Showing posts with label Playtest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Playtest. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
A&A Playtest 2.1: In Search of the Golden Bones
Long ago lived a pirate who amassed a huge amount of gold booty; so much that anyone would turn mutinous for just a sliver of that treasure trove; old golden beard Fry did the only logical thing. He had a bunch of rogue alchemists replace his entire bone structure with pure gold. Well, at least he lived a long and fulfilling life up till that point. That's what Action Hank told the party and that's what they set off to find.
Sunday, April 19, 2015
A&A Playtest 2.0: A Storm at Sea
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| Storm in the Sea by Pieter Mulier the II |
As my layout editor and I are reviewing and revising the Book of Wind I figure it would be a good time to put it through it's paces. A large number of mechanics in the Book of Wind were not incorporated into the last major playtest as they create a very different setting and exploration cycle. It also gave us a chance to try out the Grinder method where each player makes three characters sharing the same archetype and attribute off the bat, splitting their equipment, gear and relics between them; this way the GM doesn't have to feel too bad when slaughters a few PC's early on and reminds the players of the lethality of the system. For last nights game we had:
Monday, August 4, 2014
Avatar's & Annihilation Playtest: Last time on Team Murder Hobo
The Last Dozen or so Sessions Log
After discovering the location of the initial crash site, a comet landing 100 years ago the team headed back; sold all their fancy space junk for a tidy profit and were bankrolled by Lord Theodore Rodrick the Third. Unfortunately, a friend of Youjiro the Silent learned the Murder Hobos was behind Yoh's death, and a firebombing commenced. Witness pooled out of the woodwork burning the Murder Hobos and Rodrick had them spirited away, where they sought tutelage under some local folk heroes in the mega inn to the south.
There they contended with an invisible stalker murdering their mentors, a pack of vampires that came in and started dining on the common room. The party followed the trail of local legend Frog God, found the innkeepers store room; a treasure trove from his adventuring days and set off with the new player Neres the Pirate. Their destination: The Great Glacier, an icy anomaly in the middle of the tropics; if the notes are correct the first crash site is here. The alien inhabiting Jingle's the Outlaw Dancer's head is dead set on discovering if the one who landed a hundred years ago is still alive.
The party made their way across the icy wastes encountering a white Rakshasa they traded stories with for ancient magic, an ice eidolon corrupted and undead that nearly killed Pemba the Talented Juggler with his Coldfire reaver and a Wooly Tyrannosaurus hunting down a dapper and opulent land walrus who they vowed to rob later. Along the way they stopped at the sulfurous springs, picked up new players: mini-Gojira, daughter of the rimescale dragon and Bronan the Brobarian and set off for the crystalline forest the original crash site.
Inside they dealt with crystal soldiers, bear riders, polar wurms and their volcanic cores, phantom wolves from the Wolf Kings pack, and Nodens the Elder god. Nodens refused to let them down to the depths of the forest and rather than murder him in typical fashion they decided to curry his favor. They were sent to hunt down Ithaqua and his Shantaks.
The GM forgot the level of the party and they laid waste to the poor, poor Shantaks as the reclaimed Coldfire Reaver left them as giant frozen blocks of ice, peppered with arrows. Tiamult, Doc Brown impersonator and Ghost of the Frozen Flame used Clef's Proven Dreamwalker Dweomer to bring himself and Neres the water wizard into the dreamscape of Ithaqua.
There they witnessed the creation of the Glacier, the falling purple star and Ithaqua witnessing it all. The perversion of the star warped Ithaqua, instead of a god he now feasted on his people and thus the curse of the Wendigo was born. Neres and Tiamult used their iron wills and control over earth and water to contend with Ithaqua but he proved too powerful. Neres went underwater and tunneled to the crash site to find the fallen star, inside he found a glowing tree. Touching it his vision went white hot and he disappeared.
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| Ithaqua by Quest007 |
Tiamult played a game of cat and mouse with Ithaqua, using the last of his Intrepid to rip off Ithaquas arms and taken them as his own. While his power grew, so did Ithaqua's control over him, until finally looking in the water's reflection he saw Ithaqua's visage and not his own.
