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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Flynn" data-source="post: 4144191" data-attributes="member: 1836">Session Notes - 04/02/08Good Morning, All:Last night, we had a full table once again. Despite a late start and a somewhat early end, we managed to pack a lot of fun into a 2.5 hour session. The quote that people have made of "4 hours of gaming, 20 minutes of fun" isn't too far off with a relaxed gaming group. For us, it's more the socializing aspect that overshadows gameplay, rather than complicated rules issues. Still, it was a fun night.The Synopsis:As the adventurers quickly organized their converted troops, the Warlord Andrus Phaetren rushed in to join his fellow adventurers. Looking through the breached walls they could see a large force of more than thirty dwarves and a handful of humans by their side running towards them. The Magus Chrysander prayed fervently to Joven, the God of Healing and Knowledge, and was filled with a sense of peace, calming his nerves. Thane Yngvar stepped before his troops and called out to pardon those that would fight by his side. His offer was met at first with crossbow bolts, followed by hellfire bolts from the hands of diabolic cabalists among the ranks of the forces starting to pour through the choke point of the breached wall. As the Warlord Andrus and Anzjin, the wounded elven priest, moved forward behind Yngvar's slight wall of troops, the stonecutter-turned-king shouted his promises of pardons, although his cries fell mostly on deaf ears.Soon the battle was joined, and the forces were locked within the breach. The Magus Chrysander spent the last of his Essence to create a sonic burst, rendering many of the enemy stunned and even slaying one. It looked like the heroes were grossly out-numbered, and the only convert that the party had seen was a single dwarven lord. Between the empassioned cries of Yngvar, the dwarven lord Ioleth and the persuasive calls of the Warlord Andrus, the battle slowed and stopped in order to hold an Allthing, a public hearing used to settle disputes in the dwarven culture. Though the dwarves were exiled, many saw the chance to be pardoned of their crimes and return to their homes, while the few that followed the diabolists of the Black Court did not wish to see that happen. When the bulk of the warriors craved an Allthing to settle the dispute in true dwarven fashion, the cabalists had no other choice but to acquiesce.For those unfamiliar with a dwarven Allthing, its formal presentations and robust arguments make for a long and drawn out political affair. It is especially draining on those that participate, and it has happened that Allthings have ended with one side conceding simply because the participants fell asleep from utter exhaustion. Into this political arena strode Thane Yngvar, the Warlord Andrus and the Magus Chrysander, joined by their new ally, Ioleth. Speaking for the cabalists were two cultists of the demon prince Rundigaard and the dwarven Warlord Pater. It was a long debate, well over an hour, filled mostly with intimidation on the part of the demon worshippers and countered by emotional arguments and historical debates on the part of our heroes. In the end, it became obvious that the former Sundered of Moonwell had accepted Yngvar as the new Thane of the Dwarves, for he bore the Sword of Dwarven Kings, Tiwazbrandr. (The party later learned that Yngvar's acceptance as a Thane had been heavily influenced by the Sundered Emperor's indoctrination of his troops about the importance of the blade in preparations of his finding it and leading his people in a march of conquest against the dwarven Triumverate.)The party celebrated with their newfound supporters, freed the captive villagers and got some well earned rest. Over the next few days, the band rested up, although Yngvar did direct his troops to move outside the city walls (to ease tensions with the locals) and ordered them to help construct a new gate where the tower had breached the wall. As the Duargate, as it began to be called, was nearing completion, the party learned that the Sundered Emperor had left almost a week ago in pursuit of rumors that he thought would take him to the sword. A local had told the Emperor about a barrow that might have been a tomb constructed by the Archmagus Agarean, the same magus that had taken the Sword of Dwarven Kings at the request of the first Thane of Thanes and hidden it away. Given that the Sundered Emperor had yet to return, the party felt that either he met with defeat at the barrows or that he had succeeded and was marching on towards the Black Hills and the dwarven clanholds of the Triumverate.Yngvar remembered the words of the prophetess Amandrea, that he would face the Sundered Emperor only after many battles and slaying the White Hand, and felt that the Sundered Emperor was perhaps still to be found in the barrow, for he knew a confrontation with the bandit king was destined and still had not unfolded. The rest of the party, motivated by curiosity and the thoughts of treasure, decided to join Yngvar on his quest to seek out the Sundered Emperor in the ancient barrows built by Agarean.And that's where the session ended...The Commentary:Again, we got caught up in talk and socializing, especially with Andrus's player, who had been in a car accident last Wednesday and so had missed that session. Despite the reduced game time, this proved to be an interesting evening. The numbers for the battle looking overwhelming, and the first few rounds quickly inspired much commentary on the possibility of a TPK (Total Party Kill). Finally, the Warlord Andrus made a persuasion roll with a raise, and I allowed their joint efforts to sway enough of the "common dwarves" among the Sundered to call for an Allthing. Without support, the leaders were forced to comply. That was nice, and helped demonstrate that sometimes talking can be better than fighting.For the Allthing, I used an idea found in the Savage Worlds fanzine, Shark Bytes, Vol. 1, Issue #2, in an article starting on page 56, about alternate uses for the Mass Battles rules. I used Knowledge (Politics) as the base skill for the "generals" of each side, knowing that one of the players had it and so would give him a chance to be in the spotlight. For each side, I gave them tokens equal to their die type. Each player that participated chose a skill to use, explaining how it applied, for their rolls. (Yngvar and the Warlord Andrus used Persuasion, while Magus Chrysander used Knowledge (History) to relate Yngvar's deeds back to famous dwarven legends.) When the Mass Battle results called for damage, I changed that to be a Vigor roll (with scaling penalties) to avoid fatigue levels. The length of the rounds was set at about half an hour per round. These all combined to produce a flavorful effect of making Allthings arduous and establishing the flavor of their form of governance. The enemies ran out of tokens pretty quickly, and by the rules of the Allthing, they and their supporters were allowed to leave unharmed.The guys liked it, because 1) it wasn't a TPK and 2) it added a lot of flavor to the game world. Also, using the Mass Battle rules for the Allthing helped demonstrate to them how versatile the SW rules can be. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> 'll probably keep the same rules for dwarven Allthings, but I'll probably reduce the Vigor roll penalties I used for human political debates and the like. I used 4d6 = -4, 3d6 = -2, and 2d6 = +0 this time around. In hindsight, I probably should have gone -2/+0/+2 instead. I'll use those for human debates and let it go at that. (Nobody argues politics like a dwarf. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )The rest was bookkeeping, some minor treasure and stuff, some healing rolls and the beginnings of their next adventure.Next week, they should learn what could hold a bandit king and his men within some ruins for over a week. I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Wish Them Luck,Flynn</blockquote>

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