Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

Hello, I’m John. I’m relatively new to TFT and TTRPGs in general, but I recently had the opportunity to GM a game of Death Test with friends, two of which had never played any kind of RPG or dungeon crawler before. Here are my thoughts as a first time GM, running a game with brand new players.

This being a very first play-through, I didn’t want to kill everyone off too soon, and after reading about how deadly Death Test can be (and TFT combat in general), I decided to have the players build 38 point characters. This turned out to be too drastic on my part, as I think the party could have used a bigger challenge earlier on. The three PCs were: Vespia the wizard, Krog the definitely-not-an-orc-in-disguise greatsword wielding warrior, and Philip the deadeye crossbowman. I also ran a fourth character, Milo the halfling ninja, armed with bola and throwing stars, In addition to the dungeon.

Highlights of the game include Vespia the clumsy wizard missing nearly every single roll to cast a spell except for two, both illusions. The first was a bear, who inherited its maker's clumsiness and missed every single attack roll it made. The second illusion Vespia created was a duplicate of himself, which provided a much needed tactical advantage in the last fight. Krog, the party’s tank, did tank things until getting zapped by lightning and crit-hit by a magic fist, which took him down to exactly 0HP. Luckily the party had a health potion by that point and were able to get him back into the fight. He also managed to befriend a spider early on, which rode on his shoulder for the duration of the dungeon. Milo’s bola was quite useful for tripping up enemies and setting up Krog for a few quick kills. Milo was also the party's only loss: crushed to death by a giant club.

Philip was probably the real MVP of the party however. Nothing too fancy or showy, just consistently hitting with the crossbow and rolling high damage. He did roll a critical hit and triple damage some poor goblin though, leaving the creature’s spine attached to a wall.

The party managed to reach the final room of the dungeon with an appropriately cinematic ending fight with a giant. Vespia managed to distract the giant with an illusion, while the party attempted to run past and escape, getting quite the surprise at finding the door locked and their escape blocked. This was where Milo met his end as well, crushed flat. Vespia, out of desperation and with only a few ST left, began swinging his wizard’s staff at the giant, criting and rolling double damage. Philip peppered the giant with bolts, while Krog, himself down to only one ST, managed to strike the killing blow.

Overall everyone enjoyed themselves and I think it served as a good first introduction to dungeon-crawling. I really want to lean more heavily into the roleplay aspect of the game the next time we get together.

Things I would like to do better: I need to get more familiar with the rules. I spent a lot of time looking things up and I hate to waste player’s time. As I get more comfortable with the system I hope to get more comfortable winging it and making quick judgment calls as well.

I liked the tactical aspect of the combat, but several times during play we wound up in kind of a stalemate of the two groups just standing still and rolling dice at each other. As we start adding Talents into the mix (we played with just Melee/Wizard) hopefully that will open up more interesting options.

Final party thought: I know Death Test is a combat focused adventure, but for the sake of variety and to aid in roleplay I would have liked to have seen some more traps or environmental hazards to contend with, or maybe even a puzzle to solve. If I run Death Test again I would like to add some in myself.

Thanks for reading. TFT is a fun game!

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

Welcome, John!

Having three out of four 38-point characters survive the Death Test might very well be a more fun introduction to TFT for your group than having four out of four 32-point characters die, so that sounds like it was a good decision.

Luckily, TFT has relatively few rules to keep track of, so you should not find it too difficult to feel confident with the system. The folks on this forum and the TFT Discord can help with advice on rules interpretation.

Several adventures have been published by SJGames and Gaming Ballistic which your group might enjoy and that could help move you past just bashing baddies and into more role playing.

Enjoy your Trip!

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

One not so obvious feature of early characters is IQ is your dump stat, even for wizards. You want ST for HP and fatigue(spell) points and DX so you can hit or successfully cast spells. A lot of the encounters in Death Test have DX 10 which equals a 50% hit chance. If your party had DX10 or less, you will have a lot of rounds where everyone misses. A DX of 12 gives about a 75% chance of success.

If you are used to d20 systems with the linear results of a d20, the bell curve of 3d6 takes some getting used to.

Consider having your players make characters with an established day job. Blacksmith, Barkeep, Teamster, etc. Pick 3 or 4 non combat talents that support that job. Should give you some roll play options other then Bash, Stab, Zap!

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

A good roleplaying followup that takes advantage of Death Test is to work the job you just applied for in
https://thefantasytrip.game/products...ns/ardonirane/

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

Thanks for the recommendations all, I'll look into the adventures mentioned as well.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

While I have found Death Test 1 to be deadly for beginning PCs (32 points each). I usually wait until they are a party of 34 point characters before they go into Death Test.

I do this by introducing new players via a few arena battles. It helps them get used to the game mechanics, work their characters as a team, and bumps up their stats a bit before going into Death Test. It is still deadly and brutal but, their survivability does increase.

A more experienced TFT player can have reasonable success with a party of four 32 points characters in Death Test. This is especially true if they have ran characters trough it before. Of course, as GM, I don't always populate the rooms strictly by the book. The book is just my starting point.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

For DT1:

Running characters (IMO) at 34 pts with the suggestion of two with high DX, two with range capabilities, an optional wizard, one who has physicker (might wish to balance the weight limit penalties). Suggestion of at least cloth or leather armor.

The rest time is something also to play with. Unlimited allows for recovery of all fatigue. Limited to 15 minutes or 30 to allow for one or two points of fatigue. Perhaps a random encounter after 15 minutes on a 1 or 2 on a d6 for 2 to 4 other mercs (some with a hit or two on them).

