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Old 03-15-2013, 10:48 AM   #41
Stripe
 
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Default Re: [DF] One shot- Crevan Brokenhands Last Rest

Wow, Mateus, that is a really awesome map! Weighing in at 21 MB, that's definitely a "save as" there; I tried to open it in-browser on my beastly laptop and even it bulked for a moment! XD

I'd certainly be interested to read all the details about about your sessions! You might want to start a new thread, though, and just link to this one. PM me when you start, please. :)
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Old 03-15-2013, 11:12 AM   #42
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Default Re: [DF] One shot- Crevan Brokenhands Last Rest

Thank you =). Yes, you are right, probably is best to open a new thread. =)
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Old 03-18-2013, 10:34 AM   #43
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Default Re: [DF] One shot- Crevan Brokenhands Last Rest

Its been a really long time, but I was just prompted by a PM to comment on how my version of the Cravan fight went - and although I said I'd post how things went when I ran this dungeon, it seems I never did. So without any further delay...

My Group
First of all, I don't have character sheets for the group that ran this any more unfortunately (thanks to them being updated since this point) - but the group was a Barbarian Minotaur (but SM+2) with a spear (meaning silly high ST and high reach), a Dragon-Blooded Monk who specialised in Flying Leaps, and a multiclassing Catfolk Mentalist Thief (a bit of a gish build, used claw weapons and 'illusions' which proved less than useful in this dungeon thanks to all the undead).
They were all built on 340cp, although none were played to the best of their abilities as they were all new characters made for this one shot, so a lot of stuff was forgotten about - plus as I say one of the main Catfolks powers was useless. So the cp value may well be misleading.


My Observations
The group faired well, the dungeon as a whole proved quite straight forward other than the hidden Horrid Skull which just really annoyed them. The range of the attacks were so high they'd hardly explored the tomb before being hit by it and it took them ages to track it down. They actually discovered its general location by trying to skirting the edge of the zone by rapidly moving to different points in areas 2-5, and mapping out where they were getting injured. Once they'd explored enough the Catfolk managed to guess which room the centre of the effect was thanks to her high IQ, and the Monk proceeded to leap directly into it and roast everything with repeated breath attacks until the pain stopped.

The spear room itself was met with a little bit of uncertainty, and thanks to the injury they faced from the get-go thanks to the Draugr and Horrid Skull they were overly cautious and inspected the room for traps after the Skull was dealt with. Sadly no traps, although it would've made sense to have some, and if I ran it again I would trap the spear if only to reward the PCs for their prudence in checking.

Although I'd restructured the treasure distribution in the dungeon a little when I ran it, I did find that the group saw the map had images of piles of loot when there really wasn't much (or anything matching the image) there... as such I quickly threw in some old trade goods and common weapons to bulk out that area with 'cheap'/annoying to haul loot (as this sort of thing is often passed over until the dungeon is fully cleared, at which point they'll sell the doors if there's nothing else better to loot). The same thing happened in the final room, where gems were listed, but no mountains of coin or rugs and chests. If I ran it again I'd try to match the loot to the images a little better, even if it means heavier and more awkward things to haul out.

Crevan himself, as Shatterhand rather than Brokenhand (ie my build, found earlier in this thread), was a good fight - but basically came down to being surrounded and mobbed to death through attrition despite his upgrades. The fight was basically just a matter of positioning (easy to do in a large room) so that he couldn't face everyone at once, and using superior movement and reach to keep out of the way or chase him down when he charged one of the group or tried to reposition. Once they perfected that it was just a HP grind as they exploited multiple attacks and position to mitigate his numerous defences. The Minotaur even lost the Spear in this fight thanks to it becoming disarmed, but rather than retrieve it and give up position, he just redrew his previous weapon and carried on attacking!


My Crevan
I found that my version of Crevan's sword needed to be more powerful at immobilising people, as it was often resisted and even when it wasn't it contributed very little to the fight as a whole. I'd beef it up by adding a turn of stunning followed by the slowdown effect, and make the HT check harder to pass. Basing the HT check against the size of the group (using some factor of N?) might work, or only allowing the stun part to happen N times (rounded up) per fight - as so not to create a situation where Crevan can 'stun lock' and kill a weak character. Either way I'd make the Ghostly Bindings more potent as I clearly underestimated its worth.

