Green Madonna (PDF challenge 2021) after-action report

[Fred Brackin]

I ran The Green Madonna scenario from the 2021 PDF challenge this afternoon and it has to be called a success as I will use material from the 2 Page Dungeons (also PDFC 2021) article to turn it from a one shot into a two shot in two weeks. This was foretold in a long thread about linking the various articles in PDFC 2021.

I provided pregens and I based them on 150 pts and without ruthless optimization to match the level of oppostion. This seemed to be about right.

I prepared 6 characters and if that guy we haven't seen for a while showed up one of them would have spontaneously developed an identical twin. Actual attendence was 4.

I did give all characters Luck and this was used pretty freely but there were no combat Skills above 14 and only one character had any armor (pirates in Jamaica 1662).

One character would have been seriously wounded but he used his Luck.

Other Gurps elements used included Talents (Artificer, Healer). 2 characters had 2 levels of one of these. Had I been ruthlessly optimizing this might not have been the case but it seemed to work out.

I ran the session pretty rules-light. I only put Characters and Low Tech in my carrying bag and left Campaigns at home. I needed room for my IPad which had the pdf stuff on it. If my printer had worked I could have left the IPad home. I've got 2 weeks to get a new printer.

I can probably add more specifics if anyone wants to know.

[Rhino]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

I can probably add more specifics if anyone wants to know.

I, for one, would love to see a brief write up of the game.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Rhino

I, for one, would love to see a brief write up of the game.

Okay, note that the following would totally spoil the Green Madonna adventure.

The PCs originally met when they signed on to an English privateer called the Brown Cow of Dunlending. I told them that yes, this probably was the worst name for a pirate ship evar but at least it made it to shallow water before its' bottom finished rotting out. They were able to load everyone on the longboat with minimal belongs and row into the harbor at Port Royal Jamaica before that gave out.

The PCs have (mostly) basic weapons, the clothes on their backs and $20 each in miscellaneous coins. The Gurps $ was used throughout as I explained that using period coinage was pretty close to a doctoral dissertation subject.

The pregenned characters my 4 players selected were:

Helga the ship's blacksmith/carpenter and armorer. A bavarian lass who is a general "maker" with Artifier 2. Her other Ads are Alcohol Tolerance, Fit, Luck and No Hangover. She had ST13,DX12,IQ10 and HT12. She had at least 1 pt in most "sailor" Skills as well as Shortsword,Knife and Pistol. She also had Brawling-14 and Wrestling-14 making her not only the strongest person in the crew by a pt but the ebst at unarmed combat. Her Ads also meant she won all drinking contests and woke up the next morning and beat on things with hammers all day long. Cutlass, 2 pistols and a knife.

Next was Jean Luc Tache a French Protestant who was the Brown Cow's first mate. He had the longest Skill list with basic ability in all the Skills which might be useful to such a person. ST 11 DX12 IQ11 HT12. Also a "basic" combatant. Besides pistols and cutlass he had a Fusil Ordinaire.

Oswald Turnipseed was a former roundhead Dragoon cavalryman who decided to travel for his health after Cromwell's death. ST12 DX12 IQ10 HT12. He had kept his dragoon weapons so he had heavier pistols than the others and a Backsword instead of a cutlass. Also Skill-14 with each. The onlu character with Combat Refexes and several other combat Ads.

Finally Hu Min Tao a Chinese scholar and Physician. He had Pacifism:Self Defense Only so he had no ranged wepaons but had studied a form of Tai Chi which gave him Judo and Rapier skill with his Jian. Hu had ST10,DX 12 IQ 13 and HT 12. He also had Healer 2 and his First Aid-16 was the highest Skill in the group.

The session really begins with the PCs consuming rum and turtle soup in a tavern in Port Royal in 1662. Suddenly a very short man who's been stabbed in the back with a poisoned dagger and set on fire comes rolling down the stairs. His assailants follow and there leader announces "The boss said leave no witnesses!". Mayhem ensues.

If you think the PCs combat Skills might be a little low the thugs are even worse and things are over quickly due to Gurps basic lethality and probably the lack of shields and armor.

This was even though the PCs did not have their flintlocks loaded. I had explained that it usually did no good to try that as such guns were finicky.

Clues are gathered, poor burnt and poisoned short persons manage to gurgle out some cryptic stuff before they lapse into comas and it's off to the harbor and the next encounter!

There they meet Isaac Newton freshly come from England to buy the Green Madonna and get plot info from him just before the Spanish Inquisition bursts in! No one was expecting that.

Still no guns loaded but with roughly equal numbers and slightly better Skills to the Inquisition this fight is also over quickly. Critical info is gained and next it's off to the country estate.

There is a short digression about "Do we have to walk there?" but I am firm that Port Royal is short on rent-a-nag franchisesees but they were able to rent a donkey cart to carry the expected statue.

They get there before the Sun goes down and good PER rolls spot the undisguised Spanish soldiers at the front door. The adventure tells me and I tell the players that the estate is surrounded by 8 foot tall sugar cane.

The flintlocks are loaded by this time but the PCs are surprised by their very limited practical range. So they tell me they sneak up though the cane to a distance of 10 yards. I allow this and don't complicate things by mentioning their non-existant Stealth skills.

