Out of several roleplaying sessions, you're likely to have one or two stand-out, highlight sessions. Yesterday was such a day for our group.
The PCs have been attacked numerous times during this adventure. Each time, the attack is performed by covert and unseen enemies. There has been no clue as to who is after them, or why. Until recently....
After a mid-night onslaught against the PCs, in their inn room, by 10 superbly strong men, the PCs interrogated one of them who was still conscious after the skirmish. The attackers all spoke with strange, slurred, incomprehensible speech. But this one fellow managed to utter one word, which sounded like the name of a person they knew - the head of the craftsmen's guild. The man who had welcomed them to town and given them a free booth for the craftsmen's convention.
That was two sessions ago. The following session, the players were all fired up to go find this man and do some serious talking, even though it was the middle of the night. They located the guildmaster's house and snuck around the back. Using Elros' energy magic, all three PCs hovered safely over the 10-foot wall surrounding the courtyard at the back of the house. Rwake then proceeded to climb through an open window into a small study. At the same time, Leo worked the complicated lock on the back door until it successfully unlatched. Then, as Leo opened the door, much to the PCs' dismay, alarm bells started ringing from the top of the house.
That is where we began yesterday's session. Immediately, there was a sense of urgency. The guildmaster's house was rigged with an automated alarm system that only someone like him could have crafted. The PCs heard viciously barking dogs coming down a hall toward them, accompanied by yelling voices.
This urgency was great. I was moving things along pretty quickly, in real time. I didn't want the players to have too much time to meta-game the scene. They came up with a couple of options - fight or flee. Leo and Elros chose flee. Rwake chose to stay and fight, to be consistent with his character. He requested a compel, which I honored, and he got a fate point for it.
Running back through the courtyard to the 10-foot boundary wall, Elros launched Leo and then himself over the wall, after which they both rolled successful stealth checks, keeping to the shadows outside the wall. A moment later, someone loosed three muscular attack dogs into the study where they had smelled an intruder - Rwake. Trapped in a corner between two sets of shelves, he quickly launched a paralyzing dart into one of the dogs before they lunged at him with teeth and claws.
Taking some damage, Rwake realized things were unmatched. So he decided, "I'm going to use my staff to vault over the dogs, then make a quick flying leap out the window." I asked him to roll, and his roll was a success. On the way out the window, he slammed a shoulder and twisted an ankle, but he made it out alive. Two dogs quickly ran around to the back door which Leo had left open in his retreat and darted for Rwake once again. The poison from the dart had left one of the three dogs disabled inside the house.
Elros, per Leo's recommendation, was now doing a pullup on the wall to see what was happening on the other side. Using pure mental power, Elros wielded more energy magic to float Rwake back over the wall. As Rwake left the ground, he narrowly avoided the thrown ax that someone from inside had just thrown at him through the doorway. He made a successful stealth check when he landed, and all three PCs retreated to the back of the building to come up with a plan. The sounds of locals and constables echoed from the front of the house now.
All this time, the players felt the need to keep moving, to plan quickly, and to avoid being seen. They would be regarded as criminals now, if they were seen or caught. They were almost certain they had been seen heading this direction earlier in the night. They decided that their only option was to find an answer behind the mysterious attacks before they could be found. They couldn't risk being caught.
A young urchin named Vonny Jaywhistle whom they had earlier befriended happened to be in the area that night and gave the PCs a "Pssst!" from behind a nearby building. The PCs joined him and found out that some of Vonny's friends had reported seeing the guildmaster enter his nearby warehouse earlier that night. The PCs stationed themselves in small tree-enclosed area within sight of the warehouse and took a few minutes to plan their next course of action.
Everyone came away from this session feeling good about it. Whether they were correct or incorrect in their suspicions, the players had an idea of what they wanted to do. They had a reason to move quickly. The law would now be their enemy unless they revealed the greater criminal. They had avoided unnecessary combat. Rwake had earned a fate point in the process. For the first time in a long while, they had a solid sense of direction, and much was on the line.
It's hard to line this kind of thing up. But this session reminded me how helpful urgency is to an adventure. We all came away pleased and eager for the next session.
Showing posts with label session report. Show all posts
Showing posts with label session report. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, May 12, 2008
Faery's Tale Actual Play:
Liza and the Jewelled Brooch, Part 3
This is part three in the actual play report from the Faery's Tale game I'm running for my wife. Last time, Liza and Cherry had exited the underground tunnel and once again picked up on the trail left by Markle in the dirt.
Having located Markle's trail, Liza races ahead, certain that she can catch him up - he's toting a large bag after all - fatigue has to set in sometime.
After running for several yards, they see ahead of them in the darkness a big, lumbering, oafish night troll. He is moving in the exact same direction they are going. Liza sees this as an opportunity for a free ride. [This was impressive roleplaying to me. My wife has some clever ideas. Some players may have chosen to find a way to take the troll out - defeat him. But not Liza! Fighting trolls is a job for sprites. Liza is a brownie - she has a different approach.] She turns invisible and darts forth, hoping to reach the troll and grab a shred of his gnarled pants. She whispers to Cherry to follow along, but out of view. She hears the troll mumbling to himself: "Yummy faery snack. I find you, little faery." He has apparently spotted Markle, and is trying to catch him for food!
Liza runs as fast as her little brownie legs will carry her, hoping to catch up to the night troll. [I thought this would be somewhat difficult, considering the size difference, so I rated it at Tricky (2). She rolled no successes.] Liza finds that she's gaining on the troll, and then - TRIP! - her foot catches on something, and she goes down with a high-pitched yelp. The night troll stops and turns around, looking. His nightvision allows him to see everything at night as if it is daytime. Fortunately, Liza is invisible. The troll says, "What is it? Is it a faery?" He sniffs the air and scans the area for a few moments, then turns back to his original pursuit.
Liza becomes visible again so that Cherry can locate her. She waves Cherry over and whispers her next plan: "Pick up some pebbles, fly up, and throw the pebbles down as hard as you can onto some big rocks to create a distracting noise! Maybe we can get the troll to head off in a different direction, off the trail!" Cherry whirs off to the side of the trail, into the trees and throws the pebbles down onto a boulder. They bounce down the side of the boulder, clicking along the way. The troll looks in the direction of the sound and sees Cherry's pixie dust floating down among the treetops.
Now, the night troll faced a dilemma - which faery to pursue. [I figured this would be a relatively simple decision, even for a big oaf. After all, one faery was flying around, the other was stuck on land. So I rolled for the troll against a Mind challenge of Easy (1). He achieved 1 success.] The troll gave up on the idea of chasing after the pixie and returned to his pursuit of the brownie. The hesitation was time enough for Liza to catch up to a range of about 10 feet behind.
"There you are, little faery. Now I will get you," the troll says. He has apparently spotted Markle. Liza puts her energy into racing forward as fast as her little legs will carry her. [I had her roll a Body challenge of Easy (1) to see if she could catch up to the troll. She succeeded.] She gets under his feet and jumps up, grabbing a loose tatter hanging from his pant leg. [I had the troll roll a Mind challenge of Easy (1) to see if he could sense the tug at his leg. He failed.] The troll doesn't feel the brownie's weight on his pants. Liza becomes visible momentarily so that Cherry - a few yards back, high in the air - can see her. She can't tell whether or not Cherry can see her from that distance, but Cherry still seems to be following the troll anyway.
The troll finally catches up to Markle, reaches down to grab him up, and - WOOSH! - Markle is gone, making his bag invisible as well, which is difficult but possible for a brownie. The troll pats around on the ground frantically, grabbing at the air, hoping to grip the invisible brownie. [When brownies are invisible, they retain their physical presence, so theoretically, the troll would feel an invisible brownie if he touched it. But in this case, Markle's had found a way to edge himself out of the way, carefully making sure to lift his bag instead of dragging it, which would have left a trail.] The troll kneels down and pounds the dusty ground in frustration. "I'm tired of faery. I will find something else to eat," he moans. [I later decided that I should have made it a Tricky (2) challenge for the troll to find the invisible brownie. But, it's probably better for the story that he didn't find him, and the troll isn't controlled by a player, so the consequences of his actions don't matter as much as they would for a PC.]
