My group finally managed to find some time to run a playtest of the rules. There were five players plus me as the DM and I handed each character sheet out randomly. The players had not read the rules, but they were familiar with the basics and after around 5-10 minutes of reading their sheets and questions on some mechanics we began playing. I made a short custom adventure that was pretty bland in order to explore the various mechanics.
The players were an adventuring party on their way to a village that had sent out a plea for help to investigate the disappearances of some of the villagers. On their way there, they encountered a group of goblins that ordered the players to surrender their gold in order to pass. The good natured cleric of Pelor successfully convinced them that they were outmatched and had them stand down, only for the goblin warlord to kill one of his own goblins for acting out of order. The warlord and the cleric had a charisma contest to see who could convince the goblins to act as they wanted, and due to a bad roll on the cleric's behalf the encounter broke into a battle.
The battle was pretty standard. The cleric of Pelor and the wizard stood back throwing around their attack spells while the cleric of Moradin and the fighter took to the front lines. The rogue darted in and out of stealth to get some sneak attacks in, and while he liked the option of hiding behind his own allies he was a bit disappointed in the limited options he had to gain advantage. The goblins themselves went down rather quickly, but the goblin king took a while to bring down and had a bit too much HP in the players opinion. They managed to take him down after a few rounds and the remaining goblins fled into the woods. The party looted the goblins and the halfling took the goblin king's shoddy copper headdress.
As they entered the village they were greeted by a guard who noticed the headdress the halfling was wearing quite proudly. He rewarded the players with a small bounty for the goblin king. He also noticed the Moradin cleric's knighthood after a short (and Shakespearean) introduction and offered the players lodgings in the guard outpost. The players accepted, but of course they first wanted to visit the tavern and wanted to hear more about the disappearances the following day. The cleric of Pelor went to the local temple to get some healing supplies, which he got from the town cleric who granted them after a successful diplomacy check even though they were not of the same faith.
At the tavern the players encountered a boisterous archer who claimed he was going to solve the disappearances. The rogue and the fighter challenged him to an archery contest in which they barely lost due to some unlucky rolls. At the tavern the players had some drinks, listened to some rumors and recognized one of the villagers tale of a local troll as bunk thanks to the rogue's knack for folk lore. They convinced the archer to drink a lot since they wanted the quest for themselves, and thanks to a natural 1 on his constitution check it only took a few drinks to drink him under the table, ensuring a hefty hangover the next day.
The next day they went to the mayor and asked him about the disappearances, and after a few questions they discovered that the son of one of the disappeared villagers had been knocked out while working in the field at night and dragged off east by a cloaked figure. They concluded that a nearby graveyard was a likely place to start their investigation and travelled there after getting some provisions at the local temple.
At the graveyard, the players discovered an unusual headstone with dried blood at the ground and a religion check led them to discover that this headstone at the symbol of an evil deity. They also discovered a fireplace that had been used recently which they agreed was sufficient evidence that someone had been there recently. They elected to wait until nightfall to see if any suspicious activity took place, and at midnight they saw two cloaked figures arriving carrying a villager. The cloaked figures turned out to be acolytes, and as the players were bursting forth from their hiding places the acolytes sacrificed the peasant at the headstone, opening an entrance to a crypt. The fighter got a critical hit with his crossbow and killed one of the acolytes while the rest of them ganged up on the other one, killing him quickly. They ventured down into the crypt, and the rogue found a few traps.
They had some battles with acolytes, skeletons and zombies in which the fighter and the cleric of Moradin took down most of them, while the cleric of Pelor used his ability to turn undead to make sure they only had to deal with one or two undead at a time. The wizard was pretty unimaginative and pretty much just spammed magic missile. The rogue hid behind the wizard and got in some sneak attacks but wasn't very successful.
The end of the run ended with a clash with a Wight (I originally wanted to go with a Dark Priest but we were short on time) which took over half its HP from the laser cleric's searing light. Two rounds later the Wight was dead and the party managed to save two surviving peasants from the crypt and got their gold reward from the mayor along with the villagers gratitude. The rogue even managed to convince the mayor to give them his masterwork dagger in addition, thanks to their valiant work.
Even though the adventure was pretty dumb, the players had a lot of fun. The clerics were especially happy with their abilities, especially the cleric of Pelor who had never played a healer type before and thought it was a blast to play. That's possibly because he didn't do a lot of healing in combat, but in my opinion that's a good thing.
The cleric of Moradin was pleased with his theme and background and thought his cleric abilities were pretty solid as well. He had fun being the bashy type but still being able to support his group.
The guy playing the rogue absolutely loved his abilities, but wanted some more ways to gain advantage in combat other than just stealth.
The guy playing the fighter was happy with his effectiveness, but was annoyed at how straight forward it was, and wanted some more active abilities like the rest of the players. He was especially unhappy that there were no maneuvers which just made him repeat the attack action over and over again, and sometimes he didn't even need to roll because his slayer theme ability would kill low HP monsters anyway.
The wizard was content enough, but to be fair he wasn't really playing a wizard as much as he was playing a portable magic missile cannon. Whatever floats his boat!
The players were very happy with the way combat flowed, especially the omission of fiddly modifiers here and there, which has often slowed our combat down. They were still a bit disappointed in the lack of some tactical options (we were using miniatures btw) such as flanking and attacks of opportunity, although they admitted they liked the more mobility the lack of opportunity attacks allows. The fighter mentioned that he thought fighters should gain opportunity attacks even if other characters don't, which I thought was a worthwhile suggestion.
I myself was happy with our first playtest, but I must say that the monsters I had to work with were pretty damn dull. Some more abilities for each of them would make designing combat more fun. I also agree with the players that some of the boss monsters HP was a bit overblown, especially that of the goblin king.
