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Sixth session experience....

Posted: Sun Oct 05, 2008 7:53 pm
by StormPatriarch
6 sessions and counting. All players present.

PCs in town for 2 days healing up, replenishing arrows, Paladin/Ranger kept the Goblin Kings Greatax and got it repaired at the local smithy. Now its back to a +4 Po-Harm. PCs level to second, Only the paladin/knight actually got his spell (Temple of Danu in this small town). The others will have to wait until they find temples/priests of their type to get theirs (though they did pick them).

They decide to return to the Goblin complex and clean out any remaining Gobs. They make little attempt to use stealth since they believed that the Gobs would have run or that they had been all but decimated. They did spot tracks belonging to a booted creature at the entrance and another set of boot prints further in. They still decided that stealth was not the way to go (They have 1d4s and 1d6s I believe). They ended up running into 6 humans who attacked them on sight(actually had set an ambush for the PCs when they heard them coming). These were very low lvl thugs so the party ran right over them (One of the PCs did offer them the chance to surrender but the thugs were so drugged out that they didn't bother to respond). They knocked one out instead of killing him(My description of a glazed look in the fodder's eyes lead them to believe that they were being magically controlled...It was the drugs actually which they figured out after the this next bit). They then hid and healed the guy to see what he would do. He woke up and tried to leave. The party then put him down again. They tied him up and searched the bodies more thoroughly, finding what amounted to track marks and such. Realizing the mistake about the magic control, they then killed the remaining man.

They found a door and a hallway blocked recently(good scrutinize checks) by rubble. They decide to clear the door enough to squeeze in. Five gobs and 5 gob females are in this room which is the kitchen. The females run, while the 5 gobs attempt to cover them. The PCs quickly put the 5 gobs down and give chase. They track the 5 females to another door which leads to a temple to the Gob's god. They further track the females to a door in the side wall leading to the Goblin King's bed room. When they bust down the door, the High Shaman hits them w/a fireball. Two PCs take it on their dodge ADP while the 3rd was out of range. 5 Gobs launch a ranged attack at the first PC, who takes it all on pools and then closes w/ the shaman. Second PC closes w/ the 5 gobs that launched the ranged att. The third PC (Who had his bow out) shifts to take a shot on the high shaman. The high shaman and 3 of the gobs go down in the first PC round. The last 2 fall in second.

The PCs then continue to check out the area, eventually running into 2 more gobs in a remote guard post in the cell block area (which they obliterate easily). They find some prisoners and find several hidden areas after much searching.

We ended at this point, treasure and such will be assigned next session. No VPs awarded since they really didn't face a threat. It remains to be seen if the goblins were the sole cause of the trouble in this area of course. :wink:

All in all a good fun session. One slight delay to look up Unarmed vs armed rules. Used my suggested rules on subdue which worked fine. Players definitely seem to like the multiple ways to mitigate Po-Harm. They def make it more easy visualize the combat and help draw the players into describing what the character did.

One question was whether a cantrip spell actually takes a character's action for the round. I thought about it and one of the PCs read through the entry on cantrips, We left it that it would push back his att a phase for now but I would like commentary from others on what they think about it( hint hint: Dancross too?? :lol: ). The paladin/knight wanted to cast the cantrip light spell on an arrow and fire it in the same round into the dark area that the arrows had just come out of.

Edit: PS. Forgot to add that the next weekend is an off week so no session post till the week after.

Re: Sixth session experience....

Posted: Mon Oct 06, 2008 3:55 am
by Hyfaidd
In Runequest, we call the light spell on an arrow a Flare. We used it to light an area. You have to target a surface for the light spell, and since you can't see any thing over there you have to send the light. Thus the habit of flaring an ambush :) (I played/ran Runequest for 20 years :P)

The choice of pool to take really does make the combats visualize/play nicely. The image of someone dodging this one, and parrying that one adds the "color" of the play.

Re: Sixth session experience....

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 4:22 am
by dancross
StormPatriarch wrote:6 sessions and counting. All players present.

PCs in town for 2 days healing up, replenishing arrows, Paladin/Ranger kept the Goblin Kings Greatax and got it repaired at the local smithy. Now its back to a +4 Po-Harm. PCs level to second, Only the paladin/knight actually got his spell (Temple of Danu in this small town). The others will have to wait until they find temples/priests of their type to get theirs (though they did pick them).

They decide to return to the Goblin complex and clean out any remaining Gobs. They make little attempt to use stealth since they believed that the Gobs would have run or that they had been all but decimated. They did spot tracks belonging to a booted creature at the entrance and another set of boot prints further in. They still decided that stealth was not the way to go (They have 1d4s and 1d6s I believe). They ended up running into 6 humans who attacked them on sight(actually had set an ambush for the PCs when they heard them coming). These were very low lvl thugs so the party ran right over them (One of the PCs did offer them the chance to surrender but the thugs were so drugged out that they didn't bother to respond). They knocked one out instead of killing him(My description of a glazed look in the fodder's eyes lead them to believe that they were being magically controlled...It was the drugs actually which they figured out after the this next bit). They then hid and healed the guy to see what he would do. He woke up and tried to leave. The party then put him down again. They tied him up and searched the bodies more thoroughly, finding what amounted to track marks and such. Realizing the mistake about the magic control, they then killed the remaining man.