Liza drops quietly from the troll's pant leg and turns invisible again. Once the troll has retreated a reasonable distance, she reveals herself until Cherry locates her and flies down to join her. After a moment, they hear the familiar scraping sound of Markle dragging his bag a few feet away.
Having located Markle's trail, Liza races ahead, certain that she can catch him up - he's toting a large bag after all - fatigue has to set in sometime.
After running for several yards, they see ahead of them in the darkness a big, lumbering, oafish night troll. He is moving in the exact same direction they are going. Liza sees this as an opportunity for a free ride. [This was impressive roleplaying to me. My wife has some clever ideas. Some players may have chosen to find a way to take the troll out - defeat him. But not Liza! Fighting trolls is a job for sprites. Liza is a brownie - she has a different approach.] She turns invisible and darts forth, hoping to reach the troll and grab a shred of his gnarled pants. She whispers to Cherry to follow along, but out of view. She hears the troll mumbling to himself: "Yummy faery snack. I find you, little faery." He has apparently spotted Markle, and is trying to catch him for food!
Liza runs as fast as her little brownie legs will carry her, hoping to catch up to the night troll. [I thought this would be somewhat difficult, considering the size difference, so I rated it at Tricky (2). She rolled no successes.] Liza finds that she's gaining on the troll, and then - TRIP! - her foot catches on something, and she goes down with a high-pitched yelp. The night troll stops and turns around, looking. His nightvision allows him to see everything at night as if it is daytime. Fortunately, Liza is invisible. The troll says, "What is it? Is it a faery?" He sniffs the air and scans the area for a few moments, then turns back to his original pursuit.
Liza becomes visible again so that Cherry can locate her. She waves Cherry over and whispers her next plan: "Pick up some pebbles, fly up, and throw the pebbles down as hard as you can onto some big rocks to create a distracting noise! Maybe we can get the troll to head off in a different direction, off the trail!" Cherry whirs off to the side of the trail, into the trees and throws the pebbles down onto a boulder. They bounce down the side of the boulder, clicking along the way. The troll looks in the direction of the sound and sees Cherry's pixie dust floating down among the treetops.
Now, the night troll faced a dilemma - which faery to pursue. [I figured this would be a relatively simple decision, even for a big oaf. After all, one faery was flying around, the other was stuck on land. So I rolled for the troll against a Mind challenge of Easy (1). He achieved 1 success.] The troll gave up on the idea of chasing after the pixie and returned to his pursuit of the brownie. The hesitation was time enough for Liza to catch up to a range of about 10 feet behind.
"There you are, little faery. Now I will get you," the troll says. He has apparently spotted Markle. Liza puts her energy into racing forward as fast as her little legs will carry her. [I had her roll a Body challenge of Easy (1) to see if she could catch up to the troll. She succeeded.] She gets under his feet and jumps up, grabbing a loose tatter hanging from his pant leg. [I had the troll roll a Mind challenge of Easy (1) to see if he could sense the tug at his leg. He failed.] The troll doesn't feel the brownie's weight on his pants. Liza becomes visible momentarily so that Cherry - a few yards back, high in the air - can see her. She can't tell whether or not Cherry can see her from that distance, but Cherry still seems to be following the troll anyway.
The troll finally catches up to Markle, reaches down to grab him up, and - WOOSH! - Markle is gone, making his bag invisible as well, which is difficult but possible for a brownie. The troll pats around on the ground frantically, grabbing at the air, hoping to grip the invisible brownie. [When brownies are invisible, they retain their physical presence, so theoretically, the troll would feel an invisible brownie if he touched it. But in this case, Markle's had found a way to edge himself out of the way, carefully making sure to lift his bag instead of dragging it, which would have left a trail.] The troll kneels down and pounds the dusty ground in frustration. "I'm tired of faery. I will find something else to eat," he moans. [I later decided that I should have made it a Tricky (2) challenge for the troll to find the invisible brownie. But, it's probably better for the story that he didn't find him, and the troll isn't controlled by a player, so the consequences of his actions don't matter as much as they would for a PC.]
Liza drops quietly from the troll's pant leg and turns invisible again. Once the troll has retreated a reasonable distance, she reveals herself until Cherry locates her and flies down to join her. After a moment, they hear the familiar scraping sound of Markle dragging his bag a few feet away.
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Faery's Tale Actual Play:
Liza and the Jewelled Brooch, Part 2
This is the actual play report from the second session of Faery's Tale which I have been running for my wife. Last time, we saw Bwok, the great horned owl, admonishing Liza and her pixie friend, Cherry, to hurry on their way if they intend to catch Markle, the blacksmith brownie.
Seeing the need for swift action, Liza - a lover of birds - asks Bwok if he is willing to carry her on his back and fly her, speeding their pursuit. Bwok agrees to help her for the price of a boon. Liza agrees and gives the owl a boon. [Boons were one of the features of the game that took me a while to get my head around. I had at first been thinking of them too much like tangible currency. The best way to define a "boon" in this game is "an owed favor". It's an abstract entity that gives the holder a claim on a future favor. Faeries and other creatures of Brightwood have an endless supply of their own boons. If a faery achieves the title of "Knight" or higher, that faery can trade boons, making them more like a currency. In essence, this means using a boon you've acquired from someone else as payment - transferring the boon to a new owner.]
Liza climbs on Bwok's back and, with Cherry alongside, they float into the air and take flight to the west, in search of Markle. The owl, using his keen senses, tracks the fleeing brownie and returns Liza to the ground, only about 10 feet behind Markle. In the darkness, the faeries see the brownie's form. They run after him and in another moment, he climbs the base of a tree, enters a large hole in the tree's trunk, and disappears from view.
Liza climbs up to look into the hole. It is absolutely dark inside. Cherry flies over to the hole and gives off enough light to reveal a downward passage. Liza can't see the bottom. She calls out after Markle and the sound of his bag dragging in the dirt stops. He seems to have heard. Then, a moment later, it starts up again, faster now. Liza bravely throws caution to the wind and jumps down the shaft! [For which I awarded her 1 essence mote. It was a brave and selfless thing to do, after all. I had her roll her Body of 4 for this fall. I made it a Tricky (2) challenge. She didn't succeed, and so I had her lose 1 essence for taking fall damage.]
Liza falls a few feet and slides out into a faery-made underground tunnel, supported by wood and stone. Liza calls Cherry, who soon arrives at her side. By Cherry's pixie light, they follow quickly after Markle's trail in the dirt. There are various other tunnels which diverge from the sides and top of the tunnel, but Markle's tracks are easy to follow.
Suddenly, a scorpion falls down from a hole in the ceiling! [This is a creature taken right from the book. His stats are: Body 2, Mind 1, Spirit 0, Gifts - Venom.] Cherry backs away while Liza pulls out one of her homemade weapons - a shard from a broken paring knife, with a leather-wrapped handle. [My wife allocated all 4 of her Body dice to attack and none to defense.] Liza carefully lunges forward, slashing at the scorpion's legs. [She rolled a 6 and three 3s. A 6 on the die earns an extra die. She rolled the extra die and achieved a 4, for a total of 2 successes. I had allocated no dice to the scorpion's defense pool, so he took 1 damage to his Body score.] The scorpion squeals in rage and swings a pincer at Liza. [Since the scorpion's body was now 1, I rolled one d6 and achieved no successes.] Liza deftly ducks the attack and lashes out again, this time with her sewing needle sword. [This time she allocated three d6s to her attack pool. She rolled a 2, giving her 1 success. He still had no defense, and therefore took the damage.] She plunges the needle into the top of the scorpion's head. The scorpion falls down and stops moving completely after creeping backward into a side tunnel. Liza sheaths her needle and beckons Cherry to follow her onward.
