The rogue found a tunnel up ahead from whence he heard strange animal sounds. The barbarian got worried after a while and ran after the rogue, and suddenly the rogue heard noises from behind as well!
A classic stand off moment, with the barbarian and rogue was the result.
The turn tracker
Building on discoveries from playtest 2 I started using a turn tracker. It turns out it works really well and I will be using it henceforth.
Combat 1 - the giant frogs
Sneaking forward the group spotted two giant frogs sitting around a small pool in a cavern. They decided, after some discussion to attack.
Round 1
The players hugged the wall afraid to get surrounded, while the frogs leapt forward. Viggo fired a slingshot and hit one of them!
After advancing a bit the frogs lashed out with their tongues, hitting the rogue but missing the barbarian, who also missed her frog.
The rogue was finding himself grappled by the frog who dragged them towards their gaping mouth.
Round 2
The barbarian decided to try and help her rogue friend instead of closing in on her frog.
The rogue tried to break free, but in vain. Instead he found himself engulfed by the frog, taking massive damage!
The barbarian hit the frog desperately and managed to kill it. The other frog got a free attack against the barbarian but managed to miss.
Round 3
Viggo managed to hit the frog again with his sling shot, killing it.
Comments
I quickly discovered that I need to make a major overhaul of the basic mechanic of combat for one simple reason: It feels way too unintuitive that everyone in effect gets to attack twice in a round.
The way the rules are written now it works like this: Each player chooses to attack one foe, the foe and the player rolls attack, whoever wins damages the other. Then each monster gets to attack one player, again both the monster and the player rolls attack, and the winner takes damage.
This results in totally uninteresting choices. For instance in round 2 above, the barbarians choice to attack the other frog instead would lead to no drawback to the barbarian with these rules.
The change
So this is how it's going to work instead:
- Each player chooses a foe
- Typically both roll attack and the winner deals damage
- If a player attacks a foe that has already been involved in combat this round, they roll against a fixed difficulty. If they succeed they do damage.
- Each foe that was not attacked gets an attack against a fixed difficulty, if they succeed they deal damage.
Optional rule - the waves of combat
Optionally (and needing testing) the "initiative" can shift every round, so that the first round the players gets to decide who to attack but the next round the foes get to decide.
If this rule is not in use, the foes can always opt to try and "get there first" (see the rules).
Combat 2 - the giant rats
The characters were in rather a bad shape after this combat, especially the rogue. They healed up a little, examined the cave (finding nothing of interest) and were just washing up when (on a roll of 6) they suddenly heard squeeks and the patter of little clawed feet rushing up the tunnel towards them.
They barely had time to get in order before four giant rats rushed into the room, probably drawn to the commotion.
Round 1
Viggo downed a rat with a slingshot (he was on a roll, especially considering he only has D4 Agility).
The barbarian and rogue both engaged one rat, leaving one to get a fixed difficulty attack in at the end.
The rogue got hit for three damage leaving him on only one hit point and bleeding 1 hp per round for two rounds (as per the giant rats special ability). He was in big trouble!
The barbarian decided to attack the rogues rat (which I allowed), killing it. She then got two fixed difficulty attacks against her, one of which hit leaving her on 4 hit points.
Round 2
Viggo killed another rat.
The rogue drank his healing potion, restoring 2 hit points and stopping the bleeding.
The barbarian now only had one foe, she attacked but it bit her for one hit point, and she lost another to bleeding. Next round she was going to bleed two points, thus dying unless something miraculous happened.
Round 3
Viggo missed his slingshot.
The rogue attacked the rat, killing it.
The barbarian drank a healing potion, stopping the bleeding.
Comments
This combat flowed a lot better than the first one, both because the players are now getting into it, and because I felt a lot better with the changes mentioned above.
The game is still very leathal, mainly becuase I've not yet implemented the changes from playtest 1. Also, I should add that the heroic option is in use, something that most people will probably want to do as standard.
But wait! There's more - combat 3
The players took a turn to heal up to full hit points.
I rolled another random encounter though, and this time on the general table (in the monster section of the rules). It was Nixxies!
As they were leaving to explore further they heard two splashing sounds from the pool behind them. As they looked they could discern two small humanoid shapes, female. They were swimming around in the water seemingly playing.
"Who goes there!" demanded the rogue, but rolled poorly on his Personality roll.
"Shoot them, this is our pool!" one of the creatures shrieked.
"No you shoot them!" the other replied.
In the end, they both shot at the characters...
Round 1
The Nixxies each cast a Ray of frost. The rogue dodges, but the barbarian is hit for one hit point and is stunned the next round.
Viggo hits and kills one of the Nixxies.
Round 2
Viggo misses.
The Nixxi misses her spell.
The rouge engages the remaining Nixxi. He hits and kills it.
In the pool they now find two beautiful pearls which the barbarian takes.
Comments
This was the first magical combat, and it went rather well. The players were quite scared by the secondary effect, which is good. Magic should be scary!
One thing that I need to think about is the "Get there first" rule, I need to use it for spellcasters and ranged opponents. Actually I might make it so that spells and ranged always goes first.
Rounding it off
The characters went back to a previously unexplored tunnel and peered into the darkness. They heard the sound of an animal in pain echoing from it, and there we stopped. Cliffhanger!
I really enjoyed this round of playtesting! Combat was quick and fun, and I think both players had more fun than they have had previously. Excellent stuff! I also think that because we took long breaks to explain to the newest player everything that could be done and how to view it, she will benefit in the long run.
I am discovering more and more than needs changing, and I have no time to do it, so it's a good thing that I keep these records so that I can go back later on and make the changes. I have a feeling though that with what I've discovered so far, most of the really big things are in place.
Just to reiterate:
- Lower all monsters base damage one step
- Greatly encourage the use of the "Heroic" rule (giving each character +4 hp to start off with)
- New round structure to make for more interesting choices
- Possibly make the order of ranged first then melee standard, meaning less use of the "get there first" rule
- More general game aids needed
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