Playtest 5: Right in the face!

After last week's bravado, the characters found themselves in the former jail, discussing how to proceed while adapting the goblin armour to fit the barbarian. Little did they know the evening would end with distant shouts of alarm, drums in the dark...

They felt a very cautious approach to be best, fearing that the goblin tribe that they knew was close by would overwhelm them, should they be alerted.

Said and done, the rogue tied a rope about a foot above ground in the door between the jail and the guard room. The cleric and barbarian waited on either side of the door while the rogue proceeded to loot examine the guardroom.

He also listened at the door out, hearing nothing.

The barbarian and him swapped places and she opened the door, hearing faint goblin voices in the distance but staring down a dark empty hallway.

They decided to have the rogue scout ahead, but forgot their previous rule to have the others follow around 30 metres behind. I think the thought of easy escape through the hole in the jail blinded them to the safety of the rogue.

The corridor was long and empty, and led straight down towards a junction between the main hall (where the treasury is) and the eastern quarters (where the Skullbasher goblins live). They were now approaching these places from a different angle compared to before.

Because the players are drawing their own map, and the map is considered a physical object in the game world, something they are actually drawing as they go along, it felt really cool that they now could use it to determine exactly where they were in relation to the treasury and the room they happened upon in one of the first sessions, the one with countless goblins. The map, and the players knowledge because of it, really added to the game this time!

Even so, the rogue was a bit hasty when he approached the junction. Instead of sneaking back and fetching the group, and in spite of knowing this to be just between two main features of this part of the dungeon (and therefore very likely guarded) he poked his nose around the corner to investigate.

There were two goblins standing guard next to a makeshift barricade. One of them, a big brutish fellow, discovered the rogue. I decided they basically ran into each other in the corner, each as surprised as the other!

The goblin immediately attacked and the rogue had no option but to defend himself...

Round 1
The rogue stabs at the goblin, who pushes him aside and swings his mace, hitting the rogue right in the face for four damage (leaving him with only 2 HP).

The barbarian and cleric heard the fighting and rushed at full speed down to help, they were far behind however, and spent the entire round moving.

Round 2

The cleric and barbarian were now in range to partake in the combat.

 

The cleric decided to cast his minor healing spell, and as spells and ranged go first started the round. He succeeded - healing the rogue for one (1) point (!).

Next up was the rogue and goblin fight, however the barbarian, seeing the rogue badly injured and probably not able to survive another attack, wanted to intervene. This proved an excellent time to introduce another rule, the "Get there first"- rule (see below).

The barbarian succeeded - she jumped in front of the goblin, screaming her battle cry as her mace landed right in the face of the goblin, crushing his skull and sending him to the floor with a slight toothache...

Needless to say, she saved the day. But in the distance they could hear the second goblin, who immediately ran to warn his fellows when the battle began, crying out to warn the whole tribe of the adventurers presence. And had this been a more heroic world, there probably would have been drums in the dark...

Get there first

Solum has no initiative rules (which, incidentally normally works very well) because it normally doesn't matter which order things happen in (because in most situations if I try to hurt you, you have a chance to hurt me instead).

But in some cases, such if someone wants to prevent a spellcaster from casting a spell, or if someone wants to try and take an enemy out before the enemy kills a comrade,it does matter a lot.

This is where the "Get there first" rule comes in. Basically it states that everyone, monster and player character alike, in a battle at any time before they have taken their action can try and Get there first. If this is declared an opposing roll is made between the person who's turn it actually is and the person who wants to get there first. The roll is make with the Ability score the two intended to use, so in the case of interrupting a spellcaster it might be Logic for the caster and Strength for the interrupter. 

Whoever wins this contest goes first.

The modified quality rule

While I introduced the quality rule last week, I felt it too cumbersome. So during the week I had a long hard think about it, and streamlined it to something that I really like:

A skilled or even specialised person can achieve better quality results than an unskilled dabbler. 

A skill, or specialisation, basically gives the person having it two or three chances to succeed (as compared to the standard one chance). This is achieved by rolling two or three dice for a roll.

These extra dice are completely separate, that is to say, the are never added together. Each die roll can explode separately.

The quality is the number of successes

One success is a plain old success, two is an Extraordinary success, three is a Heroic success and four (which would be extremely rare) is a Legendary success. The effect of quality varies, but in combat, it determines the number of dice used for effect rolls (such as damage and healing).

An example:

Viggo, the amazing cleric, wants to heal Savannah, the elven barbarian. He has Spirit D8, so that's his die type (DT). He has the skill Prayer, so he gets two chances to succeed (ie he rolls with two separate dice). The difficulty is Normal (4).

He rolls the two D8s, and gets 4 and 8. Now the 4 is already a success, so he puts that away. The 8 however needs to be re-rolled as two new dice which are added together (this is the exploding die mechanism).

He rolls these two new dice and gets 1 and 8. The 8 is again re-rolled as two new dice, with the result of 7 and 1. The total result of this roll is 1+1+7 = 9. 

So the rolls resulted in 4 and 9, two successes, which gives Extraordinary quality to the healing spell. Instead of the normal 1D4 healing, Viggo heals 2D4.

In this weeks episode both the goblins and the barbarians hits were Extraordinary, which is why the damages were so high. It certainly makes for more excitement around the table!