Spiders...

After last week's big fight the characters were hoping for a calm evening... Instead they were facing their gravest threat yet.

New players

This session we welcomed two new players to the playtest, and that was awesome! Sadly our fighter player was ill so she was played by the rogue.

I started by explaining two basics about the game to the new guys: exploding dice and skilled rolls. They got it straight away (they are both seasoned rpgers and board gamers) so we continued to create them some characters.

Creating characters

They created the cleric Mbob and Rah-Rah (!). 

First off I explained the ability die mechanic, and that was fine. They both raised their class' main ability and lowered something else.

They picked their class skills, but it became evident that some of them (like combat for the cleric) seemed less than useful, and rather like stepping stones to greater things. I think a redesign of  some of them might be on the way...

Buying equipment turned out to be a lengthy process, I need quick free-standing lists printed!

All in all i believe they found character creation fun and quick, but one thing I want to do is make a little "create a x" booklet for each class, going through the whole process and explaining the choices.

Another thing (which really is long overdue) is to add nuiances to races. I'm thinking that each race should come with one general skill, one utility and one specific combat skill.

Showing the system

Once that was all done I made a quick narrative for the players which led to them standing in the first intersection in the Razor hill mines, hearing the sound of a big battle ahead.

I showed how to roll for things as they explored  their surroundings, taking  the same path that the original group took.  

Showing the mechanics rather than telling them is definitively more efficient when it comes to teaching the system to new players, and I think they understood it all quite quickly.

They found the secret door, and after some discussion followed it.

The fleeing tribe

As the proceeded down the rather narrow corridor they suddenly heard the sound of many creatures running towards them from ahead. The cleric took front position with his shield, and the wizard stayed back.

Suddenly a mass (maybe 50) of goblins came into view, but after the initial scare the cleric realised they were females and children, and that they seemed as scared as the players! After some hesitation the players stood aside and let the goblins run past, which they did in a half panicked state.

A chance encounter

As the characters pressed on they saw shadows on the wall, indicating a fire ahead. As they turned a corner they saw the source of this fire - a fire pit in the centre of a large hall. On the other side they saw the unlikely sight of an elven fighter in patchwork goblin armour, and a dwarven rogue roasting something unmentionable over the open fire. Soon a human cleric joined them. 

The two groups greeted each other and swiftly joined forces. The rogue recounted the groups adventures so far as they shared a meal.

The old barracks

Strength in numbers, they thought, and set out to further explore the dwarven ruins, with the thought that at least if one side of the complex as clear of goblins they would have a sure escape route, should the lock picking in the main hall again be interrupted by goblins.

Said and done, they picked a path leading out of the hall and followed it. The rogue led the way scouting ahead, and soon happened upon a very large chamber. As he carefully explored it, he saw that there were thick, slimy spider webs of unnatural size hanging from the ceiling. 

He backtracked, and after some conferring the group decided to go on the offensive - with the (probable) spiders gone the area would be even safer for them.

Spiders...

The fighter and the new cleric took point as they proceeded into the chamber, with the wizard, rogue and old cleric (Viggo) tailing behind. 

They soon spotted more spider webs, and from them descended three unnaturally large arachnids. They had spotted the characters, and a battle was inevitable!

Round 1

The middle spider charged the melee rank, as the two flanking ones hung back. 

The wizard cast a magic missile and hit one of the flanking spiders, Viggo missed with his sling. 

The two flanking spiders spat thick sticky webs over the fighter and Viggo, and they both got ensnared (making them able to attack only every other round).

The middle spider charged the new cleric, who responded in kind. The spider's sudden speed got the upper hand this time, and she landed a massive blow on the cleric, who was saved only by his shield. 

The rogue moved to Viggo to help him out of his web.

Round 2

The wizard landed another magic missile in his spider.

The two flanking spiders now rushed into melee, one attacking the webbed fighter and the other ganging up on the cleric.

The fighter, webbed as she was, struck a mighty blow to the charging spider, killing it (it was the same one that the wizard had softened up with his magic missiles).

The two other spiders attacked the cleric, and both scored hits. The shield could only deflect one of the opponents, so one attack got through, lowering the cleric to zero hit points. He fell to the ground.

Both the fighter and Viggo managed to free themselves from the webs (rendering the rogue's action a little useless unfortunately, his intentions should be commended though).

Round 3

The wizard continued his magic missile streak and landed yet another good hit on one of the spiders.

Viggo prayed for his fellow cleric's health, restoring him to consciousness just before his soul left the body.

The fighter now faced the two remaining spiders. She engaged the one that was hurt (by the wizards magic missile), and managed to get the upper hand, crushing its head with her warhammer. 

The remaining spider landed a big hit on the fighter, who's armour saved her from certain death.

Round 4

Again the wizard cast magic missile successfully, hurting the last spider.

Viggo now healed the fighter successfully.

The fighter over manned the spider, finishing it off, thus ending what was a very hard encounter for the group.

An extended rest

The group now had a closer look at the chamber they were in. The floor was filled with rubble, suggesting this having been the old barracks of the dwarven settlement. In the ceilings were numerous webs, which were prodded. 

Coins fell down, as did a book (which was determined to be a spell book), and a two handed warhammer (which was determined to be magical by the wizard). 

The party deemed this place a good place for an extended rest, using up their cleric's spell points to heal up and settling in for a sleep.

Comments

It was positively exhilarating to have more players to kill to put into battle, as it allowed me to put a very hard encounter before them, and in some ways it felt as if we got to try the combat system for real for the first time.

I think I may have overdone it slightly though, as the spiders turned out to be very hard hitting, and in fact managed to basically kill the new cleric in two rounds, something which leads me to the first topic of discussion:

Death or unconsciousness?

When you reach zero hit points, are you dead? In the original Dungeons and Dragons you certainly were, but in the first role playing game I played, Drakar och Demoner you would be unconscious, and only died when your hit points reached -CON. So both are truly old school variants. 

Personally I prefer unconsciousness, but great urgency. So I believe the main rule of Solum should be this: When you reach zero hit points (any negative hit points are wasted, zero is the lowest you can have), you fall unconscious, and will inevitably die within [character level] rounds. Each round until then, you have to succeed with a save against Strength or die. If you are tended to (without magic) you roll a save for that round too, if you succeed that roll you are stabilised. If you are healed (by magic) you will not have to roll for that round, but is automatically stabilised.

There will be variants in the rules, so each group can choose the rule that fits them.

Shields

Next up for discussion is shields. In the current incarnation a person skilled in the use of shields can choose one melee attack per round to deflect, lowering that attack's damage by -2DT. 

I really like the mechanic, it's simple and tactical, and it's one of the few defences a player has against two enemies. But I question if it's too powerful, so further playtesting (and possibly more computer simulations) will have to determine if the reduction should be -1DT instead.

Rewriting needed

Now for the final point of discussion, rewriting. I need to go through the entire text really and rewrite it, because I've decided on various changes that aren't implemented in the text, and some parts are really obscure and hard to understand. I also want to restructure the player's handbook so that each character class and race has it's own, easy to follow section.

The more the merrier!

I really enjoyed this session, mainly because of the additional number of players, I hope they can join us again, but if they can't I am seriously considering letting each player control two characters from now on.

And more spiders please!!!