Solo FTR Crawl 2; Part 1
I've made some changes to our FTR rules to make it work better, and I think I've succeeded. What I did are basically tweaks, separating hits from damage, removing the weapon construction rules, and an entirely new magic and character creation system. But the bulk of the rules remain FTR.
And the changes have worked, the game is much more fluid, consistent, and that makes it more fun.
So I've decided to run a solo campaign, and continuing story for a fantasy dungeon party. Well, and continuing as it can be for people going into TheDeep, it's not safe, and adventurers tend to die quickly.
The new FTR rules are only a part of this since it's a solo game. I'll be using resources from quite a few places, mostly for random charts, to make it work. I'll try to list some of those at some point if there's any interest in that.
The adventure begins, as they always do, at the village tavern. These are the members of the adventuring party. From left to right; Mordvey (wizard), Nysbustah, Legendary Idiot(thief), Cazio the Handsome (cleric), Ummork the Honorable (fighter), and Ergon the Bear (fighter).
At this point I drew cards from a set called the Dungeon Deck, this is a product designed for this task. You draw one card from each pile and it gives you a random and pretty complete adventure. I drew only the first couple cards, I have a different method of generating the map, monsters, and treasure.
The cards gave me the "lure", or the reason for the game. In this case, someone from the town was kidnapped and dragged off to the dungeon. The next card tells me that the entry to the dungeon we tracked the kidnapper to is a "sealed door that hasn't been opened in a long, long time". And yet, the kidnapper went in there... This is a fun part of this type of game for me, taking a set of "facts" and generating a story that connects them, no matter how seemingly unrelated they are. If the door is sealed, yet the kidnapper went in there, then what exactly is this fiend capable of?
The third card tells me the feeling of the dungeon is hostile, as if the place is alive and resentful of our presence. Well, it's TheDeep, so...duh.
Anyway, onto the first Adventure!
Nysbustah, Legendary Idiot, knelt at the door searching for traps. He found none, so the one that was there went off, shooting razor sharp darts out across the room. Fortunately, everyone was able to dodge or raise shields in time, so no one was hurt. This did nothing to dispute the thief's nickname, though.
I've made some changes to our FTR rules to make it work better, and I think I've succeeded. What I did are basically tweaks, separating hits from damage, removing the weapon construction rules, and an entirely new magic and character creation system. But the bulk of the rules remain FTR.
And the changes have worked, the game is much more fluid, consistent, and that makes it more fun.
So I've decided to run a solo campaign, and continuing story for a fantasy dungeon party. Well, and continuing as it can be for people going into TheDeep, it's not safe, and adventurers tend to die quickly.
The new FTR rules are only a part of this since it's a solo game. I'll be using resources from quite a few places, mostly for random charts, to make it work. I'll try to list some of those at some point if there's any interest in that.
The cards gave me the "lure", or the reason for the game. In this case, someone from the town was kidnapped and dragged off to the dungeon. The next card tells me that the entry to the dungeon we tracked the kidnapper to is a "sealed door that hasn't been opened in a long, long time". And yet, the kidnapper went in there... This is a fun part of this type of game for me, taking a set of "facts" and generating a story that connects them, no matter how seemingly unrelated they are. If the door is sealed, yet the kidnapper went in there, then what exactly is this fiend capable of?
The third card tells me the feeling of the dungeon is hostile, as if the place is alive and resentful of our presence. Well, it's TheDeep, so...duh.
Anyway, onto the first Adventure!
Adventure 1
At the tavern (because where else?),
the party is approached with a job. There's been a kidnapping in
town recently, and the town is offering a reward (d20x100 gp) for the
victims return. Agreeing to the job, because it's the right thing to do instead of for the money, mostly, the party locates tracks from the kidnapping and sets off in pursuit.
Following the trail, the party tracks the villain to an area in
the woods where the tracks vanish into a sealed door. The door is
ancient and hasn't been opened in a long, long time. Not by people
anyway.
Busting in, the party finds a short
staircase leading to a door. This place is filled with a malicious
feeling, hostile, angry, like the place is alive and resents our
presence.
Nysbustah, Legendary Idiot, knelt at the door searching for traps. He found none, so the one that was there went off, shooting razor sharp darts out across the room. Fortunately, everyone was able to dodge or raise shields in time, so no one was hurt. This did nothing to dispute the thief's nickname, though.
Sheepishly,
Ny pushed the door open to reveal hallway cross, brightly lit by
torches every 20 feet or so, the light illuminating a horde of eight
skeletal warriors. Anxious to prove himself, he rushes into the
room. Shouting out a warning that there's a trap at the corner, he
charges into the nearest skeleton, cleanly cleaving empty air.
