Sunday 29 October 2017

Basic Fantasy RPG - Part VI

As a summary for anyone catching up, this is the first time my party (including me) have run adventures using the Basic Fantasy RPG rules. As such we opted to use the base rules from the core book. Each session we have reviewed how this is working with a view to tweaking and adding in the extra rules that have been made available on the BRFPG site.

So before starting this session I decided to make a few more tweaks. Note most of the tweaks we add are available on the Downloads page for Basic Fantasy RPG. Where we differ from these I will highlight it specifically.

First off I decided to add in the rules for using multiple weapons. I'm not sure strictly it should be allowed but I let my cleric take two hammers, predominantly because I liked the cinematic style of a Cleric smashing around two hammers :) Our thief was absent (but he normally uses his bow while hiding behind the others ... which I think is a sound Thief tactic!), our Mage uses a staff and the Fighter has his specialisation point in his two handed sword so he wanted to stick with that!

The second rule we added in was the option to go defensive and add +4 to your AC. As it happened we didn't use this, but it is part of our "world" now.

So ... the new rules discussed and agreed we kicked off.

Quick Re-Cap

The Party had descended into the second level of the dungeon only to find Gilgan. A Cleric of questionable morals beaten up and requesting help (feel free to go back and read the other posts for more details :) ) After killing a couple of Bandits and skeletons they made camp at the top of stairs heading down.

The party having rested up checked their gear, and spells, and made sure Gilgan was still breathing ... unfortunately he was ... they cursed their luck and carried on down the stairs. At the bottom they found another corridor hewn roughly out of grey rock heading away from them. Following this down they came to a large body of water. The party used a staff to probe for the bottom of the water and discovered it was deeper than the staff .... no wading going on here! While they were discussing the best way across they noticed ripples in the water.

By this point the party had decided to wrap up all their armour and weapons in bags and attach them to rope. They could then swim throught the water and upon reaching the far bank they could pull their gear after them. Excellent way not to drown!

However being preterbed by the ripples they suddenly remembered that Gilgan must have already come this way when he fled from the bandits, and decided to question him.

Party: "Gilgan, do you know what''s in the water?"
Gilgan: "Well there are the sharks......"
Party: "Why didn't you tell us!!!!!!!"
Gilgan: "You never asked!"

... and yet again the party decided to discuss whether drowing Gilgan or sticking a sword in him would actually be for the greater good.

Finally deciding they best not try and kill him, instead they asked him to swim with the rope to the far bank (braving the sharks).

However before Gilgan could jump in, the party had another brilliant idea. The Cleric ran back up the stairs and retrieved a bandit corpse. The party threw that in for the sharks to feed on, and Gilgan jumped in and swam for it. He made it most of the way getting a little nip from his leg from a shark along the way.

The party deciding not to risk things and shouted out to Gilgan ... the conversation went something like this ...
Party: "Gilgan tie the rope to a rock"
Gilgan: "Ok"
Party: "Is it tied...."
Gilgan: "Yes"
Party: "To a big rock?"
Gilgan: *slight pause* "Yeahhs ......."
Cleric (wise to Gilgans shenanigans): "To a rock that would look big to a human?"
Gilgan: "Um.....no...ok...hang on .... ok re-tied....yes"

The Party are getting wise to what Gilgan thinks is funny!

The party then swam for it, they got just to the edge of the jet black water, and as they were pulling themselves out a shark snapped at their heels just missing the boots of the fighter.

The party grabbed the rope and proceeded to haul their armour and weapons through the water. As they pulled the rope hand over hand the suddenly felt the rope tug back towards the way they had come... a shark had grabbed the bag! The party gave a sharp yank and the bag came free, the shark obviously deciding it wasn't edible. The players quickly hauled the bag the remaining distance and pulled it clear of the water.

Having regained their possessions they followed the tunnel along, as they progressed the ceiling became lower and the the walls closer. Finally it opened up into a larger chamber which appeared to be a dead end. Searching the chamber the party discovered a section of wall where the shadows seemed to be slightly off under their lamplight, not quite moving quickly enough. The fighter took a swing at the section his boot which passed right through and back again! In the ensuing silence they head a voice on the other side of the illusory wall
"shhh they may come through...."
The party decided on their marching orders and advanced into the corridor in a 2 by 2 formation. The Cleric and Fighter in front and the Mage and Thief behind ... they didn't really care where Gilgan was as long as they didn't have to look at him.

Passing through the illusion they found themselves in another grey stone corridor hewn roughly out of the rock, dirt and stones littering the floor. Everything was brightly lit by a medium sized lantern that faced directly towards them leaving several shadows behind the lamp. 3 bandits moved forwards from the shadows, two surly bruisers at the front and a slightly bigger surlier looking bandit just behind them.

The Thief (having readied his bow) let loose with an arrow, which sang between the ears of the Warrior and Cleric hitting the first bandit in the eye and felling him in one go. Caught slightly off guard the bandits failed to make any mark in retaliation; the Fighter keeping them on their toes. Taking advantage of this the Cleric tested his two hammers, swinging one into the second bandits stomach he released a full circular upper cut of a blow with the second hammer into his face as he doubled over from the fist blow. Teeth and blood splattered up the ceiling as the bandits head snapped back his glassy stare testament to his quick demise. The leader of this little group made to step into the fray only to have a blue missile streak from the mages hand, wrapping its energy around him and searing him to the bone and dropping him to one knee. Steadfastly he struggled back to his feet into the incoming mages staff which smashed directly into the bridge of his nose felling him.

This was. To Date. The most impressive the party have been in a fight. They not only made sure their marching order was spot on, but utilised everyone's strengths to minimise damage to the party.

I checked for random encounters and got a 1 ... YES ..... I then rolled on the table and got Skeletons .... double YES! I then rolled for how many ... oooo dear ....

The party continued their advance along the corridor, as they approached the end, the tunnel turned to the right and they could hear a faint rustling like dry paper being scrunched. Peering around the corner they counted 11 skeletons ..... yes 11! At this point the fighter wanted to go a bit Han Solo and charge right in there. However the party discussed it and realised that the corridor was only 2 people wide, so pulling the skeletons to them would allow them to minimise the number that could attack at any one time. The party threw a rock into the room, missing spectacularly and hitting the far wall with a loud crack .. the skeletons began to move in the opposite direction. The Mage then began banging his staff on the floor and managed to draw the attention of the skeletons who upon seeing the party charged! The party, as planned, backed into the corridor to take them on. There were many swords and hammers swung. The mage smashing at the skeletons over the dwarf clerics head. The party made short work of the skeletons, with dust, bone and the occasional skull flying hither and thither. The final round of combat saw The Fighter, Thief and Mage all with the same initiative roll, they all went for the final skeleton doing a combined damage of 13 HP. As the Skeleton only had 8 HP to start with needless to say he exploded on top his colleagues. The skeletons in the entire fray only managed to land one blow on the Fighter, they spent a lot of the fight obviously struggling with their footing as they were trying to keep their balance on the remnants of their colleagues!

The party settled down to rest up before moving on.

Summary

The party are learning and working more as a party. They are playing to their characters strengths and using their wits to stay alive as well as their brawn. I feel the tweaks we have made rolling in some of the extra rules are beginning to make the game feel more balanced. However we will as always continue to review and see how we progress!

I am super happy with the way the party are using the locations to their benefit and to maximise their chances of minimal casualties.

As always I can't wait for the next session!

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