Then, from the scorpion's hole above, they hear a muffled voice calling out. Liza sends Cherry up to see what it is. Cherry reports that there is a faery wrapped up in spider's webbing. Cherry gives Liza a bit of pixie dust to float her up into the hole and Liza uncovers the faery's mouth. He is a pooka named Dandaloo. He had been wrapped up for a spider's dinner, but the scorpion had stolen him and brought him back to his hole for later. Liza cuts through the webs with her knife and Dandaloo breaks free, thanking Liza heartily. He gives Liza a boon for saving him. He feels a bit weak and is unsure whether or not the spider actually bit him at any point. Therefore, he isn't certain whether or not he's been poisoned by spider venom. Either way, he feels well enough to move and even travel. He plans to go to Bwok's tree and rest (he knows Bwok). He tells Liza that, if she brings him some healing remedy tomorrow after he's had some rest, he'll give her another boon. Then he drops down the hole into the tunnel, transforms into a snake, and slithers back down the tunnel.
Liza and Cherry climb out of the hole and make it through the rest of the tunnel without any further distractions. When they arrive at the end of Markle's trail, they see another carved shaft going up into a tree, just like shaft by which they had entered the tunnel. There are grooves in the ground where a ladder had recently been planted, but there was no ladder now. Markle had apparently pulled it up after him. Liza sends Cherry up to have a look around. Cherry reports that the ladder is up here, outside the hole, but it is too big to carry while flying. Liza recommends pushing it, which Cherry attempts and finds to be a workable option. After a series of good pushes, the ladder comes falling down the shaft. Liza dodges out of the way until the ladder hits the ground. Then, she scrambles up to the hole and climbs out onto the ground. The faeries are somewhat disoriented and unsure of their location, so Cherry uses her pixie dust to burn a small "C" in the tree bark. That way, they will have a marker for their journey back.
Seeing the need for swift action, Liza - a lover of birds - asks Bwok if he is willing to carry her on his back and fly her, speeding their pursuit. Bwok agrees to help her for the price of a boon. Liza agrees and gives the owl a boon. [Boons were one of the features of the game that took me a while to get my head around. I had at first been thinking of them too much like tangible currency. The best way to define a "boon" in this game is "an owed favor". It's an abstract entity that gives the holder a claim on a future favor. Faeries and other creatures of Brightwood have an endless supply of their own boons. If a faery achieves the title of "Knight" or higher, that faery can trade boons, making them more like a currency. In essence, this means using a boon you've acquired from someone else as payment - transferring the boon to a new owner.]
Liza climbs on Bwok's back and, with Cherry alongside, they float into the air and take flight to the west, in search of Markle. The owl, using his keen senses, tracks the fleeing brownie and returns Liza to the ground, only about 10 feet behind Markle. In the darkness, the faeries see the brownie's form. They run after him and in another moment, he climbs the base of a tree, enters a large hole in the tree's trunk, and disappears from view.
Liza climbs up to look into the hole. It is absolutely dark inside. Cherry flies over to the hole and gives off enough light to reveal a downward passage. Liza can't see the bottom. She calls out after Markle and the sound of his bag dragging in the dirt stops. He seems to have heard. Then, a moment later, it starts up again, faster now. Liza bravely throws caution to the wind and jumps down the shaft! [For which I awarded her 1 essence mote. It was a brave and selfless thing to do, after all. I had her roll her Body of 4 for this fall. I made it a Tricky (2) challenge. She didn't succeed, and so I had her lose 1 essence for taking fall damage.]
Liza falls a few feet and slides out into a faery-made underground tunnel, supported by wood and stone. Liza calls Cherry, who soon arrives at her side. By Cherry's pixie light, they follow quickly after Markle's trail in the dirt. There are various other tunnels which diverge from the sides and top of the tunnel, but Markle's tracks are easy to follow.
Suddenly, a scorpion falls down from a hole in the ceiling! [This is a creature taken right from the book. His stats are: Body 2, Mind 1, Spirit 0, Gifts - Venom.] Cherry backs away while Liza pulls out one of her homemade weapons - a shard from a broken paring knife, with a leather-wrapped handle. [My wife allocated all 4 of her Body dice to attack and none to defense.] Liza carefully lunges forward, slashing at the scorpion's legs. [She rolled a 6 and three 3s. A 6 on the die earns an extra die. She rolled the extra die and achieved a 4, for a total of 2 successes. I had allocated no dice to the scorpion's defense pool, so he took 1 damage to his Body score.] The scorpion squeals in rage and swings a pincer at Liza. [Since the scorpion's body was now 1, I rolled one d6 and achieved no successes.] Liza deftly ducks the attack and lashes out again, this time with her sewing needle sword. [This time she allocated three d6s to her attack pool. She rolled a 2, giving her 1 success. He still had no defense, and therefore took the damage.] She plunges the needle into the top of the scorpion's head. The scorpion falls down and stops moving completely after creeping backward into a side tunnel. Liza sheaths her needle and beckons Cherry to follow her onward.
Then, from the scorpion's hole above, they hear a muffled voice calling out. Liza sends Cherry up to see what it is. Cherry reports that there is a faery wrapped up in spider's webbing. Cherry gives Liza a bit of pixie dust to float her up into the hole and Liza uncovers the faery's mouth. He is a pooka named Dandaloo. He had been wrapped up for a spider's dinner, but the scorpion had stolen him and brought him back to his hole for later. Liza cuts through the webs with her knife and Dandaloo breaks free, thanking Liza heartily. He gives Liza a boon for saving him. He feels a bit weak and is unsure whether or not the spider actually bit him at any point. Therefore, he isn't certain whether or not he's been poisoned by spider venom. Either way, he feels well enough to move and even travel. He plans to go to Bwok's tree and rest (he knows Bwok). He tells Liza that, if she brings him some healing remedy tomorrow after he's had some rest, he'll give her another boon. Then he drops down the hole into the tunnel, transforms into a snake, and slithers back down the tunnel.
Liza and Cherry climb out of the hole and make it through the rest of the tunnel without any further distractions. When they arrive at the end of Markle's trail, they see another carved shaft going up into a tree, just like shaft by which they had entered the tunnel. There are grooves in the ground where a ladder had recently been planted, but there was no ladder now. Markle had apparently pulled it up after him. Liza sends Cherry up to have a look around. Cherry reports that the ladder is up here, outside the hole, but it is too big to carry while flying. Liza recommends pushing it, which Cherry attempts and finds to be a workable option. After a series of good pushes, the ladder comes falling down the shaft. Liza dodges out of the way until the ladder hits the ground. Then, she scrambles up to the hole and climbs out onto the ground. The faeries are somewhat disoriented and unsure of their location, so Cherry uses her pixie dust to burn a small "C" in the tree bark. That way, they will have a marker for their journey back.
Monday, April 28, 2008
Faery's Tale Actual Play:
Liza and the Jewelled Brooch, Part 1
I recently reviewed Faery's Tale, an RPG geared toward the young and/or light-hearted roleplayer. For the last couple weeks, I've been running an adventure for my wife. Certainly, running an RPG for a single player is not the ideal situation for a GM, but this was the only way I could test the system, and I really don't mind it at all - it's gaming, and therefore, it's fun. The only other people I play with are my gaming group from work, and we're always playing Fate/SotC.
This has been a great time for me because my wife's only previous experience roleplaying was years ago, when I was trying to create my own RPG. She was graciously willing to playtest it with me. That was some 4-5 years ago. So, to have her playing with me again has been a joy.
I wrote up the basic plot points and NPCs for an adventure, prepared some other materials for her, including an overhead picture of the house where her PC lives (drawn using Inkscape) and a player cheat sheet which includes all the different types of actions she can take. Game night arrived, we got the kids in bed, pulled out the ol' dice bag, dumped a handful of d6s, and launched into the adventure.
This post is the first in a series of actual play posts where I will record the happenings of the adventure, which I titled, "Liza and the Jewelled Brooch". I will include a few insights and technical details for the players and GMs out there who care about those things (designated with [ ] brackets).
Here are my wife's character's stats:
Liza the Brownie
Body: 4
Mind: 3
Spirit: 2
Starting Essence: 4
Innate Gifts:
- Household magic
- Invisibility
Individual Gifts:
- Alert: perceptive and observant
- Fortunate: +2 to Spirit in tests of luck
- Lore: Well-versed in fairy lore
Because I knew it would be somewhat difficult for my wife's PC to handle an entire adventure by herself, I created an NPC to accompany Liza.
