there was no apparent hostility.
Everyone recognized the newcomer as a Witch Hunter, and Mary approached him and introduced herself. He spoke English, and informed them that he was named Chuchix.
That night, a meal was prepared and brought to the group. Chuchix appeared briefly and collected some of the food, before slipping away into the jungle once again. Aiwanisa spoke some with Mary, and the group learned how Roc had come to the village and begged to be made immortal. The old village shaman had agreed, but demanded a service from the man in return.
Roc agreed, but his men did not. So Roc killed the men, and at the old shaman's bidding, he sewed closed all the orifices of the men. The shaman then animated the men, and Roc and his now undead crew served the shaman.
When the shaman died, Roc and his men left the village and it was only after the others felt safe that they attacked the village, wrecking it as the group had seen.
Aiwanisa knew that in order for Roc to be immortal, his spirit had to be removed and hidden away. He was sure that it was located on an island that wasn't too distant. In the morning, the group could leave the village and travel to the island. The group once again spent the night on the beach.
In the morning, Jean Paul appeared to be quite ill. His face was ashen, he was sweating profusely, and he seemed to have slipped into delerium. Between Youst, Mary, and Chuchix, they managed to stablize Jean Paul's rapidly increasing fever, and drug him enough to calm him down.
Aiwanisa informed the group that Chuchix would show them the way to the island.
He led Chuchix into his hut, and showed him the drawings that the old Shaman had made. He warned Chuchix to be careful of treachery, as 2 of the strangers might walk a similar path, but carried a darkness in their souls. He also blessed Chuchix against the curse of the island. When Chuchix asked about the strangers recieving the blessing, Aiwanisa simply said, "It is a lesson they must learn for themselves. You have no need for such a lesson." chuchix nodded, and left the hut.
Youst fired one of his pistols, and soon enough a boat was rowed out from the Drake to collect them. At first the sailors were reluctant to allow Chuchix to accompany them back to the Drake, but Mary roughly pointed out that they were on a mission from the governer, who had directly ordered their captain to assist them.
Thus reminded, the crew shut up and set to rowing back to the ship.
Captain Spragg sourly allowed Chuchix on board his ship, and with ill humor all around, the Drake set sail once again.
Towards nightfall, the island was spotted and Captain Spragg once again sent a boat to the island. Although "island" was rather generous, for the 40 by 80 yard bit of sandbar the group found themselves on.
Chuchix found the slab of stone where the jar was supposedly hidden, but the group was apparently too late.
"Looking for something?" came a voice from behind them.
The group spun about to confront Roc and a group of sailor behind him. Their eyes, nose, and mouth were all sewen shut, but their heads pointed at the group as if they could still see. An unpleasant odor came from them, and all were armed with a cutlass.
Lightning flashed, thunder boomed, rain lashed downwards, and the two sides clashed.
Each of the group faced five sailors. Mary spun and danced and slashed, and the five confronting her fell. Chuchix dropped all of the sailors facing him, his hatchets blurring as he slammed first one, and then the other, into his foes.
The undead sailors lurched forward swinging, and blood was drawn.
The battle was hard fought, and Mary several times managed to save a comrade of hers only at the expense of taking the blows herself.
Roc wove in and out of the fights, slashing here and there. He seemed unconcerned with any stray blows that came his way.
Mary noticed the bag hanging from Roc's waste, and managed to slice it open. A large jar fell to the ground and Roc threw himself down over the jar with a cry.
Chuchix swund a blow into Roc's head that would have easily killed a normal man, but the party watched as the crushed skull pushed back up and out, knitting together as neatly as if no damage had been done.
"Break the jar!!!" yelled Mary.
Roc stumbled backwards hugging the jar to himself and trying to protect it.
Kristoff brought his musket up and shot at the jar. With a panicked expression, Roc tried to pull the jar out of the line of fire, and the musket shot slammed into his shoulder, shattering it.
Mary's dagger flashed forward, and the clay jar exploded into shards.
Roc gave a dispairing wail as a smoke like form radiating blackness took shape. He scrabbled desperately at the form, trying to gather it together it seemed.