I look forward to more playtesting, especially later stages when we get more stuff to work with and some of the more iffy stuff gets sorted out.
The players were an adventuring party on their way to a village that had sent out a plea for help to investigate the disappearances of some of the villagers. On their way there, they encountered a group of goblins that ordered the players to surrender their gold in order to pass. The good natured cleric of Pelor successfully convinced them that they were outmatched and had them stand down, only for the goblin warlord to kill one of his own goblins for acting out of order. The warlord and the cleric had a charisma contest to see who could convince the goblins to act as they wanted, and due to a bad roll on the cleric's behalf the encounter broke into a battle.
The battle was pretty standard. The cleric of Pelor and the wizard stood back throwing around their attack spells while the cleric of Moradin and the fighter took to the front lines. The rogue darted in and out of stealth to get some sneak attacks in, and while he liked the option of hiding behind his own allies he was a bit disappointed in the limited options he had to gain advantage. The goblins themselves went down rather quickly, but the goblin king took a while to bring down and had a bit too much HP in the players opinion. They managed to take him down after a few rounds and the remaining goblins fled into the woods. The party looted the goblins and the halfling took the goblin king's shoddy copper headdress.
As they entered the village they were greeted by a guard who noticed the headdress the halfling was wearing quite proudly. He rewarded the players with a small bounty for the goblin king. He also noticed the Moradin cleric's knighthood after a short (and Shakespearean) introduction and offered the players lodgings in the guard outpost. The players accepted, but of course they first wanted to visit the tavern and wanted to hear more about the disappearances the following day. The cleric of Pelor went to the local temple to get some healing supplies, which he got from the town cleric who granted them after a successful diplomacy check even though they were not of the same faith.
At the tavern the players encountered a boisterous archer who claimed he was going to solve the disappearances. The rogue and the fighter challenged him to an archery contest in which they barely lost due to some unlucky rolls. At the tavern the players had some drinks, listened to some rumors and recognized one of the villagers tale of a local troll as bunk thanks to the rogue's knack for folk lore. They convinced the archer to drink a lot since they wanted the quest for themselves, and thanks to a natural 1 on his constitution check it only took a few drinks to drink him under the table, ensuring a hefty hangover the next day.
The next day they went to the mayor and asked him about the disappearances, and after a few questions they discovered that the son of one of the disappeared villagers had been knocked out while working in the field at night and dragged off east by a cloaked figure. They concluded that a nearby graveyard was a likely place to start their investigation and travelled there after getting some provisions at the local temple.
At the graveyard, the players discovered an unusual headstone with dried blood at the ground and a religion check led them to discover that this headstone at the symbol of an evil deity. They also discovered a fireplace that had been used recently which they agreed was sufficient evidence that someone had been there recently. They elected to wait until nightfall to see if any suspicious activity took place, and at midnight they saw two cloaked figures arriving carrying a villager. The cloaked figures turned out to be acolytes, and as the players were bursting forth from their hiding places the acolytes sacrificed the peasant at the headstone, opening an entrance to a crypt. The fighter got a critical hit with his crossbow and killed one of the acolytes while the rest of them ganged up on the other one, killing him quickly. They ventured down into the crypt, and the rogue found a few traps.
They had some battles with acolytes, skeletons and zombies in which the fighter and the cleric of Moradin took down most of them, while the cleric of Pelor used his ability to turn undead to make sure they only had to deal with one or two undead at a time. The wizard was pretty unimaginative and pretty much just spammed magic missile. The rogue hid behind the wizard and got in some sneak attacks but wasn't very successful.
The end of the run ended with a clash with a Wight (I originally wanted to go with a Dark Priest but we were short on time) which took over half its HP from the laser cleric's searing light. Two rounds later the Wight was dead and the party managed to save two surviving peasants from the crypt and got their gold reward from the mayor along with the villagers gratitude. The rogue even managed to convince the mayor to give them his masterwork dagger in addition, thanks to their valiant work.
Even though the adventure was pretty dumb, the players had a lot of fun. The clerics were especially happy with their abilities, especially the cleric of Pelor who had never played a healer type before and thought it was a blast to play. That's possibly because he didn't do a lot of healing in combat, but in my opinion that's a good thing.
The cleric of Moradin was pleased with his theme and background and thought his cleric abilities were pretty solid as well. He had fun being the bashy type but still being able to support his group.
The guy playing the rogue absolutely loved his abilities, but wanted some more ways to gain advantage in combat other than just stealth.
The guy playing the fighter was happy with his effectiveness, but was annoyed at how straight forward it was, and wanted some more active abilities like the rest of the players. He was especially unhappy that there were no maneuvers which just made him repeat the attack action over and over again, and sometimes he didn't even need to roll because his slayer theme ability would kill low HP monsters anyway.
The wizard was content enough, but to be fair he wasn't really playing a wizard as much as he was playing a portable magic missile cannon. Whatever floats his boat!
The players were very happy with the way combat flowed, especially the omission of fiddly modifiers here and there, which has often slowed our combat down. They were still a bit disappointed in the lack of some tactical options (we were using miniatures btw) such as flanking and attacks of opportunity, although they admitted they liked the more mobility the lack of opportunity attacks allows. The fighter mentioned that he thought fighters should gain opportunity attacks even if other characters don't, which I thought was a worthwhile suggestion.
I myself was happy with our first playtest, but I must say that the monsters I had to work with were pretty damn dull. Some more abilities for each of them would make designing combat more fun. I also agree with the players that some of the boss monsters HP was a bit overblown, especially that of the goblin king.
I look forward to more playtesting, especially later stages when we get more stuff to work with and some of the more iffy stuff gets sorted out.
