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Old 06-30-2018, 08:49 AM   #31
Rick_Smith
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Coquitlam B.C.
Default Howdah Room

Steve Jackson can use these ideas freely, in exchange for acknowledgement of my work. (signed) Richard W. Smith.

Map & Terrain:
This is a melee map sized room that has the centre 3 mega-hexes is a shallow pit. The exit that the party enters is closed, but the opposite exit is open.

The pit is 2 yards deep and is filled with jagged pointed rocks. Falling into it does 1d+1 damage. There are enough handholds to make it easy to climb out, and people doing so end their turn on the upper edge of the pit, prone. The floor of the pit is rough ground.

Note that multi-hex figures must have half or more of their hexes overlapping the pit before they fall in. If the Ogre falls in the howdah takes 10 points of damage and the Ogre will be wedged in. It will take 1 turn to twist himself free, and then will stand on the next turn. When the Ogre climbs out, it will be kneeling rather than prone.

A small figure at the bottom of the pit can not be hit from some out out of the pit with a melee weapon unless they kneel at the edge of the pit. (An Ogre in the pit CAN be hit by small figures standing outside with out them having to kneel.)

The ceiling is 6 yards high.

Enemy:
Handicap: If the PC's have lost 2 or more people, just the ogre is in this room. If the players have lost no one, or just one figure, then both the ogre and the hobbit are here.

There is a 5 hex ogre across the room from the players. (Use the same counter as the Battle Machine.) It has heavy half plate (stops 5 hits) made out of Brass, which due to its Great ST bonuses it can wear at no Movement Penalties and with only -1 DX penalty. It has a massive howdah high on its back which has a hobbit inside. It has 5 front hexes, 4 sides, and 2 rear hexes.

............. F ........ F ....... F

........ F...... *#*****#* ....... F

.. S ...... *#**** H ****#* ...... S <--- The H is the location of the hobbit.

....... S ....... R ........ R ........ S


Ogre: ST 48, DX 9 (8), IQ 7, MA 12, Brass half plate stops 5 hits. It has a great sword which it wields 1 handed doing 3d+1 damage. It has a giant Agis shield which stops 3 hits to its front.

Reaction to damage: -2 DX if 9 hits in one turn, falls if it takes 16 damage in one turn, permanent negatives at 6 or less, and unconscious at 3 hits left.

If the Ogre is given 24 damage or more, it will disengage and attempt to surrender. (The hobbit will surrender as well.) The battle is won and the party may loot the enemy and leave the room. If they ignore the surrender and continue to attack the Ogre, it will berserk, and fight to the death.

Hobbit Wizard in howdah: ST 6, DX 14, IQ 10, MA 8. No armor (but see howdah rules). Staff is a small wand doing no physical damage. It has a fully charged 4 point ST Battery which it will use the power from first. It has several brass throwing knives which it will use once it is out of fatigue to power its spells.
Abilities:
-- Talents:
Ogre & Elf Languages, Thrown Weapons. (Thrown knives do 1d–1 damage.)
-- Spells: Staff, Trip, Magic Fist, Blur, 1 hex Fire, Shock Shield, Shadow.

Howdah rules:
Inside the howdah the hobbit is completely hidden by the brass bucket it is in, except its head and upper chest, so missile and thrown weapons attack it at -4 DX. The hobbit may be attacked by thrown and missile weapons from any direction. Melee attacks must come from the Ogre's rear hexes. The howdah is wooden frame construction with brass plates riveted on. The brass will stop 4 hits if you attempt to batter thru it. The howdah will take 15 points of damage after armor before falling apart, (which will spill the hobbit to the ground). It is a big target, and despite it bobbing around, it may be attacked at +2 DX. Attacks at the Howdah use this +2 DX, and not the +2 or +4 DX for the Ogre's side or rear hexes.

If the Ogre falls for any reason, if the Hobbit is in the Howdah, it takes 1d-2 falling damage.

