Bitten by a Dog, Time for a new Release

I spent a week on the bigger but quieter Samoan island of Savai'i. Life is very, very relaxed and very contented there. If there was no electricity and no oil, I don't think they would take long to adapt - no coca cola, now that might be a problem! Friendly people, big on family values, lots of churches and too many stray dogs! The first time I have ever been bitten by one...those teeth go in a long way, that's for sure. Fingers crossed, no infection, no rabies. That might help my writing though.

On May 1st, there's a new solo out via DriveThru called 'Deathbed'. It's 28 pages long but there are lots of encounters to be played through so it's not a short stroll through the park. I think there should be plenty of replayabiliy and it has been well play-tested.

I hope you enjoy it if you take a peek between its covers...

Karangahake Mining Disaster

Karangahake Mining Disaster

Player quests: 1) Wants to be the ultimate local hero and destroy the monster lurking in the quarry 2) Searching for a golden urn, supposed to be hidden in one of the mines, which can be filled with the waters from the Owharoa Falls and then, if drunk from, makes the magical effects of those waters permanent 3) Believes his/her beloved sister is a prisoner in a tower and wishes to rescue her 4) His/her brothers were slaughtered the kobold leader, Grutox, and has taken a blood oath to take the kobold’s life

GM’s information to slip out to players:

·         Kobolds have overrun the old Karangahake gold mines, which were worked out some twenty years ago

·         The people of Mackay Town are resentful but not strong enough to drive them out

·         The kobolds have just begun to take townsfolk captive, to work in the mines

·         The mountains are steep and heavily wooded, paths are few and maps unreliable

·         The forest south of the main river is greatly feared because of a huge man-wolf who roams unchecked there; the trees there seem to move, sometimes opening areas up, sometimes closing glades like the noose of a hangman’s rope

·         There are three old mines: Crown, Victory and Woodstock

·         The old wagon tunnel to and from Mackay Town has long been a place of death and is never used  by townsfolk

·         There is an old tower named the Tower of the Blinking Light, which pulses ethereal blue light each night for three hours after midnight; it is supposed to be the tomb of a great elven wizard

·         The quarry is supposed to be home to a monster of fearsome reputation, of unguessable terror and power

·         The waters of the Owharoa Falls are supposed to have magical properties and are guarded by a strange spirit

·         Legend tells that the ancient burial site of Dickey Flat is more than a graveyard

·         A local myth is that the Black Tunnel leads not merely under the Waitawhata River but to the Underworld itself, the home of the spirits of murdered kindreds and monsters alike

·         A heavily armoured riverboat travels irregularly up and down the Ohinemuri River, captained by a savage Hill Giant

Karangahake Mines Adventure - Today's new game

Will post background notes next time -

Here's the map...

Those Two Games and How They Were Set Up

This what I did and why.

Game One (four new players, three experienced) – I came up with  a setting in which all the players were the seventeen year old sons or daughters of a minor noble, whose fathers were attending the annual pre-harvest dinner at the feudal lord’s castle. I drew a map with the castle in the centre, ringed by the barons’ seven forts, with mountains to the north and east, sea to the west and south. Each baron specialised in a farm animal – the Pig Lord, the Duck Lord and so on.

Each player was woken at 3am to something (a demon) trying to get into their room with these forts under attack by giant spiders. The faithful retainers of their fathers and their bodyguards helped if necessary. They had to fight off the demon and leap out of a first floor window and get away. This meant I had to revolve through seven separate scenes. I did not want anyone to be characterless and  had to have one retainer give two powerful healing potions as the poor Chicken Lord’s son got himself pasted by the demon and then impaled himself on the railings when he leapt for safety.

The Horse Lord’s son decided to retrieve his horse from the besieged stables, which drew matters out a bit but thrilled the player; some of the players were magic-users and had fun with throwing spells (I kept them to a very short list of Oh Go Away, TTYF and Hold That Pose).

When they got out of the forts, they saw that the Harvest Lord’s castle was encircled by a vicious army of knights in black armour so they soon gave up on trying to break in to the besieged castle. Then a message exploded in the sky above, shot from a catapult within the castle, saying ‘Kill Witch Wirimu’ – I had marked the stronghold of this not seen for many a moon witch and this is where they journey to, which is how I got them all together and they had a ‘dungeon’ experience.

