Goodman Games

Seven sessions and counting. Down one player (paladin/ranger could not make it).

Finished searching the Goblin lair. PCs picked up some nice change and a magic item (Ewer of Healing- (20) d6 healing).

They marched back to town w/the goblin's surviving prisoners. When they got back to town, they noticed a hole in the protective wall. Two PCs moved ahead to investigate while the 3rd hung back to protect the people they were escorting. Looked like the ground had opened up under the wall, thus destroying it. They found that magic had to do with it. The PCs also found out that the Inn's stables had been emptied right after the "Earthquake" took the wall down (PCs lost a horse and a mule, The 3rd PC's horse was at the temple).

After resting for the night they decided to head out to find the Druid outside of town to see if she knew anything. They followed a trail for some time but were then attacked by a swarm of yellow jackets. After moving away the swarm dissipated. They searched the area and were able to detect magic use but were unable to find a conjurer. They continued forward and eventually ran into a wild boar. The Paladin/Knight killed him w/his Bow before it reached the party. As they dressed and cleaned the boar, Its mate managed to take them by surprise. She smacked the paladin/ranger aside and merely glanced off the armor of the others. When she turned to charge again the Mystic Warrior killed her w/one slice. They then dressed and cleaned both animals and dragged the meat back to town. They offered it to one and all for a feast the following night.

They stayed the night and moved back out the next morning down the road this time still looking for the Druid (One of the PCs received a tip that the Goblins had been told about the existence of the lair that they inhabited by someone in the town). They traveled half a day w/ nothing happening. The PCs then decided to ask at the local farms for any disturbances in the area. None were reported so they moved back towards town stopping at each farm/hovel/woodcutters' house to see were the trouble started.

They had to spend the night in a farmers barn. They found that the complaints were localized right around the town only in that direction. When they returned to town, they found that one of the guard towers on the south side of town was now a hole in the ground and that the boar's meat they had brought in for the feast was all rotted and maggot filled(No feast!). They investigated and found that magic had been used in both areas. They then went to sleep for the night.

That was the session. Should be interesting to see what the players make of all this.

Questions arose around the spell Conjure Swarm. Here is the text:

"This spell conjures a hoard of large stinging insects. Each insect has Potential-Harm of 1, with no more than a single hit point each, and zero resilience. The creatures’ initiative rank is as one group, equal to the caster’s Specialization in the spell’s power source, or Mastery in the related Summoner school (whether Mystic, Supernatural, Primordial, or Psychogenic), whichever is higher. Controlling a summoned host requires no additional ability checks, but maintaining the spell requires a maintenance cost of ½ initial casting each round."

Problems were: Its a conjure spell that summons creatures that do damage. How much does it do per round? How many insects in a "swarm"? If its a swarm then it should be what 50 to 100 insects at least? But if you do that it has the potential to do 50 to 100 Po-Harm. If you allow armor and they all attack individually then they will never penetrate. If you use the casting roll for the number of insects then a low roll casting could end up w/2 to 3 insects in your "swarm"? Ruled that the casting roll would be the amount of Po-Harm per round (As per a harm spell)and that the PCs could use Dodge(Area spell), then armor, then resilience (Poison from stings) and then toughness. It worked pretty well. Maybe should have dropped resilience though since technically the harm was the insects not the magic. Any thoughts?

I would go with what you did--the number of bites/round = value of casting roll (there could be hundreds of actual insects, but only some of them actually bite in a given round). Because it is an area spell, Dodge would apply. But I would not let armor reduce the Harm damage (the swarm can get underneath the armor). The bites are Po-Harm, so they would affect Resilience, then Toughness. Now if these were especially nasty insects, and had a poison bite, then you could say that they cause Harm AND are poisonous. But that would be a multi-effect spell (with a multi-effect spell cost).

From page 44 of the core rules:

The number of creatures summoned is equal to the result of the ability check, and each creature’s Potential-Harm is 1, with no more than a single hit point each, and zero resilience. Base the Spell Cost for this effect on an Area range, so is equal to MRV of the Ability Branch. The creatures’ initiative rank is as one group, equal to the caster’s Specialization in the spell’s power source, or Mastery in the related Summoner school (whether Mystic, Supernatural, Primordial, or Psychogenic), whichever is higher. Host creatures are always instinct driven, able to follow simple commands, but never possessing real intelligence or significant equipment (although it doesn’t matter how their Potential-Harm is described, just don’t add any specific weapon bonuses). Controlling a summoned host requires no additional ability checks, but maintaining the spell requires a maintenance cost of ½ initial casting each round.

This all makes sense. Since it's a type of summoning spell, the creatures often bypass Resilience, unless reducing the effect of poisonous stings.

Yeah. My only problem was that I rolled a total of 6 which meant this swarm of insects was comprised of six little yellow jackets...Not really a swarm is it...At least to my mind it wasn't so that is why I modified it in the above case.

Why is this? Do summoned creatures bypass Resilience? (I must admit that I haven't read the summoning section--I don't generally have many summoner-types in my games).

I think its because the spell is the magic, what it summons is natural.

Yep! Summoned creatures bypass RS.

And for a swarm, I'd multiply the number encountered without increasing the damage, just for the sake of description.

Is there a page number for this? Thanks.

No, because I took it as a given based on precedent (admittedly, I assumed it). Now that you mention it, I'll make it official and add it to the revision. Summoned creatures do not affect Resilience with regular physical attacks, unless with magic attacks, or unusual forms of damage potential.

That makes sense.

What level is your average character now? Are they happy with the advancement and their increase in ability?

They are all lvl 2 currently. They haven't complained to me about advancement yet.

Wow. Sounds like they got more than they needed in VPs...are you converting excess VPs to role-playing points?

Of course. Its what got them the lvl.