Grom's Spin-Off Show

While Oldbook explores the mountains, his companion from previous adventures, half-orc cleric Grom, has a problem of his own.

After joining Oldbook on (unauthorized) excursion to the dungeons beneath the city, monastery elders ordered Grom to purify himself with ritual passage through the Temple of the Waterfall.

This game was played using the map provided by Christopher Stieha as part of Solo Gaming appreciation month. Game is played as series of challenges hero needs to overcome. Since the goal is to purify the character, challenges are not deadly. Hero can be successful or unsuccessful at them. Successful challenges grant experience to the character, while unsuccessful ones grant no rewards and usually make the next challenge more difficult to overcome.

 

Grom arrived to the Temple of the Waterfall in the morning. He entered the temple, said his prayers, and prepared himself for the challenges ahead. Then, he climb to the second level of the temple.

1.As Grom entered the room he was overpowered by heavy scent. His body started feeling heavy (failed constitution test) and he felt on his knees in front of the sculpture of some deity. Cleric gathered all his strength (successful strength test rolled with disadvantage) and crawled out of the room.

2. Grom passed through several empty levels and reached the building overlooking the waterfall. Suddenly, he was overflowed by unreasonable fear. He tried to convince himself that there is nothing to be afraid of, but failed, and so he bowed his hed and rushed out, bumping at things found on his way (failed wisdom test against fear, 2 HP lost).

3.  Next room seemed to have a statue of the Beholder carved at the wall. Suddenly, beholder came to life, and caste slowing ray that hit our hero. Lucky for Grom, beholder missed all its attacks, so the cleric, although slowed, managed to walk out of the room and out of the monsters reach. 

4. On the bridge across the waterfall Grom encountered a Blink Dog. Cleric (still slowed) tried to reason with the creature, but Dog seemed in the mood for fight and attacked first. The battle was rather short, since dog dissapeared as soon as Grom managed to hit it for the first time.

5. The road into the second part of the temple was closed by a door. Door seemed to be opened by the strange mechanism requiring knowledge in both arcana and nature to operate. But Grom was not smart enough to do that (failed intelligence Arcana and Nature tests). So, he just set by the door and started meditating, until they opened seemingly by themselves.

6. The gate was actually opened by a Flumph, ancient creature who lived in the temple. Flumph asked Grom to read the prayer written on the wall and to sing it. Cleric actually recognized the prayer (successful religion test) but his performance (failed test) was so terrible that Flumph started laughing. "OK, it is enough", said the creature. "Take some rest here. I will take care that nothing happen to you why you sleep. Then move on."

7. Well rested, Grom prepared for next challenge - passing triathlon (free climb - strength, fast run - dexterity and long run - constitution) by achieving requested results. But while he was preparing, strange flower in his changing room started emitting some poisons. Grom stopped the breathing and left the room, avoiding getting poisoned. He reported this event to the judge priest but he just smiled and told him to start with the test  (I am using again Archery contest rules  requiring from my hero  to achieve 3 points in each discipline. He made it in STR, but failed in both CON and DEX). Cleric was strong enough to climb up the ledge, but grew tired and could not run as fast or as long as required. "You tried, so you are getting purified", the priest said. "It is not possible to succeed every time."

8. Grom hoped for some rest, but the next chamber contained a trap - ball and a chain swinged from one of the walls. Cleric noticed trap on time, but was to slow to avoid it (lost 2HP).

9. Descending one more level, our hero started feeling sleepy. He knew he needed the rest, but not that much, so he recognized his condition (successful wisdom test) for what it really is - another trap. So he gathered his wits and moved on.

10.  As he descended to the final level of the Temple, Grom noticed a priest from above throwing him a bottle of healing potion. He managed to catch it, and it revived our hero to full strength. Just in time, since Giant Badger was running his way ready to attack. Battling this creature was not an easy task for the first level Cleric, but somehow he made it and finally animal was dead. Grom was exhausted, but he knew that the trails are at the end. 

He entered the next room, where the head priest proclaimed him officially purified, and presented him a purification seal (trinket) as a proof.

Grom was also awarded with the Cure wounds spell scroll, that he will keep for the next adventure.

He also accumulated enough experience to reach level 2.

And so, we part ways with Grom the cleric for now. We will probably see him again once Oldbook the Bard starts needing his help, or when the new occasion for spin-off adventure arises.

Trouble in the inn (5th edition adventure part 6)

Continued from here.