Youst pulled his bible forth and swung at the shape, grazing its arm. Instantly it caught fire, and Roc screamed. As the party watched, the smoke-like form's arms blazed upwards and disappeared. At the same time, Rocs left arm withered and curled in on itself.
Mary triumphantly thrust her cross into the center of the shape, and it exploded into flame. Simulatneously, Roc burst into flame. He staggered a few feet screaming and then fell over. The shape ignited and disappeared, like a bit of gun powder set alight.
Roc's body continued to burn however, as it shrank in on itself and seemed to wither away. Youst attempted to bind Roc's soul and shatter it, removing forever one of the Adversary's minions, but the Adversary swiftly gathered Roc's soul to itself and thwarted Youst.
The group wearily headed back to the Drake, and reported to the captain what had transpired.
They searched for the Assistance. They found it a short time later, and the group went aboard her. They found the now dead remains of the undead sailors. Solemnly they gathered the remains together for a proper sea burial.
The sprinkled the remains with the Holy Water that Jean Paul had. As the water sprinkled across them, the bindings that sealed their eyes, nose, and mouth all burst. They eyes and mouth opened, and with a soft sigh the body seemed to collapse inwards somewhat.
Chuchix informed the group that they were cursed, and so the Drake returned once again to Chuchix's village, so that Chuchix might return to his people, and the others might have the curse lifted.
As the boat touched the shore, Aiwanisa appeared and gestured for the group to join him in his hut. Chuchix slipped away and gathered some herbs.
"I know why you are here, and I can not lift the curse." Aiwanisa said calmly, before anyone could speak.
"However, I have a message for you. I know not what it means, for I am merely the voice of the message. Understanding must come from you."
With that he gestured towards the ground. Leaning close, they saw what appeared to be the outline of a coast. A small twig was stuck upright in the sand close to the coast. Beneath it, written in barely legible writing were the words, "New Amsterdam".
"Thank you" Mary said simply, and then the group turned and filed out.
Chuchix reappeared and Mary invited him to continue travelling with them. After some thought, Chuchix agreed and the Drake sailed back to Port Royale.
The governor was quite pleased to have his ship returned to him, and even happier to learn that Roc had been dispatched permanently. He cheerfully paid each person 20 lbs, though the group quietly gave Jean Paul's share to Chuchix.
Jean Paul was moved to a sick house, apparently suffering from Malaria. Youst replaced a pistol that he'd lost while fighting Roc's sailors, and Chuchix carefully decorated his panther skins with the money he'd been given.
The trip to New Amsterdam took 2 months.
They arrived at the outskirts of a small town, and across the fields of tabacco, they saw an Inn with 3 geese on the sign.
"The three swans." announced Youst, reading the dutch lettering. An owl hooted and he looked sharply in its direction. "And an ill omen that be." The group looked at each other and with a resigned air, they trooped inside.
They were greeted by Fredrick and sat down. They ordered a meal, but gazed silently at Fredrick when he attempted to draw them into conversation.
With a smile and a shrug he went and collected their food.
Youst, being from New Amsterdam, went and greeted several people sitting nearby.
"Good day to you, and how fares the crops?" he asked warmly. The farmers warily greeted him, but soon warmed up and chatted with him.
He returned to the group's table and filled them in.
"The crops be well, the cows give good milk, and the Indians are quiet." he looked annoyed. "Naught seems wrong here. We'll have to continue onwards."
"Perhaps there's a church around? Mayhap the priest or parson might be able to lift the curse?" Mary asked.
The group seemed dubious. Fredrick came back and delivered their food and drink, and inquired if there would be anything else they'd need.
"Perhaps a room, and some information?" Youst asked.
Fredrick was only to happy to help. He suggested a rooming house further into town, which would be better suited to such a large number of people. He also informed them of 2 churches in the town, one a Luthern church, and the other a Dutch Reformed church run by a good and proper Calvinist named Pieter Hansen.
A young man of 15 interputed Fredrick, and let him know it was time to add the herbs. Fredrick excused himself, and introduced his son William. "He'll tend to you if you've any other needs at the moment."
William smiled wryly as his father disappeared outside.
"He thinks none know the secret of his herbs, but truth be told there's few that don't. The seamstress says... well...said... it was a right proper and medicinal stew he brewed. Though I guess we'll not hear any more of her speculations about the stew or its benefits."