Ummork
shifted his grip on his shield, and with a war-cry worthy of song and
centuries of remembrance (if anyone had written it down), charges
valiantly into the room at his top speed crashing into the largest
group of warriors, splintering a skeleton with a single blow. Ergon,
right on the knights heels, brings down another one. Cazio runs to
fight with the thief, obliterating a warrior with a blow of his huge
mace.
Mordevey
meanders in through the door. He's not convinced the party needs him
to waste his valuable magics on these foes.
The
skeletons strike, mostly ineffectually, though one scores a
devastating hit on Ergon (three wounds) reducing him to half health.
Here
I roll Initiative: Party 6, Bad guys 3
The
party steps up, weapons whirls and flash in the torchlight, felling
all of the remaining skeletons. The last crumbles to a flash of
magical light as Mordevey touches its head.
XP:
8, 13gp
Ny
moved off down the corridor and entered what he could only assume was
an armory of sorts. He didn't know why he assumed that, it just
seemed right. Maybe the evil sculpted face on the wall told him? No,
that was just wailing and screaming “If you want to get out alive,
run for your life!” The effect was chilling, but Ny pulled himself
together, at least enough to notice something that could be treasure.
Detecting no traps, he collects 800sp.
Mordevey
moves up to the thief, but the screaming evil sculpture gets to him,
getting into his head, messing with his thoughts! He can't
focus...any Knowledge Dice he rolls on this Activation will be green.
Ummork
follows the wizard, but his honorable nature allows him to easily
ignore the evil talking wall. Ummork
made his knowledge save.
Ergon
walks into the armory room followed by the cleric. Cazio cast
Healing and restores 2 Wounds to Ergon.
Ny
spots another possible treasure, but notices it's not locked with a
standard lock. This one seems to be some kind of puzzle, or riddle.
That needs smarts to open, not skills. And with the wizards mind
gone goofy because of the stone face, that leaves the solving up to
Ummork, which he manages to do (if barely). It opens a wall
container holding 1,200gp, which is quite nice!
A
third location attracts the thief for a look, but that's also a
puzzle. Ummork easily solves it (Ha,
the answer is “you don't bury survivors!”).
He finds an enchanted weapon, the Mace of Bashing, which they give
to Cazio. He drops his existing mace rather than carry it around.
Low
on magic, the Cleric and Wizard could greatly benefit from a turn of
study and prayer, but the party has to get moving, TheDeep is
starting to notice them.
There
are now three tokens on the showing DeepWatch card.
Ummork
sets off further down the hall and discovers an oddity, an area of
the hallway seems to have been set up as a rudimentary laboratory, as
well as some sort of makeshift throne room. A trio of unhappy
lizardmen stand in the center of the hall staring him down.
I
decide to check for disposition, and I roll a 6 – Hostile.
Wasting
no time, Ummork rushes straight at the lead figure. A flurry of
blows are exchanged, and in the end the lizard falls dead. Mordvey,
still affected by the taunts and howls from the wall face, moves up
the corridor, blasting a second lizardman with eldrich energy, but
not enough to make him fall. Ergon shudders as the horror spouting
wall hit a nerve, muddling his mind. Nevertheless he rushes up the
hall, stumbling slightly, to attack the third lizard, but it easily
blocks the disoriented attacks. Cazio runs forward, flush with the
idea of his new magic weapon, and strikes nothing but air. His
second swing, however, devastates the lizardman, knocking his broken
corpse down the hall.
The
remaining lizardman lashes out against Ergon, wounding him. (he wins
initiative), and attacks again and again. Ergon stumbles, grievously
wounded. (he's
down to only 1 Wound left!)
He fights back, but only weakly. Seeing his friend in trouble, Ny
rushes in, his sword easily deflected by the skilled warrior lizard.
And then Cazio reaches him, his massive mace smashes the lizardman
into the wall, its lifeless body leaving cracks in the stone.
The
lizardmen were guarding 2 x Eye agates (75gp each), and had Nice
feathered talisman and carved staff, together worth 264gp.
XP:
45, 394gp
And
the goofy computer random generators show their colors here.
According to it, one lizardman was also carrying forty 10' poles, and
another was walking around with seventy five cords of firewood.
That's a pile of wood 300'x300' x 600'! I ignored those results...
 |
| Facing the unknown, the party waits to resume its adventure |
This
is where the game stopped for now, it was quite late. I considered
having the party return to town, but decided to let them stay right
where they are, and I can resume the adventure as soon as I get time
to do so.
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