Review of Play: The Saga of the Westmarch DF Game

mlangsdorf · 06-25-2009, 12:45 PM

Session 40
http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/...ouded_Valley/6

The delvers have taken a goblin village and are now holding it against the entirety of the greenskin in the Shrouded Valley. Fortunately for the delvers, its taking the greenskins some time to rally and organize their forces. Unfortunately for the delvers, that's because there are so many people to rally.

This session highlighted that Explode, as a spell, is undercosted. I think all fragmentation effects are undercosted, really. 1d or 2d effects are fine, but 6d effects are many times more powerful than 2d effects: 3x the blast radius, and damage that goes from "just barely cutting through plate armor" to "does measurable amounts of damage to sword-armor golems." Changing the spell cost to half of the square of the damage dice, rounded up would give a progression of 1, 2, 5, 8, 13, 18 which I suspect better values the effectiveness.

I didn't get to see the effectiveness of the goblin hordes yet, as they were too separated to close during the first 10 seconds of combat. Next session I'm sure.

As a GM, I'm looking forward to the arrival of the orc foot knights, orc cavalry, and other high powered foes in the next wave. I think the cavalry will respond to Richard's artillery antics in the traditional way (ie, fall over and die) but the foot knights should be able to march through 1d and 2d explode effects with impunity.

Harald had some concerns about the ogres that he brought up after the session was over: hard to hit, hard to hurt, lots of HP, and they can one-shot the PCs (other than Mrugnak). Ayake has been struggling at his ogre, who has been retreating, but Connell and Mrugnak's team up tactics have been very successful. If the three PCs would join up, they could probably defeat any two ogres faster than ogre reinforcements could join.

(Note on the tactical positioning: Ayake is fighting an ogre about 10 yards east of the road, while Connell and Mrugnak are about 20 yards to his west. There are 20+ bands of 8 goblins each, separated by 10-15 yards, and all moving to close on the delvers at 5 yards a second from distances of 20+ yards. 2-3 ogres have broken past Mrugnak, Connell, and Ayake and are running the last 200 yards to melee with Richard and Berkun - though they'll get shot before they succeed, poor valiant losers. Another 5-6 ogres are running for Ayake, Connell, and Mrugnak.)

06-25-2009, 12:45 PM	#31
mlangsdorf Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Austin, TX	Re: Review of Play: The Saga of the Westmarch DF Game Session 40 http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/...ouded_Valley/6 The delvers have taken a goblin village and are now holding it against the entirety of the greenskin in the Shrouded Valley. Fortunately for the delvers, its taking the greenskins some time to rally and organize their forces. Unfortunately for the delvers, that's because there are so many people to rally. This session highlighted that Explode, as a spell, is undercosted. I think all fragmentation effects are undercosted, really. 1d or 2d effects are fine, but 6d effects are many times more powerful than 2d effects: 3x the blast radius, and damage that goes from "just barely cutting through plate armor" to "does measurable amounts of damage to sword-armor golems." Changing the spell cost to half of the square of the damage dice, rounded up would give a progression of 1, 2, 5, 8, 13, 18 which I suspect better values the effectiveness. I didn't get to see the effectiveness of the goblin hordes yet, as they were too separated to close during the first 10 seconds of combat. Next session I'm sure. As a GM, I'm looking forward to the arrival of the orc foot knights, orc cavalry, and other high powered foes in the next wave. I think the cavalry will respond to Richard's artillery antics in the traditional way (ie, fall over and die) but the foot knights should be able to march through 1d and 2d explode effects with impunity. Harald had some concerns about the ogres that he brought up after the session was over: hard to hit, hard to hurt, lots of HP, and they can one-shot the PCs (other than Mrugnak). Ayake has been struggling at his ogre, who has been retreating, but Connell and Mrugnak's team up tactics have been very successful. If the three PCs would join up, they could probably defeat any two ogres faster than ogre reinforcements could join. (Note on the tactical positioning: Ayake is fighting an ogre about 10 yards east of the road, while Connell and Mrugnak are about 20 yards to his west. There are 20+ bands of 8 goblins each, separated by 10-15 yards, and all moving to close on the delvers at 5 yards a second from distances of 20+ yards. 2-3 ogres have broken past Mrugnak, Connell, and Ayake and are running the last 200 yards to melee with Richard and Berkun - though they'll get shot before they succeed, poor valiant losers. Another 5-6 ogres are running for Ayake, Connell, and Mrugnak.)