Current Play: Death Test, Solo and Group

[Original_Carl]

I started my second attempt at Death Test, Solo last week. Here I am, a few rooms in:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zJmjVhG14qLuAR2g7

I'm using 3 fighters with spears and longbows in leather armor, and a wizard. This is the first time I've used a wizard in a game. So far, so good. Spears and longbows are working out much better than the sword/shield & javelin combos I had been using. Maybe I'm just rolling better this time.

The minis are Mage Knight figures I've popped off their bases and glued to clear acrylic disks I picked up from Litko Products. I have much nicer minis, but I have no guilt or remorse when I throw these into the box with all the rest of my stuff and haul it all to my Tuesday lunchtime game at work. The terrain is Dwarven Forge stuff.

The lunchtime game is going well. I have 4 players, more or less -- it's a work game, so not everyone can make it every time. We're only using Melee in that game. Due to the difficulty of the Death Test, when a fighter dies, I pull another out of the pregen deck to replace it between rooms. "You meet another fighter in the hallway. 'You look like trustworthy fellows!' they say." We'll have had 3 replacements when we start next week's session.

One thing I've noticed is that in longer fights, we lose track of whose turn it is. We roll initiative, we move and then we take actions in order of Dex, but separating that turn into to halves where players go in a different order between halves causes a bit of confusion. We're dealing with it, but I'm interested in ideas from the group on better ways to handle this. This issue is really bad in a solo game where I'm managing 8 figures. More than once I've just restarted the battle because I forgot where I was in the order of things.

Overall, now that I've put a few dozen hours into Melee and Wizard, I'm much more comfortable with the rules, but managing the game seems to be my weak spot. It's easy to manage a single figure, or even 2 or 3, but when you get 5 or 8 to manage, there's a lot of moving parts.

Great game, by the way. I feel like I'm going to be playing this for a long time.

[Chris Rice]

Originally Posted by Original_Carl

I started my second attempt at Death Test, Solo last week. Here I am, a few rooms in:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zJmjVhG14qLuAR2g7

I'm using 3 fighters with spears and longbows in leather armor, and a wizard. This is the first time I've used a wizard in a game. So far, so good. Spears and longbows are working out much better than the sword/shield & javelin combos I had been using. Maybe I'm just rolling better this time.

The minis are Mage Knight figures I've popped off their bases and glued to clear acrylic disks I picked up from Litko Products. I have much nicer minis, but I have no guilt or remorse when I throw these into the box with all the rest of my stuff and haul it all to my Tuesday lunchtime game at work. The terrain is Dwarven Forge stuff.

The lunchtime game is going well. I have 4 players, more or less -- it's a work game, so not everyone can make it every time. We're only using Melee in that game. Due to the difficulty of the Death Test, when a fighter dies, I pull another out of the pregen deck to replace it between rooms. "You meet another fighter in the hallway. 'You look like trustworthy fellows!' they say." We'll have had 3 replacements when we start next week's session.

One thing I've noticed is that in longer fights, we lose track of whose turn it is. We roll initiative, we move and then we take actions in order of Dex, but separating that turn into to halves where players go in a different order between halves causes a bit of confusion. We're dealing with it, but I'm interested in ideas from the group on better ways to handle this. This issue is really bad in a solo game where I'm managing 8 figures. More than once I've just restarted the battle because I forgot where I was in the order of things.

Overall, now that I've put a few dozen hours into Melee and Wizard, I'm much more comfortable with the rules, but managing the game seems to be my weak spot. It's easy to manage a single figure, or even 2 or 3, but when you get 5 or 8 to manage, there's a lot of moving parts.

Great game, by the way. I feel like I'm going to be playing this for a long time.

Since you're using the cards, I suggest the following method I've been experimenting with:

When a figure moves, "tap" their card (turn it sideways).

When a figures has taken its action, turn the card over.

This makes it easy to see who has moved and who has acted.

Another way is to use coloured markers like tiddlywinks. The different colours can be put on the counter (or on the card if you're using minis) to denote; moved, acted, -2DX etc.

[Original_Carl]

Both excellent tips, thank you.

[Axly Suregrip]

Originally Posted by Original_Carl

...
Overall, now that I've put a few dozen hours into Melee and Wizard, I'm much more comfortable with the rules, but managing the game seems to be my weak spot. It's easy to manage a single figure, or even 2 or 3, but when you get 5 or 8 to manage, there's a lot of moving parts.

Great game, by the way. I feel like I'm going to be playing this for a long time.

When playing with a group I (or the DM) just counts down DX. You know what the highest DX is, so start with that. "Who has a DX of 13 or higher?". After playing those, "Who has a DX of 12?".

When running a bunch of characters yourself, I list them on a sheet of paper by DX order (or on a spreadsheet if using a computer). That is also where I record damage and DX modifiers. This way you just go down the list for the characters you are running.