Cherry the Pixie - Liza's good friend
Body: 2
Mind: 3
Spirit: 4
Starting Essence: 8
Innate Gifts:
- Flying
- Pixie Dust
Individual Gifts:
- Inspire: spend 1 Essence to add +2 to another faery’s Attribute score in a challenge
- Sneaky: stealth, silence, concealment, sleight of hand
To begin the adventure, I read the following out loud:
Liza scrambles through passages in the walls and exits to the exterior of the house just to the side of the front door. By the time she gets there, the mysterious brownie is gone. Suddenly, some sparkling dust falls down in front of Liza. A moment later, Cherry, Liza's dear friend, lands next to Liza and says, "I was out flying around and saw the front door opened. I thought it seemed strange, so came over to see if everything was all right."
Liza notices a trail through the dirt leading away from the front steps, headed away from the house. This trail was undoubtedly created by the large bag the brownie intruder was toting. Liza asks Cherry to follow the trail and see if she can find the man she thinks is Markle. Cherry flies away and returns saying that she couldn't see him within a few yards.
Liza goes inside and looks around the house, using her Alertness to quickly scan the room. She sees evidence of bits and pieces of moved objects, open drawers and the like, apparently used by the intruder to climb up to a high point on the wall where there hangs a plaque. This plaque usually holds a very valuable jewel-studded brooch - a Togbert family heirloom. But the spot where the brooch usually rests is empty!
Liza leaves the house, closes the door, and suggests to Cherry that they go check the blacksmith's shop to see if Markle is there. She wants to be sure she saw what she thinks she saw. [This event was unexpected. I hadn't thought of this possibility, but these are the things that make GMing fun. So I happily went along to see what my wife would come up with.] Liza asks Cherry if she can spare some pixie dust to make her fly so they can travel more quickly. Cherry agrees. [This was one of those times when I figured this would be the best way to make the story keep moving and I didn't have a problem giving my wife a little help - she was doing this by herself after all. I wanted to make Cherry function somewhat like another player character. So I figured a free sprinkling of pixie dust was a reasonable option.]
The two faeries fly off and quickly arrive at the blacksmith's shop. They try to open the front door by turning the handle. [I gave this a difficulty of Easy (1).] Liza got 1 success. She is able to turn the handle, but it's locked. The gates to the shop are closed, but the faeries slip through a crack and go to access another door into the house. [This also had a difficulty of Easy (1) to turn the handle.] Liza got 3 successes for a hefty turn of the handle, but alas, this door is locked too. Cherry suggests that they go to the hole in the wall where Markle comes out to meet customers. They locate the hole on the exterior of the house and Liza pokes her head inside. She whispers to see if anyone is awake inside. There is no response. At this time, Liza's pixie dust wears off and she can no longer float.
Liza calls Cherry into the dark hallway, carved within the wall, so they can have some light by which to see. They quietly proceed until they reach a point in the hall where another hallway breaks off headed upward. The hall they are in continues forward. Liza climbs up into the upper hallway and sees that Cherry's light just barely illuminates a few articles of a bedroom. Cherry cautiously stays back in the main hallway, keeping watch.
Liza listens before entering the bedroom. Her Alertness tells her that there is no noise from within the room. She now uses her Household Magic to create a small magical ball of light in her hand to see the interior of the bedroom. There is no sign of Markle. In fact, his bed is tidily made and everything seems to be in its proper place, including a number of fancy weapons hanging from the walls.
Liza meets Cherry back in the main hallway and they continue forward until they arrive in Markle's shop. He has this section of the thick wooden wall carved into a tiered workshop. Cherry is still nervous, but Liza is resolved to make sense of things. She uses her light to examine the shop - again, finding no Markle. Liza looks around to see if there is anything she can use as a decoy brooch for the time being, but she sees nothing significant - just a bucket of water, and various blacksmith's tools.
Cherry, cautiously waiting further down the hall insists they be on their way. Liza disappointedly agrees and they return to the exterior of the blacksmith's shop. Liza wants to fly again. [This time, I decided she would need to pay 1 Essence mote to receive more pixie dust from Cherry. It was my way of making her pay to control theNPC to her liking. I'm thinking it might be reasonable to alternate like this - one freebie, one pay. It seems fair enough, especially since Liza is receiving the gift of flight every time Cherry agrees to help her.] So Liza spends 1 Essence and Cherry works up enough pixie dust to share. They float into the air and dart for the Togbert house once again.
Liza realizes that she needs to have the brooch in its place by morning, so she must make haste. The two faeries race north, following the path left in the dirt by the thief's large bag. But then, the trail gets lost as it runs right into a large grassy area. They stop to look around, seeing and hearing nothing. Just then, they hear from overhead: "Hoo! Hoo! Who are you looking for? Who?"
Looking up, they see a black great horned owl who introduces himself as Bwok. The faeries ask if he has seen anyone come this way, to which he replies that, indeed, he has seen someone come this way - a brownie in fact, dragging a large bag slung over his shoulder. But, to the faeries' displeasure, he is not willing to give the information for free. He wants one of two things from them. They must either bring him a mouse to dine on, or, they must tell him a story. He is a lover of fascinating stories. But, he has heard many, many stories, and to think of one he hasn't heard before is quite a task.
Being a brownie, Liza has a natural love for mice, so the first option is out of the question. Yet, to Liza's advantage, she has the Gift of Faery Lore - she knows many great stories, old and new. Because Bwok wanted a story he'd never heard, I decided this would be a somewhat difficult task. Therefore, Liza would have to spend 1 Essence mote to tell such a story. [I gave my wife two options: she could actually make up some interesting story and earn an Essence mote, gaining back her spent Essence - or - she could just say that Liza tells him a great story and not earn the Essence mote. Being new to RPing and not in the mood to come up with something like this on the fly, she chose the latter option.] So Liza spent the Essence mote and told Bwok an amazing story from ancient faery lore called "Twilight" [yes, my wife is very much into the vampire book of the same name], which pleased the owl very well.
Bwok tells the faeries that the brownie they are following went west. He also made it quite clear that, if they intended to catch up with him, they would need to hurry.
That ended our first session. My wife later mentioned that she had enjoyed playing. This was good news to me since she is generally not the sort of person who would readily sign up to play an RPG. She loves board games, but RPGs are a different entity altogether. She had a great attitude and actually continues to look forward to each session.
This has been a great time for me because my wife's only previous experience roleplaying was years ago, when I was trying to create my own RPG. She was graciously willing to playtest it with me. That was some 4-5 years ago. So, to have her playing with me again has been a joy.
I wrote up the basic plot points and NPCs for an adventure, prepared some other materials for her, including an overhead picture of the house where her PC lives (drawn using Inkscape) and a player cheat sheet which includes all the different types of actions she can take. Game night arrived, we got the kids in bed, pulled out the ol' dice bag, dumped a handful of d6s, and launched into the adventure.
This post is the first in a series of actual play posts where I will record the happenings of the adventure, which I titled, "Liza and the Jewelled Brooch". I will include a few insights and technical details for the players and GMs out there who care about those things (designated with [ ] brackets).
Here are my wife's character's stats:
Liza the Brownie
Body: 4
Mind: 3
Spirit: 2
Starting Essence: 4
Innate Gifts:
- Household magic
- Invisibility
Individual Gifts:
- Alert: perceptive and observant
- Fortunate: +2 to Spirit in tests of luck
- Lore: Well-versed in fairy lore
Because I knew it would be somewhat difficult for my wife's PC to handle an entire adventure by herself, I created an NPC to accompany Liza.