Mary looked sharply at william. "Oh? Why is that?"
William looked uneasily at Mary and Chuchix. "Well... she's gone on to see the Lord she has."
Aginor, Kristoff, and Youst looked at each other significantly.
"Come my good boy. Tell me what happened." Youst stared at William intensely.
William looked around and lowered his voice.
"It's all quite a scandal." he said breathlessly. "Miss de Groot, she was taken suddenly a couple of weeks back. Ol' pastor Pieter, he never much liked Miss de Groot. Disapproved of her ways. She knew her herbs right well, and rumor has it she was unmarried by choice. It's even been said that she had men over on account of seamstressing, and they was unescorted." William nodded significantly.
"And what happened to her?" Youst asked patiently.
"Oh." William swallowed and looked slightly distressed. "They say...she was strangled. With her own bed clothes even. The sheriff is investigating, but we all know that none have any idea who might have done the deed."
"Hmmmm". Aginor looked thoughtful.
Suddenly a scream came from the back. It rose high, filled with anguish. There was a pause, as if to inhale for another breath, and it filled the air once again.
"Lord!! It burns!!" Fredricks voice wailed.
"He must have burned himself! I'll fetch the doctor!" William burst out the front door.
As William fled out the front door, the group rose as one and headed for the back. Youst drew his pistols, and the others readied their weapons as well.
They threw the back door open and saw Fredrick at a cauldron, the fire burning merrily beneath it. Three black tentacles had come out from the cauldron and wrapped around Fredrick. Where they touched Fredrick, his skin was blackened and slightly smoking.
A fourth tentacle that was waving free shot directly towards the group as they piled out the door.[/sblock]
[sblock=The metagame side of things]This week, another person was added to the game. For those of you keeping count, yes that's 3 people that have joined up unexpectedly. The inconsistent player wasn't around (not a surprise) so the group holds steady at 5 people.
New guy was given a basic rundown on the overall idea, and picked from the left-over pre-gen characters.
He opted to go with a brave (Ghost People). Since we'd left off at the village at the end of the 2nd game, it made sense to simply make him one of the Aztec (ex) members of the village and away we went.
For simplicity's sake, I'm basically treating the character mechanically as being like a Native American Ghost People. His native language is Nahuatl, and he took English as his secondary language.
The party really screwed themselves with their negotiations, so even though they did stick around and help rebuild the village some, Aiwanisa didn't bother warning them about the curse. He did however bless Chuchix so he would be protected against the curse.
I also shifted things a bit, giving Chuchix a basic rundown on many of the details (not everything) regarding the history of Roc and the village. Rather than sending Aiwanisa along with the party, Ainisawa asked Chuchix to go with the strangers and guide them. As well as watch them. Although Chuchix is no longer a part of the village, he agreed to do so especially since the strangers did seem to follow a similar sort of path as he. Aiwanisa explained how to get to the island, blessed Chuchix, and away they went.
I'd thought that the group might go ahead and try and rescue the people from the village, but they opted to push on to deal with Roc, so that part was skipped.
Once they hit the island, things went along quite well. I neglected to impose the penalty to their dice for the darkness and weather, but things still seemed to go along fine. If I had imposed the penalty, I think it would have lengthed the game and while it wouldn't have been as bad as the first one, it still would have slowed things up. So I'm glad I went with that decision.
I had some good rolls, and the group had some not quite so good ones, so I was able to bloody them up some.
I gave a bit of an abbreviated description of how the combat actually played out. the fight with Roc (and the minions) took a while, and there were some pretty cool bits; at one point, Chuchix threw a hatchet and took out 2 of the sailors beating on Youst for example.
In the fight against Roc, I played up his regeneration, talking about the bone pushing back and knitting together. Chuchix tried leaving a hatchet buried in Roc, and watched as the hatchet was pushed out of the wound.
I went with 1 Initiative roll for the entire combat. It's not exactly clear to me if people are supposed to roll each round or not; I decided to keep it simple and fast and simply kept the initial roll.
At the top of each round, I explicitly told people to roll their defense pools, and then went around the table and asked everyone for their Defense totals. The curse (Roll a 1 and remove a success) applied to the Defense Pool as well as all their other rolls (other than Initiative). I made note of their Defense and handled the math out loud for them. This helped things to go much quicker overall, and it wasn't particularly demanding for me.