They found a door and a hallway blocked recently(good scrutinize checks) by rubble. They decide to clear the door enough to squeeze in. Five gobs and 5 gob females are in this room which is the kitchen. The females run, while the 5 gobs attempt to cover them. The PCs quickly put the 5 gobs down and give chase. They track the 5 females to another door which leads to a temple to the Gob's god. They further track the females to a door in the side wall leading to the Goblin King's bed room. When they bust down the door, the High Shaman hits them w/a fireball. Two PCs take it on their dodge ADP while the 3rd was out of range. 5 Gobs launch a ranged attack at the first PC, who takes it all on pools and then closes w/ the shaman. Second PC closes w/ the 5 gobs that launched the ranged att. The third PC (Who had his bow out) shifts to take a shot on the high shaman. The high shaman and 3 of the gobs go down in the first PC round. The last 2 fall in second.

The PCs then continue to check out the area, eventually running into 2 more gobs in a remote guard post in the cell block area (which they obliterate easily). They find some prisoners and find several hidden areas after much searching.

We ended at this point, treasure and such will be assigned next session. No VPs awarded since they really didn't face a threat. It remains to be seen if the goblins were the sole cause of the trouble in this area of course. :wink:

All in all a good fun session. One slight delay to look up Unarmed vs armed rules. Used my suggested rules on subdue which worked fine. Players definitely seem to like the multiple ways to mitigate Po-Harm. They def make it more easy visualize the combat and help draw the players into describing what the character did.

One question was whether a cantrip spell actually takes a character's action for the round. I thought about it and one of the PCs read through the entry on cantrips, We left it that it would push back his att a phase for now but I would like commentary from others on what they think about it( hint hint: Dancross too?? :lol: ). The paladin/knight wanted to cast the cantrip light spell on an arrow and fire it in the same round into the dark area that the arrows had just come out of.
Hmmm...I had cantrips down as a "full action", but I can see the fun of what the Paladin did. So, I'd allow it but disallow split-attacks in the same round, and have the action take place over two phases of the round.

Could you re-post those subdual rules here?

Re: Sixth session experience....

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 4:56 am
by dancross
Hyfaidd wrote:In Runequest, we call the light spell on an arrow a Flare. We used it to light an area. You have to target a surface for the light spell, and since you can't see any thing over there you have to send the light. Thus the habit of flaring an ambush :) (I played/ran Runequest for 20 years :P)

The choice of pool to take really does make the combats visualize/play nicely. The image of someone dodging this one, and parrying that one adds the "color" of the play.
So, how do you like Eldritch vs. Runequest?

...I know, now I'm asking for it... :lol:

Re: Sixth session experience....

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:21 am
by StormPatriarch
dancross wrote:
StormPatriarch wrote:One question was whether a cantrip spell actually takes a character's action for the round. I thought about it and one of the PCs read through the entry on cantrips, We left it that it would push back his att a phase for now but I would like commentary from others on what they think about it( hint hint: Dancross too?? :lol: ). The paladin/knight wanted to cast the cantrip light spell on an arrow and fire it in the same round into the dark area that the arrows had just come out of.
Hmmm...I had cantrips down as a "full action", but I can see the fun of what the Paladin did. So, I'd allow it but disallow split-attacks in the same round, and have the action take place over two phases of the round.

Could you re-post those subdual rules here?
Thank you for the comments on it.

"I would have the characters roll everything normally but divided by half. If the toughness/HP is exceeded tell them it is knocked out. They are choosing to hold back their hits after all. Descriptive choice of hitting w/the flats of the blade or something. Maybe not allow bows unless they specifically say they have blunted arrows." The divide by half was put in for the fact that it is easier to try to kill then knock out w/out killing. I also thought that if the HP/Toughness of the target was exceeded by more than the resistance+ endurance score than the victim dies anyway. Not sure how to work that for critters that just have HP. Maybe more than the base die that make up a critters HP. So a gob would have up to a -6.... not sure...

Re: Sixth session experience....

Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2008 1:04 pm
by Hyfaidd
Comparing Runequest and Eldritch would not be fair, Runequest comes with a rich world and everyone uses any skill and has magic. It was the first classless/levelless game. But as a mechanics comparison? RQ battle have that attack roll, parry roll, damage roll, location roll. ERP has roll PH distribute to pools. A battle can take all night in RQ, rarely boring though what with all that crit and special effect/spell stuff going on. ERP battles are quickly done, allowing more time for oh roleplaying :)
In RQ we would never have finished the battles, we would still be in the 3-4 session waiting.
But there would be much more detail on what happened.

Players liked the detail of RQ and would like the speed of ERP, same players even. But RQ/Gloranthra has had YEARS to build up source material.