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[Non-d20] Witch Hunter: Invisible World - my impressions
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<blockquote data-quote="Scurvy_Platypus" data-source="post: 4327228" data-attributes="member: 43283"><p><strong>The game session:</strong></p><p>I went ahead and chose Storm Tide for the first adventure. We were getting a bit of a late start since we watched the movie first, but I thought we'd probably still be able to get through it.</p><p></p><p>We didn't actually, but folks didn't seem to mind. I'd just like to say that despite the problems I list, the game actually went great.</p><p></p><p>Hmmm... what can I say? I'm completely new to the system, I tried to read up on stuff, but there's only so many pages you can absorb. And I've never run a convention game before, so that's part of it too...</p><p></p><p>We _almost_ managed to finish the first scene. We finished the fight, but it was just too late and we didn't have time to handle the minor "aftermath" stuff which moves the group onto the 2nd Scene.</p><p></p><p>For those that want to follow along, the adventures are located here:</p><p><a href="http://darkprovidence.net/Adventures.html" target="_blank">http://darkprovidence.net/Adventures.html</a></p><p></p><p>Soooooo.... how'd it all go?</p><p></p><p>Well, it started out pretty good. I had folks go through and give a basic overview of their characters, and basically I put 'em all together on the docks. The adventure isn't exactly clear at this point, but it turns out that the characters are all supposed to "meet" a bit later while waiting to interview for the job.</p><p></p><p>I dislike that sort of thing personally. Having everyone start off kind of knowing each other isn't any more artificial than meeting in a tavern.</p><p></p><p>Or His Lordship's waiting area.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, I had four players, so I literally had each one pick a number between 1 and 4, no duplicates allowed. Then I simply gave them the vision/omen that was offered up as a possible suggestion. The all liked the different omens they got.</p><p></p><p>Ah yes, the characters. None of 'em are into doing magic or a fighting tradition, which makes my life easier. Although one character is a member of the Apostles of the New Dawn order, so I'm going to at least have to read the chapter a time or two, just in case he decides to try something. Here's the roster:</p><p></p><p>[sblock=Mary Fourkiller] This is my wife's character.</p><p></p><p>She's a member of the Stalwarts of St. Christopher. Basically, an Order that was inspired by the Knights Templar, only they operated on English soil.</p><p></p><p>Her Order has the special benefit of allowing her to spend her Defense to protect another person, and if damage still gets through it goes to her, instead of the person she's protecting.</p><p></p><p>Her character is Native American, and is kind of a blend of Animus and Quaker in terms of religious beliefs.[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>[sblock=Kristoff]Played by Adam. Adam is actually the _only_ person at the table that remembers playing OWoD rules. Granted, Witch Hunter isn't actually _using_ the OWoD system, but there's similarities and I expected that the other two people (who are regular players) would be able to help me out if I stumbled a bit.</p><p></p><p>They couldn't, but Adam (whom I hadn't expected to play) was nice enough to let me know how OWoD did it, and wasn't a rule lawyer either.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, Kristoff apparently is big. Adam initially said, "6'2 or so, and about 230 lbs." I pointed out that at 5'11 and 200 lbs, I'd be considered pretty decent sized among most folks back then, and he sheepishly admitted he hadn't been thinking in quite the same time period.</p><p></p><p>Kristoff belongs to the Order of the Stalkers of the Unseen Hunt. Basically, most Witch Hunters are out there trying to defend folks. They'll go out looking for scum, and put 'em down.</p><p></p><p>Thing is, the servants of the Adversary have to actually _come_ from some place. Alot of times that place is a Hellpoint. Stalkers are the crazy Witch Hunters that don't just defend people, or look for minions of evil that are out and about stirring stuff up.</p><p></p><p>No, these crazy bastards go off and hunt them on _their_ turf.</p><p></p><p>Their benefit is they get to pick an extra couple of Talents. Talents are those "extra special" things that give a Witch Hunter their edge. Kinda like super-buff feats out of d20.