Showing posts with label Mythic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mythic. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Caverns of the Iron Raven Convent : A MythicGME and Five Room Dungeon Example

For the second attempt combining MythicGME with the Five Room Dungeon, I used the Searchers of the Unknown Rules.

Characters
Dario, Veteran of the Pits of Night P(AC 5, Mv 6, HD 1, Hp 4, #att 1,D 1d8 sword)
Lucio, the Vengeful Blacksmith (Ac 3, Mv 3, hd 1, hp 8 5, #att 1,D 1d10 battle axe)
Antonio, the Executioner of the Windswept Caves (Ac 6, Mv 9, hd 1, hp 5, #att 1, d 1d8 sword, 1d6 bow)
Paolo, the Tailor (Ac 9, Mv 12, hd 1/2, hp 3, #att 1, d 1d6 torch)

This example played out more like I imagined when I first fell upon the idea.

****
Scene 1 - the guardian, chaos 5

Set up: Following legends of a great treasure somewhere in the caves underneath the ruins of the Iron Raven Convent, the party wends their way up into the mountains, up the steep solitary road to reach the former holy site. After kicking around the rubble the party found a trap door into the cave system. Lighting a torch, they descended the narrow stairs into cool, damp caves. After 50' the party reached a landing and found themselves in a 30’ diameter circular cavern [roll event meaning and subject for contents Vengeance Misfortune] standing before a 10’ tall crystal statue of the Raven God himself (living statue).

Roll to see if scene stays as is: 3, altered scene

Altered scene: The statue is not a living statue, but there are no clear exists from the cavern.

To the party’s dismay, no passages extended from the cavern.

“There must be a secret door here somewhere, check the walls of the cavern!” ordered Lucio, the group’s de facto leader.

[Rolled level + 4 for each party member. Dario scores a success to find one, IF one is there. Is there a secret door in the wall of the cavern? 50/50 23, yes. ]

“Over here!” called Dario. He had found the seam around what was clearly a secret door.

[Is the mechanism for the door in the wall? 50/50, 03, exceptional yes. ]

Checking carefully, Dario noticed an odd shaped stone protruding just a bit more than it should have from the cavern wall. He pressed and pulled on it and, sure enough, the door slid back.

Scene 2 - Role playing or puzzle, Chaos 5

Set up: After advancing carefully down a twisting tunnel, the party emerged into a grand cavern. Rays of sunlight slipped through a grate high above their heads and danced on the surface of shallow pools - most likely rainwater that entered by the same means. [Gratify Mundane]. Another statue of the raven god, this time in obsidian with large dark red gems inset for its eyes, stood tall along the south wall. As the party moved into the cavern, it crowed“What gifts do you travelers seek?”

Does this setup keep?  9, yes.

Lucio piped up, “We seek the treasures of the Iron Raven Convent!”

[Use subject + meaning for dialog: excitement anger]

“Caw! Seek and you have found! But first you must make the proper offering!”

“And what is the proper offering?”

[Using MythicGME subject action: Attach goal]

“Caw! Write your goal upon parchment or ribbon and burn it in the brazier at my feet, offering a prayer to the Lord Raven!”

As only Paolo could write, the party had him scribe their goal of the treasure onto a scrap of parchment, and burned it per the statue’s instructions.

[Does the statue fulfill their wish? Very Unlikely 53. No]

The statue began to vibrate, which turned into full blown shake, rocking on its dais. Steam poured out from a vent upon which the dais sat, temporarily blinding the party. When it finished, a small wooden egg lay on the floor.

Lucio picked it up cautiously and opened it, inside on a strip of paper were the words

TRIUMPH ENVIRONMENT PROPOSE AMBUSH (generated with two rules on subject + action tables)

“Lousy circus trick” muttered Lucio.

Dario, however, thought there might be more to it.

Scene 3 - Red Herring Chaos = 5

[How to play this? Obviously, If I know it is a red herring, then it's not really a red herring. I decide to play out whatever scene results and THEN check to see if it's a red herring or not]

Setup : Ahead the passage forked, from the left a cool damp breeze blew, flickering their torches, to the right nothing but silence and darkness.

Play as is? 8 yes.

“My guess” said Antonio, is that the left will take us out of the caves. The wind is blowing in from outside.”

“Then we go right?” asked Lucio.

The party agreed.

Scene 4 - Red Herring or Big Battle, Chaos = 5

Setup: They couldn't be sure, but it felt more than once that the tunnel had sloped downwards several times. Indeed, the silence had grown more profound as they proceeded. 

