Tactical Encounter #3 - Panic at the Thisco!

[malchidael]

I've written up another tactical encounter to share. Hopefully you enjoy it.
It's a bandit attack at a roadside tavern.

In my initial playtests, the dice were against my sample 32-point characters and I had two TPK's, so a little tougher than my earlier scenarios.

This time, I'm including the full-size map separately, in case anyone wants to scale it down to smaller hexes or print it out as a 21"x16" poster.

The newer template prints a Melee map on four sheets of paper, as opposed to the three sheet maps I have been using, which is unfortunate, but it allowed me a bit more freedom.

All comments or criticisms welcome, either here or by PM.

Tactical Encounter - Panic at the Thisco!
Thisco Tavern Map

[Taliesin]

This is excellent! I'm going to run this with my players.

[Chris Rice]

Looks nice. Reminds me of an old "Gunslinger" scenario. One point; your bandits are ST10 but carry 2d-1 shortswords. These actually require a ST of 11. So they should really carry cutlasses 2d-2 or up their ST values to 11.

[malchidael]

Originally Posted by Chris Rice

Looks nice. Reminds me of an old "Gunslinger" scenario. One point; your bandits are ST10 but carry 2d-1 shortswords. These actually require a ST of 11. So they should really carry cutlasses 2d-2 or up their ST values to 11.

D'oh! Great catch..... I'll update it tonight and repost. I wanted their strength at 10, so cutlasses it is!

[JLV]

Another excellent little fight! Thanks for sharing (again) and please keep them coming!

[malchidael]

Originally Posted by malchidael

D'oh! Great catch..... I'll update it tonight and repost. I wanted their strength at 10, so cutlasses it is!

I have updated the document to give the bandits sabers . The download link is the same.

[FireHorse]

That is an excellent map!

[malchidael]

Originally Posted by FireHorse

That is an excellent map!

Thank you! Designed using Dungeon Designer 3+ with the Symbol Set 4 "Dungeons of Schley" add-on.

I have two other scenario/map sets scattered about the forums, although I like this one the best.

[randiv]

This looks like fun. Anyone have thoughts on chairs as obstacles and/or weapons? (What's a bar fight without someone being hit by a chair?) Perhaps an NPC could intervene with a surprise clobbering of a bandit if the player party is under too much distress?

P.S. Could this be reworked for the postcard adventure contest? Seems perfect, if you can adjust the tavern layout to use TFT hexes.

[malchidael]

Originally Posted by randiv

This looks like fun. Anyone have thoughts on chairs as obstacles and/or weapons? (What's a bar fight without someone being hit by a chair?)

I thought there was a section on Improvised Weapons in ITL, but I can't find it (and the PDF viewer on my kindle fire doesn't allow search, or my IQ isn't high enough for that talent) - you could treat chairs as Clubs (perhaps with -2DX for being unwieldy). Same with bottles and nice, stout mugs.

For tables, I treated them as obstacles at first. After the first playtest, I followed the rules on ITL p118 for moving onto bodies but gave those on the tables the advantage of Height (ITL p119) instead of the penalty for being on a body. But, that's just the option I took.

Originally Posted by randiv

Perhaps an NPC could intervene with a surprise clobbering of a bandit if the player party is under too much distress?

Absolutely! In one quick playthrough, I had the bystanders make speedy morale checks (1D6; 1-2=Flee, 3-4=Hide, 5-6=Fight) at the beginning of the scenario. The scenario, though, was designed so the player wouldn't have to manage the NPC's too much.

Originally Posted by randiv

P.S. Could this be reworked for the postcard adventure contest? Seems perfect, if you can adjust the tavern layout to use TFT hexes.

Unfortunately, as it was "published" on the forums, it's not eligible. And, I may be an oddball (if you ask my wife or kids, there is no question about that), but I'd rather just post anything I do on the forums for free. Or, I may recruit my son into building me a website to host them.

My April and May have been interesting, but I'm hoping to start working on an additional scenario pack Any Day Now....