The hobbit is high enough that its attacks at people on the ground and their attacks at it, add one hex to the range. To melee attack the hobbit, figures on the ground need to be able to strike up at a target 4 yards high. (3 yards high to hit the howdah itself.)

Unless the hobbit is wounded and hiding at the bottom of the howdah, it is visible from the front, peering over the Ogre's left shoulder.



Suggested Ogre / Hobbit strategy. The hobbit will delay its action until someone has attacked the Ogre. It will then cast Trip on that person. (They won't be able to stand this turn because their action has been used.). The Ogre will then be able to attack at +4 DX at the fallen figure. The Ogre will follow the hobbits guidance on who it should attack. Once the hobbit dies, the Ogre will just try to smash the most irritating foe without much strategy.
It costs x5 to cast Blur on the Ogre (it is a 5 hex figure), so the Hobbit will only blur itself. The hobbit is critically short on fatigue to power its spells, so it will try to save its spells until a key moment.

If the Ogre dies and the hobbit is still alive, AND if the party has 3 or fewer members surviving, the hobbit will surrender and offer to join the party. (Roll 1d6: On a 1 to 3, it is sincere and will fight for the team, on a 4 to 6 is will try to run out the exit in the next fight and leave the party to their fate.


Suggested player strategy. People who are tripped beside the pit may chose to fall in (not bother to try the 4vsDX saving throw), so that they are not in easy reach of the Ogre. If the party lacks people who can shoot the hobbit wizard, try to get behind the Ogre and smash the howdah.
If you are attacking the Ogre from the front, consider striking at the legs (–4 DX), to avoid the shield.


Treasure:
The hobbit has a 4 point ST Battery (likely discharged). It is LIMITED to the employees of the Thorsz and those taking his tests. An EXPUNGE will remove all enchantments if any enchantment is removed. (If the party wins this, they can keep it if they want to work for the Thorsz.)

Notes: If you are using the new TFT rules, make the ST battery a 1 pointer (with no LIMIT / EXPUNGE so the players may keep & use it, even if they leave the Thorsz), and say hobbit's staff holds 3 mana.

There are 2 gold bars in the howdah.

Warm regards, Rick.

Last edited by Rick_Smith; 07-18-2018 at 02:48 AM. Reason: Added falling damage in Howdah if Ogre falls.
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Old 06-30-2018, 12:58 PM   #32
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Default Re: Modular Death Test

Quote:
Originally Posted by pyratejohn View Post
Actually, no, that's not what I was saying at all. I believe I was saying at a musket competition I saw people who could easily hit a man-shaped target at a distance of 50 yards and that smooth-bore arms using a mechanically driven spark or flame-based ignition system are not as inaccurate as your quote from the Sharpe's novel supposes they are.
1) I was making a joke with that "broad side of a barn" comment.
2) It wasn't my quote; it was someone else saying that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by pyratejohn View Post
I'm fairly certain that, using my stack of research notes from the GURPS Low Tech playtest, my bookcase full of 17th and 18th century titles on combat and military drill, coupled with my practical experience from reenacting the era for over a decade, I can come up with a system that comes close to reality while holding to the simplicity of Melee/Wizard/TFT.
Well, I wish you would do so then! Because I think that would be a GREAT article for whatever the TFT magazine (or whatever it is that Phil's been dropping hints about) when the time comes. And frankly, from the things you've said elsewhere in the forums, I think you'd be exactly the right guy to do it!
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Old 06-30-2018, 01:30 PM   #33
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Default Re: Modular Death Test

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV View Post
1) I was making a joke with that "broad side of a barn" comment.
2) It wasn't my quote; it was someone else saying that.
My apologies if I offended. It was not my intent.

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV View Post
Well, I wish you would do so then! Because I think that would be a GREAT article for whatever the TFT magazine (or whatever it is that Phil's been dropping hints about) when the time comes. And frankly, from the things you've said elsewhere in the forums, I think you'd be exactly the right guy to do it!
Thank you for the kind words. It is certainly something I'm considering. Ages ago I wrote just such an article for... Pyramid?... for... shoot... some version of D&D, but I don't even remember which one or how long ago that was!