A couple of very loud noises and the soldiers are down. Even with low base damage dice P+ and P++ guns are very lethal. The PCs wonder if the loud noises will draw more guards but decide to stay concealed in the cane to find out. Twice more guards run up in groups of 2 and succumb to gunfire even though the PCs didn't quite have time to reload anything.

Then it's into the house and the session's only natural 3 is rolled on a PER roll so they know everyone is upstairs declaiming flavor text at each other.

The PCs charge in and this time they surprise the Spanish Inquisition. The level boss who had Rapier-17 and a DR5 breastplate should have been a big problem but a little bad luck did for him quickly. I am reduced to claiming that an Inquistion priest was attacking them with a Bishop's Smiter. Fortunately no one asks what that was (a magic item from Magic Items 3) and it get's forgotten.

The mcguffin is found and more clues are gathered but everyone was more excited to learn that the level boss ahd a nearby ship they could steal. No one complains about the lack of horses this time.

There is some brief gunfire at the ship and Helga rolls max damage _again_. It's been introduced that her uncle is the famous period gunsmith Felix Werder (a real person) and it is obvious to everyone that he does really good work. :)

The PCs re-name the ship the Carpe Diem (Dr Hu has to provide the Latin) and sail back to the harbor and hand over the mcguffin to Isaac Newton in return for much money. I assume that they took that poor donkey and his cart with them to get their deposit back.

It was a short session done with in 3 and 1/2 hours but when told that I could cobble together a follow up from material in PDF Chahllenge's 2 Page Dungeons it was agreed that we would do that in 2 weeks. I'm going to have to allow for the gunfire and council other GMs running this to do likewise.

As final miscellaneous notes I had named one PC Oswald Turnipseed because it sounded silly but English to me. I find out that there are thousands of real people named "Turnipseed" so I had made up a real name. It also turned out that it took the PCs over an hour to realize their doctor was named "Who". The buried joke about the origin of the "Tache" name remains hidden til next time. :)

[Fred Brackin]

Just soem notes from the follow up to Green Madonna "one shot"

When I put out the reminder on our facebook Group I wanted to call it "Green Madona II: Pirate Boogaloo" but Facebook insisted that was an invalid name.

I used the maps from 2 of the Two Page Dungeons from the same 2021 PDF Challenge (the ship and the temple). I couldn't use the material literally as it seemed to be geared towards DF 250 pt combat monsters and the 42 skeltons on the ship would have been overkill. 42 may ahve been too many for any one. Even with the "rules detail" dial turned way down 42 skeletons would have added at least another hour to our session. Similar comments apply to the demons in the temple.

I added a treasure to the Temple. It was a book made of thin sheets of a reddish bronze metal and Dr. Hu was able to identify it as orichlcum after making a Literature roll. No, I did not put Literature on his sheet for that purpose. It was just a Skill a scholar ought to have.

We were at full strength yesterday and the party was joined by Giovanni Negri, Italian swashbuckler and poor man's Cassanova and "Gunner" Kirke, a Scottish Dwarf obsessed with explosions.

Apropo the "Language" discussion taking place in another thread the relatively high cost of Languages in 4e meant that several of the characters ended up with fewer languages than they logically should have had. The level of complexity may have been closer to right. I still ignored the Cantonese/Mandarin thing for Dr. Hu.

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Okay, note that the following would totally spoil the Green Madonna adventure.

I enjoyed your writeup, which was entertainingly written. It is very refreshing to know that someone besides myself has actually run the adventure! Thank you!

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by David L Pulver

I enjoyed your writeup, which was entertainingly written. It is very refreshing to know that someone besides myself has actually run the adventure! Thank you!

Thank you for providing me with a Gurps adventure that i could run.

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Thank you for providing me with a Gurps adventure that i could run.

You're welcome!

[Celjabba]

This report inspired me to run the Green Madonna for yesterday One-Shot, and it was a qualified success.
Everyone was happy, I think, and we will finish it later in the month.

It ran closer to a Mel Brooks movie than a swashbuckler adventure (and there was a Benny Hill worthy sequence with all 4 players (and a parrot) lost and looking for each others in a Sugar Cane field), but it was great fun.

Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition either :)

Thanks for the great scenario, and thanks also to Fred Brackin for the description of his pregens, which I pirated shamelessly :)

I had to explain to a young player that no, pacifism:self-defense only doesn't allow for killing unconscious prisonner on the basis that they would certainly attack them later otherwise...

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

(and there was a Benny Hill worthy sequence with all 4 players (and a parrot) lost and looking for each other in a Sugar Cane field),...

Agh! I forgot to add a parrot!

[David L Pulver]

Originally Posted by Celjabba

This report inspired me to run the Green Madonna for yesterday One-Shot, and it was a qualified success.
Everyone was happy, I think, and we will finish it later in the month.

Thanks for the great scenario, and thanks also to Fred Brackin for the description of his pregens, which I pirated shamelessly :)

Heh heh. Amused by the self-defense issue; that's classic. Glad it worked well!

I have another complete GURPS historical pirate adventure in Pyramid 3/64 ("The Spanish Prisoner"); it also starts in Jamaica at more or less the same time and again features Port Royal buccaneers vs. the Spanish, so both can be run with the same party.