Cherry the Pixie - Liza's good friend
Body: 2
Mind: 3
Spirit: 4
Starting Essence: 8
Innate Gifts:
- Flying
- Pixie Dust
Individual Gifts:
- Inspire: spend 1 Essence to add +2 to another faery’s Attribute score in a challenge
- Sneaky: stealth, silence, concealment, sleight of hand
To begin the adventure, I read the following out loud:
After a good evening’s work, you fell into a deep, restful slumber. The spring air gave you refreshing energy for all of your usual tasks. You left the kitchen properly tidied, having cleaned up spills and dust left by the newlywed Togberts. After a dinner of dark wine, red meat, and sweet-smelling breads, the young couple had hastily set the dishes in piles by the wash basin and headed off to bed. Only last week you had discovered the Togbert’s new home. Sneaking in and finding them in need of a Brownie, you took the opportunity to move in. Having given your last home over to another Brownie as the result of a boon the week before, you were relieved to find the walls of the Togbert home roomy and relatively dust-free.Liza races to a hole in the wall where she can see into the kitchen. [I made this an Easy challenge, which has a difficulty of 1, requiring 1 success on the dice, that is, one even number.] She rolled 4 successes, getting to the hole with plenty of time to get a good look at an intruder heading for the open front door. The intruder is a faery for sure, carrying a large bag over his back. As much as her brain tells her it's impossible, she's almost sure that this figure making his escape from the dark kitchen is Markle, the kind brownie who lives in the Blacksmith's shop! Markle is a well-liked faery who makes weapons for noble sprite warriors. Liza can't understand why he would be sneaking into the Togbert home to pilfer items.
Now you are sleeping peacefully.
You wake up with a start. You are almost certain you heard a sound out in the kitchen.
Liza scrambles through passages in the walls and exits to the exterior of the house just to the side of the front door. By the time she gets there, the mysterious brownie is gone. Suddenly, some sparkling dust falls down in front of Liza. A moment later, Cherry, Liza's dear friend, lands next to Liza and says, "I was out flying around and saw the front door opened. I thought it seemed strange, so came over to see if everything was all right."
Liza notices a trail through the dirt leading away from the front steps, headed away from the house. This trail was undoubtedly created by the large bag the brownie intruder was toting. Liza asks Cherry to follow the trail and see if she can find the man she thinks is Markle. Cherry flies away and returns saying that she couldn't see him within a few yards.
Liza goes inside and looks around the house, using her Alertness to quickly scan the room. She sees evidence of bits and pieces of moved objects, open drawers and the like, apparently used by the intruder to climb up to a high point on the wall where there hangs a plaque. This plaque usually holds a very valuable jewel-studded brooch - a Togbert family heirloom. But the spot where the brooch usually rests is empty!
Liza leaves the house, closes the door, and suggests to Cherry that they go check the blacksmith's shop to see if Markle is there. She wants to be sure she saw what she thinks she saw. [This event was unexpected. I hadn't thought of this possibility, but these are the things that make GMing fun. So I happily went along to see what my wife would come up with.] Liza asks Cherry if she can spare some pixie dust to make her fly so they can travel more quickly. Cherry agrees. [This was one of those times when I figured this would be the best way to make the story keep moving and I didn't have a problem giving my wife a little help - she was doing this by herself after all. I wanted to make Cherry function somewhat like another player character. So I figured a free sprinkling of pixie dust was a reasonable option.]
The two faeries fly off and quickly arrive at the blacksmith's shop. They try to open the front door by turning the handle. [I gave this a difficulty of Easy (1).] Liza got 1 success. She is able to turn the handle, but it's locked. The gates to the shop are closed, but the faeries slip through a crack and go to access another door into the house. [This also had a difficulty of Easy (1) to turn the handle.] Liza got 3 successes for a hefty turn of the handle, but alas, this door is locked too. Cherry suggests that they go to the hole in the wall where Markle comes out to meet customers. They locate the hole on the exterior of the house and Liza pokes her head inside. She whispers to see if anyone is awake inside. There is no response. At this time, Liza's pixie dust wears off and she can no longer float.
Liza calls Cherry into the dark hallway, carved within the wall, so they can have some light by which to see. They quietly proceed until they reach a point in the hall where another hallway breaks off headed upward. The hall they are in continues forward. Liza climbs up into the upper hallway and sees that Cherry's light just barely illuminates a few articles of a bedroom. Cherry cautiously stays back in the main hallway, keeping watch.
Liza listens before entering the bedroom. Her Alertness tells her that there is no noise from within the room. She now uses her Household Magic to create a small magical ball of light in her hand to see the interior of the bedroom. There is no sign of Markle. In fact, his bed is tidily made and everything seems to be in its proper place, including a number of fancy weapons hanging from the walls.
Liza meets Cherry back in the main hallway and they continue forward until they arrive in Markle's shop. He has this section of the thick wooden wall carved into a tiered workshop. Cherry is still nervous, but Liza is resolved to make sense of things. She uses her light to examine the shop - again, finding no Markle. Liza looks around to see if there is anything she can use as a decoy brooch for the time being, but she sees nothing significant - just a bucket of water, and various blacksmith's tools.
Cherry, cautiously waiting further down the hall insists they be on their way. Liza disappointedly agrees and they return to the exterior of the blacksmith's shop. Liza wants to fly again. [This time, I decided she would need to pay 1 Essence mote to receive more pixie dust from Cherry. It was my way of making her pay to control the
Liza realizes that she needs to have the brooch in its place by morning, so she must make haste. The two faeries race north, following the path left in the dirt by the thief's large bag. But then, the trail gets lost as it runs right into a large grassy area. They stop to look around, seeing and hearing nothing. Just then, they hear from overhead: "Hoo! Hoo! Who are you looking for? Who?"
Looking up, they see a black great horned owl who introduces himself as Bwok. The faeries ask if he has seen anyone come this way, to which he replies that, indeed, he has seen someone come this way - a brownie in fact, dragging a large bag slung over his shoulder. But, to the faeries' displeasure, he is not willing to give the information for free. He wants one of two things from them. They must either bring him a mouse to dine on, or, they must tell him a story. He is a lover of fascinating stories. But, he has heard many, many stories, and to think of one he hasn't heard before is quite a task.
Being a brownie, Liza has a natural love for mice, so the first option is out of the question. Yet, to Liza's advantage, she has the Gift of Faery Lore - she knows many great stories, old and new. Because Bwok wanted a story he'd never heard, I decided this would be a somewhat difficult task. Therefore, Liza would have to spend 1 Essence mote to tell such a story. [I gave my wife two options: she could actually make up some interesting story and earn an Essence mote, gaining back her spent Essence - or - she could just say that Liza tells him a great story and not earn the Essence mote. Being new to RPing and not in the mood to come up with something like this on the fly, she chose the latter option.] So Liza spent the Essence mote and told Bwok an amazing story from ancient faery lore called "Twilight" [yes, my wife is very much into the vampire book of the same name], which pleased the owl very well.
Bwok tells the faeries that the brownie they are following went west. He also made it quite clear that, if they intended to catch up with him, they would need to hurry.
That ended our first session. My wife later mentioned that she had enjoyed playing. This was good news to me since she is generally not the sort of person who would readily sign up to play an RPG. She loves board games, but RPGs are a different entity altogether. She had a great attitude and actually continues to look forward to each session.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Fate: Dark and Stormy report #11
We had taken last week off on account of my wife giving birth to a new baby. But this week, I arrived back at work, ready to dive back into Hightower Tor at the Friday lunch game table. This week, it was our muscled jungle master who started off the scene - still fighting the monstrous spider. As you may remember from last time, the spider has been ignited with flames all across its hard and hairy back.
Rwake began by attempting a stunning feat.
Llama: "I use my staff to polevault up onto the spider's back."
J: "Isn't the spider still on fire?"
Me: "Yeah. He's still on fire all over his back."
Llama: "Okay, I try to land on his head."
Me: "His head's on fire too."
J: "Is the spider still taking damage from the fire?"
Me: "Yeah. He did last session and he will again on his turn."
Llama: "All right. I spend a fate point to say that there's an open spot on the spider's back where the flames have gone out, near the head."
Me: "Okay, that sounds good. Roll. The difficulty is Fair (+2)."
Let me cut in here. For those of you who may be considering GMing with Fate, you might be wondering, "How'd you decide on the difficulty?" The answer is: I just picked something that seemed not to high and not too low. I figured something like this would be possible for Rwake, but harder than Average. So I said Fair. Setting difficulties can indeed be tough sometimes. For the sake of keeping the game flowing, I recommend just picking something just as I did - not too high, not too low. I find this process of elimination easier than pinpointing the perfect difficulty. The important thing is that the PCs have fun, so just pick something and let the players give it a whirl. Below, you can see Rwake, safely perched atop the spider.
