Goodman Games

Hmmm...that's a tough one. I'm not sure if those would be counted as deaths. If the PCs are unconscious, it's just a coup de grace. I'm not sure how they would have handled that. I'll let the judges chime in on that one...

If you were an alternate, they might have listed those as "dropping below zero" instead of a death....I don't know.

In the 2nd rd, I was running Thorogrim, so I started by scouting out the room. I ran into one of those little bursters but made my save. I got all the way up to the 5' platform at the back when the Dragon made his appearance. He managed to get a breath on all of us the first time he breathed. After that we split up a bit to make sure he couldnt breathe on the whole group again. We finally got him backed into a corner and took him down far enough in hit points that he fled and we were able to move on to the next room.

WHICH SUCKED!! hehe. Those plants ate us for lunch. We got out with no deaths, but we were a big drain on resources. The handaxe of plant bane would have been more helpful if I could ever convince the die to roll higher than a 6 when trying to hit the stupid things.

We got the puzzle to work on the 2nd try and proceeded up the stairs. We only got hit by 1 trap on the stairs. We found the secret door along the stairs which took us to an alchemists room guarded by a goblin riding a Kershar (sp?) and a monkish thing with wands and scrolls. After we mopped up this room and grabbed what we could we ran out of time, about 2 rooms short of the final room per our DM (mouse).

BTW, someone at Goodman may want to go over characters a little better next time. Thorogrim in the 2nd rd had a +8/+8/+3 to hit using handaxe in each hand. The problem is, per the character sheet, those didnt change after he raged, it was still listed as +8/+8/+3. Should have been higher to hit because of the 4 extra strength.

Ha. Too bad you didn't make it to round 3. That sort of debate would have served you well in the Finals. All 3 of those portals were trapped, you had to find a secret door.

Solid thinking. Wrong round.

Did he go in gaseous form or did he actually flee? Did you find his treasure hoard?



What did other groups do to get past the spike growth? We hit it with a dispel (and thankfully it worked fine).

I have just been corrected by another player. He rose up to flee using his wings giving 3 of us AoOs, those were enough to kill it. SO we did defeat him.

We found his treasure hoard and made use of it later.

eleran...I'm telling you...you must have JUST missed on advancing both rounds.

I'll be interested to see the points when they release them.

That makes me feel better actually. I was kind of bitter after we were told by another player how his group solved the orb room to get the crystalline key and they advanced.

We wouldnt have been there for rd 2 if we hadnt gone to the GG booth around 1130, Joe Goodman saw and recognized one of our players and asked if we still wanted to play in rd 2 and that Monte had dropped out. So we hurried over there as quickly as we could.

I think in the future we're going to try collecting contact info from teams so we can notify them about advancement. When I saw that your team was advancing, I got the word to Joseph to keep an eye out for you. We're all lucky that paid off.



Check it out again...he's using Weapon Finesse both times (to his advantage). His attack roll doesn't change, but his damage does, appropriate to the raging.

D'oh!!! You're right, of course. I completely glossed over finesse. Its been too long since i ran a finesse fighter. Sorry for doubting you LOL

And Thanx Adrian for running a great tourney again this year. Thanx to everyone at GG.

I am considering volunteering to GM next year if we dont have enough people going to make a group. So, if you start making a list put my name on it as tentative.

Bah! I recognize a marketing ploy when I see one!

"Hello, is this _____? Sorry you didn't advance, but might I interest you in a new boxed set or a module from our popular DCC line to occupy your time"

Heh, no worries. We didn't catch that druids are NOT proficient with scythes (how is that even possible?) until literally the day before the Player's Pack when online for Palace in the Wastes. Fortunately we had time to make a last-minute change so ol' Kaila was legal.



We're already talking about Year Five Tournament...give me a PM with email addy (I may already have it, but better safe than sorry) and I'll add you to the list. We won't be contacting people about tournament Judging until March/April at earliest, though.