"Ithaqua you are no more!"
And neither was Tiamult. The old man that traveled through time and dimensions was undone, his existence wiped clean from history. In the real world Ithaqua burned into a star, in it's place was a tiny crystal. Fred the Warper of Madness who acquired a Shantak mount touched it with the Coldfire Reaver which was transformed into Shatterstar. The crystal transformed into a glowing tree and from that emerged Neres glowing gold, thoughtless he was merely the corporeal form of the alien that fell a 100 years ago. The alien inside Jingle informed them they must reunite the echo with the original. Off the party goes to complete their mission.
Final Session report up next.
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Avatar's & Annihilation Playtest: The Gears are in Motion. (Team Good Samaritans)
Conclusion of tonight's game
Kara the Jade Revenant fused with the "Beast" an embodiment of chaos as a promise of power.
Marshall Orvar was mangled by the now berserk Kara.
Shepherd Ashaw tried to separate the two using Stormbringer
The sudden crack of wind severed the arms of both Kara and Orvar
Kara fused with Orvar's arm and the return of humanity also returned her sanity.
Kara applied her old stony arm to Orvar who is now being slowly eaten alive by alien crystal.
The party is now traveling to the center of the world to kill Lavos.
Friday, June 6, 2014
A&A Playtest Comet Dungeon 1.1 Initial Descent
Both groups, despite locating and scouting multiple entrances formed by the remaining fragments of the comet (spikes) that struck eventually ended up going through the front. Since both teams hit a lot of the same content and made a lot of similar choices I'll be talking room layout and the highlights of each team.
Dungeon Entrance
Is blocked by a fallen log, further down the path is a way to drop down where the Comet Spike punctured
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
A&A Playtest: Comet Dungeon 1.0
Comet Dungeon
Behind the Scenes
Now that both teams have completed the Comet Dungeon I can talk about the design of it. As you may have noticed there is a lot of scribbled information on what originally started out as a turbine diagram with some op-amps thrown in. The dungeon began with the final room and then moving back and filling out the rest for what would fit the theme.The Massive Hexagon.
An old wizard had chained and bound an archdemon in this dungeon using a combination of magic and artifice. The binding left him immune to harm and unable to physically harm anyone else. Unfortunately for him like any good demon he worked a loophole into the binding that prevented anyone else from leaving the dungeon so long as ye olde archdemon was trapped there. As a result all the living inhabitants were trapped there and the Wizards constant struggling with the confines of the spell eventually caused a combusting scroll that was his demise.Before the Comet Impact this dungeon was hidden away and completely undisturbed before it tore four holes into the dungeon. In addition to the three entrances to the dungeon (trapped front door, gelatinous cube chute, and lab entrance) there would be four more entrances to deposit them in the middle of the dungeon thanks to the comet shards. The caveat of course is that the comet left plenty of space goop behind that loves to bind itself to metal. Thankfully, each Team had someone who selected Piece of Ancient Tech: Hoverboard as a Relic so they could scout out these entrances.
Drop zone number one was in the Chimera room where undead servants, dipped in silver to prolong their wear and tear tended to the cages. Some of them however were hit by space goo and act kinda crazy. The second drop zone is an actual triangular shard of the comet, each side is covered in a lesser spell [Dyne's Runaway Force, Mime's Imprisonment, and Telepathy (PSI)]; it is blocking a T intersection. The shard is razor sharp and and rope spelunking down carries a 2/6 chance of slicing the rope and stranding them on one side of the T intersection. Not only that but the goo-less path to the hole crosses over the hidden pit that drops straight into a Gelatinous Cube chamber. The next hole is into a room with a single visible exit and a bunch of space goo that has completely covered a hammersmith automaton.
