Playtest 2: Gaining momentum...

Second round of play testing started with the players exploring the main hall of the dwarven mines and the treasury. The rogue quickly determined that the lock is a well made and tricky one, requiring one or several minutes of peace and calm to pick.

Simultaneously the elven barbarian kept lookout, and that was a good thing, because she saw first one, then the other, of the two doors open, and goblins pour out into the hall! The adventurers felt trapped, and I allowed them ample time to discuss what to do...

Game aids needed
The game, such as it is now, needs aids to flow, especially for new GMs. I noticed that I had trouble describing the scene, keep track of the rounds and turns and listen to the players. 

I'm thinking cards for each room with ambiance, monsters, special features etc. Also cards for any pre planned encounter (and maybe even for each random one). Cards could be replaced by a simple web based system of course. As it is now I had to flicker between several google sheets at once, and that isn't optimal.

In meidas res
As things were looking dark for the players a rope was suddenly dropped down to them from atop the vault. Enter their newest partymember, Viggo, cleric of Sol. 

Viggo is played by me, as a response to the deadliness of our first playtest. He will be somewhat passive, but still a member of the party, and our idea is that he can provide some combat support and healing.

In any event, after some debate it was decided that the rogue should try and fend off any of the creatures, while the barbarian was to climb. I believe the rationale for this was that the barbarian has poor climbing skills and therefore would take longer to climb up, and with goblins swarming around she wouldn't be able to climb up. With the rogue there however, she could.

Said and done, she gave it a go. Meanwhile the rogue was acting scary down below, trying to not end up in combat. 

Of climbing, the flammability of wine and other matters

It took two rounds for the barbarian to climb up. The first round the rogue managed to avoid combat, but in the second round a goblin emerged from the battle with an evil grin and faced him.

Armed with only a dagger, and really more of an explorer than an assassin, the rogue was in a predicament. However, an idea formed in the mind of the rogue, and instead of attacking he sprayed the goblin in the face with his wine skin, hoping to light it on fire the following round.

The goblin missed his attack.

(In retrospect, I should have done the winespraying and the attack as an opposition. If the goblin had won, the wine would've missed, if the rogue had won, the goblin would've missed)

In the same round the barbarian climbed up on the roof of the treasury, only to find a blond cloakwearing rather skinny man there, with a sling. He helped her to her feet, then threw a stone at the goblin below, it missed however.

In the next round the barbarian decided to throw her torch at the goblin below, and the cleric to throw another stone. The rogue was involved in melee for now.

The barbarian missed, so we never found out how flammable the wine was (hint: not very flammable at all), but the cleric hit, doing some damage. 

The rouge and the goblin faced of against each other, circling around to find an opening. Finally the goblin lunged forward! The rogue sidestepped, and sunk his dagger into the belly of the monster, who sank to the ground, clearly not able to continue the battle.

Flight into the unknown

They all watched anxiously as the rouge scaled the rope (something he is very skilled at, it turns out), but no more goblins took notice, they were all too busy fighting each other. Once of the roof they followed the cleric to the back, and half climbed, half jumped down on the other side. 

It was now almost pitch black, but the cleric led them forward, into a tunnel that mostly resembled a mineshaft, and as it turns out it was.

The dwarves, when they lived here, built the mine, it was their main source of iron and copper, and trading the goods made from it made them wealthy. Wealthy enough to be sacked by a dragon...

The tunnel led, after a while, into a very large, irregular, but man made cavern, the heart of the mine when it was operational. Now filled with piles of rubble, it is very hard to take in the space of it properly. But as Viggo led them to a corner of the room hidden by some especially high piles of rubble, they gleamed several tunnels leading out of the place.

Summary

We left the adventurers here, keeping the session short. It was my first attempt at running something a little more complicated than a random encounter with Solum, and I think in many ways I could've done it a lot better. 

Overall, however, I think everyone had fun. It felt odd to them still to roleplay, and it took a long time for decisions to be made. But letting the players discuss things between them will teach them the game and for that reason I encouraged it. As time goes on, more pressure will appear, I am sure.

N.B. Game aids

I have since this playtest produced a few of the game aids mentioned above. Find them on the downloads page.