His extra attack was handy, but despite the group having no healer (only a few potions and slow regen for the Monky) he found it hard to really beat down any single person, even when facing only three opponents (although it didn't help that the Minotaur had HPs similar to his and the Monk had over 20HP and had time to rest before taking on the final room, so did so on almost full health). I'd probably improve his skill to allow more rapid strikes and targeted/deceptive attacks, considering his Ghostly Bindings trigger off of successful hits, the more hits the better. (In theory Ghostly Bindings should have made this easier to do, but it only penalises Dodge, and you still need them to fail their HT check to be affected by it)


My Suggestions
The main problem the final fight had was the ease in which the PCs could skirt around Crevan and surround him. The final chamber either needs extra foes (additional golems inside this room) to get in the PCs way, more varied terrain to force them around barriers and block LoS, or be much smaller. The entrance way should also become hazardous to exit though, I did make the golems animate to surround the PCs on the way in, but in hindsight I should have kept them inert until Crevan attacked and then used them to flank the party.

A number of these issues could be fixed by granting Crevan more magical attacks that let him control the area around him more (probably through his sword again, allowing you to disable his magical attacks by chopping his arm off). So if I were to run this again I'd have the room decorated with a few pillars that have chains twisted around them and suspended chains connecting them, and add a few bodies of his 'generals' in the room with him - which would be wrapped in cloth and chains as an odd form of funereal gown.

When the fight starts Crevan would animate his generals which would happen slowly, described as the chains and cloth unfurling as they stand (to give the PCs a chance to see what they're up against) which would also leaving a pile of chains and cloth on the floor. Then during the fight I'd let Crevan take a turn to make any two pillars (and suspended chains between them) become an animated semi-solid chain walls which partially block sight and will immobilise anyone attempting to move them (other than Crevan himself). He can also choose to snare anyone standing on 2 radius hex region that includes the discarded cloth and chains, making them effectively PC only traps - although likely one-use only and only bind the legs of the PC so they can still fight if they like.

The generals will follow Crevans commands, attacking either distant PCs or helping to cover his back. I'd also make the golems simply block the passageway out, preventing anyone from leaving until they are defeated, but not using them as extra fighters - although this may be performed instead by animating the oversized statue of Craven himself in area 6 and having it follow the PCs into area 7 (as so to preserve the fight in area 7 as currently detailed).

Defeating Crevan would automatically return his generals to their slumber (Crevan should yell something when he animates them which could tip the PCs off to this so they can choose to focus fire on him if they so desire), and automatically make the golem/s in area 7 stand down (it would also stop animating any chains in the final room, should any PC still be immobilised by them).

My Conclusion
Overall the dungeon was quite fighting heavy, and could've done with a few more traps or interesting terrain to keep things varied. There also wasn't much in the way of puzzles other than the Horrid Skull, and I had to improvise to allow the PCs to make use of their high IQ and skills to solve it, as there were few clues as to how to deal with it otherwise (and the group refused to progress further into the dungeon without dealing with it in case they had to retreat again, or wanted to spend time looting the room, which was impractical when taking periodic damage). These things may not bother some, but it did mean that the Monk and Thief did feel a little neglected that their skill investments didn't see more use, and the Minotaurs lacking in another but brute force meant he was heavily optimised and never felt the negatives from his min-maxing. The fighting on the whole was also a bit of a roller-coaster ride of a difficultly curve, although this might simply be due to the group I had and the oddities of the use of N - but even with my upgrades to Crevan, he still felt too easy and unchallenging in the end.

So I still think it could do with a bit more polishing, and perhaps a little more "show not tell" for the story behind Crevan, as although it's a compelling little bit of lore - it hardly imprints itself into the dungeon, which makes it easy for the PCs to overlook it.
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Old 10-11-2017, 03:10 PM   #44
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Default Re: [DF] One shot- Crevan Brokenhands Last Rest

Did anyone keep copies of the files Mateus shared? The dropbox links are broken now :(
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