The biggest comet entrance was in the Demon's chamber, thirty feet of goo was around the massive hole so only the most ambitious would go storming in there. The melting comet destroyed half of the bindings on the Demon giving him some autonomy, but still leaving him 50% invulnerable. The Demon will telepathically call any that make it North of the blocked T intersection or who approach his room from the west. Likewise, the comet site left a large black pyramid covered in potent Chronomancy spells near the demon. Inside the pyramid is a dying alien who beseeches any who listen to enter the pyramid so they can enter into an agreement where he uses their body as a vessel (Introduction to the Avatar System). Only those that have witnessed the non-euclidean geometry from the comet touchdown, from the dead wizards journal, or simply experiencing portal madness are susceptible to the aliens call.
The guildmaster Youjiro the Silent waits patiently in the Wizards false bedchamber ignoring the petulant demon and keeping an eye on the pyramid. Also an Avatar, but his spirit comes from an ancestral magic sword rather than a space invader, he will attempt to slay any who emerge from the pyramid. The stage is set, in the next post I'll tackle how the rest of the dungeon came to be.
Monday, April 7, 2014
Avatar's & Annihilation Playtest: The Forest of Plenty 1.1
Nicknamed on account of the bountiful wild game, brightly plumed birds, rare mushrooms and truffles.
The truffles of course attracted POrks (Pig Orks) which the local farmers are happy to be rid of.
Should be a cake walk.
S. Wift's boss, Reginald MacReynard gives him another special delivery. A few gallons of honey directly to the UpBears known to wander those woods.
Tells him to sign up with one of the new explorer's guilds and watch out for the four existing leaders.
Conveniently the The OtherWorldly (TOW) Company ordered takeout prior to leaving at dawn.
Stanley joins their group.
The party sets off, close on the heels of Youjiro the Silent and Loose Legs ConBa and well ahead of Archibald the Luxurious and Anaheim the Industrious.
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Avatars & Annihilation Playtest: Chasing the Comet Introduction
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| Cancun, August 13, 2010 |
Sunday was the first exceptionally large (7 of 9 players showed) playtest. As you can imagine we had a blast. As you can imagine, herding seven cats left me particularly drained. Teaching a new system and being a rulebook, monster manual, arbiter and referee certainly compounded that. At the end of the day I've decided to split the party into groups with two distinct playstyles: Murder Hobos and Good Samaritans. They will operate in the same world but with diverging timelines after encountering Eien, the great grey cat unstuck from time.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Playtest Report: Magical Miscreants & The Curse of the Elf Whisper Part 3
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| Artwork from Dungeon Adventure Elf Whisper |
We returned for the final segment of the adventure as the PC's were conversing with the Three Elven Sisters of Illumenine. Not quite trusting what they were up to or believing that Illumenine was the one responsible for Ygwannach the following happened:
Lance: "I cast Damning Silence after her last statement."
DM: "The sisters glare at you but make no noise."
Aldehyde: "Hell with this I think we found the real culprits. Blood for the Blood God!"
DM: "Your surprise attack (and subsequent critical) nearly slays one of the sisters.
Completely aghast the illusion on the other two fades away, the bodies of elder hags are revealed misshapen and foul, their mouths are frozen in agony but no sound yet escapes. Between them they clutch a giant glass eye that seems to resonate with Lances Amulet."
Aldehyde: "If I play a Beholder will I find them beautiful?"
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Playtest Report: Magical Miscreants & The Curse of the Elf Whisper Part 2
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| by David McClellan |
Party returns to town and with their downtime level-up.
Acquire/rediscover some new spells, and experiment with a new school of magic.
Level-up took 10 minutes, mostly spell selection.
Acquire/rediscover some new spells, and experiment with a new school of magic.
Level-up took 10 minutes, mostly spell selection.
Keith Zone hauls Mario Navarro to the authorities, will return soon.
Water Wizards recover very quickly compared to ordinary mortals.
Party returns to bog.
Encounter Morgo the Hillgiant guarding his three elven brides in the mud-bungalow.
Regret leaving behind Keith Zone, he would smoothly deal with this situation.
Lance notices Morgo's weird eye amulet, chooses not to vaporize it in the pursuit of science.
Morgo hurls boulders at party
Party avoids being squished.