[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>[sblock=Yost] Sounds like "Yo" and then add "st" to it. The character is Dutch, and an ex-slaver. A member of the Apostles of the New Dawn, his Order's benefit is that he can actually attempt to do magic without actually _knowing_ the spell. He can only attempt a particular prayer or Hermetic rite once each Adventure (not session) though.[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>[sblock=Aginor] This character was a pre-gen. The Hunter. Also a member of the Stalkers of the Unseen Hunt.[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>So, everyone gets together we have the meeting of the employer, then the hapless victim tells his story, and then combat ensues.</p><p></p><p>And we came to a screeching halt.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33FF33">Problem:</span> We all seemed to struggle with remembering to roll our Defense pools, I found out later that I was running Parry wrong, and it really _shouldn't_ have been awesome like it was.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #3366FF">Solution:</span>At the top of every round, I think I'm going to make the generic declaration "Roll your Defense", and everyone can just get it out of the way.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33FF33">Problem:</span>It turns out Grappling isn't explained in the combat section with the rest of the combat rules, but you have to flip back to the Skills section (2 chapters before) in order to figure out how it works.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #3366FF">Solution:</span>Nothing really. Making some sort of combat cheat-sheet might help. I'll have to think about it a bit.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33FF33">Problem:</span>10's "explode" (count as a success and reroll), but it wasn't clear what happened if you got _no_ successes and rolled 1s. Or if you got Successes and _also_ rolled 1s.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #3366FF">Solution:</span>I decided that a failure was just a failure. If there was a failure and 1s were _also_ rolled (a "botch") then a check requiring 2 success (2d) would be required, depending on what the attempted action was, to avoid having it go wrong.</p><p></p><p>We had 2 botches during the combat. The first was Kristoff, who went to draw his sword and stab poor Penney. He botched the stab (the draw is a free action), so I described him drawing his sword, and since he'd just rabbit-punched Penney's blood spewing head the last round, when he drew the blade, it just kept going and smacked into the wall across the room. He didn't get any success on his check</p><p></p><p>Adam shrugged and Kristoff continued punching Penney in the head.</p><p></p><p>The second botch was when Yost went in for another smack with his bible alongside Penney's head and missed. Me managed to get 1 success, so Yost slipped in the blood and went to one knee but that was it.</p><p></p><p>I ruled that 1s rolled when you _also_ had successes didn't mean anything. Apparently the WoD system had 1s negate successes, but that just seems to be unnecessary dice fiddling to me. Count your successes and move on. If there's none, just make sure you don't have any 1s.</p><p></p><p>I like simple solutions.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33FF33">Problem:</span>The critter's stats.</p><p></p><p>Initially, I looked over the adventure, felt comfortable with things, and away we went. The first round, Mary stuffs her hunting knife into Penney's gut and does a huge chunk of damage. In fact, the first couple of rounds, it was getting _hammered_.</p><p></p><p>Then I was looking back over the stats, and realized I was missing stuff like his @#$%@#$% armor. Completely stupid mistake on my part. But in trying to look up the armor to make sure I had it right (and understood the other powers) I ran into an oddity.</p><p></p><p>Threat powers aren't laid out like the character Talents they're the equivalent of.</p><p></p><p>See, the character Talents are alphabetical. And they've got a handy cheat-chart for you, which gives you a shorthand summary.</p><p></p><p>Threat powers on the other hand, don't have a cheat chart, and are broken up by the type of power they are. So the creature that takes over Penney actually has powers scattered around a bit and that requires more flipping.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #3366FF">Solution:</span>Well, first of all I need to actually be more familiar with my #$%#$ critters. After that, I suppose a cheat-chart is probably in order.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33FF33">Problem:</span>4 on 1.