Gargoyle
Adventurer
I ran a playtest for my wife and a friend yesterday. It was a lot of fun. Sadly we don't play a lot of D&D anymore because of jobs, travel, etc. so we're certainly casual players now. However, rather than 1st level characters, I had them roll up 8th level ones. Because of the small party size I also gave them 14 henchmen: a dozen commoners, a human berserker named Grum, and a human war chief named Belgrad with stats straight out of the bestiary.
My wife likes simple to play simple characters and rolled an 8th level female hill dwarf Fighter named Helga Underhill. My friend Mark rolled an 8th level male human Ranger named Zeros. Helga had the soldier background and reaper specialization, so she was a high ranking enlisted member of a mercenary company and is accustomed to fighting lots of enemies in large battles. Zeros is a guide with the favored enemy of brutes, and served as a scout in the same company of mercs. During previous adventures, I decided that both of them had a few minor magic items, and a couple of rare ones. Helga has a chainmail suit of the efreeti +1 that has the quirk of making her very confident and Zeros has a flametongue sword +1 that happens to be very loud when its command word is spoken.
The setting is a homebrew that I'm working on. It's a mashup inspired by Egyptian, Norse, and D&D mythology and themes, with a Southern kingdom resembling ancient Egypt, and a bunch of northern kingdoms that are a mashup of Norse culture and the old Birthright campaign setting.
They were given the map to the tomb of Pharoah Xu'Set, the legendary mad pharoah who died about 400 years ago. The tomb is located somewhere to the east in the Shining Desert, a rocky wasteland with very little water. Their employer is Kincaid, a legendary human explorer and archeologist whose son's expedition to Xu'Set's tomb has gone missing. They have been given the charter to explore the tomb and collect whatever riches are within in exchange for returning his son safely. Since the tomb is technically not in the same kingdom as the issuing Exploration Society, it's not exactly internationally legal, and sort of makes them privateers. There is much risk, but the potential for great reward as well.
We started off a little slow as I chose to read through the exploration rules and try them out for their journey through the desert. They had a map, and they decided to travel to the closest landmark to their destination, an oasis about three days ride to the east. They chose to travel at a moderate speed, and Zeros decided to use mapmaking to detail their map. They traveled by night to avoid the terrible heat of the day, and the first night out their henchmen spotted a hobgoblin ambush, a phalanx of unarmored desert hobgoblins with spears and shields charged down a rock strewn ravine toward them.
We liked the exploration rules. It reminded me of the Expert level D&D wilderness adventures I used to run, and the danger of getting lost, and dealing with the environment added another layer to the challenge. I don't think they understood the rules that well, but I blame myself for not understanding them and explaining it, but as we worked through it, we had fun.
Zeros cast spiky growth causing a field of obsidian to erupt in front of them, and they commanded their henchmen to prepare to receive a charge (ready an action to attack). The hobgoblins lost initiative the following round and Zeros put another spiky growth right under them. They struggled to get out of the field, becoming wounded in the process and slowly made their way through the difficult terrain to the henchmen below who cut them to ribbons, losing only one of their number. Helga managed to finish off the last one with a crossbow bolt.
We laughed at the encounter, as it was obviously an easy one, which I had intended to ease us into the game. I was impressed by how effective a larger number of low level NPCs could be when intelligently played and backed up with a little magic from higher level heroes. The ranger played more like a druid in the encounter though, but given that it was an extremely easy fight, I was ok with that.
Zeros' knowledge of the hobgoblins proved useful, as he knew this was a patrol and that many more would be coming when they didn't return. They marched through the heat of the day, and the henchmen and Zeros missed their Con saves and suffered some heat exhaustion (halved their speed, and lowered their max hp is how I chose to do it). They did narrowly avoid a much bigger hobgoblin patrol, thanks to Zeros providing some guidance (Wis and Dex checks), but they decided to rest the following evening. They fortified their camp, a rocky overhang that provided some amount of shelter and Zeros camoflaged it as much as he could.
The players knew that marching through the day was dangerous, but realized that a large hobgoblin force could be very dangerous, having seen what their own henchmen could do. So they were motivated to keep moving despite the risk. I gave the ranger some latitude on his abilities; allowing him to camouflage the camp and to use his favored enemy class ability to help with the checks to use the Sneak activity during exploration to avoid the hobgoblin forces seemed natural. This was pretty cool...the rules didn't spell out to do these things, but they didn't get in the way of what they wanted to try and it all seemed to click for us. Backgrounds and specializations made the characters more well rounded. But they didn't really have to deal with them if they didn't want to. My wife largely ignored her Soldier background and was fine with that.