Okay, back to getting ready for this evening's TFT game!!!
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Last edited by pyratejohn; 06-30-2018 at 01:36 PM.
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Old 06-30-2018, 04:48 PM   #34
zot
 
Join Date: May 2018
Default Re: Clockwork room.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick_Smith View Post
-- A Mechanician within 3 hexes of the thing, may spend an action and attempt an IQ roll to find a weakness:
----> First turn of studying it.: On a 4vsIQ he or she will spot a gear that can be jammed in its upper leg. An attack at –2 DX which does 4 or more damage will immobilize it. (It can still swing its arms, but can not adjust its facing or pursue the party.) If this attack is made from the sides or rear, add the +2 (side) or +4 (rear) to the –2 DX for hitting the gear. (Once it is immobilized, the party may leave the room.)
----> Second turn of studying it. The mechanician may spend another turn, and then attempt a 3vsIQ roll. If this roll succeeds, the mechanician will spot an access panel on its front. Attacks on it (at –4 DX) thru a front hex will only have 2 points of armour to get thru.
----> Third turn of studying it. Make a 2vsIQ. If the roll is made, suggest that it is top heavy and that its backpack seems to be carrying fuel. Also you don't think that further study will help.
Neat idea! What if the character is a Master Mechanician?
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Old 06-30-2018, 06:37 PM   #35
JLV
 
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Default Re: Modular Death Test

Quote:
Originally Posted by pyratejohn View Post
My apologies if I offended. It was not my intent.
No offense here! I was actually afraid the shoe was on the other foot -- that I'd somehow offended you! Which was definitely not my intent here!
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Old 07-04-2018, 12:06 PM   #36
KevinJ
 
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Default Re: Modular Death Test

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rick_Smith View Post
Hi PirateJohn.
In that case, you wouldn't mind fighting 4 arquebusiers rather than 2 plus 2 crossbowmen in this room? (Whistles innocently.)

My compromise of 'primitive rifling' I am not entirely happy with. But those weapons fired spherical balls (which are badly effected by turbulence) and they often were off round, so the bullets would not leave the barrel straight. I suspect that your expert marksman went to extraordinary effort to find perfectly spherical balls which were a tight fit to the barrel.

Now that is possible for TFT Gunners to do, but is not what the typical soldier in those days (who likely was casting his own bullets in a bullet mold) was doing.

Warm regards, Rick
During a siege, Benvenuto Cellini purportedly shot the general leading the assault on the front gate of the city from a tower over 80 yards away with a hackbutt, killing him instantly. Luck or skill? And rifling goes back to the 1760s or even earlier.
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Old 07-04-2018, 02:14 PM   #37
larsdangly
 
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Default Re: Modular Death Test

The Death Test modules are such pure, condensed 'dungeon crawl' fun; I think people love them so much because 1) they are hard, and 2) the goal couldn't be clearer: get out alive. I always wanted a really, really challenging, big, complicated Death Test. I sort of cheated my way to one in my D+D campaign, by presenting the party with a 1-way gate that dumped them with zero supplies or light in the middle of a zombie infested room somewhere in the middle of Barrowmaze (a pretty tough OSR megadungeon). It was fun and crazy.
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Old 07-04-2018, 03:04 PM   #38
JLV
 
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Default Re: Modular Death Test

Yeah, I've been seriously thinking about "TFT-ing" my copy of Barrowmaze... ;-)
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Old 07-05-2018, 05:01 AM   #39
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Default Re: Modular Death Test

Quote:
Originally Posted by larsdangly View Post
I always wanted a really, really challenging, big, complicated Death Test.
I agree that a "giant dungeon" style Mega Death Test would be pretty darn fun!
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Old 07-05-2018, 07:17 PM   #40
Steve Jackson
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Default Re: Modular Death Test

I never played in Barrowmaze but it was well spoken of.
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