Primitive Screwhead
First Post
Hello!
Tonight saw the continued adventure of playtesting, and we were able to move a bit more smoothly through the combat sequences. I don't have too much of value to report back due to still working on getting the group up to speed on the mechanics of the game. An automated character generator would significantly help in this area as we were still ironing out what value is used for which action/roll.
But I suppose that is an item. The difference between the stat value and the related dice pool came up multiple times as a point of confusion.
Use overwatch as written {ignoring reload times} and it proved to be very powerful and effective. The targets were part of a Zombie horde so they didn't bother ducking for cover and just kept shuffling forward to their death.
For combat, the defensive values ranged from as low as 7 {Ogre PC and Zombies} to 18 {Halfling Berserker PC and NPC bad-guy}. But generally primary attacks were expected to hit, and did. Armor played a big part soaking off the damage {on both sides} but PCs still felt squishy.
Most NPCs could take 1 to 5 hits before getting killed, and the same went for PCs. Did I mention that primary attacks were expected to hit?
4 PCs plus Druid's wolf companion versus 3 spiders, 16 zombies {from down a hallway starting on round 2}, and one minor demon {starting on round 3}.
By round 5 the dwarven musketeer was down by spider bite, the halfling berserker was down via rage, and the minor demon was slain by a single arrow that carried a charged evoke-cold spell. {luck dice added and exploded die on damage}
I haven't gotten a grasp on predicting how a turn will pan out as the variance in dice pool and exploding die make for some wild swings. The Zombies turned out to be not a threat at all, but had they reached an unarmored PC they could have been very scary.
-----> Improving characters
At the end of the game I granted the book XP for the nights combat and we looked at improving the characters.
Page 63 has the chart for spending XP on various things.
The entire group agreed that the cost for improving existing skills, listed as 100 times the new skill rank, was the too obvious choice. Our consensus was that 100 was too cheap.
It costs 2,000 XP to take a character with a single rank in 'Bow' to the sixth rank in 'Bow'. This would add +6 die of damage. An equivalent expenditure would be adding a second rank to a tradition.
I think a rate of 400 times the new skill rank is better, and would place the 2,000 XP to increasing the skill by two ranks, only a +2 die gain. This is 'better' than buying a tradition that could give you the skill while keeping the cost high enough that uber-killing machines don't spring up all over.
-----> Limits on improving during game
There is a paragraph on long term down-time training and career choices, but there is nothing regarding limits on the end of session XP spending. With 16 zombies, my group has a lot of XP to spend.
I ruled that they cannot take multiple increases on anything unless it was an extended downtime period, mainly because of the above issue.
I am not sure what I will do after next session, if I limit the increased to only one per 'adventure arc' that means keeping track of what was increased when.
---> Teaching paragraph needs to be moved up to be right underneath the XP chart.
---> Overall organization
Please re-organize! How to heal is spread out in various areas {healing injury, illness, death countdowns, etc} skills are spread out, .. we spent a lot of time flipping pages to try and get the right section. I am investing in tabs before the next session!
Bottom line: It was an enjoyable game and the combat was tense and tactical.
Tonight saw the continued adventure of playtesting, and we were able to move a bit more smoothly through the combat sequences. I don't have too much of value to report back due to still working on getting the group up to speed on the mechanics of the game. An automated character generator would significantly help in this area as we were still ironing out what value is used for which action/roll.
But I suppose that is an item. The difference between the stat value and the related dice pool came up multiple times as a point of confusion.
Use overwatch as written {ignoring reload times} and it proved to be very powerful and effective. The targets were part of a Zombie horde so they didn't bother ducking for cover and just kept shuffling forward to their death.
For combat, the defensive values ranged from as low as 7 {Ogre PC and Zombies} to 18 {Halfling Berserker PC and NPC bad-guy}. But generally primary attacks were expected to hit, and did. Armor played a big part soaking off the damage {on both sides} but PCs still felt squishy.
Most NPCs could take 1 to 5 hits before getting killed, and the same went for PCs. Did I mention that primary attacks were expected to hit?
4 PCs plus Druid's wolf companion versus 3 spiders, 16 zombies {from down a hallway starting on round 2}, and one minor demon {starting on round 3}.
By round 5 the dwarven musketeer was down by spider bite, the halfling berserker was down via rage, and the minor demon was slain by a single arrow that carried a charged evoke-cold spell. {luck dice added and exploded die on damage}
I haven't gotten a grasp on predicting how a turn will pan out as the variance in dice pool and exploding die make for some wild swings. The Zombies turned out to be not a threat at all, but had they reached an unarmored PC they could have been very scary.
-----> Improving characters
At the end of the game I granted the book XP for the nights combat and we looked at improving the characters.
Page 63 has the chart for spending XP on various things.
The entire group agreed that the cost for improving existing skills, listed as 100 times the new skill rank, was the too obvious choice. Our consensus was that 100 was too cheap.
It costs 2,000 XP to take a character with a single rank in 'Bow' to the sixth rank in 'Bow'. This would add +6 die of damage. An equivalent expenditure would be adding a second rank to a tradition.
I think a rate of 400 times the new skill rank is better, and would place the 2,000 XP to increasing the skill by two ranks, only a +2 die gain. This is 'better' than buying a tradition that could give you the skill while keeping the cost high enough that uber-killing machines don't spring up all over.
-----> Limits on improving during game
There is a paragraph on long term down-time training and career choices, but there is nothing regarding limits on the end of session XP spending. With 16 zombies, my group has a lot of XP to spend.
I ruled that they cannot take multiple increases on anything unless it was an extended downtime period, mainly because of the above issue.
I am not sure what I will do after next session, if I limit the increased to only one per 'adventure arc' that means keeping track of what was increased when.
---> Teaching paragraph needs to be moved up to be right underneath the XP chart.
---> Overall organization
Please re-organize! How to heal is spread out in various areas {healing injury, illness, death countdowns, etc} skills are spread out, .. we spent a lot of time flipping pages to try and get the right section. I am investing in tabs before the next session!
Bottom line: It was an enjoyable game and the combat was tense and tactical.