If you leave the encounters as basic skilled creatures: no special weapon skills, unarmed combat, specializations, etc, the first time through, then they should have a good chance of all coming out alive with lots of gems and gold.

However, change it up for higher than 34 pt characters. Change up some of the encounters so not to be predictable. Add special skills like the Missile Weapons for some of the bowmen.

The Black Robed wizard needs to be adjusted to max of 3 dice on the lightning bolt. More advance scenarios give a higher DX (or Missile Weapons skill).

I've not run through DT2 much, but things to stress for new people are hints to defeating some of the beasties. Like in the room with oozes, do something like "There are lit torches spanning along the walls - one every two hexes..."

Have fun, but think of them as heros to succeed more than characters to kill.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

So far as the wizard fatigue recovery, I found a way that works with some options to it. I give them 30 minutes so that they can recovery 2 points. For every 30 minute increment past that, I dock the the entire party XP tally. I experimented with a Giant Wizard, he needed more time but it did cost him in the final XP tally. His main function was to be the Aid spell ST battery for his Goblin Wizard friend that was high IQ and very low ST.

DT2 is a great sequel to DT1. It is tougher. I would recommend a party pf four 35-36 point characters. They are both tough but in DT2 you have to take on a dragon to get out.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

I sometimes think about how many spells cost three times as much to cast to affect a giant as a three hex creature (Blur, Speed Movement, Stone Flesh, etc). I think about why shouldn't other spells like missile spells cost the same to affect a giant the same way. Or perhaps to let the giant make one part of its body blurry or be protected by stone flesh.

Basically, a giant wizard casting a spell on itself is like a human with a ST 9 or so equivalent. With this in mind I sort of think how "Giant Magic" could be a bit different in that the cost is still 1 ST, plus 1 after for Blur for creatures its size or smaller. Never tried to test play the concept though. Most people I gamed with wanted to play D&D and they didn't know TFT at all.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

Hey that's a really cool idea, I hadn't even considered having a giant in the party before!

I ran a party of four 34pt characters solo through DT2 last night and had a good deal of fun. The party only saw three rooms but I enjoyed the more labyrinthine nature of DT2 as well as the variety of encounters.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

I went via ITL for the Giant Wizard and made no changes a based upon size. With a DX of 9, he missed his roles frequently. With an IQ of 9, his spells are limited. However, his staff is ~12 ft long and can reach 2 hexes away. At ST 23, his staff is a club that does a decent amount of damage. So, his goblin wizard pal likes it when he successfully roles an aid spell that allows him to let loose with a 3d+3 Wizard's Wrath while being able to clobber others with his staff. I wouldn't make a habit of making Giant Wizards. Like I said, it was an experiment.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

DT1 and DT2 are great games to start characters in adventures and get folks into playing TFT.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

Take Sword Talent and get a silver Great Sword with the Staff spell on it, which the giant could use one handed (ST is greater than the 19 after all).

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

That's an option but a Silver Great Sword costs $1500. I start characters with the standard $1000 per ITL unless they are an NPC born with a silver spoon in their mouths.

I gave this particular Giant the Quarterstaff talent for 2 IQ points. He was able to purchase a giant sized Quarterstaff that did twice damage at twice the cost and is twice as big. So, he has spells within IQ 9 like Aid, Fire, Turn Missiles, and Avert. He has some difficulty with making the DX rolls. He can still serve as having some brute force in the party between successful DX rolls. His usefulness is an interesting mix of support magic and packing a wallop. At IQ 9, he only had Staff 1 spell.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

The Quarterstaff talent does nothing. Just take a two-handed maul for the same damage and fewer memory points.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

If you double the size of the human-sized quarterstaff and make it a Giant-sized quarterstaff, it can potential do twice the damage at 2d+4 [6 to 16 points, Avg of 11]. The two handed maul does +4 to BHD of 1d+2 (ST 23) for a result of 1d+6 [7 to 12 points, Avg of 9].

I know how much you hate quarterstaves but that criticism doesn't apply here. A normal quarterstaff would be a small stick to a giant and would be useless.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

That is true. A Quarterstaff is just a two-handed maul with IQ points attached to it. The aimed shots is pretty much the same.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

There is also a ST requirement that is counterproductive for a normal one-hex PC. If the quarter staff could be wielded by a ST 8 or 9 PC instead of ST 11, then it would have more advantage. With the modification that I mentioned above, it became more relevant. Otherwise, I'm in agreement that quarterstaves in TFT don't make much sense.

Arena battles and Death Tests are great ways to experiment with odd character builds and non-standard weapon types. The end result of the large quarter staff was that it delivered more damage than the standard staff. However, it wasn't a huge game changer because the Giant with a DX of 9 has a less than 50% chance of hitting. As usual with giants, they don't hit often but when they do, it's usually a huge hit.

The short adventures at the link below are good too for adding some variety.
https://shadekeep.com/dotm.html

I used the one called "The Discomfitted Dragon" as a mini-adventure within an adventure. I changed it up a bit for the PCs in the game but it was a great addition. It could be a short stand alone adventure if you are looking for something different than the death tests.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

Giant sized spiked clubs hit 84% of the time, if they first apply their big bottoms to knock their foes to the ground first.

Re: Death Test session report: band new players, first time GM
 

I assume that you are referring to trampling. It is to the giants advantage to trample and knock down a foe to get the +4 AdjDX. While it does take a turn to do that, if a turn is taken to miss a foe, the next turn has just as bad of a chance. So, giants and trampling and taking advantage of the engagement rules that are in their favor is the best route for a giant to get a successful DX roll.