They rested through the heat of the next day, but one of the mules was attacked by a roc diving out of the sun...only Helga saw its shadow in time to immediately respond. She attacked it as it dove down, saving the mule, but causing the gargantuan bird to attack her savagely. (She moved in between it and the mule, and readied an attack) Zeros healed her wounds, and the henchmen attacked it with a mass of spears, causing great damage but the roc killed one of them easily. As they were focused on the first one, a second roc joined the attack. Helga and the henchmen inflicted massive damage and finished off the first one, causing the second one to go into a frenzy attacking various people at random rather than just focusing on one, and killing a couple more commoners.
Just as they about had the roc down, it grabbed Grum the berserker and took to the sky, too quick for them to attack with bows or javelins. Grum was already wounded and enraged, and they never learned of his fate again. But we were curious and played it out anyway, as the roc only had 9 hp left and Grum had 5, it could have went either way. The roc dropped Grum into the nest, circled around and dove. Grum won initiatve, readied an action to attack, and rolled a 17, and as he was still raging then a 1. Grum died valiantly in the roc's nest, earning his place in Valhalla. Interesting how berserkers get disadvantage for raging while barbarians get advantage. Grum never hit anything, not even once.
The rocs were more challenging and Helga nearly fell from her wounds. Again the ranger was played much like a druid or cleric, standing back and healing rather than taking part in the fight. I think perhaps he regretted not having a ranged weapon at this point...rookie mistake...like I said, we don't play a lot anymore. But I will say that he was sort of pleased when he rolled the character that he wasn't forced into an archer or two weapon fighting schtick. My wife liked how simple her fighter was to play. She had lots of choices when creating the character, but when playing it, it wasn't complex and she liked that.
They mourned the death of their companions (the characters did, we all sort of giggled) and rested into the night, and finally pressed on, finding the oasis in the afternoon. It was a strange sight. The oasis was on a raised hill of sandy rock. Rocks much darker than the surrounding terrain curved upwards creating a bowl of shadow, with a small lake in the middle. As they got closer they could make out a settlement of straw huts on the east side. The oasis seemed quite out of place with the rest of the surroundings. They climbed up the hill and walked down into the bowl of the Shadow Valley of the Oasis, camped next to the water, refilling their waterskins, and resting, but not venturing into the deep shade.
After some time, a tall tanned man in traditional nomadic clothes walked out and greeted them. "I am Maniko honored guests. I too am a guest of the natives of the Shadow Oasis, would you like to meet them?"
More later...
My wife likes simple to play simple characters and rolled an 8th level female hill dwarf Fighter named Helga Underhill. My friend Mark rolled an 8th level male human Ranger named Zeros. Helga had the soldier background and reaper specialization, so she was a high ranking enlisted member of a mercenary company and is accustomed to fighting lots of enemies in large battles. Zeros is a guide with the favored enemy of brutes, and served as a scout in the same company of mercs. During previous adventures, I decided that both of them had a few minor magic items, and a couple of rare ones. Helga has a chainmail suit of the efreeti +1 that has the quirk of making her very confident and Zeros has a flametongue sword +1 that happens to be very loud when its command word is spoken.
The setting is a homebrew that I'm working on. It's a mashup inspired by Egyptian, Norse, and D&D mythology and themes, with a Southern kingdom resembling ancient Egypt, and a bunch of northern kingdoms that are a mashup of Norse culture and the old Birthright campaign setting.
They were given the map to the tomb of Pharoah Xu'Set, the legendary mad pharoah who died about 400 years ago. The tomb is located somewhere to the east in the Shining Desert, a rocky wasteland with very little water. Their employer is Kincaid, a legendary human explorer and archeologist whose son's expedition to Xu'Set's tomb has gone missing. They have been given the charter to explore the tomb and collect whatever riches are within in exchange for returning his son safely. Since the tomb is technically not in the same kingdom as the issuing Exploration Society, it's not exactly internationally legal, and sort of makes them privateers. There is much risk, but the potential for great reward as well.
We started off a little slow as I chose to read through the exploration rules and try them out for their journey through the desert. They had a map, and they decided to travel to the closest landmark to their destination, an oasis about three days ride to the east. They chose to travel at a moderate speed, and Zeros decided to use mapmaking to detail their map. They traveled by night to avoid the terrible heat of the day, and the first night out their henchmen spotted a hobgoblin ambush, a phalanx of unarmored desert hobgoblins with spears and shields charged down a rock strewn ravine toward them.