After the inn went silent, Oldbook returned to the common room. He took care to do everything quietly, knowing that innkeeper has a light sleep.
Sneak test. If the result of the test is under 10, innkeeper will wake up. Between 10 and 15 Oldbook will have disadvantage on all actions since he can do so mush without making noise. On more than 15 innkeeper will not wake up no matter what our hero does. I rolled 14, so disadvantage it is.

Search behind bar found no clues (failed investigation test), so Oldbook decided to search basement. Basement was locked (failed Sleigh off hand test) but our hero remembered seeing the key behind bar (successful perception test).
Bard unlocked the basement and started looking through it, but all he found was a guard dog!

Dog jumped at our hero, and knocked him prone, biting his left hand. Our hero found himself in disadvantage again. Further more, Innkeeper woke up by the noise of the struggle, and will come to basement in (2d6=) 5 turns.
It took 3 turns for our hero to hit a dog with the rapier and kill  him. Heavy bleeding himself, he tried to hide in the far corner of the basement.

But innkeeper came with the lamp and noticed Oldbook (failed stealth check VS. innkeepers passive perception of 10).
- What are you doing here? - innkeeper asked.
- I just wanted to have a midnight drink of wine when your dog attacked me - bard replayed.
Will the innkeeper buy this? (persuasion test, difficulty 10 with +5 modifier. Rolled 5 so right on target). It seems yes but....
- I will not have your kind making troubles in my inn. - said the innkeeper. - Pack your things and get out. But not before you pay me for the dog. This kind of trained guardian cost me 25gp.
Oldbook had no choice but to pay for the dog and to leave the in. 25gp were almost all the money our hero had with him. In his pocket there were only 11sp left. Furthermore, he was wounded, and he really needed some rest.
Since he was not welcome in the inn any more, bard used his song to seduce a local widow who allowed him to spend the next night in her home (successful performance test).

As our hero found no clues about innkeepers treason, he decided to do as advised earlier and to follow his initial plan. So, he took into wilderness, looking for kobolds.

To be continued....

Towards the mountains (5th edition adventure part 5)

Continued form here.

Following the fiasco at the bard contest, Oldbook turned towards the mountains.
He tried to remember if there is a settlement in their surroundings (medium history test, difficulty 15 with +3 modifier, roll 19). He remembered reading somewhere about a barbarian village of Goodwater, ruled by iron willed but respected chief. The village got it's  name from the fountain standing on the main square. Legend says that that the fountain springs the best cooking water in the world, and that every dish prepared with it tastes several times better then when prepared with water from any other source. (Info collected from random tables in Dungeon Master Guide book, pages 108-116).
Oldbook tried to follow the road from Deepcold to Goodwater avoiding any unpleasant encounters on the way - it is about a day travel on a safe and often used road (Nature test followed by stealth test, both successful so he makes it).

It was late evening when he entered an inn in the middle of the village, conveniently named "Fountain". He rented a room, and ordered a rabbit stew. It all costed 4gp but it was well worth it. Legends were telling the truth - it was the best meal our hero ever tasted.
The next morning, bard decided to stand at the square and listen to the people, hoping that he will be able to collect some information about the monsters from the mountains (medium perception test, successful). What did he learned?
Rory story cubes - dig a hole  + Monster shadow.

It seems that there is a "mole" in the village, someone is cooperating with the monsters. Chief is looking for someone to find the traitor (to dig him up).
Oldbook petitioned to meet the chief (easy persuasion test, successful) and was admitted.
What can he learn from the chief?
Rory story cubes - Pill + Target.  

Someone from the village tried to sell water from the fountain to the monsters from the mountain as a cure for some illness. Once the monsters realized that water have no healing properties, they blamed the whole village . Local population lives in fear from the attack. Chief wants someone to investigate, find who really is to be blamed for all this, and present the guilty party to the monsters, hoping that in this way village can be saved.
Form the way chief described monsters, Oldbook recognized kobolds (successful easy nature test).
Bard decided to set a trap for monster menacing the village. He guessed that kobolds will attack fountain so he hid himself near and waited.
Soon (successful medium insight test), a winged kobold flew over the fountain carrying a rock. He was looking for a position to bombard the structure, and he didn't bard's hiding place. Another kobold was there, this one without wings. He was staying aside, directing his flying cousin. Oldbook jumped out of his hiding pace and attacked (Bard's hiding test beats passive perception values of both kobolts).