(note to self: think of new marketing ploy...)

That really was an amazing feat...there were only a few teams that managed to best Gazihmon in round 1.



Did the gasbag actually do Con damage? I remember hearing about one team that set off a gasbag with the dwarf rogue, who made his save ONLY because of his racial bonus vs. poison.
I'm telling you, that bonus has saved more than one dwarf in my personal experience.



Daschund-ed!



Oooh...poor gnome. That's a hungry mantis.



That was the final encounter...Iltreus and the Confyning Bell.

Did any round 2 teams actually get into it with the evil satyr and the tornado?



You guys were great sports about that, which was uber-cool.



I'll let the other teams fill you in on that point...there was only one other area, but it was kinda plot-important.

A few more thoughts

I ran the "Glenn Eagles" through round 2 (instead of Monte). They did very well, and were a great group, but I am still kinda bummed that I did not get to run Monte.

Early on, I place my dibbs, and it was decreed that I would get to run Montie in round 2 or 3. I was geeked and ready, only to have him cancel at the last second. Too bad.


The Glen Eagles played quite well. They had pretty bad dice all around, but still made the most of it, and were medium high in the end placement (but still not top 3). The funniest moment for them was the blind cleric. The cleric got blinded and couldn't see. They tied a rope around her and tied it to the ranger. Wathcing her fail to heal people cuz she couldn't roll 50% miss chance was painfull (and funny). People had to spend actions running into her already prepped hand (I got a cure mod sobebody take it!!!)

good times

Mouse

Q&A

Someone asked if the slighty shorter adventure (fewer rooms) was intentional.

Yes it was. That was part of the playtesting thing, to see how likely a group could get to the actual end.

In the past, nobody ever made it more than 1/2 way to the end. This year most groups made it close to the end, or actually to the end. Some groups in round 1 actually finished the round (and suceeded).

So if you like the shorter/more likely to finish adventure- please let Adrian know, so he can try to repeat it next year.

Did anyone get to Ghazimon in the final round?

As for round 3, "Blood of Kings" actually managed to attack Ghazimon (in the final room) with about 30 seconds left on the clock. I think we rolled initiative, then it ended.

After the tounament ended we took a small break, then played it out. OMG.

Do unconcious PC's counts as dead? Especailly in the final room?

I don't think so. I am not truly sure. I think that if everyone was unconcious but not yet dead, the team would be scored for PC<=0 but not dead. If one player is still alive and exploring or fighting, it would be possible for the others to bleed out, or get killed on the ground. (I believe it actually happened to one team after the druid fight)

Thats it

Mouse

No, they don't. We only count heroes as "dead" if they actually die in the course of the round. Even if the entire party were at -9 hp with a Slavering Facehater standing over them when time is called, they only count as being "downed" and not "dead."
This is the flip side of a party having the Foozil at 1 hp when time is called...he's not dead, so you don't get points for taking him out.

it was intentional.

That depends on a lot of factors...did you call uncle and ask to stop after the last one dropped? if so they were likely scored as an unconscious. Some monsters also wouldn't coup de gras. There are motivations and backstory for all the creatures.

Like I said before, my first team had 3 -10 actual deaths and still were an alternate to round 2.

Many teams didn't identify this axe...



Nope, hes using weapon finesse.

We were really glad Joe caught you guys since you had already some over and saw you were an alternate and left.

I think a lot of groups missed a lot of things, but it was designed that way... In round 1 there are 3 entrances, and each group can only see 1. In round 2, there is a pretty important concealed room, a lot of backstory, and a total bad ass boss at the end that I was ITCHING and BURNING to unleash on Clan Yeoman (who drew me for my only round 2). Round 3 has a totally insane last fight which has a wicked fight with a twist. ...and I dont think anyone sorted out the Tarot card angle in round 3 which was super cool. Oh, well, we aren't telling.

When is this baby being published?

I need to get a life,



Actually my round 3 team had it pretty well figured, and they were "tards" when it came to getting clues. They totally had the right idea though.

