Goblin Waters delve - part 2

Once again our brave delvers fought cunning and dangerous foes in the water logged caves in the mountains above Kobb, the hobb hamlet. We left off with the characters still in the caves, and I must confess I had forgotten how much punishment they had taken, for in the first fight one of them went down after first contact with the enemy. I was way to kind and actually let them fight giant spiders without venom! But, they handled themselves well and fought very smartly with a polearm in a fairly narrow corridor. Nothing beats a polearm set against charge when there's no room to evade that pointed stick if you want to close for melee. Spiders being spiders they wasn't that good at grasping that fine point of tactics.

Apart from some fights, this was a session for sneaking. Everyone who have ever used pitons to keep doors shut or open can probably imagine what happened if I tell you that my players successfully "contained" some danger. I still haven't decided how hard it will be for that poor monster to break down the door.

The most useful lesson learnt so far for me from running this adventure is to always look at rooms close by and try to imagine how the inhabitants of those rooms would be able to roam about. Having the dungeon be a place where people move around makes for a more dynamic setting, and it was quite suspenseful when the characters kept hearing splashing of oars in the distance and suchlike.

If you have never had players plunder an alchemical lab, or some other place with strange bottles, I suggest you do so! How entertaining it is to see how they try to discover what those mysterious liquids do. My only disappointment this session was that they never did try to drink that massage oil they found. It would have been fun.

There are still more dangers to be found in tha caves, and we will meet again in a few weeks time. I really love to be playing T&T again!

Gobling Waters delve!

This last Sunday we played T&T, and great fun was had. Three brave adventurers managed to be in the hobb hamlet of Kobb, and answered the pleas for help from the vertically challenged.

Grötz - a very stout dwarf
Farhandian - a very charming fairy
Jack - roguish human

Later on, Farhandian was lovingly carried back to town in an envelope to be buried and the very sturty hobb Sam took his place. Nothing stops adventure!

So, what happened? We were playing Garen Ewing's small GM adventure Goblin Waters, since it was of fitting size and I had it printed out. I really wish Garen had published the map in some other format than jpg, though. With a lossy compression format like that it was very hard to read the keys from the printout. Use png, people!

Our brave adventurers, broke as usual, came to a small hamlet where everyone was sad because their mayor and their dragon mascot had been stolen. Our brave delvers accepted their hospitality and enjoyed themselves among good food and fair hobb maidens. Then they grabbed their weapons and followed a young hobb named Sam to where he had seen the vile goblins disappear into the mountainside.

All the while they was in the caves and tunnels, goblin patrols managed to run into them. For some reason it always meant a fight instead of evasion. I guess they took that kind of serious about "punish those vile goblins". I tried to be good with hints when they encountered bigger and more well trained goblins. All those hints fell on deaf ears, but when the dwarf decided to behave like a bowling ball, and the fairy focusing on diversion it went very smooth indeed. Then the delver with gossamer wings and 4 in CON decided to go up against a goblin. Fairy past against his shield and the cavern wall. At least his comrades in arms decided to buy him a nice card to be sent home in. Suddenly Sam realized he had qualities hereto unknown, and joined the group as a spell caster. They brought poor Farhandian back to the village and Grötz had to scream very loud and recruit and train a local militia to get them to think positively again after that. Then they got back.

My favourite scene was when they had dared to enter one of the tunnels off the under ground lake and found the goblin accountant! He was totally non plussed by the appearance of intruders and even got them to help him work! Don't let anyone say that there are no NPC interactions and no character role play and immersion in a dungeon crawl! Questioning him was great fun.

What can be said about that session? Well, everyone seemed to think T&T was very fun, and that the freedom allowed by the Saving Rolls system was making the system come alive for them all. I tried to be quite generous with AP for good ideas and making us laugh. A sense of accomplishment is not to be underestimated, and the constant trickle of AP from SRs helped that. I ignored Kremm Resistance, since I haven't decided what to make of it. We also used my House rule with 4d and pick 3, for humans to measure up to other kin. Paragons I only allow after a triples, since the 4d makes all 12+ more likely.

My players will have to chime in with details I have forgotten.