The game was clearly enjoyed by all the players although for one of the experienced ones it was too slow at the start even though I whirled about like a tornado.

We started at 3.15 rolling up characters and finished at 5.50, ten minutes before home time with Witch Wirimu killed and the Harvest Lord’s castle no longer under siege. The Pig Lord’s boy was, sadly, killed by the other players, after he leapt down a shaft on top of his mates. Fair enough, say I.

Game 2 –

I should say that I made all players rogues to introduce magic a little (I don’t like starting without it but there are just too many L1 spells in 7.5) – I gave them one spell guaranteed and then they got a second spell if they made a L1 SR on INT and three spells if they made a L2 SR; I stuck to the 5.5 spells plus Hold That Pose for their choices.

Charlie suggested we use Ken’s ‘Naked Doom’ so that is what we did. He was delighted when I told him that he would play a crazed, blind and doddering wizard, Khaghtch’an (whom the Kraken continent is named after) on the premise that he had been cursed to require a roll of 8 or better to cast any spell; we agreed that he was of the same ilk as the Liche-Lord in Andy Holmes’ recent release and the notion of being able to cast ‘Summoning’ lit him up.

I drew a quick map from Ken’s text and then we were away with the character creation, which was quite quick as there was no need to think of weapons and armour. I had each player think of why they had been put in prison beneath the city of Khaboom and these tales wove themselves into the game as we went along. One had failed to get to the Mayor’s residence so instead had blown up his greenhouse and destroyed his prize cucumbers, another had been caught selling wormy apples to a chidren’s home and the third had got in a bar fight with a popular uruk and bitten his rival’s little finger off – we played out the court scene here and the player duly blew the CHR saving roll in his appeal to the judge.

There were just too many villains in the Rogues Gallery Prison and so anyone one who wanted to, in groups of three, was allowed to take the ‘All of Nothing’ run for freedom and a job in the City Watch. The players all went for it but were less thrilled when the each had to put on a redstone ring which meant that if one died down there, the others would too.

I really didn’t want one player having to drop out early on, nor did I want them to have to take over a NPC down in the dungeon, and I certainly didn’t want them to feel that they were unlikely to die.

They soon blundered in to the old fool wizard (well, they were in the darkness) after the guards had seen them off with the traditional arrow shots, even though one cleverly attempted to bribe a guard with a cure for his bunnions if he slipped them a weapon (he refused but deliberately fired high unlike his colleague).

The mad wizard was a wild card but did not dominate; the players laughed but generally were on the edge of their seats with the sense of lurking death. I added to ken’s text to stimulate play and nothing was too easy for the new players, even though two greatly benefitted from trying for the Hero and Hopeless swords.

They did not get out but all still live, even if one has nasty burns to the face; they all want to know when they can resume. One is an artist and might start drawing for me J

Game Settings for New Players - What Would You Do?

I had the pleasure of GM T&T games on Friday and Saturday and both games had players brand new to T&T. The first game had 3 players who had played before and 4 who had never had the pleasure - all were in the age range 12-15. The second game had one experienced player and three never-before players - the new players ages were 16, 23 and 45.

What would you have done for game setting/parameters? Even if you don't have the opportunity to GM T&T, its an interesting question!

Both games worked well and everyone is keen to play again so I didn't stuff it up. There was a fair bit to consider to make it all work though. I wrote nothing down in advance but for both games I thought out parameters I believed would work and then a setting that would fit.

Answers on a postcard please...

Trollgod v Kraken

Steve Crompton is making the map of Khaghtch'an, the Kraken continent, into a work of art - I think completion is near :)

In the meantime, take a look at one of the most epic all-time Trollworld battles and estimate how many dice the Trollgod's weapon got and the MR of his adversary (a wizard-god having cast the Mutandum Mutandis spell because kraken's very sensibly eat frawgs for breakfast).

What Would You Save If a Rampaging Troll Came to Your House?

I guess it would be this little piece of Liz Danforth magic:

A Must for Deluxe T&T

In the beginning there were...

...attribute rolls.

No problem if you are human. But elves, dwarves,leprechauns and other modified kindreds?

To round up or not to round up, that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the dice to suffer the outrageous arrows of rounding down...

Two schools of though have existed, the Grand Master once told me. Which shall prevail now?

I shall pin my flag to the mast.

Round up and be damned, say I!