</p><p>How do you resolve 4 people beating the stuffing out of 1 poor slob of a monster, when you've got points being assigned from a defense pool?</p><p></p><p>Do you actually have a pool vs each attacker?</p><p></p><p>Can you split your pool between multiple attackers?</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #3366FF">Solution:</span>I decided that group tactics _work_. It's why Witch Hunters are willing to move in a pack, when they'd otherwise frequently want nothing to do with each other.</p><p></p><p>So, a single Defense pool is rolled, and the out-numbered person can assign the Defense however they'd like, but chances are it's not going to go very far.</p><p></p><p>Hopefully you've got @#$%#@$ armor and remember to use it. I eventually did.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33FF33">Problem:</span>Weapons come with a DM (Damage Mod) is that dice, or a flat value added? If someone spends enough Defense to negate your Attack, will you still get the DM anyway? Or does the Defender have to spend Defense to negate that as well?</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #3366FF">Solution:</span>I went simple, and after having checked around it looks like my approach was right.</p><p></p><p>Weapons do a flat amount that add to your success. So if you have 2 successes, and your weapon has a DM of 3, it means a total of 5 damage is done.</p><p></p><p>A defender only has to negate the actual Attack successes, so in the example above, the defender would only have to spend 2 defense, not 5.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33FF33">Problem:</span>Yost's player declares: "I'm stepping forward, and saying 'The power of Christ compels you!!' and smacking him with my bible."</p><p></p><p>I'm pretty sure I didn't see any damage listed for "bible" or "holy damage" when I went ambling through the book.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #3366FF">Solution:</span>First: Sweeeeeeet. The player bought into the premise and wasn't afraid to use his religion as a weapon against a servant of the Adversary.</p><p></p><p>Next: Crap. I've got no idea what to do with this. I don't want to interrupt the flow of the game since we've actually started to feel comfortable with what we're doing.</p><p></p><p>I look at the sheet. He's Vulnerable to Cold Iron, and a Weakness to sacramental wine.</p><p></p><p>What was the difference between a Vulnerability and a Weakness again? Does the hunting knife that Mary is currently cheerfully attempting to maul my poor critter with count as Cold Iron? Who the hell just happens to have sacramental wine on them when they go to interview for a job at the Governor's Mansion in Jamaica in the year 1689?!?!?</p><p></p><p>All of this ran through my head in the space of about 2 seconds.</p><p></p><p>So I do what I always do: I made :#$% up. I paid for the damn game, it's mine to do with as I please, and I will houserule the !@#$!@#$ out of any game that gets in my way.</p><p></p><p>So I told Yost, "That's awesome!! Are you just presenting the Bible and kind of shoving it up against him, or are you hauling back and doing the bitch-slap beat down with it?"</p><p></p><p>Yost's player thought for a second and said, "Beat down."</p><p></p><p>"Sweeeeet. Ok, give me a Hand to Hand check, and go ahead and count the Bible as doing 1 DM like a dagger does."</p><p></p><p>The other players were cheering him on for his excellent thinking, and wondering what the effect was going to be.</p><p></p><p>So was I.</p><p></p><p>He made his rolls and since poor Penney had blown all his defense against Mary (who was cheerfully stabbing him repeatedly in the gut) he didn't have any Defense left.</p><p></p><p>Each round, I'd been describing how the blood just poured out from Penney. It was everywhere. Far more than any person could possibly have in their body. Each time Kristoff rabbit-punched Penney in the head, there was a kind of "splorch" sound and blood sprayed across the people behind Penney.</p><p></p><p>"Ok, Yost hauls off and brings his Bible around and totally hammers Penney right in the middle of his forehead with the bible. Up until now, Penney has just kind of burbled at you, but as the Bible makes contact with him, he actually screams and it's a pretty loud and clear one. There's a sizzling sound, and the smell of cooking flesh fills the room as smoke erupts from under the Bible.</p><p></p><p>You all can clearly see the outline of the book in Penney's forehead, and square in the middle of it is a crispy looking cross. Blood continues to gush from Penney everywhere, except where the Bible touched. That area looks and smells burned and is crusted over."