Chuchix wanted to go with a double-hatchet type style of attacking. I told him he could go with the "stylistic" approach no problem. If he wanted to get any actual _mechanical_ benefit from it, he could do that too, but he'd be at the usual penalties for two weapon fighting. Chuchix happily went for the style approach, and it worked out just fine. Combat descriptions involved him using 2 hatchets, but he only rolled dice (and damage) for one hatchet, and stayed with a single actual attack.
Mary didn't go with Parry this time around, and neither did anybody else. Losing the next action just didn't appeal to anyone. She did wind up using her Stalwart of St Christopher ability a couple of times, and got nicely bloodied for it.
The "roll a 1 and cancel a success" curse was a nice little bit, and I think the whole group is going to be more mindful of their actions in the future because of it. An interesting bit came up where someone rolled a 1 as well as a 10. The question was, "Does that mean the 10 is canceled and there's no reroll?"
Initially, that was my decision. But the player that rolled the 10 said, "yeah, but 10's are always a reroll. So even if my initial success is canceled, I should still be able to get my reroll." I put it to a group vote and (surprise) everyone thought that 10s should still get the reroll, so that's what we went with. As long as everyone was happy it was cool with me.
Combat was _much_ smoother this time around. The group had some fun with chewing through the minions, and ganging up on Roc.
The minion combat went really nice and smooth. The poor rolls the party made helped the mooks to last a bit longer than they might have otherwise, but a good hit taking down one (or more) was nice and easy.
I had good Defense rolls for Roc and the party had some pretty poor rolls that were worse with the curse. So Roc lasted longer than I expected. However, even with 5 people at the table I managed to keep things constantly moving, so it didn't have that slow and dragging feeling like the first combat.
The group seemed a bit slow on the whole attacking the jar, despite knowing within a couple of rounds where it was.
This was also where another question came up, doing a called shot. A couple of times people wanted to specifically target parts of Roc. I decided a called shot is going to be a flat 2 dice penalty. The first time was because chuchix wanted to whack Roc in the head, and the second time Kristoff did his butt-stroke with the musket. It seemed fine, and since most of the group is around 6 dice for their combat skills, it didn't seem too heavy a penalty.
In the case of trying to explicitly target the jar, I gave a -1 die to attacking it. The jar was decent sized but Roc had an arm wrapped around it and was trying to shield it with his body.
The group had forgotten entirely about the Holy Water that Jean Paul had gotten for them, so that didn't come into play. I decided the priest that blessed the water had a 3 for True Faith, so if it _had_ come into play it would have done 3 damage.
I also had decided that the True Faith score of the character is going to be the amount of "holy damage" (damage modifier) that they inflict when wielding their bibles, crosses, or whatever other religious articles they happen to come up with. Crosses and bibles basically acting like daggers for the purpose of whacking damage.
Youst's bible technically should have been the bit that took out the spirit, but it was such a crappy roll that I felt it'd be a bit anti-climatic. So that's why the spirit lost an arm. I decided to have it affect Roc because it just seemed cooler that way.
The whole group was pretty pumped when Mary did her cross into the chest and Roc burst into flame.
Youst (being a bit of a bastard) tried to shred Roc's soul, but only managed to come up with 3 successes. Since other's seemed interested in his attempt, I let them try and help (roll a number of dice equal to the character's True Faith) but nobody was able able to make a success.
I fully expected the group to go back to Aiwanisa to get the curse lifted, and sure enough they did. Having him not be able to lift the curse was the way I'd decided to move the group to the next adventure (Swans), and the group went along quite gamely.
Since there was still time, I declared a short break so I could refresh my knowledge of Swans, and folks could gear up a bit if they wanted before the 2 month journey to New Amsterdam.
I couldn't remember how much money the group had negotiated for, so I set a base of 15 pounds, and added a d10 to it. They got 5 on it, so the group was 20 pounds richer.
I really liked Chuchix's idea for decorating his armor out with the pounds (sterling silver) and since he was putting his entire money onto his coat like that, I gave him an extra point of armor for it. So now he's got Buckskins with 3 armor instead of 2.