After nearly an hour, and several discussions about turning back, the party found themselves before the mouth of a large cavern. Inside they crept, carefully, their eyes scanning everything within torchlight, hoping there was nothing beyond. The ground was soft red sand that gave slightly with each step. Littered about their feet they saw bits of bone here and there.

Finally, they came to a mountain of skulls piled some 20’ high. Within each skull opals, rubies, garnets, pearls and more filled the otherwise empty eye sockets. Suddenly, the pile rumbled, skulls sliding and tumbling to the sand below and climbing from within, a giant skeleton-like abomination with 6 arms with 2 swords and a spear, and the head of large bull. From no visible means, the beast let out an unholy cry, an obvious challenge to the party.

does this setup hold? 3, altered. is the skull pile an illusion?Exceptional yes.

Altered Setup: They couldn't be sure but it felt more than once that the tunnel had sloped downwards several times. Indeed, the silence had grown more profound as they proceeded.

After nearly an hour, and several discussions about turning back, the party found themselves before the mouth of a large cavern. Inside they crept, carefully, their eyes scanning everything within torchlight, hoping there was nothing beyond. The ground was soft red sand that gave slightly with each step. Littered about their feet they saw bits of bone here and there.

Finally, they came to a mountain of skulls piled some 20’ high. Within each skull opals, rubies, garnets, pearls and more filled the otherwise empty eye sockets. Suddenly, a blood curdling and unholy cry echoed throughout the cavern. To the party’s surprise, charging straight towards them, as if it materialized in front of the skull pile,came a giant skeleton-like abomination with 6 arms with 2 swords and a spear, and the head of large bull.

Check initiative
bone golem attack 1 : 9
bone golem attack 2: 10
bone golem attack 3: 7
Dario: 7
Antonio: 10
Lucio: 5  
Paolo: 13

Paolo took off running - bringing the torch with him Antonio chased after him.
The Golem attacked (1-2 Dario, 3-4 Antonio, 5-6 Lucio) Antonio as he turns to run - 19 Antonio ac is 6 + 8 for golem level, miss
The golem atttacked again - 1-3 dario 4-6 Lucio , Dario. 5+8 =13, roll 15, miss
Dario turned to run, but the golem got in its attack - 1-3 dario 4-6 lucio , lucio. 3+8 = 11, roll 17, miss
Lucio also takes off running too (he only moves 10’ since he's in plate)

Antonio and Paolo made it to the cavern’s exit, Dario is 10’ behind them and Lucio, 10’ behind him, is closest to golem.

Initiative:
Golem1 : 7
Golem2 : 10
Golem 3 : 7
Dario : 10
Antonio: 12
Lucio: 10
Paolo : 15

Paolo made it out of the cavern into the tunnel. The light of his torch now only barely lit the last 20’ of the cavern.  Antonio follows close behind

Lucio/Dario/Golem - 1-3 = Lucio 4-6 = Dario, 4. 5 + 8 = 13, roll = 15, miss. 

Dario just made it out of the cavern, but Lucio still had 10’ to go. and he has to run
passed the golem, which had passed him to attack Dario.

Golem attacks: 3+8 = 11, 15, miss. 1 hit!  spear 1d6, 3 HP damage

Initiative:
Golem 1 3
Golem 2 7
Golem 3 3
Dario 11
Lucio 9
Antonio 16
Paolo 12

Antonio ran to stop Paolo from running further. Dario almost caught them and Lucio made it into the tunnel.

Is the tunnel tall enough for the golem? Unlikely.  33. Yes. Random event, 83, ambiguous event, Adjourn A representative

The golem crashed after the party, but at the tunnel, clearly tall enough to allow it to enter, it stopped, pointed its spear at the party and unleashed a boot-quaking roar, before turning back into the cavern.

[due to the illusion, i decide that this was indeed the red herring, the other tunnel is the one we should have taken]

Scene 5: Big Battle Chaos = 6

Setup: Having returned to the fork in the tunnel, the party ventured towards the source of the breeze. The tunnel plunged them downward and then up and up until finally the found themselves approaching another cavern. 