Normally, this would be a very deadly encounter for my hero, the one I would think twice before engaging. This time I hoped that element of surprise - as both kobolts were unable to act in the first turn, and bard had advantage due to unseen attack - would tip the scale in my favor. I was right. It was difficult fight, Oldbook had to spend two out of his 3 spell slots on healing magic, and still ended the encounter wounded. But at the end both kobolts were dead, and or hero is 75xp closer to level 3.
Oldbook checked dead monsters for some traces of sickness, but both of them looked healthy (failed medium medicine test). There was also no clues pointing towards the traitor (failed medium investigation test).
Bard lined kobold bodies by the tavern wall. He hoped that his brave act will secure him at least a stew and a free in for a night. But (failed easy persuasion test) the innkeeper was not impressed. If Oldbook wants to eat and sleep he has to pay. And so, bard's pocket was another 4gp lighter.
But Oldbook found this innkeeper's behavior suspicious. What kind of man will not reward a hero who just saved a fountain?
So, instead of going to sleep, bard played with his instrument for a while (he needs long rest, but takes only short one, returning to the maximum hit points).
Once he felt that the tawern is closed for the night, Oldbook sneaked out of his room to investigate....

To be continued

Geting over with level 1 (5th edition dungeon crawl part 4)

Continued from here.

It is finally time to continue the story of the bard Oldbook.

After escorting his priest companion back to his monastery, bard returned underground. he wanted to explore what lies west of the Flumph settlement (11 on the first map).

Oldbook started from the northern door.

1. Empty circular room. There is a portcullis to the west, but it can not be opened due to the cave in. Oldbook could still see through rocks and bars, and he noticed some kind of hospital on the other side, but there was no way to reach it.
2. Another empty room. This one was partially flooded, and the door to the south was used as the dam to let limited amounts of water into next room. It seems that it was work of Flumph. Water was coming from the west. Oldbook though that if he could only breathe under water he could reach other parts of the dungeon through there, but at this moment it was out of his league.
3. One more Schreaker farm. Water was slowly coming from the north to feed the fungi. No additional exits.
4. Huge room, but with no other exits than the one Oldbook entered through. Two devils (Lemures) summoned by who knows what foul magic were calling this room their home. Lemures are not a hard hitters, and their defense is week, but their high hit points  presented a bit of a problem. Fight was longer than expected, and Oldbook used almost all his resources to win. But once the fight was over, he felt stronger then earlier, for he was finally a level two bard.

With his resources depleted, our hero returned to the surface. But as son as he stepped out of the dungeon, he was surrounded by the Deepcold city guards.

While he was escorted out of the city (and it was not gentle and pleasant experience), he was thinking if this was coincidence, or if some priests from the monastery talked... But he will have to investigate it once he will be able to return to Deepcold, and this will not be any time soon.

Oldbook was thrown out of the city with the boot in the back. When he was finally able to stand up, he noticed that a festivity is being held just outside the city walls. And where is the festivity, there is certainly a bards contest (for the contest I am using Archery contests - excellent - and free - add on by EN World)

So Oldbook entered a contest, throwing in 1gp deposit. Unfortunately, the memories of the guards throwing him out of the city must have been overwhelming, and against all odds he failed to pass qualification rounds, scoring two out of 3 required points with judges). Well, another gold peace easily lost.

With no better idea what to do, Oldbook decided to follow advice received from the Flumph, and he headed for the mountains.

To be continued.

New arrivals

Last two weeks I was traveling through Europe on a long excursion with my family. We used almost every transportation possible - plains, trains modern and old fashioned, cars.... We met some rarely seen family members and old friends, and we visited some great museums and parks (mostly the ones appropriate for small kids).

During the trip I used downtime to immerse my older kid, who is now 5 years old, deeper into gaming. A nice RPG called Hero Kids was a great help in the process. As usually, I used magnetized board and 10mm figures mounted on metal washers to secure stability of the setting while on the move.

 

Here we are playing introductory adventure from Hero Kids in Euro City train.

My son just loved the game.

After returning home, I found two packages waiting for me.

Smaller one was from Sophia Brandt, owner of the Die Heart blog. Recently, she made a giveaway on the blog, and I was a lucky winner of printed set of Game Master's Apprentice cards.

GMA is a great tool for solo roleplaying, and I hope to use it very soon in one of my games - maybe even as part as my ongoing Fate Diaspora and 5th edition D&D dungeon crawl campaigns.

 

Bigger package was fulfilled kickstarter reward - copy of the new board game called Space Cadets: Away Mission.

