Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8578572" data-attributes="member: 42582">Today I played a second session with two players from my regular group: we had Golin the Dwarven Outcast and Fea-bella the Elven Dreamwalker.We started with a prologue from Fea-bella's player, which lifted her Angry condition. Then we agreed that, when the ley-line mutated moles attacked, the other two PCs (Korvin the Skald and Telemere the Ranger) had fled (or perhaps been driven) back down the trapdoor to the lower level.Golin was appointed conflict captain, and declared it a kill conflict - he wasn't interested in merely driving off mutant moles! He also used one of his traits against himself (Cynical, I think - he couldn't even take mutant moles at face value) on the Disposition roll, so the PCs ended up with 7 hit points (4 for Golin, 3 for Fea-bella) while the 4 moles had a disposition of 8 (ie 2 hp each).I scripted M-A-A (swarm, burrow, suck blood) while the players scripted D (Golin) - M (Fea-bella) - A (Golin) - they blocked the moles' manoeuvring, but then took some hurt from the first attack and there was hurt all around from the final set of actions, the PCs being taken down to 1 hp each.In the second round, there were only two moles still in the game. I scripted a cunning A-F-D against the PCs' D (Fea-bella) - D (Golin) - A (Fea-bella). Fea-bella's defence was effective (and my attack roll poor), so the PCs regrouped; my cunning feint achieved little (poor rolling), but Fea-bella's attack was rather weak (Beginner's Luck, and Sick) even with Golin's help and so the moles also regrouped (but not before one of them had carried off Golin's helmet after it absorbed a point of damage).For the third round, I scripted A-D-A. The players discussed a fair bit between them, and sought (and got) advice from me on the scope of kill conflict compromises. And they decided to go for victory and risk a minor compromise, rather than muck around, by scripting A-D-M (with the D and M in there as backup in the event the big strike up front didn't work). Golin's player rolled well for the attack and, as planned, wiped out the moles (he had +4s, with +2 from his maul and +2 from superior Might). But I rolled successes on all 4 of my mole dice, forcing a half compromise! I reviewed the options and settled on both PCs being Angry, Exhausted and Injured (having had their blood sucked by crazed mutant moles).The players decided it was time to camp. And the module says that the room the PCs were in is a suitable camp site. So we did a camp phase. We all agreed Ancient Ruins made the most sense - I rolled for a camp event and got a 10 (the chill stone of the room causes +1 Ob recovery).  And that the danger level was typical. There was some discussion of whether or not the kill intent was a mistake, but Golin's player defended his choice on the grounds that only driving the moles off would have led to an increased danger level and hence a worse camp event.The players had one check each and both waned to test to recover from Angry, so there was no watch set. Fea-bella recovered (but was still Exhausted, Injured and Sick); Golin did not (and so was still Angry, Exhausted and Injured).So they decided to loot the silver mirrors in the room they were in - the looting roll (Dwarven Crafting Nature) was a success - and then head back to Stoink, following the directions on the notes they had taken from the bandits in the previous session. This gave us a chance to test the journey rules. I outlined the rules for measuring and paying off toll. They worked out what gear to leave behind to make room for the mirrors (3 x pack 3 each) but made sure to keep their food.I explained that either a Cartographer test would be needed to turn the notes into a map (Ob 4, for modest region + working from notes) or a Pathfinder test would be needed to guide them (Ob 4 for a short journey along an infrequently used route, with +1D for having the notes). They opted for the latter, with Golin making the test - he failed of course (rolling 5D Health -1D for Injured, +2D for help from Fea-bella + the notes, all halved for Beginner's Luck ie 3D - he forgot to use a trait against himself until it was too late). I opted for success but with Hungry and Thirsty for both of them, which consumed one of their lots of food.But the weather roll was kind to them (they decided the season was early spring, and the roll was Cool and Clear, -1 toll) and so was the trouble roll (a 5 - no trouble on the road). So they made it to Stoink. With two landmarks on the way - the Phostwood Forest and the Artonsamay River - the toll was 2, +1 for the terrain, -1 for the weather, +1 to Golin's for acting as guide. They paid of one toll each with their remaining food and water, and traded a 3D mirror to pay the rest (I think I may have been on the generous side there, but it seemed to me that finding a trader or unmarked village on the borders of the forest and the river was far from being out of the question).So we then had a town phase, in the Bustling