Auteur : David Skelector

Frosthaven – Relic (79)

David Skelector Boardgame, Play reports

We’re doing a side-scenario, a « job posting » that comes from a Town Hall event if I’m not mistaken. Anyway, as usual we’re doing this only to advance our own goals…

Characters

  • Cassandra the Diviner (David) lvl 5, forgotten diviner (mercenary pack)
  • 4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 7, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
  • Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 7, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?

Pretty big map, we have to move our « sled » all the way to the back in order to break an ice wall with it, somehow. Also, one push (forego a top action) of the sled sends it hurling forward, possibly slamming into foes. A gamey mechanic but quite satisfying nonetheless.

Frost Imps, but they seem surprised and are slow to react to our presence. We kill them in no time.
But there’s more incoming and dangerous Ice Wraiths with them.
The Hive seems in a hurry and jump ahead.
While the Infuser and Diviner deal with the last two foes, the Hive opens a new area.
Revealing many more monsters, and way behind, our objective.
But for now, a tactical retreat despite the Hive’s urge to get it done quickly,
we’ll deal with the monsters together.
The monsters swarm the Hive’s turret and silence it but it gives us time to deal with them.
It’s now safe to proceed further.
Bringing the sled with us. « oh sorry, was that your feet Teabag? »
And opening the way… Two Polar Bears are irked by this great fracas but we just go our way and leave them behind…

Closing Comments:

  • Lots of Imps, hard not to get the brittle condition from them and we received great damage from the ice wraiths because of it.
  • Moving the sled around was somewhat of an hindrance and slowed us down a lot, our hands of cards were pretty thin at the end.
  • Finished my personnal quest of slaying 15 imps, took only 3 scenarios to achieve, that was fast.
  • Trials continue to add a lot of complexity, Math had to guess how many turns it would take us and was a bit on pressure to press forward accordingly.

Sub Terra: mille et une façons de mourir sous terre

David Skelector Boardgame, review

Sub Terra, du game designer français Nuts!, est depuis son acquisition il y a quelques mois rapidement devenu notre jeu de prédilection à jouer en famille et j’ai décidé de vous en glisser un mot.

C’est un jeu coopératif à la base, nos personnages (qui ont chacun des capacités spéciales) sont sous terre, dans un réseau de caverne infesté d’horreurs et doivent s’échapper en trouvant la sortie.

La mécanique du jeu est ainsi faite (le temps « s’écoule » via un paquet de carte, à la dernière carte nos lampes frontales s’éteignent et les chances d’être dévorés sont extrêmement élevées) qu’il est préférable de se séparer pour explorer plus efficacement. Comme tout bon film d’horreur quoi! D’ailleurs le jeu fait énormément penser au film The Cave, 2005 (et dans la même veine, à Sanctum (2011) et The Descent (2005)):

Pas le meilleur film du monde mais un bon divertissement en soi, avec une introduction (église de templier construite au-dessus d’un grand réseau de cavernes) absolument inspirante pour fans de rpgs je dois dire.

Entre les secousses, les éboulements, les poches de gaz, les inondations et bien sûr, les horreurs, l’exploration n’est jamais de tout repos.
L’exploration avance, l’agent et le chef y vont en duo mais l’éclaireur et la géologue sont bien loin de leur côté maintenant!
Une soudaine montée des eaux a mis l’agent inconscient le chef est à côté de lui et pourra le réanimer heureusement.
Un nid d’horreur, tout près…

Les parties durent environ 60 minutes à quatre joueurs. La difficulté est présente, nous échouons une fois sur deux à facile, mais échec ou succès les parties sont toujours enlevantes. Je recommande!

Frosthaven – Thawed Wood (33)

David Skelector Boardgame, Fantasy, Frosthaven, Play reports

The temperature forecast for Québec tomorrow is minus 30 celsius, Frosthaven really doesn’t seem so inhospitable, except for the small matter of monsters maybe…

Characters

  • Cassandra the Diviner (David) lvl 4, forgotten diviner (mercenary pack)
  • 4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 6, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
  • Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 6, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?

A scenario inside the Radiant Forest, which is described as warm and old-growth, an oasis of life protected from the cold. We’re here to find Radiant Stones to keep our ballz warm.

Hostile wildlife incoming!
The Hive leads the way, helped by his Arcing Generator, but he seems plagued by malfunctions: « I Attack this, NO! Can’t say the word… »
Meanwhile, the Infuser seems to be commited to loot everything by himself and have a nervous breakdown when that doesn’t quite happen. Get ahold of yourself guys!
Nonetheless, the area is soon cleared of hostiles, time to advance further in the forest.
The radiant stones are somewhere in this Fire Swamp.
Where are those damn stones?
Found two, only one more. Die you annoying imp!