</p><p></p><p>After that, Mary whipped out her cross and proceeded to start trying to smack him around with the cross.</p><p></p><p>I handled the damage from both cross and bible like this:</p><p>It completely bypassed the armor. I also took away 2 dice when they started smacking him around with holy objects.</p><p></p><p>Pretty simple really. But I made sure I played up the "special effects". Mary hammered him square in the middle of the chest with it, and fire erupted as the cross burned its way into his chest.</p><p></p><p>"The cleansing flames of the Lord erupt and punish the abomination, and though you all can feel the heat, none of your are burned for you are servants of the Lord."</p><p></p><p>When Aginor knifed Penney in the back, flames licked up out of the wound he'd inflicted.</p><p></p><p>At the end of it, the players were a bit stunned at how tough the critter was, but seemed quite pleased with how the game had gone overall. There was some jokes about, "If that's the first one and it's the intro combat, Sir Henry is on his own. No way I'm sticking around for anything worse!!" But it seemed pretty clear that nobody meant it. They were just blowing of some steam from the final end of Penney, as well as from the rather long combat.</p><p></p><p>Yeah, I mean _long_. I'm pretty sure it was over an hour.</p><p></p><p>Like I said before, a bunch of that is my fault. I'm pretty sure it'll move quicker now that I've actually had a taste of combat and how things are supposed to flow. But having to do things like constantly re-roll your defense pool, rummaging around to make sure which dice are successes and which ones aren't... it adds to it.</p><p></p><p>The player of Kristoff isn't going to be able to make it next week, but he seemed to enjoy himself so the entire group agreed to delay having the next session so he could continue playing. So I'll have a couple of weeks to get my act together and see if I can work up some cheat-sheets or something to make my life a bit easier.</p><p></p><p>Now that I've run a session, I can go back through the rules and see little things like Parry is apparently supposed to take away from the character's _next_ action. I didn't run it that way, and Mary was an animal in combat with her Defense pool and Parrying.</p><p></p><p>Oh, and yes my rolling continued to be weak. I remember the first time I played with these guys (D&D game 2 years back) I said, "It's been a few years since I tossed some dice, so if I'm a bit rusty, please understand."</p><p></p><p>I then rolled three 1s back to back, followed by a 2, a 3 and then two more 1s. *sigh*</p><p></p><p>I'm better these days, and I've managed to pull off matching 20s, much to the player's disgust. But I seem to have a consistent low-level "suck" when it comes to my rolls.</p><p></p><p>It doesn't actually bother me though, so unlike the DM of the Eberron game (who yelled and banged his dice and constantly complained about his rolls) I cheer on the players when they beat me. Of course, I'm equally cheerful when I manage to score a nasty hit against them, so I guess it all balances out.</p><p></p><p>First session of Witch Hunter? Win. We'll see how things go in two weeks.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Scurvy_Platypus, post: 4327228, member: 43283"] [b]The game session:[/b] I went ahead and chose Storm Tide for the first adventure. We were getting a bit of a late start since we watched the movie first, but I thought we'd probably still be able to get through it. We didn't actually, but folks didn't seem to mind. I'd just like to say that despite the problems I list, the game actually went great. Hmmm... what can I say? I'm completely new to the system, I tried to read up on stuff, but there's only so many pages you can absorb. And I've never run a convention game before, so that's part of it too... We _almost_ managed to finish the first scene. We finished the fight, but it was just too late and we didn't have time to handle the minor "aftermath" stuff which moves the group onto the 2nd Scene. For those that want to follow along, the adventures are located here: [url]http://darkprovidence.net/Adventures.html[/url] Soooooo.... how'd it all go? Well, it started out pretty good. I had folks go through and give a basic overview of their characters, and basically I put 'em all together on the docks. The adventure isn't exactly clear at this point, but it turns out that the characters are all supposed to "meet" a bit later while waiting to interview for the job. I dislike that sort of thing personally. Having everyone start off kind of knowing