Review of Play: The Saga of the Westmarch DF Game - Page 19

mlangsdorf · 03-24-2010, 10:55 AM

New Campaign Session 23
http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks/Log_2-5

The delvers, for no particular reason that I can fathom, decide to provoke a fight with nearly a dozen shock lizards. At first, the fight goes the delvers' way, as their shields absorb the long range fire from the lizards and their attacks whittle down the lizards' numbers. Then the lizards get in a couple of lucky hits, and the delvers discover that shock lizards are much more dangerous en masse as 4d+4 lightning bolts nearly put Wolfgang into the ground and explode two of Shelley's skeletons. The lizards had taken bad enough losses at that point, and decide to flee. Only a few get away.

A heck of a lot of healing magic later, the delvers continue their trek. Their plan to is to walk around the very large lake, hoping to find the ghost somewhere on the southern shore. I suspect they haven't thought this through all the way, but hey: Marik probably won't starve in the forests.

The rest of the session was spent wandering the woods and finding the tracks of the weird inhabitants thereof. Nothing horrible yet, but plenty of weird and foreboding.

One weird question got posed: can a necromancer^H necrotechnician create undead^H flesh/bone golems from ambulatory plants like Crushrooms? A quick search of Magic and DF2 implied it was possible, but nothing definitive either way.

Kuroshima · 03-24-2010, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

One weird question got posed: can a necromancer^H necrotechnician create undead^H flesh/bone golems from ambulatory plants like Crushrooms? A quick search of Magic and DF2 implied it was possible, but nothing definitive either way.

Nothing in the zombie spell forbids it, though, personally, I'm not sure I would allow it. I would only allow Zombie on animals, personally, if nothing else because I don't like the idea of zombie plants or zombie insects (Yeah, I know, zombie scarabs are traditional, but who cares).

Do zombie crushrooms fit in your world? If so, then allow it, if not, then forbid it. Personally, the main rule about if something can be animated by necromancy depends on if the creature has bones, because I prefer clean skeletons to dripping zombies.

mlangsdorf · 03-24-2010, 04:53 PM

Insects are animals, though. I'd certainly let Shelley animate one of the Giant Wasp corpses they've found, though I doubt I'd let it continue producing venom. Still, flying zombie with a powerful stinger: not bad. Maybe.

I'm inclined to allow plant zombies, because the West March is all about crazy kitchen sink wackiness.

RobKamm · 03-24-2010, 06:25 PM

Its your call, but does the idea of ravenous hordes of zombified crushrooms crying "stamen, staaaamen!" strike your sense of horror or of humor?

Bruno · 03-24-2010, 06:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobKamm

Its your call, but does the idea of ravenous hordes of zombified crushrooms crying "stamen, staaaamen!" strike your sense of horror or of humor?

Crushrooms don't cry anything, any more than wasps do - talking animals is already firmly in the humor area, you don't need to make them zombies to add to that.

sir_pudding · 03-24-2010, 07:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruno

Crushrooms don't cry anything, any more than wasps do - talking animals is already firmly in the humor area, you don't need to make them zombies to add to that.

Conflating magically animated undead with Romero's Living Dead is also in humor territory.

Bruno · 03-24-2010, 09:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Conflating magically animated undead with Romero's Living Dead is also in humor territory.

True, true. Either way, I cry dirty pool - Count Chocula doesn't prove that vampires are an inherently silly idea.

thulben · 03-25-2010, 10:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruno

True, true. Either way, I cry dirty pool - Count Chocula doesn't prove that vampires are an inherently silly idea.

...but the sparkly vampires from Twilight do. ;)

mlangsdorf · 04-06-2010, 11:05 AM

New Campaign Session 24
http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks/Log_2-6

A lot of people had other obligations last week, so we had to cancel. And James - the fellow irregularly playing Ghazeb - had to drop, so now we have an opening.

This session was mostly combat against a bunch of mutant plant lions in densely packed, overgrown woods. The terrain made things difficult for the PCs, but the big problem was the lions attacked from ambush and managed to knock down Beltarne and Ghazeb on the first strike. Smacking fairly potent enemies while your allies are in close combat proved to be difficult.

This was a very straightforward session, with no real rules challenges. One house rule came up, though. A bit of history about that:

When I first started running the game, the party included Lenia the IQ16 wizard and Thog the IQ8 Scout. Lenia didn't regularly fail monster identification rolls, but she did sometimes and memorably provided bad information in a fight against a Peshkali. On the other had, Thog had no monster identification skills, so he never rolled, so he never critically failed and never provided bad information. It had the weird effect of making the smart person seem stupider than the very dumb person.

I instituted a house rule that EVERYONE had to make Carousing, Current Affairs, and monster identification checks. Stupid/unskilled characters were much more likely to fail, so the low IQ characters who constantly spew bad information now seem less bright than the high IQ characters who aren't crit-failing on a 12+.

Some of the players complained this is a bit much, and I'm inclined to agree with them. So I'm probably going to reduce the chance of critically failing those rules to no more than a 14+, no matter how bad the target number. This still leaves the medium to high IQ people better off, since they only critfail on a 17+, but makes the IQ9 and IQ10 people less likely to critfail.

mlangsdorf · 04-21-2010, 10:54 AM

New Campaign Session 25, 26
http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks/Log_2-7
http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks/Log_2-8

The first half of session 25 was a long travelogue as the delvers crossed the wilderness. I'm not sure how much the players are enjoying that, which is a problem because exploring the wilderness is a large part of the campaign.