In the opposite wall, a cave mouth revealed a bright sunlit sky. 12 sarcophagi adorned with the sign of the Iron Crow lay arranged in clock positions around a magic circle inscribed on the ground. The party quickly noted that two of the sarcophagi were open; two ghouls crept from the shadows.

setup stick? 4. No. Interupt. NPC action. Punish the Intellectual

Interrupted scene: Having returned to the fork in the tunnel, the party ventured towards the source of the breeze. The tunnel plunged them downward and then up - In their haste, they failed to detect a pressure plate which triggered a trap door beneath (1-dario 2 - lucio 3 antiono 4 - paolo, 5-6 reroll, 1) Dario; he fell to the bottom of a 10’deep pit. Fortunately, he suffered only minor injury (1HP)

Scene 6 - BIg Battle, Chaos = 7
[I decided to try the same setup again. is it in the spirit of the rules? i’m not sure. I decided I would take out the ghouls and I would try again. The possiblity still exists that the scene will be altered or interrupted, and in fact, it’s a greater chance, since the Chaos Factor increased.]

Setup: Having returned to the fork in the tunnel, the party ventures towards the source of the breeze. The tunnel plunges them downward and then up and up until finally the find themselves approaching another cavern. In the opposite wall, a cave mouth reveals sunlight and sky outside. 12 sarcophagi adorned with the sign of the Iron Raven arranged in clock positions around a magic circle inscribed on the ground. The party found that two of the sarcophagi were open.

Does it stick? 8. Yes!

The party moved carefully to the first open sarcophagus.

[Is anything inside? 50/50 02 exceptional yes.  is it a monster? 50/50 61 yes. I used the a d3 to determine how many hd the monster will have and get 3. I then rolled on the appropriate level table in the Labyrinth Lord rule book ]

As the party peered inside, they were met with the site of a skeleton, buried in what what appears to be wet stone.

[does the grey ooze strike? 1-3 yes, 4-6 no 1]

Without warning, a snake like mass of the stuff strikes out at the party.

Who is closest? 1-2 Dario 3-4 Lucio 5-6 Antonio 7-8 Paolo. 1 Dario.

The grey ooze smashed into Dario (for 15 points of damage.) The force crushed his rib cage and pierced his heart, he died instantly.

Initiative! grey ooze = 10
Lucio = 4
antonio = 11
paolo = 18


Paolo opted to fall back away from the strange creature while Antonio smashes at it with his sword. (1+1= 2 which is well less than the ac of 8). He hits (for 8 points) of damage but the abomination still lives.

it attacks = 1-3 Lucio 4-6 antonio 5, Antonio. Antonio has an ac of 6, the ooze needs 6 + 3 (its level), and gets a 10! miss!
Lucio brought down the power of his battle axe (2+1 is under the 8 needed but does 1 little point of damage); it barely noticed. 

Initiative: ooze = 11
antonio = 16
Lucio = 10

Antonio attacks again. (1+1! hits! again for 8!) The thing ceased movement and begins to immediately dry out and crackle into dust.

The party checked on Dario and realized he was done in. They built a funeral pyre for him, but first they couldn't help checking the other open box.

Is there anything inside? 50/50 20. yes.
is it a monster? 50/50. 90 no.


Inside the other chest, [is it treasure? 01 exceptional yes. is the treasure’s guardian nearby? 50/50 no] and the party finds a bounty inside: 700 sp, 30 gp, 1 gem, 3 pieces of jewlery . They estimate the gem is worth 10 gp, 1 jewlery is 600 gp, 1 jewlery at 800 gp, 1 is 400 gp. A nice haul albeit at the loss of their friend.

Greed set in and they couldn't let the others go unchecked.

Do they find anything else?50/50 78, no.

While Lucio and Antonio explored the mouth of the cave, Paolo began gathering materials for a funeral pyre, although not before helping himself to Dario’s sword.

Scene 7 Twist/Conclusion Chaos = 7

set up: As the flames burn their friend’s body, Lucio and Antonio peer out into the sunlight to find themselves high above a lush green valley surrounded on all sides mountains, with no obvious passage through. The glint of sunlight off a large gold dome atop a brilliant white structure captures their attention. They turn and tell Paolo to hurry with the ropes and spikes.

stay as is? 8. yes!

Infiltrate the Orc Outpost : A MythicGME + Five Room Dungeon Example

So, here's my first attempt at using MythicGME for a dungeon crawl-like experience. Microlite20 provided the character generation, combat, and other game related rules.

I've pretty much just copied my notes, with minor editing, to make it clearer and easier to follow.

****
Scene 1 - Guardian. Chaos = 5


Setup: Orcs have been raiding a small village on the fringe of civilization. The townsfolk are terrified and unable to stop them. They seek out the help of the nearest garrison of the kingdom. Artemis Prime, a scout for the garrison, has been sent to ascertain the orc force strengths. Artemis has tracked the orcs to their lair, an abandoned mining complex in the hills about 3 miles from the village. He sees two rather brutish orcs standing guard at the mine’s entrance.