each other isn't any more artificial than meeting in a tavern. Or His Lordship's waiting area. Anyway, I had four players, so I literally had each one pick a number between 1 and 4, no duplicates allowed. Then I simply gave them the vision/omen that was offered up as a possible suggestion. The all liked the different omens they got. Ah yes, the characters. None of 'em are into doing magic or a fighting tradition, which makes my life easier. Although one character is a member of the Apostles of the New Dawn order, so I'm going to at least have to read the chapter a time or two, just in case he decides to try something. Here's the roster: [sblock=Mary Fourkiller] This is my wife's character. She's a member of the Stalwarts of St. Christopher. Basically, an Order that was inspired by the Knights Templar, only they operated on English soil. Her Order has the special benefit of allowing her to spend her Defense to protect another person, and if damage still gets through it goes to her, instead of the person she's protecting. Her character is Native American, and is kind of a blend of Animus and Quaker in terms of religious beliefs.[/sblock] [sblock=Kristoff]Played by Adam. Adam is actually the _only_ person at the table that remembers playing OWoD rules. Granted, Witch Hunter isn't actually _using_ the OWoD system, but there's similarities and I expected that the other two people (who are regular players) would be able to help me out if I stumbled a bit. They couldn't, but Adam (whom I hadn't expected to play) was nice enough to let me know how OWoD did it, and wasn't a rule lawyer either. Anyway, Kristoff apparently is big. Adam initially said, "6'2 or so, and about 230 lbs." I pointed out that at 5'11 and 200 lbs, I'd be considered pretty decent sized among most folks back then, and he sheepishly admitted he hadn't been thinking in quite the same time period. Kristoff belongs to the Order of the Stalkers of the Unseen Hunt. Basically, most Witch Hunters are out there trying to defend folks. They'll go out looking for scum, and put 'em down. Thing is, the servants of the Adversary have to actually _come_ from some place. Alot of times that place is a Hellpoint. Stalkers are the crazy Witch Hunters that don't just defend people, or look for minions of evil that are out and about stirring stuff up. No, these crazy bastards go off and hunt them on _their_ turf. Their benefit is they get to pick an extra couple of Talents. Talents are those "extra special" things that give a Witch Hunter their edge. Kinda like super-buff feats out of d20.[/sblock] [sblock=Yost] Sounds like "Yo" and then add "st" to it. The character is Dutch, and an ex-slaver. A member of the Apostles of the New Dawn, his Order's benefit is that he can actually attempt to do magic without actually _knowing_ the spell. He can only attempt a particular prayer or Hermetic rite once each Adventure (not session) though.[/sblock] [sblock=Aginor] This character was a pre-gen. The Hunter. Also a member of the Stalkers of the Unseen Hunt.[/sblock] So, everyone gets together we have the meeting of the employer, then the hapless victim tells his story, and then combat ensues. And we came to a screeching halt. [color=#33FF33]Problem:[/color] We all seemed to struggle with remembering to roll our Defense pools, I found out later that I was running Parry wrong, and it really _shouldn't_ have been awesome like it was. [color=#3366FF]Solution:[/color]At the top of every round, I think I'm going to make the generic declaration "Roll your Defense", and everyone can just get it out of the way. [color=#33FF33]Problem:[/color]It turns out Grappling isn't explained in the combat section with the rest of the combat rules, but you have to flip back to the Skills section (2 chapters before) in order to figure out how it works. [color=#3366FF]Solution:[/color]Nothing really. Making some sort of combat cheat-sheet might help. I'll have to think about it a bit. [color=#33FF33]Problem:[/color]10's "explode" (count as a success and reroll), but it wasn't clear what happened if you got _no_ successes and rolled 1s. Or if you got Successes and _also_ rolled 1s. [color=#3366FF]Solution:[/color]I decided that a failure was just a failure. If there was a failure and 1s were _also_ rolled (a "botch") then a check requiring 2 success (2d) would be required, depending on what the attempted action was, to avoid having it go wrong. We had 2 botches during the combat. The first was Kristoff, who went to draw his sword and stab poor Penney. He botched the stab (the draw is a free action), so I described him drawing his sword, and since he'd just rabbit-punched