Closing Comments:

  • This scenario is as much a puzzle than a tactical challenge. But Math, using the superpower of math, efficiently calculated the easiest course to collect the radiant stones (remember that we can move tokens around to make it work) and it went smoothly from there.
  • Math and Guillaume both had super annoying Trials to accomplish and Math in particular had his character almost die because of it (had to refrain from saying some words in game).
  • I have to kill imps for my personnal quest and this scenario provided me with an abundant source of them, that was good.

Flaming Bats for Dragonbane

David Skelector Bestiary, Dragonbane, Fantasy, Monsters, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I’m converting a monster from Gunderholfen (OSR D&D) to Dragonbane that should be encountered next session most likely. I think I’ve emulated the design of monsters in DB closely enough.

Now, I’m not a fan of « Planar » stuff in rpgs. Flaming bats coming from the plane of fire doesn’t do it for me for some reason. Would there be a more « biological » explanation available? Does it eat coal or something as part of its diet? Or I dunno maybe we should go the magic did it route and let’s say it absorbs ambient mana, convert it to heat and that’s why they’re only found in dungeons…

Flaming Bat

This creature is a large orange and black bat with a 2 meters wingspan. It lairs in hot places within small colonies. When resting it emits only a dim flicker like dying embers but when actively hunting it’s wreathed in flames.

Ferocity: 1

Size: medium

Movement: 30

Armor: –

HP: 9

Resistance: Immune to fire.

Flying: The wings of the flaming bat allows it to move freely through the air.

Weakness: If doused in water, their flames can be quenced for a stretch. During this period a flaming bat will try to flee combat.

Monster Attacks

d6 Attack

1 Sharp Teeth! The agile flaming bat swoops down and takes a quick bite at a player character with its sharp teeth, for 2d6 piercing damage. The attack can be evaded or parried.

2 Smoke Screen! The flaming bat exhales a cloud of black smoke from its mouth, all player characters within 2 meters must evade or be blinded (must succeed in an awareness roll in order to attack). The smoke dissipates after 1 round.

3 Sweeping Claws! The flaming bat does an acrobatic figure midair and tries to rake a player character with its claws, for 2d6 slashing damage. The attack can be evaded or parried wth a shield.

4 Fire Belching! The flying creature opens its mouth and let go of a jet of flames, for 2d8 fire damage. The attack can be evaded or parried wth a shield.

5 Latching Attack! The flaming bat tries to latch itself onto a player character using its fangs and claws. The attack inflicts 1d8 piercing damage and subsequently 1d8 fire damage each round that the flaming bat stays latched on. The attack can be evaded or parried wth a shield.

6 Fiery Dive! The fire-emiting creature suddenly burns brighter and dives towards a player character, for 1d8 slashing damage and 1d8 fire damage. The attack can be evaded or parried with a shield.

Shout-out to DF Whiterock: the gold standard of play reports

David Skelector Fantasy, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG, shout-out ,

Just a quick shout-out to dripton from DF Whiterock as he consistently offers the best rpg play reports out there on his blog, in a category of his own really. Way better than what I’m doing over here I must say, my dear readers. He includes an impressive level of details for one, and never to the detriment of entertainment – not an easy feat to accomplish when writing play reports.

His present endeavor is a campaign of Dungeon Fantasy (a GURPS variant), he’s indeed a DF guy – within the Halls of Arden Vul mega dungeon (which as a bonus I’m also a big fan of).

So, what can I add? The best play reports ever, precise and humorous. Also, a lot of behind the curtain to be appreciated by dungeon masters or would-be dms.

Highly recommended!

Gunderholfen- Peril in Ganfal Swamp (session 16)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

I’ll try to have something like a weekly session, at least bi-monthly, of this campaign with my kids for the coming months until summer, we’ll see if I manage to do it.

Short session, 2 hours.

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (me)

Gunderholfen

  • We start in Level 4, with the Battle Brothers and Protectors in the ogres’ den. Having slaughtered most of the adult males and ordered the survivors away, the adventurers clean up the place, using the open pit to good effect, to make it, well, less of an ogres’ den.
  • After that, they block the door and camp there for the night. Forka, in his turn to keep watch, hear footsteps nearby and whispering voices. There’s the smell of orcs. But they seem to turn back the way they came.
  • Next day they begin together their ascent towards sunlight. They tie themselves together with rope for the slippery stairs to Level 3. Reaching Level 3, they do a small detour to see Grom the ogre and ask him some questions. They give him a 50 gp gem and learn from him of the quickest way to reach the « dwarven city » (going south of the ogre den in Level 4, then south-east and then west in a long, noticably warmer passage into a large carvern and then south to reach their destination).
  • They encounter a patrol of ant workers in Level 2 busy transporting dead giant rats and neither side is interested in fighting.
  • They reach Level 1C, into what was the hobgoblin area and got to a portcullis that was always closed to them in the past. They opened it and, a bit further, got to a deep vertical, artificial shaft with chains dangling but no easy way down.
  • They backtracked and then reached Level 1B and got out by the « goblins » door.