Aldehyde casts Chiseled Champion on Morgo's next boulder. Rolls out of his hands and clunks him over the top of the head.
Party takes advantage of Morgo's vision clouded by canaries.
Morgo tramples party, Lance chooses to get out of the way. Aldehyde goes for the gold and cuts him down while getting stomped on.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Playtest Report: Magical Miscreants & The Curse of the Elf Whisper
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| Princess Mononoke |
Party of traveling Wizards including one drunken monk and one battle mage approach sleepy town in pursuit of known bandit Mario Navarro. 500GP reward, will let them live the high life for a long time.
Sleepy town not so sleepy. Probably cursed. Local bard is crazy and crying constantly at the bar.
Drinks ruined by tears party decides to end the curse, first step investigate all these Elf Ghosts Song and Dance the bard won't stop blubbering about.
Find Keith Zone, local bounty hunter and woodsman.
Finding him so smooth the party cannot help but recruit him. Kick crazy Bard out of party.
Bard invisibly follows party. Party not perceptive enough to notice constant invisible weeping.
Party ambushed by Navarro's bandits.
Party remember bounty notice. Party out for weregild.
New Ranged combat proceeds smoothly. Party still pincushioned. Lance glad he took a shield. Drunken Monks lack of armor clearly shows.
Party clear cuts bandits. Navarro was not present. Party commandeers bandit horses and rides east.
Party gets caught in Ettercap nest. Horses in web, party deals with poison (successfully).
One evil-spiderman bewitched into seeing its greatest fear, a giant moa, flees.
Too close for spells, switching to spears.
Keith Zone kills the remaining ettercap.
Party remounts and finds Pixie groves. Deals with Pixie nonsense. Answers riddle and receives Ring of Swimming.
Puzzled DM doubtful this Ring will ever see use.
Pixies direct them to bandit camp. Tells them to avoid the bog, scarred man was lost there.
A clue for Navarro!
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Playtest Update: Tammeraut's Fate 1.3 Conclusion
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| Zombie poster by Jeff Proctor distributed by Mondo/Alamo Drafthouse |
We began the session with the PC's fortifying Firewatchkeep. Due to their candy filled coma the DM had to provide a lot of suggestions on areas where it might help to barricade, areas to destroy or objects to move for the impending zombie apocalypse. In the end the the PC's with ranged abilities (Streetshark and Quickman) would hole up on the second floor and guard the only entrance to the arrow slit room where the Priestess, infected NPC's and the remaining PC Brock Sampson, incredible bodyguard that he is, would be holed up. The two PC's upstairs barricaded one door, applied Salve of Slipperiness on the only staircase leading up and took up vantage points to see anyone entering from the North or South. They then took note of what Scrolls they happened upon during their initial search.
Sunday, November 3, 2013
Playtest Update: Tammeraut's Fate 1.2
I mentioned before my love of the death-exploration-reset cycle in Dark Souls. One of the major stopping points for incorporating this fully into your home game is that it doesn't make sense unless your game takes place in a dimensionally fragmented world and the player's are undead. So then I thought to myself, why not make these Halloween hoodlums undead? The conclusion to this adventure just got a lot more intriguing.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Playtest Update: Tammeraut's Fate 1.1
Taking a break from the parties Wizfest debaucheries while hunting down a way to break the Elfwhisper Curse I'm running a special Halloween game this week. The adventure in question is Tammeraut's Fate appearing in this issue of Dungeon. I wanted to run a zombie themed adventure to test out mob tactics, two-weapon fighting, wound recovery, missile combat and a few classes that haven't been playtested since they went through a major revision in February of this year. Tammeraut's fate just so happens to involve my favorite zombie scenario. A hapless group of adventurers stranded on an island who must survive the night. This time though instead of mindless zombies the adventure provides Drowned Dead, intelligent former Scarlett Brotherhood with a hivemind and life sense. You can run my friends but you can't hide. The finale has the zombies attack in waves but since my system makes the characters a little more robust encounter-to-encounter due to some Hit Dice Witchcraft I've decided to change it up a bit.
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