Metropolis of Stoink. I rolled for a town event and got a 15:Actually. On the street, you hear a fool prattling on to their lady friend about the nature of the moon and the stars. Tip your hat and correct them using Scholar vs their Scholar 4. Suggested twist: you make a new enemy.Fea-bella had no interest in interjecting with a correction, but Golin did! With Will 3, -1D for Injured, +1D for help from Fea-bella whispering in his ear, all halved for Beginner's Luck, he rolled 2D against my 4D. And lost. The player anticipated he had to add a new enemy to his list before I even got a chance to tell him: Ebenezer the Erudite had plenty of rude things to say about this rude and ignorant dwarf. But the PCs went off to find the houses of healing - ie after I explained the accommodation options they both chose to stay in a hotel.Fea-bella automatically recovered from Exhausted, and succeeded against Injured (four successes on 3D Health +1D from the Hotel) and then against Sick (more than three success on 5D Will +1D from the Hotel +1D from her First Born trait). Golin automatically recovered from Exhausted, and then failed against Angry and Injured. So Fea-bella had to treat his injury (Healing 4 against Ob 2 for bruises from blood-sucking moles) which I thought counted as +1 Lifestyle personal business. She clocked up another +1 Lifestyle by making a Circles check to meet her adventurer friend, the Elven Ranger Glothfindel, who would then be able to guide the PCs back to the Tower of the Stars. But her player failed to get 3 successes on six dice (Circles 5 +1D for Dream-haunted trait) - so whereas she had hoped that her dreams would reveal that Glothfindel was nearby, in fact they revealed that he had been riding near the Tower of the Stars having heard Fea-bella was there, and had been captured by her enemy Megloss!To fund her lifestyle (she had only 4D of treasure plus Resources 0) she sold her spellbook (part of her starting gear) for 1D - because we had reviewed the Dreamwalker spell-use rules and she doesn't need a spellbook.Golin, meanwhile, also added 2 to his lifestyle cost. First, he went to the Guild Halls and repaired his helmet. Which succeeded. (Yay!) Then he went to the markets to try and buy food, hammer and pitons. He decided to test for food first, Resources 1 against Ob 1. And failed. He learned that no one would sell to him - not food or hammer or pitons - because Ebenezer had persuaded them to blackball him! So, still angry, and having already been contemplating the possibility, he sought out Ebenezer with the plan of making a fool of him in front of his lady friend. I used the Professor NPC stats for Ebenezer, and calculated he had Beginner's Luck Orator 3, the same as Golin's skill level. The rules for Angry say that at the GM's option it causes an obstacle penalty to Orator, but I thought that in this case the angry was fuelled rather than hindered by his fury! The result of the versus test was a clear victory to Golin, and he shamed Ebenezer in front of his lady - the note on Golin's PC sheet describes Ebenezer as now shamed, hot, and single.With all personal business concluded, they left town. Both players rolled 5 dice for Resources vs Ob 5, and both failed. But their treasure absorbed the tax.We then handed out rewards: no Fate for Beliefs or Instincts, but one each for goals. And they agreed that Fea-bella was the teamworker (taking the lifestyle hit to heal Golin) was Golin was the MVP (in the judgment of Fea-bella's player, for killing the moles; in the judgment of his own player, for shaming Ebenezer in front of his girlfriend),*********************************I enjoyed this session. We got to see a lot of the game's subsystems in action: a reasonably extended conflict; camping; journeying; and a town phase. I was happy with how I handled the failure and consequence narration, including the weaving in of the friends and enemies (in both cases the players made this easy).For me, it reinforced my view expressed in <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/torchbearer-2nd-ed-first-impressions.685558/" target="_blank">the other thread</a> that this is not really a "story now" engine: it's all about super-skilled play plus testing your luck with the dice. But it also confirmed my view in that thread that the colour in the game is really strong: in this session we had the camp in the ruined tower, the journey with an inadequate guide, the stay in the houses of healing but the dwarf remaining angry, the dreams of the Dreamwalker, and the feud with Ebenezer. How many FRPGs can have a whole story cycle between vindictive Dwarf and arrogant scholar play out over the course of a reasonably brief period of downtime resolution? And not as any sort of accident - it shows the design of the system at work.Afterwords, Golin's player - who is not a huge fan of Burning Wheel - reflected ruefully that he's beginning to enjoy Torchbearer. (Though he hates the advancement record keeping.) So there may be more play of this game in my future!</blockquote>

Verification