Rwake began by attempting a stunning feat.
Llama: "I use my staff to polevault up onto the spider's back."
J: "Isn't the spider still on fire?"
Me: "Yeah. He's still on fire all over his back."
Llama: "Okay, I try to land on his head."
Me: "His head's on fire too."
J: "Is the spider still taking damage from the fire?"
Me: "Yeah. He did last session and he will again on his turn."
Llama: "All right. I spend a fate point to say that there's an open spot on the spider's back where the flames have gone out, near the head."
Me: "Okay, that sounds good. Roll. The difficulty is Fair (+2)."
Let me cut in here. For those of you who may be considering GMing with Fate, you might be wondering, "How'd you decide on the difficulty?" The answer is: I just picked something that seemed not to high and not too low. I figured something like this would be possible for Rwake, but harder than Average. So I said Fair. Setting difficulties can indeed be tough sometimes. For the sake of keeping the game flowing, I recommend just picking something just as I did - not too high, not too low. I find this process of elimination easier than pinpointing the perfect difficulty. The important thing is that the PCs have fun, so just pick something and let the players give it a whirl. Below, you can see Rwake, safely perched atop the spider.
Back to the scene. Rwake rolled a -2, added his +5 for Jungle Gym skill (flipping and jumping around the jungle) for a total of +3. His plan worked, and he successfully landed square on the bare spot he had aimed for. Crouching, he grabbed the nearest crevices in the spider's neck joint and hung on for dear life.
Elros, still near the spider, plunged his sword into the spider's leg for a +7 on his Swordsmanship. This gave him one shift above the spider's +6 Athletics roll. This inflicted one stress point which rolled up to the spider's 7th and final box on his stress track, leaving only consequence boxes. Below, Elros prepares for attack, while Rwake watches from atop the spider.
Getting in on the action, little Leo sprang forward, chopping at the spider's back left leg with his Shortsword of Shock. The spider was focused on Leo, so I figured the difficulty of this slash would be Mediocre (0). The spider wasn't doing anything to defend itself. It was simply outnumbered. Leo rolled an Average (+1), dealing one stress, which rolled up to a Mild consequence. I decided the spider now had the aspect "Overwhelmed". It was surrounded, and taking damage from every side, including its flame-broiling backside.
At this point, the spider offered a "concession". Since the spider wasn't a person, I just explained that the spider was clearly backing off with no intent of further conflict. In the Fate 3.0 rules we're using, the opponents can accept the concession, or they can refuse it and keep fighting. Each player explained why he didn't want to simply leave this battle behind. The primary reason they agreed on was that they didn't want to leave this spider to consume more victims exploring these ruins. So they refused the concession, earning the spider a fate point.
The spider recognized that its attackers were still hostile and lunged at Elros once again, achieving +7 on its Melee roll. At the same time, the spider made an attempt to throw Rwake from its back. I gave the spider a -1 to his roll because I couldn't remember the exact ruling of doing two actions simultaneously with one attempt. I rolled a +2 for this attempt. Rwake used his Death Grip stunt (+2 to rolls of strength when holding an opponent) to grip a crevice in the exoskeleton with hands of super jungle strength - a roll of +4 total, saving him from being thrown. Elros, for his part, moved to dodge the spider's attack, but with a +3 roll, he was crushed between the grotesque pincers of the spider's mouth for 4 stress, then tossed aside.
Then on Rwake's turn:
Llama: "I pull out my knife and find a weak spot to stab the spider."
Me: "Oooo, so as you feeling around you discover the spot Leo had been hammering with a chisel earlier?"
Llama: "Sure - do I need to spend a fate point for that?"
Me: "Nah. That's what Fate is about. This kind of stuff works out for you guys. So do you jab the knife into Leo's crack?"
[giggling from around the table]
Rwake: "I tag the Overwhelmed aspect to get +2 on my attack for a total of . . . +6."
Me: "The spider's exoskeleton is weakened, so that's going to be a difficulty of +3. You dealt 3 stress. Your blade sinks in and ooze starts to spill out."
Players: "Eeeewwww."
Me: "So now the spider is trying to madly shake Rwake off its back. It now has the Moderate consequence of 'Half-sensing'. Rwake struck something in the spider's neck joint to hinder its senses. The spider is visibly struggling now."
Elros, still aching from his spider bite, got up and charged the spider (supplemental action for -1) and rolled a +2 for his sword attack. That gave him the shift he needed against the spider's Average (+1) roll to move the damage up to a Severe consequence. Jumping into the air and slicing a two-handed slash, Elros' sword cleaved through the spiders eyes and mouth. The spider took a new temporary aspect of 'Weakened'.
Webbing now began too shoot wildly from the spider's abdomen, near Leo. The little Lufan quickly darted around to the front of the spider (supplemental action), using his Close at Hand stunt to freely pull out a long chisel and a short carving knife. Aiming at the wounded face of the beast, Leo flung both "weapons", rolling a +2 against the spider's +3 dodge. Leo now uses the free tag of the spider's new "Weakened" aspect to reroll his Thrown Weapons skill, achieving a +5 this time. those 3 shifts of stress took the spider into the Taken Out state. Leo's knife cut through part of the spider's face, while the chisel lodged deeply into one of the eyes. The spider wriggled for a few moments, screeching its last, and finally dropped lifeless to the dusty floor of its lair.
Before dismounting, Rwake wedged his knife into the spider's neck joint and methodically broke all connections, ensuring the spider's final death. Behold below - the monstrous spider fallen. Notice Leo's chisel embedded in the spider's eye.
A post-battle examination of the room turned up a Pearl of Power, which allows the owner to enhance the benefit of one stunt per day. Elros also found a leather pouch containing 15 silver among the corpses. He kindly split the silver between the three of them and headed back to the hallway.
So, after many weeks, they have finally bested the monstrous spider, Elros reasonably damaged from the experience.
Our next session won't be until the second half of January, once we're all back from Christmas break. It will probably take another 3 weeks or so to finish this adventure. After that, AC is going to take over GMing and we're going to play through the holiday-themed, Spirit of the Season. Some of us, especially J, have been wanting to try a real SotC adventure, pulp-theme and all. While I'm not into the pulp genre, I am willing to give it a try. So, AC stepped up to run this next adventure. Once we've finished that, we'll move on to the continuation of this campaign, following the story of Elros, Leo, and Rwake. The adventure will be one of my own creations. Thanks for those of you who read these reports. Comments are always appreciated.
So, after many weeks, they have finally bested the monstrous spider, Elros reasonably damaged from the experience.
Our next session won't be until the second half of January, once we're all back from Christmas break. It will probably take another 3 weeks or so to finish this adventure. After that, AC is going to take over GMing and we're going to play through the holiday-themed, Spirit of the Season. Some of us, especially J, have been wanting to try a real SotC adventure, pulp-theme and all. While I'm not into the pulp genre, I am willing to give it a try. So, AC stepped up to run this next adventure. Once we've finished that, we'll move on to the continuation of this campaign, following the story of Elros, Leo, and Rwake. The adventure will be one of my own creations. Thanks for those of you who read these reports. Comments are always appreciated.
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thankgiving gaming
For Thanksgiving, I took my family over to spend the day at my sister's house with a bunch of family. Once we had settled down and there seemed to be enough people sitting around, I asked if anyone wanted to play a game. No one seemed all that eager at the time except for my brother-in-law. So, I decided it would be fun to teach him San Juan in a 2-player setting.
We sat down and I began explaining the game when my sister (wife of my bro-in-law) pulled up a chair. I asked her if she'd like to play, and she decided to join in, making it a 3-player game.
My sister is what I would consider to be a non-gamer. My brother-in-law is a gamer who is good at strategizing in games. He's usually willing to play, but he tends to brain-burn with his decisions. The games they have played and liked are Ticket to Ride and Bohnanza.