Modify setup? Roll 1d10. Result: 4. Interupt. PC Negative. Take Enemies. No ideas, roll again. Spy Peace.


Interrupted scene: Orcs have been raiding a small village on the fringe of civilization. The townsfolk are terrified and unable to stop them. They seek out the help of the nearest garrison of the kingdom. Artemis Prime, a scout for the garrison, has been sent to ascertain the orc force strengths. While tracking the orcs to their lair, Artemis hears the tell tale snap of twigs of someone following him.


Is it an orc? 50/50. 24. Yes.


A javelin whistles through the air (roll for Orc to hit, 4 + 3 , miss) but it sails past Artemis.

Artemis quickly scans the forest for his attacker (DC10 - because i don't understand how to assign these yet, Knowledge = +2 + Mind +1, roll 4 +3 = 7, nope.) but is unable to see him.

The orc charges out of his hiding place, spiked club in hand.

Initiative: Orc 16, Artemis 6

The orc closes quickly and swings for Artemis (18+4 = 22 hit. For 9 points of damage! )The rogue staggers, he swings his sword, but blood seeping into his eye makes it difficult to see. (Roll 10, + STR bonus +1 = 11, Orc has AC 13)

Initiative: Orc 11 Artemis 18

Artemis swings again and this time his blade strikes home (13 + 1 = 14. He does 6 HP of damage, the Orc has 3 HP and is struck dead). Artemis quickly examines the body for anything that will help his cause.

Does the orc have anything on him that reveals a way into the orc hideout? Unlikely. 51. No.

Artemis drags the body into an old hollowed out tree trunk to hide it from any of his orc cronies who might be about, and resumes tracking the orcs.

Does it lead to the old mine? 50/50. Yes. 33, random event  PC Negative, Ambush Illness (i rolled 3x to get something that i could interpret)

Artemis follows the trail through the woods and sees that he is approaching an old mine that had been abandoned some time ago.  Unfortunately for him, the wound from the orc’s weapon had become rapidly infected, a sudden fever causes his knees to buckle. (I decide this will be filth fever but faster acting, -2 to dex and -3 to str. it will last 1d3 days. Fortunately, i roll one day).

Unable to continue, Artemis hauls himself up into a tree and lashes himself to the trunk in case he might fall, bathes his wounds, drinks and eats and then passes out


NPCs = village townsfolk, garrison, orcs
Threads = determine orc force strength


Scene 2 -  The Mine Entrance = Chaos 6

Setup: After a rough night and morning, Artemis resumes his task and gets within site of the mine entrance.  Two brutish orcs stand guard. 

(roll 1d10, 10, stands as written)

Artemis needs to take out the orcs before they can raise the alarm and he decides to draw them out - he builds a small fire and quickly disappears into the brush, hoping the orcs will take the bait.

Does one of the orcs investigate the smoke? Likely. 47. Yes.

One of the orcs makes his way into the woods towards the smoke, as he passes by Artemis, Artemis leaps out to plant his sword in the brutes back (subterfuge DC 20, rolled a 12) Unfortunately, as he rose up, a dead branch snapped beneath his foot, alerting the orc to his presence (what goes around comes around!)

Initiative: artemis 14 orc 4

Artemis swings ( 17 + 1 = 18, hits for 4 hp damage) and his sword makes contact, but the orc is still standing .

does the orc shout out for his compatriot? Likely. 3. Extreme yes.

The injured orc bellows something that Artemis does not understand, but judging by the ruckus from the direction of the mine, it isn't good.

The orc swings (3+4 and misses) but is off the mark.

Initiative: artemis 17 orc 1

Artemis has no time for this and swings again( 18 + hits,  for 6 HP) , the sword pierces something vital and the orc is dropped

Has the fire gotten out of control? 50/50 39, yes.

To Aretmis’s surprise the small fire began to spread. The other orc guard was fast approaching and it sounded like he had friends not far behind.

Artemis scrambled for cover - intent to let the orcs pass him by.

DC20  17 , fail.

A javelin whirs through the air, striking him in the shoulder ( 3 hp damage) as he did so . 

"This was a fools errand!" he thought. Had he been setup? 

His heart pounded in his ears as he ran.

initiative: Areimeis : 21 orc 14

is there a creek or river nearby? 50/50 10 yes.

