Crazy Jerome
First Post
Seven players ranged from those with experience with all versions of D&D to rank beginners. We used all characters and rules straight. Cast:
Immediately, the size of the party made itself felt. They couldn’t sneak up on anything, but could dish it out, which became the theme for the day. The goblin patrol spotted them and sent runners, including to the ogre, since the party was large. But the party immediately attacked. With goblins coming in every round, the party stayed ahead of the count. By the time the ogre tried flanking from the outside, the goblins were defeated. As the ogre charged and missed, the party all hit for near max damage with their effects, knocking the ogre below 20 hit points.
The ogre decided he had enough, and offered the goblin payment in return for his life (in broken Common). After a bit of misunderstanding, a deal was reached. Not trusting the ogre, Yarrow followed him and listened at his cave, but heard raised voices followed by the ogre bellowing, and the slamming of a door. Guessing correctly that a falling out had occurred, the party rapidly regrouped and entered the main goblin cave, where they mopped up the survivors in that part of the cavern.
They then had a brief moment of sneaking luck, scouting the goblin dining hall, and almost setting up a surprise attack. At the last moment, half the goblins heard them. Both fighters charged into the hall to the other side, in an attempt to stop escape. Two burning hands later, it was nothing but mop up, as fires smoldered in the rustic tables. In the searching that followed, however, the chieftain heard the party and launched an attack. This did not go well for the goblins either.
Now masters of this part of the caves, the party barricaded themselves in the chieftain chambers, and lay low to heal (after finding most of the nearby treasure). A hobgoblin patrol entered the caves with a few goblin survivors, but was in the midst of an argument when passing the party, and didn’t attempt the chieftain’s door. (These goblins were unaware that the chieftain was dead.) Eclipse cast comprehend languages to understand them, and discovered that the hobgoblins would mount a search in the morning.
The party decided to explore carefully, and through a bit of luck happened to make their way straight to the secret door into the hobgoblin lair, as the hobgoblins searched the other side of the goblin lair. Again, numbers told, as the party massacred groups of hobgoblins four at a time, before they could run.
This went on all the way to the hobgoblin leader, where their luck flipped twice, for an enjoyable climatic fight. Except for Elve’s magic missile, no one hit in the first round. The hobgoblin leader and her consorts put out some hurt. (I was rolling near max damage on every hit.) It has long been my practice to pick two or three weighted options for monsters at key points in a fight, and randomly determine which option is taken. Despite a low weight, the leader “decided” that the wizards were the biggest threat to her, as no one else had hit her, and she had already hurt the fighters and Sir Esp so much that her consorts could probably take them out. She put Elve down to -1, but not before Elve got off another magic missile. Meanwhile, the consorts started missing (barely). It was at this moment that Tumeric nailed the leader with searing light, quickly followed by solid hits from Hemlock and Hiccup. Everyone else dog-piled the leader, bringing her down finally when Eclipse decided to risk a shocking grasp. Tumeric healed Elve, and the other five shrugged off the last attacks of the consorts to finish them off.
In this last fight, hit points remaining as the fight ended, including one cure light wounds and two healing words applied: 4, 8, 16, 3, 8, 5, 5 (in same order as above, with only Eclipse not hurt).
The party stripped the room, back-tracked, and ran for town, just ahead of the hobgoblin search, the surviving hobgoblins still not knowing that they had been ransacked.
Comments:
Everyone liked the system well enough, considering what it was. Several of them wanted more options, but thought it was a good base to add options. A couple liked it as is, without additional options. The two beginners played the two wizards, and had little trouble with the spells, once they got the hang of it about an hour in.
We talked a few minutes about how race, class, theme, and background might work as the rule set expands. Everyone was interested in creating their own characters with more to pick from.
We made one serious mistake, misreading magic missile damage as 1d4+1 + Int mod instead of 1d4+1 flat. With two wizards, this contributed to drastically reducing the goblin action count, though with seven characters, it would not have changed the final outcome of a goblin fight. (The party might have been more hurt after winning.) It probably did make a difference in the last fight, as the hobgoblin leader would have had at least one more round to act, and could have put two different characters into negatives with a bit of luck.
The highlight of the session was the advantage/disadvantage mechanic. I mentioned early that the key strategy available to them revolved around finding ways to maximize this mechanic, and the group scraped and clawed for every net “advantage” they could get. If the wildly swinging luck dictated the basic flow, the grasping after advantage was how they players swung the outcome into their favor. Several times characters took risks just to get advantage. So while it was good mechanically in its own right (especially in Helping), I think my favorite part was the motivation it provided for heroic action.
My least favorite part of the session was the skill checks and skills, which was a bit flat. I’m not sure how much of that was the system, versus how much was because our large party and limited time meant that straight ahead fights were often a better choice for the group, and we never got back to the Keep for more involved interaction. Exploration was likewise minimized, because once goblins started running around, the party kept pressing. It’s likely that the traps on the kobold side would have been more fun in this respect, though I’m only guessing.
Finally, the group did pay for that relative ease of the large party. They cleaned up on treasure, managing to luck into most of the good treasure in the caves they explored (though not the armory). Experience, however, would have worked out to a bit less than 900 per character. If we played straight through with seven characters, I suspect making 2nd level slower would matter at some point.