Penney's blood spewing head the last round, when he drew the blade, it just kept going and smacked into the wall across the room. He didn't get any success on his check Adam shrugged and Kristoff continued punching Penney in the head. The second botch was when Yost went in for another smack with his bible alongside Penney's head and missed. Me managed to get 1 success, so Yost slipped in the blood and went to one knee but that was it. I ruled that 1s rolled when you _also_ had successes didn't mean anything. Apparently the WoD system had 1s negate successes, but that just seems to be unnecessary dice fiddling to me. Count your successes and move on. If there's none, just make sure you don't have any 1s. I like simple solutions. [color=#33FF33]Problem:[/color]The critter's stats. Initially, I looked over the adventure, felt comfortable with things, and away we went. The first round, Mary stuffs her hunting knife into Penney's gut and does a huge chunk of damage. In fact, the first couple of rounds, it was getting _hammered_. Then I was looking back over the stats, and realized I was missing stuff like his @#$%@#$% armor. Completely stupid mistake on my part. But in trying to look up the armor to make sure I had it right (and understood the other powers) I ran into an oddity. Threat powers aren't laid out like the character Talents they're the equivalent of. See, the character Talents are alphabetical. And they've got a handy cheat-chart for you, which gives you a shorthand summary. Threat powers on the other hand, don't have a cheat chart, and are broken up by the type of power they are. So the creature that takes over Penney actually has powers scattered around a bit and that requires more flipping. [color=#3366FF]Solution:[/color]Well, first of all I need to actually be more familiar with my #$%#$ critters. After that, I suppose a cheat-chart is probably in order. [color=#33FF33]Problem:[/color]4 on 1. How do you resolve 4 people beating the stuffing out of 1 poor slob of a monster, when you've got points being assigned from a defense pool? Do you actually have a pool vs each attacker? Can you split your pool between multiple attackers? [color=#3366FF]Solution:[/color]I decided that group tactics _work_. It's why Witch Hunters are willing to move in a pack, when they'd otherwise frequently want nothing to do with each other. So, a single Defense pool is rolled, and the out-numbered person can assign the Defense however they'd like, but chances are it's not going to go very far. Hopefully you've got @#$%#@$ armor and remember to use it. I eventually did. [color=#33FF33]Problem:[/color]Weapons come with a DM (Damage Mod) is that dice, or a flat value added? If someone spends enough Defense to negate your Attack, will you still get the DM anyway? Or does the Defender have to spend Defense to negate that as well? [color=#3366FF]Solution:[/color]I went simple, and after having checked around it looks like my approach was right. Weapons do a flat amount that add to your success. So if you have 2 successes, and your weapon has a DM of 3, it means a total of 5 damage is done. A defender only has to negate the actual Attack successes, so in the example above, the defender would only have to spend 2 defense, not 5. [color=#33FF33]Problem:[/color]Yost's player declares: "I'm stepping forward, and saying 'The power of Christ compels you!!' and smacking him with my bible." I'm pretty sure I didn't see any damage listed for "bible" or "holy damage" when I went ambling through the book. [color=#3366FF]Solution:[/color]First: Sweeeeeeet. The player bought into the premise and wasn't afraid to use his religion as a weapon against a servant of the Adversary. Next: Crap. I've got no idea what to do with this. I don't want to interrupt the flow of the game since we've actually started to feel comfortable with what we're doing. I look at the sheet. He's Vulnerable to Cold Iron, and a Weakness to sacramental wine. What was the difference between a Vulnerability and a Weakness again? Does the hunting knife that Mary is currently cheerfully attempting to maul my poor critter with count as Cold Iron? Who the hell just happens to have sacramental wine on them when they go to interview for a job at the Governor's Mansion in Jamaica in the year 1689?!?!? All of this ran through my head in the space of about 2 seconds. So I do what I always do: I made :#$% up. I paid for the damn game, it's mine to do with as I please, and I will houserule the !@#$!