So even without all the clues the "Gamer Spidey Sense" must have prevailed. To bad it didn't work in the 3 doorway room.

Go Figure

Mouse

Ha! We foiled your plans, by being too slow! Who knew that would prove to be a valuable tournament tactic...



I'm looking forward to seeing this in print.

Why on earth would you do that?! You wouldn't be able to post as often...

Hey there! I played in the group Bastard Sons of Lee Van Cleef; we made it to the 2nd round and were the first alternate for round three. Sadly but unsurprisingly, all three teams showed for the final round.

I was running Rootli; our band also had the aristocrat/monk, the dwarf rogue, and the adept/cleric. Here's a synopsis of how we did:

ROUND ONE

We drew the central entrance with all the wax. Our big mistake was trying to disarm the trap before the stairwell, which failed enough to set off the trap and do significant damage, especially considering the low levels of the characters; we burned our only cure light wounds spell before we left the area!

We didn't have much trouble with the alchemost. The druid with his rat did serious damage though; at the end of that fight, the adept I believe was at -6 and stable, and thanks to consuming the goodberries our rogue was at 0 hit points--he could come with us and offer advice, but couldn't do anything other than move to help us out! My character was still at full health, and the aristocrat was at 3 hp.

Fortunately, we had no problems with the maze or the spheres; it took us about 20-30 minutes to figure out the spheres (with no hints). After finishing those two areas, we quickly figured out the Tarot cards and advanced to the final area.

There we realized we were in way over our heads, and called the game rather than suffer a TPK. At the end we had one PC at 3 hp, one at 0, my character was at -3 hp (reduced from full hit points in one round of full attacks from the baddie), and one stable at -6. Still, no actual PC kills!

ROUND TWO

We rolled ass this entire round, which critically prolonged the second fight and made disabling traps a nightmare. I've never seen so many 4s come up; I HATE that big die!!

We failed our spot checks vs. all the exploding gourds, but with Thoromir leading the way, he made his Fort saves handily, so no lasting damage was done. The dragon battle took a while to complete due to the difficulty of fighting it in and out of the mist, but thanks to having a speedy monk, we were able to keep up with it and take it down.

In the root passage, the shambling mounds went down with little trouble, but taking out the spellcasting mound proved much more time consuming. We opted to simply wait out the spike stones, but first tried a failed attempt to lure it out, which was our biggest tactical error of the round--we should have taken it on when we had it lured most of the way, or simply let the spell duration expire and go after it. We squandered maybe 20-30 minutes of game time on that.

Once the spike stones wore off, we went in and engaged it in a protracted battle that wasn't helped by being incapable of hitting it. Our dwarf, using the plant bane axe, needed a 10 and a 15 to hit, as I recall, and he made one of those rolls maybe one round in three. We tried using aid another a bit, but ended up having characters drop when it turned its attention on them. Fortunately we got a good roll on the wand of ray of enfeeblement (6 Strength total penalty, for -3 to hit/dam per attack), or it likely would have killed some or all of us.

Eventually, however, we managed to put it down, and continued on with maybe 45 minutes left in the round.

We investigated the pillar and made some guesses as to the panel order, but decided not to mess with it (in retrospect, we should have tried out some of our guesses). We started up the ramp; the dwarf repeatedly failed disable device enough to set off the first trap, but made all his saves. We then found the secret door, and entered the area to encounter the goblin on the cat and the monk/fiend guy; however, time was called after the surprise round, before any real combat had occurred.


I'd like to extend my thanks to my fellow players; it was a real pleasure running the group with you guys! Should I make it to GC next year, I'll be more than happy to team up with you again, and this time take home those first place trophies!

PS: While I understood the axe and weapon finesse, I do seem to recall an error elsewhere on one of the sheets--I think a PC had Spell Penetration, which listed as only +1 to overcome SR, when it should be +2. Never came into play, though.