It was an interesting session. I was fully enjoying it, as always. The other two seemed to be distracted with other conversations and such, which kept them from fully engaging. There were a few times when someone would ask, "Okay, what just happened? Is it my turn?" NGS (non-gamer sister) and CGB (casual gamer bro-in-law) didn't take long to grasp what was going on. After a few rounds they understood how each role worked. They asked me questions all throughout the game about what they should do, and what would be a good move. I helped as much as I could. San Juan can certainly bring lots of questions on a first play, with the huge variety of buildings and abilities.
CGB was the first to complete 12 buildings. I had 11 and NGS had 10. I was the only one who had built more than one 6-building (Guild Hall and City Hall). After scoring standard victory points and chapels, CGB was in the lead. When we counted 6-buildings, I pushed ahead. NGS was the only one with a palace, but she was far enough behind that it didn't help her. I came out with a 1-point lead, ahead of CGB.
I think the game felt a bit heavy to them, especially while trying to stay involved in the surrounding conversations. The experience taught me that you really have to gauge the kind of gamers you are planning to teach, and what their current ability to focus is at that time. To really enjoy a game, you have to be able to focus. The heavier the game, the more focus required, unless you're experienced at that particular game. A party game would have been much more appropriate at the time, I think.
We didn't get back to gaming until after dark, when one of the three little children had gone to bed and everyone had polished off their pie. This time around, everyone agreed to give Winner's Circle a go.
Everyone was somewhat tired at this point, so Winner's Circle fit the bill perfectly. The game is so easy to teach and has very few rules. In essence, "Place bets. Roll die. Move horse." Players this time were my two party-gamer parents (not so much into strategy games), NGS, and my gamer wife. Everyone, including my dad, who can always think of something better to do than play games, understood how the game worked quickly. My dad even won the first race with well-placed bets and lucky rolls.
The second race found my mom and me on some of the same horses, as we had been in the first race. This time, we managed to pull ahead, and now my mom was in the lead, so she started the third race. Everyone who chanced being the only better on a horse found out how risky that is, never getting their horses past the finish line. In this last race, my mom and I were on a couple of the same horses again. The rolls came up lucky for us and my mom had a triumphant win with $2000. I was second place.
This was NGS's first play of Winner's Circle. She commented that it was added to her list of games she liked playing from our collection. For those of you who have similar family or friends, take note: Ticket to Ride, Bohnanza, Winner's Circle. Anything I can get my sister to request is a good gateway game.
I was happy to have fit two games into the day, considering how many people there were, with little kids running around, and much food preparation taking place. It was a day of blessings as we thought about how thankful we were for God's rich blessings in our lives. It was a great Thanksgiving.
We sat down and I began explaining the game when my sister (wife of my bro-in-law) pulled up a chair. I asked her if she'd like to play, and she decided to join in, making it a 3-player game.
My sister is what I would consider to be a non-gamer. My brother-in-law is a gamer who is good at strategizing in games. He's usually willing to play, but he tends to brain-burn with his decisions. The games they have played and liked are Ticket to Ride and Bohnanza.
It was an interesting session. I was fully enjoying it, as always. The other two seemed to be distracted with other conversations and such, which kept them from fully engaging. There were a few times when someone would ask, "Okay, what just happened? Is it my turn?" NGS (non-gamer sister) and CGB (casual gamer bro-in-law) didn't take long to grasp what was going on. After a few rounds they understood how each role worked. They asked me questions all throughout the game about what they should do, and what would be a good move. I helped as much as I could. San Juan can certainly bring lots of questions on a first play, with the huge variety of buildings and abilities.
CGB was the first to complete 12 buildings. I had 11 and NGS had 10. I was the only one who had built more than one 6-building (Guild Hall and City Hall). After scoring standard victory points and chapels, CGB was in the lead. When we counted 6-buildings, I pushed ahead. NGS was the only one with a palace, but she was far enough behind that it didn't help her. I came out with a 1-point lead, ahead of CGB.
I think the game felt a bit heavy to them, especially while trying to stay involved in the surrounding conversations. The experience taught me that you really have to gauge the kind of gamers you are planning to teach, and what their current ability to focus is at that time. To really enjoy a game, you have to be able to focus. The heavier the game, the more focus required, unless you're experienced at that particular game. A party game would have been much more appropriate at the time, I think.
We didn't get back to gaming until after dark, when one of the three little children had gone to bed and everyone had polished off their pie. This time around, everyone agreed to give Winner's Circle a go.
Everyone was somewhat tired at this point, so Winner's Circle fit the bill perfectly. The game is so easy to teach and has very few rules. In essence, "Place bets. Roll die. Move horse." Players this time were my two party-gamer parents (not so much into strategy games), NGS, and my gamer wife. Everyone, including my dad, who can always think of something better to do than play games, understood how the game worked quickly. My dad even won the first race with well-placed bets and lucky rolls.
The second race found my mom and me on some of the same horses, as we had been in the first race. This time, we managed to pull ahead, and now my mom was in the lead, so she started the third race. Everyone who chanced being the only better on a horse found out how risky that is, never getting their horses past the finish line. In this last race, my mom and I were on a couple of the same horses again. The rolls came up lucky for us and my mom had a triumphant win with $2000. I was second place.
This was NGS's first play of Winner's Circle. She commented that it was added to her list of games she liked playing from our collection. For those of you who have similar family or friends, take note: Ticket to Ride, Bohnanza, Winner's Circle. Anything I can get my sister to request is a good gateway game.
I was happy to have fit two games into the day, considering how many people there were, with little kids running around, and much food preparation taking place. It was a day of blessings as we thought about how thankful we were for God's rich blessings in our lives. It was a great Thanksgiving.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Lost Valley: the importance of mountain gold
Over the weekend, my wife and I found time to fit in one game of Lost Valley.
Both of us have a preference for games where you can work on your own position to a large degree - especially my wife. Lost Valley is not this type of game; one of the primary strategies for doing well is in taking advantage of other people's work. But when we play together, we try to play so that each of us stays on our own side of the river. The only time we played on the same side, the river had curved straight down on my side, seriously hindering me from doing anything useful. In that case, we agreed to both play on her side.
In our weekend play, we stuck with our own sides. This time around, many things worked to her advantage. She gained forest land (necessary for acquiring timber) on her side earlier than I did. But her greatest advantage was that she had 3 mining sites to work with for most of the game. On the other hand, my side was plentiful with river gold. Those who have played Lost Valley will know that mountain gold (gained by mining) is much more valuable that river gold.
Her mines were making me nervous. I was afraid I would never be able to make enough gold to compete. I only had one mine on my side. Once I had tapped that single mine out of its gold, I new it was time to work at that river gold. I already had a fishing pole, but I wanted to gain food more rapidly, so I also purchased a fish trap from the trading lodge. The downside with river gold, on top of its low value, is that you have to build canals to it. So, using my ax, I chopped enough timber to build all the necessary canals to reach all of my river gold locations. At that point, my only option was to hurry and fish, then pan for river gold, and repeat. Meanwhile, she was pulling chunk after chunk out of her mines.
Here's what my side looked like:
Here's what her side looked like:
Looking at her face-down gold stash compared to my own told me early on who would win. Nevertheless I kept grabbing that river gold. The problem was, each time I expectantly flipped over another river gold tile, I only dug up a single piece of gold. Again, and again, and again. Where were all the 2-gold pieces?!!
Once she had 10 pieces in her gold stash, she rushed to the trading lodge and ended the game. I counted my meager gatherings - 20 gold. 7 of my 11 pieces were a single piece of gold. This, on the other hand, was her card at the end of the game:
She had brought in 33 gold. Stacked on top of her skill at Lost Valley, she had managed to explore the good half of the land, bringing her a hefty win. Once again, I was reminded that, to win this game, you must be a collector of mountain gold.
Both of us have a preference for games where you can work on your own position to a large degree - especially my wife. Lost Valley is not this type of game; one of the primary strategies for doing well is in taking advantage of other people's work. But when we play together, we try to play so that each of us stays on our own side of the river. The only time we played on the same side, the river had curved straight down on my side, seriously hindering me from doing anything useful. In that case, we agreed to both play on her side.
In our weekend play, we stuck with our own sides. This time around, many things worked to her advantage. She gained forest land (necessary for acquiring timber) on her side earlier than I did. But her greatest advantage was that she had 3 mining sites to work with for most of the game. On the other hand, my side was plentiful with river gold. Those who have played Lost Valley will know that mountain gold (gained by mining) is much more valuable that river gold.
