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| My Saturday Night Table |
Vandal was in pretty bad shape after the encounter with the thieves in the sage's shop, so the party (are 2 characters really a party?) decided to head back to The Sleeping Beggar to regroup and rest up.
(Mythic: Interrupted Scene, pc positive, extravagance, portal)
As they passed by Abbaj's Palace of Pleasure, Bertio, a regular at the Beggar's bar waved them over, invited them in and procured for them some libations. Vandal, naturally paranoid, assumed the worst and stared hesitantly at the goblet. McDougal, on the other hand, though a priest,is also a staunch believer that one should never turn down a gift, especially a drink, tossed it back and felt worlds better after (the drink had the effect of a healing potion and restored 5 HP). This convinced Vandal who was rewarded for his hesitation with virtually no noticeable effect (1 HP).
There they discussed their options, reviewed the facts thus far and concluded it wasn't Jorix staying at The Grey Hand after all but Lady Bana herself, and that's likely where the book thief had gone.
(Scene 8, Chaos: 8)
They'd head there and try to intercept the thief and get the book.
(Mythic: Altered Scene)
As luck would have it, as they approached The Grey Hand, the thief came out and headed towards the seedier part of town. After some discussion (amusingly, I somehow managed to duplicate in solo play, the kinds of time consuming discussions that happen during multi-player sessions), they tailed him.
McDougal grew increasingly concerned that they would be noticed (he's a Cleric after all, Vandal is the thief and better at hiding in shadows and such). The thief disappeared inside The Ruddy Knave Grogshop.
(Me: Does he turn into an alley/bar/tavern/strip club/something? 50/50, Mythic: yes. Created a quick table and rolled "Bar", found an online tavern name generator and used that for the name)
Vandal went in alone, while McDougal took up a position at a conveniently located shrine across the street from the bar.
(I asked Mythic if there was somewhere McDougal could hide unnoticed and got a yes result - I suppose the shrine came to me as a way to make atonement for any drunken behavior easier for the bar's patrons).
(arguably, going inside the bar could have and should have been treated as a new scene)
Inside,Vandal lost site of thief until he pressed himself into the crowd.
(Mythic must have sensed this was really a new scene, so when I asked Mythic if I could see him from my new vantage point I rolled doubles with a digits less than the chaos factor to get a yes and an interrupted scene, pc negative, inform environment )
Just as Vandal found him, a burly fellow demanded the admission fee plus the purchase of a drink "to go to the back room" and ushered Vandal towards a rather large ogre employed as a bouncer/money collector/ticket dispenser. In no condition to argue with a burly fellow and an ogre, Vandal paid his 5sp, went in to find bleachers surrounding a squared off area of saw dust covered floor, but no thief.
He turned to go out and through a serious of misunderstandings (D&D reaction table used here) was shoved into the wall by the ogre - whereupon he was knocked down to 1 HP remaining. It was time for him to head to the Beggar no matter what.
(Scene 9, Chaos: 9)
McDougal, however, from his seat at the conveniently located shrine, saw the thief leave The Ruddy Knave and attempted to tail him by himself.
(Mythic: Altered Scene)
He lost site of him for a moment only to have the thief leap out to attack him from behind - but missed. McDougal (won the initiative) tried to negotiate
(The dialog was facilitated by questions posted to Mythic and, thanks to rolling doubles, ended in a random event: npc negative, agree, anger)
The thief angrily revealed he'd been stiffed by Lady Bana on their agreed upon fee, and he was willing to sing but only for a fee. McDougal's offers were insufficient and the thief tired of the discussions, pretended to accept an offer of 5 gp and took the occasion of McDougal retrieving the agreed upon amount (Me: Does the thief attack him? 50/50 Mythic: Yes) to attack.
The fight was something of an embarrassment for the thief who in a moment of fury injured his own arm which was followed with a second attack with an even more absurd result . Although the details are a blur, he managed to smash his own head into a wall and finished lying face down,unconscious, in his own drool.(For both attacks the thief rolled a 1, which for as long as I can remember has been a fumble - even though in b/x it's not specifically written in the rules. I used this table from Gothridge Manor for the results)
(I asked Mythic if there was somewhere McDougal could hide unnoticed and got a yes result - I suppose the shrine came to me as a way to make atonement for any drunken behavior easier for the bar's patrons).
(arguably, going inside the bar could have and should have been treated as a new scene)
Inside,Vandal lost site of thief until he pressed himself into the crowd.
(Mythic must have sensed this was really a new scene, so when I asked Mythic if I could see him from my new vantage point I rolled doubles with a digits less than the chaos factor to get a yes and an interrupted scene, pc negative, inform environment )
Just as Vandal found him, a burly fellow demanded the admission fee plus the purchase of a drink "to go to the back room" and ushered Vandal towards a rather large ogre employed as a bouncer/money collector/ticket dispenser. In no condition to argue with a burly fellow and an ogre, Vandal paid his 5sp, went in to find bleachers surrounding a squared off area of saw dust covered floor, but no thief.
He turned to go out and through a serious of misunderstandings (D&D reaction table used here) was shoved into the wall by the ogre - whereupon he was knocked down to 1 HP remaining. It was time for him to head to the Beggar no matter what.
(Scene 9, Chaos: 9)
McDougal, however, from his seat at the conveniently located shrine, saw the thief leave The Ruddy Knave and attempted to tail him by himself.
(Mythic: Altered Scene)
He lost site of him for a moment only to have the thief leap out to attack him from behind - but missed. McDougal (won the initiative) tried to negotiate
(The dialog was facilitated by questions posted to Mythic and, thanks to rolling doubles, ended in a random event: npc negative, agree, anger)
The thief angrily revealed he'd been stiffed by Lady Bana on their agreed upon fee, and he was willing to sing but only for a fee. McDougal's offers were insufficient and the thief tired of the discussions, pretended to accept an offer of 5 gp and took the occasion of McDougal retrieving the agreed upon amount (Me: Does the thief attack him? 50/50 Mythic: Yes) to attack.
The fight was something of an embarrassment for the thief who in a moment of fury injured his own arm which was followed with a second attack with an even more absurd result . Although the details are a blur, he managed to smash his own head into a wall and finished lying face down,unconscious, in his own drool.(For both attacks the thief rolled a 1, which for as long as I can remember has been a fumble - even though in b/x it's not specifically written in the rules. I used this table from Gothridge Manor for the results)
McDougal bound the unconscious, and apparently, supremely klutzy, thief and dragged him into an alley way for some friendly questioning.
***
Total time including setup and snacking: 2 hours for 3 scenes.
***
Total time including setup and snacking: 2 hours for 3 scenes.
Nice...showed the kind of B/X system flexibility demonstrated by the friends who taught me D&D waaaay back. (It wasn't always about exploring caves.)
ReplyDeleteTextbook Mythic use, too! These are posts that should be read by all solo RPG enthusiasts.
Thanks JF!
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I've taken b/x in this direction. I've only ever played it as a dungeon crawl - can't tell you how many times as a player I've been through Keep on the Borderlands! It certainly has the flexibility to handle it from a game-play perspective.
As a solo game, experience points are somewhat irrelevant to me (I mean, I want my characters to advance,but if it takes a long time, that's OK), but if I were to run this type of game with players, I think I'd have difficulty doling out experience. It's a different game when there isn't a hoard of treasure to plunder or waves upon waves of monsters to defeat.