I left the game where I did because it's always nice to be able to leave 'em hanging if you can. [/sblock]
Overall, things were _much_ better this time around. Fixing the issue with armor and Defense, making sure I had the Defense rolls made by everyone at the same time at the top of the round, and then figuring the damage out loud for them as we went along, all combined to make for a much smoother game.
There were 5 people at the table, and the two combats went nice and smooth despite there being a total of 31 total bodies involved.
Things could get more complicated later as people feel more comfortable with the system and start trying things like Full Defense or whatever, but at least at this point it wasn't complicated at all.
Paradigm
First Post
Though, strictly speaking, the Holy Land is not in either Africa or Europe, the area will likely be detailed in either "The Old World" or "The Dark Continent." I don't expect that we would have a distinct work on the Ottoman dominion, but anything is possible.
Also, one thing to keep in mind insofar as the religious bent to the Witch Hunter books, if you look carefully, much of what you read is in the context of the works of a fictional author. As a result, the game makes no representations of which religion is "correct" (if any).
HalWhitewyrm
First Post
Very cool. Thanks for the update. I'll be interested to see how it goes with Swans, as that's the one I started my group with and they quickly went out of the mod's lines following their own conclusions.
That's what I figured, which is why I asked, to make sure.
The Invisible World is an equal-opportunity annoyer.
Scurvy_Platypus
Explorer
I think this will be the last update I do to this thread.
Sunday I was finally able to run Witch Hunter again. The game had been put off twice now, and folks were anxious to play again. We were down 1 person (player of Chuchix the Aztec), but since the player from Phili drove up (he lives about about an hour and a quarter or so away) we went ahead with the game.
We'd left off right at the beginning of Swans (the second adventure), so I gave people a brief refresh of where we'd left off, the bad omens, and then we launched into the combat.
I tried out my new way of handling Hero Points, and _everyone_ was pumped about it.
The "pool" was literally a bowl with some white poker chips in it. I passed out blue poker chips for everyone's starting HP.
The group caught onto awarding each other HP pretty quickly and easily. With those chips sitting right in front of them, it was a constant reminder to them that the points were available, and they didn't have any problem awarding them to each other.
I did make sure to emphasize that a person would only be getting 1 Hero Point for doing/saying something cool. So there didn't have to be any worries about someone loading up on HP or hoarding them.
Next game I'm going to introduce the final modification to the HP pool, which is that HP can be spent to dictate facts about the world.
I already set this in motion, by waiting until a player was lamenting a forgotten bit.
"Oh man! I wish I would have reloaded my musket. Luckily I've got Speed Loader."
"I'll tell you what... you've got Speed Loader and you're a Witch Hunter. Spend a Hero Point, and you reloaded as you were coming over."
"Really?! Cool, here's the Hero Point. Now that pastor is going down...."
This is what I'm thinking of for the World Creation/Fact Dictating:
After the game, the guys all sat around congratulating each other and chattering about the game. Always a good feeling when the players dig the session. The Hero Points idea went over well enough with them that they were talking about incorporating a similar mechanic into other games. They really liked how they could pass them out to each other when they thought something was cool (either something said or done).
The group was a little bit uncertain what to do, and they struggled a bit with changing gears from the usual charge-n-kill approach to a more measured and investigative approach. It was especially interesting to see the conclusions they leapt to during the course of the game.
The Apostle of the New Dawn (Yost) managed to pull off an eldritch blast this time around. I'm going to have to start purusing the magic section it looks like, as the player is starting to experiment.
His target was immune to magic, so I gave a nice environmental description of how the room lit up like daylight as Yost glowed like he was a giant Halogen bulb, before releasing a beam of light. It scorched the entire wall behind his target, and left a great outlined shape complete with wings, and the other characters felt like they'd been out in the sun just a touch too long.
Now that we've had a few sessions under our belts, things seem to be flowing pretty smoothly, and the players are starting to stretch their characters a bit. Yost's player is starting to play with magic, and a couple of the other players are starting to do things like Aiming, called shots, and that sort of thing.
The system does have bits here and there that are more fiddly than I personally prefer, but it's nothing insurmountable. It's been much simpler to run overall than D&D was, and I ran my game as an E8 game with additional rules to slim it down.