He sprints towards the creek, hoping to lose the orcs there -

Outrun the Orc? contest. Physical + Dex. Artemis = 20 + 4, orc 3+3 = 6.
Artemis is easily able to out distance the orc who will have to resort to tracking in order to find him.

Is Artemis able to get to the creek? 50/50, 37, yes.

After reaching the creek , his movement covered by the sound of the rushing water, he wades in and quickly makes his way downstream towards the village .


NPCs = village townsfolk, garrison, orcs
Threads = determine orc force strength, raging fire in forest, was this a setup?

MythicGME and a Five Room Dungeon Adventure


For awhile now, i've been mulling over how to use MythicGME for a scene based dungeon adventure. The idea was in part inspired by marketing tactics of several games that claim a new school approach with an old school feel. 

In my mind, new school means, at least in part, scenes, not the gritty details of exploration (and probably a lack of resource management as a game mechanism), and the supremacy of the narrative over individual desires e.g. being willing to do something with your character that is to their detriment, but makes the story that much cooler. 

For some time, I could not wrap my head around how to do this with a dungeon crawl. 

I have no doubt it's because I really enjoy crawls, dungeon or otherwise (stating the obvious to regular readers of my blatherings). Why would you NOT want to encounter empty rooms, map your progress and track how many torches you have left?

But, at the same time, it seemed like a scene based dungeon could be fun - a different kind of narrative, especially given the nature of MythicGME.  This would not be a replacement to my usual approach, per The Ever Expanding Dungeon, but rather, something more likely for one-offs.

Still, I could not figure out how I would approach it. For one, I had to let go of the idea that it'd be a crawl in any traditional sense and accept that the map would probably abstract if one existed at all, and the overall approach more cinematic. 

And then, the other day it hit me, borrow the 5-Room Dungeon structure, using MythicGME to fill in the details. Like the 9Q's from SoloNexus, the 5-Room Dungeon provides a structure upon which you can hang ideas that result from randomizers, like Rory's Storycubes or the Subject and Action lists in Mythic.

Excited, I sat down to play on Monday night; I quickly learned that there's a caveat when using MythicGME. 

Mythic being Mythic means that it's possible, like my first attempt, that you can  setup a scene but it might not happen that way (you roll to check to see if there's an interrupt or an altered scene). As you'll see when I post that effort, this completely undermined my intent, although I enjoyed the end results none the less.

If anything, it shows how with Mythic, you can't even railroad yourself!

The mistake I think I made is that my first scene was not yet inside the dungeon. So, I followed that up with a slightly modified approach where I put the party into the dungeon in the first scene. The results were much more in line with what I thought would happen, at least in terms of the structure of the session - content, as always, was news to me based on my interaction with the randomizers.. 

I'll post the session summary of the first attempt tomorrow, as it's basically written, and follow with the 2nd attempt soon after.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Group Decision Making in Solo Games

As I noted in the last write up of The Ever Expanding Dungeon, I tested out a mechanism for handling how the group makes decisions.

My rationale is that, as the only player in charge of 4 or more characters that make up the party, I need someway of making non-obvious decisions account for the individual desires of the various personalities, without sitting there arguing with myself. The latter, for all of the role-playing joy it would give, doesn't really remove my own preference from the equation.

In cases without a clear majority in favor or against an idea, the method I used, which emerged from the comments on this post, was:

  1. Add up the CHR scores of those in favor, i.e. "yes"
  2. Add up the CHR of those not in favor, i.e. "no"
  3. For those that are 50/50 because I just don't know which they'd choose, but I believe they'd side one way or another, roll on the Mythic Fate Chart for 50/50 and then add their CHR to the appropriate side.
  4. For those that are truly 50/50 because the character themselves wouldn't have a preference, ignore their CHR.
  5. Subtract the smaller sum from the larger and the result becomes a modifier on the Mythic Fate roll. Add the value if the difference favors the "no" side, and subtract if favors the "yes."

In play, it's fast and easy to use, but being a typical gamer, I can't help think it could use some tweaking.

Primarily, I'm bothered by the fact that it doesn't really account for the strength of the preference. A "Very Unlikely" and a "Somewhat Likely" have exactly the same weight.