Ganfal Swamp

  • Aracyne leads the group competently through Ganfal Swamp and they make good progress despite the harassing environment but then, several hours in, they see a dozen or more humanoids in ragged clothes emerging from behind an outcrop: ghouls!
  • The adventurers fire a salvo of spells and arrows on the howling undead and four of them are slain and another immobilized by a spell of ensnaring roots. But the ghouls are now in melee. Bodil gets hurt by a claw attack and then tackled to the ground and is in great danger. Efram the Mage gets vomited on by a ghoul and then flees not long after, demoralized by the terrifying howling. Aracyne is dishearthened but stands his ground.
  • Two more ghouls are on the approach. Bodil the elf is badly hurt and unconscious. The Hunter Adalbert also flees after another howling near him. Two ghouls are avidly pursuing Efram and Adalbert. Bayard smashes a ghoul’s face in with his magic mace and it’s killed. Jedri drops his flail inadvertently but has a dagger to continue fighting two-weapons style. Grimoire the goblin Mage casts 3 small fireballs and efficiently finish 3 already wounded ghouls. Forka team up with spear-wielding Torch to slay another. The mage Delevan cast Levitate on the ghoul on top of Bodil and throws it away, hurting it in the process, then he goes to help his fleeing companions.
  • Twelve ghouls have been slaughtered, two surviving start to run away, one is stuck in place by Ensnaring roots and is finished by a big hammer blow delivered by Forka. The adventurers have won, with one casualty among them: Bodil is concussed and has infected wounds. Adalbert and Efram also have infected wounds. Fortunately they soon get out of the swamp, into the farmlands, talk to some peasants on the road and reach the city of Longfelt.
  • The two adventuring guilds make a vow of friendship, decide to leave each other signs (cray writings) in the dungeon if they go separately and then say farewell to each other.

Closing Comments:

  • Grom has gotten back his leadership of the ogres thanks to them, there’s that, but he thinks of the adventurers as dangerous and untrustworty and won’t be a true ally. Giving information in exchange for money to the PCs so they go explore a dangerous area is the most he’s ready to do in my mind.
  • The Level 1 mining shaft isn’t there in the book (it replaces an exit to open air), I added it for some unscrutable reason…
  • Rolled an encounter in the swamp and was tempted to just pick an appropriate monster in the Dragonbane Bestiary but instead I’ve rolled on the d20 table and got 20, ghouls.
  • Ghouls in dragonbane don’t have any paralysis abilities as the D&D ones but, as monsters, have a d6 table to roll on to determine what they do, and also, as monsters, they always hit (it’s up to the target to try to defend if they wish). I rolled for each ghoul separately and it went smoothly enough.

The oldest crap map

David Skelector Fantasy

Brian Garthwaite over at 52 Monsters has written another clever post related to rpgs yesterday, this time on the subject of crap maps. Incomplete or faulty in some way, crap maps offers an interesting challenge to players, as well as being, in fact, more realistic of what one could expect of most non-modern, non-professionnal maps.

I really haven’t much to add to Brian’s post other than to go the « did you know » path and offer this tidbit of information that was lingering uselessly in my slush pile, these images of the oldest « crap map » (which might be a bit unfair to its babylonian author, I let you decide) with pieces missing and its highly symbolic depiction of the world as the babylonians thought of it.

Or depicted more clearly below:

And if you’re really into this subject I highly recommend that you listen to this british gentleman, historian and museum curator Irving Finkel, who offers us wonderful insights into the challenges of decipering such an amazing artefact.

Gunderholfen – Bullying the Ogres (session 15)

David Skelector Dragonbane, Dungeons and Dragons, Fantasy, Gunderholfen, jeux de rôles, megadungeon, OSR, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

First session of Dragonbane/Gunderholfen since september of last year. Shame on me.

Last session the Battle Brothers had persuaded Bayard and his Protectors to make a temporary alliance and fight together against the denizens of Level 4.

Short session, 2 hours.