Her mines were making me nervous. I was afraid I would never be able to make enough gold to compete. I only had one mine on my side. Once I had tapped that single mine out of its gold, I new it was time to work at that river gold. I already had a fishing pole, but I wanted to gain food more rapidly, so I also purchased a fish trap from the trading lodge. The downside with river gold, on top of its low value, is that you have to build canals to it. So, using my ax, I chopped enough timber to build all the necessary canals to reach all of my river gold locations. At that point, my only option was to hurry and fish, then pan for river gold, and repeat. Meanwhile, she was pulling chunk after chunk out of her mines.
Here's what my side looked like:
Here's what her side looked like:
Looking at her face-down gold stash compared to my own told me early on who would win. Nevertheless I kept grabbing that river gold. The problem was, each time I expectantly flipped over another river gold tile, I only dug up a single piece of gold. Again, and again, and again. Where were all the 2-gold pieces?!!
Once she had 10 pieces in her gold stash, she rushed to the trading lodge and ended the game. I counted my meager gatherings - 20 gold. 7 of my 11 pieces were a single piece of gold. This, on the other hand, was her card at the end of the game:
She had brought in 33 gold. Stacked on top of her skill at Lost Valley, she had managed to explore the good half of the land, bringing her a hefty win. Once again, I was reminded that, to win this game, you must be a collector of mountain gold.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
BG Wednesday: Masons
Today, we had 5 people show up for BG Wednesday. This tends to be an awkward number because our preference is to split into smaller groups. This week the games which were voted for were Masons and Camelot Legends. No one had any good 5-player games, so we did a 2-3 split. The guy who owns Camelot Legends accidentally forgot to bring it, so three people ended up playing Spree, while Jack and I went 2P on Masons.
I had voted for Masons this week. I've noticed that I'm pretty much always in the mood to play it. I've tried to put a finger on what it is about the game that I like so much, but haven't fully figured out what that "vibe" is that makes it always appealing. I won't mention all the reasons I like it here because it's not a review, but I'll at least mention that the game tends to be light, simple, and has a nice balance of luck and strategy. I would give it a similar weight to Carcassonne.
I haven't played many games by Leo Colovini. In fact, Masons and Cartagena are the only two I can think of right now. If you know of other games I might like by Colovini, please comment to let me know!
The game started out with both of us building in the middle of the board. I had a really crummy hand in the beginning. Fortunately, it wasn't long before Jack passed me up and I was able to swap 5 of my 7 cards out (switching out cards is a benefit of being in last place - yes, it's an official rule. It's a great balancing feature.). About midway through the game, we found ourselves tied at 38 points.
Soon, I completed a city, initiating scoring, and I scored two of the "1 point for each freestanding tower" cards. There were 12 freestanding towers at the time, so I moved ahead 24 points which is pretty tasty for one turn.
Jack had been working on the center of the board for a while, but then shifted over and starting laying loose walls, towers, and houses all over the west border. This led me to the assumption that he must have a card for scoring that guild's region - the red, white and blue guild. I happened to be building on the opposite side, loading up the east with black towers. Once I completed this big city, I scored a "2 points for every black tower in the city" card and a "1 point for every tower in the city" card. There were 7 black towers and 11 total towers, which gave me 24 points, boosting me from 62 points to 86 points. Jack took this opportunity to score his western region. He played two "red, white, and blue guild" cards, bringing in 32 points, launching him from 38 to 70 points.
At this point, the supply stacks were down to: 3 towers, 5 walls, 6 palaces, and a bunch of houses. The board was loaded, pieces everywhere.
I scored a two-triangle card, bringing in 7 points. So did Jack. On top of that, he scored a "2 points for every freestanding gray tower" card. There were 6 gray towers - another 12 points. We were now at 94 and 89 - a narrow lead in my favor.
I joined two large cities, going for the classic Masons "mega city". My hand was full of lameness, so I was trying to score for individually colored palaces (3 points each). This move left us with only 2 palaces in the supply - both yellow. I played the "1 point for every palace" card (8 for 8 points) and a "3 points for rose palaces, 1 point for rose houses" card for 8 more points. I was up to 110 points now, with only 4 cards left in my hand. Jack did nothing more than discard and draw two.
We each scored 6 points on a single triangle city, then Jack joined a mega city. Unfortunately for him, he chose to roll after he had combined cities. He rolled two yellow houses. Joined with the other yellow houses in the city, this used up the last two yellow palaces, initiating the end game. Jack got 12 points for gray towers and 10 points for palaces. I snagged 9 points for yellow palaces and 5 points for green houses in the city.
The final scores: Jack - 117, me - 130. It was a close game. Jack technically had the opportunity to take back that last move and roll before joining the mega city. But because we were running low on time, he stuck with his original move. Had he taken it back, the two yellow palaces wouldn't have been used up, and Jack could have scored more cards for lots of points - likely bringing him the win. Jack's always a good sport.
I had voted for Masons this week. I've noticed that I'm pretty much always in the mood to play it. I've tried to put a finger on what it is about the game that I like so much, but haven't fully figured out what that "vibe" is that makes it always appealing. I won't mention all the reasons I like it here because it's not a review, but I'll at least mention that the game tends to be light, simple, and has a nice balance of luck and strategy. I would give it a similar weight to Carcassonne.
I haven't played many games by Leo Colovini. In fact, Masons and Cartagena are the only two I can think of right now. If you know of other games I might like by Colovini, please comment to let me know!
The game started out with both of us building in the middle of the board. I had a really crummy hand in the beginning. Fortunately, it wasn't long before Jack passed me up and I was able to swap 5 of my 7 cards out (switching out cards is a benefit of being in last place - yes, it's an official rule. It's a great balancing feature.). About midway through the game, we found ourselves tied at 38 points.
Soon, I completed a city, initiating scoring, and I scored two of the "1 point for each freestanding tower" cards. There were 12 freestanding towers at the time, so I moved ahead 24 points which is pretty tasty for one turn.
Jack had been working on the center of the board for a while, but then shifted over and starting laying loose walls, towers, and houses all over the west border. This led me to the assumption that he must have a card for scoring that guild's region - the red, white and blue guild. I happened to be building on the opposite side, loading up the east with black towers. Once I completed this big city, I scored a "2 points for every black tower in the city" card and a "1 point for every tower in the city" card. There were 7 black towers and 11 total towers, which gave me 24 points, boosting me from 62 points to 86 points. Jack took this opportunity to score his western region. He played two "red, white, and blue guild" cards, bringing in 32 points, launching him from 38 to 70 points.
At this point, the supply stacks were down to: 3 towers, 5 walls, 6 palaces, and a bunch of houses. The board was loaded, pieces everywhere.
I scored a two-triangle card, bringing in 7 points. So did Jack. On top of that, he scored a "2 points for every freestanding gray tower" card. There were 6 gray towers - another 12 points. We were now at 94 and 89 - a narrow lead in my favor.
I joined two large cities, going for the classic Masons "mega city". My hand was full of lameness, so I was trying to score for individually colored palaces (3 points each). This move left us with only 2 palaces in the supply - both yellow. I played the "1 point for every palace" card (8 for 8 points) and a "3 points for rose palaces, 1 point for rose houses" card for 8 more points. I was up to 110 points now, with only 4 cards left in my hand. Jack did nothing more than discard and draw two.
We each scored 6 points on a single triangle city, then Jack joined a mega city. Unfortunately for him, he chose to roll after he had combined cities. He rolled two yellow houses. Joined with the other yellow houses in the city, this used up the last two yellow palaces, initiating the end game. Jack got 12 points for gray towers and 10 points for palaces. I snagged 9 points for yellow palaces and 5 points for green houses in the city.
The final scores: Jack - 117, me - 130. It was a close game. Jack technically had the opportunity to take back that last move and roll before joining the mega city. But because we were running low on time, he stuck with his original move. Had he taken it back, the two yellow palaces wouldn't have been used up, and Jack could have scored more cards for lots of points - likely bringing him the win. Jack's always a good sport.
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