We liked the exploration rules. It reminded me of the Expert level D&D wilderness adventures I used to run, and the danger of getting lost, and dealing with the environment added another layer to the challenge. I don't think they understood the rules that well, but I blame myself for not understanding them and explaining it, but as we worked through it, we had fun.
Zeros cast spiky growth causing a field of obsidian to erupt in front of them, and they commanded their henchmen to prepare to receive a charge (ready an action to attack). The hobgoblins lost initiative the following round and Zeros put another spiky growth right under them. They struggled to get out of the field, becoming wounded in the process and slowly made their way through the difficult terrain to the henchmen below who cut them to ribbons, losing only one of their number. Helga managed to finish off the last one with a crossbow bolt.
We laughed at the encounter, as it was obviously an easy one, which I had intended to ease us into the game. I was impressed by how effective a larger number of low level NPCs could be when intelligently played and backed up with a little magic from higher level heroes. The ranger played more like a druid in the encounter though, but given that it was an extremely easy fight, I was ok with that.
Zeros' knowledge of the hobgoblins proved useful, as he knew this was a patrol and that many more would be coming when they didn't return. They marched through the heat of the day, and the henchmen and Zeros missed their Con saves and suffered some heat exhaustion (halved their speed, and lowered their max hp is how I chose to do it). They did narrowly avoid a much bigger hobgoblin patrol, thanks to Zeros providing some guidance (Wis and Dex checks), but they decided to rest the following evening. They fortified their camp, a rocky overhang that provided some amount of shelter and Zeros camoflaged it as much as he could.
The players knew that marching through the day was dangerous, but realized that a large hobgoblin force could be very dangerous, having seen what their own henchmen could do. So they were motivated to keep moving despite the risk. I gave the ranger some latitude on his abilities; allowing him to camouflage the camp and to use his favored enemy class ability to help with the checks to use the Sneak activity during exploration to avoid the hobgoblin forces seemed natural. This was pretty cool...the rules didn't spell out to do these things, but they didn't get in the way of what they wanted to try and it all seemed to click for us. Backgrounds and specializations made the characters more well rounded. But they didn't really have to deal with them if they didn't want to. My wife largely ignored her Soldier background and was fine with that.
They rested through the heat of the next day, but one of the mules was attacked by a roc diving out of the sun...only Helga saw its shadow in time to immediately respond. She attacked it as it dove down, saving the mule, but causing the gargantuan bird to attack her savagely. (She moved in between it and the mule, and readied an attack) Zeros healed her wounds, and the henchmen attacked it with a mass of spears, causing great damage but the roc killed one of them easily. As they were focused on the first one, a second roc joined the attack. Helga and the henchmen inflicted massive damage and finished off the first one, causing the second one to go into a frenzy attacking various people at random rather than just focusing on one, and killing a couple more commoners.
Just as they about had the roc down, it grabbed Grum the berserker and took to the sky, too quick for them to attack with bows or javelins. Grum was already wounded and enraged, and they never learned of his fate again. But we were curious and played it out anyway, as the roc only had 9 hp left and Grum had 5, it could have went either way. The roc dropped Grum into the nest, circled around and dove. Grum won initiatve, readied an action to attack, and rolled a 17, and as he was still raging then a 1. Grum died valiantly in the roc's nest, earning his place in Valhalla. Interesting how berserkers get disadvantage for raging while barbarians get advantage. Grum never hit anything, not even once.
The rocs were more challenging and Helga nearly fell from her wounds. Again the ranger was played much like a druid or cleric, standing back and healing rather than taking part in the fight. I think perhaps he regretted not having a ranged weapon at this point...rookie mistake...like I said, we don't play a lot anymore. But I will say that he was sort of pleased when he rolled the character that he wasn't forced into an archer or two weapon fighting schtick. My wife liked how simple her fighter was to play. She had lots of choices when creating the character, but when playing it, it wasn't complex and she liked that.
They mourned the death of their companions (the characters did, we all sort of giggled) and rested into the night, and finally pressed on, finding the oasis in the afternoon. It was a strange sight. The oasis was on a raised hill of sandy rock. Rocks much darker than the surrounding terrain curved upwards creating a bowl of shadow, with a small lake in the middle. As they got closer they could make out a settlement of straw huts on the east side. The oasis seemed quite out of place with the rest of the surroundings. They climbed up the hill and walked down into the bowl of the Shadow Valley of the Oasis, camped next to the water, refilling their waterskins, and resting, but not venturing into the deep shade.
After some time, a tall tanned man in traditional nomadic clothes walked out and greeted them. "I am Maniko honored guests. I too am a guest of the natives of the Shadow Oasis, would you like to meet them?"
More later...
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