Gunderholfen by G. Hawkins: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/265629/gunderholfen

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers:

  • Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
  • Jedri, Ratman Thief, he likes his rat-shape curse (Isaac)
  • Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)
  • Torch, Goblin Knight, not expendable anymore (Edmond)
  • Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (me)

Level 4

  • The two adventuring guilds, ten strong, descend the long slippery stairs down to Level 4, taking their time to decrease the risk of falling. They also devise a plan to fight the ogres which they already know reside very near the entrance of Level 4.
  • Upon arrival they go east and get to the door leading to the ogres’ den. First trying a quiet approach, they try to open the open door silently but it’s blocked from the other side. Letting go of subtlety, Bayard and Forka, the two strongest characters push the door open, displacing a large rock and a wooden beam, the latter falling to the floor with a loud bam. The PCs hear ogres nearby shouting to each other and get ready for a fight.
  • Getting back quickly to the first room, the adventurers get in formation, with 4 of them frontline and mages and archers (and Torch) behind. The first two ogres in are not very efficient (one good hit to heavily-armored Forka) and are assaulted by weapons and magic and are killed just like that. The following ogre is a bit more successful as he rushes in and rams into Bodil the Elf, tossing him aside on the ground while another ogre misses Jedri the Ratman with a big swing of his club. Aracyne hurts the ramming ogre with two arrows to the chest, wounding him badly and Jedri manages to finish him with a deadly two-weapons combo. Efram, one of the Protectors’ mage uses magic to make one ogre fall asleep and now there’s only one left from the five that were coming at them. The last one still has the will to fight though and wounds Bayard with a big hit but get overhwhelm quickly after.
  • They hear a door slam somewhere close but no other ogres are coming for the moment so the mages have time to do healing magic and everyone is healthy anew.
  • There’s three corridors, with the one in front being were the 5 ogres got out. There’s nothing interesting northeast, they go south and walk close to the wall to get past a (non-hidden) pit trap.
  • They see a room full of refuse, inspect a storeroom (nothing but food & water) and then get in front of double doors, there’s a faint odor of woodfire smoke (along with strong body odours and other unpleasantness).
  • The adventurers bash the doors open and see a big room, something like a cooking area, two teenager ogres were ready for them and immediately kick the burning logs, spraying embers directly on Forka and Bayard. Neither of them were quick enough to evade and lose a round removing the painful embers. The two young ogres don’t stand a chance though and after one is killed the other surrenders and pleads for his life. Bodil would have killed him but Aracyne his in a merciful mood and spare hime in exhange of information. They thus learn of some of the closest areas in this part of the dungeon, not much, the young ogre says that their ex-leader, Gorm (from Level 3), knows a lot more more.
  • The adventurers then proceeded to round up the surviving ogres in the other rooms (in this self-contained area) consisting of: 2 adult male ogres, 5 adult females, the teenager and 2 other youngsters. Aracyne tells them to leave Level 4 and get to Gorm in Level 3 if he would take them. They agree to leave on the condition that they could take their stored food and water with them and the adventurers accept.

Closing Comments:

  • Not much exploration this session but a big step accomplished in removing the ogres, as their presence near the entrance of the Level was always going to be a problem each time they passed.
  • 10 adventurers together are certainly a force to be reckoned with. I’m thinking that they must attract more attention than a smaller group obviously and, at the very least, I will adjust encounter rolls to reflect so in the future. Otherwise, in a non gold-for-xp system there’s just no much disadvantage in being that numerous.

Frosthaven – The Realm of Endless Frost (21)

David Skelector Boardgame, Frosthaven, Play reports

This play report is in fact our second attempt at this scenario, we failed our previous one, our first failure of the campaign in 50+ sessions. It’s a tricky one for sure. The fact that I’m playing a brand new character didn’t help either. Interestingly, I’m playing a non-frosthaven character, one of the four newly-released « mercenary pack »s.

Characters

  • Cassandra the Diviner (David) lvl 4, forgotten diviner (mercenary pack)
  • 4H2 the Hive (Math) lvl 6, refurbished robotic assembly, ADHD
  • Teabag the Infuser (Guillaume) lvl 6, no, no, not this kind of teabag or is it?

We’re trapped in this underground Realm of the Endless Frost and its mischievious master doesn’t intend to make it easy for us.