@#$ out of any game that gets in my way. So I told Yost, "That's awesome!! Are you just presenting the Bible and kind of shoving it up against him, or are you hauling back and doing the bitch-slap beat down with it?" Yost's player thought for a second and said, "Beat down." "Sweeeeet. Ok, give me a Hand to Hand check, and go ahead and count the Bible as doing 1 DM like a dagger does." The other players were cheering him on for his excellent thinking, and wondering what the effect was going to be. So was I. He made his rolls and since poor Penney had blown all his defense against Mary (who was cheerfully stabbing him repeatedly in the gut) he didn't have any Defense left. Each round, I'd been describing how the blood just poured out from Penney. It was everywhere. Far more than any person could possibly have in their body. Each time Kristoff rabbit-punched Penney in the head, there was a kind of "splorch" sound and blood sprayed across the people behind Penney. "Ok, Yost hauls off and brings his Bible around and totally hammers Penney right in the middle of his forehead with the bible. Up until now, Penney has just kind of burbled at you, but as the Bible makes contact with him, he actually screams and it's a pretty loud and clear one. There's a sizzling sound, and the smell of cooking flesh fills the room as smoke erupts from under the Bible. You all can clearly see the outline of the book in Penney's forehead, and square in the middle of it is a crispy looking cross. Blood continues to gush from Penney everywhere, except where the Bible touched. That area looks and smells burned and is crusted over." After that, Mary whipped out her cross and proceeded to start trying to smack him around with the cross. I handled the damage from both cross and bible like this: It completely bypassed the armor. I also took away 2 dice when they started smacking him around with holy objects. Pretty simple really. But I made sure I played up the "special effects". Mary hammered him square in the middle of the chest with it, and fire erupted as the cross burned its way into his chest. "The cleansing flames of the Lord erupt and punish the abomination, and though you all can feel the heat, none of your are burned for you are servants of the Lord." When Aginor knifed Penney in the back, flames licked up out of the wound he'd inflicted. At the end of it, the players were a bit stunned at how tough the critter was, but seemed quite pleased with how the game had gone overall. There was some jokes about, "If that's the first one and it's the intro combat, Sir Henry is on his own. No way I'm sticking around for anything worse!!" But it seemed pretty clear that nobody meant it. They were just blowing of some steam from the final end of Penney, as well as from the rather long combat. Yeah, I mean _long_. I'm pretty sure it was over an hour. Like I said before, a bunch of that is my fault. I'm pretty sure it'll move quicker now that I've actually had a taste of combat and how things are supposed to flow. But having to do things like constantly re-roll your defense pool, rummaging around to make sure which dice are successes and which ones aren't... it adds to it. The player of Kristoff isn't going to be able to make it next week, but he seemed to enjoy himself so the entire group agreed to delay having the next session so he could continue playing. So I'll have a couple of weeks to get my act together and see if I can work up some cheat-sheets or something to make my life a bit easier. Now that I've run a session, I can go back through the rules and see little things like Parry is apparently supposed to take away from the character's _next_ action. I didn't run it that way, and Mary was an animal in combat with her Defense pool and Parrying. Oh, and yes my rolling continued to be weak. I remember the first time I played with these guys (D&D game 2 years back) I said, "It's been a few years since I tossed some dice, so if I'm a bit rusty, please understand." I then rolled three 1s back to back, followed by a 2, a 3 and then two more 1s. *sigh* I'm better these days, and I've managed to pull off matching 20s, much to the player's disgust. But I seem to have a consistent low-level "suck" when it comes to my rolls. It doesn't actually bother me though, so unlike the DM of the Eberron game (who yelled and banged his dice and constantly complained about his rolls) I cheer on the players when they beat me. Of course, I'm equally cheerful when I manage to score a nasty hit against them, so I guess it all balances out. First session of Witch Hunter? Win. We'll see how things go in two weeks. [/QUOTE]
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[Non-d20] Witch Hunter: Invisible World - my impressions
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