The rest of the session and all of session 26 was a sprawling battle between the PCs, some thorn lions, and a bunch of savage vinemen with axes. That was very, very messy. The lions grappled the PCs, forcing their allies to attack into close combat, which was dangerous. The vinemen spewed pollen and allergens when hit badly enough, and though none of the PCs were affected by the stuff, it sure worried the PCs.

I don't think there were many rules disputes, though there was some confusion about how various rules worked out: can you Interdict a foe moving to your flank if you made a Move and Attack, and what happens if you declare a lot of Deceptive Attack but forget that you're also under Shock penalties? Is it better to shoot an armored, homogeneous target with a bodkin arrow or a normal arrow? Stuff like that.

There was some funny commentary about pollens and Bruno's persistent allergies on the side comment channel that I need to collect and post.

03-24-2010, 10:55 AM	#181
mlangsdorf Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Austin, TX	Re: Review of Play: The Saga of the Westmarch DF Game New Campaign Session 23 http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks/Log_2-5 The delvers, for no particular reason that I can fathom, decide to provoke a fight with nearly a dozen shock lizards. At first, the fight goes the delvers' way, as their shields absorb the long range fire from the lizards and their attacks whittle down the lizards' numbers. Then the lizards get in a couple of lucky hits, and the delvers discover that shock lizards are much more dangerous en masse as 4d+4 lightning bolts nearly put Wolfgang into the ground and explode two of Shelley's skeletons. The lizards had taken bad enough losses at that point, and decide to flee. Only a few get away. A heck of a lot of healing magic later, the delvers continue their trek. Their plan to is to walk around the very large lake, hoping to find the ghost somewhere on the southern shore. I suspect they haven't thought this through all the way, but hey: Marik probably won't starve in the forests. The rest of the session was spent wandering the woods and finding the tracks of the weird inhabitants thereof. Nothing horrible yet, but plenty of weird and foreboding. One weird question got posed: can a necromancer^H necrotechnician create undead^H flesh/bone golems from ambulatory plants like Crushrooms? A quick search of Magic and DF2 implied it was possible, but nothing definitive either way.

03-24-2010, 04:53 PM	#183
mlangsdorf Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Austin, TX	Re: Review of Play: The Saga of the Westmarch DF Game Insects are animals, though. I'd certainly let Shelley animate one of the Giant Wasp corpses they've found, though I doubt I'd let it continue producing venom. Still, flying zombie with a powerful stinger: not bad. Maybe. I'm inclined to allow plant zombies, because the West March is all about crazy kitchen sink wackiness.

03-24-2010, 06:25 PM	#184
RobKamm Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Chicago	Re: Review of Play: The Saga of the Westmarch DF Game Its your call, but does the idea of ravenous hordes of zombified crushrooms crying "stamen, staaaamen!" strike your sense of horror or of humor?

04-06-2010, 11:05 AM	#189
mlangsdorf Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Austin, TX	Re: Review of Play: The Saga of the Westmarch DF Game New Campaign Session 24 http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks/Log_2-6 A lot of people had other obligations last week, so we had to cancel. And James - the fellow irregularly playing Ghazeb - had to drop, so now we have an opening. This session was mostly combat against a bunch of mutant plant lions in densely packed, overgrown woods. The terrain made things difficult for the PCs, but the big problem was the lions attacked from ambush and managed to knock down Beltarne and Ghazeb on the first strike. Smacking fairly potent enemies while your allies are in close combat proved to be difficult. This was a very straightforward session, with no real rules challenges. One house rule came up, though. A bit of history about that: When I first started running the game, the party included Lenia the IQ16 wizard and Thog the IQ8 Scout. Lenia didn't regularly fail monster identification rolls, but she did sometimes and memorably provided bad information in a fight against a Peshkali. On the other had, Thog had no monster identification skills, so he never rolled, so he never critically failed and never provided bad information. It had the weird effect of making the smart person seem stupider than the very dumb person. I instituted a house rule that EVERYONE had to make Carousing, Current Affairs, and monster identification checks. Stupid/unskilled characters were much more likely to fail, so the low IQ characters who constantly spew bad information now seem less bright than the high IQ characters who aren't crit-failing on a 12+. Some of the players complained this is a bit much, and I'm inclined to agree with them. So I'm probably going to reduce the chance of critically failing those rules to no more than a 14+, no matter how bad the target number. This still leaves the medium to high IQ people better off, since they only critfail on a 17+, but makes the IQ9 and IQ10 people less likely to critfail.

04-21-2010, 10:54 AM	#190
mlangsdorf Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Austin, TX	Re: Review of Play: The Saga of the Westmarch DF Game New Campaign Session 25, 26 http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks/Log_2-7 http://westmarchsaga.wikia.com/wiki/WM/Treks/Log_2-8 The first half of session 25 was a long travelogue as the delvers crossed the wilderness. I'm not sure how much the players are enjoying that, which is a problem because exploring the wilderness is a large part of the campaign. The rest of the session and all of session 26 was a sprawling battle between the PCs, some thorn lions, and a bunch of savage vinemen with axes. That was very, very messy. The lions grappled the PCs, forcing their allies to attack into close combat, which was dangerous. The vinemen spewed pollen and allergens when hit badly enough, and though none of the PCs were affected by the stuff, it sure worried the PCs. I don't think there were many rules disputes, though there was some confusion about how various rules worked out: can you Interdict a foe moving to your flank if you made a Move and Attack, and what happens if you declare a lot of Deceptive Attack but forget that you're also under Shock penalties? Is it better to shoot an armored, homogeneous target with a bodkin arrow or a normal arrow? Stuff like that. There was some funny commentary about pollens and Bruno's persistent allergies on the side comment channel that I need to collect and post.