Frost Demons and Living Spirits make for a cold welcome.
The fight is on!
We go in the second room and find one of those prevalent evil altar, we must destroy it fast less we become overwhelmed by Living Bones (keep appearing until destroyed).
What’s all that clutters? Undead are not good at home staging it seems.
Living Spirit: « I was about to open the box, but then I realised I needed to put some shelves first, and then I tought, I should paint the walls first and then… »
We’ll help you make some order out of you mess alright.
*Smash everything to bits »
There you go, there’s place to walk now.
Further, we meet face to face with the Prince of Frost, he’s an imp!
And of the summoning, super-annoying kind to boot.
We have him properly surrounded now.
With their prince dead, the other imps lose their will to fight.

Closing Comments:

  • Well, the power of foreknowledge helped a lot. The altar must be destroyed without delay. The Boss is in the fourth room, after three big fights, we have to be careful with our cards management in this one. The fist time we tried, we lost too much cards in the second room and knew we had no chance against the boss.
  • We’ve finished the town challenge deck but now have the Trials unlocked, which are even worse (more annoying). Mine isn’t combat-related but Guillaume and Math were and it further hindered our ability to succeed.
  • The diviner is a bit different from the one in Forgotten Circles, a few tweaks here and there. A complexity 5 character, powerful enough from I’m seeing at the moment.

My son’s new dungeon (Dungeon of Kargen)

David Skelector Edmond's adventures, Fantasy, megadungeon, my kids, Play reports, Roleplaying Game, RPG

The Dungeon of Kargen, named after the fantasy city where it’s located, is 10 yo Edmond’s new homebrewed adventure location, with his brother as the unique player. I will try to highlight what happened so far with what they told me.

This is done within a 100% DIY system by the Dungeon Master in which there’s only 4 « attributes »: ranged attack, melee attack, magic attack and Defense. Starting numbers are rolled with a d20 for the main character or d20-6 (min 1) for hirelings (yes many hirelings have pretty abysmal stats…). There’s no cap on levels for characters, each level gives 3 points of attritubes to assign and 5 hit points. Melee damage is linked to attribute bonus but ranged attack bonus is only to hit and not for damage. Magic does more damage but depletes and must be purchased (a new wand). For the moment, magic is just another way of attacking and there’s no utilitarian or any other kind of spells (but that could change I was told).

The main character can bring along a maximum of 3 hirelings, or 5 when he reaches level 10 (and presumably more when of higher level). Also, a nice gameplay rule is that after 5 successful combats in the same area, it is considered « safe » (no more spawning) with the condition that at least one hireling is left in a strategic spot.

Interesting to note I think is what Edmond feels he needs to run his adventure: a list of shops and the items they sell and prices, two pages of hirelings and their stats, a chart of xp needed to advance in levels, a list of weapons and armors and their stats, a chart of bonuses associated with attributes numbers and that’s about it. Everything else he seems to create on the go.

The adventure so far:

  • The adventurer Jean-Paul, an archer, enters the newly-accessible dungeon of Kargen for his first foray and explored the Caves of Riches.
  • He defeats several squeletons and zombies but later on, he almost get killed by a mimic that was near a corpse holding a key in his hand.
  • Back in town he hires Petit Jean (a mediocre fighter) and Rolex (a capable but fast-exhausting magic-user) with the money from the treasures he found.
  • Next foray, the team reaches the City of the Imps. Most imps are non-hostile, they can control monsters to do their bidding and those are sometimes loose and dangerous.
  • They reach the Armory where they have to fight Living Armors.
  • Further on, they spot a throne chamber with a Lich and decide to give it a wide berth.
  • Back in town, he hires Georges (capable archer).
  • Next foray, they find the Area of the Lost Ones. Inhabiting the place are knife-throwing zombies that are fond of torturing people.
  • Back in town, he hires Gengis Khan (average fighter).
  • They find the Prison where a Dragon Skeleton is roaming. There’s many prisoners, all in separate cells. Frees and hires Robert (great fighter) from a cell.
  • They find the Maze and hear the mighty roars of The Minotaur. Find and open a secret door and gets face to face with the Minotaur, who’s in fact the Level’s Boss. They manage to kill it.
  • Gets in a very prolonged fight against 12 Living Armors and a Mimic in which the adventurers get the worst of it and flee.
  • After a stop in town, the team gets back to one of the first area into an unexplored and very long tunnel that leads to a section dubbed the « Mixtature« , inhabited by orcs, zombies, ogres and many other monsters.
  • Find 14 sarcophagi but already looted. Find a large fireplace and get into a fight with a fire elemental. The chimney leads to somewhere else but is haunted by ghosts.
  • Get into a treasure room with a strange statue with one arm extended in front of it, hand open as if waiting to receive something.
  • See a big fight between 3 parties of adventurers (11 total) and 40 orcs, join the fray and help kill the orcs.
  • This is all been happening on the fist Level of the dungeon.
  • TBC…