Here's an idea that struck me while riding the train to work this morning. It uses the following chart to modify the base Charisma score:

  • Impossible: Charisma + 5
  • No Way: Charisma + 4
  • Very Unlikely: Charisma + 2
  • Unlikely: Charisma + 1
  • 50/50: Charisma does not get included in the test*
  • Somewhat Likely: Charisma
  • Likely: Charisma + 1
  • Very Likely: Charisma + 2
  • Near Sure Thing:  Charisma + 3
  • Sure Thing: Charisma + 4
  • Has to Be: Charisma + 5

*For those who are 50/50 but I roll for to find out their preference prior to rolling for the group - they are treated as Likely or Unlikely. That's arbitrary, but it seems to work.

Then just follow the steps 1-5 above, but use Charisma + modifier instead of just Charisma to account for the weight of their preference, in addition to their persuasive ability.

Normally, weighting is done with multiplication but with whole numbers, that resulted in some really huge modifiers that didn't seem at all correct. Using fractional weights worked well, but would necessitate the need slowing down to do the multiplication by hand or using a calculator, plus rounding the result (before or after the summation?).

I played with a couple of test scenarios and different CHR values, and simply adding whole numbers is far faster and gives a good result that I can work with.

One final option that I haven't tested:
If the PC is wounded below 50% of HP, then +1 (or +5?) to whatever they would choose. I figure, if someone who is badly wounded wants to continue, or to fight, or to run, or to rest, it seems like the party should give them some additional preference. After all, they're most likely to die if things go wrong.
Of course, this assumes a primarily Lawful or, at least, Neutral, party.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

D&D B/X: The Annwyn Investigations - Session 4

I know that logically this post should be the write-up of the battle described in yesterday's post, but this past Saturday, I ran another session of my D & D b/x / Mythic GME game (I'm hesitant to call it a campaign yet), The Annwyn Investigations and I wanted to jot down my summary. In light of JF's comment on the last entry, I've gone ahead and tried to show where I'm using Mythic using italics and parentheses:


My Saturday Night Table
(Scene 7, Chaos: 9)

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) 

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.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Campaign Week 5 Background

The Setup
Following yet another loss for Sauvignon-Blanc in my imagi-nations campaign, I turned to Mythic to answer a few questions:

Does command replace Baudrillard?
I decide this is very likely but not a sure thing, given the results the last 
time I asked. I get a yes result.

Will the new commander be Bardot?
Bardot has been with Baudrillard since the start and would be the likely choice except that he's also of a defensive nature and Sauvignon-Blanc just can't afford that right now. I figure unlikely and get a no.

Will Bardot also be replaced?
I figure this is likely - out with the old in with the new and all that but I roll a no. Command reasons the men and lizard folk must have some loyalty to Bardot and wouldn't react well to his replacement in light of his not getting the promotion.

Will the new commander be aggressive?
I decide this is a near sure thing and get a yes result.


The Scenario
Lacking a suitable scenario idea for the new commander to get his feet wet, I roll on Mythic's subject and event tables and get "Ambush leadership".

Here's what I came up with:

The new commander, Colonel Guillaume Deauxtrieve, is out with a small force covering the retreat of the remaining Sauvignon-Blanc forces back to the fort at Port Guillaume Le Roy, when he is ambushed by the Riesling avant-garde.

The objective for Sauvignon-Blanc is to escort Deauxtrieve off the table, while for Riesling it's to kill him.


The Forces
As I played Riesling as my own side last time, I opted to play Sauvignon-Blanc this time.

To help guide my decisions for both sides, I used a personality generation system I downloaded from the Yahoo Solo Wargamer's group a few years ago for the individual units and for Deauxtrieve himself. Deauxtrieve, it turns out, is not only aggressive, but seeks to inflict maximum casualties on enemy forces. He may be exactly what Sauvignon-Blanc needs.

As mentioned in my last post, I wanted to do the next campaign game using G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. This would require a reduction in the size of the forces used. I settled on 2 infantry units, 1 hero and 1 vehicle each. A die roll would determine whether a unit was lizard or human.

Sauvignon-Blanc
  • Section 3e, 2e Compagnie- - Deauxtrieve (Leader), Corporal Batonrouge (Veteran), 8 soldats
  • Section 4e, 2e Compagnie - Sergent Jean-Claude (Leader), Corporal Genevieve (Veteran), 8 soldats
  • Walker
  • Tracker-of-Shadow-Ghosts (Lizard hero)

Riesling
  • Zug 23 - Feldwebel Hegel (Leader), Gefreiter Schultz (Veteran), 8 schutzes
  • Zug 24 - Feldwebel Kimmel (Leader), Gefreiter Wilhelm (Veteran), 8 schutzes
  • Steam tractor
  • Ka'raz-sekl-ka-la (Lizard hero)