Open Table Session Report (#20) - Strike Force APE (Anti-Porcine Expedition)
Player Characters
Balgor Mountainkin (Dwarf 1), accompanied by a medium footman.
Robin Redwood (Magic-User 3), accompanied by a bowman.
Wynn (Cleric 3), accompanied by a heavy footman
Prep
No change in the dungeon. Wynn hired a heavy footman (50sp), bought a new waterskin (1sp) and a flask of oil (2sp). Refunded Balgor's shield spike as the player forgot he was using 2-handed weapons (7sp) and hired a medium footman (30sp). Robin bought a ream of paper (10sp) and hired a bowman (15sp). The party stashed Oathchain (I'd given them the wrong treasure previously).
Balgor was elected Captain of the delve. Robin took on mapping duties. Wynn acted as Quartermaster.
The party chose to revisit Pada's home in the eastern gatehouse in search of her grimoire, with finding a staircase down from the first level to the second as a secondary goal.
Events
Revisiting Pada's home at the gatehouse, the party found it deserted. The herb garden was withered and dead, and the interior of the gatehouse was run-down and ruined, as if the scene they had previously encountered was an illusion or glamour, but they found evidence of cat hair. The cellar was similarly dry and dead, though the stains from the rush of gore remained. Everything of value was gone, as was any magical effect. The mercenary left to guard the door spotted a black cat slinking into the shadows of an alleyway.
Climbing to the top of the tower, the party cast their view around and spotted smoke rising from the valley to the east. They debated whether to search the wilderness around the town in search of Pada and decided to ask around for scouts when they returned to Alos.
Stymied, the party decided to focus on their secondary objective and headed to the dungeon. They made their way to the room where they had slain the bats in their last delve, finding the bodies gone. They forced the north door and continued on, encountering a brass servitor and troop of apes heading to the ruined library to attack the Swine there. The servitor, dubbed Otto, requested the party's assistance and they agreed.
A battle plan was formed - the party's heavily armoured front-line would charge headlong into the room and occupy both sides of the electrified dais, to be backed up by Otto and the apes. The apes, being capable of flight, could fly over the dais and attack the Swine from the rear. Otto informed the party that the Swine were strong but undisciplined - they were likely to respond to a frontal attack with a ferocious counterattack of their own, but if leaderless they were prone to confusion and flight.
Prepared, the party burst through the door. The Swine were not surprised, but the party won the initiative and led an armoured column to cut off both sides of the dais - several Swine were brushed aside by the armoured spearhead and were surrounded by apes, who also loosed a hail of javelins at the pig-men. The Swine rallied and surged against the battle-lines. In the fierce melee that followed, Lucky - Balgor's footman - was slain and Balgor himself was lightly wounded, but 8 of the 9 Swine were killed and the last fled into the darkness. The pig-beasts had gathered a hoard of 3,000sp, which the party claimed. The servitor and apes departed to Kadmacho's domain, with the apes informing Balgor that they would tell White Pelt of his bravery.
The party searched the adjoining rooms and found the mosaic chamber previously mentioned to them by the Black Talons - the secret door within led to a long corridor running N-S.
The party decided to retreat from the dungeon with their loot and Lucky's body, paying for a fine funeral in Alos on behalf of their fallen comrade.
Outcomes
Treasure retrieved: 3,000sp | 428sp half-share, 857sp share
Combat XP: 160XP | 53XP each
Feats of Exploration:
Explore 5 areas of a single dungeon level (2%)
Total: 910XP + 2% required for next level, plus bonuses for player roles.
Balgor reached 2nd-level and Robin reached 4th-level
Thoughts
This was a fun session. We've been leaning harder into the procedural side of things which has kept a good pace going by letting the dice decide the outcome of searches etc. This session saw a major combat which went really smoothly, despite having ~30 individual participants. By treating the sides more as units and using a more war game-y approach I was able to keep things running at a brisk pace - I dealt with each flank of the dais trap as an individual unit and distributed attacks across the front-lines that were facing off. I used a more flexible initiative system than the one in B/X - instead of running in distinct phases and only requesting the party declare spells and melee movement, I instead asked them for general statements of intent which worked really well, i.e. the left flank will push forward, supported by Magic Missile and javelins, and attempt to open a gap in the enemy line to allow the apes to slip through and attack the enemy's rear. I think I'm going to stick to this approach and try for a more 'simultaneous' initiative resolution system. It's been fun watching the party get more confident with their combat skills - they seem to be realising that they're well armoured and have enough hp to take a few hits while dealing serious damage.
I'm excited to open up a hexcrawl for the campaign - we've got several 3rd-level+ characters which is the 'traditional' B/X crossover point where wilderness play gets added in, so it works out well that they're getting interested in the wider world.
I had a discussion with the players after the session as after 5 months of play the ruleset (house-ruled OSE) is starting to creak a little and I feel like it's getting in the way. As a result we're switching to using OD&D as the main chassis for the game, with the Littlest Brown Book as our main reference. The primary motivations behind this are:
- Race and class are separated, but with some restrictions on what classes are available to each race. Several players have expressed confusion at race-as-class and to be honest I don't really care to keep them separate.
- Defeating enemies gives a lot more XP. The players have pulled off some impressive combats and I think they deserve more XP as a result, and 100XP/HD is easy to remember as opposed to the OSE HD/XP table.
- Attribute scores have less of an impact - a lot of the characters in the game have medium to low scores and I really hate how low DEX and CON render characters incredibly fragile. I prefer the smaller impacts that OD&D has, which allows the classes to be more distinct.
I'm also going to award full XP to everyone, no more shares, and I'm doing away with the %-based bonuses - I can't be bothered with the arithmetic any more. We play for a single 2-3 hour session each week, the players can have a bit of an XP boost.
This is our current WIP ruleset, incorporating existing house rules from the campaign, elements from Super NatheQuest, and others which I can't remember at the moment but will no doubt return to me in time.