I could not resist the urge to play this game immediately, and I am very satisfied with the first impressions. The game keeps to its promise of reviving feeling from the golden age of SF, really is easy to learn but difficult to master, and the way the success dice are distributed makes it a novel experience.

I am looking forward to playing next mission.

All in all, satisfying two weeks in every aspect.

Thoughts on Fate Solo

Fate as solo engine has been already discussed on several blogs, like Solo Roleplayer, No one to play with or Solo RPG voyages.

Following them, I just wanted to add my own 5 cents.

When I first started with Fate, I planed to use driver like 9Qs to run my game, but it turned out there is no need for that.
As Roryb from No one to play with correctly noticed - Aspects is really where it’s at.
To achieve something in Fate, player needs Fate points, and the pool is running empty fast. In order to fill it back, player needs to compel to one of the aspects and include complication, and that is usually enough to drive the story forward.

Of course, spicing things up is always good.

Solo roleplayer offers this through Fate oracle, a way to answer yes/no questions with a twist. The problem with this is the fact that oracle is already incorporated into Fate game, and there is no need to remember another one.
Binary questions in Fate are answered through Create advantage action using in-game mechanic. Simply, instead of asking a question "Is the door locked?" and assigning probability,  player can try to create "Unlocked" aspect on the same door, by assigning difficulty for the task. If he fails, door is locked, and then the player can use Overcome action to try to unlock them. On the other hand, this approach offers no twist in AND/BUT range.

Solo RPG voyages introduces twists through random events triggered when all marked sides of the dice show only + or only - signs. The idea is further extended on the blog.

Following this idea, I tried to incorporate it into Fate to add AND/BUT twist to the built in oracle.
Here it is:

Every time the player rolls dice against fixed difficulty (usually to make Create advantage or Overcome action) look at the symbols on the dice. 
If two or more blank sides are visible, result is success of failure as per rules with added AND.
If at least one combination of + and - is visible, result is success of failure as per rules with added BUT.
In case of the dice combination + - _ _ BUT and AND result can either cancel each other, or you may select special case of success/failure with both AND and BUT.
In case of the re-roll use the second set of dice.
The issue that AND or BUT relate to can be selected by the player or invoked using some sort of Random idea generator.

Chances table if AND and BUT cancel each other: 
AND ------21/81 or 26%
BUT-------37/81 or 46%
No result-23/81 or 28%


Examples of this system in action can be seen here.

First stalker missions (Diaspora/FATE solo session)

Continued from here.

Once The Sting emerged in The Zone polar space, F-Mouse prepared for her first mission. Near the location Sting selected to dock she could see (D6=)6 shuttle slipstreams ready to take her to the surface. She decided to test them in order they are, so she selected first from her left.

Shuttle slipstream 1

What I see: Fingerprint, Well, Horned helmet (RSC).

After shuttle landed, F-Mouse noticed a garden labyrinth,  with well in the middle. Labyrinth walls were not at all high, and she could jump over them, but they were made from some really thorny plant.

Create situation aspect - Path through labyrinth. Create advantage action with difficulty 2, using Recon (1). Roll -1 (+ - - _), fail BUT: Building + Fight (RSC).

F-Mouse could not detect a pattern through the maze, but she noticed that thorns react to insects that come close to them, and even fight each others if they start growing too close. Seems that plants will attack any intruder who enters the labyrinth, and F-Mouse was not happy about this. She wanted to investigate that well. So, she decided to risk pulling through that maze.

For this I used contest rules, where F-Mouse used overcome action (Agile 1) and thorns tried attack action (Profession: thorn plant 2). F-Mouse rolled 0, plant -1, resulting in tie. Plant gets a boost - blocked passage. Also, according to contest rules, something strange happens: Alarm clock waking up somebody, Monster from the bushes (RSC).

Thorn wall moved, and blocked the entrance into the maze. F-Mouse looked across the plants and noticed a human figure standing up by the well, stretching as just awakened from long sleep.
It seems that F-Mouse waked up one of the ancient inhabitants of the system!

In this moment I decided to compel to the system aspect "We are still here" to make a complication and take a fate point (pool rises to 6). What will the newly awaken men do? Whip, Knock-knock (RSC).

Zone immortal took his whip to chase away the trespasser.

Locals in the zone all have skill Profession: Zone immortal 7. Since he is using a whip across two combat zones, so out of the normal range, he gets -2 accuracy penalty, bringing him to 5. F-Mouse uses Agility 1 to evade, adding armor from skin vest (defense 3) to a total of 4. Zoner rolls -1, F-Mouse +1. F-mouse wins ans rolls away to safety.