For the group I'm with right now, I'd say Witch Hunter has been a solid hit. I think they might even play it on their own after I've moved. Wherever I do wind up, I'll definitely keep Witch Hunter as an option to run in the future.
In the meantime, I'm going to continue running it for this crew. They're having fun with it, Paradigm has a nice number of free adventures to play with, and I can knock together something on my own if need be.
Sunday I was finally able to run Witch Hunter again. The game had been put off twice now, and folks were anxious to play again. We were down 1 person (player of Chuchix the Aztec), but since the player from Phili drove up (he lives about about an hour and a quarter or so away) we went ahead with the game.
We'd left off right at the beginning of Swans (the second adventure), so I gave people a brief refresh of where we'd left off, the bad omens, and then we launched into the combat.
I tried out my new way of handling Hero Points, and _everyone_ was pumped about it.
New Hero Point Handling said:
The "pool" was literally a bowl with some white poker chips in it. I passed out blue poker chips for everyone's starting HP.
The group caught onto awarding each other HP pretty quickly and easily. With those chips sitting right in front of them, it was a constant reminder to them that the points were available, and they didn't have any problem awarding them to each other.
I did make sure to emphasize that a person would only be getting 1 Hero Point for doing/saying something cool. So there didn't have to be any worries about someone loading up on HP or hoarding them.
Next game I'm going to introduce the final modification to the HP pool, which is that HP can be spent to dictate facts about the world.
I already set this in motion, by waiting until a player was lamenting a forgotten bit.
"Oh man! I wish I would have reloaded my musket. Luckily I've got Speed Loader."
"I'll tell you what... you've got Speed Loader and you're a Witch Hunter. Spend a Hero Point, and you reloaded as you were coming over."
"Really?! Cool, here's the Hero Point. Now that pastor is going down...."
This is what I'm thinking of for the World Creation/Fact Dictating:
Dictating Facts cost said:
After the game, the guys all sat around congratulating each other and chattering about the game. Always a good feeling when the players dig the session. The Hero Points idea went over well enough with them that they were talking about incorporating a similar mechanic into other games. They really liked how they could pass them out to each other when they thought something was cool (either something said or done).
The group was a little bit uncertain what to do, and they struggled a bit with changing gears from the usual charge-n-kill approach to a more measured and investigative approach. It was especially interesting to see the conclusions they leapt to during the course of the game.
The Apostle of the New Dawn (Yost) managed to pull off an eldritch blast this time around. I'm going to have to start purusing the magic section it looks like, as the player is starting to experiment.
His target was immune to magic, so I gave a nice environmental description of how the room lit up like daylight as Yost glowed like he was a giant Halogen bulb, before releasing a beam of light. It scorched the entire wall behind his target, and left a great outlined shape complete with wings, and the other characters felt like they'd been out in the sun just a touch too long.
Now that we've had a few sessions under our belts, things seem to be flowing pretty smoothly, and the players are starting to stretch their characters a bit. Yost's player is starting to play with magic, and a couple of the other players are starting to do things like Aiming, called shots, and that sort of thing.
The system does have bits here and there that are more fiddly than I personally prefer, but it's nothing insurmountable. It's been much simpler to run overall than D&D was, and I ran my game as an E8 game with additional rules to slim it down.
For the group I'm with right now, I'd say Witch Hunter has been a solid hit. I think they might even play it on their own after I've moved. Wherever I do wind up, I'll definitely keep Witch Hunter as an option to run in the future.
In the meantime, I'm going to continue running it for this crew. They're having fun with it, Paradigm has a nice number of free adventures to play with, and I can knock together something on my own if need be.
HalWhitewyrm
First Post
Thanks for the update. I'm glad the Hero Point mod went well with the group. Do let us know how the new Story Affecting mod for the HPs works as well.
I'm doing a post-mortem on our first adventure this week or next, then I'll be able to talk about the pbem game and start the next adventure (probably A Child's Game, given I got it at Gen Con and it is staring at me intently).
I'm doing a post-mortem on our first adventure this week or next, then I'll be able to talk about the pbem game and start the next adventure (probably A Child's Game, given I got it at Gen Con and it is staring at me intently).
