04-01-2018, 06:04 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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You All Meet at an Inn
I just ran a new group of players through their first DFRPG session using Matt Riggsby's excellent adventure, "You All Meet at an Inn," from Pyramid #3/98. I've run "I Smell a Rat" a few times, so I thought I'd try something a bit different.
I offered up a pile of pregens from Delvers to Go and the forums. Kromm's set of forum characters proved popular, with players choosing Lucky the Agile Goon (Swashbuckler), Sir Godfrey Stephen Hauteville (Thief), and Kellan Ellanjan (Bard). Llandor the Gray (Scout) was also selected from DtG. I didn't enforce (or encourage, really) any particular focus on party balance. I usually just adjust challenges to fit the party's particular talent curve. First off, the players (adults who have some RPG experience, but never DFRPG or GURPS) absolutely loved the array of characters. They immediately appreciated the significance of disadvantages and usually looked at those (and quirks) first. There were howls of laughter about various combination before we even began the game. Even once we started, they definitely wanted some roleplaying time in the common room. Throughout the session, Sir Godfrey's quirk of shouting baseless "tactical advice" was unbelievably fun. Everyone was constantly suggesting new ideas for him to shout, "Llandor, throw down your bow and charge!" Coming up with club jokes for Lucky was also popular. Indeed, all the roleplaying was so fun that we barely scratched the surface of the adventure plot. (This is always a good sign.) The earthquake happened and zombies emerged. A few NPC merchants died gloriously. Then there was a mad rush to close shutters and secure the place. The main battle took place at the gates while the PCs attempted to close them. Lucky and Llandor did the majority of the slaying, though each character was easily able to contribute. Sir Godfrey didn't dish out much damage without backstab, but his high DR (gotta love a thief in plate armor) meant that he could absorb a lot of attacks without injury. Kellan used Walk on Air to stay above the fray and his Concussion spell helped clear the field outside the gates so that Lucky could shove the gates shut (he was strong enough to close them despite the corpses piling up). Midway through the battle, I realized that I had completely forgotten to describe the trumpet sound from the well. My solution was to have a zombie head over to the well, mesmerized, and dive in. That piqued everybody's interest. The PCs emerged largely unscathed. I went fairly easy on them, since they didn't know the combat rules very well, so I didn't take advantage of every opportunity the zombies had. I also didn't bring in the bats and whatnot. Nevertheless, there was a sense of tension because it was clear that the zombie numbers were effectively infinite, so if they couldn't secure the place, they would eventually succumb. Upon closing the gates, we were out of time, so we stopped there. It was a very satisfying session and we hope to continue later this week. |
04-01-2018, 07:52 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: You All Meet at an Inn
Great session report! Thanks for this - it was fun to read. Sounds like y'all had a blast.
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My (ahem... hugely entertaining... ahem) GURPS blog: The Collaborative Gamer |
04-01-2018, 08:52 PM | #3 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: You All Meet at an Inn
Spoiler warning: If you might play in this adventure, you may want to skip this thread because I've got some questions about specific foes and challenges.
I've been considering the next encounter and have a couple of questions relating to the battle with the Flame Lord and the Toxifiers:
Of course I know that the group will probably come up with all sorts of ideas that I can't predict, but I like to wrap my head around some basic options. I'll probably nerf the Flame Lord a bit, lowering DR and perhaps reducing skill slightly. |
04-04-2018, 11:05 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Canada
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Re: You All Meet at an Inn
Our GM tweaked the flame lord such that didn't appear until the barbarian ran into the room and poked at its font, and (importantly!) it didn't appear in immediate homocidal burnination mode. Our wizard make a lore check and groveled appropriately, the rest of the party followed their lead, and we made a deal with the flame lord to release it in exchange for agreements not to set anything on fire anywhere near where we were :)
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04-04-2018, 02:56 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: You All Meet at an Inn
Quote:
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04-05-2018, 07:22 AM | #7 | |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: You All Meet at an Inn
Quote:
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03-07-2021, 09:02 AM | #8 |
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: The Hall of Fallen Columns
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Re: You All Meet at an Inn
I am running a heavily-modified version of this for my gaming group. We just had our first session and we're about one room into the underground, since the majority of the time was spent carousing and Doing NonCombat Character-Building Stuff(TM).
Altered assumptions:
I've noticed that one potential problem in my PC-to-challenge calculation is that two of my players are playing finesse-style assassin types. Unfortunately, the enemies are mostly stone-based enemies, so DR is high and most of them are also Homogenous, meaning crits and location-specific hits don't really do much. I'm trying to build in some monsters (e.g. golems and draug and minor undead) that have somewhat scary or inconvenient weapons, so that even though the swashbuckler and assassin don't do full damage against them, they can still disarm or sunder the enemies' own weapons (something you can't really do against, say, a Rock Mite or an Obsidian Jaguar whose natural weapons are stone). I'm also looking to place multiple traps in the area so these sneakier types get their time in the sun. One other change: the watery chamber of "You All Meet At An Inn" no longer has a lever to pull. Instead, I've placed a few hanging stalactites at the upstream end of the chamber. A perceptive PC could notice they look pretty fragile, and could be brought down with enough impact. This will block the upstream flow and cause the river to fall in level, making it much less threatening. (The river's monsters - leeches and water snakes - are both still unchanged in my drafting, so there's something living that our finesse-built PCs can hurt.) |
03-08-2021, 10:25 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Saint Paul, MN
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Re: You All Meet at an Inn
Sounds like a great alteration. I like the idea of luring rock mites. Keep the posts coming; I'd like to know how it goes from here on out.
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03-09-2021, 10:39 AM | #10 |
Join Date: Feb 2009
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Re: You All Meet at an Inn
I totally added in a rock mites bonus encounter in honor of this thread
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