- Hiccup – male dwarf fighter
- Hemlock – female dwarf fighter
- Eclipse – female elf wizard
- Elve – female elf wizard
- Espresso “Sir Esp” – male dwarf cleric
- Tumeric – female human cleric
- Yarrow – female Halfling
Immediately, the size of the party made itself felt. They couldn’t sneak up on anything, but could dish it out, which became the theme for the day. The goblin patrol spotted them and sent runners, including to the ogre, since the party was large. But the party immediately attacked. With goblins coming in every round, the party stayed ahead of the count. By the time the ogre tried flanking from the outside, the goblins were defeated. As the ogre charged and missed, the party all hit for near max damage with their effects, knocking the ogre below 20 hit points.
The ogre decided he had enough, and offered the goblin payment in return for his life (in broken Common). After a bit of misunderstanding, a deal was reached. Not trusting the ogre, Yarrow followed him and listened at his cave, but heard raised voices followed by the ogre bellowing, and the slamming of a door. Guessing correctly that a falling out had occurred, the party rapidly regrouped and entered the main goblin cave, where they mopped up the survivors in that part of the cavern.
They then had a brief moment of sneaking luck, scouting the goblin dining hall, and almost setting up a surprise attack. At the last moment, half the goblins heard them. Both fighters charged into the hall to the other side, in an attempt to stop escape. Two burning hands later, it was nothing but mop up, as fires smoldered in the rustic tables. In the searching that followed, however, the chieftain heard the party and launched an attack. This did not go well for the goblins either.
Now masters of this part of the caves, the party barricaded themselves in the chieftain chambers, and lay low to heal (after finding most of the nearby treasure). A hobgoblin patrol entered the caves with a few goblin survivors, but was in the midst of an argument when passing the party, and didn’t attempt the chieftain’s door. (These goblins were unaware that the chieftain was dead.) Eclipse cast comprehend languages to understand them, and discovered that the hobgoblins would mount a search in the morning.
The party decided to explore carefully, and through a bit of luck happened to make their way straight to the secret door into the hobgoblin lair, as the hobgoblins searched the other side of the goblin lair. Again, numbers told, as the party massacred groups of hobgoblins four at a time, before they could run.
This went on all the way to the hobgoblin leader, where their luck flipped twice, for an enjoyable climatic fight. Except for Elve’s magic missile, no one hit in the first round. The hobgoblin leader and her consorts put out some hurt. (I was rolling near max damage on every hit.) It has long been my practice to pick two or three weighted options for monsters at key points in a fight, and randomly determine which option is taken. Despite a low weight, the leader “decided” that the wizards were the biggest threat to her, as no one else had hit her, and she had already hurt the fighters and Sir Esp so much that her consorts could probably take them out. She put Elve down to -1, but not before Elve got off another magic missile. Meanwhile, the consorts started missing (barely). It was at this moment that Tumeric nailed the leader with searing light, quickly followed by solid hits from Hemlock and Hiccup. Everyone else dog-piled the leader, bringing her down finally when Eclipse decided to risk a shocking grasp. Tumeric healed Elve, and the other five shrugged off the last attacks of the consorts to finish them off.
In this last fight, hit points remaining as the fight ended, including one cure light wounds and two healing words applied: 4, 8, 16, 3, 8, 5, 5 (in same order as above, with only Eclipse not hurt).
The party stripped the room, back-tracked, and ran for town, just ahead of the hobgoblin search, the surviving hobgoblins still not knowing that they had been ransacked.
Comments:
Everyone liked the system well enough, considering what it was. Several of them wanted more options, but thought it was a good base to add options. A couple liked it as is, without additional options. The two beginners played the two wizards, and had little trouble with the spells, once they got the hang of it about an hour in.
We talked a few minutes about how race, class, theme, and background might work as the rule set expands. Everyone was interested in creating their own characters with more to pick from.
We made one serious mistake, misreading magic missile damage as 1d4+1 + Int mod instead of 1d4+1 flat. With two wizards, this contributed to drastically reducing the goblin action count, though with seven characters, it would not have changed the final outcome of a goblin fight. (The party might have been more hurt after winning.) It probably did make a difference in the last fight, as the hobgoblin leader would have had at least one more round to act, and could have put two different characters into negatives with a bit of luck.
The highlight of the session was the advantage/disadvantage mechanic. I mentioned early that the key strategy available to them revolved around finding ways to maximize this mechanic, and the group scraped and clawed for every net “advantage” they could get. If the wildly swinging luck dictated the basic flow, the grasping after advantage was how they players swung the outcome into their favor. Several times characters took risks just to get advantage. So while it was good mechanically in its own right (especially in Helping), I think my favorite part was the motivation it provided for heroic action.
My least favorite part of the session was the skill checks and skills, which was a bit flat. I’m not sure how much of that was the system, versus how much was because our large party and limited time meant that straight ahead fights were often a better choice for the group, and we never got back to the Keep for more involved interaction. Exploration was likewise minimized, because once goblins started running around, the party kept pressing. It’s likely that the traps on the kobold side would have been more fun in this respect, though I’m only guessing.
Finally, the group did pay for that relative ease of the large party. They cleaned up on treasure, managing to luck into most of the good treasure in the caves they explored (though not the armory). Experience, however, would have worked out to a bit less than 900 per character. If we played straight through with seven characters, I suspect making 2nd level slower would matter at some point.