Even though men was rather far, whip crack was dangerously close. Close enough for F-Mouse to get  the message. She turned and made a running start towards the shuttle. She may be returning from her first mission empty handed, but she met Zone immortal and lived to tell the tail - more than many stalkers could say.

Back on the Sting.

I made a maintenance roll to see if I can afford a space in a ship after coming empty-handed. Zone is a R4 system, so I need to roll against difficulty of 4 using wealth 0. I rolled 0 (+ - _ _), and tagged "Hitchhiking through galaxy" (one Fate point used, 5 left) aspect for -2 shifts as final result. I marked second box on wealth stress track.

Returning empty handed made  F-Mouse worry about her financials. If she does not bring something to captain, he might throw her out from the ship. Of course, she could always offer him to maintain the ship drive during the return trip, but she still felt uneasy about her first result.


Shuttle slipstream 2

What I see: Volcano, Cactus, Dwarf miner (RSC).

After good night sleep, F-Mouse took second slipstream shuttle. It landed at the feet of heat radiating mountain. Some thorny plants she knew from the day before grew here and there on the mountain sides, so she made a mental note to avoid that areas if possible. Mountain seemed to be hollow, and holes that resembled mine entrances were scattered everywhere on the slopes.

Create situation aspect - safe corridor. Create advantage action with difficulty 2, using Recon (1). Roll +2 (+ + _ _), success AND this is the corridor that leads to some kind of treasure.

Create situation aspect - unopposed road to the tool-room. Create advantage action with difficulty 4, using Operator: mechanical (5). Roll +1 (+ + - _), success BUT: Pill, Footprint (RSC).

F-Mouse selected one mine entrance where the heat was not so distinctive, and descended into the mountain. She felt better immediately,  leaving open spaces for the safety of the corridors. This place reminded her of her beloved ship tunnels. She knew spaces like this, such corridors usually ended with the tool-room or storehouse. There should be no dangers this way, she thought. Tool-rooms are never locked or protected. Nobody likes to work, so if you took the trouble to come here and take a tool, you probably need it and you are also authorized to do it.
She was right. Corridor took her to the mining tools storage. Unfortunately, it was not in good condition. Earthquake or some similar event moved all tools from their places and piled them in one big iron mountain. F-Mouse tried to pull some good looking peaces of equipment, but she disturbed equilibrium and everything collapsed on her.

F-Mouse is under attack from falling tools, accuracy 4, penetration 2, damage 2. She defends with her alertness 2 helped by snakeskin vest 3-2=1  for total of 3. F-Mouse rolls -4, debris rolls +3 for a total of 8 shifts! I decided to use Snakeskin vest aspect (4 Fate points left) to make a re-roll. Second roll is +2 so better. Total result is 2 shifts victory for debris. I mark first two stress boxes on both Health and Composure.

Our hero was alert, she have seen falling parts and tried to react and step back from the main impact of the falling metal but failed, and the mountain fell directly on her back. All she could do is to haggle and hope that her elastic snakeskin vest will deflect the metal parts.
Dust settled. broken equipment was laying all around our hero. She could feel the bruisers all over her body, but nothing was broken. Snake's skin did it's job.
F-Mouse took a short rest and then started looking around for some still functional peace of equipment.

Overcome action with difficulty 5 using Operator: mechanical (5). Roll +1 (+ _ _ _), success AND she finds two good tools. 

Soon F-Mouse detected not one, but two operational peaces of mining equipment. One was automatic drill worth 3 cost shifts and another one a precise hand drill used to remove precious stones from their rock beads, 2 cost shifts worth. She put the small drill into pocket, but the big one looked cumbersome.

Overcome action with difficulty 1 using Strength (0). Roll +2 (+ + _ _), success AND she didn't even get tired doing this.

But it only looked that way. It was superior peace of technology made by advanced race of humans - and it was actually rather easy to carry.

Back on the Sting.

F-Mouse give the big drill to the ship captain. This eased her mind, for it was enough to pay her stay on the Sting for the moment. Captain also informed F-Mouse that the Sting will stay in Zone for 4 more days, before moving to Outpost. This was good, she had time to run one or two more surface missions and maybe find something that can be used in one of her homelands.

Big drill was sold for 2 wealth shifts, enough to clear wealth stress track. Since captain got something, I will not perform maintenance check for next 4 days, but I will see if the captain will have some request once they return to Outpost - probably through social mini game.

To be continued....